Love and Splendor: The Coltrane Saga, Book 5 (18 page)

Travis continued to talk about Boulanger’s suicide, and Drake pretended to listen but all the while he was studying Lily. She might not remember him being at the ribald party, for he had not tarried long. But he remembered her, and it was not hard to figure out what she was doing here. Dani had related to him her tale of woe, and he was convinced it was a lie, designed to engender sympathy. From the way Colt was looking at her, her scheme was obviously working.

But was any of it his business? His top priority was supposed to be getting his hands on that painting. Bad enough Dani had become such an obstacle, provoking feelings and emotions he’d vowed never to experience for any woman. Certainly, he had enough concerns of his own for the moment without becoming involved with anyone else’s affairs.

Finally, they adjourned to the dining room. Two walls were covered in mirrors while upon the others there were finely painted panels, each depicting a month, with the corresponding sign of the zodiac at the top and an allegorical figure of a God in the center. These were then surrounded by symbols of the stars and sciences and associated animals.

Dominating the room was a crystal-and-gold chandelier with over two thousand hand-carved prisms. Beneath was an imposing Belgian Regence table of carved marble, with Portuguese rococo armchairs placed around it.

Kitty noticed Lily admiring the table setting and could not resist proudly explaining that the silverware had been crafted out of ore from their silver mine back in Nevada.

They enjoyed a delicious meal of roast suckling pig, a fricassee of squid, peppers, and mushrooms, and finished with a strawberry sorbet.

Champagne flowed freely, along with red and white wine. Conversation was pleasant, unstrained, until Dani’s planned trip to Austria came up and she announced that she intended to travel alone.

Travis raised an eyebrow, exchanged a thunderous look with Kitty, then quietly echoed, “Alone?”

Dani did not glance up, merely continued to twirl her spoon in the bowl of sorbet. “There’s no one to go with me. Besides, I prefer to travel alone.”

“It’s unthinkable that you’d even want to go by yourself, Dani,” Travis stated. “I’ll hire someone to accompany you.”

She felt mortified. In front of Drake, he was treating her like a child, and when she looked up to see that Lily was grinning maliciously, something snapped. “Father, I am a grown woman,” she cried indignantly, “and I have my own business to look after. I’ll not have you hire a…a nanny for me!”

Travis’s eyes were stormy. “As long as you put your feet under my table, Daniella, you’ll do as I say!”

She glared at him. Oh, she loved him so very, very much, regretted each and every day they’d ever been apart all those precious growing-up years, but the time had come for her to spread her wings. It was far too late for him to play the role of guiding father, and she, dutiful daughter. “I’m sorry,” she said evenly, tightly, “I don’t mean to hurt you, but I intend to live my own life the way I choose. Perhaps it’s best,” she added, lower lip quivering slightly, “that I get my own table…”

She rose, faced him defiantly.

Colt shifted uncomfortably in his chair, silently fuming. Why did this have to happen tonight? He’d wanted everything nice and pleasant for Lily’s sake. She had enough problems of her own without being witness to family tension.

Drake sat in stony silence, also regretting the dispute.

Lily was enjoying the whole thing, eyes glittering as she looked from Travis to Dani, waiting for further explosion.

Kitty bit her lip thoughtfully. She feared Travis’s temper, hated what was happening at the dinner table, in front of guests, but decided against interfering. The two were going to have to resolve the problem between them, but dear God, she prayed they would wait and do so in private.

Slowly, Travis rose from his chair, squeezing his napkin into a tight ball and flinging it upon his plate. With gray eyes the color of cold steel, he stared at his daughter. “We will,” he promised frostily, “discuss this later.’’

Dani nodded her head in quick, conciliatory jerks, then, taking a deep breath, murmured, “Please excuse me…” and hurried from the table.

Travis started to call after her, but Kitty stopped him with a pleading look. It was best Dani have some time alone, and she called softly after her, “We’ll have brandy and coffee in the parlor later. Please join us.”

Dani kept on going, heading straight for the hallway that would take her to the rear of the house and the sanctity of the gardens and the night beyond.

Abruptly, Drake stood, mumbled his own excuses, and hurried after Dani.

Lily shook her head in mock sympathy, turned to Travis and declared, “I’m sorry all this happened, Mr. Coltrane, but poor Dani, I guess I know how she feels. My own nanny took sick just before I was to leave London to come here, and there was nothing I could do but go on alone. Still, I felt there was truly nothing wrong with it. I mean…” She paused, smiled at Kitty, then Colt. “We are living in modern times now. It isn’t like it used to be.”

Colt groaned inwardly. Lily was, he’d discovered, not one to keep her opinions to herself, but now was not the time for her to interfere. He reached out and touched her arm gently, whispered, “Lily.”

She shrugged him away. “I see nothing wrong with her going to Austria alone, just like I see nothing wrong with Colt and I going to Spain.”

All eyes were upon her, and she knew at once she might have gone too far in making such an announcement. The Coltranes were frozen in shock, and Colt looked both embarrassed and angry. Well, so what? Lily thought defiantly. They would have to be told sooner or later. Maybe her pronouncement would hurry along Colt’s proposal. He could just tell his parents they were engaged, and there was nothing so scandalous about engaged couples traveling together. Maybe he would even want to marry her right away and take her to Spain on their honeymoon.

“I think you and I will have our brandy in my study, Colt,” Travis said and left the room.

Colt followed without a glance in Lily’s direction.

Lily gave her golden curls a toss, shrugged, and said, “Well, Mrs. Coltrane, I suppose we can just have our coffee right here,” she suggested brightly.

Kitty got to her feet. She’d had enough of the arrogant young woman for one night. Not caring whether she seemed rude, she coldly declared, “I think the evening has ended. Good night.”

And suddenly Lily found herself in a most unexpected and unwanted position: she was all alone.

Chapter Thirteen

“Are you having a private tantrum, or can anyone join in?”

Out in the garden, Drake sat down beside Dani on a stone bench. Without waiting for her answer, he went on. “It’s unfortunate things blew up back there, but don’t be too angry with your father. He was just playing the role of concerned parent. It isn’t that safe for young women to travel around by themselves, especially beautiful and rich young women,” he added pointedly.

Dani laughed brittly. “What am I supposed to do? Hide behind locked doors the rest of my life, never go anywhere? Never have the freedom to live my life the way I choose? No thank you. I’ll take my chances. I’ll start by carrying a pistol in my purse, and—”

His sudden burst of laughter caused her to fall into an angry silence, then she said, “I don’t see anything so funny about protecting myself.”

He reached to clasp her hand, but she jerked away. “Oh, Dani, I’m sorry. I really don’t mean to make you angrier than you already are. It’s just that the thought of a woman like you toting a gun in her purse strikes me as funny.”

She glared at him. “Well, it won’t be so funny when I take it out and shoot somebody who tries to harm me.”

He was suddenly grim. “No, I suppose not. But why not just hire a bodyguard? That’s what rich women normally do. Then you can come and go as you please, and your family won’t worry.”

She thought a moment. That was an idea to be considered, but she had other concerns now. Her remark made in anger about getting a place of her own struck her as quite appealing. It would be fun, decorating it the way she wanted, having her own socials, having absolute privacy and freedom of choice.

“You can hire me, pretty lady,” Drake said, intruding on her thoughts.

Dani looked at him, so handsome, so charming, and the sound of his warm, husky voice, the way he was gazing at her, made delicious tremors ripple through her body.

“Hire you?” she whispered, sensing that he was about to take her in his arms. “But then who would protect me from you?”

He did take her in his arms, gathering her so close she could feel his breath upon her face. As he spoke, he lowered his lips to brush against hers ever so lightly, ever so tantalizingly. “No one can protect you,” he gently warned. “I want to devour you…I want to take you to places you’ve never been before. I want to strip you naked and cover your flesh with kisses, and I want to hear you pray that no one will rescue you.”

He kissed her, his tongue exploring her own, tantalizing, teasing. He moved a hand to trail down her face gently and cupped her chin to hold her immobile against his attack upon her mouth. Then nimble fingers danced down her throat, at last moving to her breasts, to squeeze and knead each between exploring fingers.

Dani stirred, moaned, knew she should resist, pull away, but admittedly did not want to. She was enjoying each second of the sheer ecstasy he was evoking within her. She relished the rolling, rumbling of emotions gone wild, thrilled to the way thunder seemed to be exploding in her belly as secret, struggling undulations birthed in her loins. She could feel her nipples becoming cherry-pit taut beneath his eager fingertips.

Her back was arching in silent command to become yet closer to this attempt to devour her soul and spirit. God, she wanted him…wanted to explore, and taste, and feel, and experience, and savor…all the promised joys.

Her arms clung to him, and he lowered her effortlessly, gently, to the ground and stretched out beside her.

Dani could feel the velvet tickle of the moss and grass against her legs as he shoved her dress upward about her hips.

Placing his knee between, he parted her thighs, rendering her vulnerable to his touch. Dani knew that soon there would be no turning back. She could feel the rigidly pulsating hardness against her, knew what it was what it meant. Soon, he would be tearing away her silk and lace undergarments, and then, though a virgin, she knew he would enter her, take her to places she’d never been before…and that was what she wanted…to be taken on a journey of joy and ecstasy.

But suddenly, she realized that she wanted to go there at a time of
her
choosing, not his. This was seduction, manipulation at its worst. Damned be the luscious pleasure of desire if it was not fired by her own will, her own decision that it should happen. Never would she allow a man, even a man as appealing as Drake, to command and control her body through deft fingers and hungry, seeking lips.

She pulled away from him.

Drake was stunned. He had felt her succumbing to the cravings and urgings of her own body. Now she was pulling away. He stared down at her in wonder. “Dani, what is it? What’s wrong?”

She shook her head, cinnamon eyes meeting blue, and tried quickly to choose the right things to say so as not to hurt or damage the new and wondrous feelings growing between them, to somehow make him understand the way she felt. “Not here. Not now. Not like this.”

Drake believed he understood her hesitation. “I have a suite at Le Palais, near the Tuileries, a short ride by carriage.”

She shook her head adamantly, but regretfully.

In a calm, even voice, Drake went on. “We’ll go back inside, tell your parents that we’re going for a ride. Under the circumstances, I’m sure they’ll understand.”

Tightly, she bit out her next words, “Not until I say.”

This time Drake really did understand. He knew Daniella Coltrane was going to be a real challenge to his expertise. She was unlike so many others of her sex who wanted only to feel they had been seduced in order to yield to that which they wanted so desperately, yet had been indoctrinated to believe was sinful to enjoy. Dani could never be manipulated into doing anything she did not wish to do of her own volition…and that included making love to him.

Drake gazed at her, not giving away the turmoil of his thoughts. He was experiencing feelings for her that were not of the sort he usually experienced with his women. True, she was beautiful, intensely sensuous, and he desired her fiercely, but there was something else, the appreciation for her as an individual, a woman in her own right, whose opinions and ideals and thoughts and beliefs he respected. He did, by God, enjoy her company. She was more than just another woman to bed, and it was these thoughts and this awareness that directed him to quietly capitulate. “I understand.”

He stood, then helped her to her feet.

“Are you angry?”

“Angry?” He laughed at the thought. “I have no right, no reason, to be angry. I wouldn’t want you to do something unless you’re sure it’s what you want to do.”

Dani knew that she might be sending him straight to the arms of another woman…but that was a thought she would have to push aside.

After Kitty left the dining room, Lily sulkily requested more wine. She was furious at the turn of events. Everything was ruined.