Master Of Paradise (32 page)

No entertainments were planned for their first evening in Charleston, as it was rightly assumed they would need to rest from the rigors of the journey. The following day however was given up to the pleasure of shopping, so while Aunt Virginia planned the details of the party she was giving that evening, her daughters escorted Jennifer and Amanda on a tour of some of the delightful shops.

Amanda bought with Nicholas in mind. She wanted dresses that would not only flatter her tawny coloring, but would also please a man's eye. She bought a pretty creation with a low, square neckline and the barest hint of a sleeve. The color was delightful. Above the waist it was butter-cream, then the skirt deepened into a golden yellow. The other was a ball gown. It was the subtlest shade of peach with the bustline petal-shaped to cup and flatter the breasts; a most eye-catching detail of design.

She bought slippers and underpinnings to match, and then the party moved along to Church Street to a very fashionable milliner's shop that sold the prettiest bonnets in town. The girls sat in front of mirrors trying on one chapeau after another. Amanda had seen one in the window that was very elegant. She moved toward the display, and there in the street was her husband.

"Nicholas just went past the shop, I wonder if he's looking for us?" she remarked to Jennifer. She darted out the door just in time to see him turn the corner onto Tradd Street. When she reached the corner, he was entering the third house from the corner.

She called, "Nicholas!" but he did not hear her, and she felt rather self-conscious shouting down the street. She quickened her steps, wondering whose house it was, as she climbed the brick steps and tapped timidly on the door.

A young black woman opened it and held it wide. There stood Nicholas in the entrance way with a child in his arms. The beautiful little girl between two and three years old was laughing excitedly.

Amanda stepped forward with a puzzled look on her face, then as the light from the open doorway fell upon the man and child, Amanda saw that the little girl had aqua-colored eyes, the same unusual shade as her husband.

For one unreal moment the world swung upside down for Amanda. She backed away from him, then turned and ran blindly back toward the shop or anywhere that would get her away from him.

Nicholas, alarmed, quickly handed the child back to Solange and strode after his wife.

The moment Amanda entered the milliner's shop, the walls swam together and the floor came up to hit her in the face.

Nicholas had her in his arms instantly. He said shortly to Jennifer, "She's unwell, I'm taking her back to the Planters Inn."

He strode out into the street and hailed a carriage to carry them the short distance.

When Amanda opened her eyes, the pain in them was hard for Nicholas to bear. They burned with accusation, and her face had gone so deathly pale, he feared for her.

He did not carry her, but he assisted her upstairs to his room. He could feel her small back was rigid and unyielding to his arm that tried to give her support. Quickly, he poured a small amount of brandy into a glass and held it to her lips.

With one sweeping gesture Amanda knocked the glass away and it shattered into a thousand shards. She flew at him, and with clenched fists that hammered into his chest, cried, "Damn you, damn you, damn you!"

"I thought you were different, but you're the same as all the other men. Exactly the same! You have the morals of a libertine." She struggled fiercely until he freed her. "You were a hero to me. I've worshipped you for over four years,since I was thirteen, and this is how you repay me."

"I have every right to be hysterical, and I shall not keep my voice down. I want everyone to know you've betrayed me with a black woman, and that you have a yard child."

"Don't you dare to call Nicole a yard child," he shouted, his anger rising rapidly.

"Nicole?
Nicole by God!
The name that should have been reserved for our child. How could you?" She dashed the tears from her eyes with angry fists, and Nicholas decided that enough was enough.

He lifted her feet off the floor and sat her upon the high bed that stood in the center of the room. "You will be silent while I explain the situation to you. I seldom explain myself Amanda, but for you I will make an exception, this once."

She set her chin at a very aggressive angle and glared at him.

"I bought the female slave Solange and freed her the same day. She came to my bed one time only, and much to my shame I got her with child. I do not love Solange, I have never loved Solange, but I do love my child. I have accepted the unfortunate situation, and you will have to do the same."

She jumped down from the bed. "Are you finished, sir?" she demanded, showing that her anger had not lessened by one jot. "When I married you,
in name only,"
she emphasized sarcastically, "you assured me that if I was not happy, and changed my mind, I could get the marriage... annulled... I believe the word was. I shall write to my father and tell him I wish the marriage dissolved."

I have no choice now. I will have to consummate the marriage so that an annulment will be impossible.
The intensity of her anger showed him clearly how deeply she felt for him, and he was elated that she loved him and could not conceal it from him.

He decided his best course of action would be to divert her. If he gave her something else to worry about, her temper would cool over the other matter. He took off his coat and turned down the bed.

She eyed him with suspicion. "What are you doing?"

"My dear, you fainted on the street. The only place for you is in bed. You need to be coddled. I'll send down for some chamomile tea. Come, let me undo your gown."

"I'm perfectly well. I just had a shock... a shock I might add that will last the rest of my life!"

He removed his cravat and began to unbutton his shirt, then in his most persuasive voice invited, "Come, I'll lie down with you."

"Not,
of course,
Mandy. Only if I choose to let you." He was around the bed in a flash and she was enveloped in his arms. He took her down to the bed with him, half rolled her onto her back and commenced to kiss her thoroughly and deeply. She fought him, but his strength pitted against her prevented her from freeing her body in any way. While he had her under his control he caressed and stroked her breasts until her nipples stood out like hard little spears.

"Please, Nicholas, don't."

"Ah, so it's '
please Nicholas'
now, is it?" He looked deeply into her eyes and saw that in spite of her protests, her eyes were dilated because her body was receiving pleasure. "If I only wanted you physically, I could have taken you any night in the garden, but I want more than that Amanda."

He lifted his weight from her and pulled her to her feet. "I'll leave you to freshen up, then I'll take you back to Virginia's," he said, not unkindly.

Charleston, in the grip of election fever, already reeling from social surfeit, was almost felled with the stunning news of Lincoln's victory.

Amanda bade Jennifer and her Aunt Virginia a reluctant goodbye after her two week's stay

The drive home to Paradise Plantation was a sombre one, with Nicholas much preoccupied, yet he was well aware of Amanda's coolness toward him. The quality of her silence told him she would have none of him.

The heat still held, then turned so sultry and oppressive with low, bruise-colored clouds, that even the animals became restless and bad-tempered.

Nicholas stayed in the garden until after midnight thinking Amanda must come outdoors for a breath of air, but when she did not come, he reluctantly sought his room. He put off retiring as long as he could. The last thing he wanted tonight was another dream.

Amanda had known for two days a storm was coming. It took so long to build, she knew it would be a bad one, and she dreaded it with all her heart. By the time bedtime arrived, her nerve endings were tingling with the old anticipated fear to the point where she was ready to scream. She lay rigid in the bed, waiting, waiting. Then the first streak of lightning flashed across the sky and with a cry she flew to the window and tightly closed her jalousies. The thunder rumbled in the distance, and her limbs began to tremble uncontrollably as she heard the next rumble come unmistakably closer.

Nicholas had just drifted off to sleep when the first crash came. He sat up and murmured under his breath, "Mandy!" He knew how very real her fear was. He covered his nakedness with a robe and moved quickly out of his wing and along to his wife's room.

Her bed was empty and she was nowhere to be seen. On impulse he took up the hurricane lamp and opened her closet door. He saw Amanda huddled on the floor with her arms wrapped protectively over her head.

"My love, don't be afraid," he soothed gently. He quickly set down the lamp and reached to lift Amanda from the darkened niche. She clung to him desperately, and his name came out on a half-whisper, half-sob. "Nicholas."

He knew better than to start reasoning with her to dispel the fear. Instead, he held her very tightly so that she would feel secure. His lips brushed her temples, and he murmured gentle words to comfort her.

"Don't leave me," she begged.

"I'll hold you all night," he promised softly. Her closeness was playing hell with his senses. She'd never been more desirable than at this moment with her tawny hair in wild disarray and her golden eyes wide with fear. She was the classic maiden in distress and he felt a surge of strength arise within him to protect her always.

In the middle of the room she clung to him desperately, quick intakes of breath punctuating each crack of thunder.

Whether by deliberate design or by pure physical instinct, afterward he was never sure, he began to intrude himself upon her consciousness. He would fill her with his essence to the point where there was no room for fear or storms or any other thing. He would merge his body with hers until they became one, not only in body, but in mind and soul.

With deft fingers Nicholas undid her nightgown and slipped it from her shoulders. His head dipped to kiss the high curves of her breasts that swelled so temptingly, all velvet cream tipped with rosebuds.

For Amanda the fear of the storm began to recede as she became aware of her body and the pleasurable sensations Nicholas was provoking.

He shrugged off his robe and lifted her onto him so that his cock was between her legs and the filmy material of her nightgown fluttered down to cover their intimate parts.

She gasped with pleasure as the first little bit entered and caressed her woman's center. As he lowered her until her feet touched the carpet, his hands slipped down her body, taking the nightgown from her limbs so that it fell into a silken pool at their feet.

His mouth sought hers, and he tasted a tear, then a sigh, then the honeyed sweetness for which he'd thirsted so long. His kisses, gentle at first, deepened and began to take, then they plundered her mouth, and she thought she might die from the taste and the feel of him. His wide, bronzed shoulders blotted out everything in the room, everything in her mind, everything in the world, until there was just his aqua eyes blazing their desire for her, and his whipcord arms possessively holding her captive.

He went on his knees to her in an attitude of worship, and he drew her thighs gently toward his mouth. As his tongue began to trace the soft folds between her legs, she cried out in protest, but it was drowned by the tumult above them.

She gave herself up to Nicholas's demanding mouth, arching her neck backwards at the exquisite pulsations he aroused, and her fingers threaded wildly through his crisp, dark hair.

Nicholas withdrew, stood erect and drew her up beside him. She leaned against him drained of strength, her eyes closed and her rosy breasts quivering with each breath. He lifted her with infinite care and carried her to the bed.

When he stretched his body on the bed and drew her toward him, the contrast of their skin was erotically arousing. Hers gleamed like a pearl dusted with translucent powder, while his was burnished bronze.

She was aware of how she affected him by the way his hungry eyes ate her.

"My God, you are delicious as sin." His hands stroked her, arousing her until she thought she would scream from the bliss of it all. Then he was towering above her, unwilling to wait one moment longer to make her his.

A moment of apprehension rose up, but she forced herself to trust him totally. Then she felt his hard boldness as the fire in his loins raged out of control, and he slid deeply into her tight, scalding body.

They both cried out from the pleasure-pain. They were so hot, they almost burned each other. Then the heated waves of pleasure began to build and build, washing over them until they lost all sense of time and place. Their kisses became savage and wild, so that the storm that raged without paled in comparison as the lovers were consumed by a mutual passion.