Nights in White Satin: A Loveswept Classic Romance (15 page)

“No, that is not it.”

He pulled her to him, fitting her body perfectly to his. She gasped, her eyes wide, and he immediately covered her mouth with his, his tongue plunging into the moist interior. Some shred of logic told him he was making a mistake, but too many emotions were welling up for him to pay attention.

She didn’t respond at first, and he softened his demands, almost teasing at her mouth, coaxing her to join him. He ran his hands down her back, down the long sensual length of her spine. The curve of her hips tempted him, and he let his fingers span her waist, torturing himself with restraint. He curled his other hand around her side to the first curve of her breast. The touch of her was sinful, and his body was already screaming for him to sin more. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, she relaxed against him. Her hands crept up around his neck as her tongue rubbed against his in matching tempo.

He twisted and turned the kiss, wanting to taste every nuance of her response. Every delicious inch of her body was pressed to his, only
the thin cotton of her robe and nightgown separating them. Her hands tugged at his shoulders, and he reached blindly behind her and shut the door. Satisfaction swept through him at the sharp click of the lock. He eased her back against the door, then lifted his mouth from hers. He was surprised to realize his chest was heaving for breath.

But he couldn’t help smiling at the sight of Jill’s softly swollen lips and closed eyes. She opened them.

“When you go macho, you don’t fool around,” she murmured.

“I’m so glad you’re pleased,” he murmured back, delighted with her.

She snagged a handful of his shirt and pulled him closer. “Please me again.”

The breath shuddered out of him as he swept her up into another kiss. Need raged through him and there was no denial. He’d waited too long for her already.

Her mouth was lush and addicting, pulling him into a velvet whirlpool. Her hands were a cool fire on his chest as they slipped under his shirt. Her fingers slid across the swath of hair on his chest and stomach, evoking wild sensations that ignited him to a fever pitch. He knew no other woman had ever lured him into her spell like Jill did. One touch and he was mindless to all but her.

Jill knew it had been dangerous to open the door. She had wanted so badly to resist, but the tone of his voice, the hurt she heard reflected there, had compelled her to turn the knob. And the moment she had, she’d been lost. Nothing mattered anymore except being in his arms.

She admitted now that she had wanted to be there desperately. She had wanted to feel his mouth on hers, feel their tongues mating and driving them to a wild darkness. Like now. Everything inside her had shouted a warning that tonight was the most foolish, and the most treacherous, for her with Rick. She was risking all her plans for his touch. And that was what enticed her. He had enticed her from the moment they’d met. She’d known this was inevitable. Something in Rick had reached a place deep inside her, crumbling all reason, all barriers.

His kiss was endless, unlike any she had experienced before. She became aware, eventually, of a softness at her back, cushioning her as she took Rick’s weight on hers. He had brought her to the bed, she realized. She couldn’t quite remember them moving away from the door. She only cared that they had.

His body pressed her into sleek cool sheets. She sensed they were satin, and they enveloped her in a glowing white cloud. He lifted his mouth from hers, gazing down at her with those mesmerizing blue-green eyes. His face was flushed with passion.

“I want to wrap you in white satin,” he said, unbuttoning the cotton robe, his voice and heated fingers making her feel seductive and exotic.

She pushed the shirt off his shoulders, letting her hands absorb the warmth of his skin. His muscles were hard from the life he led, and their strength made her moan.

He pulled the slim straps of her nightgown down her arms until the material was around her
hips. He lowered his head. His tongue teased at her already diamond-hard nipple, nearly jolting her off the bed. Her blood shot through her veins, hot and heavy. His hands and lips excited her beyond awareness for endless minutes.

What was left of their clothes was shed, leaving the incredible sensation of flesh to flesh. Jill ran her hands down his torso, following the path of silky chest hair arrowing beyond the tight muscles of his waist. His fingers stroked her. She dragged her nails lightly across his thighs, eliciting a groan from him. She wanted to give him pleasure, the kind of forbidden pleasure he was giving her. Sensations throbbed through her at the torment he was creating, giving her no peace and lifting her to near madness.

His kisses touched every erotic place on her body, ones she didn’t even know she possessed. His mouth went lower still. Her thighs opened, and he was tasting her, sending her into a mindless frenzy. She tugged at him with nearly clawing hands, until he rose above her in the darkness and thrust into her.

She flowed about him like fine wine, moving with him, matching him in the ageless rhythm, her mouth feeding on him for breath and giving him back sustenance. She felt protected … and loved. With each building stroke, she gave of her body and gave of her heart, until she reached the dizzying heights to which he’d brought her. And at last, the waves of satisfaction sluiced through her again and again, Rick joining with her in the swirling currents.

When she finally opened her eyes, she had only
regrets. Regrets for the way she was deceiving him.

“What?” he mumbled, clearly sensing the change in her. He opened his eyes and raised himself on his elbows. “Was I that bad?”

She chuckled and wound her arms around his neck, forcing away the guilt. Surely she was allowed one forbidden night. “Hardly. I think I did things I’ll be ashamed of in the morning.”

“I knew I should have gotten rid of Grandmother sooner,” he said, relaxing.

Jill smiled. Lettice had been a protector of sorts. So had the Colonel and the emerald necklace. But Rick had overcome them. Rick had overcome everything.

“Don’t go home when she goes,” he said. “Stay a while longer. Stay with me.”

“I—I can’t,” she said, thinking of her job waiting back in the States. And her job here. It was slowly seeping in just what she’d done. Like Sir Lancelot, she’d been tempted from the path of purity by the one person who could wreak disaster on her quest for justice. She doubted Guinevere had caused as much confusion as Rick did. “I knew we shouldn’t have—”

“No,” he interrupted. “We should have. Nothing will make that different. But this was not the time to bring that up.”

She wanted to protest, but the words never came as he nuzzled the curve of her shoulder. She moaned, her heightened senses instantly responding. He grinned against her skin and rubbed his thigh along hers.

“I think I’ll bring something else up instead,” he whispered.

She giggled and pressed herself to him. “I think you already have.”

Jill pushed aside the last of her doubts as he rolled her over. Quests and justice and heritage be damned.

She would have one night in white satin with Rick.

It wasn’t until they got home to Devil’s Hall that Jill discovered the real disaster that had been wreaked by the night with Rick.

They had managed to present themselves sedately enough for breakfast, she also managing to keep her guilt and regrets to a minimum. She hadn’t paid much attention to some things that hadn’t seemed right before Annalissa et al. had waved them off. The Colonel had been perfectly charming, and she knew from the conversation that he’d be staying with the Youngs. It would be easy to make further contact with him
after
she settled her confusion with Rick. That was first.

Fortunately, there had been no discussion about changing her bedroom at Devil’s Hall. Not with Lettice still in residence. Jill unpacked her small suitcase, tossing the dresses on her bed for Grahame to take to the cleaners. Her washables she’d do herself, though she despised the tiny washer and dryer that were standard appliances in British homes. The darn things took about six items at a time and six hours per load. The English obviously had a horror of efficiency.

She took out the jewelery pouch with her diamond necklace, turning to put it in the drawer with the copy of the emerald necklace. Something
odd about it caught her attention. She frowned, then dropped it on the bed and opened it. Fear squeezed her heart in a death grip, as she stared at the contents. Slowly, horribly, she pulled out a necklace that did
not
sparkle in the sunlight. She doubted if the tin spacers ever would.

She sat there for the longest time, her brain numb. She remembered noticing the open window when she’d finally gone back to her room early that morning and thinking that she couldn’t remember having opened it. She’d shrugged it off then, but now she knew what it meant, or what it was supposed to mean. A burglar from the outside. People had been talking of one at the regatta.

She didn’t believe it.

She finally got up and walked downstairs, the tin necklace in her hand. She found Lettice in the sitting room with Rick.

“He got my diamond necklace too,” she said bluntly, surprised at the calmness of her voice.

“What!” Lettice exclaimed, straightening in her chair.

“What?” Rick asked, frowning in his ignorance.

“Fitchworth-Leeds,” Lettice said to her grandson, clearly knowing what Jill was talking about. “He conned her mother out of her family’s three-hundred-year-old emerald necklace. That’s why we came here, to try to get it back. But Edward sent us to that idiot in London—”

“What!” This time Rick’s voice held understanding. And anger. He whipped around to Jill, his towering fury easy to see in his hard eyes. She knew he was realizing just how much she had used him. The night before she’d acted out of
instinct—and love. She could no longer deny that. How she now wished she’d confessed her schemes before they’d made love. At least for her own conscience’s sake. She couldn’t deceive him any longer, for she had fallen in love with him.

Her version of Murphy’s Law was right on target. As usual.

Rick stared at Jill’s ashen face. Clearly she was devastated. He didn’t care. Disbelief and more than a little anger rolled through him at the thought that she’d never said one word to him about her necklace. Why hadn’t she told him?

“Wait a minute,” he said, suddenly confused. “The necklace you wore at the party was of diamonds, not emeralds.”

“It was both,” Jill said, tears welling up in her eyes. He wanted to comfort her but something held him back. She went on, her voice jerky with emotion. “I mean, the Colonel got two necklaces. He conned my mother into selling him the family’s emerald necklace. The necklace came to America with the first Daneforth over three hundred years ago. The Colonel claimed it was stolen from his ancestor.”

“And Caroline, the idiot,” his grandmother chimed in, “fell for it, thinking to avoid a scandal. Instead, she created one. Jill wanted to get it back quietly, so I came over with her to help. Well, I forgot about your father’s trip—”

“And so you came here.” He glared at Lettice. “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

“Because it was none of your business. Jill’s father doesn’t even know the necklace is missing yet, and she was trying to get it back before he found out. Except that Havilan man your father sent Jill to was completely useless.”

“When did Jill see anyone—” The realization dawned, and he turned his glare on Jill. “In London. When you dumped me.”

She nodded, then looked away. “I’m sorry.”

He burst out in anger. “You let me think my grandmother was seeing a specialist for senility—”

“Senility!” Lettice squawked, coming out of the chair. “Roderick Kitteridge, I am not senile!”

“You could have fooled me,” he muttered, knowing she had fooled him. Both of them had. But it was Jill’s deception that hurt the most.

His grandmother narrowed her eyes. “You will—”

“Lettice, please,” Jill interrupted. “There’s more. You and Rick might as well know the complete truth.”

His grandmother stopped her threat, as they both stared at Jill. Rick’s heart beat painfully. He somehow knew whatever they had heard till now was minor compared to what was coming.

“I …” She swallowed, and he could see her fingers tighten around the false necklace. “I know, Lettice, that you thought it was finished after Mr. Havilan. But I thought if I could get Mr. Havilan the proof he said he needed to get the Colonel, I’d be able to get the Daneforth necklace back. So I started looking for him, and I maneuvered you, Rick, into taking me places where he
might be, by using Lettice’s need to socialize as an excuse.”

“Really? I’m impressed,” Lettice said.

Rick paid no attention to his grandmother. He closed his eyes, then opened them. “The regatta.”

“All of it,” Jill said in a low voice. “Everywhere. I thought if I could tempt him into trying to con me out of my diamond necklace, I’d have my proof. Instead, he conned me. He set it up to look like a burglary, but I know it was him. It has to be!”

He could understand her need to get back her property and see justice done. But he couldn’t understand why she hadn’t come to him, and it hurt fiercely to know she hadn’t. “You didn’t trust me to help you.”