Savage Deception (Liberty's Ladies) (3 page)

His tongue, hot and searching, found hers. This act of primitive plunder caused her to moan against his mouth.

“Oh, Diana, Diana,” he groaned. “I want you so much. I’ve wanted you from the first moment I saw you.”

He pulled her onto the soft grass, and she unresistingly followed him. His hands moved from her waist to her bodice as he lowered her gown from her shoulders to reveal her chemise-clad breasts. With agile fingers, Tanner worked the tiny lacings loose before Diana was even aware. It was only when his mouth, warm and moist, settled upon one of her nipples that she realized what he intended to do.

“Tanner, you mustn’t … this is wrong. I can’t…”

His lips left her breast, and he looked down at her with eyes that shone so darkly that she could see herself within their depths. “This is right for us, Diana. I know you want me as much as I want you. I’ve tried to resist you, but you’ve become my obsession.”

“But Kingsley?”

“Do you feel this way when he kisses you or touches you?” he demanded. “Am I wrong to think that you want me? Tell me you don’t want me to do this…” He kissed her with a hot hunger that burned right through her. “Or this.” His hands cupped her breasts, taking her fullness into the calloused palms. “Or this.” And then his lips settled upon her nipple to suckle and drive her wild with a feeling she couldn’t name.

This was how she had thought to feel with Kingsley, but she had no idea it would be anything like this. This was what she wanted, this incredible ache within her that was part pain, part forbidden pleasure — such dark pleasure she thought she might die from it.

Her fingers wove into the thick strands of his hair. “Oh, Tanner, please…”

She wanted him to stop, yet not stop. All thought of Kingsley fled as Tanner’s hand slid up her skirt to stroke the softness of her inner thighs. His fingers traced a path higher and higher on her silken flesh. Diana stared up at the moonlit sky, her eyes widening in mute surprise. He couldn’t mean to touch her
there.
It wasn’t decent, it wasn’t right. But when his fingers found her velvet target, stroking and readying her for what was to come, it felt glorious.

“Do you want me to stop, Diana? I will if you want me to stop. But you must tell me, otherwise, I’ll undress you here and make love to you. Tell me what you want. Tell me.”

His breath fanned her naked breasts while he suckled each nipple in turn. His fingers worked their magic within the heated crevice of her body. She had no will, no power to stop him. She felt as if she were going to melt and dissolve into nothingness. Tanner was doing something to her, something so unbearably wonderful that nothing mattered, nothing and no one. At this moment all she wanted was for the achingly pleasant sensation between her legs to continue. The thought of Tanner undressing her here and loving her aroused her senses and only made the ache flare with something so undeniably exquisite that she couldn’t deny him.

“Tell me,” she heard his voice again. “Tell me what you want.”

“I … want … you.” She sounded breathless.

“I love you, Diana.” Tanner kissed her again, his fingers not ending their assault upon her lower body but moving more deeply within her until she found herself panting with a strange and powerful wanting.

The sky above them seemed to glow with silver and gold, her whole being shimmered like moonbeams upon the river as her body writhed beneath Tanner’s sensual stroking. Her breath began to come in tiny pants and she knew something was about to happen to her, something so unbearably wonderful that she found herself arching to meet it.

Her hands found the broadness of his shoulders, clutching him in preparation for the wonder of it all. She shut her eyes. “Oh, Tanner, oh, Tanner—”

“Diana!”

Through her desire-shrouded brain Diana recognized the owner of the voice that cut like a razor through the night. She stiffened, and a sick feeling of dread destroyed the ultimate pleasure she would have experienced beneath Tanner’s hands.

Opening her eyes, she saw Kingsley looming over them.

2

Kingsley wrenched Tanner from her, but Tanner instantly sprang to his feet and knocked Kingsley to the ground with a sharp jab to the jaw. “You bastard!” Kingsley growled up at him. “I’ll make you sorry for that.”

“Go on,” Tanner baited. “Get off your backside and do something about it. I’ve been waiting for years for the opportunity. Or are you too much of a coward to defend your honor? What about defending Diana’s honor, if not your own?”

Diana watched intently, barely able to breathe. From the hate shining in Kingsley’s eyes she could tell he longed to attack Tanner. Instead he cradled his bruised jaw in the palm of his hand while Tanner helped her to her feet.

At that moment David came charging down the path. He stopped short, his gaze flickering over the scene, taking in the sight of a blushing Diana as she rearranged her bodice into some semblance of order. Tousled hair fell in shadowy locks around her shoulders.

David shook his red-blonde head in dismay before looking at Tanner with condemnation in his eyes. He extended a hand to Kingsley. “Anne is worried about you, Diana,” David told her. “Please return to the house.”

“No, I want to know that Tanner will be all right,” she insisted and twisted around to see the man whose hands were warm at her waist. A shock coursed through her as she discovered that Tanner wasn’t even looking at her but at Kingsley. From the scowl on his finely made lips and the loathing on his face, it was evident to Diana that Tanner hated Kingsley.

“I’ll be fine,” she heard Tanner say in a clipped tone of voice. “Do as your brother-in-law said.”

Kingsley grabbed Diana’s arm and pulled her away from Tanner to stand beside him. Tanner made a movement to spring forward but apparently thought better of it. Instead he waited, his powerful legs thrust apart in a bold and defiant stance. The pressure of Kingsley’s fingers dug more deeply into her flesh, a not-so-subtle reminder of who she belonged to.

Kingsley made a snorting sound. “I find Diana’s regard for your welfare most touching, Tanner, considering that I discovered you attempting to have your way with her.”

“That’s not true!” Diana blurted out, but Kingsley tightened his grip around her, forcing her to silence.

“Ah, such an innocent she is. Don’t you agree, David?” Kingsley ignored her and didn’t let David reply before turning his attention again to Tanner. “I trust I arrived in time before any true damage could be done to her. I should hate for her to be initiated into the rites of love by such a bastard. And you are a bastard, aren’t you, Tanner? You know you are.”

“Kingsley, please don’t go on…” Diana interrupted.

“But I will go on,” Kingsley continued, his voice growing more menacing. He moved her forward and placed her directly between him and Tanner. “Now, my innocent love. I want you to look at Tanner and remember him well. Remember the face of the man who tried to have his way with you. Look at my father’s bastard son, my half-brother, who shall always be little better than one of the slaves, who will never be a Sheridan. Go on, Diana, look at him and be disgusted to realize that such a man ever touched you.”

Suddenly she couldn’t bear to look at Tanner.
Bastard son. Half-brother.
Tanner was Harlan’s bastard son. She should have seen the resemblance between Harlan and Tanner. But that wasn’t why she couldn’t look at him.

She guessed Tanner must be humiliated to be an overseer on his father’s plantation, never to be acknowledged as Harlan’s son. He was a proud man, a kind man, and she didn’t want to see his pain. But when she lifted her eyes to his face she stared into two ebony hate-filled pools. A tight pain clutched at her heart. Was his hatred for her, too?

She almost spoke his name, but Kingsley spun her about on the path to face in the direction of Briarhaven. “I’m taking Diana back to the house. I know she’ll want to bathe and wash away the feel of your hands upon her. But, Tanner, I’m not finished with you. Not yet.” Kingsley pulled at Diana, literally dragging her with him.

Tanner moved forward with ready fists. “You can’t treat her like that!”

Suddenly David jumped in front of him and restrained him with a strong forearm. “I suggest you cool off, sir,” David suggested. “Diana isn’t your concern.”

“But Kingsley might harm her.”

“No. Kingsley loves Diana and would never hurt her. Besides, Anne and I are with her. I don’t know what happened here tonight, or what almost happened. Either way I hope you act the gentleman and leave my sister-in-law alone. You have no claim upon her and no future with her.”

“Oh, but my brother does because he’ll be master of Briarhaven. Yet I run Briarhaven. Doesn’t that count for something?”

“Yes,” David reluctantly agreed and was relieved when Tanner backed away to lean against a tree trunk. “But my wife and I want Diana’s future assured.”

“Ah, so it comes down to money and position. It always does with people like you.” Tanner tilted his head to glance up at the night sky. “I’d be willing to bet that if I went after Diana she’d run away with me.”

“I doubt it, Mr. Sheridan. Diana is very young and impressionable but she isn’t stupid. She knows perfectly well that she’d be unable to survive on love alone. She is gently bred,” David reminded Tanner.

Gently bred. It was a term that made Tanner wince. In the opinion of David Richmond and those of his kind he was a barbarian, uncouth and dirty. No lady of quality would ever deign to glance in such a person’s direction. At least that’s what men like Richmond and Kingsley wanted to believe. They were wrong. If the truth be known, Tanner had made love to quite a few “gently bred” young ladies who’d visited Briarhaven in the past. Tanner smirked at the memories, knowing Richmond would be soundly shocked if he had any idea of the number of proper petticoated girls who had sneaked away from their rooms at night, all eager to lie in the arms of Harlan Sheridan’s bastard son. But he wouldn’t tell Richmond any of this, because none of it mattered.

All that mattered to Tanner was Diana.

“I’m in love with Diana,” Tanner admitted.

David sighed. “I do wish you hadn’t told me that, sir. Knowing such a thing makes you more of a danger to her future happiness. If you only wanted to despoil her because of your hatred for the Sheridans, I could dismiss you. But a serious admission of love is sad and frightening to me. For all concerned, it would be best for you to leave Briarhaven.”

Tanner reared upward, black fury on his face. “I’m not going anywhere!”

David backed away, not saying anything. He gave Tanner a probing look before turning his back and returning to the house.

~ ~ ~

“I don’t know why you keep saying that Tanner would hurt me,” Diana protested to Anne. “He told me that he loved me … and … and I love him too, I think.”

“Heavens, this is worse than I thought. Come sit beside me, Diana.” Anne patted the spot next to her on the large, comfortable sofa in the library. Diana moved from the window, where she’d been watching for some sign of Tanner, but only David returned to stand solemnly beside Kingsley on the veranda.

Harp music and the sound of merry voices floated from the ballroom. Diana felt less than merry as she took her seat by her sister. The golden candlelight emphasized the worry in her blue eyes. “Nothing bad will happen to Tanner, will it?”

“I don’t understand how you can care about the beastly man. Kingsley told me he tried to have his way with you. Anything done to him will be only what he deserves.”

“Kingsley is lying!” Diana stormed. “Tanner never tried to do that to me.” In fact she wasn’t even certain what “having his way with her” meant. “Anne, don’t you understand? I thought you of all people would. I liked Tanner touching me. I liked it. I’ve never felt that way before… .”

“Please,” Anne interrupted and stood up. “I don’t want to hear about it. How can you say such a thing or even imagine you liked that disgusting man touching you? Diana, I’m shocked at you.”

Never in her entire life had Anne said something like that to her or been so disapproving either. Diana felt a bit sick to her stomach. She’d always wanted to please Anne because she loved her so much, but she couldn’t help the way she felt about Tanner.

Her eyes were wet with tears as she looked at Anne. “I wanted him to love me.”

Suddenly Anne was holding her in her arms while Diana cried. She felt guilty about what had happened with Tanner because she’d caused such pain to Anne and David, and Kingsley too, she guessed. And to Tanner. But she couldn’t forget how his kisses and touch had made her feel. Yet she remembered the hatred she’d seen on his face when she’d left and she couldn’t forget that either. Somehow she’d ruined everything.

Anne broke away and held her at arm’s length. “I want you to listen to me. What you felt for Tanner was natural, in a way. You’re a healthy young woman, and I have to admit that Tanner is … a virile man. But he is a great deal older than you and he took advantage of your inexperience. You must believe that when you marry Kingsley, you shall feel those same feelings for him. Be grateful that Kingsley knows you weren’t responsible. He loves you a great deal, Diana. You’re quite lucky Kingsley understands and still wants to marry you.”

“But what if I don’t truly love Kingsley?”

“You do love him,” Anne insisted. “Kingsley is a fine man and the man whom David and I have chosen for you. We’d never do anything to cause you unhappiness. Kingsley will make you happy, just give him the chance.” At that second David and Kingsley entered the room. David beckoned to Anne who instantly rose and followed him into the hall. Kingsley quietly closed the large oak door and came to stand beside her.

He gently wiped away the tears that sparkled like diamonds upon her cheeks. “I hope these tears aren’t for Tanner. They’re wasted upon such an unworthy fellow.”

“I’m very sorry for all that has happened,” Diana began to apologize. “I never meant…”

Kingsley brought her to her feet and enveloped her in his possessive embrace. “I know, my darling. You’re an innocent. Tanner is to blame for all of it.”

“But that isn’t wholly true. I danced with him and I let him kiss me, and everything. Certainly you can’t hold him responsible for what happened.”

“Stop it! I don’t want to hear any more from you in defense of my father’s loutish bastard. As far as I’m concerned, Tanner is totally to blame. You can’t actually think he might have serious intentions where you’re concerned, Diana.”

She didn’t like that. It sounded uncomplimentary, as if Tanner couldn’t be interested in her as a woman. “Why not?” she asked, and stiffened in his arms.

Kingsley laughed a great booming laugh that echoed in the quiet library. “You don’t understand yet. I thought Anne would explain it all to you, but apparently she didn’t. Tanner hates my father and me. Father took a fancy to an Indian girl years ago. He built her a cabin on the edge of the property near the swamp, because he was already married to my mother.”

“Why didn’t Harlan send the girl away?”

“You
are
an innocent.” Kingsley tweaked her nose, causing Diana to grimace. “He didn’t send her away because men, well, men have needs, needs that proper women know nothing about. Anyway, he couldn’t very well send her away after she became pregnant. Father is an honorable man and felt he had to see to the child’s welfare. But whenever my mother was indisposed or was pregnant, and she was pregnant a number of times but miscarried, father sought out Naomi, who is Tanner’s mother. He took a liking to Tanner, but then I was born. No one can say father didn’t do well by Tanner.”

“He didn’t give Tanner his name, Kingsley.”

“Why should he have?” Kingsley hissed. “I am the heir to Briarhaven, not some bastard my father happened to whelp with a squaw. I find your support of Tanner to be most distasteful and distressing. The man wanted to have his way with you, and damn, I think you might have liked it if he had, Diana!” He jerked her hard against him, hurting her with the pressure on her upper arms. “You’ve gotten it into your head that he might love you. Tanner can’t love anybody. He wanted you to get back at me. He wanted to have you first and destroy my joy in taking your innocence. Tanner hates me so much that he’d ruin you to hurt me. And then, Diana, what do you think Tanner would have done after he’d finished with you? What? Tell me.”

He was nearly shaking her. “I don’t know!”