Seized by Love (13 page)

“Installed in the room next to yours, Nikki, I hear, and drugged when she was brought in,” the Countess had said maliciously. “Losing your touch, dear? Surely between your smooth tongue and big cock, you don’t have to resort to force?”

“Don’t be coarse,
chérie
,” Nikki said flatly. Damn gossiping doctor, Nikki thought irritably, the news must be all over town by now. Normally immune to gossip concerning himself, he preferred not having Alisa’s name bandied about.

“When I lose my touch, Sophie dear, I’ll let you know,” Nikki murmured coldly. “Perhaps your husband and I will then be able to share a mutual interest in cards. Whist is all
he’s good for at present. I still endeavor to amuse myself in more active ways.”

“With your ‘active’ ways,” she sneered, “next thing you know, your little mistress will be handing you another brat.”

“Perhaps,” he replied.

“Perhaps? Is that all you can say? You, who are near to setting some kind of record for bastards?”

“These things are rather inevitable,” Nikki continued, exasperated with Sophie’s spite. “Not every woman is in such an enviable position as you, dear, who can bed without restraint and never experience a qualm, thanks to your barren womb.”

“No doubt your newest trollop is not so disposed and will soon present you with the unwelcome news of impending fatherhood yet again!” Sophie taunted.

“Whether that comes to pass or no, I fail to see how my affairs are any concern of yours,” Nikki drawled, trying to keep his anger in check.

Seeing she had pushed the quick-tempered Prince too far, and averse to losing such an accomplished bed partner, the worldly-wise Sophie sensibly changed her tack.

“Stay the night, Nikki,” she breathed softly, “I haven’t seen you in weeks.”

Glancing at his gold and champlevé enamel wristwatch, he absently toyed with the unusual alarm mechanism that upon release reminded its wearer of the hour by tapping the wrist.

“Not tonight, Sophie,” he said politely.

“I don’t suppose you’d say no if your newest bed warmer asked you,” Sophie snapped, her brief attempt at cajolery vanishing.

The Prince raised his eyes from his timepiece and there was a glint in his eye. “That, my dear, is quite another matter.”

“Rude, odious wretch!” the Countess spat out.

He only laughed. “As you very well know from past experience, Sophie, my pet.” Bowing infinitesimally from the waist, he left the scented boudoir.

The irritating Countess had taken some of the edge from his good spirits. Arriving home, Nikki waved off the solicitous butler, let himself into his study, and relaxed over several brandies, allowing the annoyance of Sophie’s impertinence to wash away. An hour later Nikki was comfortably soothed. The presence of Alisa in his own home was a powerful distraction. There might be problems with his malicious ex-mistress, he thought. But to hell with the problems; all he could think of was the woman upstairs; the problems could wait.

He rose from the chair near the window and slowly walked up the wide marble staircase. A small gaslamp was burning low near Alisa’s bed. Nikki stood a long time and watched her peacefully sleeping; she was so fragile, her breasts rising and falling gently beneath her silk negligee, her long lashes resting on her soft white cheeks, one arm thrown above her head, her red-gold hair like liquid copper in the mellow light, in casual disarray on the satin pillowcase. Unbuttoning the silver buttons of his evening jacket, Nikki dropped it on the floor at his feet. He removed his clothes slowly, devouring her with his gaze. When he deliberately dropped his black patent shoe on the floor, her eyes opened instantly.

She saw him in the soft glow cast by the lamp, and for a second glimpsed the brief bewilderment of his emotions. The look was gone in a flash and the bed dipped as his weight came down on it. His head lowered and his parted lips moved over hers gently, forcing her mouth open, slowly, languorously, teasing her senses as his hands ran over her body and lifted her gown.

He could feel her beginning to respond to him. Slowly
he undid the ribbons of her silk gown and pulled it from her shoulders. He touched the hem and raised it past her softest place. Finally, her arms pulled him to her and he knew the long days of his enforced celibacy were over.

He took her time after time that night, wanting her to need him, wanting her to cry out for him, reassuring himself that she really was his, that he had her in his bed, in his house, at his demand. Perplexing emotions raced through his subconscious but he felt most the need for reaffirmation of his dominant role in their relationship, a role most gratifying when she was pleading for him to grant her release in exquisite pleasure. Alisa loved him that night hopelessly, incoherently, as again and again he wakened her body to bewitching sensation. Each touch made her feel her body for the first time, as if in a rebirth. And finally sated, they fell asleep coiled around each other, arms and legs entwined, the warmth of her breath on his chest, the powerfull beat of his heart beneath her ear.

Early the next morning the bedroom door burst open and one small curly-mopped, red-gold head popped into sight, babbling excitedly in Finnish.

“Momma, Momma, Look what Uncle Nikki bought—” She stopped abruptly, broke off, and immediately switched effortlessly into French.

“Uncle Nikki!” She let out a squeal of delight when she spied him lying in bed next to her mother.

Katelina tightly clutched a large china doll with long flowing blond hair in her chubby arms and flew across the marble floor, her splendid new velvet robe and dimity nightgown streaming out behind in her impetuous dash toward the huge, gilded four-poster bed majestically installed on a dais over which four flying cupids suspended a gold and mother-of-pearl half shell. Katelina was an engaging
and lively child, a beautiful little girl with all of her mother’s good looks and devastating charm.

Scrambling into bed like a frisky, rambunctious puppy, she promptly discarded her doll and threw her plump arms around Nikki’s neck, excitedly entreating, “Will you take Rakeli and me to the toy shop again today? Please, please!” she implored, her dark eyes wide with hope and expectation.

The Prince smiled amiably at the small girl clutching him and said, “You may speak Finnish to me, my pet, I, too, have a Finnish mother.” (He had unwittingly spoken French to Katelina the past few days and she had responded in kind.)

In the days Alisa had been ill and recuperating, Nikki had spent a great deal of time with Katelina. The first time he’d stood in Alisa’s room and seen the young child crying pitifully, it took several seconds for the tableau to register as reality. A young child crying sorrowfully in his house was so alien that his reaction was delayed. Nikki hadn’t talked to a small child or been within touching distance of one in years. Having heard the wailing for over an hour since his return that first afternoon, and surmising that the nanny and maid were unable to stop the distress, Nikki decided to lend a hand in an attempt to mitigate her unhappiness.

Nikki was by nature kind and cheerful, as any of his friends would agree, and altogether capable of tenderness and gentleness as well, as any of his lovers would concur. Nikki’s phenomenal success with women was not due solely to his remarkable handsomeness and princely fortune, although, in the glittering society in which he moved, those were often attributes enough. His conquests were due as much, if not more, to his charm, his ability to give a woman pleasure in the drawing room as well as in bed. He could be jesting, tender, gentle, interested, and concerned as the mood moved him, and this charm was
marshalled in an effort to soothe Katelina’s fear while at the same time making his beautiful mistress better able to recover from her overdose of laudanum.

During the days of Alisa’s recovery, Nikki had offered adventures to the young child that soon took her mind off her fears. Katelina almost immediately adopted Nikki as a kind of vice-uncle and behaved toward him with an uninhibited and sometimes embarrassing affection.

Turning quickly to her mother as if it were the most natural sight in the world to see her with Uncle Nikki in bed and hardly pausing for a breath, Katelina rattled on, reverting back to Finnish. “Oh, Momma, the toy shop is just beautiful. Everything is most—” She stopped. “Rakeli said I shouldn’t be so greedy, didn’t you, Rakeli?” She turned her wide eyes toward her nanny, who had tarried doubtfully by the door upon seeing Prince Kuzan. Katelina’s brief regard for humble courtesies over, she rushed on breathlessly. “But Uncle Nikki said that I was a little princess and I could have anything I wanted. Didn’t you, Uncle Nikki?” Katelina beamed widely into Nikki’s amused countenance as she perched on his broad chest.

“That’s right, moppet,” said her benevolent “uncle.” “Oh, Uncle Nikki, could we
please
go again today,
please
?” she begged delightfully, and gazed with pleading brown eyes into Nikki’s face.

“Of course, dear, you shall have another doll if you like.”

“Oh, Nikki, I would
much
rather have a train!”

Nikki’s eyes twinkled gaily as he shot a sidelong look at Alisa, grinned faintly, and said, “Already an independent young lady not content to play with dolls. Very well, minx, the train it shall be,” he finished indulgently.

“Oh, Momma, isn’t Uncle Nikki
just
wonderful?” Katelina pronounced with all the uninhibited candor of her five years.

Nikki turned to glance wickedly at Alisa and smirkingly asked, “Yes, Momma, aren’t I
just
wonderful?”

“Say yes, Momma! Say yes!” Katelina insisted, bouncing with excitement and delight.

Before Alisa had to answer that awkward question, Katelina blithely continued her chatter.

“Momma, I’m so very glad you’re feeling better. Nikki said I must be
so
very quiet for
so
long. I’m glad I don’t have to be quiet
anymore
!” she finished emphatically.

Unable to hold her youthful enthusiasm in check, she continued bouncing up and down as she inquired relentlessly, “When can we
go
, Uncle Nikki, when can we
go
?”

“After you eat breakfast and Rakeli dresses you,” he answered patiently, “then we’ll leave. Now, go and get ready.”

The volatile little body that gave every indication of a perpetual motion machine grabbed the doll, immediately slid off the bed, and bounded across the large room. At the door she paused, one hand in Rakeli’s, one plump fist clutching the enormous doll by her blond hair.

“May I have strawberries and cake again for breakfast? May I, may I, Nikki?” she entreated her new and generous uncle.

“Of course, dear, whatever you like.”

“When can we leave?” she repeated again with the impatience of her five years.

“In about an hour,” Nikki replied, then, looking down at Alisa, warm, tousled, and languid in bed beside him, he reconsidered. “Make it an hour and a half, Rakeli,” he said matter-of-factly. The door shut behind the small whirlwind, and Alisa remarked gratefully in a low, quiet voice, “Thank you for being so kind to Katelina while I was ill.” Nikki took Alisa’s hand in his and very simply replied, “You’re welcome.” He went on teasingly with an affectionate grin, “I’ve had to entertain that little brat for three days
while you have been lazing in bed. Rakeli was at her wit’s end, with Katelina insisting on crying at your bedside and you still in a half-drugged state, unable to respond to her. Maria couldn’t check the tears either, so the task fell to Aleksei and me to devise some schemes to distract Katelina and keep her from disturbing you.

“We slid down the grand staircase on silver trays, dressed her as Empress in lace tablecloths (I was a reluctant Emperor, I might add, and Katelina manifested the true imperiousness of born royalty by ordering Aleksei and me about shamelessly), we sailed paper boats in the monteith bowls, I had the grooms bring the new kittens from the stables, and Maria fetched her some new clothes from some children’s modiste Ivan knew of.”

Nikki was massaging Alisa’s wrist absently with his thumb.

“Thank God you began to feel yourself once again yesterday afternoon, because I’d taxed my ingenuity to its limits and had quite exhausted my meager repertoire of amusements for children. I’m afraid I’m woefully out of practice. My memories of childhood pleasures are extremely dim, overborne, no doubt, by the myriad and vastly more pleasurable adult pastimes. I’m happy to see,” Nikki said with a flame of passion kindling in his golden eyes as he turned to her, “that you have been restored to vibrant, blooming health once again. I’ve sorely missed your warmth these last few days.

“You’re my delectable, enticing bed warmer,” Nikki said with a natural proprietary air as he ran his finger up her bare arm. “You suit me admirably,” his husky voice added.

Alisa felt panic rise within her at his words. Uncertain, confused, aware of the dangers in succumbing to Nikki’s seductive charm, she wondered how deeply her untutored emotions had entangled her. Each touch, each caress, seemed yet another strand woven in the net that was
slowly but inexorably enveloping her. Faint with helplesness at her situation, she was still heavy with love, heedless to all but desire.