Tears of Gold (24 page)

Nicholas allowed Mara to pull his head gently toward her upraised face until their lips touched, their breaths mingling. Mara felt Nicholas’s tongue lick against her mouth, and she returned the caress, enjoying the sensation of its velvety softness touching hers. Under Nicholas’s practiced hands Mara was experiencing waves of sensuous desire, spreading through her as he pressed and molded her against his hard body. His lips moved down her throat, leaving a trail of fire. His hard hands gently untied her sash and parted her robe without her being aware of it, revealing the beauty of her body to him.

Mara trembled slightly as she felt her robe pushed from her shoulders and dropped to the floor at her feet, the cool air of the night rushing over her bared flesh.

Nicholas breathed deeply of her scent, his face pressed against her breasts as his hands wandered persuasively around her small waist and across her taut stomach. His knee spread her thighs and he pressed himself intimately against her, making her aware of his rising passion and need.

Mara impatiently pulled his head back up to her mouth as she sought his lips, wanting to touch him and caress him as he was her. She rose on her toes, straining herself to him, rubbing her breasts against his chest.

“Despite my better judgment I’ve always thought you were an unbelievably beautiful woman,” Nicholas whispered as he swung Mara up into his arms and carried her to the bed. He gently laid her down. Mara’s dark mane of hair cascaded across her shoulders, shielding her breasts from his all-encompassing gaze. Drowsy with desire, Mara scarcely heard his words.

With casual ease he stripped naked before her widening eyes, standing boldly in front of her, unashamed of his nakedness. Her golden eyes roved in hypnotized fascination over him. They moved unchecked from the wide shoulders and chest that tapered down in a rippling of muscle and hair to lean hips and proud masculinity, then followed the long length of firmly muscled thigh to his feet planted slightly apart on the tiled floor.

Walking with the easy grace of a stalking cat, he came to the edge of the bed and stared down for countless seconds at Mara before the bed sagged beneath his weight. His hands lifted the heavy mass of luxuriant hair aside as he pressed his lips to the pink crest of her breast, now revealed to him. He slid against her on the bed, his hard body touching hers, pressing along the length of her as he rolled her beneath him. Mara stared up into his green eyes, staring deeply into their glowing depths as she felt a languorous feeling spreading through her, leaving her weak and pliable under the gentle pressure of his hands as they stroked her slender thighs, and he rubbed himself against her hips as she arched closer to him.

Mara sighed in satisfaction as his mouth closed over hers again, his kisses deepening with his growing passion. He was deliberate as he kissed and caressed her willing and ardent body. At last, smoothly, Mara parted her thighs and allowed him to become a part of her flesh. At Mara’s sudden cry of pained surprise he stopped. He was about to withdraw from her, but Mara wrapped herself around him tighter, urging him to continue, until his steady rhythmic movements brought her to a startling climax that consumed her in a blaze so great that she thought she would faint. She cried out. She wasn’t even aware of his own release as she lost herself in lovemaking. Even after he had parted from her, he continued to fondle her gently, his fingers smoothing back the tangle of hair. He caressed her face with light kisses, licking the salty tears from her flushed cheeks.

Mara returned his kisses passionately, her fingers trailing through his thick, dark hair, her breasts pressed against him. She buried her hot face against his neck. “I love you, Nicholas,” she whispered shyly, her tongue tickling his ear.

With a deep sigh Nicholas moved away from her, reaching out for his cheroots on the table beside the bed. Lighting one, he sat back against the headboard, pulling the pillows more comfortably behind his shoulders. Mara looked up at him curiously as he stared silently into the shadowy darkness of the room. The flickering light from the candles danced across his face, but rather than softening it, the candlelight threw into prominence the high cheekbones and strong line of jaw. His features suddenly looked cruel.

“Nicholas,” Mara questioned softly as she ran her fingers lightly along his rib cage and through the thick, wiry hair covering his chest. Nicholas drew deeply on his cheroot. Then, curving his arm around Mara, drew her up against the pillows until her head rested on his chest just beneath his chin. Mara relaxed against him, her thigh riding intimately across his lap. She rubbed her cheek against his hard chest and heard the slow beating of his heart beneath her ear.

“I think I said once before that you puzzled me, but now…well…I must confess to having been completely fooled. I think I owe you an apology,” Nicholas finished abruptly.

Mara snuggled closer, her eyes still softly golden. “An apology?” she asked lazily.

“Yes. I’m sorry about tonight.”

Mara pushed herself away from him, her breasts just teasing the surface of his chest as she brushed a long strand of hair from her cheek. “You’re sorry you made love to me?” she asked in confusion, her lips looking softly vulnerable as she nervously moistened them with her tongue.

Nicholas smiled down at her and, unable to resist the temptation of her parted lips, lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her deeply as he felt the fires of passion stirring again in his loins.

“No, I’m not sorry about making love to you. I enjoyed that very much,” Nicholas told her as his fingers traced a delicate pattern along her inner thigh. “I’m just sorry that you were a virgin. Everything about you, from the arrogant angle of your head, to the way you move your hips, to that derisive half-smile, tantalizes a man until he either makes love to you or goes insane. You have very practiced ways. That led me to believe you were more experienced in the ways of love than you really were.”

“I’m experienced now,” Mara reminded him as she lay back against him, nibbling along his chest before biting his shoulder.

Nicholas stretched out his arm and stubbed out his cheroot. Then, turning back to Mara, he gathered her close against him. She could hear the soft rumble of laughter deep in his chest as he said, “You’ve only just learned the rudimentary techniques in pleasing a man,
ma petite
.”

Mara stared deeply into his eyes, hers full of promised pleasure. “And will you teach me these ways, Nicholas?” she inquired huskily as she rubbed her lips against his throat.

Nicholas ran a hand through his hair, an expression of mock indecision on his handsome face. “I’m not sure if I’d be doing you a favor or not. Or indeed, if the man you’ll eventually wed would appreciate my initiating you into the finer arts. You’d certainly be one hell of a wife. But unfortunately, not for me.”

Mara bit her lip, feeling a sharp pain at his casual acceptance of her with another man. She caressed his powerful shoulders and with a soft smile curving her mouth moved so she lay on top of him, surprising him by the sudden boldness of her ploy. She languidly stretched out full length along the top of his body. She could feel the growing hardness of him under her thighs and, staring up into his green eyes with a quizzical look in hers, she whispered, “Are you sure you’re not the right man for me?”

“If I were still the gentleman I’d been raised to be,” Nicholas sighed, “then I would probably ask you to marry me, but I really am not the right man for you, ma petite. My way of life is no life for you. You’d be far happier here on the rancho with the good Andres. He’ll give you the love you deserve. Your love, Amaya, will be returned in full by him. That is something I can’t give you,” Nicholas offered honestly.

Mara swallowed painfully. “You feel nothing for me?” she whispered huskily.

Nicholas lifted her down-bent head up to his face. “I’m attracted to you more than to any woman I’ve met in a long time, my dear. You’re a beautiful woman, a damned bewitching one, and one I want to make love to,” Nicholas told her, staring deeply into her wide, tawny eyes, “but I can promise you no more than that. Can you accept that?”

Mara bit her lip and nodded. “I won’t demand any—”

Nicholas’s mouth cut off the last of her words as he smothered her lips with his mouth, his tongue searching hers as he explored the softness of her mouth, his hands cupping her buttocks and pressing her to him as her awakening body responded in frank eagerness.

Mara pulled her mouth away from his lips and stared down at his hard face, his lips softened with lovemaking and curving in a slight smile of satisfaction as he lay beneath her curious gaze, his thick lashes masking his thoughts.

“What did you mean that I puzzled you?” Mara asked, suddenly remembering his earlier comment. “It seemed to me that even when you met me for the first time you were surprised. Perhaps you’ve dreamed of me all of your life,” she said provocatively, “and were astounded to meet the woman of your dreams in the flesh.”

Nicholas smiled as his hands lingered against her soft breast. Then, with a reluctant sigh, he slid from the bed and walked over to his vest, which had been thrown across a chair. Mara watched him in puzzlement as he drew something from one of the pockets. She allowed her gaze to roam freely over him in admiration as he came back to the bed.

“I don’t know if I dreamed of you or not, although I wouldn’t be surprised if that face hadn’t haunted my dreams as well,” he said oddly, “for it certainly has been in my thoughts. That face could be yours.”

He held out the delicate gold locket, flicking it open as he placed it in Mara’s palm. Mara stared down at her portrait. She could feel the muscles of her face tightening. Her own half-smile and golden eyes gazed enigmatically up at her, beside the blue eyes she remembered so vividly.

Nicholas stared at Mara intently, but detected no sign of emotion or discomfiture. “You can see why I seemed startled when I first saw you, for you could be her double.”

“Who is she?” Mara managed to ask, her voice so low that Nicholas had to lean close to catch her words.

“No insult intended, my dear, but she’s an actress, Mara O’Flynn,” he answered shortly.

At the contemptuous note in his voice Mara glanced up, noting the cruel expression in the dark green eyes as he stared down at the picture in the locket.

“You hate her, don’t you.” It was a statement, not a question.

“I vowed I would find her one day and seek revenge for something she did,” Nicholas explained as his eyes moved to the picture of Julian.

“Who is the boy?” Mara forced herself to seem calm.

“My nephew,” Nicholas said abruptly as he took the locket from Mara’s opened hand.

Mara stared down at her bare thighs as she knelt on the bed, her thick hair hiding her expression. “Why do you want to hurt her? What did she do to you?”

Nicholas was still staring down at the faces in the locket as he replied casually, “It doesn’t matter. Since you are not Mara O’Flynn you have nothing to fear.”

Mara felt her lips tremble as she fought to control the urge to run from his room. Dear God…if he ever found out who she really was? Mara risked a glance at him through a strand of hair and swallowed nervously at the intense look on his face. She clenched her fists beneath the covers as she realized the enormity of the situation she found herself in. She had fallen in love with that unfortunate boy’s
uncle
. Julian. Yes, Julian. She knew now she hadn’t truly forgotten his name. She rubbed her aching temple, wondering what she was going to do. She knew she couldn’t stay in his bed a moment longer and still keep up the charade.

Mara jumped in surprise when she felt Nicholas’s arm slide around her, cupping her breasts as he nibbled along her shoulder and neck, his demanding lips impatiently pushing aside the heavy curtain of silken hair.

“Enough talk of the past,” Nicholas breathed against her ear, nipping the soft lobe, “I’m more interested in you and me, not some other woman who has nothing to do with us.”

Mara nearly choked at the casually dismissing words that made a fool out of him as he made love to that very woman right now. Mara shuddered as she thought of the black rage that would throw him into, and vowed that she would be miles away before anything could happen to enlighten him concerning her true identity.

She resisted as he pulled her back against his bare chest, his hands caressing the curve of her hip as he pressed his face into the mass of fragrant hair. “Please, Nicholas, don’t,” Mara objected as she tried to release herself.

At her words Nicholas lifted his warm mouth from her shoulder and turned her around in his arms, cradling her as she lay against his chest and he stared down into her pale face. Her golden eyes looked up at him luminously, and he could have sworn he saw a flicker of fear in them before she lowered her lashes.

“No?” he demanded softly as he lowered his mouth to her parted lips and kissed her deeply, savoring their soft sweetness as he rubbed his lips against hers. But Mara could stand no more and struggled to free her lips from his as his sensual mouth ravished hers, creating a tide of rising passion that she seemed to have little control over as she felt herself wanting to respond wantonly to him.

As she opened her eyes, she felt sanity begin to return to her as she saw a pale dawn beginning to break over the dark horizon, soon to glow goldenly through the bars of the window. Her mouth free at last as he lowered his head to nip softly with his teeth along the soft curve of her breasts, Mara said huskily, “It’s dawn, Nicholas. I must go; please let me leave you now. I mustn’t be seen leaving your room. Please, Nicholas,” Mara repeated helplessly, gasping in surprise as he fondled her boldly and intimately, molding her against him to make her aware of his desire.

“And what if I say no?” he asked softly, hugging her naked body to him. “I think I’ll keep you prisoner here in my room for the whole day, making love to you over and over again.”

“You wouldn’t embarrass me so, Nicholas.” Mara could hear the desperation in her voice as her eyes locked with his.