"No, thanks."
"I'm off, then," Daniel Mansfield retorted, wandering away in search of scotch and soda.
"There you are, Elizabeth!" burbled a stout matron with blue hair.
Tess jumped guiltily and hurriedly turned from her contemplation of the grim Luke Mansfield to the beaming Amelia Franklin, grandmother to Maria.
Mrs. Franklin began to chatter her delight at Tess's return to the family fold, to hint at a possible future family connection through her grandson Marshall, and to discuss her own most recent sojourn at Cannes. It was one of the most tiresome conversations, monologues really, in an already wearying day and Tess began to desperately plot her escape when rescue came from a wholly unexpected quarter.
"Mrs. Franklin, I hope you don't mind, but I must steal Tess away for just a few minutes."
Tess stared up at Luke, dumbfounded.
"Oh, of course, my boy, of course!" Mrs. Franklin cried and spent five minutes saying good-bye before Luke tucked Tess's arm firmly through his and led her away.
At last. "I can't tell you how grateful I am."
"There's no need," Luke said with a smile. "I've met the entire family. They're all like that."
"God," Tess said with a shudder. "However did you stand the Giantess?"
"Daily shots of Novocain over several years can do wonders." Luke suddenly stopped, his free hand reaching up to brush her cheek. "How are you?"
There were so many meanings Tess could impute to those three words that for a moment she could say nothing. "Tired of smiling all the time," she finally replied.
"These parties are a monumental bore, I know, but Jane likes them and this one is necessary, if frustrating. I've been wanting to get you alone all day today, but you've been too popular."
Tess's heart began to thump against her ribs. "You haven't looked forlorn. You and your father seemed to be sharing one of those male-bonding fests."
"I suppose, for the two of us, that that would be an apt description." Luke's smile was replaced with a frown of concern. His fingers brushed the dark shadows under Tess's eyes. "You won't be able to beam at Jane's guests if you go batty from lack of sleep," he said gently.
"I'll try to get a nap in tomorrow," Tess said, shivering a little as his fingers brushed against her skin. She was flooded with the physical memory of how she had shuddered in his arms Tuesday night. She nearly threw herself at the man to beg for a replay then and there.
"You haven't been sleeping well for some time, I think," he said.
"Since I got here," Tess said.
Luke's hands cupped her face, his warmth penetrating her cool skin, as he forced her eyes to meet his. "What's wrong?"
"I've been having nightmares," Tess replied, surprised to find herself answering him. Who would have thought a man's hands could do so much? "I … um … I used to have them when I was a kid. I guess the stress of all this is getting to me. It's hard … being Elizabeth."
"Poor Tess," Luke murmured.
His lips were tender on hers for a moment before he put an arm around her shoulders and they walked into the park.
"Finding your past can be scary," Luke said.
"I've had easier jobs."
"Such as putting the Carswells behind bars?"
Tess stumbled to a stop and stared up at him. "W-what? But … I didn't!"
"That, my dear Tess, is sheer perjury."
"But … but how do you know about the Carswells?"
Luke seemed particularly smug. "I paid a call on Mrs. Carswell last week. Apparently I let the cat out of the bag about you setting her up to get nabbed by the Feds. She was not a happy woman. The name Jeanne-Marie St. Juste was particularly irksome to her."
Tess blinked. She felt off balance and unable to correct the problem. "You mean I'm no longer her favorite child?"
Luke laughed. "That was the impression I got."
"Alas."
"What did you say no to at sixteen?" he asked, brushing the crescent scar at her right temple.
Tess couldn't suppress a shiver, or the truth. "Distracting Dennis Foucher."
"What happened?" Luke demanded.
"I was convinced to go forward with the job as planned."
"And did you distract Dennis Foucher?"
"A little too well," Tess said with a grimace. "He wanted to rape me. I managed to change his mind."
"Did he hurt you?"
"It was a long time ago."
"He hurt you badly, then."
"I didn't say so!"
"No, but your eyes did."
"Stop being so damned observant," Tess muttered, grabbing his arm and continuing their walk.
"Someday, Elizabeth Aurora Cushman, you're going to tell me all about your horrific past."
"I'm not that stupid."
"But I am that persistent."
She was afraid to look for the true meaning in that statement. He had certainly been persistent in getting his revenge with Margo Holloway. Was his persistence now on the same track toward vengeance? But how could he want revenge when he didn't know she had betrayed him? Or did he? There are times, Tess thought, when I hate my life.
Sooner than she wanted, Luke led her back to the house. It was time to find a pumpkin and get ready for the ball. She walked into her room and stared at the now-familiar and oddly soothing mural on the walls. This would be her last night in this room. What was she going to do with it? She had vowed to go along with the con so she could have a few more days of happiness with Luke and Jane. She could worry herself into an ulcer tonight, or she could choose to plunge wholeheartedly into that happiness and commit every moment to memory, for it would never come again.
A snatch of a song wafted through her head. "'Taking a chance on love…'" She smiled and headed for her shower.
Two hours later, Tess walked down the grand staircase to join the other guests for dinner. She had piled her blond hair on top of her head, a few loose tendrils curling around her ears. She wore a strapless black velvet sheath that slithered to her toes and molded itself to her body like spray paint.
"You're staring, Luke," she said with a smile as she joined him at the bottom of the stairs.
"Are you deliberately trying to send me into cardiac arrest?" he growled.
Tess's smile was blinding. Whatever was going on, he still wanted her. That was real. That was something she could hold on to tonight. "I'm glad you like the gown. I was thinking of you when I bought it."
Luke stared down at her a moment and then pulled her arm through his, leading her to the dining room. "You are not leaving my side this entire evening, is that clear?"
Tess laughed. "Yes, sahib."
* * *
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
« ^ »
Apparently, Luke had arranged Jane's place-cards to his advantage. Tess was again seated at the foot of the mammoth dining table, but Luke was on her right and neither could ever say with any certainty who was on her left. They talked about countries each had visited, artwork each had coveted (although Tess had coveted far more actively than Luke), and animal movies they always cried through. Tess had never known a lovelier time.
They rose with the other guests and adjourned to the ballroom. The eight-piece band began with Jerome Kern. Luke pulled Tess into his arms and onto the dance floor. It felt so good to be enfolded in his arms again! She was duty bound during the evening to dance with any man who asked her. But Luke never let more than half a dance go by before he cut in. By midnight, the other male guests had given up and he was able to dance with her undisturbed.
"I never knew lawyers were such good dancers," she murmured, her fingers caressing the nape of his neck.
"Comes from tap-dancing around judges in court," Luke replied, one hand gliding across her bare back.
She had felt barren every time another man had led her onto the dance floor; whole and alive only when she was back in Luke's arms. They danced as if they had always danced together, their bodies moving intuitively within the small circle they had claimed on the ba
llroom floor. His body was warm against hers, molding perfectly to her softness, his subtle scent intoxicating her.
If this was a trap, she didn't care. She knew absolute joy, because she felt his desire, fully, deeply. It burned through into her very soul, igniting her own desire, until she was clinging to him, out of her mind with love and longing, their bodies slowly swaying to the music.
Lost in a delicious haze of love and desire, Tess was yet sufficiently conscious enough to notice when Luke steered them onto an outer balcony, crickets singing in harmony with the orchestra, a warm breeze brushing her cheeks. She and Luke were alone beneath the white stars. Tess had never known such bliss.
While one hand skated across her back, Luke raised her hand to his mouth, his tongue darting out to caress the center of her palm, her gasp driving him to deepen the kiss. She trembled, both from the sensual caress and from his emerald gaze turned smoky with passion. She murmured his name, her voice heavy with desire and somehow not her own and yet wholly hers. But rather than meet the unspoken request, his lips brushed one bare shoulder.
"You feel so right in my arms," he said, his voice ragged. "So right." His lips brushed against the sensitive skin of her throat and Tess arched into him.
With a cry that seemed wrenched from his heart, Luke pulled her into his arms, his mouth finding hers in the next moment, claiming her as she locked her fingers in his thick hair, her tongue dueling with his. Liquid fire melted her bones, shattering the last of the walls she had erected so long ago to protect herself.
It took a moment for her dazed senses to realize that Luke had lifted her into his arms. She stared at him, his face taut, his eyes burning into her.
"I know the perfect way," he said, his voice ragged, "to banish those nightmares of yours."
She breathed a sigh of utter contentment, her head resting on his broad shoulder.
"Yes, please," she said.
Without another word, Luke started for the ballroom door, but Tess, chuckling, stopped him.
"No, no, no," she said with a loving smile. "People will talk and think very scandalous things if they see us like this."
"I don't give a damn."
"Neither do I, actually, but perhaps Jane will. We could always use the back stairs."
Luke's smile was decidedly wicked. "Only once," he said, heading for a parlor door at the far end of the balcony.
"I can walk."
"But not fast enough for me."
In a moment, Luke had found the back stairs to the second floor and was taking them two at a time.
Conceding the point, Tess spent the trip happily nibbling on his ear, which she discovered was as sensitive as her own.
"Need any help?" she asked as Luke stopped in front of his bedroom door.
"No, thanks," he said, tossing her over his shoulder. As she giggled, he opened the door, walked into his room, kicked the door shut, locked it, and then set her down on the floor. He leaned his back against the door, his smile sensual and sure as he held her in his arms. "Marry me, Elizabeth."
Whoever would have thought three words could set the world to heaving under her feet?
"Marry you? Marry you? You've been trying to toss me into jail ever since we met and you want me to marry you?"
"Yes," Luke calmly replied.
Shock replaced the surprise. He meant it. Tess nervously shook her head. "Don't, Luke. Not now. No."
Rather than looking hurt, Luke smiled. "Wrong answer. Try again. I told Jane my intentions toward you are strictly honorable, but that look in your eyes is chasing away all my good intentions. Marry me, Tess."
"I can't," she whispered, unable to move from his arms.
"Of course you can marry me," Luke said. He kissed her molasses slow and sweet, stirring the hunger in her. As his mouth moved over hers, she forgot the answer to the question. She forgot the question and everything else except the need to take everything this glorious man offered and return it tenfold.
Luke's hand found the zipper at the back of her black gown. "I've been wanting to take this dress off you all night," he said, his fingers slowly tugging the zipper down.
"Why else do you think I bought it?" Tess murmured as her trembling fingers unbuttoned his jacket.
"You bought it to drive me insane," Luke said, his mouth tasting the warm flesh of her throat.
Tess was finding it difficult to talk. "I … didn't realize I was so transparent."
"Not transparent," Luke said, his hands sliding the black gown down until it pooled at her feet. "A maze, a delectable maze. But I've found the path to the heart of you." He gazed down at her as she stood naked except for a very brief pair of black satin panties. "My God, you're beautiful," he breathed.
His hands swept up, as if compelled, to cup her breasts, his thumbs brushing across her nipples. They hardened instantly at his touch, reaching out as if begging for more, her breasts swelling in his hands. Slowly he dipped his head and drew one taut nipple into his mouth, tugging at it. Tess's moan came from deep within her.
"Luke, please! I want to see you, touch you, love you."
"I'll try not to be selfish," Luke murmured, his gaze traveling the length of her once more. "But I think you're going to have trouble getting equal time."
Tess smiled as she methodically removed his bow tie and began to unbutton his silk shirt. "Such a generous lover," she said, pushing his shirt and jacket off his shoulders, heedless of where they fell on the floor.
With only the tips of her fingers, she explored the muscled planes of his chest, hypnotized by taut flesh and his sharp intake of breath as her hands swept over him. She had never thought she could want a man like this.
"I feel," she said shakily, "like I could devour you."
"I want you in my bed now!" he rasped just before he picked her up, lifting her out of her shoes, and carried her to the massive mahogany bed.
"As if I would complain," Tess murmured. She slid to the middle of the large bed, resting on her knees as she watched Luke quickly discard the rest of his clothes.
There was a roaring in her ears. She forgot to breathe as she stared at him.
Oh, beautiful! Why hadn't anyone told her that a man could be so beautiful? They had made love twice before and his impact seemed only to grow. He was sharply defined planes of muscle, broad chest, narrow hips, long, muscular legs, his hunger for her stark, compelling. She looked up, meeting his gaze, and trembled at his need for her. It was as raw and primitive as her need for him. It filled her, consumed her, ruled her.
"Come here," she said, her voice husky.
With a growl, Luke pushed her back onto the bed, his hands sliding down to their only remaining barrier. Tess eagerly arched her hips and he brushed the black satin away. Then he reached for her, breathing a ragged sigh as her arms wrapped around him and held him fast.
"Hey!" he said when she suddenly rolled him on to his back. She grinned lasciviously and began to feast on him.
Her mouth teased his already hard male nipples as a leg stroked one of his hair-roughened legs, loving the harshness against her smooth skin as she loved the groan that welled up from within him. Then her fingers discovered the hard heat that told of Luke's own need. She stroked him as she gazed down into his eyes.
"Tonight you are mine," she whispered.
Luke's hands cupped her face and pulled her mouth down to his. "Yes," he said, shuddering at her continued caress, "more than I can ever show you."
"Try," Tess urged.
With a wrenching moan, Luke rolled her onto her back, his teeth grazing her shoulder, her throat, as his hands made love to her breasts, her gently rounded stomach, her thighs. Her soft whimpers grew louder as his fingers brushed against the engorged core of her desire, one of his legs thrown across her restless ones, holding them still.
"Luke, please!" she gasped, arching against the feather-light touch of his fingers.
"Marry me," he commanded.
Her eyes widened with shock as she stared up at him, a cry torn fr
om her throat as his fingers brushed harder against her spiraling need. "I can't!" she said. "You don't know—"
"Marry me," Luke repeated before drawing an eager nipple into his mouth, his fingers moving rhythmically against her now.
And Tess, her body remembering the delicious pleasure Luke had taught her twice already, could only shake her head in helpless denial as the heat of his touch burned away everything but the desperate need to have him fill the dark, hungry void within her. He was stretching the painful tension within her, drawing it out, teasing her with what might be until she was pleading with him to take her, to fill her, to release her from this torment.
And all that Luke said was "Marry me."
"I can't!"
"Yes you can," Luke murmured as he pressed feather-light kisses to her mouth, her cheeks, her eyes.
His fingers kept pushing Tess closer and closer to the edge as they explored her wet heat, his own body taut beneath her hands, the length of him pressed against her telling her how much this denial of what they both wanted was costing him.
"Marry me," he said, his fingers sliding partially into her. Tess's hips surged up, striving for more and meeting only denial of what she now needed more than oxygen, more than her own sanity, more than her own fear. "Marry me, Tess," Luke whispered.
"Yes, oh God, yes!" she cried. "Only take me, Luke. Take me now!"
He thrust into her then, both of them crying out at this union that was unlike anything Tess had ever known. Her heart was singing in her breast to the rhythm of the pounding of Luke's heart. Something new was being born.
Her arms clutched Luke's back, her legs wrapped around his hips so she could feel all of him within her as he held himself still, his muscles rigid, letting them both fully feel this exquisite connection.
Light shimmered through Tess. She trembled as it chased the darkness from her soul. "Oh Luke, I love you so much!"
Groaning, he slowly began to move, Tess holding him tightly, her fingers digging into his back as her body eagerly matched the rhythm he had set, moving with him as he moved in her.
"Mine. You are mine," she whispered again and again, as her body fused with his.
STOLEN HEARTS Page 18
