Scorched

  “I don’t know, Adriane, but since you are such an expert in that subject, I’m sure you can inform me,” she said with shrug.

  “No woman has ever entertained me like you. Being in your presence is quite pleasurable. ”

  “Get over it, Adriane. Our fling is over and done with, kaput. I have moved on. Maybe you should try doing the same,” she said as she reached the double doors. She thought of going through them this time, thinking maybe it would be a better route, but what good would it do? She wouldn’t be able to get out of the castle. Even if she somehow managed to, where was she going to go?

  “You see, Rachel, that’s where you are very wrong. We aren’t even close to being over, you and I. This child may not have been planned, but not once have I felt regret over your pregnancy. I very much look forward to making you my bride. I look forward even more to our nights. The two of us together will continue making magic. ”

  “You just aren’t thinking. It was an affair, Adriane. A stupid, foolish affair. It doesn’t mean we should be locked together for the rest of our lives,” she told him. She was worn down, exhausted. She had to get away from this man before she did something else that was foolish. Where he was concerned, it seemed to be a regular occurrence.

  “It may have started as an affair, Rachel, but now we are locked to each other forever. This child you carry,” he said as he reached out and ran his fingers across the planes of her still-flat stomach, “is very much wanted. It also helps that I want you. It will make our marriage very…pleasant. ”

  “This just keeps going in circles, Adriane. Why don’t you be the bigger man and let me go while there’s still a chance of our getting along, of our being able to communicate for the sake of our child?” she pleaded with him.

  He looked at her for several moments, and for just the briefest of seconds, Rachel thought she might have finally gotten through to him. Then he opened his mouth.

  Page 17

 

  “It’s a good thing you already think of me as an ogre, Rachel, because you are requesting the one thing I am unable to give you. I think that if I were the meek sort of man you speak of, one who would so easily let you go, you would grow bored quickly. I may rouse your wrath, but I also make you burn with need. I make you scream in the bedroom, and I can quench those fires that are so easily lit within you. I’ll give you some time to cool off, and then we will have dinner together,” he said, backing up a few feet.

  She finally had some space from him, but his words were making her head spin. Yes, she wanted him — and she hated herself for that weakness. And hell would freeze over before she admitted any of it.

  “I’m tired, Adriane. I wish to bathe and sleep, so kindly leave my room,” she huffed.

  “This isn’t your room. I have something much more special planned for you,” he said, and he held out his arm.

  “I won’t be sleeping in your room,” she insisted, her hormones now securely encased in armor.

  “I wouldn’t think of asking you to do that until after the wedding,” he said, his arm still held out.

  “Just show me where I’m sleeping,” she said, no fight left. She was hungry, dirty, and tired, and she felt as if she hadn’t had a nap at all. Her eyelids felt like weights, and she was afraid that if she continued her confrontation with Adriane, he would eventually start making sense. She couldn’t allow that to happen.

  Ignoring his arm, she stepped past him and opened the door, waiting for him to join her. A smile hid beneath her pursed lips when he glared. Adriane didn’t seem to like having a lady hold the door open for him. Hey, if she’d known he was so easily agitated, she would have started tormenting him long before.

  Taking the door from her grip, he held out his hand, indicating she should step through before him, even though it was customary for the king’s wife or future wife to walk behind him. See, he was being very generous to her — even breaking royal protocol.

  Sighing, she did as he wanted, fearing a standoff that could take hours. After all, she was just too tired for their battle of wills to continue. As she entered the hallway she’d run through not long before, she looked around, thinking that she could do this. Once alone, bathed, fed and rested, she would come up with a plan of escape. If Adriane really thought she was going to bend to his will, then he had chosen the wrong woman to mess with.

  Freedom was just a few hours away. That thought carried her through the seemingly endless halls of his castle.

  When entering the room he had prepared for her, she gasped, unable to hide her reaction. Turning to look at his face, she knew she’d given him the reaction he wanted, and she closed her mouth, narrowed her eyes and walked inside.

  “Enjoy your room, my beautiful fiancée,” he said before shutting the doors behind her.

  Rachel gazed at a room that looked like living quarters for a concubine, with a large maharaja-style four-poster canopy bed in the center, draped elegantly with colorful jewel-toned fabrics, enclosing the mattress for privacy.

  Everything in the room screamed sensuality and eroticism, with low lighting, Asian-inspired lanterns and candles smelling of musk, and with pillows and benches strategically placed to make a woman think of sex — sex in many different places and in varying positions. And, of course, there were mirrors, mirrors everywhere. Nothing that lovers did here would likely go unseen or unsavored.

  Walking over to a draped table, Rachel grinned at the overflowing bowl of fruit; she picked up a bundle of grapes and ate a couple. From the tastefulness of the décor of the other room she’d been in, Rachel had a pretty good idea that this was Adriane’s idea of a joke.

  He wanted to resume their affair, take her back to his bed, so he was sending her a message, loud and clear, that she was now in his harem. Her brow furrowing, she remembered him making a comment about multiple wives.

  Like hell she would ever allow that!

  Why was she even thinking of that comment? It didn’t matter, as she wasn’t going to sleep with him ever again and she certainly wasn’t going to marry him. Not even if his harem room had done its trick and she was feeling the pressure build in her core.

  “You just need to eat, rest and plan. If you can make it through tonight, you are one step closer to escape,” she reminded herself as she walked to the bathroom.

  Stepping through the doors, she actually laughed, surprising herself.

  Of course, this is my bathing room, she thought, taking in the marble room with a pool-sized bathtub that was level with the floor; steps led down into the water. Steam rose from the filled bath, and the scent of roses drifted to her nose. The room was lit only by the flickering of hundreds of candles.

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  Though this was what he wanted her to do, she couldn’t resist stripping and walking slowly down the steps, then sinking to her chin in the tub, grateful it wasn’t too hot to bathe safely, without fear of harming her unborn baby.

  This was what she’d needed. Pure heaven, she thought as she closed her eyes and forced herself to relax and not think about her predicament.

  Tomorrow would be soon enough to deal with King Adriane once again. She had no idea how many times she would be thinking this same thought over the next few weeks.

  CHAPTER NINE

  “I’M NOT COMFORTABLE with this, Ari,” Rafe said, and he paused in his pacing. He took off his jacket and tossed it over a chair, then began undoing the buttons on the front of his shirt.

  Ari’s stomach fluttered as his beautifully tanned chest became more exposed to view. Oh, how she wished they’d been able to wed that day. She so much wanted to have this man as her husband, know that he would always be hers.

  “Are you paying attention?” he asked, agitation clear in his tone.

  “Oh, yes, darling…I am,” she purred, her attention mainly on her rising need for him to join her in bed.

  She was wearing far too many clothes, and she
’d have to remedy that situation sooner rather than later.

  Rafe deciphered her tone, and he turned to look fully at her as he opened his shirt, showing his rippling abs.

  Her face must have been a mask of passion, of smoldering desire, because his frown evaporated. Rafe licked his lips and began walking toward her, undoing his cuff links and letting the costly gold clatter to the floor to roll off somewhere unknown.

  Then his shirt was gone, and Ari could think of nothing better to do than run her fingers along his hard flesh.

  Rafe sat on the bed and kicked his shoes off before lying down on his side and snaking out his arms to pull her up against him, his lips brushing over hers before he pulled back, making her whimper her disapproval.

  “I’m trying to be serious, woman, and you are making it virtually impossible to have a conversation with your ‘take me now’ expression following me around,” he said, and then kissed her nose.

  “Ah, I see. You want to talk?” she asked while her fingernails trailed seductively up and down his na**d back, slipping inside the waistband of his pants to squeeze the taut flesh of his bu**ocks. He had one fine ass.

  “I’m forgetting all about the topic of conversation,” he said, leaning in to kiss her again, another soft, light kiss that made her want him desperately, but again he pulled back, fire igniting in his eyes, though his movements were controlled.

  “I think a little forgetting is just fine with me,” she said, pushing her h*ps against his, reveling in the feel of his arousal.

  “If I didn’t know better, I would think you were deliberately trying to sidetrack me,” he said with a small chuckle.

  “Now, why ever would I do that?” she asked.

  “Because you know that I want to find a certain king and hang him by his toes,” Rafe said, bending down and kissing along her jaw, his tongue heating her skin.

  “Mmm, forget about Adriane. Think about me,” she whispered, laying her head back to allow better access.

  “I can’t believe I agreed to give him a week! How did I let you talk me into that?” he asked, his tone hardening for just a second.

  Ari simply moved her hands down further, squeezing his flesh as she rubbed up against him.

  “You trust your fiancée. That’s not a bad thing, Rafe. I’ve spoken to Rachel a lot lately, and she isn’t as over Adriane as she wants us all to believe. There’s a spark between them. After their week together three months ago, she hasn’t been the same. Let’s give him another week to rekindle the fire. If she still wants to be rescued at the end of that time, then you have my full approval to go in there with guns blazing. ”

  “So, now I need your approval?” he asked, quickly spinning them so he had her trapped beneath him. “I don’t think I like the sound of that, Ms. Harlow,” he said menacingly.

  “Then what are you going to do about it, Mr. Palazzo?” she teased, twisting beneath him in a feigned attempt at escape.

  “I have ways of inflicting my own torture,” he warned her. He stretched her arms above her head, pinning them in place with one hand, and rolled slightly off her so he could trail his other hand down her body.

  “Mmm, I think I like this torture,” she murmured, as his hand slid inside her shirt and traveled up her ribs, skimming the side of her br**sts.

  “Really? You enjoy this?” His fingers moved gingerly back down and made a circle on her stomach, causing her to squirm beneath him.

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  “No. I don’t enjoy that. I would enjoy it if you finished traveling back upward, though,” she said, her body catching fire as his fingers traced over her skin. Her ni**les were pointed, pushing against the restraints of her bra, needing his fingers or mouth to tease them, to give her some relief from the ache that was building up unbearably.

  “I don’t know. You’re supposed to obey me, remember?”

  “There will be no obeying, Mr. Palazzo,” she warned as she pushed her h*ps against him, sending her heat to scorching levels.

  “Well, then, I don’t think I can relieve this tension building inside you,” he taunted her; his head came down and he kissed her throat, swirling his hot tongue across her flesh.

  “The payback will be merciless, Rafe,” she gasped as he pushed his own h*ps against hers, his solid manhood pressing into her thigh. “I want you pressed against a much hotter place,” she said, her body beginning to shake.

  “I don’t know…” he said, then took the top button of her shirt into his teeth and tugged, ripping the white circle off and spitting it out.

  “Rafe…” she warned, done with the game. Now, she just wanted sweet relief.

  “Yes, Ari?” he asked as he reached her next button and quickly tore it away, opening her shirt so he could see her chest straining toward him.

  “Lick my nipple,” she begged, not even caring that she was giving in to him.

  The next button came off and then the rest, her shirt parting for him, her chest barely contained in the lacy bra she’d bought just for the push-up effect. It was obviously worth the extravagant price, because his eyes darkened as he gazed down at her.

  Without another word, he bent and ran his tongue along the upper edge of the bra, wetting her skin, but still not giving her sensitive peaks the relief they so desperately needed.

  Then his tongue ran just under the lace, coming so near her peak that she cried out when he retreated. She wondered if a body could actually shut down from frustration. When the tables were turned, it would be her delight to repay him in kind, even if she also caused herself pleasurable pain in the process.

  After what felt like an eternity, he released her wrists, and her fingers tingled slightly as blood flowed through her hand again. He reached down, unclasped her bra, and gazed at her br**sts.

  “So unbelievably beautiful,” he sighed before filling his hands with them, and running his thumbs across the peaked tips.

  “Not half as stunning as you,” Ari said as she moved her arms, threading her hands into his hair and tugging him down, demanding his lips on her ni**les.

  His mouth engulfed one hardened peak and sucked it into the heat of his mouth, making her cry out as she arched into him. She was desperate to lie with him without clothes, without barriers.

  “I could play with your body day and night, Ari. You turn me on even more now than the first day I met you, and I didn’t think that was possible. Every time I touch you, it feels like the first time. Every chance I get to sink inside you, it feels like coming home. I always want you, and discovering new ways to make you quiver in need is my new mission,” Rafe said before sitting up and removing the rest of her clothes.

  He shed his own clothing, standing at the side of the bed in all his magnificence, his erection standing proudly, making her mouth water with the desire to taste him.

  “Wait,” he said as he suddenly turned, making her moan in frustration.

  “I’m done with games,” she warned him. “Get back here and fill me!”

  Rafe turned with a shocked smile on his face. “I love this new, demanding woman,” he said before turning back and walking to the closet. Ari groaned as she threw herself back against the bed, thinking she might just have to take care of her ache herself if he didn’t hurry.

  What a sadly unappealing thought. No one, including herself, could give her body the relief that Rafe could. His touch was better than magic.

  He came back, holding something in his hand, and sporting an almost shy smile on his face. It was enough to tamp down her sexual frustration.

  “This was supposed to be a wedding gift, and I should wait, but I want to see you wear it,” Rafe said, sitting next to her on the bed as he reached out a hand and helped her sit up.

  Ari was a little self-conscious sitting there in the buff with him now that they weren’t touching, but when she tried to grab the blanket, he stopped her.

  “No. Don’t cover yours
elf. Perfection like yours needs to be on display,” he said, leaning over and kissing her again, reigniting the fires in a single heartbeat.

  Page 20

 

  “Then, cover me with you,” Ari said, forgetting all about the box he was holding.

  “In one minute,” he promised as he opened the box. Ari’s eye filled with tears as she looked at the stunning necklace placed on midnight-blue velvet.

  “I found this in a shop in Italy when we were apart. I walked past the window and there it sat, and several minutes later, I was still rooted to the spot. I had a vision of you wearing this necklace and nothing else, with your beautiful hair spilling across my pillow while the gems gleamed on your porcelain skin,” he said as he took the sapphire-and-diamond necklace from the box.

  “I…it’s…oh, Rafe, so beautiful,” she gasped, barely able to speak.

  “When I heard the story behind the necklace, I knew I had to get it,” he said as he drew her against him so he could see behind her neck. Ari lifted her hair as he clasped the necklace and then ran his hands down her shoulders.

  “Tell me,” she requested as she leaned back against the pillow, no longer self-conscious as his gaze traced every inch of her.

  “It was a necklace passed down in a royal family of Italy, dating back to the early fifteenth century. A prince passed the necklace down to his son to give to his bride on their wedding night, as had been done for generation upon generation. Most of the royal weddings were arranged marriages between royal families, marriages of advantage, not of love. This one was no different, except the prince knew his bride. A few years before they were to be wed, he’d been out riding and his horse was spooked by a snake, throwing him down a ravine. The princess was out walking and saw it happen. She rushed quickly to the mountain to see if she could help, though she feared it was hopeless. This same cliff had taken many lives. ”

  “She saw him below, and heard the cry for help, but she could also hear that his voice was weak. So, risking her own life, she scaled down the cliff, and reached him, tearing pieces of material from her dress to stop the blood from escaping his wounded and broken leg. There was no way for her to carry him from the spot, and she feared attempting to climb back up the cliff, as her journey down had been dangerous enough. She knew her maid would search for her, though, so she held his head in her lap, calling out every hour or so, hoping someone would come to their rescue. ”