It wasn’t the words, but the faint quiver in her voice that caught Kane’s eager attention. He wanted to go to her and yank her into his arms, because that slight tremor had sounded like unhappiness; he didn’t want her to be unhappy, but the realization that she felt anything at all over Erica’s pursuit delighted him.
“She wouldn’t take no for an answer,” he said somewhat gruffly, wanting to hold her but unwilling to do so while he smelled of another woman.
“Some women are like that,” Tyler said quietly. “Go take your shower, Kane. It’s late.”
He hesitated, then went into the bathroom.
Tyler didn’t move until she heard the shower running. She released her grip on the velvet drapes and looked at the crushed material bearing the imprint of her hand. Then, very deliberately and with utter calm, she left the bedroom.
Elizabeth had shown her briefly around the villa before they had parted to retire for the night, so Tyler knew where she was going. Her slippers made no sound on the smooth marble floors, and she didn’t pause until she faced a closed door in a silent corridor of the west wing of the house. She knocked softly, and a sultry voice immediately invited her in.
Tyler felt her eyebrow lift with a kind of dry amusement. So Erica had expected Kane to seek her out here? She made a mental bet with herself as to the dark woman’s probable position on the bed, then opened the door and went into the bedroom.
She lost her bet; not even her imagination could have conjured the theatrically seductive pose Erica had assumed. The woman was lying on her side on an artfully tumbled bed, her dark hair trailing over her shoulders and glistening in the light of a number of candles placed around the bed. She was wearing a black lace teddy, the wide, plunging V-neckline of which bared her breasts almost to the nipples and ended at the base of her belly. She was on her side, one leg drawn up and her head propped on a hand, and the smile on her face was pure feline.
The smile died quickly when she saw Tyler, and a tide of red swept up over her surprised face.
“Hello,” Tyler said with gentle courtesy. “I thought we should talk a bit.” Her soft voice, like Kane’s mild smiles, didn’t hide the pure steel underneath.
Erica flounced up on the bed, apparently undisturbed by the fact that one breast was in imminent danger of escaping from the teddy. Her voice was sulky when she said, “I don’t believe we have anything to talk about.”
Tyler shrugged. “Then I’ll do the talking.” She was beginning to feel puzzlement over Erica, an unwilling curiosity. “It’s really very simple. Stay away from Kane. If your own marriage vows haven’t the power to stop you—I have.”
Erica’s lips curled and her dark eyes flashed. “Power? You know nothing of power. And you have no hold on him. He needs a woman who will burn in his arms—” She broke off abruptly, obviously realizing how absurd that sounded in the face of Tyler’s flaming red hair and brilliant amber eyes, both attributes denoting quite a bit of fire. Her flush deepened to an ugly, mottled scarlet.
Tyler stared at her in growing astonishment and not a little confusion. What on earth, she wondered, was with this woman? She acted like the prototypical vamp in bad B movies and sounded even worse. Tyler’s simmering anger cooled as she tried to figure out what was going on. Because of her tumbled thoughts, her voice was almost absent when she spoke.
“Look, if you want to fight over him, I’m willing. But I’d better warn you that I get mean when I fight. And I know how to fight dirty.”
Erica made a sound probably meant to indicate regal disgust; it was actually a snort, and not a very ladylike one at that. “I would never demean myself—”
“Demean yourself? Erica, you’ve already done that.” Tyler hardly knew what to say to this absurd woman. It was the strangest encounter she’d ever had, and considering the past three years that was really saying something.
“I can take him away from you!” Erica flared.
“Why? I mean, what are you planning?” Tyler was honestly curious, and it was apparent in her voice. “Do you mean to divorce Simon? Kane wouldn’t stomach being a gigolo, you can bet on that. And if you’re just after a little slap and tickle while hubby’s away, that won’t work, either; Kane’s too honorable to sleep with both of us under one roof.” Tyler reflected for a moment, then added thoughtfully, “And even if he wasn’t, he knows I’d start carrying my knife again.”
Erica sputtered for a moment.
Tyler watched her curiously. She had come here with the angry intention of stopping Erica, but now she was intent mainly on discovering the motives of this woman. There had to be a motive somewhere.
“I enslave men!” Erica announced finally.
Feeling her eyebrow rise again, Tyler fought back a laugh. “You won’t enslave Kane,” she said, and then added consolingly, “Venus herself couldn’t do that; he’s too independent and too damned stubborn.”
Erica would have stamped her foot in frustration if she’d been standing; since she was sitting on the bed, her foot made a stamping motion in midair.
Tyler laughed out loud that time, unable to help herself. “Erica, this is ridiculous. Kane’s in my bed, and you’re married to another man. What do you think you’re going to gain by all this?”
“I’ll get him.” Erica was breathing in jerky little pants, her black eyes almost wild. “I can turn a man to jelly in my arms, take him to heaven. I can . . .”
She went on in that vein for a few minutes, while Tyler watched her in fascination. The thought that she might be literally insane skittered through Tyler’s mind, but she dismissed it; there was something else here, something . . . desperate. Erica was right on the edge, but the edge of what?
What the hell’s going on here? she wondered.
“All right, I get the point,” Tyler interrupted finally, seeing that the dark woman was working herself into a frenzy. “But you’d better get mine. Stay away from Kane.”
Erica smiled a brittle smile. “I’ll get him into my bed. Unless you take him away from here, I’ll get him.”
Tyler felt the hairs on the back of her neck stirring, and suddenly understood what Erica’s motive was; she knew now what the other woman was trying to do, even if she didn’t yet know why.
She kept her voice calm and even. “Oh, I never run from a fight, Erica. Ask Kane. He knows. And I learned to fight in places you couldn’t imagine. Think about that.” She turned and left the bedroom, closing the door softly behind her.
chapter ten
AS SHE ENTERED their bedroom, Kane swung around to face her with a scowl. “Where the hell have you been?” he demanded harshly.
It wasn’t normal for her to meekly accept that sort of question, far less in that tone of voice and from Kane, but Tyler was so distracted by her encounter with Erica—and by the towel that was all Kane wore at the moment—that she hardly noticed. She had intended to be evasive if Kane finished his shower before she returned and discovered her missing but, again, she was so rattled that she answered with the truth.
“I went to see Erica,” she murmured, wondering if she’d ever be able to look at him without feeling a shock of desire. No. Never. Especially when he was like this, half naked and beautiful. Had he been about to dress and hunt for her? One of the drawers in his wardrobe was open with clothes spilling out.
Kane went still, some of the anger draining visibly from his big frame. “Why?” he asked in a different voice.
She wanted to be evasive about that, but Tyler just couldn’t lie to him. Even more, the various tensions and puzzlements of the day boiled up in her suddenly and escaped with a force she had no way of fighting. Her hands lifted to rest on her hips as she assumed an unconsciously challenging stance, and she faced him defiantly with no more than two feet separating them.
“You told me to assume you wanted to be in my bed, so that’s what I assumed. I went to tell Erica to stay away from you unless she wanted to tangle with me. Satisfied?”
“No,” he said somewhat thickly.
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Tyler glared at him. “Great. I’ll go tell her she can have you. I’ll be damned if I’ll fight for a man as stubborn and contrary as a Missouri mule!”
Kane laughed and took a quick step so he could pull her stiff body into his arms. “No,” he repeated huskily, “I’m not satisfied. You make me hungry, and I can never get full.”
She blinked, then caught her breath as her lower body instinctively molded itself to his and she felt the hardness of his arousal. Her flash of rage vanished as swiftly as it had come. Somewhat uncertainly, she said, “That wasn’t what I meant.”
Kane pushed the filmy white negligee off her shoulders and let it drop to the floor, his darkened eyes drawn to the creamy golden curves of her breasts. The white gown she wore was demurely high-necked, but since the bodice was fashioned of eyelet lace there was nothing chaste about it. He could feel her tightening nipples against his chest, feel her stiff anger vanish as her arms went up around his neck.
“Damn you,” she murmured helplessly. “I was mad. What happened to my mad?” She could feel his warm lips against her throat, feel his chuckle.
“I don’t know, but on you even mad looks great.”
His words reminded Tyler of Erica—on whom mad looked really awful—and she tried to focus her thoughts. It wasn’t easy with his lips on her and his hands sliding down over her bottom, but she tried. “Kane . . . about Erica—”
“I don’t give a damn about Erica. Do you realize this is the first time I’ve ever seen you in a sexy nightgown?”
“I hadn’t really thought about it.”
“Hadn’t you?”
Tyler felt heat rise in her cheeks, and hoped to heaven a blush looked better on her than it did on Erica. “All right,” she muttered as he lifted his head to look down at her. “I had thought about it. And don’t tell me my vanity’s showing!”
“Did you buy this for me?” He was smiling, a peculiarly masculine smile of enjoyment.
She was somewhat beyond evasion; the effect this man had on her was a little frightening. Eyeing him with a certain amount of bitter resentment, she said, “You really want your pound of flesh, don’t you?”
His hands moved gently over her bottom, slow, intimate, holding her against him. “I want everything I can get from you, Ty, haven’t you figured that out yet?” Before she could answer, he repeated, “Did you buy this sexy gown for me?”
He didn’t sound like a man wary of feeling trapped or smothered by a woman, Tyler realized. She frowned a little as she gazed up at him, trying to ignore the sensations he was rousing in her body at least long enough to understand this. Stalling for time, she said, “You should have seen what Erica was wearing.”
Kane’s eyes narrowed. In a deliberate voice, he said, “I don’t care if she was stark naked and built like Helen of Troy. Answer the question.”
“Yes. All right? Yes, I bought it for you.”
He kissed her angry mouth until it softened, until her lips parted for him and a murmur of pleasure purred in the back of her throat. When he lifted his head at last, her lips were faintly swollen, her eyes dazed with desire.
“Damn it,” she whispered, dizzy with desire and the seesawing of her emotions.
Kane couldn’t help but grin. She was still mad at him, or at least wanted to be; that fighting spirit of hers was something he’d never be able to conquer even if he wanted to, which he didn’t. He had fallen in love with her when she first raged at him, her heartbreaking eyes blazing with fury, her magnificent breasts heaving angrily, and her fiery temper could still get to him faster than any other of her moods.
Still smiling, he said, “Getting any kind of admission out of you is like pulling teeth. You really love making me work for it, don’t you, Ty?”
“Work for what?”
He kept his tone light. “I know you’re crazy about me, but will you admit it? No.”
Tyler smiled up at him very sweetly. “Crazy being the operative word.” This kind of sparring, she thought, was safe. Light, humorous, ultimately without meaning. A kind of verbal sexual teasing in a lamplit room.
“You’re a stubborn woman,” he murmured. “A maddening woman.” His fingers were moving against her bottom again, slowly gathering the silky material of her gown as he drew the hem up. “But I can make you want me. Even when you’re furious.”
She gasped as she felt his big, warm hands on her naked flesh, the heat inside her spreading wildly. A distant part of her wondered why she even bothered to deny her feelings to him; he was too experienced not to know that her desire was so swift and powerful only because deeper emotions fed the flames. He had to know. He had to.
“Can’t I?” he demanded.
“Yes,” she murmured unsteadily. She found the knot holding the towel around his lean waist and fumbled with it until the terry cloth slid to the floor. He had pulled her gown up to her waist, holding the material bunched in one hand at the small of her back, and she bit back a moan as his hardness pushed at her. Her forehead rested on his shoulder for a moment and her hands stroked compulsively over the solid muscles of his back, feeling them move under her touch.
God, she wanted him. It was like an addiction, a craving in her soul. Her mouth slid over his bronze skin, and she tasted his clean flesh, breathed in the tangy scent of soap. All her senses expanded with a rush that was almost painful, until she was so acutely aware of him it was as if there was nothing else in the world. His breath was coming roughly, like hers; his skin was heating from the fire inside it, like hers; and she could feel his heart hammering, his body shivering as she touched him.
Kane uttered a rough sound and abruptly stepped back, quickly pulling the gown up over her head. “Have I told you how exciting you are?” he asked in a rasping voice, lifting her naked body easily into his arms.
Tyler nudged her slippers off automatically, clinging to him as he lowered her onto the bed and joined her. “No,” she breathed, staring up at his taut face, feeling a sense of wonder that she could make him want her like this.
“You are.” His mouth trailed down between her breasts, brushing fire across her flushed, swollen curves. His hands were stroking her body slowly. “Wildly exciting. You looked like a queen tonight, so damned beautiful and sexy I could hardly keep my eyes off you. And my hands.”
Tyler could feel her body begin to move against him, restless and wanting, her hands trembling as she held on to him with a rising desperation. “Kane . . .” He was torturing her with his slow caresses, his own body tensed and shaking, his expression fixed in a look of utter absorption, and she was on fire with needing him. “Kane, please . . .”
A chuckle that was more like a growl rumbled in his throat as he held her twisting body firmly and continued the maddening caresses. “Why do you think I left the sitting room when I did?” he demanded gutturally against her breast, his thumb rasping over one tight nipple while he tasted the other. “I couldn’t be still, just like a turned-on kid with raging hormones and no control. I wanted to pull up that silky skirt and take you right there, no matter who was watching.”
She moaned deeply and pulled at his shoulders, seduced by his words and his touch, wild to feel him inside her. He resisted her silent plea, teasing her aching breasts with tiny licks and hot nibbles, letting her feel his teeth and his tongue.
“Damn you,” she whispered, and slid one hand down his hard stomach, closing her fingers around him. She felt him jerk, heard his breath catch with a hoarse sound, and her own excitement spiraled violently as she explored the throbbing power of him, hot and rigid in her hand. She stroked him slowly, watching his vivid eyes flicker, his face tighten with a pleasure that was almost agony.
“God, baby . . .” His control shattered. With a groan, he rose above her, spreading her legs and pulling them high around him, entering her with a strong thrust of urgent need. He thought he’d explode when her hot, moist flesh tightly surrounded him, and he drove deeper in a primitive craving to merge their bodies completely.
&
nbsp; She returned his passionate force with a lithe strength of her own, her flushed, beautiful face taut, her half-closed eyes luminous with the fire he had ignited. It was like before, like always, desperate and uncontrolled, almost a battle, like two wild things mating to sate a need they hardly understood.
“YOU WERE JEALOUS,” he murmured.
Tyler pushed herself up on an elbow and gazed down at his relaxed face. She started, absurdly, to deny it, but then remembered his own wry admission of jealousy. Keeping her tone dry, she said, “Well, I knew Erica wasn’t sixty-five and doddering.”
His mouth curved, and sleepy eyes opened to look up at her. “Good.”
She made a face at him, but didn’t resist when he hauled her closer. Absently fingering the pelt of black hair covering his chest, she said, “Kane . . . about Erica.”
He yawned. “What about her?”
“She really went after you.”
“Can I help it if I’m adorable?”
Tyler pulled at several hairs until he winced.
“Ouch.” He eyed her somewhat ruefully.
In a reasonable tone, she said, “Look, I’ll admit that you’re sexy—”
“How sexy?”
She narrowed her eyes and glared at him. “Very sexy. But—”
“No buts. I don’t want to hear buts.”
“But,” she continued firmly, “Erica was just trying too damned hard. You’re a stranger, she’s married—and she didn’t even try to spare Elizabeth’s feelings. Or mine. She’s hell-bent to get you into her bed, and it’s just—” She broke off abruptly and added, “What’s more, she expected it to be you knocking on her door tonight instead of me.”
“She got the wrong idea,” Kane murmured.
“Oh, yes?” Tyler’s voice was very polite.
He grinned a little. “Well, I told you the state I was in when we left the sitting room. Since she was rubbing up against me like a cat in heat, I imagine she noticed.”