Jess Michaels Page 5

  The pleasure of memory fled, replaced by sobering thoughts about the seriousness of her situation. To win this wager… to keep her heart, she could not give Hawk what had been taken last night.

  Folding her arms, she leaned back. “Not again. Tonight will be different. Tonight I will insure you come to heel beneath me.”

  The thought conjured a lovely image. One of Hawk sprawled out on that sinful bed of his. Her straddling him, teasing him with her lips, with the sweep of her hair, with deft fingers. Then, when he was writhing beneath her, she would drop her slick heat over his erection and ride him until he was blind with need and couldn’t help but come deep within her.

  She sighed as she let her fingers play over her breast in the warm water. That would be delicious.

  Just as she was about to let herself find pleasure in the fantasy, a loud commotion erupted in the hallway.

  “No, sir! Her ladyship is not at home!”

  She frowned. Her butler’s voice and a few screams from her maids were compounding the racket. She rose out of the bathwater just as the door to her chamber flew open. It bounced off her wall with a crash to reveal Everett Firth.

  “My God,” she cried as she grasped for a towel to cover herself.

  His eyes grew wide at the sight of her standing naked in her tub, droplets of water shimmying down her in a waterfall. Even when she wrapped a towel around herself, she could tell by his expression that he had burned the image in his mind and was imagining her in all her glory.

  Three footmen and her elderly butler, Carson burst into the room behind Everett. The men gasped and several averted their eyes when they saw her nudity. Behind the group, she heard feminine shrieks. The maids, no doubt.

  Stepping out of the tub, Bianca did her best to straighten her shoulders and look regal. There was no use making the situation worse than it already was.

  “I don’t remember inviting you today, Everett,” she said and was pleased her voice sounded cool and calm even though this unexpected situation both terrified and humiliated her. “Is there some reason why you couldn’t send a card like a normal gentleman caller?”

  Everett’s face darkened to the same startling red it had when she refused his proposal. Despite her attempts to look composed, she couldn’t help stepping away. Even with all the men at her door holding him back, Everett’s rage sent icy fear through her.

  “You spent the night with him,” he hissed as he clenched and unclenched his fists.

  For the first time in years, Bianca actually blushed. She had no illusions her servants didn’t knew about her scandalous antics. Hell, they probably even talked about them. But that didn’t mean she wanted to have a discussion about whom she fucked in front of a group of at least ten between the men at her door and the maids who were still tittering in the hall.

  She folded her arms across her breasts. “I beg your pardon.”

  “With Hawkins.” He pulled against the footmen’s hold, but they strained to keep him back. “I know you spent the night in his bed.”

  With difficulty, Bianca managed to keep her surprise from her face. How could Everett know that? She had been very discreet and she knew Hawk well enough to know he wouldn’t discuss their relationship until the wager had been won. Which meant Everett continued to spy on her.

  “Release Mr. Firth, if you please,” she said softly.

  Carson looked at her with concern. “My lady, he’s wild. He could-”

  She smiled at the old man. “I understand, Carson. But Mr. Firth is a gentleman. I’m sure he wouldn’t do anything he would come to regret later.”

  Her reminder of his station did exactly what she’d hoped. It tamed the beast in Everett’s eyes and he relaxed. Carefully, the footmen released him, though not a one moved to give the two former lovers privacy. A fact Bianca was grateful for despite her lingering embarrassment.

  “You spent the night with him, didn’t you?” he repeated. This time his voice was low.

  She pursed her lips. “You and I are no longer affiliated, Everett. You should find another lover. I’m sure with your skills-”

  She blushed again as her butler jerked his face away. This really wasn’t a conversation she wished to have in front of servants, but there was nothing to be done about it. Everett had snatched control from her with his intrusion.

  Straightening her spine, she continued, “With your skills in the bedroom, any lady would be pleased to have you. Once you find someone new, I’m sure you will forget all about me.”

  Everett’s eyes narrowed. “Did you spend a night with Lucius Hawkins?” he repeated slowly and loudly.

  Bianca’s anger bubbled up in her chest. How dare this man violate her home and talk about her life in front of a crowd?

  “I did. And it was wonderful. What of it?” she snapped.

  Before she or her protective servants could react, Everett lunged across the room. He caught her bare arm to prevent her escape then slapped her with the back of his free hand. He hit her so hard that stars danced before her eyes and pain shot from her cheek down to her teeth and up to her ear.

  He was yanked away before he could do worse. She stumbled when the footmen wrenched his hands from her arms, but managed to right herself.

  “How could you?” Everett wailed as they dragged him away. “You are mine until I say otherwise. I won’t have you sharing yourself with any other man.”

  “I’m sorry, so sorry,” Carson said as the footmen dragged Everett out of her room and down the hall. With a bow, he allowed her personal maid into the room, then shut the door behind himself.

  Once he was gone, Bianca sank to her knees in a shaking heap. Her maid rushed to her side.

  “Oh, my lady!” the girl gasped through her own tears.

  Bianca pulled the towel around herself even tighter as she got to her feet. She clung to the girl as she led her to the bed. “It’s alright, Emmaline. Please don’t cry. I’m not hurt and Mr. Firth is gone,” she gasped when she was able to speak. “Get me my robe.”

  The sobbing maid nodded blindly and fetched her dressing gown from the chair beside the bed. As Bianca pulled it on, she noticed Everett had left light, finger-shaped bruises on her arm. She wouldn’t doubt her face would be the same in a few hours. What Hawk would do about that made her shiver.

  “We tried to stop him, ma’am,” Emmaline said as she took a crumpled handkerchief from her apron pocket.

  “I know you did.”

  Bianca forced a wavering smile to comfort the other woman. What she really wanted to do was sink back on her bed and have a cry of her own, but she’d already made enough of a spectacle of herself in front of her staff for one day.

  “He was mad!” the maid sighed.

  Bianca dipped her head. She, too, had seen madness in Everett’s eyes. It was nothing she had experienced. She’d had lovers who became possessive in the past, yes. But it had never been like this. None had ever been so bold as to attack her in her own home. Most had just sent flowers and tried to change her mind in ballrooms until her gentle refusals finally sunk in.

  Glancing up, she saw Emmaline was still staring at her with round, red-rimmed eyes. Bianca drew a breath and put on her best ‘mistress of the house’ smile.

  “He’s gone now though, isn’t he? I’m sure Carson and the other men will be on a lookout for him in the future and he won’t dare to return after the awful scene he made. If he does, I shall authorize Carson to shoot him on sight.”

  At that, Emmaline giggled and Bianca relaxed a little. The last thing she wanted was for her staff to live in terror. Hopefully the way she dismissed the incident would calm everyone once word circulated below stairs.

  If only she could calm herself so easily.

  “I will be out for the evening again tonight,” she said, rising as if she’d already forgotten the entire scene. “I will need the red gown. Get my things ready, I’ll be dressing in an hour.”

  With a brisk curtsey, Emmaline left the room to make arrangements. Once she�
�d gone, Bianca crumpled back onto her bed and curled up on her side with her arms around her pillow. She shivered, not just because of what Everett had done, but because while he had been terrorizing her, she had thought of Hawk and wished he’d been there to save her.

  And placing any hope or dream on a man like Hawk was dangerous.

  ***

  “My God, you do look delectable,” Hawk said as he came into the sitting room where Bianca had been told to wait. She’d been disappointed to discover his servants were home this night, but now her frustration fled as Hawk’s eyes sparked with passion.

  For a moment, she forgot the game and crossed the room, drawn by a desire to be near him. To touch him. She stopped a few inches in front of him to look up into his gray eyes. After her trying afternoon, she merely wanted his strength for just an instant before she forced herself back into the wager she had made.

  When she rested her cheek against his shoulder and simply clung to him, Hawk seemed surprised. Then his arms came around her and his fingers slowly traced a soothing pattern on her back.

  With a sigh, she stepped away, determined to put all her concentration into their wager tonight and win her first battle in their sensual war. When she smiled, he didn’t return the expression.

  “What is it?” he asked as he quietly shut the door to give them privacy.

  She blushed, a terrible habit she hadn’t seemed to be able to shake since she made the wager with Hawk. With a start, she turned away from his all-seeing stare.

  “I was just… eh, happy to see you,” she lied.

  He touched her arm and gently guided her back to face him. “No, that isn’t it. Something has happened.”

  Bianca sank her teeth into her lower lip. Never had she thought Hawk would see her emotions so clearly. A part of her was exhilarated by the thought that he could see her soul with just a glance. Another part was shaken. How was she to win her money back if he could see her tiniest upset and read her deepest, hidden pains? He was too aware of her and she had vowed long ago never to let a man close to her heart.

  “It’s silly, really.” She laughed as if her troubles were nothing at all. “Apparently news of our first night together has gotten out into society, despite my best efforts to keep it private. Someone told me they knew my secret today.”

  Her breath caught in her throat as she tried not to focus on that afternoon in her bedchamber and the fears that had nothing to do with their wager being discovered.

  Hawk laughed as he crossed over to the bar and fixed them each a sherry. “Is that all? I wouldn’t think that would matter to you much.”

  With a forced smile, she turned toward him. “No, I suppose it was only a matter of time before the news got out. And we never said we’d keep our relationship a sec-”

  “What happened to your cheek?” Hawk’s voice was suddenly icy as he set both drinks on the poor boy and stalked across the room toward her.

  Bianca froze. She and Emmaline had tried very hard to cover the light bruise on her face, but Hawk cupped her chin and tilted her face so he could see the mark. His lips thinned and a fire lit in his eyes that made Bianca want to back away. Not because she was afraid for her own safety as she had been that afternoon, but because she knew she couldn’t stop the storm that would blow in the wake of his anger.

  “It isn’t anything, Hawk,” she whispered as she tried to turn away.

  He caught her shoulders. “Don’t lie to me. What really happened?”

  Looking up into his stormy gray eyes, Bianca’s weakness took over. Tears pricked her, the ones she had been unable to shed over her fright that day. Now she struggled to keep them at bay. Hawk wasn’t her partner or her friend. He was her adversary and to show him weakness or that she needed him, gave him the upper hand.

  “Bianca,” he whispered and his voice had gentled. “Please. Forget the game for a moment.”

  His warm breath caressed her skin and her eyes fluttered shut as she regulated her own breathing. She could lie all she wanted, but eventually Hawk would find out the truth. It seemed best to simply confess now and deal with his reaction immediately.

  “It seems my last lover is not at all pleased that I have taken up a new relationship so quickly after ending our affiliation.”

  Hawk’s grip on her shoulders loosened. “Everett Firth did this to you?” he said in a harsh, low voice that cut through Bianca. She’d never heard the usually playful Hawk sound like that.

  She met his eyes. “It was nothing. He has spent his anger now and I’m sure he won’t be fool enough to do such a thing again. My servants will keep him away.”

  “And why were they unable to keep him away today?” he snapped as he stormed over to the poor boy and downed his forgotten drink in one gulp.

  She shifted in her spot. “He pushed past them.”

  His glare darted over to her. “I see. And yet you believe they will be able to protect you if he chooses to return and rain his jealousy and betrayal down on you again?”

  With a purse of her lips, Bianca turned to the fire, away from his knowing stare. He was only voicing her own fears, the ones that had been nagging at her for hours. That Everett would come back and do more than just call her names and slap her. They were terrifying thoughts she didn’t want to face.

  “My God, this is the first time he did such a thing, isn’t it?”

  Bianca gasped. “Of course! I wouldn’t be fool enough to stay with a man who struck me. Today was the first time and in the future I’m sure my servants will be more aware of his potential for violence.”

  She heard him slam the empty glass down on the table. “Until our wager is over, or at least until Firth can be dealt with, you will stay in my home.”

  Bianca’s mouth dropped open as she spun to face him. He was staring at her with arms folded, his eyes daring her to refuse his command. She folded her own and gave him just as cool and steely a glare.

  “I think not. I’m comfortable in my home.”

  “It’s not your comfort I’m worried about,” he said quietly. “It’s your safety. Perhaps your very life.”

  That comment sent a shiver through Bianca, but she managed to keep her outward appearance calm. “This is ridiculous,” she insisted.

  He clenched a fist and worked at regulating his ragged breathing. “Do you truly think so little of yourself?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t take your meaning.”

  “You are so determined to keep your precious control that you would endanger your life?” He pursed his lips and beneath the frustration and anger she saw something in his expression that turned her stomach and brought hot blood to her cheeks.

  Pity.

  “You go too far,” she whispered as she struggled with her emotions.

  “No, not nearly far enough,” he countered. “You have been alone so long you have forgotten what it is to have the protection of someone who cares for you.”

  She drew in a harsh breath as pain and joy exploded in her heart at once. Hawk cared for her? No, she didn’t want that! “Stop.”

  He ignored her request. “You have forgotten what it is like to trust another person with your troubles.”

  Tears pricked behind her eyes and she blinked furiously to keep them at bay.

  He stopped speaking those wonderful and terrible words and his stare grew more focused. “Or have you ever experienced that at all?”

  He was too close. To the truth. To the past. To her heart. With a cry, she snapped, “Protection? Trust? Ha! You mean control and weakness is what you want of me. Well, you cannot manipulate me, Hawk. This wager will not be won so easily.”

  He froze. “The wager.” His voice was flat and cold. “You think I am asking you to stay with me in order to manipulate the bet.”

  She swallowed back her emotions and nodded. “But I’m not your mistress to order about. You can’t tell me where to live or what to do or who I can-”

  Hawk cut her off with a shake of his head. “Perhaps sex is all you understan
d,” he muttered beneath his breath before he closed the distance between them and backed her against the wall. He spun her so her breasts were flattened against the fancy wallpaper and his cock was pressed against her rear end. Already she could feel his swollen length nudging her gown and stroking the sensitive skin beneath.

  “What are you doing?” she demanded, even though her true reaction was far from angry. His sudden forcefulness actually excited her. Her nipples tingled and she couldn’t keep wet heat from shooting to her pussy.

  He didn’t answer as he shoved her skirt up and caressed her backside gently.

  “Do you ever wear proper undergarments?” he breathed as he kissed the back of her neck.

  She tried to remain cold, knowing this was his way of bending her to his will, but when she heard his trousers hit the floor in a heap and felt the hard thrust of skin on skin, a gush of wet warmth flowed to her loins.

  “Hawk,” she began on a short breath, intent on making some kind of protest, even a weak one.

  He ignored her as he spread her wide and speared into her in one slow thrust. Bianca let out a moan despite herself as her body adjusted to take his thick length. He was heaven inside her, stretching her sensitive skin and filling her completely.

  He braced his arms on each side of her head and pulled back inch by inch until he nearly left her body, then forward, just as slowly until his balls tapped her backside. The pace was torture, awakening her with lazy ease, but never allowing her to find ultimate pleasure.

  She pushed back against him in frustration, reaching for the release he wouldn’t give her. But with a low laugh, he gripped her hips, imprisoning her with his superior strength to keep her from taking the lead.

  “I will give you what you crave, if you give me what I crave,” he murmured, licking a hot path from her ear to the junction of her shoulder and her neck.

  “I’m trying, Hawk,” she groaned as his thrust up into her again. Her body contracted, quivering on the very edge of a precipice. “You won’t let me.”

  “Not that, Bianca. If you tell me you’ll come to live here until our wager is over, I’ll give you the pleasure you crave.”