Stephen in a silk banyan was so much better than Stephen in his stuffy English outerwear. She secretly wondered if the sight of him made even Kali uncertain about Jane’s determination to keep the stuffy, sensual barrister out of her life, and her bed.
Now that she had a chance to truly examine and enjoy his athletic body in the glow of the candles, she could appreciate how he moved so confidently and seemed so comfortable in himself, even with nothing more than flimsy silk covering his limbs.
He walked to the low table and lowered himself into a cross-legged position, immediately helping himself to an oyster from the platter she’d prepared. After he’d had his way with two more of the mollusks, he tilted his head to the side and gave her a questioning glance. “What were the reddish dots sprinkled on the oysters?”
“Drops of mashed Indian peppers…very hot Indian peppers.”
“And lemon juice from the fruit of your trees?”
“Of course.”
“Hmmm.”
“Well? What do you think?”
Instead of answering, he plucked another oyster from the platter and gazed intently into her eyes before leaning his head back and holding up the shell to let the creature slide into his mouth.
Jane took one of the oysters from the platter, popped it into her mouth and chewed slowly, savoring the flavors as they mixed on her tongue. The heat from the extracted flesh of the peppers started out merely warm, but the longer she chewed, the more intense the experience until her whole body seemed to vibrate from the heat. How did the barrister manage to eat so many without combusting into flames?
She’d closed her eyes to enjoy the oyster, and when she opened them, Stephen was there, eyeing her lips and closing in on her. She’d let down her guard, and now there was nothing for it but to surrender to what she secretly craved.
* * *
Stephen struck as quicklyas a serpent to seize Jane’s unguarded moment when she closed her eyes. He wanted to taste the richness of the oyster, the heat of the peppers, the heat of Jane.
He’d come to her side of the table with stealth and invaded her mouth like England’s conquerors of old. They came from Normandy and took what they wanted. The marauding king the warriors had served urged them to take over small Anglo-Saxon fiefdoms, murder or run off the existing masters and plant new babes in their widows’ bellies. The spoils rightfully fell to the victors.
This was no gentle teasing. He was determined to take no prisoners. He wanted her, all of her. He plunged his tongue fiercely in and out of her mouth, tangling in a heated dance with her tongue. He probed the inside of her mouth hungrily, almost angrily, searching for a chink in the armor she’d thrown up between them. He tasted the sea, the heated plains of her homeland, and something more. The scent of unmistakable fierce longing rose from Jane.
She began to pant as if she’d run out of the strength to keep their arrangement devoid of desire. She wrapped her arms around his neck and clasped him even more tightly to her, surrendering before they’d even finished the oysters.
Exultation filled him. He’d won. Hadn’t he?
When he reached for one of her breasts clearly visible beneath the filmy sari, she suddenly moved away before he could finish what they’d started. He had to toss aside the silk banyan and plunge into the pool to relieve his cockstand, knocking aside the floating candles as he went.
By the time he’d swum the length of the pool to the waterfall and back, she’d brought a steaming dish from the side table containing the next course, a bright golden saffron rice dish with bits of meat embedded and various jewel—like vegetables and fruits studding the edges of the oval serving dish.
He threw the robe over his still wet shoulders and yanked the belt tight around his waist. If she wanted to play the teasing role, fine. Two could engage in that game.
When he took his place on his low cushion, she served him a large portion of the rice dish. From the initial bite, the spices used to prepare the dish made him question his sanity. At first he thought he recognized a flavor and then it would segue into something totally different. Finally, a sensation so intense swept across his body, he knew he was in trouble. He’d just swallowed several mouthfuls of food layered with what was surely aphrodisiac spices.
Was she going to kill him with unrequited urges? And then he stole a glance at her plate. She was eating a large portion of the same rice he’d just ingested.
The heat now spreading out across his body and to all of his extremities, one in particular, was no doubt invading Jane’s body as well. By the end of this evening he was probably going to be a dead man, the victim of a combination of his own uncontrollable urges and the erotic seasonings she’d unleashed upon him. He didn’t care. He trusted Ath and all his other reprobate friends would have his body retrieved and give him a proper send-off.
14
THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 1826
CONSERVATORY AT TREVELLYN HOUSE
Combe Down, England
Jane’s legs and quim felt as though they were literally on fire. Maybe she’d gone too far by mixing both the hot peppers and various aphrodisiac herbs. Oh, well. Too late now.
When she hazarded a look across the table to see if Stephen were suffering the same effects, she slammed into a blazing green-eyed gaze so intense, she sent off another little prayer to Kali. This time she prayed for the strength to survive all the things she wanted to do to the barrister, not to mention the ideas she sensed he was forming on his own.
Staring directly into his eyes turned out to be a bad idea. In a flash, he came across the table, scattering water and flowers everywhere. The glass bowl rolled down the tiled floor all the way to the rear of the conservatory, gathering momentum as it went. The crash into the back wall cracked the huge bowl into four perfect pieces, not hundreds of lethal shards which would have tumbled into the pool. Just as she was congratulating herself on avoiding a catastrophe in her bower, a very tall, very hard body slammed into hers, forcing her to walk backward to the very edge of the pool.
