"Thank you, my lord," she murmured, her eyesglittering like amethyst gems in the soft lamplight. "There is wine inthat pitcher . . . perhaps you might pour yourself some while I finish my bath."
He glanced at the table, thinking he could use anotherdrink. Anything to kill the desire in him that was threatening to rage out ofcontrol.
Guy poured himself a brimmingmugfuland promptly drank it; he was downing his third when he staggered slightly intothe table. Several tin cups clattered to the floor, sounding strangely loud andringing in his ears.
What was the matter with him?hewondered, setting down the mug as he bent to pick up the cups. It usually tookmuch more than three glasses of wine for him to feel any adverse effects. Morelike three bottles.
Guy stacked the cups together and was about to risewhen he spied something stuck to the bottom of one of them. "The servingwomen didn't clean out these cups," he muttered with mild disgust. Theencrusted matter was a dull brownish-red color and shaped oddly like flowerpetals.
What the devil? If he did not know better, he would sayit was . . .
He sniffed inside the cup, and the faint, disagreeablesmell confirmed his niggling suspicion even as he heard Leila rise abruptlyfrom the tub behind him, water splashing onto him. The chilling realizationsweeping over him was like a knife in his back.
"God's blood, woman, what have you done?" heshouted, pushing against the table as he jumped to his feet, sending thepitcher, wine bottles, tray of food, and cups all crashing to the floor. He gotno answer, for Leila had swept up her shift and was making a wild dash acrossthe room.
With an enraged roar, Guy cleared the tub and caughther in three strides. As she struggled against him, he spun her around to facehim, shaking her so hard that her head snapped back. "You drugged thewine, didn't you? Didn't you?"
Leila had never seen such fury, and it filled her withfear, her knees growing so wobbly she thought for sure she would collapse. Guy'shandsome face was livid, his eyes a thunderous blue. He looked as if he wantedto kill her.
"Answer me! Did you drug me?"
She gulped for air, inwardly cursing her stupidcarelessness. "Y-yes."
"With what?"
"Poppies . . . wild poppies!"
"Where did you get them? You had no money."
"The spice merchant . . . outside the tavern. I—Istole them."
"Stole them," he echoed, his furious gazesweeping over her trembling nude body.
Suddenly he yanked her hard against his chest andthreaded his fingers through her wet hair, pulling her head back. His voicebecame dangerously low, his breath fanning her upturned face like a hot,wine-scented wind.
"Do you think I'm a total fool, Leila? This wasall a show, wasn't it? A provocative game with very high stakes. You knewexactly what you were doing. Serving me wine so I might see you in your shift,conveniently catching your hair in the tub so I might see your beautiful wetbody" —he pulled her hair tighter until she winced— "then encouragingme to drink while you finished your bath."
"No! No, you're wrong!" she whispereddesperately in a vain attempt to diffuse his rage. "My hair did snag inthose staves!"
Guy seemed not to hear her, only drawing her closeruntil her breasts were flattened cruelly against him. "How far were youplanning to push me, my lady? How much farther would you have carried yourteasing? Through dinner, perhaps? What would you have done, fed me with yourown fingers as I've heard eastern women do in the harem? Now there's anintriguing thought. And then what? When it was time for bed, would you havetaken your little game as far as necessary, knowing the drugged wine would saveyour precious virginity before I could take it from you?"
Leila could not answer; her throat was too constrictedwith shock. Her mind spun to think that he would read her initial actions soclearly, but he was wrong about the rest. So wrong! She would never have—
"I drank three mugs of wine, Leila," hegrated, his deep, angry voice cutting into her racing thoughts. "How longdo I have before the drug will take effect?"
"I don't know!" she blurted truthfully. "Maybean hour, maybe less. You may not have ingested enough opiate to feel more thana slight drowsiness—"
"It is long enough," he cut her offominously, gathering her suddenly into his arms and striding back to the tub. "Longenough."
"Long enough for what?" she rasped breathlessly,her skin puckering withgoosebumpsas he practicallydumped her into the tepid water. While he knelt beside the tub and fishedaround for the soap, she scrambled as far away from him as possible, but heonly dragged her back.
"Long enough to see that we carry this seductivegame to the end," he said huskily, locking her directly in front of him ashe leaned over her shoulders. He ran the slick bar across her hardened nipples,around and around her full breasts,thenslowly slidit down the valley between them to her navel. "First, we shall finish yourbath. Would you have done this for me, Leila? Soaped your smooth skin while Iwatched? Surely that would have goaded me into drinking more of your viciousbrew."
"No!" she cried, but already heady sensationsflickered through her body as he dipped the soap between her legs. She tried tosqueeze them together, but he forced her knees apart, his great strengthoverwhelming her. "No, you cannot mean to do this! What of your vow? Youswore to protect me!"
"Vows mean nothing in the face of your treachery,"Guy declared, so far gone with desire that he knew he could not stop now nomatter how hard he tried.
He did not want to think, to reason, to feel theterrible pain cutting into his heart at the realization of what she had beendoing to him. He only wanted to play the game that she had started, before itwas too late. Even now he could feel a slight dullness in his brain, theheaviness in his limbs, but he would fight against it as he was fightingagainst the truth of her words.
