Virginia Henley by Seduced

pile.
    He saw her concentration increase, saw the intense look of triumph when this time it was Eve who rolled eleven. Adam leaned back indifferently and cast a double six onto the table. Very casually he took a diamond from her.
    Her eyes became brilliant and she was short of breath as the game of chance took hold of her.
    Adam’s visage in the glow of the lamps was dark and inscrutable as a black leopard’s, masking his thoughts and his intent, which were both blatantly sexual.
    Eve’s desire for the jewels was written upon her face. Just so would he like her to look at him when he was naked. It was a hungry look that said, I
must have them or die.
    Relentlessly he took back his jewels, one at a time. He knew Russell had let her have her own way about everything. He would teach her that if she was his woman she would have her own way about nothing, and he would teach her to like it.
    As he took her last gem she stood up quickly clenching her fists and in a hurt, little-girl voice said, “I thought you were a gentleman. I thought you would let me win.”
    “I never let anyone win against me in my life, and I’m not about to start.” He stalked around the games table like a raptor sure of its prey. His voice was like smooth, dark velvet as his hands cupped her shoulders. “Eve, you above all other women are acutely aware of the fact I am not a gentleman.”
    She shuddered as he brought his mouth down upon hers to drain her of her will. But her body, was aroused by the high-stakes game, not by the presence of the virile man. When he touched her, she froze.
    Savage had her gown undone and off her shoulders before she realized how bold he was. The gown and its petticoats fell to her feet and she stood before him clad in corset, drawers, and tall black boots.
    Savage had undressed a thousand women in his lifetime. He was an expert at the game of seduction. At twenty when he left England he had considered himself highly experienced with women, having known servant girls, married ladies, and professional harlots, but once he arrived in India he realized he was almost untutored inthe sensual arts and his education had begun in earnest. He had visited the secret temples erected to the goddesses of love and fertility, where even the statues were so sexually explicit, they could make a sailor flush with embarrassment. He had been entertained by rajas and nawabs whose nautch dancers knew tricks that would harden the cock of a corpse. He had seen and traded in priceless collections of Hindu and Oriental erotica that had broadened his mind, his taste, and his appreciation so that he explored and enjoyed to the full his own sensual nature without shame or false prudery inherent in Western civilization.
    He thought she rejected his advances because he was a commoner. He tried to unthaw her by being deliberately suggestive. “I’m quite willing to wager that you’ve never allowed an untitled man access to your body,” he whispered. “You are used only to noblemen, but you are about to experience a noble savage.”
    “Please, no, the servants will know … ohmigod, Adam, don’t take off your clothes!”
    “Eve, the naked state is the natural state. You’ve suppressed yourself to the point where you worry about servants. You won’t allow yourself to become aroused and excited.” As he held her at arm’s length he imagined the enticing picture she would create naked. The cool English titled lady with alabaster skin and pale golden hair would look untouchable until he took into account the black leather riding boots.
    “No, Adam,” she said. Her eyes were pressed closed in a pretense that he was forcing her to this abomination. Eve was afraid that if she saw his magnificent body, more lithe, more rampantly male, than any animal’s, she might lose control. She had never lost control in a sexual encounter in her life and it terrified her.
    Savage thought better of removing his clothes. If he revealed his scars he would have