Virginia Henley by Seduced Page A

to explain them. They would prompt too many questions about his unsavorypast. He didn’t like people to know the eels that lurked in the water beneath the surface. He had a private side he allowed none to explore. He drew her close and cupped her breast.
    “Eve, relax and let me love you.”
    “Mmm, no, mmm, no,” she breathed, almost incoherent. She was filled with revulsion for herself because Adam Savage was beginning to bring her pleasure, and she fought against the sensations valiantly.
    Eve had never allowed a man to bring her to climax. She couldn’t. Her body didn’t work that way. Unconsciously she had to stay in control. When she could not avoid the act she wanted it to be over with swiftly. Instinctively she knew Savage would revel in the slow, rhythmic dance of lovemaking, sustaining forever, never spending. He would be the kind of dominant man who would fuck her until she yielded herself to him. She stiffened, imagining the servants were outside the door listening. Suddenly she felt he was behaving like the animals they had seen. Savage was a bull who would wildly mate her. She pulled from his arms and snatched up her gown to cover her underclothes.
    “You bastard, how could you make me feel so dirty?” she hissed.
    Adam Savage realized Eve was frigid. If he ever hoped to unthaw her, he knew he would have to go about it in a different way. He gently took the gown away from her and dressed her. He pinned up her hair with the tortoiseshell combs, then gathered her in his arms. He told her how lovely she was, how beautiful, how exquisite. He began to kiss her face, trailing a fiery, sweet path from her temple to her eyelids, then on to her lips. He made her feel beautiful.
    Suddenly he was giving her the kind of pleasure she liked. She loved to be told she was beautiful. Now that she was dressed she knew he would not spoil her delicious glow by wanting to have sex.
    Savage hoped that if he left her slightly aroused, perhaps wanting more, she might fantasize about him when they were apart.
    In that moment Eve knew she would be willing to marry him, if only he had a title. She stood on tiptoe to press a last kiss upon his devastating mouth. “You would make a savage Lord Savage, Adam.”

Chapter 5
    When Bernard Lamb returned to the Hall the next evening he wanted to see what his victim looked like, but he knew his curiosity must be secondary to caution. Under no circumstances must he be seen by any member of the household. If and when an accident occurred, it must be considered exactly that, an accident. If foul play was even surmised in the removal of Lord Lamb, the next in line would automatically be Sùspect.
    Bernard concealed himself in the shrubbery some distance from the Hall to observe its inhabitants through the candlelit windows. He had the patience of a spider hidden beneath the leaves, lurking in the shadows.
    He had no trouble identifying the old strumpet. She was a small woman who moved about quickly and used her hands with exaggerated gestures when she spoke. Bernard had no trouble identifying the servants by their uniforms, but from this distance it was difficult to distinguish one cousin from the other.
    Both were tall, dark, and slim, both walked with casual, unhurried steps. He had thought he was watching his cousin Anthony as he sat reading at a desk in what Bernard assumed must be the library, but when the figurearose and crossed directly in front of the window, he saw skirts and realized it must be Antonia. Though he saw no features, he knew he could never be attracted to a woman who was not overtly ultrafeminine.
    He thought of his little actress, Angela Brown, all deliciously rounded curves, her glorious, silvery-gilt hair dressed high in the latest fashion, her ripe breasts swelling from the frills and laces of her satin gowns.
    Bernard saw the lights in the Hall being extinguished. They certainly retired early here in the country. When Lamb Hall became his, the lights would blaze