Savage Deception (Liberty's Ladies) Read Free Page B

and wore it styled in a queue, emphasizing high cheekbones over tautly tanned flesh. A flurry of white lace on the front of his shirt dipped down into a V, clearly showing his muscled chest. Though the shirt appeared worn in spots, it was immaculately clean and neatly tucked into black breeches. With ebony knee boots shining from a fresh polish, he presented a far different image from the sweaty, half-naked man she’d seen five days ago. He didn’t resemble the person whom she’d declared crass at all.
    Yet once again, as she stared into those eyes of his, eyes so dark that she barely discerned the pupils, she started to shiver.
    “Are you chilled?” he asked.
    “A bit,” she answered. “The night has grown suddenly cool.” It was far from chilly, but Diana couldn’t admit that having him stand so near to her caused goose flesh to rise on her skin.
    “Perhaps a dance would warm you. May I have the honor?” Tanner bowed from the waist and extended his arms to her.
    “Oh, I don’t know. It doesn’t seem proper somehow. And the music from the house doesn’t carry this far.”
    “Then you aren’t hearing the music I hear.” A grin slashed his sensual lips and in an instant she found herself locked in his arms, moving with him across the bluff. “Listen, Diana. Don’t you hear the mellow tune of the sea breezes as they ruffle the river’s surface, or the steady chirp of the crickets in the grass? Certainly you must hear the soft song of the nightingale in that tree above you, and hear the rapid beat of my heart as I hold you like this, hear the swelling cadence of your own. If that isn’t music, my darling, then you aren’t listening.”
    “I hear it,” she said in a breathless voice that couldn’t be her own. But it was. Suddenly she clearly heard nature’s orchestra, not realizing she followed Tanner’s lead in a scarlet swirl of silk and cream lace. His bronzed, handsome face mesmerized her, and in that second she’d have given him her soul if he’d asked for it.
    Suddenly he stopped. “Let me kiss you, Diana. I want to kiss you just once.”
    “Oh, Tanner, I don’t know. I’m frightened…”
    “Of me?”
    She nodded, wanting him to kiss her, but something about the panther-like way he moved, the easy grace with which he held her, and the haunting and hungry way he looked at her scared her. No man had ever stared at her with such a feral gleam in his eyes, as if he wanted to devour her in one large bite. Diana feared a man such as this wouldn’t be satisfied with only a kiss.
    “You have nothing to fear from me, Diana,” he whispered into her ear, “I want to love you.” His mouth began a sensual exploration of her earlobe before moving wantonly across her ivory cheek to claim the ruby treasure of her lips.
    “No … ,” Diana moaned, feeling herself melt.
    But it was too late to protest. Tanner had already claimed her lips in a kiss that stilled her speech and thoughts, a kiss that broke her will to resist. And she didn’t want to resist. Nothing in the entire world would have possessed her to fight Tanner’s arms as they circled her waist or stopped the thrill that soared through her when her breasts pressed against his chest. She lifted her hand, splaying her fingers on his shirt, and felt the rapid thump of his heart beneath the hard wall of sinew and muscle.
    His tongue, hot and searching, found hers. This act of primitive plunder caused her to moan against his mouth.
    “Oh, Diana, Diana,” he groaned. “I want you so much. I’ve wanted you from the first moment I saw you.”
    He pulled her onto the soft grass, and she unresistingly followed him. His hands moved from her waist to her bodice as he lowered her gown from her shoulders to reveal her chemise-clad breasts. With agile fingers, Tanner worked the tiny lacings loose before Diana was even aware. It was only when his mouth, warm and moist, settled upon one of her nipples that she realized what he intended to