Each Time We Love (38 page)

Startled, Adam stared at her. "What the hell are you talking
about?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking abut—the baby! The only
reason you're here! Don't deny that you came here to convince me to
marry you!" she stated passionately. "You're so damned determined to
get your own way that you're willing to spout the most outrageous lies!
No matter what you say, I have no intention of letting you browbeat me
or trick me into some boring marriage of convenience!"

Adam's eyes narrowed dangerously and for one moment Savanna
thought she had pushed him too hard. But then, with an effort, he got
his temper under control and there was suddenly a gleam in those eyes
that made her distinctly uneasy. "Well, at least you got some of it
right!" he admitted dryly. "I have come here to convince you to marry
me and I'll even confess that I always
used
to
view marriage as a trap." He shook his head ruefully. "I was certain
that marriage would herald the end of my youth, for a wife would
shackle me and curtail my wanderings. But marriage to you would be
something entirely different—in fact, I've come to believe that if I
have to get married, you're
precisely
the sort of
woman I'd want for my wife!"

He couldn't have made his meaning clearer as far as Savanna
was concerned. He didn't want a woman of his own class who might have
the temerity to question his comings and goings, who might meet him on
an equal footing. No! He wanted someone like her—a backwoods baggage he
could safely stash in the background and whom he could manipulate at
will. Oh, she knew very well what he meant by saying she was precisely
the sort of woman he wanted for a wife! Hurt and thoroughly insulted,
Savanna drew herself up haughtily and snapped, "Well, I'm afraid you've
chosen the wrong woman! I have no intention of marrying—you or anybody
else! Forget about me! Forget about the baby! We don't
need
you! We'll do just fine—and without any help from you!"

"If I remember correctly, you didn't get into your situation
all by yourself!" Adam drawled calmly, although there was a warning
glitter in his blue eyes. "I can even vaguely remember doing my part
enthusiastically!"

Savanna's lips thinned. "I don't deny it! However, that one
unfortunate event is not reason enough for me to spend the rest of my
life locked into a dull marriage with
you!"

Adam sighed, thinking again that he'd like to either beat her
or kiss her… Speculatively he eyed her. He'd never had trouble charming
a woman before, and now, when it was so important, when he had
practically laid his heart at her feet, he seemed unable to convince
her
of that fact! Growing just a little angry, but persevering gamely, Adam
said bluntly, "Before meeting you, I'd always thought of marriage much
the same way. I thought it would be a sentence of years of boring
domesticity, but with you…" He grinned suddenly, thinking of the years
and years of hot-tempered wrangling and passionate lovemaking they
would share—once he'd convinced her to marry him, of course! "With
you," he continued mischievously, his good humor restored, "it would
never
be boring!" Blue eyes dancing with mockery, he added provokingly, "In
fact, it would be a damned bloody
challenge
¹
."

Savanna was certain she was going to burst with fury and,
heedless of anything but the desire to vent just a little of the rage
within her, she slapped him. Hard. To her astonishment, he laughed
aloud, and before she had a chance to realize what he was up to, he
lunged for her, catching her shoulders in his hands and jerking her
away from the tree, pressing her down into the grass. For a long second
he stared into her furious eyes. "Sweetheart, I'd hoped to make you see
reason, but I guess the time for words is over. There seems to be only
one way I can make you see sense!"

Adam brought his lips down firmly on hers, his mouth and body
starving for her after their weeks apart. He was half lying on her, and
her angry struggles to escape only aroused him further, making him
forget everything but the sheer ecstasy of having the woman he loved
once more in his arms. Desire, elemental and inexorable, coursed
through him and he crushed her into his powerful embrace as if he would
never let her go, as if he would absorb her into his very being and
make her part of him.

At Adam's touch, Savanna was pitched into a turmoil. Wondering
bleakly how she could hate a man who made her feel like this, hate the
father of the child she carried beneath her breast, she fought against
the treacherous emotions that threatened to overpower her. Even as she
struggled to keep her thoughts focused and not give in to the sweet
pleasure that was insidiously sweeping through her body, she was dimly
aware that she could never hate him,
had
never
hated him… The reason for Adam's inexplicable power over her, the
reason why he could so easily shatter her emotions, suddenly burst
across her brain. Why,
I love him,
she thought in
utter astonishment.

The knowledge that she was in love with Adam didn't find any
more favor with Savanna than his awareness that he was in love with her
had originally found with him, but if Adam had finally and joyfully
embraced the idea, Savanna shrank from it—her mother's example of what
misplaced love could bring a woman was too painfully ingrained within
her to be ignored. If anything, the knowledge that she loved him made
the situation all the more painful and unendurable. Terrified of what
loving him could do to her, she tried frantically to gain control of
her unruly body, to ignore the fierce delight of his kiss and touch.

But his mouth was too delectably hungry and too wantonly
urgent as it moved on hers, and with a small, hopeless moan, she gave
him what they both desperately wanted and opened her lips. His warm
tongue surged explicitly into her mouth, evoking memories of his big
body plunging into hers that exact same way. Dizzyingly aware of the
hard length of his swollen manhood pressed between their bodies,
Savanna tightened her arms convulsively around his broad shoulders and
was instantly as hungry for him as he was for her.

At her surrender, Adam groaned, his hand closing gently around
her breast, thoughts of the years together that they would have to
share this rare pleasure making him tremble violently. It also brought
him forcefully back to reality and made him aware of where they were.
With a tremendous effort, he brought himself under control, but he
could not bear to stop touching her just yet and, his mouth against
hers, he murmured, "Marry me, Savanna! Let me take care of you and the
child."

Jerked back to earth by his words, Savanna was humiliated at
how easily he had caused her to forget the basic issue between them.
How stupid of her to forget that if it weren't for the child and
Bodene's meddling, she would never have heard from him again. Dying a
little inside, she turned her face away, afraid he might see the love
she felt for him and use it as another weapon against her. Struggling
out of Adam's slackened grasp, she sat up and, still not looking at
him, asked painfully, "Is that what this is all about? A further ploy
to get your way?"

Adam's gaze narrowed and his mouth thinned.

"Do you know," he said conversationally, "that there are times
I really would like to beat you soundly?"

Her chin lifted and she glared at him. "Lay a hand on me and—"

"I know," Adam interrupted coldly. "You'll skewer me and feed
my liver to the gators!"

Savanna smiled sweetly. "Precisely!"

Getting to his feet, Adam dusted a blade or two of grass from
his breeches and said dryly, "I had harbored the notion, foolish though
I knew it to be, that you might be willing to listen to reason." He
shot her an unfriendly look. "Stupid of me, I know. You're determined
to be as obdurate and idiotic as you know how to be, aren't you?"

All of the doubts that had beleaguered her lately suddenly
leapt to the forefront of her mind and she tamped down the spurt of
temper at his words, determined to prove him wrong, determined for the
sake of her child to attempt to make some sort of future for them all.
"Not exactly," she began honestly. "It's just that…"

Perhaps if Adam had been paying more attention, if he hadn't
still been wrestling with the stunning knowledge of his love for her,
if he had looked, really
looked
at Savanna at
that moment, he might have glimpsed all the doubts and uncertainties
that were revealed in both her eyes and her voice, and his next words
might have been totally different. But for the first time in his life,
his deepest emotions were involved, and he was certain that she
probably hated him and the fact that he had fallen in love with her
did
continue to make him half stupefied, so he missed the subtle change in
Savanna and blundered on. His face set, he snapped, "Unfortunately,
that's
exactly
the situation! You're so bloody
determined to put all of us in an invidious position simply because
it's
me
asking you to do something sensible!" The
blue eyes hostile, he growled, "Goddammit, Savanna, you're such a
stubborn
minx! You're not listening to what anyone has to say—you won't listen
to your mother or Bodene, and anything I say you view with the utmost
suspicion." His face softened for a moment. "I know you're being rushed
into this and believe me, if the baby weren't already on the way, I
swear to you that I would court you in the manner you deserve."

"Would you?" Savanna asked intently. "If you hadn't known
about the baby, would you have come back?"

"Yes," he said quietly. "I had already made arrangements to
come to see you
before
I got Bodene's letter."

Unhappily Savanna stared at him, wanting desperately to
believe him, but the notion that Adam St. Clair, handsome,
sophisticated and wealthy, a man who could have nearly any woman he
wanted, truly wanted to marry
her
was simply
inconceivable. Look at how they had met, for heaven's sake! And that
didn't even take into account what her father had done to his sister!
He was probably telling the truth about coming back to see her… but
only, she thought miserably, to see if she was indeed pregnant! She was
convinced that there could be no other reason. She knew, too, that he
was an honorable man, and like an honorable man, he was determined to
do the right thing—even if it meant marrying the rustic, bastard
daughter of a man he detested! Savanna shivered. Never!

Her shoulders squared, she said tightly, "It doesn't matter.
The fact still remains that I am
not
going to
marry you and you can't make me!"

Torn between despair and anger, Adam stared at her. He had
tried everything. Reason. Seduction. He had even confessed some of his
deepest feelings for her—feelings he hadn't even known himself until he
had said the words aloud—and
still
she refused
him! She had battered his pride and hurt him as he had never thought he
could be hurt, and a savage determination to meet the challenge she had
thrown down boiled up through him. With mingled rage and exasperation
he glared at her, and for one of the few times in his life, Adam
thoroughly lost his formidable temper. Where the words came from, even
he didn't know, but he suddenly found himself snarling, "The simple
fact is, my dear, that you
will
marry me! Either
you will marry me within the week or I shall destroy your mother's nice
little world! I wonder how you will feel when I tell all her neighbors
and friends that she is not the widow of Bias Davalos, but merely a
little ladybird whom he never bothered to marry! And that her
illegitimate daughter is following in her mother's footsteps!" His
words were deliberately cruel, but he was fighting for his future—and
hers, if she would only realize it—and not letting himself be moved by
Savanna's white face and shocked expression, his blue eyes cold and
hard, he demanded, "How do you think she'll like that? Hmm, sweetheart?"

Savanna nearly choked on the rage that erupted within her, and
springing to her feet, she went for Adam, murder blazing in her eyes.
"You blackhearted devil! I'll kill you before I'll ever let you do that
to her!"

Adam caught her wrists and they fought wildly for a moment
before he was able to jerk her to him and kiss her angrily. "No," he
said finally, when he had lifted his mouth from her stinging lips, "you
won't kill me!" A derisive smile crossed his dark face. "Kill the
father of your unborn child? I hardly think so! What you're going to do
and do damn shortly is
marry
me!"