Linna : Historical Romance (The Brocade Collection, Book 5) (6 page)

Linna began taking the myriad of pins from her hair, pulling out each coil into
a long ringlet. Raoul’s reaction was palpable. It was reflected in the low sound accompanying his every breath.

“Are you ready to bargain?”  She asked it sweetly, when she had the last of her hair undone
. Then she turned from him, bending backwards to run her hands through the tangled locks. Garbled choking noises were coming from the man at the table. She didn’t look to verify it.

“Bargain?”

Linna stopped her movements at the word. It didn’t sound at all like the man she’d just addressed. She wondered at her sanity, then she shrugged it off. Shyness wasn’t going to get her what she wanted. Boldness was.

“Bargain
. I’ve a marriage proposal on the table. You’ve yet to accept it.”

“Sweet Lord.”  He whistled it through his teeth
. “Yes. God, yes. Yes.”

“We’ve got that much settled
? Already? Good. Now...as to what you’re bargaining with?”

A lower growl met her question
, and Linna glanced his way again. She’d guessed at his feral passion. It was beginning to sound it. She watched in fascination as her own shivers reached the backs of her hands. She hadn’t known that could happen. She had to discount it. Linna was used to getting what she wanted. Him, she wanted. But at her price.

She lifted one arm and with the opposite hand slid the lace ringlet of her sleeve off of her middle finger, smoothing down the material as she did so
. Then she did the same to the other one, making it a caress.

“Anything
. Name it. Dearest God! Name it and have done.”

Linna look at him then and couldn’t believe what she saw, much less what she heard
. Raoul looked like he was in torment, his eyes dominating his face, his jaw locked, and his hands gripping to the chair arms so tightly she was afraid he might split the wood.

“Raoul?” she asked.

“What do you want? Name it and it’s yours. I swear it.”

“I want my freedom.”

“What?”

The chair fell as he left it, and then he was there, backing her into the table and bending at his knees to slide his loins against hers
. She felt him lifting her onto the table surface, all the while ignoring her shocked gasps for breath. His eyes were glazed strangely, and Linna tried to stop the rising panic.

“No,” she gasped it
. “Please no. Not like this. No. Please?”

“No?”  He repeated the word, making it senseless-sounding
. “No? What kind of woman promises what you do and then says no?”  Raoul pulled away then, holding his arms wide to encompass the entire room, rather than touch her. He was shaking with the effort, too.

Linna gulped and blinked hastily
. “I don’t tease, Raoul. I promise. I’ll give all I’ve shown. Once we’re wed. Only when we’re wed. I vow it.”

“I refuse your terms then.”

“What?”  Now it was Linna’s turn to sound stunned.

“And give you my own
. I’ll accept your proposal to be my wife. I’ll get a special license in the morn. We’ll wed. We’ll sail the moment it’s done. But I get one thing in return, Miss Linna. One.”

“One?” she asked, around the dryness in her throat.

“One. I get you. I get you...now. Right now. I’m not waiting much longer. I want you. This moment. I want you passionately, completely, and totally. There’s to be no doubt about it. None. That is my price.”

“Now?”
she choked out the word.

“Right now.”

“You want me to—to bed with you...right now?”  No matter how much she tried to control it, she stammered through the words.

“On the table, in yonder bed, on the floor
! Have you no notion of what you do? Name the place, name the chamber, name the equipment, but know the terms. You get your wedding, but I get tonight. All of tonight. All of you. Now. I’m not fond of waiting, either.”

“If I say no...will you take it?”

He probably wanted to yell the response, but little sound escaped his mouth as he tipped his head to the ceiling. Linna watched the veins strain against the skin in his neck as he did it. Then he lowered his head, heaved another breath, and glared at her. Linna’s eyes widened.

“I may,” he said
.

She didn’t hear her gasp over the sound of her own heartbeat.

CHAPTER SIX

There was still light being shed about them, the champagne still fizzled in her glass, and the mound of cloak-covered clothing still resided behind her on the tabletop, yet nothing felt the same. Linna had both legs over the edge of the table and was leaning backwards, supported by her arms, just as he’d placed her. It wasn’t a very defensible position.

It wouldn’t have mattered though
. She had no defense. She was the one who’d placed herself in his rooms. He could do with her as he wished. She knew it. He knew it. She knew where he was looking, and what he was going to do when he had it unwrapped, and there was nothing she could do about any of it.
How did everything get so out of hand?

“Didn’t you hear me?” he asked, lowering his head to pierce her with his gaze.

Linna nodded.

“You’ve nothing to say on the matter?”

Moss green eyes hadn’t moved from watching her. She wondered briefly what the love act with him would be like, and then sent the thought away. It might be horrid. It might not. It wasn’t her choice anymore, anyway.

Linna closed her eyes
. She was selling herself but she was getting her price. It was nearly perfect. She was going to be
Madame
Larroquette. She’d be free of Ryan Daniels. She’d be free of the stigma of having a murderer for a father. She’d be free of Luthor. She’d be free. It wasn’t how she’d wanted it, but it was what she wanted.

She sent every emotion as far away as possible
. It wasn’t easy.
One night?
She could do it. She opened her eyes. He hadn’t moved.

“Very well,
Monsieur
Raoul. I accept your terms. Wait!”

She held up one hand to stop him, and in the back of her mind it registered just how closely he resembled a cat coiled to spring
. He was probably as amazed when he halted mid-stride as she was. Linna licked her lips to wet them. “It’s to be tonight then. One night. I’ll give myself to you tonight. All of tonight. But....”  She let her voice trail off.

“But what?” he asked, in an ugly tone.

“But, then...never again. Never.”

“What
? Are you crazed?”

Linna forced herself to shrug as if she weren’t facing a man capable of taking everything she was withholding
. She met his look as squarely as possible, every bit of her alert to the threat. Her voice was warbling but that couldn’t be helped. It was the best she could do. “Those are my terms. Take it or leave it.”

Raoul took a step backward and then another
. He was stopped by a chair and he flung it aside. Linna’s eyes couldn’t shut on the sight as wood splintered against the wall. His hair wasn’t very long, but he yanked it from the queue he’d worn to the ball. It made him look even wilder than before. She scooted into the center of the table and pulled her knees to her chin. It wasn’t much, but she felt safer.

“Are you really that cold?” he asked, surprising her with the quiet tone.

“C–cold?”  The whisper was the best she could manage. Her voice was failing her.

“You’ve never felt it, have you
? The heat? The intensity? The passion. You know nothing of the pleasure either. Am I right?”

She didn’t answer
. Linna watched as he turned one of his oil lamps down before walking to the next.

“Well?”  He stopped at the next to last lamp and looked over at her
. Linna was having a difficult time seeing him. She blinked.

“I don’t see what that
—” she began, but he interrupted her.

“You can’t deny yourself what you don’t know.”

“I know I won’t like it,” she responded as coolly as possible.

“How can you know that?”

“Men take. Women do the giving. What else is there to know?”

Her answer was a tight chuckle before the last lamp dimmed
. Linna couldn’t see him since the largest pool of light was directly above her head.

“You’ve never been with a man obviously
. Or if you were, he wasn’t much of a man. You’ll learn. I’ll teach you.”

“Wh
—what...does that mean?”  The entire question didn’t make sound, but he seemed to know what it was.

“That I’m adding a term to yours
. That’s what it means.”

“What is it?”

“Tonight. All of it. All of you. Every response is mine. Every part of you that I can reach, I get. You give. Willingly. Completely. All night. Every minute, every hour, every breath. You hold nothing back. Nothing.”

Linna trembled
. She couldn’t hide it. “And then...never again?”

He came back into the light, making Linna’s every conscious thought flee right out of her head
. He’d shed his ruffled shirt, and the expanse of chest he’d bared was indescribable. She licked her lips to stall for time, roaming her eyes over every lump, every amazing bulge at his abdomen, and the large muscles of his upper chest. Despite herself, her own breasts tightened at the sight. She’d known what a man looked like, yet nothing would have prepared her for him. Her lower lip dropped. She could only hope he didn’t know why.

“Never again
? I believe we can come to some sort of arrangement after all, Miss Linna.”

Her raised eyebrows answered for her
.  

“Unless you want it
. Only then. You have to open your mouth to ask for it. I’ll not touch you again unless you do that. You understand what I’m agreeing to?”

She nodded
. He took a step nearer. She slid a corresponding distance away. He smiled and the shadows widened it into a grin.

“Know this much, too
. I’ll not alter the terms. If I sense less than complete and total surrender to me tonight, the deal is off. You have no wedding ring and no promise. Nothing. You understand?”

“Yes,” she said, although her mouth was too dry to make the sound.

“I’m afraid I didn’t hear that,” he replied.

There wasn’t enough
moisture in her mouth to swallow. She was forced to nod.

Raoul reached for her champagne glass and downed the contents with one long draught
. Then he set the goblet back with such studied precision, it settled right back into its own moisture ring. He put both hands on the table edge and leaned toward her. He pinned his gaze on her legs, before it traveled over her entwined arms, then he met her open-eyed stare. The solid wood beneath her might as well have been bubbles. Despite herself, Linna swayed backward.

“You do realize what this means?” he asked, lifting his brows.

Linna was having a hard time concentrating. Raoul Larroquette must know what a picture he was presenting, yet he acted like it was nothing. One small line furrowed his brow, a lock of dark hair carved to the top of his nose, and eyes that held only a hint of moisture glinted from the shadow created by his eyelashes.

It was her turn to scan
. Massive shoulders and chest flowed into slender hips, and from there to the muscular thighs she’d felt earlier while they’d danced. His old-fashioned breeches weren’t hiding one bit of him. They were defining instead. Everywhere. Her entire body felt flushed and hot.

“Well?” he asked, when the silence just kept growing.

“I know what it means,” she answered softly. She had to look away. He was stealing her breath and bringing flutters of nervousness into existence deep in her belly at the same time.

“I warn you, you’re to find satisfaction with no one else
. No one. There is no betraying to be done. You wants, your desires, your release come only from me. You understand that much, too?”

Satisfaction
? Release?
There was nothing like that about the love act. It was brutal, animalistic, and harsh. It was, wasn’t it? There wasn’t anyone she could ask. Rhea never spoke about it, and their own mother had betrayed them all over it. That’s why she’d been shot.

Linna stopped that thought
. A quick flash of what her own mother had done went through her consciousness, but she thrust it aside, just as she’d done since it had first happened. She wasn’t going to deal with it. Ever. It was getting easier each time, too.

She looked back at him
. “I’ll never be a faithless wife. Never!”

He tipped his head and looked her over
. Then, he nodded. Her lips thinned. “What of you, Raoul?” she asked.

“What about me?” he asked, leaning in and emphasizing each word.

“Will you hold to the same standard?”  Linna couldn’t believe she’d found enough voice to utter it. He was so close to her now, he was stealing every breath the moment it left her body and inhaling it for his own. And then he was keeping her from gaining the next.

“What
? Never to touch another woman?” 

The breath from the words reached her first, since she couldn’t hear a thing over the pounding in her own ears
. She nodded.

“Christ.” 

He pushed himself away with a shove from his shoulders and stepped back. Linna undulated slightly at being released. She hadn’t known how tautly she’d been holding herself. She only hoped he wouldn’t notice how unsteady she was now. She couldn’t even find her voice as he speared her with another piercing look.

“You dare to ask such a thing of me?”

“I...uh—” Neither word made sound.

“You think such a thing is possible?”

“I—” she tried again, but he interrupted her.

“You’d shackle me in such a fashion
? Deny me husbandly rights  then torture me with what I’m missing? Are you that heartless?”

“I...wouldn’t...torture you,” she whispered.

“You’d be with me. At my side. Flaunting each and every part of your body. It would be torture. I guarantee it.”

He was pacing the floor in front of the table, stopping at each end to dart a look her way
. Then, he’d turn back. Linna wasn’t capable of moving her eyes from the sight.

“Well, you’re demanding it of me,” she finally replied.

“You don’t know what you’d be missing. I do. There’s a world of difference.”

“So
? I wouldn’t like being betrayed either.”  She said with a toss of her head.

He spun around to face her
. “You’d deny me? When you won’t let me touch you?” 

His scowl was making her heart beat faster
. Yet when she opened her mouth to reply he interrupted. “Think before you speak, miss. I want you, I’ve not had a woman in weeks and look at me! Does this look like I can stop it?”

Linna rocked in place
. She knew exactly what he was referring to. He couldn’t hide his arousal. It wasn’t possible he was of the same species as Luthor Evans or even Drake. He was much too immense...in every sense of the word.

He was going to have her, by force if necessary
. He was going to finish what they’d begun this night. If she didn’t give him permission to see others, she was going to lose the bargain before it was made as well as her innocence.

“Very well, Raoul.”  She said it with a throat that choked the words off
. “I agree. You may visit other women...when you—you...the um...need...becomes too great.”

“What?”

His lips had curled into a semi-snarl. Linna’s head pulled back despite her every effort to the contrary.

“If you need a
—a...well, that sort of thing...with a-another woman, then...I’ll not stop you.”  She almost got all of it out before he reacted.

His hissed curse was especially loud as he launched across the tabletop at her, sending them both over the other side.

Raoul swiveled just before they hit, taking the brunt of the fall. The jolt still jarred her as much as the man beneath her did, mauling her neck and chin with his mouth. Linna had hers open to scream  then remembered that she couldn’t. She couldn’t struggle. She couldn’t react. She’d made a pact. She tried to shut her mind to it. She slammed her eyes shut and vowed to keep them that way. Then she was searching for that numb state she’d found when her perfectly ordered and structured life had first started falling apart.

It didn’t work.

Harsh breathing filled her ears and the heat grew apace with it. Large hands moved down her back, past her buttocks, separating her thighs and moving her into a position he must want then making certain of it by propping her into a sitting position. Linna was swaying in place and had to lock her knees to keep from keeling over. She wasn’t touching the floor. She didn’t even know where it was. She was straddling his waist to stay astride him, bearing the intense fire of him through her petticoat and the fine linen of her pantaloons; reeling with that sensation, stunned by the intimacy, and doing her best to ignore how her palms were tingling from being in contact with his chest.

He started moving his hands again, shifting them in spurts of motion up her arms...to her shoulders, while her heartbeat accompanied each gesture as if bidding him onward
. Linna barely kept from shoving him away when as he reached the little bustles of her sleeves. And then he was trying to force them down.