Queen of Hearts (17 page)

"Why should I be nervous?" she argued logically. "You've already given me your word not to...to attack me!" Who was she trying to convince?

"I certainly did," he chuckled, opening the door for her and flipping on a light switch. It wasn't fully dark yet and wouldn't be for some time but evening shadows had settled on the gracious room. "Therefore I can only conclude you're a trifle worried about attacking me\"

"Adam Halleck, you are the most arrogant, incorrigible..." Janna began, rounding on him, hands on her hips.

"And I'm very loveable too," he interrupted, backing away in a parody of terror. He laughed at the violent little frown on Janna's face and made for the hearth. "I can see where you might be worried about not being able to control yourself around me," he went on wisely, going down on one knee to begin the process of building a fire. The warmth of the day was seeping away and an evening chill would soon make itself felt this close to the ocean.

"If I were you, I'd recognize defeat when I saw it," he went on, setting the kindling in a neat nest. "Think how pleasant surrender will be, Janna."

The masculine superiority in his tone was too much for Janna. Her nerves were already on edge and Adam's mockery was the match needed to start the fire of her temper.

"Don't you dare talk to me as if you know I'll find it impossible to resist your domineering, chauvinistic, unromantic lovemaking..." She broke off, furious at the lack of attention he was paying her. Adam seemed vastly more concerned with starring his fire than exchanging verbal sallies at the moment. Her hands clenched into fists at her sides.

"Go ahead," he invited quietly, not looking at her as he struck a match.

"Go ahead and what?" she demanded angrily, towering over him for once as he knelt in front of the fireplace.

"Go ahead and slap my face. You're itching to do it, aren't you? Just a second and I'll make it easier for you." Adam bent forward, set the match to the paper and kindling and then straightened, still on his knee, to face her.

He was right. It was a great temptation. She owed him another slap, J anna told herself furiously and then winced at the memory of having already struck him twice in the recent past. What kind of woman was he turning her into, she wondered grimly,

"I probably made a mistake letting you get away with hitting me earlier in our relationship," Adam continued off handedly, resting one hand on his bent leg. "Now you're wondering if you can risk it again. Well, there's only one way to find out for certain what will happen, isn't there?" he taunted cheerily.

In the silence following his remark, J anna tapped the toe of one foot consideringly. Why was he encouraging her to hit him?

"It would serve you right if I did," she said coolly, eyes narrowing.

"Probably. That doesn't mean I'll be overcome by a sense of justice and decide not to retaliate, though," he pointed out reasonably, watching her face expectantly.

"You'd hit me back?" she asked cautiously, not really believing he'd use his greater strength against her in such a crude fashion.

"I'll match anything you give me with something of equal value, Janna," Adam told her softly. "Word for word; blow for blow or," he smiled with deliberately sensuality, "kiss for kiss."

"I'd never willingly give you kisses," Janna countered bitterly, knowing he had the power to make a liar out of her and furious at the knowledge.

"You'll give me much more than that," he promised, the velvet of his voice once again unable to conceal the steel beneath it. "And you'll give it to me tonight!" The message of dominance in his eyes was more than J anna's nervy mood could take.

"You have no right...!" she blazed and swung her hand in a short arc designed to end against the side of his face. But something flashed into the grey-green eyes, something which washed away all the green, leaving only steel. She'd seen that look before and knew what it meant. At the last split second, she aborted the slap voluntarily, barely missing her target. She'd known in that ultimate instant that Adam would, indeed, have repaid her in kind. He would fulfill his vow to give as good as he got and in any contest of pure physical strength she was bound to be the loser.

"That's my girl," Adam murmured, a strange half-smile twisting his mouth. "You're learning."

Janna stared at him, the tip of her tongue touching her dry lips briefly.

"You would really have hit me?" she whispered.

"I wouldn't have slapped your face," he corrected, getting slowly to his feet.

"Yes, you would have done so. I saw it in your eyes!"

"What you saw there was a decision to turn you over my knee if you went through with it," Adam explained drawlingly. "Remember that the next time you're tempted!" He put both hands on her shoulders and bent to give her a chaste kiss on the forehead. "Don't look so shocked, little queen. You'd be disappointed in me if I weren't as strong as you! Now why don't you fix us a bite to eat? Lunch was a long time ago!"

Janna began preparations for dinner in a daze that went seemingly unnoticed by Adam who puttered around the kitchen beside her, showing her where different items were stored and volunteering to watch the steaks grilling in the oven.

"So they won't be overcooked," he explained.

"The word 'overcooked' could not possibly be used to describe this meat," Janna proclaimed, slicing into the still-red heart of her steak some time later.

"Just right," Adam nodded as if she had complimented him. "By the way, you make a fantastic salad dressing, honey," he added, helping himself to more of the greens and pouring the spicy dressing on top. The daze Janna had been experiencing began to wear off as a sense of pleasure at Adam's appreciation of her cooking replaced it.

"I've got an after-dinner liqueur I've been saving for a special occasion," he told her as the last of the dishes was stacked in the dishwasher. "Let's have it in front of the fire." Without waiting for her response, Adam switched off the kitchen light, taking Janna's arm and guiding her into the living room where the flames flickered merrily on the hearth. There was no other light in the room now and darkness had closed in outside.

"Come down here and sit beside me," Adam instructed, holding the bottle and two glasses in one hand and yanking on Janna's wrist with the other. There was no option but to sink down beside him on the thickly piled rug in front of the fire.

"Never say I'm not a romantic," he told her, pouring fragrant liqueur into two stemmed glasses and handing her one. His eyes met hers over the crystal and the barely dampened male desire in their depths made Janna draw in her breath in a little gasp.

"An isolated house on a beach, a fire blazing in the fireplace and a soft rug," Adam itemized slowly, the velvet in his words sending a tingle down Janna's spine. "I have given my woman just enough good wine and liqueur to relax her and soon she will thank me for the wonderful day." His voice roughened sexily on the last words and Janna felt the glass in her hand shake. Hastily she took a small sip, hoping to lower the risk of spilling sticky liqueur on the beautiful rug.

"Such a well-staged scene implies a lot of practice," she retorted, determined not to sink completely under his spell. She tool another sip of her drink for courage and flashed him a look from beneath her lashes.

"Ah," he smiled slowly. "This is the part where I'm supposed to tell you very sincerely that no other woman has ever been privileged to share my seaside retreat."

"Are you going to tell me that?" she whispered quietly.

"Would you believe me if I did?" he inquired, lifting one heavy brow interestedly.

Janna met his eyes. "Yes. As annoying and irritating and domineering as you are, I admit I would trust you, regardless of what you told me," she stated simply, factually.

"Isn't it nice to be able to trust someone completely?" he asked huskily, trying his drink, his gaze locked with hers.

Janna's fingers tightened and again the glass in her hand trembled. She was unable to break the hold he had on her now. "Yes."

"That's the way I'm going to be able to trust you after you give yourself to me, sweetheart," he murmured richly.

"You...you haven't answered the question," she managed in a ragged little voice.

"About having brought other women here? The answer is that I haven't had the opportunity. I barely finished the house a few months ago and since then the decorator has been busy with it." A touch of the highwayman's grin moved his lips. "Honesty compels me to admit, however, that all the time I was building it, I wasn't planning on spending a lot of lonely, isolated weekends in this house!"

The humor of his confession broke through Janna's feeling of being deliberately seduced long enough to make her chuckle in response.

"Oh, Adam! Complete honesty isn't always called for, you know! You could have left it at telling me you've never brought another woman here!"

"Not good enough between us, my queen. We will know each other totally." On a note of deepening passion, Adam reached across to remove the glass from her fingers, setting it safely down beside his on the hearth. Then his hands moved to shape her face and hold her still for his kiss.

In that moment when she knew it was too late to run, too late to fight, Janna made one last effort to resist the persuasion of his embrace. But Adam's ruthlessly demanding mouth overpowered her weakened defenses with an easy, hungry approach that made a joke of her efforts. He forced her lips apart, drinking the nectar within as if it were a drug he had to have without any further delay.

But Janna felt as if she were the one being drugged. The now-familiar flicker of response she had experienced before in Adam's arms flared forth in full glory, seeking more intimate knowledge of this man who had come to dominate her senses. Adam's hands slid to the back of her head, loosening the knot of hair and letting the dark brown strands tumble over his fingers.

"Adam!" she breathed on a mere thread of sound. Her arms found their way around his neck and at this sign of response on her part he took the opportunity to lower her beneath him until Janna lay nestled in the rug.

"You are so perfect for me," he murmured, leaning on his elbow beside her and stroking one roughened palm along her throat, over her breast and then along the curving line of her hip. He lowered his head and kissed her again and when her lips parted willingly this time his hand on her hip tightened, drawing her against him.

Janna breathed deeply as her thigh came into contact with his strongly muscled one. She sensed his rising passion and took a female delight in knowing she could satisfy it.

And she could satisfy it, Janna told herself fiercely. She knew it deep within and longed to prove it to him. She allowed her fingers to trail caressingly around his neck and down his back, stopping now and then instinctively to knead the sinewy skin. His answering groan told her she was having as great an effect on him as he was having on her.

Janna was dimly aware of Adam's fingers on the buttons of her blouse as his mouth made its way over to the delicacy of her earlobe. She stiffened briefly, remembering how he had once nipped the lobe in sharp punishment. But this time he only played gently with it between his teeth and by the time her attention went back to the fingers on her buttons it was too late to stop that particular invasion, even if she had found the strength.

"When I packed this shirt of yours," he whispered in her ear, sliding the garment off her shoulders, "I imagined what it would be like to take it off you. The reality is for superior to my fantasy!"

"Adam?" Janna's voice came hesitantly, "Are you...are you going to...."

"Am I going to make love to you?" he supplied, his fingers at work now on the snap of her beige colored bra. "Sweetheart, for a well educated young woman, you do ask the silliest questions!" He chuckled affectionately against her smooth skin as the bra came free, exposing her softness to his eyes.

"Don't you want to make love to me?" he questioned, his hand gliding up to cup her breast, the sensation causing J anna to arch against him involuntarily. He held her quivering body closer. "Don't you?" he demanded gently.

"Oh, Adam," she sighed. She buried her face against his chest, her trembling fingers beneath his shirt, stroking his muscular back.

"Please hold me, Adam," Janna begged, her palms loving the feel of his chest, delighting in the crispness of hair which covered it.

"I told you I would give my woman whatever she wanted as long as I thought it was good for her," he teased lightly, complying with her request.

"Adam, I love you," 3anna heard herself murmur as she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck again, drawing his head down to hers. But before his lips met hers she felt him grow suddenly still.

"Whs...what's wrong?" she pleaded, opening her eyes to find him gazing intently down into her face. She knew her passion and love must be clearly revealed to him in the light of the fire. How could anyone hide such strong emotions? "Don't you..." She broke off and tried again. "Adam, don't you...."

"What I want," he said very distinctly, his voice unexpectedly harsh, "is to hear you tell me again what you just said."

She didn't pretend to misunderstand him. What was the point? She couldn't now lie to Adam and knew she never would be able to do so again.