Savage Deception (Liberty's Ladies) (19 page)

Something fluid and hot started churning within the very center of her femininity. Now Diana recognized the sensation for what it was. She knew she wouldn’t be able to stop it and didn’t want to. This was what she’d craved from the moment Tanner had kissed her on the bluff all those years ago. This was what she’d ached for since he’d left her three nights ago. It was going to happen again. Her body was controlling her and she didn’t care.

She made tiny mewing sounds and gyrated her hips, more than eager to accommodate his lusty feasting. Rearing upward to give him better access, she gave a groan of disappointment when he suddenly stopped. But her dismay was short-lived. Tanner lifted himself onto his knees, and with such deliberate slowness that Diana thought she was going to die from wanting, he slid his length inside of her.

Then, as if they were of one mind, they began to move together, almost in dancelike tempo. Their bodies fit perfectly well, so well that they seemed fused with each rise and fall of every thrust and arch. The churning within Diana grew into a fire so intense and heated that she felt destined never to know peace again, but she didn’t care. All she could concentrate on was how Tanner looked.

His eyes were so black and yet golden, his face so handsome and manly, yet beautiful, his kisses so breathtaking that she felt weak, yet strong. She felt as light as the moonbeams on the ceiling, and her whole body glowed with Tanner’s possession. It was impossible not to, because she knew that at any moment she would explode.

When Tanner thrust into her with a powerful urgency that tapped her very center, Diana was the one who couldn’t be quiet. “Tanner, Tanner, Tanner. It’s … going to happen … again.” Total disbelief on her part.

“Let it, love. Let it.” He pulled her toward him and ground his pelvis into hers, but it was his fire-filled kiss that finally pushed her over the edge.

Never did Diana expect to feel anything so intense. It was so vibrant that she thought she had died and been born again in one instantaneous flash of pleasure. Her whole body experienced the ecstasy in undulating waves that reached into every cell and nerve. She had closed her eyes at the very beginning, but now she opened them in wonder because Tanner started to moan and spill himself into her, and the fire was still fresh and raging within her. She instinctively arched against him and circled her hips, drawing the very essence of him into her, and the subsequent explosion of her own body caused her to cry out against his mouth.

Tanner held her close for long moments afterward. Diana was too numb to say anything. Instead she started to cry.

“What is it? Have I hurt you? Good God, Diana, tell me what I’ve done.” Tanner bent over her, a worried expression on his face when he didn’t get any response except tears.

Diana stroked his cheek in an attempt to wipe away his worried look and finally composed herself. “It’s just that … I’ve never … known what to feel … never experienced anything except with you.” She gulped back a tiny sob. “I don’t know if I can stand it, Tanner. It feels so wonderful that I think I might die from it. Am I being silly? I know I’m not like your other women, I’m not really experienced… .”

“I’m glad you aren’t like any other woman I’ve ever known, otherwise, I wouldn’t love you so much.” He kissed her with tender solemnity. “And as far as experience, well, my bewitching vixen, I’ll give you as much as you can handle.”

He began laughing, and Diana realized he was teasing her, but she wasn’t teasing when she pushed against him and forced him to lie flat on the bed while she wantonly rested atop him. “Promise me that,” she said.

“Taunting tease, I’d promise you my soul if you asked for it.”

“Hmmm, I might just take you up on that, but for now,” Diana’s tongue began licking at his lips, “I’d rather something else.”

The teasing light left Tanner’s eyes, darkening to that ebony black that always made her shiver with anticipation. The proof of his desire nudged at the juncture between her thighs, growing with each bold movement of her body. When he positioned her atop him, Tanner more than adequately lived up to his promise.

12

In the full light of day, Tanner and Diana finally got up and began to eat the hearty breakfast left for them outside of the door by Cammie. The house had long been quiet, the party ending, Diana learned, shortly after she’d rushed into her room last night. Tanner had immediately ordered everyone out — even Gabriella, who left in a snit on the arm of a British officer.

Tanner lounged on the bed while he ate, naked and without so much as a sheet to cover him. It never ceased to amaze Diana how comfortable he was with his own body. She, however, wore a robe. She told him she was chilly, but in reality she still felt shy in front of him.

Diana sat next to him and ran her fingers along the broad planes of his back. “What are these scars from?” she asked, concern in her eyes. “Were you whipped at one time?”

His muscles stiffened beneath her fingers for an instant before relaxing. “Yes, a very long time ago, a time best left forgotten.”

Her lips silently planted tiny kisses along the whip lines before saying, “I know how much it must have hurt. I remember … the crop.”

Tanner instantly gathered her to him and stroked her hair. “Kingsley is dead, Diana. You must forget him and what he did to you.”

“I have forgotten him, for the most part.” She hesitated a moment. “Still, sometimes I dream about him and he seems very real, very menacing. Lately I have this strange feeling that he’s more alive than ever — and I get so frightened.”

“Kingsley won’t hurt you again. He is dead, sweetheart. Nothing will hurt you now that you’re my wife.”

Diana wrapped her arms around his neck and inhaled his musky scent. She smiled up at him. “I want to return to Briarhaven, our home.”

Tanner’s hold tightened around her waist. “Ah, Diana, I do, too, but my father…”

“It’s time you made peace with one another. Harlan is an old and sickly man. This would be the perfect way to begin the new year. Please forgive him. You’re all he has.”

Tanner nodded. “I know that, but I’m not Kingsley, and he better not expect me to be.”

“He doesn’t, and I’m glad you aren’t Kingsley, so very glad.” Their lips met and a fierce yearning once more filled them. Both couldn’t help but wonder if their lovemaking would always be filled with fire.

~ ~ ~

“Here’s a bit of potato soup for you, Mr. King. I know it ain’t the best but it’s all I could come up with. In fact, I was mighty lucky to have found a decent potato, what with all the hungry folks around here.” Mike Candy offered the cracked bowl to the invalid man, who lifted himself off his pallet and rested on an elbow while he drank the soup. “There now,” Candy commented affably. “You’ll be feeling as good as new soon.” He made a gesture to touch King’s forehead, but King instantly drew back.

“My fever’s broken,” King snapped. “I don’t need you to play nursemaid.”

“You sure as hell did the other day when you were so sick,” Candy reminded him. “You know, Mr. King, you’re an ornery fellow, but I let you stay here because I know you don’t have a home to go to.”

“I do have a home!” King shot back. “I have a home that would put the best house in Charlestown to shame.”

“Then why don’t you go there?”

King frowned and retreated into a stony silence that always managed to unnerve Mike Candy. Candy looked out the door of the hovel and pointed to the road that led away from Charlestown. “Well look there. It’s Mr. Tanner Sheridan’s coach. I recognize it from the last time he was here.”

“Let me see. Help me up!” King demanded, and with Candy’s assistance he made it to the door.

“He has his wife with him,” Candy commented, a smile in his voice. “She sure is a pretty lady. Wonder where they’re going?”

“They’re going home.” Mr. King’s voice cracked. Candy looked at him, ready to ask him how he knew that, but there was a hideous black rage festering within King’s eyes. Instead, Candy led him back to the pallet. “I feel sick,” King admitted, and Candy saw that the man was shivering and extremely pale. Candy felt his forehead and found it warm to the touch.

“Better rest, Mr. King,” was Candy’s advice.

“No rest for me,” King mumbled and lay back. “No rest until I get the jewels and rid myself of that half-breed and claim Diana. Diana.
Mine, always mine”

The hatred in King’s voice caused Candy to grimace and shake his head sadly. King constantly spoke in his delirium about the half-breed and this woman called Diana. And Candy, gentle soul that he was, felt extremely sorry that Mr. King was so unhappy. But he was sorrier still for this woman named Diana. Apparently King was obsessed with her, and from what Candy could ascertain, he might be dangerous, too.

“Poor lady,” Candy muttered. “For your sake Mr. King better not get well enough to claim you.”

~ ~ ~

Farnsworth and his men were still at Briarhaven.

Upon their arrival, Tanner escorted Diana to her bedroom and was instantly summoned away by Captain Farnsworth. Diana tried not to think about Tanner, the man she loved, in conversation with the British officer. Yet Tanner had mentioned during their trip that he knew the British would still be quartered at Briarhaven and that their stay was a good thing for all concerned.

“Why?” Diana had asked, growing a bit peeved that Tanner could think in such a way but without admitting how much she hated the thought of it.

“Because,” he had explained, “supply wagons will come through to feed the troops and all of us at Briarhaven will be fed. The Santee area is starving, Diana, and these patriots running through the woods and stealing from the wagons won’t do any of us any good.”

“I know that!” Diana colored at the vehemence of her own statement. She hoped Tanner had no way of ascertaining how much she cared about the situation along the Santee River. But then, he wouldn’t know or surmise that she was one of the Swamp Fox’s informants — one of the very people who passed information about British supply wagons and any other news she overheard that the rebels might find useful in their fight for independence.

She recalled the appraising way Tanner had watched her, with one dark eyebrow cocked in thought. To pull him away from whatever he might be thinking, Diana placed her gloved hand in his and cuddled up to him before kissing him. For the rest of the trip, everything was fine.

But now Diana paced her room while Hattie unpacked the trunks she’d brought from Charlestown. “Lord, Miss Diana.” Hattie’s awe-filled words could scarcely be heard in the bedroom when she opened the small jewelry box filled with jewels. “I thought you done brought some pretty gowns home, but Mr. Tanner must be powerful rich to afford these.”

“He is, I suppose.”

“Hmm, hmm. Just how did you and Mr. Tanner meet up again and get married so quick?”

“Don’t ask questions, Hattie, but I have some questions for you.” Diana stopped pacing. “Have you heard anything about the Swamp Fox or Clay Sinclair?”

Hattie shook her head. “No, ma’am.”

“There hasn’t been any activity of any sort while I was away?”

“No, all been quiet.”

“Too quiet, I think,” Diana mused and grinned. “Maybe it’s time to stir things up a bit.”

~ ~ ~

Tanner shook Farnsworth’s outstretched hand and settled himself into the comfortable chair in his father’s library. Farnsworth leaned back in the chair behind the desk, a proprietary air about him. “Your bride is fine, I take it.”

“Diana is very well, thank you,” Tanner commented.

Farnsworth smiled sheepishly. “I must apologize for what I said about her in the tavern that night. I had too much to drink. None of it was true.”

“I know that.”

Farnsworth scowled. “You don’t have to be so quick to agree, but your bride’s virtue isn’t the matter at hand here.”

“What is?”

“You, Tanner Sheridan, and I may call you that since that is your name. I am curious about why you told me you weren’t related to the Sheridans of Briarhaven when I asked you.”

“I said I wasn’t related to them as far as I was concerned. I didn’t deny that Sheridan blood runs through my veins. Why the interest, Farnsworth?”

“How blunt you are.” Farnsworth fiddled with his quill pen. “Evidently you don’t want your wife or anyone else to know about Mariah.”

“How astute you
are,”
Tanner complimented, but he didn’t smile. “Now, what do you want?”

“A spy, my man, a good spy, and you’re the best.”

“I’ve retired. I told you that.”

“I’m certain you can come out of retirement to appease me. Before I left for Charlestown, I was very distressed about the rebel situation in this area. The Swamp Fox and his men were running rampant, and it seemed that somehow information about our activities was being relayed. My men have walked into a number of traps on occasion, and supply wagons have been commandeered. Needless to say, General Lord Rawdon is less than pleased.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“I don’t wish to be replaced, Sheridan.”

“How is activity now?” Tanner pressed.

“Quiet.”

“Then you don’t need me.”

Farnsworth leaned forward, a determined eagerness on his face. “I need to know that if the situation arises, you’ll discover who the informant is and bring him to me … only to me. I’d take great delight in hanging the rebel cur. He’s made me look like an absolute fool in Rawdon’s eyes. I won’t tolerate that. I won’t! Now, you must promise me you’ll do this for me if I have need of you.”

Folding his arms across his chest, Tanner shot Farnsworth a penetrating look. “In other words, you’re saying that if I don’t spy for you if the occasion arises, then you’ll tell my wife that I was a spy. So, go on. She’s a loyalist.”

“Ah, my good man, she may be a loyalist but she’s still a woman, and now a wife. Wives can be very jealous, and I remember an assignment in New York that concerned a beautiful spy, and let’s say that your relationship with this woman wasn’t all business.”

“So?”

“So, Tanner, I can make your life in the bedroom miserable for you. It’s plain you love your wife. I do recall seeing her at one such affair in Charlestown and her reaction to Gabriella Fox. Clearly she disliked the woman because you were sleeping with her.” Farnsworth threw down the quill in a triumphant gesture, extending a hand. “Have we reached a compromise?”

Tanner didn’t believe Diana would understand about Mariah. Reluctantly he shook Farnsworth’s hand.

~ ~ ~

Diana was pleased that Farnsworth didn’t join the family for dinner that evening. For the first time in a long while the dining room glowed with light, and Diana could almost imagine that the British weren’t encamped on the grounds and in nearby bedrooms.

Harlan sat at the head of the table, the soft candlelight caused his unusually pale complexion to glow, and Diana realized that it wasn’t only from the candle. He hadn’t taken his eyes from Tanner. Their initial meeting had been strained, neither one of them too inclined to be the first to embrace. Instead they had shaken hands and Tanner had inquired about his father’s health. Harlan had declared himself to be well, but Diana knew he wasn’t. As he lifted his wine glass to his lips, his hand shook, and she noticed he ate very little. But no matter the true state of his physical condition, it was clear that at this moment Harlan was happy.

“I can’t believe that the two of you are married,” Harlan noted, and smiled warmly at both Tanner and Diana. “This is the best news I could have received. Maybe you’ll make me a grandfather soon.”

Diana laughed and glanced at Tanner who sat in stony silence. “We’re working on it.”

“Good, good,” Harlan seemed more than satisfied at her remark.

Diana could tell that Harlan wanted Tanner to say something, but neither spoke directly to the other, and the slight strain that had been evident earlier was now intensifying. Harlan directed all of his conversation to Diana, but Tanner couldn’t seem to get up the nerve to speak directly to his own father. She had hoped the two men would put aside their differences, but now she realized that that hope was a vain one.

“Where is Naomi?” Diana asked Harlan.