The Tiger Prince (16 page)

He saw the movement and a muscle jerked in his cheek. “Come here.”

She moved toward him, obeying without question, vaguely aware of the softness of the carpet under the soles of her bare feet. She stopped before him.

He gently parted her thighs, and his hand cupped her as he had before.

Pleasure, need, hunger.

“You want me?” His finger rotated, pressed.

She shuddered. “Yes.”

“You want to draw me in and hold me?”

“Yes.”

“Fast? Hard?”

“Yes.”

He pushed her gently down on the divan and was between her thighs. “Then take me,” he said hoarsely as he nudged into her womanhood.

She gasped as she felt the intrusion, warm, smooth, club-hard.

He frowned. “Don’t fight me. I’m not going to hurt you. Let me in.”

“I’m not fighting you,” she said. If anything, she was fighting to take him, accept more.

“Too tight,” he muttered. “You have to be fight—” His hips thrust powerfully forward.

At the sudden pain, her teeth sank into her lower lip to keep from crying out.

His head snapped up and he looked down at her. “No!”

He was sheathed deep within her, a part of her yet not part of her.

His light eyes blazed down at her. “I can’t stop, dammit. It’s too late now. I have to go on.”

“I know you do.” She swallowed. The pain was going away, leaving only an ache for completion in its wake. “I know….”

“You don’t know anything,” he said harshly. “I wish to God you did.” He drew a shuddering breath. “Jesus, this is going to—
kill
me.” He drew out and then thrust gently forward.

Gentleness, care, skill. She could sense the stormy
violence brimming beneath the surface, and yet every move was controlled, disciplined.

“Ruel …”

“Be quiet,” he grated between his teeth. “I have to think about what I’m doing.” He laughed desperately. “And not doing. Are you all right?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’m going to take the next step.” He flexed, drew out, and then sank fast, hard like a sword thrust.

She gasped, her gaze flying to his face.

His eyes were now unseeing, his lips heavy with sensuality, his expression revealing the same mindlessness as she felt.

“Good,” he said hoarsely. “Now hold me, I’ll try to have it over fast. Ride it out.”

He exploded in a flurry of motion, thrusting, plunging.

Her fingers dug into his shoulders as she held on as he had bid her. Dear heaven, what was happening to her? Total possession. She felt chained to him in body and response. She couldn’t stop herself from taking, yielding to his every move, his every command. She was held captive by the pleasure, the need that kept soaring higher and higher….

The pleasure mounted, crested and then …

Was she screaming? She wasn’t sure of anything through the heat haze enfolding her.

He tensed, his back arching, and an expression of unutterable pleasure stamping his face. Then he was collapsing on top of her, trembling as if he had the shaking sickness.

Dangerous … The thought emerged through the mist of languor and exhaustion enfolding her. She had been right to resist Ruel, wrong to yield. It was too powerful.
He
was too powerful.

She became vaguely aware of Ruel shifting off her, rising to his feet and moving toward the far end of the car.

“Where are you going?” she murmured. Dear
heaven, she felt as limp and weak as if she had been ravaged by the torrent pouring through Sikor Gorge.

“Lighting the stove.” He knelt beside the pot-bellied ceramic stove and opened the door.

“Are you cold?” she asked wonderingly. Her own body had never felt warmer, more heavily ripe.

“No.” He lit the coal and swung the door shut again. “But we may be here awhile and I don’t want you chilled. God knows I feel guilty enough without that burden.” He stood up and strode toward her. “How do you feel? Are you sore?”

“A little.” She sat up and brushed a tendril of hair back from her temple. “It was … more than I expected.”

“You were more than I expected too.” He grabbed a paisley silk couch throw from the divan and draped it around her. “And I have no liking for it.”

Even through the mellow haze surrounding her she became aware of the grimness of his tone. “You’re angry.”

“I didn’t want this.” He dropped down on the rug, his hands tightly linked around his knees. “It’s a complication. You weren’t supposed to be a virgin, dammit. I don’t want the responsibility.”

Hurt spiraled through her, jarring her back to reality. She said haltingly, “It’s not your responsibility. No one forced me to come here. It was my choice.”

“The hell it was,” he said roughly. “I seduced you. I wanted you and I set out to get what I wanted.”

“That’s right, you did.” That first flush of heat was leaving her. She shivered and drew the throw closer around her. “And I’m sure you were very good at it. But I let you do it and now it’s over. I’d … better get back to the bungalow.”

“To Patrick.” He smiled bitterly. “Do you know I’ve been very close to paying dear Patrick a visit? I kept thinking about him and his fondness for little girls and decided I wanted to cut his heart out.”

She believed him. Ruel sat motionless, looking like a splendid statue of a naked gladiator, but the repressed
ferocity she sensed beneath his stillness bewildered her. “It was never like that with us.”

“Obviously. Why the hell did you let me do it?”

“I thought if I let you … men go away afterward. They don’t want it anymore.”

“Don’t they?”

She gazed at him and her breath left her.

“Oh, yes, I still want it. I wanted it again almost the minute I left you and I’m mad as hell I can’t have it. Are you going to tell me why you deliberately misled me?”

“I didn’t mislead you. It was none of your concern.”

“Well, it is now. Who is Patrick Reilly to you?”

“My father.” She saw his surprise and rushed on. “There’s no proof, you understand. He was only one of my mother’s customers, but I know he’s my father.”

“But he doesn’t?”

“He doesn’t like responsibility either,” she said simply.

“Christ.”

“Someday he’ll tell me he believes it’s true,” she said quietly. “But you don’t have to worry. I don’t expect anything from either of you.”

“Even I have a code of sorts. I took something from you and now I have to give it back.”

She smiled tremulously. “I believe that’s considered physically impossible.”

“Then I’ll give you something else. What do you want?”

She realized he actually meant it. “You didn’t take anything of value from me. I’m not like those women at the fort who believe a woman is lost to shame because she doesn’t go to her wedding bed a virgin.”

“Ian told me,” he said sardonically. “You’re ‘different.’ I doubt if your bridegroom would approve of this particular difference.”

“I shall probably never wed, so it’s foolish to continue this discussion.” She looked around for her clothes and found them strewn across the carpet where he had tossed them. “Would you please pass me my shirt?”

“No, but I’ll put them closer to the fire to dry out.”
He scooped up the garments and crossed back to the stove. “You’re not leaving until we finish this. Now, what do you want?”

Sweet Mary, why wouldn’t he give up? She was tempted to tell him she wanted only to escape from this strange pain that continued to grow the longer she stayed with him. “You don’t owe me anything,” she repeated. “Why won’t you listen to me?”

“Because I’m having uncomfortable twinges of conscience. I guarantee it doesn’t happen often.” He turned from spreading her clothes out before the stove. “But then, I’ve never been in this particular situation before. First I cause a woman to be knifed, then I take her innocence. It’s a bit much even for me.”

“I wasn’t innocent.”

“The hell you weren’t. Growing up in a whorehouse doesn’t make you a whore.”

She stiffened. “I know that,” she said fiercely. “I’ll never be like her.”

“Who?”

She could have bitten her tongue. “My mother.”

“And she was a whore?”

“Yes, but I
don’t
want to talk about it.”

“Oh no, you’re not closing me out again. We’ve come too far for that. If I’d probed a little deeper before, I wouldn’t be in this predicament. Why does the idea of being like your mother frighten you?”

“Living like that … it’s a nightmare. She became a slave. I’ll
never
be a slave. I’ll never let anyone do that to me.”

“If you have such a revulsion for whorehouses, why did you go to Zabrie’s?” He smiled grimly. “Since I know it was definitely not for the purpose I originally envisioned.”

She looked down at the carpet. “I had business with her.”

“Railroad business?”

“No.”

“Kartauk?”

Her head snapped up. “What do you know about Kartauk?”

“More than I did an hour ago. I know he’s not your lover either.”

“Of course he’s not.” Her tone was abstracted as she stared warily at him. “Where did you hear about him?”

“Abdar.” As he saw her go rigid with shock, he added roughly. “Don’t look at me like that. If I was still a threat to you, do you think I’d be talking about Kartauk or Abdar? The game’s changed, and I’ll have to find some other way to get what I want.”

“And what do you want?”

“An audience with the maharajah and pressure brought to bear to influence him in the direction I want him to go.” He paused. “That’s what Abdar promised me in return for finding and turning Kartauk over to him.”

“And you were going to do it?” she whispered.

“I hadn’t made a firm decision. It was a possibility.”

“You went to a great deal of trouble just for a possibility.” She shook her head uncomprehendingly. “How could you? He’s a monster.”

“I suspected as much, but then, we’ve already discussed my lack of scruples. I don’t believe we have to probe any further into my iniquities.”

Her shock was rapidly being replaced by anger. “And is that why you brought me here? Did Abdar tell you to—”

“Don’t be foolish. Abdar has nothing to do with this.”

She suddenly remembered something. “Not even our meeting at Zabrie’s? Was that man you killed in the alley a part of your plan?”

“I hate to disappoint you, but I don’t kill without good reason.” He frowned. “His presence there was none of my doing, but Pachtal’s arrival was a little too convenient for my taste. I’ve been wondering—where do you think you’re going?”

“I’m leaving.” She threw the wrap away and jerked
on her damp shirt. “Providing you haven’t stationed Pachtal or one of his men outside to stop me.”

“No Pachtal. No Abdar,” he said curtly. “That’s over. I know I’ve hurt you, but try to think reasonably.”

She whirled on him. “You haven’t hurt me. I don’t let men like you and Abdar hurt me.” She pulled on her trousers and snatched up her belt. “And reason dictates I’d be very stupid to trust you again.”

“You never trusted me. You let me take you because it gave you pleasure, not because you had faith in my honesty.” He held up his hand as she started to speak. “And I never expected anything else. You’d be a lunatic to trust me. Now that we’ve established that truth, let’s get on with the matter at hand. Abdar wants Kartauk. You don’t want him to find him. I assume that means you also want him out of Kasanpore?”

She didn’t answer.

He shrugged. “Very well, I’ll get your Kartauk out of Kasanpore and find a place for him where he’ll be safe from Abdar. Then we’re quits, all debts paid.”

“What?”

“You heard me. I’m certainly not going to repeat this idiocy.” He began to dress. “Christ, I can’t believe I said it to begin with.”

“Neither can I. Nor that you’d think I’d believe you.”

“You want proof that I’m not in Abdar’s pocket?” He pulled on his right boot. “Li Sung.”

She went still. “What about Li Sung?”

“He’s not in Narinth. He paid a visit to your supply yard night before last and departed with a knapsack you’d left earlier. I assume he was taking it to Kartauk. Ian followed him but lost him in the bazaar.”

“Your brother is helping Abdar too?”

“My brother is helping me … with the greatest reluctance.” He pulled on his other boot. “I didn’t have to tell you any of this, you know. I could have staked out the supply yard myself and waited until Li Sung came back. There’s a good chance I’d have found Kartauk. I’m better at stalking prey than Ian.”

“Yes, I imagine you are. You have the hunter’s instinct.”

He ignored the bitterness in her tone. “I’m not ashamed to admit to that instinct. It’s helped me to survive any number of times. It can help me save your Kartauk.”

“What if I don’t want your help?”

He said curtly, “You’ve got it anyway. I want this debt paid and out of my way.”

“How honorable.”

“I’m not honorable, but I’m usually honest.” His lips thinned. “But with you something went wrong and I don’t like it.”

“You said that before.”

“It’s true. It’s dangerous when a man starts lying to himself.”

“It’s me you lied to.”

“No, I just didn’t tell you the entire truth. But I lied to myself. I was in a fever to have you and so I convinced myself…. I’m not stupid and I know people.” He smiled crookedly. “But I never explored any path that would lead me where I didn’t want to go. I was careful never to dig very deep into why you went to Zabrie’s. You threw out all kinds of signals you weren’t what I wanted you to be, but I didn’t let myself believe them. Hell, even Ian told me I was seeing what I wanted to see.”

“Are you finished?”

“Almost. Abdar has to be watching my progress with you with interest. If you let me help you, we’ll get Kartauk out of Kasanpore, but if you send me on my way, Abdar will think I’ve failed and probably initiate a move himself.” He smiled. “Can you afford the time to contend with Abdar with your railroad to finish?”

“Better than I can afford to trust a man who might betray me.”

“I won’t betray you. You’ll realize that if you look clearly at me and judge me as I am. Can you do that, Jane?”

Sweet Mary, the man was impossible. He had dominated
her body until she had felt as possessed as a concubine in the maharajah’s harem and then turned around and told her he had used her. How did he expect her to think coherently through this haze of hurt and anger?