“The second one won’t make you sick,” he promised quietly, and she was amazed at his perception. Dear God, she would have to be on her guard with this man. He was too perceptive, too shrewd. It would take only one slip for him to guess that she was a female. She must remember to swagger when she walked, lounge against furniture when she stood, and pepper her sentences with curses. Tony took a large gulp of brandy and by the grace of heaven managed not to choke. Suddenly a blood-red rose blossomed inside her chest and she began to relax to the point where she felt she was floating.
“It would have been helpful if you could have filled me in on the current mores of London, but you are so bloody unworldly, we shall have to learn together.”
His voice held no censure, but spoke fact. How could she take offense at the irregular things he said to her? Tony had never met anyone like Adam Savage in her life, and yet, and yet—they sat so companion ably, smoking and sipping brandy, it seemed they had always done it.
“I thought liquor was forbidden in the Indies,” Tony remarked. She watched the blue smoke spiral into the darkness and his voice came, rich as velvet. “There was never a time when intoxicants were not used in the East. To a sybarite an intoxicant enhances leisure. Indian mystics use drugs to open wide the doors of perception. Hookah pipes are used to inhale scented tobacco mixed with hashish. Intoxicants are thought to heighten sensuality to full-blown sexuality. Eastern poetry and song are filled with parallels between the madness of love and the headiness of inebriation. Ivory boxes painted with poppies are commonplace. They are designed to hold opium.”
The topic was so wicked, she should not listen. Yet how was she to learn unless she opened first her ears, then her mind? “Areyoufamiliar with drugs?” she asked in fascinated horror.
“Unfortunately I am.”
She was shocked, yet she heard the regret in his voice. “Even I know opium is unspeakably evil.” She tried not to sound judgmental but couldn’t help it.
“I am relieved that you know. However, try to be objective. All things under the sun are both good and bad. Used as a medicinal opiate, it can be a godsend. I wouldn’t like to contemplate having my leg cut off without it.”
Tony tossed her cheroot over the balustrade. “I wouldn’t like to contemplate having my leg cut off at all!” They laughed together and Adam Savage stood and stretched his limbs. They strolled back into the house, deep in their own reflections.
Tony thought him a font of information, like a tutor or a parent, yet the things he told her were not the things a tutor or parent would speak of.
When they entered the spacious bedchamber Tony’s thoughts were brought back to the present. How on earth would she sleep on the floor? She knew damn well Savage had proposed it to toughen up pampered little Lord Lamb. She was thankful he lit no candles.
The moonlight shining through the undraped windows showed her a thick-piled Indian rug with a tassled cushion tossed upon it. She sank down to the floor, stretching stiffly out with her arms behind her head as she had seen Anthony do. The brandy had warmed her blood considerably and she needed no blanket.
Tony’s eyelids began to droop in spite of the fact that she shared the chamber with a strange man. The moment her eyes closed she curled over, hugged the cushion, and tumbled headlong into a dream.
Antonia was longing for something, she knew not what, but her longing was so intense, it was painful. She was disguised, but it was not as a man, she was disguised as a swan. A black swan. Suddenly from nowhere appeared a leopard. She glided out upon the lake thinking to escape, but the leopard swam after her. Suddenly she was transformed into a female leopard. The powerful male swimming toward her was her mate for whom she had been longing. Before he could reach her, however, the black swans turned into painted tiles, the lake became the bathing pool, and the leopard was transformed into Adam Savage.
He stood waist deep in the water, the bronzed muscles of his wide chest gleaming with iridescent droplets. He held out his hand to her. “Will you not join me?” She resisted. If she removed the robe he would know she was a woman!
His eyes, bluer than the water, compelled her. She longed to go to him. He was everything to her, teacher, father, brother, lover, protector, god. He was an all-encompassing male force she could not resist. The robe slipped to her feet and she stepped into the pool among the floating lotus blossoms.
She longed for him to enfold her in his powerful arms, where she knew nothing again could ever hurt her. Instead he began to bathe her. She cupped her breasts with her hands to shield them from the blue flame of his eyes. Gently, but firmly, he removed her hands. “There is no shame in the naked body.” His voice, like rich velvet, compelled her to allow his hands to roam over her. His palm cupped a breast. She caught her breath in a gasp at the feel of his strong brown hand. Rough calluses abrased her silken skin and she found that she liked the roughness. The water was fragrantly scented, she could feel the heat from his body, but her eyes could not see his limbs beneath the surface. He washed her shoulders, her back, her breasts.
“How could you hide these from me?” he demanded. “
I lied to you,” she confessed, “I am not Anthony, I am Antonia!”
His laugh was savage. “I, too, lied. Iamthe whoremaster of Malabar. I’d like you to experience many things from different lands. Surely, Tony, you are not so narrow minded that you are not open to new experiences?”
“Of course not,” she said faintly.
He carried her to a massive bed in the shape of a swan. It was draped with black silk sheets embroidered with golden dragons. She knew that he, too, was naked, yet still she had not looked upon him below the waist. His powerful arms took her down to the bed with him and he pulled her to lie on top of him. Her soft breasts were crushed against the hard slab of his chest. His thighs beneath hers felt like marble. All of him was too hard, his hands, his body, his mouth.
Suddenly her eyes flew open. She realized it had been an erotic dream. Her cheek was pressed into the deep pile of the red, blue, and gold Indian rug. Her nostrils breathed in its faint scent of incense. Instead of Savage’s body, it was the hard floor that crushed her soft breasts. She took a deep breath of relief and let it out on a sigh, but she was left with a strange longing that she could not dispel. Her shameful body ached for the rough touch of a man. This man.
Antonia had a great deal of trouble going back to sleep. She feared another erotic dream, yet even that was preferable to lying beside him awake all night.
Chapter 15
Sunshine streaming in through the long windows of the bare bedchamber almost blinded her the next time she opened her eyes. Someone was shouting her name.
“Tony! Come and take a look at this splendid bathing room in the daylight. Devil take it, I wager you’ve never seen anything to equal it!”
Tony got to her feet slowly. Every bone in her body ached. Savage, a towel wrapped about his hips, lather covering his prominent jaw, and his hand wielding a wicked-looking razor, appeared in the doorway.
“It’s about time you joined the living, it’s after six,” Savage complained.
“Six? Judas, I thought it was at least noon.” Lud, where was Mr. Burke with her chocolate? she thought longingly.