She gritted her teeth. ‘Very funny. Now you’ve had your little joke at my expense, how about handing them over?’ When he continued to regard her oddly she exploded. ‘I might have known you wouldn’t play fair!’ She thrust the letters into the coat’s sagging patch-pocket and marched across to the bureau to tug at the drawer he had delved into. It opened a tiny crack then jammed as it hit a solid, black-robed hip.
‘They’re not in there, Honor—’
‘Well, where are they, then?’ she demanded belligerently. He was giving her that blank-eyed look that she had already come to hate, the one that meant he was stalling for time while his swift intelligence plotted to outwit her.
‘Are you thinking of trying to blackmail me? Don’t you find that terribly ironic in the circumstances? Well, you can forget it. They’re really not that important.’
Perhaps her lofty lie pricked his conscience, for his stance relaxed.
‘I’ll get them for you, Honor, I promise.’ With a deft nudge of his hip he thrust the drawer closed again and hooked a finger under her belt. ‘Just not tonight. Really...it’s late and I’m tired.’ He towed her stiffly resisting body back around the bed.
Her little snort told him what she thought of his promises.
‘When?’ she demanded.
‘Soon.’
She dug in her heels, grabbing the end rail of the bedstead as he tried to manoeuvre her to the door. ‘How soon?’
His mouth compressed at her stubbornness and his fingers twisted impatiently in her belt. ‘As soon as I can get to them. Now why don’t you go back to bed—?’
‘Get to them?’ All her senses went on alert at his slip. ‘Where are they? Don’t tell me you gave them to the police?’ she wailed in mortification.
‘No, of course not. Look, Honor, I—’ Something gave between them and they both looked down in surprise. The aged belt had parted under the pressure of his strong fingers and with nothing to anchor it the thick coat curled apart under its own formidable weight.
There was a tiny silence. Adam was first to recover.
‘Rolling out the red carpet for me, Honor?’ he murmured softly, his metaphor revealing how dangerously attune to her thoughts he was. He fingered a fold of slippery, butter-coloured satin. ‘Isn’t this rather demure, given your wicked taste in lingerie?’
Her mouth felt strangely dry. ‘You were the one who did my packing,’ she pointed out croakily, fascinated by the contrast between the shiny-smooth fabric and the hair-roughened back of his hand. She should step away, she knew she should. This was terrible. Exactly the sort of thing she had wanted to avoid!
‘Very sensuous, though...’ He flattened his hand against the front of her shoulder and created a soft friction between the fabric and her skin, the warmth of his touch sinking to her very bones. She felt a vivid tingling in her breasts and suddenly there were jagged shoals forming under the slick satin.
‘And maybe not so demure,’ he growled, watching the change take place. Where the fabric had formerly flowed over her breasts in a smooth unbroken curve, it now fell from two prominent peaks which trembled with each uncertain breath she took. His hand moved down and suddenly he was weighing her in his large palm, his fingers curving under her breast to her ribs while his thumb rode the upper swell. ‘Look how perfectly you fill my hand...’
Honor bit her lip to stop herself moaning at his throaty murmur of gratified discovery of her size. His thumb moved experimentally against the thinly sheathed peak and this time the sound escaped her control, along with an explicit shiver that arced along her nerves, transmitting an unmistakable message to the man who held her.
His eyes smouldered, the sensuous curiosity in his expression hardening to savage satisfaction.
‘Oh, yes, you like that, don’t you, Honor? You like the way I can make you feel...’
With his other hand he reached around and took hold of the collar of the coat, peeling it down her body and kicking it away from their feet as his fingers returned to stroke warmly up the sensitive back of her thigh. The satin hem ruffled against his forearm as he ventured further, teasing the soft downiness of her bottom. With a thick groan he spanned the twin globes with the broad cup of his hand, adjusting his stance to pull her tightly between his legs as he found her mouth and set the seal on her pleasure with his kisses.
The taste of him was as recklessly novel and exciting as his touch and Honor stopped lying to herself and threw caution to the winds. She wrapped her arms around his neck and went on tiptoe to fit herself closer to the hard male contours. The hem of his robe parted as he accommodated himself to her need, her hands clenching in the silky dampness of his hair as she felt the naked rasp of thick, hard thighs against her own. They were as densely furred as his chest, taut and quivering with the same rigid, muscular tension. Only the secure knot at his waist shielded her from blatant awareness of his burgeoning arousal. The threat of that reality muted, Honor was free to indulge her forbidden fantasies. She twisted her torso, seeking to increase the contact but not wanting to trap his hand and stop the exquisitely sweet torment at her breast; she opened her mouth and mind and heart to the luxury of pure, unadulterated, concentrated sensation.
He responded to her lack of inhibition with a violent surge of lust. Both hands now cupped her bottom, his fingers curving deep into the dimpled flesh as he held her still for the heated thrusting of his hips. His tongue was equally fierce in the silky moistness of her mouth, shocking her with his ability to make her feel full and empty at the same time.
Only when he pushed her on to the bed and bent his head to fiercely suckle her breast through the cream satin did her sensual stupor begin to dissipate. She suddenly became frighteningly aware of Adam’s powerfulness, his nudity beneath the robe. Even two overlapping layers of double towelling could no longer disguise the full extent of his swollen arousal. She badly wanted him to finish what they had started, for him to make love to her, but what Adam wanted undoubtedly had very little to do with that emotion. If nothing else, tonight had proved that he had a very strong sex drive. If he was still tied up in knots about his wife it was no wonder he had gone off the deep end.
She felt his hand touch her belly and caught her breath on a wave of delicious weakness. ‘Adam—’ Her feeble protest was drowned by a loud crash from her room, quickly followed by a softly galloping thunder.
‘What the—?’ Adam’s eyes were glazed and his cheekbones streaked with red as he jerked his head up, instinctively wrenching Honor off the bed and pushing her protectively behind him, away from the source of the noise.
The door to her room shuddered wider. A flash of grey streaked between their feet and shot out of the other door, leaving them teetering.
‘Monty!’
The realisation came simultaneously, although only Adam added raggedly, ‘That scrawny cat! What’s he done now? One day he’s going to go too far and I’m going to wring his bloody neck!’