Mistress of Deception

'Yes,' he urged thickly when she shuddered with involuntary pleasure. 'Yes...'

The arm around her waist loosened to find its way up to her breasts and she found herself being bombarded with even more sensations. Nipples were teased till they were tense and aching. All of her was tense and aching. By now all she wanted was for Alan to bend her to that railing once more, to do whatever he wanted, to give her body the release it craved, his oddly derisive

tone of a few moments ago quite forgotten.

Till he spoke to her like that again.

'I knew you wouldn't be able to resist for long,' he jeered.

Alan's obvious contempt cut through the fog of arousal that had been blanketing Ebony's pride, forcing her to face the unfaceable once more. He didn't love her. His offer of marriage was a sham, and so was this weekend. He'd tricked her into giving him the only thing he'd ever wanted from her, into resuming her old role as mistress.

The hurt was unbearable, the pain infusing her limbs with a crazed strength. With one almighty heave, she ejected Alan from her body, sending him sprawling back on to the deck. Then, without even turning around, she climbed up on to the railing and dived into the murky depths of the river.

CHAPTER TEN

EBONY was not the best swimmer in the world, but adrenalin and the freezing water had her striking out with frenzied strokes for the shore. Not for a second did she turn round to see if Alan had followed her, though she thought she heard a loud splash a few seconds later. This only served to make her swim harder and faster.

She made it to the shore without being overtaken and was trying to find a foothold on the slippery rocks when pain sliced through the ball of her foot, making her cry out in agony. Instinctively, she tried to lift her foot up to see what had happened, the action making her slide back out into the deeper water, and it was then that Alan caught her.

This time she fought him with every ounce of energy she had, thrashing about in the water, slapping, kicking and struggling till she was weak with exhaustion.

'Let me go,' she cried wearily when he scooped an arm around her waist and lay her on her back, life-saver-wise, dragging her slowly back towards the boat.

'To go where?' he snarled. 'Into that bush? Don't be ridiculous, Ebony. Now be quiet till I get you back on board. You might want to kill yourself, but I have no such wish.'

It was quite an effort to get aboard, but they finally made it, Ebony

collapsing on the deck into a bedraggled heap, her chest heaving, her long hair plastered down her back. For a few seconds she lay there with her eyes shut, too tired to do anything about the black lace costume which had ridden right up under her bust.

When she opened her eyes it was to find Alan nowhere in sight. Not that this made her contemplate another crazy escape attempt. There was nowhere to escape to, she realised wretchedly. She was here till Alan decided to take her home.

Shivering now, she levered herself up into a sitting position and pulled the costume down into place. It was then that she saw the trail of blood on the deck, and remembered the incident in the water.

Slowly widening eyes surveyed the bottom of her foot and the fresh blood bubbling from it. She stared at the blood for what seemed like ages before the oddest feeling came over her. Having never fainted before in her life, Ebony didn't recognise the warning signs, so a few seconds later she quietly succumbed to the blackness and slipped sideways on to the deck.

When Alan saw Ebony, unconscious on the deck, he nearly died. When he saw the blood, he cried out in horror and raced forward, dropping to his knees beside her.

'Ebony. ..darling,' he groaned, and shakily picked her foot up to see what had happened.

His relief once he saw that the cut on her foot was only superficial was enormous. If anything terrible had happened to her he'd never have forgiven himself. God, whatever had possessed him to speak to her like that? It was no wonder she'd cut and run. She'd always been proud, his Ebony. Why couldn't he have made all the right noises as he'd planned, damn it? Now he'd blown everything!

A whimpering sound fluttered from her bluish lips when he scooped her up into his arms. An unconscious Ebony was affecting him even more dra- matically than a weeping one. Her total helplessness brought out his male protective instinct and he cradled her against him, giving her his warmth, loving her in a way he'd never loved her before.