Defiant Impostor (34 page)

Attempting to force from her dazed mind the unsettling
pity she had seen in Cleo's eyes and shocked to discover the woman was
Dominick's mistress, Susanna could make no response.

"I'm surprised Dominick has kept her for as long
as
 
he has," Adam went on. "He
must know she hates him. That Satan's spawn must fancy himself in love with
her, though it's unbelievable to me that he could care for anything. Cleo told
me five years ago, just before I left Raven's Point, that someday she would
find a way to break him for selling away her children, but she's obviously
failed. Or maybe she simply lost the will to fight . . ."

As Adam fell silent, seemingly lost in memories,
Susanna finally found her voice. "How could you have convinced Mr. Cary of
these terrible things? He wouldn't have taken your word for such
accusations!"

Adam gave a grim laugh, hauntingly hollow, his eyes
filled with cold hatred.

"James didn't have just my word. To understand the
depths of that man's depravity, he had only to look at what that devil did to
me to know I spoke the truth. He had only to hear of how Dominick horsewhipped
my father to death right in front of me and my mother, and then how he raped
her while two of his overseers held her down. My mother lost the will to live
after that and a week later, drowned herself in the York River."

He drew a ragged breath, his voice laden with bitter
regret.

"God help me, I was too young to save them, only
fifteen. But I swore that one day I would have vengeance, if not by killing
that monster, then by finding a way to make him suffer the cruelest torture. I
didn't want to marry James Cary's daughter for her land or her fortune, as you
so wrongly accused, but for the revenge her wealth could bring me." Adam
drew Susanna closer, crushing her against his chest. "Revenge that you will
now bring me, Mrs. Adam Thornton."

Though Susanna was horrified by what he had described,
she could see in his agonized gaze that he spoke the truth, just as she
realized with heartrending clarity that he could never have loved her. What a
fool she had been to think that he had pursued her because he cared! In an
embittered heart such as his there could be no room for love. He had lied to
her to secure his revenge, and that was the most crushing revelation of all.

"There's something else you don't know about your
beloved Dominick," Adam added grimly. "Something only his creditors
know about him. Even James Cary had no idea that the man was on the verge of
bankruptcy."

"Bankruptcy?" she blurted, thinking that this
accusation must surely be false. What of Dominick's fine clothes, his luxurious
carriage, the costly gifts he had given her which Adam had already told her
would be sent back first thing in the morning—

"Why else did you think he wanted to marry
you?" he scoffed. "Out of affection? Dominick needed your fortune to
pull him out of debt because his addictive gambling has finally gotten the
better of him. He's been on the brink of losing Raven's Point for months. His
wretched financial state isn't common knowledge only because he's a master at
hiding it." Adam laughed dryly. "Think how completely he fooled you,
my love. But I've made it my business to know everything about that bastard. A
few well-placed bribes have provided me with all the information I needed to
plan my revenge. All I required was a very rich wife, and since I now have one,
I can finally push him over the edge."

"How . . . how will you do that?" Susanna
asked numbly. Her mind spun as she recalled the spartan interior of Dominick's
house, the worn furniture, his plain clothes, the meal which had been less than
sumptuous . . . and even the many times during their brief courtship when he
had disappeared into some planter's game room to play cards . . .

"You will see in time," Adam replied tersely,
his hands falling to her waist. "Actually, I believe I should thank you
for your cunning deception. It was worth a fortune just to see Dominick's face
today when he realized he had lost the one thing that could have saved him from
rotting in debtors' prison . . . and to a man he once forced to lick the field
dust from his shoes."

"Blackguard! You're as despicable as he!"
Susanna
 
cried, his words shocking her
out of her silence. "To think you would so callously use an innocent young
woman to suit your own selfish ends! I'm almost glad Camille isn't here to
suffer at your hands."

"Leaves a bitter taste in your mouth, doesn't
it?" he mocked her. "It's not pleasant to discover that you're valued
less as a human being than for what benefit you can bring to someone else. But
let's not talk of innocence," he added scornfully, his fingers straying to
the ribbon tie at her waist, "as if it's something a former waiting-maid
with your passion and beauty might still possess."

Chapter 19

"What . . . what are you doing?" Susanna
sputtered in panicked disbelief. She tried to twist away from him even as he
tugged sharply on the tie and wrenched open the front of her gown, revealing
her lace-trimmed stays and hoop-petticoat.

"Surely you can see, my love," Adam said,
shoving from his mind the horrible memories he had aroused and, along with
them, any regret over his brutal haste with her. Fueled by raw anger and
overcome with desire, he could not stop himself. "I'm undressing
you."

"No!"

She pushed against him so suddenly that he almost lost
his balance. Grabbing for the chair behind him, he released his hold on her. As
he righted himself, cursing under his breath, she dashed to the table near the
balcony doors where Prue and her maids had left their supper, and took refuge
behind it.

"And since you've seen fit to give me your list of
dos and don'ts, I have one for you," she blurted with furious indignation,
clutching her gown together. "Don't you ever call me 'my love' again! You
don't love me—"

"You're right, I don't," Adam lied, certain
that he saw a flicker of pain cross her lovely features as he slowly advanced
upon her, then shrugging off the idea as impossible. "But I've desired you
since the first moment I saw you, and I believe you want me, too."

"You're wrong!" she cried. "I detest
you—"

"You lie," he said, facing her across the
table now. He didn't want to dwell on how deeply her words had pierced his
heart. He only wanted to feel again the lush wonder of her body pressed against
him. "You can't tell me you didn't enjoy the kisses we've shared, the
times I've held you in my arms, or the night when you let me caress your
beautiful body."

"I didn't! I loathed every moment we spent alone
together. I just let you think I liked everything you did to me. You're an easy
one to deceive, Adam Thornton."

He shook his head, his senses flooded with the warmed
scent of her jasmine perfume. "Such things you cannot fake. I know when a
woman's desire is as strong as my own, and no woman I've ever held has a spirit
as wanton as yours. Now stop playing the trembling virgin and take my hand.
Remember, we're husband and wife now. I have complete rights to your body, just
as I have complete charge over your wealth."

Susanna jumped as a sharp crack of thunder rumbled
outside, harbinger of an approaching storm that heightened the tension between
them.

She couldn't believe this was happening despite how
Adam hated her! He had just said so, proving to her at last that he had sought
to mislead her as surely as she had misled him.

She didn't want to admit how deeply his words had hurt
her, nor would she ever give him the satisfaction of knowing she had actually
believed herself in love with him. To think she must spend the rest of her life
with this cruel, heartless man! And did he truly think that because she had
been a waiting-maid she was no longer a virgin? He must!

"I—I've already given you what you wanted,
Adam," she stammered, the lustful way his eyes were raking over her
filling her with dread. "Briarwood. The Cary fortune. You can have
mistresses if you want, a dozen or more if that's what it takes to satisfy you.
I don't care, but just leave me alone. You seem to have forgotten that half of
this miserable charade depends upon me. I swear if you touch me I'll go to the
county constable and tell him the truth!"

"And settle a noose around your lovely white neck
when I counter your truth with mine? I don't think so." As he began to
stalk her around the table, he threw off his coat, his waistcoat, and then
began to work at the buttons on his sweat-dampened shirt until it hung open,
his magnificent chest bared to her gaze. "Come to bed, wife."

"No," Susanna whispered, tripping on the hem
of her gown as she tried to maintain a distance between them. She quickly
kicked off her shoes so they would not hinder her. "I'll scream if you so
much as touch me—"

"Only in pleasure," he countered, his
darkening expression suggesting that he was growing more than a little
impatient. "Only in pleasure."

With a suddenness that made her gasp, he shoved the
table against the wall so that she could no longer circle it.

"You have nowhere to run, Camille. The door is
bolted. You couldn't manage to open it before I caught you anyway, and I'll
throw aside any other chair or table you choose to hide behind. Is an hour or
two of sensual delight worth the fuss you are making? It is inevitable that I
will have you."

As Susanna's gaze darted around the room, she realized
with a terrible sinking feeling that there truly was no escape.

"No, please, you don't want to do this. I know you
don't want me . . ." She backed up, bumping into the wall with an awful
start as he moved toward her, stripping off his shirt and casting it to the
floor. Then he stood a mere inch or two from her, so broad and powerful that he
blocked out all else behind him, white flashes of lightning reflecting in his
eyes.

Her nostrils flared at his musky male scent, arousing
in her a heady excitement she could not suppress, and when he took her hand,
she felt the strength of his mounting desire course through her fingers.

"You know nothing," he whispered huskily, his
intense gaze holding hers. "I want you more than I've ever wanted any
woman."

As he braced a powerfully muscled arm against the wall,
his chest barely brushing her breasts, she unwittingly lifted her face to his
at the same moment that his warm lips captured hers. If she hadn't been pushed
to the wall, she would have collapsed, such was the jolt of passion his kiss
ignited within her.

He ravaged her mouth, plundering its soft depths with
his tongue, and she answered him in kind, unable to help herself. Hearing his
groans sent shivers of desire through her. In some distant part of her mind she
was aware that he was swiftly undressing her, her gown sliding off her
shoulders, her hoop-petticoat, untied from behind, tumbling with a crisp swoosh
around her feet. Then she heard the ripping of fabric as he tore her linen
drawers from her lower body.

Startled, she opened her eyes at the same moment he
grasped her bare bottom and lifted her to him, forcing her stocking-clad legs
around his lean hips.

"Adam?" she murmured in surprise against his
mouth, but he deepened the kiss, and she forgot everything until she felt his
hand slide between their bodies and his warm, insistent fingers circle and
tease that sensitive, tingling place at the apex of her thighs.

Gasping with pleasure, she began to tremble as he
expertly plied her softness, her hips moving against him in an increasingly
urgent rhythm over which she had no control. She wound her arms around his neck
and held on to him for dear life, remembering the ecstasy she had felt beneath
his touch the other night . . . and wondering with a ravenous hunger if she
would feel such sweet rapture again.

"I knew you wanted me," Adam said thickly,
kissing her throat as he pressed her to the wall. "You're so hot, woman,
so wet . . ."

Unable to wait any longer to possess her, his body
ablaze with need, he fumbled at the flap on his breeches and released his hard,
engorged shaft into his hand. Guiding it to the moist, slick center of her, he
cupped her firm buttocks with both hands and, capturing her lips again, he
plunged himself deeply into her.

Her sharp, muffled cry of pain was not the first thing
that told him she was a virgin, for he knew it with swift self-disgust when he
unexpectedly felt her maiden barrier give way. Yet he could not stop what he
had begun. As her body closed around him like a tight, burning vise, he groaned
in pleasure, lifting his mouth from hers to whisper, "Shhh, love, the hurt
will pass. I promise."

Adam cursed himself when he saw tears glistening in her
wide, stricken eyes, failing utterly to convince himself that he had had every
right to believe she had lain with other men before him. Yet now that he knew
she had been a virgin, his sudden elation nearly matched that of his burning
desire.

She was completely his! She had belonged to no other!
With superhuman effort, he slowed his thrusts, determined to give her as much
pleasure in this, her first time, as he felt in finally claiming her.

"Does it still hurt?" he asked, kissing her
damp cheeks as he slowly embedded himself in her wondrous warmth and then just
as slowly withdrew.

To Susanna's amazement, the stinging pain had already
receded and was soon blotted from her memory by the incredibly pleasurable
sensation of his body moving deep inside hers. She felt full of him, possessed
by him, and she could not deny she liked it.

She liked all of it, his strength and the way he held
her, his strong fingers gripping her bottom, and the amazing heat radiating
from that point where they were joined. She reveled in the muscular hardness of
his chest pressed against her breasts, which she wished were freed from her
stays and the underlying linen chemise. She wanted to feel the sleekness of his
skin rubbing against hers, and she locked her feet behind him to draw him still
closer.