Each Time We Love (24 page)

There was silence between them, Adam's warm body still atop
hers, his flesh still joined with hers, and it was only gradually that
the enormity of what had transpired between them began to dawn on
Savanna. She stiffened in horrified denial, her eyes flying open to
meet Adam's hard blue gaze.

He shifted slightly, resting the bulk of his weight on his
forearms, but he made no move to lessen the contact between their
bodies. His breathing and sanity had returned to normal, and with it
came the unwelcome knowledge that he had held one
major
misconception about Savanna O'Rourke! Furious at the situation, but
unable to tear himself away from her soft, clinging warmth, he stared
down at her flushed, lovely face, rage and resentment and,
unfortunately, barely slaked desire stirring within him. Clever,
manipulative, seductive little bitch! he thought savagely. She had
tricked him with a lure as old as time and he, besotted fool that he
was, had fallen, nay,
rushed
headlong into her
silken trap!

Despite the odd and totally irrational feeling of satisfaction
he had that he was her first lover, at the moment Adam's main feelings
were those of betrayal and fury. Women who looked like and lived as
Savanna did were
not
supposed to be virgins!
Hell! He'd been certain that Micajah had been her lover! He'd have
sworn unhesitatingly that it was true and yet… His mouth twisted
unpleasantly. He had always made it a point, no matter what their
station in life, to give innocent maids a wide berth—sexual congress
with that type of woman invariably created problems, one of them being
that it usually led to marriage! He was, without a doubt, a rascal with
women, but he did have some scruples, and those scruples adamantly
forbade what had just happened. If he'd known, if he'd had the
slightest inkling, he thought viciously, he would not have touched her
with a barge pole! Almost immediately the contrary notion slyly
occurred to him—that, virginity or not,
nothing
would have stopped him from taking her! Even now his body tingled with
remembered pleasure and he was gallingly aware that it would take
little effort on her part to bring him fully erect and eager to lose
himself again in her intoxicatingly sweet heat…

Adam wrenched himself away from the dangerous path his
thoughts and body seemed intent on taking, his blue eyes darkening with
temper. "Why the bloody
hell
didn't you say
something? Jesus! A damned virgin!" he said harshly. Staring
suspiciously at her, he muttered, "Well? Isn't this when you name your
price? Or are you waiting for me to make some sort of offer to
recompense you? Isn't that usually the way it is?"

Whatever Savanna had expected him to say, it certainly hadn't
been
that,
nor in such an infuriating tone of
voice, and she gazed up at him in stupefaction.
He
had been the one who had forced himself upon her, not the other way
around, and if anyone had a right to be outraged, it was definitely
her! Recompense, indeed!

Her mouth tight, she spat, "It was
my
body that was violated, not yours—I think you have insulted me enough!"

"Insult!" he snarled, irrationally angry that she dared to
call what they had just shared insulting, and he lashed out at her.
"Sweetheart, believe me, I haven't even started insulting you! Women
like you have been laying clever little snares for men like me for
centuries, but I'll be damned if you're going to trap me so easily!"
Sending her an unfriendly look, he growled again, "A virgin! Just tell
me one thing— why did you hide that interesting fact until it was too
late for me to do anything about it?"

Her eyes a furious, glittering blue-green, she snapped, "Would
it have made any difference? Would you have stopped? I asked you to, if
you will remember!"

Adam winced inwardly and his mouth thinned. Regrettably,
however, her words, instead of making him feel ashamed, only fed his
own rage at the situation, his anger growing with every passing second
as he felt his body already beginning to respond to their compromising
positions. Furious at what was happening to him, he tore himself away
from her all-too-seductive flesh, and lying on his back beside her, he
stared frustratedly up at the blue sky. Grimly he replied, "Lady, you
wanted me as much as I wanted you, and don't try to tell me that you
didn't enjoy what we just shared!"

Savanna could hardly believe his words. Lifting herself up on
her elbows, she glared at his recumbent form, hating him at that moment
more than she had ever hated anyone in her life. "Why, you obnoxious,
conceited, asseared son of a bitch! You kidnap me and terrorize me!"
Her voice rose almost to a shriek.
"Then
you rape
me and I'm supposed to have enjoyed it!"

Driven by devils he barely understood, infuriated that she
could dismiss what they had just shared with such an ugly,
inappropriate word, Adam, perhaps for the first time in his life,
completely lost his temper. "Rape?" he demanded with wrathful
incredulity, suddenly looming up over her like an avenging god. "I'll
show you rape, my dear!"

His mouth came down with hungry brutality on hers and he took
her with few preliminaries, his body mating fiercely with hers. Savanna
fought him, but it was no use, and while there was no pain, there was
little pleasure, either, in this hostile taking and she merely endured
his possession. It was over quickly, Adam rolling away from her as soon
as he was finished.

Aghast and utterly disgusted with himself, he leaped upright
and with his back to her, as if he were ashamed to look at her, he
jerked on his breeches. But despite the sick fury in his soul, he could
not bring himself to either comfort her or attempt to apologize for
what he had done and, his voice deliberately cold, he said,
"That,
sweetheart, was rape! I'm sure in the future you'll be able to tell the
difference!"

Blind, uncontrollable rage shook Savanna and she was hardly
aware of what she was doing as her fingers curled around a tree branch
lying on the ground near her. Rising up from the grass like a feral
tigress springing after her prey, she swung the branch with all her
might, striking Adam a decisive blow to the back of his head. With a
soft groan, he slumped to the ground in front of her. Paralyzed with
astonishment, she stared dumbly at his fallen body, hardly able to
believe what she had done.

Her paralysis lasted only a moment, and acting on blind
instinct, heedless of her nakedness, in a matter of seconds she had him
securely bound. Satisfied that he would be helpless upon regaining his
wits, sitting on her haunches beside him, she studied him for a
timeless moment, surprised to find that despite what had happened, she
could still find him unbearably attractive. Against her will, her gaze
traced those arrogantly handsome features, his lashes incredibly long
and dark against his high cheekbones, his nose bold and well shaped,
before lingering compulsively on the sensuous fullness of his lower lip…

She tore her eyes away from him and rose determinedly to her
feet, immediately pulling on the hotly contested breeches and shirt he
had tossed at her what seemed like hours ago. Finding the boots, she
swiftly dragged them on and then, with a wary glance in his direction,
moved with feverish haste about their camp, scrupulously dividing all
their supplies, packing what she would take with her, not letting
herself feel or think at all.

Savanna hadn't really considered what she was doing, the
instinct to escape, to put as many miles between herself and the man on
the ground, the driving force behind her actions. When she was ready,
seated on her horse, she stared down at Adam's unmoving form, her
expression uneasy. Shouldn't he be stirring by now? She had
deliberately tied his hands in front of him and had left the knife
nearby so that, when he came to, he should be able to free
himself—after all, she didn't want to leave him to die, although that
was what he deserved, she thought savagely. She had left him the other
horse and a fair amount of their food—she should have no regrets about
leaving him. He was a murderer and—her mouth tightened—he had treated
her despicably—she
should
have no compunction
about leaving him, should experience no heaviness of spirit, should
have no feelings for him except hatred and disgust! Except that even as
she swung her horse around and left Adam lying there so still and oddly
vulnerable on the ground, she was painfully aware of a strong sensation
of despair and regret, almost as if her heart were breaking…

FOR
SEVERAL MILES, SAVANNA RODE ALMOST BLINDLY, her thoughts,
much against her will, dwelling on the man she had left lying helpless
by the deceptively tranquil waters of that forest pond. What if an
alligator attacked him? Or, she thought with a shudder, a water
moccasin? Or even some wild beast. Remembering the way Adam had rushed
to save her from the snakes earlier, Savanna was smitten by a wave of
guilt. He had saved her life and she had left him vulnerable to the
very fate that he had helped her escape! Feeling guilty and miserable,
she tried to justify her actions.

It was, she knew, highly unlikely for either a gator or a
snake to attack him where he lay, but the possibility of attack by
other, equally deadly predators couldn't be totally dismissed. She told
herself that she didn't care, that he would deserve whatever grisly
fate awaited him, and forced herself to coldly dismiss him from her
mind. She had other, more important things to think about than the man
who had killed her father and raped her!

She pulled her horse to a stop and looked around her in
dismay. There was nothing to see but seemingly endless forest, mottled
tree trunks, green-hued rampant vines and verdant bushes. She sat there
for some time, her mind racing furiously. She was not an inadequate
woodsman, but the idea of leading herself out of this maze was
daunting. Then she shrugged. All she had to do was keep riding in a
southeasterly direction and sooner or later she would come to a
recognizable landmark—even if she didn't see anything familiar until
she reached the Mississippi River!

It was then that she realized that she had fully abandoned any
notion of seeking the Aztec gold. Savanna had never hungered after
riches in the first place, and although it would have been pleasant to
shower Elizabeth with all the elegancies of life if the gold had been
found, she and her mother would be just fine without it. Besides, she
admitted ruefully, without a map or someone to guide her to it, finding
the gold would be a hopeless task, and no amount of gold in the world
was worth the danger she would face if she were insane enough to
continue on the fool's quest that had ultimately killed her father.
Rejoining Micajah was
not
an option, and it was
only now that she was free that she realized how incredibly lucky she
had been that Micajah hadn't used her far more badly than what she had
just suffered at Adam's hands. At least she tried to tell herself that
she'd been horribly abused by Adam, but somehow it didn't quite ring
true. If she dwelt on that final, angry taking, she could easily
convince herself that Adam was no better than Micajah; unfortunately,
her mind wouldn't let her forget that first, wondrous joining and the
powerful attraction he aroused within her.