Return to Paradise (Torres Family Saga) (60 page)

      
With a snarled oath Reynard lunged, hands out, grasping for Rigo's throat, intent on taking them both to the ground where his superior weight would count for more. Yet when he lunged he came away with only ragged bits of tunic as Rigo fell aside. The renegade's own momentum propelled him forward and his opponent's foot tripped him, plunging him over the edge into the yawning jaws of death.

      
Miriam watched in horror as Elzoro leapt at Rigo, nearly carrying them both to the pit below. When Rigo fell to the ground at the edge, she raced to his side. The sounds of the renegade's screams and the dogs vicious snarls filled the air.

      
Rigo embraced her, blocking her view of the hideous carnage below by holding her head against his chest. Within a few moments Elzoro's struggle was over. The low snarls of the dogs tearing his flesh was drowned out by the din of battle that raged around the compound.

      
“What madness made you risk your life to save mine?”

      
“The same madness that brought me to that summer kitchen in Marseilles and made me stay when I knew twas not your brother but you. I cannot live without you.”

      
He crushed her against him, breathing in the jasmine scent of her hair. “I love you, Miriam.”

      
She raised tear-filled eyes and stroked his bloodied face. “And my father would see you dead for it. We must stop him. I fear he has gone mad...or he is a man I never knew at all.”

      
“I suspect Uncle Isaac will best know how to deal with Judah Toulon.”

Chapter Thirty

      
Benjamin ducked a quill-worked basket that bounced harmlessly off the wall. “Rani, be reasonable—” Another missile, this time a not-so-harmless clay pitcher, whizzed by his head, its sharp shards splattering all around him, leaving a fine powdery dust in his hair. “Damnation! Will you listen or must I throw you over my knee and paddle that pretty little rump?”

      
“Why not lock me in yon chest this time instead of merely this room? I might conveniently suffocate as Piero wanted and thus end your dilemma of what to do with me!”

      
She hoisted a small potted fern to hurl at him, but before she could deliver it, he crashed through the broken pottery, baskets, and pillows that littered the floor of the small upstairs room in the Torres house. Seizing her with both hands, he tossed her onto the bed and quickly followed her down, lying atop her kicking, writhing body.

      
“I locked you in here to protect you. Look what happened when last you set out after a dangerous man. I shudder to think what Brienne might have done to you if his tastes had run differently.”

      
“I was never in danger. I told him I was your betrothed, worth a fine ransom. I lied.”

      
“No, you did not lie, little one. You are worth the whole earth to me and you are the woman I will wed,” he murmured against her throat, his lips warm, soft, persuasive.

      
Rani grew suddenly still, her fingers digging into his shoulders as he spoke the soft words. “You...you would wed me? What will your family say? Surely they—”

      
“They will come to love you as I do. And you do believe that I love you, do you not, Rani? I have crossed the ocean-sea to find you and I would not have you change for me.”

      
“Oh, Benjamin, how long I have waited to hear those words,” she sobbed, raining small, swift kisses all across his face.

      
“There is one thing, however.”

      
She stopped kissing him.

      
“You must promise never again to steal.”

      
“Twill be fearfully boring,” she said with a pout in her voice.

      
“Twill keep you safe from harm—just as my having you held here while I went after Rigo and Miriam kept you safe.”

      
“You are certain that you no longer love Miriam?” she asked, a hint of uneasiness in her voice.

      
He sat up and looked down at her small, heart-shaped face with all the vulnerability and uncertainty revealed in those luminous golden eyes. “I love Miriam as I do Serafìna and Lani. You have seen how she and Rigo deal together. Is it not the same with us?”

      
The breath she had held now floated free from her chest. “Even though I am no lady but a
Romni
wench who keeps a wolf?”

      
“Even so. And Vero is not only
your
wolf. On that long ship's crossing he also became
my
wolf,” he said arrogantly, bending down to kiss her.

      
“We shall see about that,” she murmured, returning the kiss with fervor.

      
A knock sounded abruptly at the door and a servant's voice deferentially announced that hot bath water was awaiting Don Benjamin. His blue eyes twinkled, then smoldered as he ran one hand down her arm, sliding the filthy, loose boy's tunic from one golden shoulder. “What say you, shall we once again engage in mutual bathing? As I recall, you liked it well enough the first time.”

      
“Aye, Benjamin, I liked it well enough indeed...at the end of the bath,” she replied, sitting up and pulling the tunic back over her breast. “Tell the servants to fetch a great deal of water.” She wrinkled her nose. “You reek from blood, mud and sweat,” she added with a dainty moue.

      
He roared with laughter as he called for the water bearers to enter.

      
After a large round wooden tub had been placed in the center of the floor and filled to the brim with warm water, the servants departed, leaving Benjamin and Rani alone. Both were filthy from their long ordeal, yet exhilarated to have the frightening adventure end in a safe reunion.

      
“Now you look much the waif you did when first I met you, not the grand lady of Olivia's creation. Although I must admit, you did look stunning dripping in rubies and crimson samite.”

      
“I would prefer to be stunning in nothing but skin,” she said saucily.

      
Benjamin took a long black curl and twisted it about his hand, drawing her nearer, then began to peel the loose tunic from her, baring her small, perfect breasts. “You are my golden treasure.” he murmured. His mouth traced a soft wet pattern from her throat to one chocolate nipple. His tongue teased it until she arched and gasped; then he moved on to its twin, eliciting the same response.

      
Peeling down the tunic until it bunched at her waist, he cupped her breasts in his hands, letting his lips taste the warm velvet of her skin. Then he roughly unfastened Piero's tight hose and slid them and the tunic to the floor. “Into the tub with you, water sprite.”

      
“Not until I have the same pleasure undressing you,” she replied, running skillful hands up his chest, tugging at the torn and stained remnants of his shirt until she had pulled it away. “You are hurt,” she murmured, her fingertips brushing lightly over cuts and bruises.

      
“They are but small hurts.”

      
She began to lave them with her tongue, kissing a trail from one to the other.

      
“Ah, but they do feel better with your tending,” he groaned as she continued, while her hands unlaced his hose and began to peel them down. When his hardened staff sprang free of its tight confinement, she seized upon it with clever fingers, eliciting a sharp intake of breath. Quickly he kicked away the last remnants of clothing and then waited to see what she would do.

      
With a saucy smile, she guided him toward the tub, her hand never relinquishing its hold on his phallus. “Now, we are going to do here—in privacy—what I wished to do that day in your uncle's fountain.”

      
With a smile twitching at the corners of his lips, Benjamin obediently knelt in the large tub. Rani placed one dainty foot inside, then the other. She perched on the edge and began to sluice his body with water.

      
“I shall first bathe you. Then we will trade places...or something of the sort.”

      
“Something of the sort, eh?” he echoed as she took a stem of fruit soap from the table beside the tub and began to lather his upper body sensuously. Benjamin quickly seized more of the aromatic soap and lathered his hands. When his wet, sudsing fingers made contact with her breasts, she lost her balance. He swept one soapy arm about her slim waist and pulled her against him. “See how we save time? If you rub against me, we lather each other with the same soap.” Sweet reasoning. She obliged.

      
They knelt in the water, legs entwined, bodies fused together as their arms encircled each other, their hands caressing and cleansing. Rani reached beneath the water and massaged his hard thighs and buttocks. She reveled in the erotic pleasure as he lifted one of her slim legs, then the other from the water to lave it with soap. When he reached higher, to the junction of curls at the apex of her thighs, she moaned softly. “I think I am quite clean.”

      
“Not yet,” he said, kissing her nose. Playfully, he grabbed one of the urns of rinse water from beside the tub and poured it over her head, soaking her long hair until she sputtered and splashed him.

      
“I must wash it, must I not?” he asked innocently. Soon he had a fluffy white cloud of suds enveloping her masses of raven hair. She closed her eyes and tipped her head back, holding on to his waist as his fingertips massaged her scalp.

      
Rani could feel the insistent pressure of his erection against her belly. She wriggled provocatively, causing him to growl, then giggled when he reached abruptly for another of the carefully arranged urns of water, breaking bodily contact for a moment as he again sluiced her, rinsing away the lather. She flung her sopping long hair about, splashing him liberally.

      
“You are as bad as Vero.”

      
“Ah, but I can offer you compensation Vero cannot.” Again she melted against him, pulling his head down to hers for a fierce yet oddly languorous kiss.

      
Benjamin responded by deepening the kiss. His hands slid from her waist to cup her silky little buttocks, lifting her against him. “Put your legs about my hips, water sprite,” he commanded hoarsely as his tongue snaked out and licked droplets of water running in silvery rivulets down her breasts.

      
Blindly Rani obeyed, wrapping her legs around his hips, opening to him. Benjamin came into her and buried himself completely, then held very still lest he lose control and spill his seed at once. “You are so small...and tight.”

      
“And wet,” she whispered, gliding her palms from his shoulders, down the lean sinewy muscles of his back, clasping him tighter. “Tis so good, Benjamin. I would never have it end.”

      
“Then do not wriggle that delicious little tail so enticingly else it will end all too soon,” he admonished, setting a slow, gentle rhythm. He watched her eyes close, saw the thick, sooty lashes flutter downward to fan against her cheekbones. “Rani, I love you, I love you,” he murmured. How much this tiny, elfin woman meant to him! She was his life and he had nearly lost her because of his blindness.

      
“Agata was right. You are my fate, the Golden Man I am destined to love forever.” Her nails dug into the wet, slippery skin of his shoulders, holding him tightly as he stroked deeper, faster, harder until her eyes again flew wide open just as her whole body convulsed in a release so powerful that she trembled.

      
Benjamin could feel the shuddering waves ripple through her, pulling him over the edge to follow her. The world reeled about them as they rode the crest of a great tidal wave...in a tub of water.

      
After a few moments of clinging wordlessly to him, Rani muffled a giggle. “Benjamin, I am slipping.”

      
“Twould serve you right if I let you slide under the water. You have fair ruined my knees. I may never walk again.”

      
“Whose idea was it to make love this way?” she asked as she climbed off him and stepped daintily from the tub.

      
“Who seduced me in the water?” he countered, rising stiffly.

      
Rani let out a burble of laughter. “Your knees are wrinkled like Sicilian prunes.”

      
He gave her a mock scowl, then grabbed a length of towel and wrapped her in it, drying her and tickling her mercilessly at the same time.

      
She fought him for an end of the long towel and began to dry him. “Look at the mess we have made. The floor is under water all about the tub.”

      
“Twas your hair. You shake it like your wolf does his mane.”

      
“Ha! I thought you claimed he was your wolf.”

      
Vero chose that moment to shove open the door and pad silently in. He circled the sodden rug about the tub, sniffing; then sat back and regarded them quizzically.

      
“Think you he wishes to bathe, too?” Benjamin asked, his eyes alight with laughter.

      
Rani suddenly turned from Vero to Benjamin. Her eyes met his, then dropped shyly as she moved her palms in soft, caressing circles on his chest. “Benjamin...about that wedding...”

      
“Do not tell me. You wish Vero to attend.” He appeared to consider, knowing she was desperate to have him affirm his earlier promise to wed her. “If Rigo's foster brother, the Dominican, is half as tolerant as Rigo has told me, Fray Bartolome would perform a marriage with a wolf as witness.”