Seized by Love (29 page)

The situation remained thus
for almost a week. Alisa was confined to the room. Battle lines were drawn,
heated words exchanged—a stalemate between two tempestuous, willful temperaments.
The only reverses were those suffered by Alisa when Nikki skillfully, patiently
roused her senses to a passionate need for him. As soon as the sexual skirmish
was over, the advance was beaten back. He gained ground only to lose it once
again when her sensibilities calmed, when her tremblings ceased.

One afternoon Nikki was
seated, reading, in one corner of the large bedroom, while Alisa sadly stared
out the window at the beautiful lawn and garden, the sparkling surface of the
lake in the distance dancing in the light breeze, a landscape still refused to
her. She'd been locked up in this room for six days now, forced to accede to
Nikki's wishes, and her nerves were taut.

Nikki glanced up from the
page and quietly watched the stubborn set of Alisa's back as she stood immobile
before the windows, barefoot, her shapely form wrapped in a sea-green lace
dressing gown, silhouetted against the brilliant afternoon sunlight.

Within seconds his erection
was rigid. My God, he only had to look at her and he wanted her. She went to
his head like a drug. He was going to push himself into insensibility in a few
more days at this rate, although, he reflected lech-erously, it was a pleasant
way to go.

"Chattel," Nikki
said provokingly, "come here."

Alisa spun around.

"Go to hell!" she
said, glaring at the lounging figure in the cushioned chair.

Why did he taunt this
woman? Nikki wondered. It was unprecedented for him to want to totally possess
any female. In all his former liaisons Nikki had remained deliberately aloof, never
wishing to satisfy more than a casual lust. This independent, strong-willed
creature was a challenge to him, a piquant change from the accommodating women
in his past. And that fierce determination was like a tossed gauntlet. It
raised his blood. He
would
possess her totally; she
would
bend to his will. An irrational impulse drove him.

"Come here," he
repeated softly, and crooked a finger. She didn't move, favoring him only with
a silent, poisonous look.

"The cabin deep in the
forest waits you," Nikki reminded her in a mellifluous murmur, his sweet
tone belied by the dangerous glitter in his eyes.

She came then, eyes
downcast, walking slowly across the room and stopping several feet distant from
the sprawled legs.

"Reconcile yourself,
Alisa," he said gently, "for I mean to keep you near me."

She opened her mouth as if
to speak, and he stayed her with a raised finger. Shaking his head slowly in
baffled self-disgust, his voice dropped to almost a whisper.

"Don't ask me why
again; I don't know. I can't tell you. All I know is you're in my blood; I need
the taste and feel and scent of you. I want the warmth of your skin next to
mine in the morning when I wake; I want to know you're here to welcome me when
I return." He glared almost in bitterness at Alisa. "I want to fuck
you day and night." She shuddered before the crudeness of the remark and
the piercing savageness of his fierce eyes.

"And"—he laughed
a short, bitter rasp at the painful, unfamiliar sense of possessive jealousy
she raised in him— "I feel an unaccountable need to keep you for myself.
No other man shall touch you. Stay willingly or unwillingly. It scarce matters
to me, but rest assured, my little dove, you
will
stay. Now, take off
your clothes. I have need of you." Her hand reached up and began unbuttoning
the front of her dressing gown.

He had won another round.

Nikki drew Alisa to him and
caught her in a powerful embrace; his fingers grasped the curls at the back of
her neck, tightening, forcing her head back as he pressed ruthless, demanding kisses
on her lips, her throat, her trembling breasts, branding her as his in a savage
assuagement of the uncomfortable, compromising sensations she engendered in
him.

A sweeping movement slid
her robe aside, off her shoulders, and it drifted to the floor. Scooping her
high against his hard, muscular chest, he carried her to the bed, settled her
beneath him, and penetrated the soft, warm flesh that held him in thrall with
silken bonds of mindless desire. He fiercely resented his passionate bondage
and savagely invaded her, each powerful stroke an exorcising of his
frustration. Alisa's soft, whimpering cries finally pierced the confusion of
his black anger, and he was aware of hurting her. Taking her face gently
between his hands, he tenderly kissed her tears away, murmuring apologies,
whispering quiet entreaties, gently rocking in a slow rhythm that caressed and
stroked and roused.

She wanted his love but he
gave her passion. In the dark recesses of her soul she wanted to be his wife;
he wanted only a sensuous mistress.

Soon they both forgot all
else but their need for each other as the driving ecstasy reached consummation
and they met once again on the only common ground that offered them both
surcease.

In the mornings Alisa
watched from the balcony as Nikki patiently taught Katelina to ride her pony
and handle the reins of the small red pony cart. A warmth of feeling would rush
over her then; he was so good to Katelina. If only he didn't insist on owning
her
in such a feudal display of authority, leaving no dignity or pride. Damn him,
damn him for making her want him, for after six days of continuous lovemaking,
morning, afternoon, and night, Alisa's passions were roused by Nikki's merest
touch, her body addicted to the titillation of its senses—a brushing hand, a
soft caress enough to instantly activate the sensuous nerves that cried for,
yearned for the exquisite torment and pleasure of satiation. Her need grew more
intense with indulgence.

And that night was no
different from the rest; a war of words and thoughts, Alisa persisted in her
verbal assault.

"Why do you insist on
humiliating me? Women aren't simply things, playmates in bed. We have feelings
too. We're equal."

"Equal?" he
retorted in astonishment. "Nonsense! Why would a woman want to be equal?
Isn't it enough to be normal and happy? You're beautiful," he murmured,
reaching for her. "Come here." The audacious thought summarily left
his mind as Alisa's seductive image provoked his desires.

She resisted his advances
as she always did since they had adopted their lines of battle. Within seconds
Nikki pushed her aside in disgust.

"Sacrebleu!"
he exploded.
"You're insufferable. Why do you always fight me? Why do I always have to
force you? Can't you admit your desire? Do you think I don't know when a woman
wants me? You wanted me from the first day I met you."

I know, she sadly thought.

"There's nothing more
gratifying or flattering to a man than to have an irresistible woman want to be
his lover.
⁹
You, it seems, are incapable of confessing to these
natural feelings."

He glared at her lying
beside him. Then he took a deep breath and exhaled. "You win. I'm leaving
tomorrow. You can stay or go, I don't care. I'll not bother you again. Take
your damnable pride and dignity and I hope you find them good company! Ivan
will set up a trust in your name at the bank in Petersburg for our child. It
will be adequate to offer you and the child financial security. And I trust
you'll find some accommodating man to bolster your insufferable ego."

Nikki turned his back to
her and immediately fell asleep.

Alisa lay frozen beside
him. How could he? How could he be so unfeeling? He was leaving her in the
morning and he could sleep as though all the world were in peaceful accord.

Alisa tossed fitfully as
her awful pride waged a battle against her love for Nikki. How could she love a
man who only used women, who ridiculed and railed against clever women, who
spoke of setting up a nursery someday with some compliant young chit. How could
she love him? Had she lost all reason? She meant no more to him than any of the
women who had been dogging his heels since he entered manhood. And when he left
her, she'd be desolate, life would hold no joy, no meaning, her future would
stretch bleak and empty. Is hellish pride worth that desolation and
unhappiness? she wondered. Was her body so inviolable and precious that she
couldn't give it freely to the man she loved? But he didn't love her, she
piteously cried. She needed him to love her.

He'd given her so much,
though, his time, affectionate attention to Katelina, gifts beyond belief,
tenderness in making love. Wasn't that enough? Must she chain his inde-pendence
as well? Was she asking for more than he could give? Maybe it was enough that
he wanted her passion.

Then her voice of reason
would whisper devilishly. Had she no sense? Had she no pride? To which she
confessed, sadly—no. With Nikki she had no pride.

And what good was pride if
she lost Nikki? she asked herself with a brutal honesty. She loved him.

She realized as the early
glow of morning touched the room that she wanted Nikki unconditionally, on any
terms he chose. A restless sleep finally overcame her tortured thoughts and she
dreamed of demons tearing her away from Nikki's arms, of dark wastes and lonely
vistas in which she sat desolately alone. Full daylight brought relief from the
nightmares, if not the anxiety, prompting them.

Alisa rose just as the sun
crept around the linen draperies, determined to keep Nikki there if she could.
Standing before the wash stand, she deliberately banged and clanked the china
pitcher and basin in the spurious act of washing.

When Nikki's easy breathing
changed from sleep to wakefulness, she wiped her hands, slowly raised her gown,
and seductively stripped it from her body, lifting her arms high above her head
and stretching languorously like a cat waking in the sun. The early morning
rays shining through the coarse linen draperies bathed her body in a soft,
golden, iridescent glow.

Nikki, watching, thought
her, in that pose, as beautiful as Rosso's nymphs in the Gallery at
Fontainebleau. Lithe, sensual, the sun gilded her soft curves of breast and hip
and thigh, warmed the pure white flesh, accentuated the bloom of womanhood. By
God, she was deliberately seducing him, he realized, and he willed himself to resist
the provocation.

"It won't work,"
he said evenly, the simple statement dropping ominously in the quiet room.
"I'm leaving this morning." He paused briefly, running his eyes
boldly over her luxuriant curves. "And I don't like you performing like a
whore," he finished coldly.

Hands on her hips, lips
petulantly pursed, Alisa murmured softly as her violet eyes held his,
"You're always telling me I must learn to accept my passions, my
sexuality. I'm simply taking your advice," she said softly, advancing toward
the bed, slowly melting over his supine form and kissing him lingeringly,
searingly, on his lips, brushing her hand against his stiffening prick,
caressing his powerful muscular chest with light fingertips.

"Take me one last time
before you go. I'll leave you something to remember me by," she breathed,
the soft words tantalizing.

Nikki strangled a curse,
inveighing his faltering willpower but losing his fight against Alisa's
passionate lips. She bent her head low, gentle lips touched the engorged red head,
a moist tongue drew him into her, and all resistance ended.

He groaned and gathered her
up into his arms. "Come here. My leave-taking can wait," he whispered
hoarsely. And Alisa clasped Nikki to her with a frenzy of hope and desire,
withheld nothing, giving her love with a wild, reckless abandon, wanting him to
stay with her, wanting to make him need her as much as she needed him. For the
first time, their mating was a complete union of two hearts, two spirits, two
passions, their yearning for each other totally fulfilled.

She drew him deeper and
deeper into her as if she could hold him to her forever, chaining him to her
with bonds of warm flesh. He brought her to climax after climax, marveling at
the ardor she contained; the final relinquishing of her heart as well as her
body reflected in the intensity of her passion. During her convulsions, he lay
rigidly still inside her, affording her the maximum of pleasure, letting her
feel the full impact as each trembling wave washed over her. Finally he could no
longer hold himself back and poured himself, shuddering, into her, his heart
pulsing violently. In that final moment he experienced a feeling of contentment
and blazing sensation beyond his wildest memories of pleasure.

He kissed Alisa tenderly,
pushed her tousled red-gold curls back from her forehead, gently cradled her in
his arms. The scent of mating hung heavy in the room.

Quiet tears filled her eyes
and lashes.

"Don't cry, Alisa
lemmikki,
I won't leave you," he promised softly.

She smiled faintly and
brushed his lips, so close to hers, with her fingertips. "Thank you,"
she murmured as her tears overflowed, and she cried for herself, for her
enslavement to this man. She would do anything to lie with him, to have him
near her, and she cried for the loss of her will.

Nikki was all gentle
kindness. She was his now, completely, wholeheartedly. He was joyfully
triumphant. He sent for breakfast and her trunks of clothes. Her imprisonment
was over.