With One Look (20 page)

Murray stared hard. The startling information made sense, it made perfect sense..

Jade's sudden panic left no question, and Victor instantly understood her warning. He lifted her to her feet, asking if she thought she could sit quietly enough for fishing. Jade nodded quickly, and he added, "Very well, Jade. Wait here just a moment. Murray, I need help with some things in the carriage. Would you?"

The two men walked some distance away.

"It makes sense, Victor," Murray said in an excited whisper. "This whole thing is beginning to make sense. I believe she's right—only it's not a fire."

"What do you mean?"

"She had a seizure when she came across her maid hanging, when the intruder sang that song. She thinks it's a fire, even the way she refers to it as 'the accident.' Only it was ... it was a gruesome murder. My God, Vic, her parents must have been murdered and the fire started to conceal it and she must have witnessed it. She went into shock and fell down. Her seizures don't cause her blindness, they probably have nothing to do with it."

"I don't understand?"

"Her seizures are what make her forget. Every time she's given the slightest reminder of what happened, anything to do with hanging, she's jolted with a pain so great she falls into unconsciousness, then she wakes with no memory of the reminder."

Victor held the doctor steady in his gaze. "How can that be? I never heard of anything like that. How can someone make himself forget?"

Murray sighed with a shake of his head. "I don't know. All I know is that it seems to be what we're dealing with here. Her parents were murdered and she saw it, and yet to ask her about it sends her into a seizure. She wakes up with no memory. It's as if, as if her mind made a bargain with her heart, that what she saw was just so terrible—" He stopped, realizing how farfetched it was. He had never heard of anything like it either. "I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong, but it does seem to fit the pieces."

Victor reached into his pocket and withdrew the fetish. "Here. Look what was in that charm she was wearing on her neck." He held out the tiny piece of black wax.

Murray picked it up and brought it close to his eyes. "Vic," he said slowly, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck lifting from the ominous talisman, "it's like you say: this beastly person seems to want to torment the lass before he does the unholy business...."

Victor took the oddity back, dropped it to the ground and with the heel of his boot, he crushed it into dust. "He'll never get the chance," he vowed. "I will kill him before he ever comes close again."

The air was still and hot, the shade felt like heaven. "What are you doing?" Jade asked as she sat on the blanket he spread for her on the edge of a grassy bank of the lake. She heard an odd pounding noise above the pleasant hum and buzz of insects.

This was one of his favorite fishing spots: the overhanging branches of trees shaded the dark pool of water. Snakes were the problem. He was beating the ground with a stick to rid the

surrounding area of snakes. "Oh, nothing." He grinned as he discovered yet another benefit of her sightlessness.

"I'll take a dip before going off to find some bait," he told her, shrugging unseen from his breeches and moving to the water's edge.

"How many paces would you say the water was from me?" "Less than five. You are sitting right on the edge."

She nodded, unaware that he no longer looked at her. He stretched once, his smooth bronze skin pulled tight over muscles that displayed a frightening power in his tall frame, before he dove into the cool depths of the water.

Jade laughed and heard him come up, heard him throw his wet hair back with a toss of his head. "I'll bet that feels wonderful." She smiled, knowing she could not resist for long. She'd wait until he left, and then just pop in and out before he got back.

"'Good cannot describe it." He smiled back. She looked like she was drawn from the pages of a fairy tale with her skirts spread all around her and the wide sun hat tipped slightly. She took off the hat and began pulling the pins from her hair until the thick mass of it swung down her back. He swam to the other side, back again, and climbed out of the water. Jade laughed again as he shook himself over her. "You wait right here," he said. "I'll be back in a few minutes. Don't move ... or anything."

She heard his footsteps move through the bush before disappearing altogether. She did not hesitate. She slipped off her blouse, skirt, petticoat and chemise, her cotton undergarments, and cautiously inched her way to the water's edge. Once there, she stood up and moved slowly out until the water reached her waist. She knelt under and swam gracefully out.

She never thought she shouldn't. No lady should ever swim, let alone with a man, especially a man one was not married to, but these prohibitions never entered her mind. She and Victor had already traveled very far from established conventions and propriety. Then, too, her parents had never emphasized proper decorum as the measure of morality, but rather they had attached inordinate significance to acts of charity. That alone was probably enough to create a free spirit, and the tragedy and its result only added immeasurably to her dauntless ability to toss conventions away without a care or thought.

As a young girl she and her mother had gone swimming almost every day during the relentless heat of the summers. They had a water hole near the plantation. Sometimes her father

joined them, too, though he had lost his brother to the bite of a coral snake and he had an exaggerated fear of swimming in Louisiana waters. Still, every once in a while her mother's gentle coaxing could bring him out. Dilsey, their cook, always packed a huge lunch in a basket. Oh, 'twas such fun then....

Nothing felt better than submerging her warm body in the cool depths, feeling the tingling wetness touch every inch of her. With slow, graceful movements, she swam out farther.

Determined to touch bottom, she began diving, swimming down and under, laughing as she popped up to gasp for breath.

With a whistle, Victor came out of the forest, took one look and stopped dead in his tracks.

He saw only her head pop up from the water before she submerged again. He said her name in a panic of fear. "Jade! Jade!"

He dove in to save her. He swam with all his strength, and quickly reached the spot. Taking one look at the vacant surface, he dove under. Straining his eyes to see a glimmer of white through the darkness, he swung his arms in wide circles, not thinking, just acting, knowing each second under could be one too many for her.

Returning to the surface for air, Jade suddenly felt his hands around her waist. He pulled her quickly to the surface, careful to hold her above the water, but after a toss of his hair, he looked at her and was stunned.

She was laughing, the sound came as an assault to his taut nerves. Demonstrating how completely mistaken he was, she arched back, presenting him with a devastating view before her belly and her legs followed her head and in an amazing acrobatic water display, she disappeared altogether.

Drowning, he thought she had been drowning! He cast a quick glance at her discarded clothes on the bank and he was furious. He had never even heard of a woman who could swim!

Her heart raced with a wild delight. She finally emerged a few feet away, careful to keep her nudity beneath the water.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" "Why, I'm swimming!"

"I thought you were drowning!"

"Drowning." She laughed. "Men! You think you're the only ones who can do anything!" And to his utter surprise, she took a mouth full of water and sprayed him, somehow hitting him right on the head. Before he could catch her, she ducked beneath the surface.

He was going to kill her....

With that objective, Victor submerged and swam quickly to the spot, only to find she'd emerged a good distance from him.

Victor chuckled, low and threateningly, before warning, "You better not let me catch you because—"

"Catch me! You?" She laughed and quickly dove under. Cleverly, she swam straight down and held herself still for a long minute, knowing he would assume she swam away from him. She came up as Victor swam past her, took one gulp of air and submerged without being seen. The hardest part became stopping her laughter under water.

Victor stared with surprise, amazed by the strength of her swimming, how she managed to elude him. After his third attempt, he emerged, cast a quick glance over the vacant surface and began treading water, waiting for her to emerge.

He closed his eyes for a moment, shocked by the force of the pleasurable tightening of his loins and quickening of his body, triggered by the idea of what would happen, what was happening. The physical response rocked through him: his heart raced, his sex swelled and hardened and his blood ran hot. Yet he knew, too, just how much he didn't want this

If only he could stop it....

She came up for air, but only for an instant, before going back under. This was repeated three times, as each breath brought her closer to him.

Jade finally came up and, treading water, she listened. It was so quiet. She heard her own labored breaths, the race of her heart a loud roar in her ears, the gentle swish of the water as she treaded. "Do you give up now?"

“Aye, he thought, grinning as he watched her escalating fear. She heard no answer.

She panicked, ducked under again but only to feel his hands snake around her waist from behind as he pulled her hard against him. Like two children lost to their play, their laughter sang in the still afternoon air. He pinned her arms to her sides to stop her struggle. She fought valiantly to escape, laughing with wild abandonment until—

Until she felt the press of his body against hers. His huge chest cushioned her back but her consciousness riveted to the press of his hard sex against her buttocks. She gasped with the sudden heat there and tried to slip away but he held her firm. He said nothing; whether he smiled or frowned she did not know. His feet touched bottom and he turned her around, pressing her against him.

She felt the hard swell of his sex on her stomach. Her next breath came with a rush of heat through her limbs. Like their time before. Like her dreams. More potent though, far more potent. There was no drugged lethargy in her limbs nor sleepy haze to subdue and quiet the effect. There was nothing but the moist cool water of a forest lake.

"My God, you are so beautiful... but surprised, I see." He let his lips graze the curve of her neck. Heated shivers rushed from the spot and she gasped, breathless, as his lips found the sensitive lobe of her ear, where he whispered, "Jade. Jade, didn't you know or couldn't you guess what this madly ill-advised play would lead to?"

Her heart galloped in her chest. "Victor." She said his name in a soft whisper that echoed the distant flight of a bird overhead. She knew that he stared down at her, that her breasts floated just above the water's edge, and the idea that he was watching her nudity made her breath halt, color suffuse her cheeks, another rush of heat spread between her legs.

"No ... I—"

He gently took the earlobe between his teeth and bit. Chills dashed down her spine and she gasped. Anticipation tingled in her breasts from the touch of water. He watched the effect on the tightening buds and his next breath fanned the hot desire pumping hard and fast through him. He slipped his large strong hands over her buttocks, lifting her up. A lick of fire leapt through her loins.

She reached her arms around his neck to steady herself. A small surprised cry issued from her lips, which he caught in his mouth. He kissed her once. "Do you want to stop me, Jade?" His mouth stayed close. "You could. Theoretically. I suppose it's possible...."

Actually it wasn't. Not now when the dark hair was pulled against her head, so that the haunting beauty of her eyes, lifeless, sparkling like gems, was dramatically accented. Moisture lined her parted lips, soft and pliant and beckoning. The lush lift of her breasts was a tease as potent as the feel of her soft supple form again his hardness.

Heated shivers raced through her, gathering in a tight coil in her abdomen, small bursts of fire. His mouth caressed hers, teasing, taking her lower lip in his two lips, gently kneading it. "Say it, Jade. Say you don't want me to stop now...."

She shook her head slowly, an ambivalent answer. She realized this distantly and wanted to correct it. She certainly felt no ambivalence. She wondered wildly if it were not because she was blind or if all people felt this explosion of the senses, this tingling excitement racing through every nerve in her body. No, she did not want to stop. She timidly answered the demand by pressing her lips to his. He rewarded her with a slow and maddeningly unhurried kiss, a kiss that seemed to warm the very water between them as it drew heated serums from the most unlikely places. She felt dizzy with it, the kiss, the touch of their hot skin beneath the warm water, the hard press of his sex as he held her tighter.

He broke the kiss with a husky chuckle, a whisper against her ear. "A confession: I lied.

For I could no more stop myself than I could change the course of the sun crossing the earth. Jade." He said her name as he brushed his lips across hers and caught her small cry in his mouth. His hands slid under her breasts, his fingers lightly spanning her rib cage, stopping there, only to slide sensuously back.

"Victor," she whispered against his lips as he found her mouth again. The melting heat of his kiss, shimmering like sunlight on water, collected tight and hot inside her.

The pleasure was sharp. Her yearning grew. A small cry died in their joined mouths as his hands slid back and forth over the small round curves of her buttocks, finally sliding up to caress the slender arch of her back, stopping to rest again beneath her breasts. He broke the kiss to say her name, his lips sliding sensuously along her ear. She gasped with the teasing, like tiny pinpricks of magic....

Her heart pounded crazily and her head fell back as his lips found her neck and she felt his hands lightly massage her breasts, teasing the peaks until she sounded soft surprised cries. She heard his sharp intake of breath and then he was kissing her again....