Seized by Love (23 page)

Refusing to answer his insolence, she said instead, wishing to wound as deeply as possible, “Maybe I should just not bring this pregnancy to term and put a stop to all these senseless arguments.”

“Do not,” he said in an awful voice, “even consider it.” His tawny eyes smoldered. “It’s too damned dangerous. Illyich’s little actress bled to death last year because of a botched abortion. Let me assure you, it wasn’t a pretty sight.”

His words had the desired effect as Alisa paled visibly.

“At least these men treat me with respect and courtesy,”
Alisa retorted, annoyed at Nikki’s cheeking her riposte, allowing the obvious comparison to hang in the air.

“Everyone has their own approach to the citadel, my love,” Nikki returned brutally. “Don’t delude yourself,
chérie
, they all have their tongues hanging out for the same thing, but some cloak their desires in a soothingly deceitful address.”

“May I disagree with your coarse intimations of my suitors’ intentions. I’ve received several proposals of marriage. This isn’t the first. Is that a fine enough indication of my beaus’ regard for the proprieties?” Alisa smiled smugly.

Nikki’s eyes were cold as he met her mocking gaze.

“Other marriage proposals? You have? Married? Married?” he repeated. “If you were to be so foolish, I would make you a widow soon enough, by God!” He swore softly and long. “Married? By Christ, we’ll see about that!”

She was his, by God; he’d wakened her to womanhood, had drawn the female from her shell of naïveté. She wasn’t fair game for every drooling, callow youth, every lustful eye, every practiced man-about-town. Wasn’t his mark on her, wasn’t she carrying his child? How dare they address marriage proposals to her, he thought with the unmitigated audacity of a Kuzan born and raised. He would tolerate this charade no longer! Locked out of her bed, her person guarded by his parents like an unblemished virgin, an untouchable holy relic. He
would
have her again, he decided, his anger dangerously roused.

“I’ve watched you flirt and entice and coyly cast out lures for the last two weeks. My acquiescent temperament has reached its limit. You will flirt no more!” he quietly growled.

“Acquiescent!” she snorted. “Sooner try to convince me that the world is flat or that the sun rises in the west, you arrogant bastard!”

“Acquiescent,” he whispered through clenched teeth,
and meant it, for what else had curtailed his rising fury these past weeks if not that sterling trait. He wasn’t unfeeling and could understand the angry motives that prompted Alisa’s light amorous bantering these several days, but when marriage proposals resulted, he drew the line. Nikki’s altruism never stretched so far as to sharing his mistress.

To hell with them all! He’d take Alisa away tonight to Mon Plaisir, his estate north of Lake Ladoga. Remote, sequestered, irrevocably off the beaten path, the thought of a summer with Alisa in that distant fastness of forest and kallio brought his blood up.

“You’ve permitted every whoremaster here tonight to ogle your bounteous charms. I think it’s my turn,” Nikki said, his face contorted in fury, his breathing deep and heavy.

“Come now, dear, we go. Your flirtatious days in society are over. I’ve put up with all the interference from Father I’ll tolerate. My independence from his control began years ago.”

“He’ll stop you!” Alisa warned, a rising note of hysteria in her voice as Nikki took her arm and began forcing her toward the door.

“I wish him luck in that endeavor,” he coldly replied, and then unexpectedly broke into a warm chuckle. An exhilaration raced through him. The inaction and restraint, the stifling protocol of society he’d labored under for weeks, were cast aside. He was his own man again! His old mad recklessness invigorated him. One could be prudent only so long and then must break away.

Taking Alisa’s hand in a vicious grip, Nikki pulled her protesting through the conservatory, thankfully empty of people at the moment. He slammed through double French doors, dashing them aside with a powerful sweep of his arm, causing them to shudder indignantly on their metal frames. Oblivious of the shocked stares of partygoers on the terrace,
he tossed up the kicking, screaming Alisa and flung her over his shoulder. In this embarrassing position her pummeling fists uselessly bombarded Nikki’s strong back while he held her feet firmly in his left hand, concerned with protecting his manhood from her kicking toes.

“Put me down, you monster, you brute!” Alisa screamed, beating ineffectually against the broad back, cursing him furiously.

Blandly ignoring her screams of outrage, he didn’t even break stride as his long legs carried him and his rambunctious burden across the sweeping lawn toward his waiting carriage.

Walking purposefully down the long row of carriages, Nikki found his equipage, opened the door, and unceremoniously dumped Alisa onto the floor. Climbing in behind her, he curtly directed Feodor to drive back to the palace and slammed the door shut with a crack.

Immediately he was set upon by a scratching, clawing, screaming wildcat. For days now, he’d been forced to contain his fury, his resentment, his frustration. There was a limit.
Diable
, there was a limit! his mind thundered.

The horses had hardly begun to move, when Nikki seized Alisa in one sweeping motion and shook her viciously by the shoulders, leaving bruises on her flesh.

“I will not tolerate having you trifled with by other men!” he roared, the suppressed vexation of watching Alisa flirt and laugh and dance and posture before other men’s frankly lustful gaze finally released.

“You’re mine!” he thundered. “No man will trespass on my property! Do you understand?” He gripped her tighter and, struggling to regain his composure, spoke in a low, hard voice. “Do you understand?”

Alisa’s eyes narrowed, her nostrils distended in anger. He shook her again.

“Answer!” he roared, the brief moment of control snapped.

Alisa spat on him and laughed at his discomfiture.

“Christ’s blood,” he growled, wiping his face with his sleeve. “I’ll have the taming of you yet.”

Grabbing a handful of her copper curls, he pulled her head back until her eyes were wide with fear. Then he stuffed his silk handkerchief into her mouth, muffling her whimpering to a whisper, and tied his neckcloth around her head as a gag. Her wild eyes watched him rip the blue ruffles from the hem of her gown and truss her hands and feet together.

When the carriage reached the pink marble palace, he grimly alighted from the carriage, closed the door, and issued orders rapidly to Feodor.

“Mrs. Forseus fell asleep, please don’t disturb her. Make ready a second carriage, bring along another coachman and four grooms; two outriders on mounts are also needed. Have everything ready in fifteen minutes.”

Being neither deaf nor blind, Feodor didn’t believe for a minute that Mrs. Forseus was sleeping, but, inured to the idiocies of his young master, he only presented an impassive face and an affirmative response to his orders.

Nikki sprang up the stairs to the front door, eager to be packed and off before his parents discovered Alisa’s absence from the party. The startled butler was the recipient of numerous and curtly barked orders. Footmen were to carry down the luggage to the waiting carriages outside, maids were to be sent upstairs to help with the packing. Get Ivan his secretary immediately, he needed money and a letter sent to his regimental commander, requesting leave. Have the chef pack some food, vodka, and brandy, everything to be accomplished in no more than fifteen minutes. Understood? Sergei quailed before the dangerous look in Prince Nikolai’s eyes.

Nikki bounded up the stairs to waken Katelina and whisper to her that they were going to the country. She was, always to him, a vivid recollection of the bright freedom and wonder of youth. Katelina, ever amiable to her favorite Nikki, had already tumbled out of bed and was collecting her toys.

“Uncle Nikki, will you teach me to ride a horse as you promised and take me hunting like you said?”

“I certainly will,
lapsikulta
,” he pronounced solemnly, for he treated her with the courtesy of an equal, never condescending to patronize her childish delights. “I’ll let you ride a horse, take you hunting with me, and even teach you to drive your own pony cart.”

“
Uncle
Nikki! What fun! I’ll dress very quickly,” she promised.

Nikki gave her a kiss and a quick hug, imparted instructions to Rakeli and Maria to have Alisa’s and Katelina’s clothes packed in ten minutes, and walked to his room to settle affairs with Ivan and select some of his favorite old clothes for hunting.

Within an incredible twenty minutes, the small caravan was on its way, Katelina, Rakeli, and Maria settled comfortably in the second carriage, Arni riding guard outside, Nikki and Alisa traveling in the first carriage with two outriders in the vanguard.

As the carriages left the outskirts of the city behind, Nikki silently untied Alisa and removed her gag, neither gentle nor repentant.

Alisa closed her eyes as the gag was taken from her mouth. Slowly she breathed deeply, trying to gain some semblance of composure for what she was about to say, as they eyed each other coolly.

Finally she spoke, pronouncing each word slowly and distinctly, having, in the angry solitude of her wait, discarded numerous and varied epithets and invectives.

“I am not your baggage to be trussed and ordered about,” she said with a cold fury.

“You are now,” he said grimly and unequivocally, not a flicker of tenderness in his tawny eyes. “At Mon Plaisir
I
am lord and master.
Everyone
obeys my bidding,” he continued icily, emphasizing the pronouns. “And now we’ll have our first lesson in obedience, my lovely baggage.”

He felt himself harden with lust.

“You will not flirt with Lieutenant Bobrinski or any other man again, will you?” He reached for Alisa and pulled her resisting body to his.

“I will if I choose,” she spat out, still defiant.

“You will not.” In swift movements he threw her facedown across his lap, tossed her skirts back, and pulled down her lacy drawers. Her lovely bottom was exposed. Hand poised above the soft pink flesh, he mildly asked, “Will you now?”

Alisa shook her head, stubbornly refusing to give in to his demands.

His hand came down and spanked her, leaving pale red marks on the smooth circles of flesh.

“Speak up, darling. I can’t hear you.” His hand descended again on her tender skin.

She could feel him stiff and rigid against her belly.

“We’ll return to this question later, my love,” he sighed softly, his passion rising fast, a throbbing stiffness hard against his trousers. “It’s time for your second lesson in obedience. The very motion of a carriage is enough to rouse my passions, and you’re so conveniently close.”

“Off with your clothes now. Let me gaze upon my property. I feel a need for your services.”

Nikki turned her over and began pushing his and her clothes aside, too much in a hurry to undress. His large hands held her face while his lips fiercely found hers, his
open mouth demanding, insulting, his face dark with passion.

“You—you’re just like the worst of all men!” Alisa rasped breathlessly as he released her lips.

“
Just
like?” inquired Nikki sardonically as he settled her with a casual effortlessness beneath him, adjusting her position precisely as he wanted her, his strong arms holding hers against the hard carriage seat.

“Worse!” she panted, unable to move against his powerful strength. His excitement was so intense now, he shuddered at the second’s delay. But have her he would, for nothing else mattered.

“Or better, mayhap, my dear?” He smiled arrogantly and faintly as he mounted her and without preliminaries he rammed himself in clean up to the hilt.

Alisa gasped. Despite an effort to steel herself, a cry was torn from her lips as a particularly fierce thrust penetrated deeply. He finished in seconds, withdrew, wiped himself off on her petticoats, and adjusted his clothes. Then he resumed his position on the seat opposite and stretched out comfortably, leaving Alisa feeling used and furious.

“A dog could do better!” she said in disgust.

He turned his head with a slow, deliberate motion, his eyes cold and blank. A brief second elapsed, and then the familiar derisive expression played across his face.

“My dear,” Nikki replied softly in mock dismay, “I do hope you don’t consider taking up Sophie’s perversions. So very vulgar, you understand.” So saying, he shut his eyes and with an infuriating, calm indifference, proceeded to fall asleep.

Alisa pulled her clothes around her naked body, turned over on her stomach, and wept.

•  •  •

They traveled steadily for the next five days with only brief stops to rest the horses and break their fast. Nikki didn’t touch her again, he barely acknowledged her existence, further exasperating Alisa, who longed to stir up some reaction when she railed at him in anger. For most of the journey Nikki slouched low in the seat, his long legs propped up on the seat opposite occupied by Alisa, a bottle of brandy his constant companion.

On the evening of the fourth day, after having traveled with Katelina in the second carriage, entertaining her with tales of fairies and elves most of the day, Nikki climbed back into Alisa’s carriage and lay back against the seat.

Alisa immediately began hurling denunciations at his head, trying to ease some of her resentment at being so arrogantly and tyrannically abducted. Further adding to her anger was the fact that Katelina looked upon the whole journey as another delightful adventure being supplied by her darling uncle Nikki, and even Alisa’s old and loyal servants were quietly pleased to be going back to the country; they much preferred their familiar pine forests to the bustle and dirt of the city. Even Rakeli and Maria seemed to be on Nikki’s side, and they would look uncomfortably away in embarrassment when Alisa would deliver some malicious remark to Nikki in their presence.

After patiently and quietly listening to the string of invectives for several minutes, Nikki held up his hand wearily in an attempt to stay the tirade directed at him.