Tender savage (49 page)

"You can't sleep here!" she insisted in an anguished whisper. "My God, did you think I would invite you to share my bed?"

"I am your husband. I do not need an invitation," Viper responded as he leaned forward to brush her lips softly with his. "Mark told me he sleeps by himself out of regard for your comfort. I would prefer to make you comfortable in my own way."

His words were not spoken as a threat, but Erica took them as such. "Nol Can't you understand what I have been trying to make you see all day? I can't have you here. I won't betray Mark's trust. Can't you tell how much he has suffered? Today was one of his good days. There are times when he has headaches so severe he can't rise from his bed without getting dizzy and sick to his stomach. He's not well and—"

Viper slipped his hand around Erica's throat and drew her hps to his for a soft, Ungering kiss he did not end until he felt the tension behind her resentment completely melt away. She had never been able to resist his affection, and he was glad to see that at least in that respect she hadn't changed. "Do you really think I have suffered any less?" he finally whispered as his lips brushed her temple. "Or you? Can you swear to me you are happy?"

When she could not reply, he enfolded her in his arms. Still torn between her duty to Mark and her love for Viper, Erica did not attempt to draw away but rested her head lightly upon his shoulder seeking to enjoy his comforting warmth as she tried to reason rather than argue with him. "Mark was hurt just after I found out you weren't going to hang. I was so happy that you were going to live that I knew I could stand whatever I might have to face here. I thought I'd never see you again." She leaned back then, looking up at him with the openly loving gaze he had longed to see all day. "I loved your hair." She caressed the deep wave that fell down over his brow, then ran the back of her fingers along his cheek. "You're very handsome with it worn short, but still, it was absolutely magnificent long."

Overcome with despair at that memory. Erica raised her hands to cover her face as she began to cry. "Oh please, you < must leave," she begged between heart-rending sobs. "It is so difficult for me to always be cheerful for Mark. I have tried so hard to be the wife he deserves, but it will be impossible with you here."

As Viper pressed her face against his chest, he pulled the pins from ner hair to spill the perfume-scented curls about her shoulders. When finally her sorrow seemed j spent, he spoke. "I love you too much to leave, Erica. Don't you know that? If you must stay here and care for Mark, then I will stay and help you. He likes me. If I keep him occupied, then you will not find being his wife so difficult."

Determined to make him understand her plight. Erica struggled to dry her tears. "I want you to go," she insisted once again. "Stay a week or two and then tell Mark you've been called home to Canada. You seem to be hill of imaginative stories, so I know you'll be convincing. Who is Etienne Bouchard, anyway?"

She was attempting to dismiss him as though he really were a servant, but Viper ignored that insult, since his mind was already made up. "It was my grandfather's name, and I knew he would not mind if I borrowed it for a while. Had I known I had any hope to live, I would never have given you to Mark. I came to take you back, and I mean to do it. Stop asking me to leave, because I will not leave here without taking you with me.*'

Erica had not forgotten what a fiercely determined individual Viper could be, but she had hoped he would see the depth of her emotional turmoil and understand why she had asked him to go. "This is wrong. Viper, don't you see that? This is wrong. We can't constantly lie to Mark and expect to find happiness with each other."

"You must remember to call me Etienne," Viper reminded her before lowering his mouth to hers for a gentle yet loving kiss, which proved to him her fears were completely unfounded. "You see," he whispered as he drew away. "We will always be happy together." When she simply stared at him, her deep blue eyes filled with a glistening mixture of awe and sorrow, he stood up and peeled off his shirt.

"I will stay with you tonight and every other night I am in this house. We can make love without harming your child. I can make it nice for you. You know that I can."

It was the way he had said "your child" that gave Erica the strength to refuse his offer. He didn't realize the babe was his! She had thought he would sense the truth, if not see it in her eyes, but he didn't. Clasping her hands tightly in her lap, she replied in the most forceful manner she could. "I asked you to marry me in a church. Viper."

"Etienne," he interrupted.

"Whatever you wish to call yourself." Erica was getting angry again, and that reinforced her resolve to continue. "I wanted God's blessing, but you didn't care anything about my beliefs. I consider my marriage vows to Mark sacred. I will not break them. Adultery is a mortal sin. You can't ask that of me, you simply can't."

"Do you really think God would send so pretty a woman as you to hell?" Viper asked with a teasing smile, but he was deeply disturbed that she appeared actually to believe she would be damned for loving him.

"Being pretty has nothing to do with having high

morals." Erica kept her eyes focused upon her trembling hands rather than Viper's half-clothed body. She wanted him still, and desperately, but Mark loved her with a childlike trust she knew she ought not to betray. She was already living one lie, and she could not bring herself to begin another when it could have such disastrous consequences should Mark ever leam of it Should he discover she was unfaithful, it would simply destroy him, and that was far too terrible a price to pay.

Viper looked down at Erica, loving her more dearly than he had thought possible. "To me you are still beautiful, do you think you are not?" he asked softly.

"I know how I look," she replied with a bitter laugh. "And it certainly isn't seductive."

"To me you still are. I have never wanted another woman as I want you."

Hatinp^ herself for having to resort to threats, in desperauon Erica used one anyway. "If you so much as rouch me I'll tell Mark who you really are and he'll make you leave," she swore in so serious a tone her sincerity could not be (foubted. "I'll do it. If you won't leave on your own, I will see you're thrown out."

Incensed by that vow, since he considered it absurd. Viper leaned down to grab a handful of her hair and forced her gaze up to his. "You will say nothing!" he hissed. "If you do not want me in your bed I will sleep in my own, but by God, I am staying in this house. Do you understand me?"

His eyes were smoldering with a silver fury, and Erica swallowed hard as she tried to nod, but she found his hold upon her hair far too tight for that. "Yes," she whispered breathlessly instead.

"Good." Viper released her then, picked up his shirt, and stormed out of her bedroom. Erica stumbled as she got down off the bed, but managed to catch herself and cross the sf>acious room to lock the door. She was not locking him out, however, but rather locking herself in before the passions of her heart overruled the sensible thoughts of her head and she ran after him to beg him to come back and share her bed.

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Sarah gestured dramatically with a yellow silk fan whose exquisite color and embroidery exactly matched her stylish gown, as she confided her opinion to Erica. "Please, do not misunderstand me. I think Etienne's presence has been an enormous asset. Don't you think Mark looks better? They spend so much time out of doors he's gained some healthy color.

"Sitting with them in the garden just now, I was every bit as amused as they were by their efforts to play chess while Etienne is just learning the game and Mark is unable to see the board." She paused a moment, and smiling happily, continued, "I guess that's what I like best about Etienne. He keeps Mark not only occupied, but happy. On the other hand, it still disturbs me that we know so little about the man. I must have spoken with him half a dozen times, and I still don't know where he is from or what he did there. Doesn't it strike you as rather strange that he would be so reticent about himself? He is well mannered, so he must have come from a respectable family, and yet he never mentions them. That worries me, too. Most bothersome of all, isn't it remarkable that so handsome and intelligent a man would be content to accept work here as a servant?"

Erica scarcely knew how to respond, since the man Sarah and Mark knew as Etienne Bouchard was merely a charming fa^de Viper seemed to be able to adopt at will.

"He is an unusual man in many respects, I'll agree, but he is the only Canadian I know, and perhaps they are all such private people. I am so thankful for the happiness he gives Mark, however, that I think his past is really quite unimportant." Truly, Erica had been amazed when Viper had taken his duties so seriously. He wasn't simply lurking about the house keeping an eye on her as she had feared he would do, he had instead become the perfect companion for Mark. He was both attentive to her husband's needs, and resourceful in satisfying them, for which she was extremely grateful.

Sarah perched upon the edge of the rosewood chair opposite the settee where Erica had been seated reading berore she had joined her. Choosing her words with care, she broached another subject that troubled her. "Have you heard from your father? Is he still planning to arrive this weekend?"

"As far as I know, he is. I think he would have sent a wire if he'd been unable to get away." It was difficult for Erica to smile as she resjDonded, since Viper's presence was giving her strong misgivings about the outcome of her father's visit.

"It will be interesting to hear what he has to say about Etienne," Sarah mused thoughtfully.

"Well, I certainly hope that he likes him, too," Erica wished aloud, but she was deeply concerned about what her father would think of the "Canadian" who had joined their household. Sarah was perceptive enough to realize something about Viper's story rang false, but would her father take one look at the deep bronze of his skin and the jet black of his hair and know he had more Indian blood than French? It would then be a simple step to guess just which Indian he was. Both she and Viper had gone out of their way to avoid each other since their confrontation in her bedroom. But wouldn't the strained aloofness of their relationship make her father suspicious? While she was still looking forward to her father's visit, her fears were running high that it might end in disaster.

Sarah folded her fan and tapped it lightly against her knee as she tried to appear merely considerate of Lars rather than fascinated by him. "I think it will be very nice for your father to get away from the hospital for a few

days' rest."

"Yes, and diat rest is long overdue. He works much too hard, but that's his choice, I'm afraid."

Sarah nodded agreeably, but her curiosity was still not satisfied, and she continued to try and draw Erica out about her father. "I think his reasons for wanting to occupy his time are understandable. He must have been very deeply in love with your mother and miss her terribly."

That was one thing about her father Erica knew for certain. "Yes, I'm sure he does. They were a very dose and loving couple."

Sarah studied Erica's pensive frown, thinking her thoughts must be of her mother. Still, Lars had teen a widower for more than three years, and the pain of his loss must surely have begun to subside. "You said he's just turned forty, didn't you?"

"What?" Erica asked, then realizing Sarah was still talking about her father, she relaxed slightly. "Yes, in May, our birthdays are just two days apart."

While she had done her very best to catch his eye, Sarah had had absolutely no success in gaining Lars Hanson's notice during the winter months she had spent in Washington. He had treated her with courtesy anorespect, but never as though she were a young woman he might grow to love. That he had no romantic interest in her had both infuriated and saddened her, but she had not known what to do about it. Now that she had finally summoned the courage to discuss Lars with his daughter, desperation made her bold. "Do you think he'll remain a widower forever, or is there a chance he might remarry someday?"

There had been an occasion or two when Erica had suspected Sarah's regard for her father might have been more than merely gratitude for what he had done for her brother. She had always had far too much on her mind to inquire whether that were truly the case, as indeed she did still, but since Sarah had finally asked a Question that could be interpreted as expressing interest, she decided to encourage her. After all, the more distractions her father had, the less likely he would be to realize who Etienne Bouchard really was.

"I think my father is too devoted to his profession at

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present to have any thoughts of women. It's unfortunate, too, as I would hate to see him spend the rest of his life alone."

"You'd not object then, if he did become interested in someone?" Sarah held her breath, hoping Erica didn't realize how desperately she wanted to be that particular someone.

Erica knew she and Sarah had not grown nearly as close as they should have considering the vast amount of time they had spent together. She also felt she had to accept the blame for that herself, since from the first day she had returned to Wilmington she had been so anxious about her own problems she had had little interest in cultivating Sarah's mendship. First there had been the matter of her marriage to Viper to create tension between them, then the pain of Mark's long convalescence, coupled with the burden of a pregnancy she had kept hidden until the last possible moment. Now, hoping to make up for her lack of attentiveness in the past, Erica offered what she thought would be helpful advice.

"If you are sincerely interested in my father, I think you should simply tell him that you find him an attractive man and would like to know him in other than a professional capacity. You have always seemed so terribly shy around him, I doubt he realizes you have any feelings for him one way or the other."

Sarah's large brown eyes widened in surprise, for she simply couldn't believe her ears. She knew how to attract a man's notice and flatter his vanity with innocent flirting, but then it was up to him to respond. With a man like Lars Hanson, who had completely failed to notice her desperate attempts to impress him, she didn't know what more to do. To speak of her feelings seemed not only forward, but foolish. What if he were merely embarrassed, or worse yet, laughed at what would surely be a halting declaration of love?