Seductive as Flame by Johnson Susan

Author:Johnson, Susan
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: PENGUIN group
Published: 2011-10-16T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

AT HALF PAST five there was a light knock on the dressing room door.

Dalgliesh glanced down at Zelda sleeping in his arms and spoke in a voice calculated to reach his valet’s ears with minimum shock to Zelda’s. “Thank you, Jenkins.”

Zelda stirred.

“It’s nothing, darling. Sleep.” For a few minutes more. Then they had to get ready for Katy, Chris’s playtime, and dinner. Life went on no matter how unquenchable one’s desires. He smiled. Not that he had any complaints concerning his insatiable appetite for the lady. A streak of good luck, he’d say.

He should have wakened her; there was still much to do. But she was soft and warm in his arms; he felt at peace—a pleasant sensation for a man who hadn’t known much peace. Or it could just be orgasmic surfeit drugging his senses, he thought with another smile. And that had nothing to do with luck.

But however agreeable it was to let the minutes slip away, as six o’ clock approached, their commitments could no longer be ignored. Bending his head, he touched his lips to Zelda’s forehead. “Duty calls, darling.”

“Ummm.” The silky sweep of her lashes fluttered upward, then fell.

Her low throaty murmur resonated in all his susceptible, oversexed pleasure centers. A shame they were under time constraints. He sighed. But they were. “Ten minutes before your dress fitting. Nine minutes, fifty-five seconds, fifty-four, fifty-three—”

Zelda groaned.

“I have a present for you if it helps.”

A shake of her head, eyes still shut.

“You’ll like it. It’s not diamonds.”

Her lashes slowly lifted and she looked up, amusement in her gaze. “Is there a woman who could resist a remark like that?”

He grinned. “Exactly my point. And for your information, I don’t buy jewelry for women. You’re the first. So my feelings are very fragile,” he shamelessly asserted. “Pray don’t trample them.”

She laughed. “Liar. But I promise to be gentle.”

“I’m relieved,” drawled the man known far and wide for his indifference to tender emotion.

“While I’m divinely happy.” How could she not be after the past hours with Dalgliesh, who had set out to please her, who always left enamored women in his wake. “Pray tell me not to be so juvenile.”

“Be anything you want, sweetheart. I’m happy, too,” he said with practiced charm and an open, generous smile. “And we’ll make each other happier in about”—he glanced at the clock—“four hours. But at the moment, we’re pressed for time.” Sitting up with fluid grace and finely tuned muscle, he tossed the ivory silk quilt aside and lifted her into a seated position. “So what do you want to see first?”

She grinned. “First?”

“I told you I was besotted,” he said, sliding from the rumpled bed. “Didn’t you believe me?”

“No.”

He shot a teasing glance over his shoulder as he strode away, unashamedly nude, splendidly male, casually libertine. “Maybe you will after you see what I bought you.”

“How did you manage in such a short time?” It was a woman’s question. She wanted to know why he’d done what he’d done, what he thought and felt, every little emotional nuance motivating him.

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