The shock of their lips meeting struck her like a flash of lightning. A foreign hunger for his touch snaked through her limbs and Georgina wound herself about him like a vine of ivy.
He groaned, the sound a primal, masculine grumble from deep within his chest.
She twined her hands about his neck and caressed the golden locks of spun silk in her fingers.
Adam put his hands on her waist, paused, and then, as if exploring, moved his search lower, down to the curve of her hips. She angled her head, opening herself to his kiss. Parting her lips, she allowed his tongue entry. He moaned as if in pain. Georgina’s lids fluttered open and she studied this golden god as he kissed her. His eyes were clenched tight as if creased by agonized pleasure. All because of her.
With a small cry, she threw her head back, exposing her neck for his attention.
He set her away so fast she tumbled to the floor.
It took a long while for the cloud of passion to lift. When it did, she wished she could pull it firmly back in place. Horror wreathed the hard-angled planes of Adam’s face.
Her heart sputtered to a slow halt. His revulsion had the same effect as a punch to her belly.
“Christ,” Adam whispered.
As much as she hoped his horror came from having shoved her aside, she knew it was not. In a desperate attempt at preserving the little pride she had left, she rose and brushed out her skirts.
Adam’s throat moved up and down as he seemed to force the words out. “I am in love with another woman. I will not betray her.”
Not for a woman like you, her mind silently jeered.
A stinging jealousy for the woman who had laid claim to his heart filled her.
He’d merely been providing her with a comforting embrace and she had flung herself at him like a shameless wanton! A scarlet blush stained her cheeks.
Adam extended his hand.
Georgina looked at his long, gentleman’s fingers. With every fiber of her being, she wanted to reject it, but pride dictated that she show him how unaffected she was by his rejection. She placed her hand in his and allowed him to help her up.
He took her chin between his forefinger and thumb. “This is not about you, Georgina. I told you before—”
She angled her chin away from him. “I know.”
The last thing in the world she needed to hear was how in love he was with the nameless beauty in the sketchpad. It only reminded her that some women were born beautiful, with the love and adulation of good men, while women like her dwelled in the shadows.
In the grand scheme of lies she’d told this man, what was one more? “I am sorry I kissed you. I don’t know what came over me.” She had many regrets. Kissing him was not one of them.
“You are a lovely woman. I’m just in love with someone else.”
And there it was, a second time. Punishment for coveting what belonged to the goddess on his parchment.
She wanted to find a dark corner of the house and nurse her wounds like an injured pup. Georgina managed a jerky nod and turned to leave.
Her father’s yell carried through the door. “Georgina?”
The blood drained from her cheeks. “I’m coming!” she called.
She hurried over to the door just as it was flung open to crash into her hip. Georgina grunted at the throb of pain that shot down her leg.
Her father and Jamie stood in the doorway. Father held a pistol trained on Adam, while Jamie pinned Adam with a glare brimming with loathing.
“It’s time to tie this animal up,” her father growled.
Jamie escorted Adam to his bed, but the golden god sprang at Jamie and caught him square in the stomach, felling him. The men wrestled for power like lions vying for control. Adam managed to straddle Jamie. He wrapped his hands around the weaker man’s neck.
Georgina watched in sick fascination as Jamie’s eyes bulged from his sockets and drool spilled from his gaping mouth. She’d seen a dead man, but she’d never seen a man’s last breath leave his body. She couldn’t tear her gaze away.
Her father wrapped his arm around her forearm and tugged her to his side. He pinched the soft skin.
Georgina cried out.
Adam froze. His head snapped up.
“Stop. Or she’ll pay for your disobedience.” Father’s promise seemed to penetrate Adam’s single-minded purpose to destroy Jamie.
His eyes met Georgina’s.
Father tightened his grip and she bit her lip to keep from crying out. She would not distract Adam again, not when he was handing out the beating Jamie so richly deserved. She gave a slight shake of her head and willed him to see that she was fine.
“I’ll kill her,” Father promised on a silken whisper.
It was a lie.
Then she felt the angry bite of a pistol against her temple. A chill swept over her. Father had descended into such madness she could no longer be sure.
Hot rage flared in Adam’s eyes. “Stop,” he barked. He scrambled up from his knees, hands held out. His eyes had the crazed look of a man who’d dueled with the devil… And lost.
Jamie turned over onto his side and gasped as he tried to suck in air, like a fish thrown ashore.
“Perhaps you don’t care for your well-being, but should you choose to fight us, she is the one who will feel our wrath. Is that clear?” Father snapped.
Adam’s chest heaved. He took several steps backward and sat on the bed.
Father released Georgina and nodded to Adam. “I see that we understand each other.”
Except Georgina didn’t see anything. A swell of emotion clogged her throat. Why would this man, a stranger, protect her—at the expense of his freedom?
Jamie managed to stand and dusted his hands along the front of his breeches. He took a step toward the bed.
Adam held his hand out as if in supplication. He could have killed Jamie but he hadn’t. He’d saved her.
Jamie slammed his fist against Adam’s temple.
Adam grunted and collapsed onto the soft coverlet. Blood trickled in a rivulet from the corner of his right nostril.
Georgina gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. Reminded of her presence, Father shoved her toward the door. She tripped over her skirts and caught the edge of the table to keep from toppling over.
Jamie set to work binding Adam’s wrists and ankles to the corners of the four-poster bed. “Get out of here, gel,” Father snapped.
She swallowed and turned back around to face Adam.
“I said, get out!” Father gave her another nudge toward the door.
Adam’s roar of fury filled the small room and rattled off the windowpanes. “Don’t touch her, you bloody coward.”
His show of bravery was met with another fist to the head.
“No, Adam,” she hurried to assure him. “I’m fine.”
Father gripped her arm and steered her out of the room. “Go.”
The door closed, the click like the crack of a pistol at night. Her breath hitched painfully in her chest as she waited. She leaned against the wood panel and knocked her head against the solid structure.
Adam cried out.
Her teeth sank into her lower lip.
He cried out a second time.
She bit the inside of her cheek.