Read Online Midnight Flame by Lynette Vinet - Free Book Online Page B

of Tony’s back strained with the movement each time he emptied one onto the flames.
    “Isn’t this exciting?” a guest dressed as Aphrodite whispered to no one in particular.
    “Clarice, you must lead a boring life to enjoy such a spectacle,” the husky voice of Simone Lancier commented. “Tony and I are never bored, if you understand my meaning.” Simone and the woman giggled, but Simone’s flashing blue eyes were directed in Laurel’s direction.
    Because the fire had been discovered immediately, the barn and the horses housed inside were saved. The men stopped passing the buckets. A hissing sound and the odor of burning wood permeated the air. A perspiring Jean DuLac, in his soot-covered, green-and-red clown costume, saw Laurel. He wiped his brow with a kerchief. “That Tony is a lucky devil, chérie , with life and the ladies.” He winked and went inside the house.
    Laurel lost sight of Tony and Simone as the guests began milling about to inspect the damage. Then she saw them at a distance, standing beside the charred ruins, arm in arm.
    Laurel’s face burned with humiliation, anger, and pain. If not for the fire, Tony would have used her like the worst trollop. To think she had begged the man to make love to her, had writhed beneath him on the grass like a whore. Her hands flew to her face, unsure of what she had been thinking to allow such liberties. Yet she couldn’t deny that her traitorous body had desired him. Tears flooded her eyes.
    Then Tony turned in her direction and made a movement to rush after her, but she spun around and ran down the gravel driveway.
    “Where are you going?” Simone clutched at his shirt sleeve.
    Tony didn’t relish possessive women and shrugged off her hold. “Wherever I choose.”
    “We’re going to be married, Tony. I suggest you remember that.”
    He cocked an eyebrow, his face smeared with soot. “I haven’t asked you, Simone. You’ve just assumed we would.” Bounding away, he left Simone in a snit.
    By the time he reached the front of the house, he saw the carriage that he and Laurel had arrived in earlier speeding down the drive. So, he thought wryly with a degree of anger at himself for falling prey to her charms, the little tease was running away again just as she had done the day of Auguste’s death. Well, she wouldn’t get away this time. He would be damned if she led him a merry chase as she had done with his uncle. He vowed that Lavinia Delaney would not be the death of him. However, he couldn’t help but think, with a degree of contempt for himself, about what would have happened if the fire hadn’t started. Would she now have been in his bed?
    He attempted unsuccessfully to shrug the thought away. His loins tightened just to imagine her hair spread fanlike across his pillow, the feel of the soft ivory body writhing in ecstasy beneath his own, the sweet taste of her strawberry lips. “God!” he moaned aloud and broke the spell by turning and heading for the porch at the back of the house. He couldn’t let the woman do this to him, wouldn’t allow himself to fall further under her spell. He had to convince himself that she was like any other woman and could easily be replaced. So many women had vied for his kisses, had begged for his touch over the years, that Tony could no longer remember their faces or the bodies that had attracted him. But this woman was different. This woman was dangerous. He had started to feel something for her, a sweet but burning desire he had never known, a melting sensation when he first kissed her. She mustn’t get to him, he decided. She wouldn’t pull him into her enchanted web.
    Only servants remained outside now to clean up the charred remains of the fire. From inside the main house, the laughter and singing of his guests drifted through the windows and lingered on the night air, disturbed only by the rumble of thunder. He went to his room and changed into a black silk shirt. Pouring himself a glass of