Pleasure Trap Read online

  “Boyfriend?” Adamas asked in a silky voice. “I never asked.”

  “No boyfriend. I would never have agreed to have sex with you if I were committed to someone else.” Which is more than I can say about you. Yet, how could she believe them to be that kind of men? Could Ida have been mistaken?

  “Not even to save our lives?”

  Would she? “I think that’s a question best left unanswered,” she answered shakily, not entirely sure how she would’ve responded.

  “Fair enough. What we think we would do and how we act when the situation is upon us might not be the same anyway that it’s moot to discuss it.” Adamas slid an arm about her waist and nuzzled her neck. “What say we go to bed? You look so delectable I wanted to gobble you up the moment you returned from the washroom.” He pressed her against his body, letting her feel the stirring hardness against her stomach. “If it wasn’t for Ida’s presence, I would’ve carried you off to bed.”

  She delighted in his heat, in his nearness and, for a single moment, she allowed herself to remain in his arms, but with great reluctance, she pushed him away. She paced the hall in nervous agitation, wondering how to broach the subject. “Speaking of Ida, did you know she was the one who gave your servants their names?”

  She daren’t look at Adamas, but she could sense his confused frown.

  “Why, that impertinent chit.” The admiring tone in Damaon’s voice made her chest hurt. “And to think, I was busy cutting the Ruby Immortal to pieces in my mind for this practical joke.”

  “Why would she do that?” Adamas asked in bewilderment. “She has always struck me as a nice, if lively, child. She would’ve asked for our permission before doing anything that might displease us.”

  “Not if she’s going to be your wife soon,” she blurted out, seizing the opportunity. 103

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  The men looked equally stunned.

  Could Ida have lied to her? Raisa hadn’t thought of the possibility, as she couldn’t detect any devious bone in her. For one stunning instant, she knew she would forgive Ida the torment and anguish the girl had caused her, if Raisa could only make love to her lovers one last time before she left.

  “What?” A thunderstruck Damaon asked.

  “You didn’t sign a betrothal contract with her father?”

  “No!” The word burst out of Adamas, who ran an angry, trembling hand through his bone-white hair.

  Hope blossomed in her. She hadn’t known how intoxicating the feeling was before. She supposed one had to be in the depths of despair to be able to appreciate the emotion fully.

  Adamas stilled. “Unless…”

  Hope hung in the balance, afraid to move.

  “Unless what?” Damaon’s eyes narrowed at him, silver orbs daring Adamas to declare that the betrothal existed.

  “Unless Iamond, the previous Diamond Immortal,” Adamas clarified, shooting Raisa a glance, “signed the agreement.”

  Hope plummeted.

  “And you have to honor his obligations?” she asked.

  “Most of the contracts he had signed provided for such an eventuality.”

  “I see.” She summoned a smile and pasted it on her lips. “Well, it seems you have a wedding to celebrate in about two years time, assuming eighteen is the age of majority.”

  “It is,” Damaon confirmed absentmindedly, as he traded a long stare with Adamas.

  “You go to bed, shikima. Adamas and I have a lot to discuss.”

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  And just like that, she was rendered inconsequential, set aside until the day of her departure arrived.

  Could she leave earlier, as in now? After all, only two days were left to their bargain and, from what she could see, both Adamas and Damaon had fully recovered. She wanted to ask, but before she could open her mouth, Damaon had clasped an arm around Adamas’ shoulders and led him away, their heads bent in discussion.

  * * * * *

  Four hours later, there was still no sign of them. Raisa quelled the surge of disappointment and bitterness, then turned to face Dia, who was cleaning the spare bedroom for her. She would’ve asked the servant to prepare a room for her earlier, but hope that Adamas and Damaon would come and assure her the situation was nothing but a misunderstanding, had stopped her from giving the order too soon. The room was located several doors down the corridor from the one that the men were using and, with a hopeless sigh, Raisa knew she wouldn’t be missed, not when Adamas and Damaon had each other, not when they could anticipate their wedding to a virginal young girl they could mold to their own ideal of a woman. The servant girl tucked in the ends of the bedsheet under the mattress to hold the linen in place. “There.” She stepped back to admire the stretched, wrinkle-free ivory sheet.

  “Thank you, Dia.” The bed looked very inviting, especially to her tired, worn-out self, but she could find no pleasure in it. Any bed without Adamas and Damaon appeared boring and dull. Would it be the same case on Earth?

  The maid collected her cleaning materials, then with a shy smile, she asked, “Does Mistress require anything else?”

  Raisa shook her head. “No, thank you.”

  The diamond servant left her to her thoughts and misery. 105

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  * * * * *

  “I don’t get it,” Damaon said for what was probably the tenth time in the last hour, when they had finally found the betrothal contract. “Why would Iamond insert the contract inside his diary?”

  “Nothing I’ve read sheds light on the matter yet.” Adamas rubbed his exhausted eyes, then turned the page. He was seated in one of the plush, comfortable chairs in his office, reading Iamond’s diary, which was a boring detail of how many diamonds were harvested in a certain day, the number that were spoiled and some interesting tidbits on the care of the gems. If they had read his diary sooner, they wouldn’t have lost so many crops the first few years they were on the job. If they had known the diary existed. As it was, they had gone through the office twice before they discovered the secret compartment on the underside of the desk. “Now be quiet, continue your pacing or whatever.”

  “Let’s tear the book in two and I could help you read.”

  “You’re talking sacrilege. You know I’d never let you do that.” But he only said it absentmindedly, his gaze already back on the pages before him. He didn’t know what Damaon thought about the betrothal—Adamas was in fact afraid to ask—because should they have no choice but to wed Iderea, he and Damaon would be in the clear regarding their health on a permanent basis. They would benefit greatly from the marriage and yet, something inside him clamored for Raisa. She wasn’t just a body to warm their bed at night or the woman sent by the diamond star to heal them—in the short time they had with her, she had become much more to him. And he was looking through the diary hoping to find a way out of the betrothal. Would she consent to stay should they offer her immortality? He remembered the look of longing in her green eyes as she spoke of the home and friends she’d left behind and a sick, desperate feeling coalesced within him.

  He pushed the thought away. One thing at a time. If the betrothal agreement was iron clad, then there was no point thinking and planning for things that could never be, 106

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  when first and foremost, they might need to make the extra effort to persuade Raisa to stay, assuming that Damaon agreed—

  “Adamas!”

  “What?” Startled, he dropped the diary onto his lap. He glanced up, surprised to see Damaon glowering at him, his skin pale beneath his tan.

  “I’ve been calling you for the past minute. If you hadn’t responded just then, I would’ve gone over and shaken you. I thought…I thought—” Damaon glanced away and his hand shook as he ran his hand through his bone-white hair. Adamas rose to envelop his terrified lover within the circle of his protecting arms.

  “I’m sorry.” He pressed his lips against Damaon’s cheek. “I’m alive and well. Raisa healed me, just a
s she had you. I was just deep in thought. I never meant to frighten you.”

  Damaon turned his head so that their mouths met in a long kiss of comfort. “Don’t scare me like that again. I can’t take it.” He rested his head against Adamas. Then, as though the words were being dragged from him, he said, “There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

  “What is it?”

  Damaon released a short sigh. “Actually, Raisa was the one who pointed it out to me. I thought…please believe me, I thought I was doing you a favor. I didn’t want you to die, in case the calling star didn’t send a woman in time, just like it had happened with Iamond. So…” Damaon struggled out from within his arms. Adamas released him with reluctance, his confusion growing as he watched his mate pace the room in nervous agitation.

  “I lied to you.”

  The bald statement sent a wave of shock through his system. As far as Adamas knew, they had never deceived each other.

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  “I’m sorry, so sorry.” Damaon stopped and faced him, honesty shining from the silver eyes so like his own. “You are every bit as good as I am in the field, Adamas. Even without experience, be assured that the diamonds will respond to you, because you are the Diamond Immortal. The only reason I said you were good only for planning and strategies, thus keeping you confined to the office was because—”

  “Increased exposure to the diamonds speeded up the pace of the hardening.”

  Adamas didn’t quite know what he was feeling. Gratitude, certainly, that his lover sought to protect him. Relief because the matter was a small one and easily forgivable. Yet there was a slight feeling of being cheated of the chance to work more in direct contact with the gems that he was supposed to be the caretaker of. Not that he minded doing research and using his brain to concoct suitable planting arrangements. In fact, he quite enjoyed it. He stared at Damaon with a thoughtful frown, which made his mate fidget uneasily. Good. Damaon deserved to be taken down a peg or two. He was too arrogant for his own good. Adamas let the silence lengthened as he strolled back to settle his frame in the plush cushioned seat. “You have to be punished.”

  The relief that emanated from Damaon was palpable. “Anything you want. A back rub? Alone time with Raisa?” He hesitated. “If you want me to marry Iderea, leaving you free, I’m amenable as well. No sense in both of us feeling obligated.”

  Adamas’ heart sank.

  Damaon wanted to marry Iderea?

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  Chapter Eight

  Much as he loved Damaon, Adamas wished they were in the same boat, as the fight would be easier. They’d also make a much stronger case, but how could he hope to convince Raisa to stay if Damaon didn’t want her around? Jerking to a straight sitting position in the armchair, he blurted out, “Raisa means that little to you?”

  “Hell’s gems, Adamas, what do you want me to do?” For the first time, Adamas saw the tormented anguish in Damaon’s eyes. “We’re hemmed in on one side with this betrothal contract of Iamond and on the other with Raisa’s subtle hints of going back to Earth. We can’t be without honor.” Damaon’s hands closed into fists and he paced once again, a helpless fury projecting from him. “And we can’t force her to stay if she doesn’t want to.” Damaon dropped slowly to his knees, as though his feet couldn’t support his weight anymore. He swallowed hard, a forlorn figure against the backdrop of scintillating diamonds. “I…I think I love her, the same way, yet differently, from the way I love you. Her very presence healed my soul and made me laugh again, but it’s more than that.” He closed his eyes and rolled back his head. “This emotion is very strange to describe, but I know that if she…leaves, it would devastate me. I want her to stay for always. Yet…and yet…” He slammed a clenched fist against the diamondstudded wall, uncaring that the tiny gems cut into his flesh. “Until this situation regarding the betrothal is resolved, there isn’t anything I can offer her, nothing I can say to induce her to stay.”

  Damaon’s every word and emotion scraped over raw nerves and resonated in his heart. “Sapphire has always looked out for us,” Adamas spoke slowly, talking out their situation. Maybe if they heard the words, some wild idea would pop into their heads.

  “Especially during our first few years in the job. He even helped us to clean up our messes. We do owe him a lot and our marrying Iderea would be one way to show our 109

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  gratitude. I think Sapphire means to ensure that his daughter remain an immortal forever with such an arrangement.”

  “Then all the more he won’t consent to break the betrothal.” Damaon groaned. “He has us by the balls.”

  “Then why hasn’t he reminded us about it, with Ida so close to eighteen?” Adamas’

  keen brain pointed out this flaw. He shook his head. “Sapphire must have some other plans.”

  Damaon threw up his hands in exasperation. “I don’t know. I haven’t been an immortal long enough to know how one’s mind works.”

  That was a show of temper. Adamas peered at his mate closely, wondering if the hardening was starting again, which shouldn’t have, as Raisa was still with them. Even if it did, it shouldn’t have progressed so fast.

  A moment later, he relaxed. Damaon was just blowing off steam, in light of their predicament. Maybe if he were doing something productive instead of hanging around waiting for Adamas to finish reading…

  “Tell you what,” Adamas suggested. “I’m just a few pages away from the end. Why don’t you call Sapphire and chat him up?”

  “In the middle of the night?” Damaon asked him in horror, the expression on his face suggesting that Adamas was crazy.

  Adamas let a wicked grin lift the corners of his lips. “Give me a better idea to throw him off balance.”

  Damaon didn’t know how he found himself in front of the flat diamond screen, waiting for Sapphire to answer his call, while Adamas was safely out of reach of Sapphire’s expected fury, reading Iamond’s precious diary in the corner. Each immortal’s office and bedroom were equipped with such a screen, to make sure they could be readily apprised of things in case of an emergency. Adamas had once thought 110

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  the one in the bedroom was for courting immortals, until they learned that only a male could be a gem immortal. Perhaps that was generalizing things a bit, as they drew their conclusion from the fact that all the gem immortals they were acquainted with were males and the women their wives.

  Sapphire’s sleepy, grumpy face winked into view. “This had better be good, immortal,” he growled. The advanced technology in the screen enabled his voice to come out full-bodied and replete with nuances.

  It was so rare to see Sapphire exhibit any expression that, inappropriate as it may be, Damaon grinned. “Called you away from a woman?”

  “My sleep, which I need more.”

  “We received some distressing news tonight, Saff, and we thought it’s only right that you commiserate with us.”

  “That’s your problem, Damaon. I’m going back to bed.” He reached out to push the button that would cut their connection.

  “Even when Ida’s the cause of it?”

  “What did that daughter of mine do this time?”

  Beneath the grouchiness ran a hint of fatherly amusement. Any hope Damaon might have that Sapphire would be amenable to break the agreement evaporated. “She knew about the betrothal contract you made with Iamond.”

  Sapphire cursed, then demanded, “You told her?”

  The immortal’s reaction was so unexpected that despite himself and his cautions, hope sprang within Damaon again. “No. When Iamond passed over the functions of the job, he neglected to mention this tiny piece of paper.” Damaon held up the betrothal contract to the screen. “We found it in his diary, which he kept hidden away in a secret place. It would seem that Iderea found your copy of it though.”

  “Great.” Sapphire closed his eyes briefly. “How do you fee
l about the idea?”

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  “Hell’s gems, Saff,” Damaon exploded, the fury and helplessness rising and coalescing within him in an unpleasant maelstrom. “She’s a child who we watched grow up. I know I also speak for Adamas in that it’s rather hard for us to think of her in a romantic way.”

  “My wife was the one who had insisted on it, because she couldn’t bear the thought of her daughter dying in her arms. But if Iderea were married to an immortal, she could share his life and we’d all be one big happy family. But Rhea died too soon, from childbirth as it turned out,” Sapphire revealed, his face haggard and bitter. “What irony.”

  Sapphire must have loved his wife very much, Damaon realized in shock, as nothing of a personal nature had thus far been shared between them, despite their many business dealings.

  “I never intended to hold you to that contract, Damaon, because Iamond was the one who made it with us. It isn’t fair to you or to Adamas. Moreover, knowing that you and Adamas are a couple, I’m not sure I want to subject my daughter to a threesome.”

  Damaon started to breathe easier. He hadn’t known it would be so easy to get Sapphire to break the contract. He didn’t even have to say anything. Now, he and Adamas could concentrate on persuading Raisa to stay. There was only one way she could do that, of course. Would she like living a long life? Would she like having bonewhite hair and eyebrows? Would she—

  Sapphire’s heavy sigh brought him out of pleasant daydreams. “But this changes things, Damaon.”

  “What? You can’t…” he stammered.

  “I don’t like to disappoint my daughter, Damaon. She’s obviously not averse to the idea.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Three years ago, she pleaded with me to join the small gathering Esmeralda was having at her place. I wondered why at the time, because thus far, Iderea had been 112

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  content to play with the servants in the palace. Later, Esmeralda applauded me on having a good tactician for a daughter, because apparently, she and Ida had spoken some days before and in the course of their conversation, Iderea had subtly wrangled the invitation to the monthly parties from her. She must have seen the contract then and looked for ways to get to know you both better.” Sapphire gave a tired shrug. “That she hadn’t voiced her objections to the contract means she approves of you. I know she likes you. Both of you. She’s always prattling about the gifts you’ve given her, the conversations you’ve had…” He sighed. “I was blind for not seeing the affection she harbors for you is not that of a niece for her favorite uncles but that of a young girl in the blushes of her first infatuation. If she hasn’t changed her mind about marrying you by the time she’s eighteen, I don’t see how I could object. She’ll be old enough to make her own decision then.”