Chapter 16
“Wherein a pirate faces the past and embraces fate.”
Lawrence looked down at the girl at his feet. How on earth had he managed to get her entangled in this almighty mess?
“Hey,” he said, putting his hand out and tugging lightly at her wrist, but she wouldn’t uncover her face and look at him. He sighed and got up before reaching down and lifting her to her feet.
“There, there, my sweet little minx,” he murmured against her hair as he pulled her into his arms. With guilt that stabbed at him with a fine, cold blade, he realised he had no business holding her so. She belonged to Alex, no matter what the foolish child thought.
Henri didn’t know his brother like he did.
Alex would be a fine husband, he would make sure she had everything she could possibly desire.
She would be safe and well and ... damn it all why did the idea of her in Alex’s arms make his chest tighten.
She was Alex’s, he told himself firmly. He’d wronged his brother so much already, he wouldn’t compound it by trying to take his fiancée!
He’d consign himself to hell before he did any more harm to the brother he’d idolised in his youth.
But then, he realised with a grim smile, he’d likely be going there anyway.
His thoughts ground to a halt, though, as he realised she had wrapped one arm around his waist and the other was beneath his coat and rested over his heart.
He could feel the heat of her small hand burning through his shirt.
He was suddenly aware of the flutter of her breath against his neck, and then the soft brush of her lips against his jaw.
Lawrence closed his eyes, telling himself he would just savour this moment, as it would be the last time he ever held her.
But then she kissed him again, this time her lips a little lower.
Once more her mouth moved, down his neck, and this time he felt the slightest touch of a warm tongue against his skin, and damn if that didn’t make his skin feel stretched too tight and awaken his every desire.
“Don’t,” he said, but the word didn’t sound right, it sounded too much like oh, God, yes, when it was followed by a sharp intake of breath as her hand slid down his chest and lingered just below his navel.
Once again her hand slipped under his shirt, her fingers moving over his skin, teasing the flesh so close to his waistband, touching him with feather-soft delicacy, as if she knew she only had to stray a little lower and any shred of control that remained would be unravelled beyond repair.
She pressed her body against him, and his hard length pressed into the softness of her belly.
He imagined how it would feel if he laid her down, if her legs closed around his hips, pulling him inside her, welcoming him into her heat.
Her mouth continued to press hot little kisses against his skin, moving back up his neck as her fingers trailed back and forth, making him shiver with need, the need to lay her down on the bed and lose himself in her, in the unholy longing to make her his alone; though she was anything but his and never could be.
He snatched at her hands, holding her away from him before the little devil could discover how to tempt him further, and thanked heaven she was an innocent as his will power was stretched to its limits.
But then he made the mistake of looking down at her.
There was such fire in those tawny brown eyes, such demand for his attention.
Did she really know what it was she was asking him for?
He wondered if she would look like that for Alex and then squashed the thought before it could turn to anger.
He knew how she had looked for him at least, when she had rubbed herself against him, seeking her own pleasure like a sinuous cat.
Damn but he could feel his control slipping further, his desire for her turning from a pleasant ache to a physical pain just thinking about it.
As if reading his mind, she leaned into him harder, pressing her body against his and raising her mouth, inviting him to kiss her.
He held her hands still, restraining her, but he was too desperate to deny her.
He accepted the invitation she gave, slanting his mouth over hers and devouring the exquisite little moan of desire that escaped her.
The kiss deepened as their tongues danced and parried and the little breathless moan came again, making his blood burn under his skin. Oh God he wanted to hear her moan and squeal and cry out his name as she came apart ... and then he remembered his brother. He pulled away.
“I can’t!” he shouted in frustration, his voice rough. He dropped her hands as though she had burned him. Stepping away he turned his back on her, trying not to see the hurt that made those wide, doe eyes glisten. “You belong to Alex.”
“Oh!” she shouted, and though he hadn’t been looking he was almost sure she’d stamped her foot in rage. “I belong to no man. I will not be someone’s property!” The next thing he knew she was hitting him with small but well-placed blows that rained down upon his back with quite surprising force.
“Henri!” He tried to evade her but as he was unwilling to touch her for fear he would simply give in and take her to his bed, his efforts were thwarted as she followed him about the room, apparently unwilling to give quarter. “Henri, stop that!”
“I won’t stop until you stop being such a blithering idiot!” she railed against him in utter fury.
He ducked as she changed tack, and his bottle of rum went flying over his head and smashed against the far wall.
“Dammit, that wasn’t empty!” he raged as the overpowering scent of liquor filled the small cabin.
With growing alarm he realised she was scanning the room for another missile, and he had no choice but to risk giving her a shake.
“Calm yourself, you damned little hellion!” he shouted, with all the authority of a man well used to commanding a ship of over eighty cut-throats.
She seemed singularly unimpressed. Belatedly he realised it may not have been the correct way to address her either as her eyes flashed and she stamped on his toes with all her might.
He hauled in a breath before he sullied her ears with some of his choicer expressions.
“I will not be calm,” she shouted, wriggling out of his grasp and pushing him to illustrate her words. “Don’t you realise that your brother will never marry me now in any case! I’m ruined, remember?”
“He damn well will,” Lawrence growled, even though the very idea of her as Alex’s wife made his teeth clench and gave him the strong desire to hit something. “I’ll see he does if it’s the last thing I do!”
And just like that her rage disappeared, her eyes filled once more and to his dismay her bottom lip trembled, and oh, good God, he had never wanted to kiss a woman more than he did at this moment.
“Henri,” he said, keeping his voice soft, and so obviously full of regret it seemed to shred any remaining control she had, and she fell against his chest, sobbing.
“I won’t marry him, I won’t! I won’t!” she said through her tears. “I don’t belong to him, I never will.”
He couldn’t just let her sob and do nothing to comfort her and so he gathered her up and held her close.
But he couldn’t let her have any romantic notions about the future either.
It beggared belief that the girl should have any towards him, he thought with a smile.
After everything she’d been through, she should be ruing the day he’d been born.
But then she was quite unlike anyone he had ever met before.
He realised he’d had many regrets in his life, but he thought perhaps not knowing her better would be the very biggest of them all.
“They’ll hang me, Henri,” he said, and then held her away from him, shaking her a little as she cried harder.
“No. Stop that, you must listen to me. I’m not about to go meekly to the noose I swear.
If the opportunity comes, I will take it and I’ll run.
But I’m an outlaw, a wanted man, and this will be the way I will live if I live at all.
Even if I was mad enough to want to take a woman into a life like that .
..” He took a breath. “You would only slow me down, Henri. I’d likely get caught again and I doubt I’d escape the hangman twice.
The chances of me doing it this time are slim enough. ”
She stopped crying and wiped her eyes, and he frowned as he felt he could hear the wheels turning in her mind. What the devil was she up to now? “Whatever you’re thinking, just ... just stop it!”
“Yes, Lawrence.” She blinked and looked up at him, tears still tracking down her sweet face and he felt his heart clench. By God, what a pair of brown eyes could do to a man.
Gritting his teeth, he tried hard to forget about his own wishes. “I mean it, Henri, whatever foolish notions you’re harbouring, for heaven’s sake, put them aside. Surely this little adventure has made you see how easily you can lose everything?”
She nodded, her big brown eyes never leaving his. “Yes, Lawrence,” she repeated, her voice quite sincere. “It has.”
He sighed, relieved that perhaps he had got his point across, and possibly just a little heartbroken. “Well then ... good.”
They both jumped as the door opened and Mousy looked in, his expression grim.
“They’re waitin’ for the two of ye’.”
Lawrence felt something in his gut tighten but he nodded. “We’ll be with you in a moment.”
Mousy nodded and left the room, closing the door behind him.
“Well, then,” Lawrence said, trying to keep his words light. “It looks as though it’s time to face the fates, and my brother.”