ONE NIGHT OF SURRENDER: Brothers Mortmain Book 1

by North, Evie

  “So, Hawley, escaped the hangman after all, eh? But not for long.” Edward’s voice was hearty and loud, full of gloating excitement. It was Edward at his worst.

  Gervais did not flinch. “There’s nothing for you here, Prime. Have you forgotten that if I’m captured then I’ll turn you in too? We’ll both face the hangman.”

  Prime gave a laugh. “Nothing for me here? What about that whore you’re protecting? My property, Hawley. You stole her from me and I’m taking her back. I’d have come much sooner but you’re a hard man to find, and then I learned that she was with you. But I’m here now. Come to me, Katherine.”

  He glanced toward her, but only for a moment. His attention was focussed on Gervais, and Katherine used the moment to reach into the saddle bag for something to use to defend herself.

  “No, you’re not taking her back.” Gervais’s voice was cold and hard. “I won’t let you.”

  “You won’t let me?” Edward sneered and came closer, and in the growing light of morning Katherine could see that he had changed. He looked older and his eyes were dead of everything but the need to hurt. Her fingers shook inside the bag and then she touched something sharp. She closed her hand around it.

  “I don’t think I’ll wait for the hangman,” Edward said. “I’ll shoot you in the guts. You’ll live long enough to watch, while I take her right here beside your body.”

  Terrified, Katherine looked to Gervais but he was focused on his opponent. Surely he had his pistol? And then she saw that it was still on the windowsill. If he reached for it Edward would shoot.

  “There are men out there waiting for you, Prime,” Gervais said in his cold, calm way. “My father—”

  “I’m tired of this,” Edward cut in. He lifted his pistol, pointing it at Gervais. “Goodbye, Gervais. May you rot in Hell.”

  Edward smiled, just as the knife Katherine threw hit him in the chest. He wasn’t hurt—not with its rounded tip—but he was startled enough to drop the pistol. It clattered across the floor and under the table.

  Now Gervais would grab his own pistol, Katherine thought. She was horrified when instead Gervais leapt on Edward and they hit the floor together. She could hear fists hitting flesh but was unable to see much as the men rolled around locked in combat. She had no idea which man was winning the battle, or if there could be a winner. She trusted Gervais to protect her but she’d seen Edward fight before. There was no honour in him, no fairness.

  The pistol on the windowsill beckoned her, but the two flailing men blocked her way. Instead she groped frantically under the wooden table until her fingers at last grasped the cold steel of Edward’s weapon. She wasn’t sure how to use it, but perhaps if she just pointed it at him, Edward would surrender. She stood up and faced the two men, still wrestling and smashing each other with their fists.

  “Stop it! Edward, I swear I will shoot!” she called out, her voice shaking.

  The room was suddenly quiet as both men looked up at her. Gervais had split his lip and Edward’s nose was bloodied.

  “Get off him,” she added, trying to keep the pistol steady in her hands.

  Edward laughed. He pushed away from Gervais, getting to his knees, staring at her with contempt.

  “Katherine, you have no idea what to do with that. Give it here before I get very cross with you.”

  But Katherine was no longer the weak, gentle girl she had been when she lived at the inn. She had grown in strength and character and his scorn made her furious.

  “How do you know what I’ve learnt since you left me, Edward? I went to prison in your place and spent months living with criminals who would slit your throat for tuppence! You think I’m the same woman who allowed you to treat her however you saw fit? The same submissive little mouse? Oh no, Edward. I’ve learnt much since you left me.”

  Edward looked a little less certain of her. He got to his feet slowly, his gaze on the gun. Gervais had also gotten to his feet and taken his pistol from the windowsill.

  “Do you want to shoot him, Katherine, or shall I?” he said. Although his words sounded flippant there was nothing careless in his expression.

  “I think I should do it,” she answered, her gaze never leaving Edward. “When I remember what he did to me...”

  “But he sent me to be hanged,” Gervais reminded her.

  “Perhaps we should shoot together then,” Katherine replied. Gervais’ confident tone had become infectious. “I will aim for his heart and you for his head.”

  Edward’s face had paled. His eyes widened. “You don’t mean that,” he said, all the bluster gone from him. “You can’t kill me in cold blood.”

  Katherine laughed in disbelief. “No? You were going to kill us, Edward.”

  He wiped a hand over his face, spat some blood onto the floor. “You betrayed me, Katherine. You gave yourself to him. And you, Hawley, you always wanted her. I knew it the moment you saw her at the inn. I knew you’d find a way to take her from me. So I struck first.”

  There was something pathetic about him. The man she had been so afraid of was nothing but a bully. Katherine sighed and lowered her pistol. “I couldn’t betray you, Edward, because I never loved you. I only went to you because of my father’s debts which are long since paid. There was nothing to betray.”

  Edward looked as though he was going to cry. All the bluster and excited fury had left him like a pricked balloon.

  Behind him the door opened. Katherine saw it filled by the Earl of Mortmain, and behind him two sturdy men with pistols at the ready. The earl cast his eye over the room, pausing when he came to Gervais, still holding his pistol at Edward Prime.

  “Perhaps you should put that down, Gervais,” he said calmly. “I’ll take care of the matter from here.”

  Gervais shook his head. “And do what? You can’t give him over to the authorities without him telling them about me. And if you let him go...he’s certain to come back. We’d be forever looking over our shoulders. No, let me finish this. It’s no less than he deserves.”

  Katherine bit her lip. She hadn’t been serious about killing Edward. She’d thought they were just stalling for time. Edward deserved to die, but she didn’t want Gervais to kill him. She didn’t want that to darken their future.

  “No, Gervais,” the earl said. “I will send him far away. I have mines in South America and they’re always in need of good strong workers.” His gaze ran over Edward, who was standing with his hand against his dripping nose. “Your alternative, of course, is a noose. Well, man, what is your answer?”

  Edward nodded.

  Slowly, reluctantly, Gervais lowered his weapon. The earl breathed a sigh of relief and, with a nod to his men, had Edward dragged protesting from the bothy.

  “I was beginning to think you weren’t coming,” Gervais said with an attempt at humour, but Katherine noticed his hand shaking.

  “I’m sorry. We were delayed.” He looked at Katherine and she saw that his expression had lost its usual harshness. Like the morning he stood outside Gervais’s cell at Newgate, he was overcome with emotion.

  “Thank you,” she said, and smiled. “I am most grateful.”

  The earl smiled back. “Anila is outside. She insisted on coming and she would like to speak to you.”

  Katherine had not forgotten how Anila had betrayed her to the earl, but her heart lifted at the thought of seeing her now. They had been friends once, and perhaps they could be again.

  Gervais looked at his father. “You promise me he won’t return. Ever.”

  “I promise,” the earl said promptly.

  “I wish to marry Katherine.”

  The earl blinked but took it well, Gervais thought.

  “Then you must marry her. You realise, Gervais, you can never leave Scotland? I can only protect you so far. Although you will be able to live in relative comfort as Jerome, you must always be careful not to grow complacent.”

  Gervais nodded. “I know and I am content, Father. With Katherine and Anthony by my side, I wil
l be the happiest man on earth.”

  The earl seemed to consider him a moment and then he bowed his head. “Then so am I.”

  17

  “I’ve been thinking,” Katherine said in a voice that was unusually stern.

  “Hmm?” Gervais was lounging on the bed, naked. He’d swum in the loch earlier and he felt relaxed and contented. He and Katherine had married in a simple ceremony four weeks earlier, with the earl and Anila beside them, and since then they’d counted their blessings every day.

  “I said, I’ve been thinking, Gervais.”

  He looked up at her through his half-closed eyes. She was standing by the chest at the end of the bed and something in her manner made him sit up and pay attention.

  “What have you been thinking, my sweet?”

  Her eyes met his. She was full of suppressed excitement mingled with some of her old lack of confidence.

  “I was remembering when Edward found us in the bothy, and I caused him to drop his pistol. How, instead of retrieving your own weapon, you flung yourself upon him.”

  Gervais grimaced. “I’m sorry. I was so angry. I wanted to smash his face in and somehow fists are better for that.”

  “It was your reckless streak, Gervais,” she said sternly. “The same reckless streak that got you into trouble over and over again. I think we should tame it, don’t you?”

  Puzzled, he shook his head. He watched her open the chest and reach in, and when she straightened he saw that she was holding ribbons. Blue ribbons, evenly cut, and several of them. They looked like...they looked like...

  He closed his eyes a moment and said a silent prayer of thanks. When he opened them again she was approaching the bed with a purposeful tread.

  “Are you going to tie me up?” he whispered.

  She nodded. “I think it’s for the best, don’t you?”

  “Oh yes, definitely for the best.”

  She looked down at him and her eyes widened as she saw how aroused he was. “Gervais, I—”

  He reached out to take her hand. “No, Katherine, don’t weaken,” he said. “You’re doing the right thing. Use me as you will.”

  She smiled then, and her face flushed with desire and the same excitement that filled him.

  Slowly, paying attention to each knot, she bound his wrists to the head of the bed and his ankles to the bottom. And then slowly, aware of his gaze upon her, she began to undress, removing each garment and folding it neatly. He groaned.

  “Reckless and impatient,” she scolded.

  Katherine climbed onto the bed and crawled toward him on her hands and knees. Her breasts swayed with the movement and his mouth watered for their taste. She moved up his body, rubbing herself along him, lapping at his skin. When she reached his erect cock she smiled and leant down, running her tongue over it.

  “Katherine, I don’t think I can wait,” he said, his heart hammering.

  “Oh? Well you’ll just have to,” she retorted, and made little circles around his tip before drawing the length of him in and out of her mouth several times, each time deeper. He thrust upwards with his hips and groaned again.

  “I could just leave you like that and walk away,” she teased, but he knew she was aroused too. Her eyes glittered as she ran her hand down over her breasts, brushing against her pink nipples, and then caressing the swell of her belly and down, through the fair hair on her mound. Her fingers delved inside, found her pearl, as she sighed and began to stroke herself.

  Gervais couldn’t take his eyes from her.

  Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes closed. She arched herself backwards as her fingers worked harder, and her thighs trembled with the growing climax. And then she gasped and cried out, breasts rising and falling, her body relaxing again.

  Her eyes opened slowly and met his.

  “Oh, Katherine,” he whispered. “You are a woman like no other. You are the only woman I love, have ever loved.”

  “And you are the only man,” she whispered back. She was climbing astride him and he wondered whether he would be able to hold back long enough to satisfy her again. She eased herself onto him, gradually taking him all inside her. He could see how much she loved being in control—as much as he loved being her willing slave.

  Her hands pressed flat to his chest, she rose and fell, riding him with serious concentration on her face. She’d learned a great deal since that night at Newgate, but he thought she was also a natural. His Katherine was a passionate and daring woman, and it had taken a man like him to free that part of her.

  He drove upwards into her, pulling against his bonds. He knew he could break them if he wanted to, but he didn’t. He was enjoying this more than he imagined, and he could imagine a great deal.

  “Gervais,” she moaned. He felt her climax coming, the trembling of her thighs, the tightening of her inner muscles around his cock, and then they exploded together in a burst of ecstasy.

  Katherine came to herself some time later and found she was wrapped in his arms. So he’s freed himself from the ribbons, she thought, amused. I will have to tie them tighter next time.

  Because there would be a next time.

  Gervais was watching her. “Katherine,” he said. “Have I told you how much your reckless and impatient husband loves you?”

  “Not for a few minutes.” She reached up to stroke his cheek.

  He leaned over her and began to kiss her. “Then let me tell you now...”

  Katherine gave a contented sigh. No doubt there would be times when he made her angry, or she made him angry, but it didn’t matter. None of it mattered in the vastness of their love for one another. Out of that one desperate and passionate night had come a lifetime of happiness.

  And then with a smile she gave herself up to Gervais.

  * * *

  The 3rd Book in this trilogy is now available!

  THREE DESPERATE CHOICES

  Maddox Hawley is as wild and reckless as his two brothers. Then a duel followed by a meeting in a seedy inn makes him rethink the direction of his life.

  Gabriella Jones, disgraced governess, has already made one desperate choice. Should she make another by trusting Maddox?

  Maddox is trying to be a better man. He dare not give in to his passionate attraction for Gabriella. Even when she wants him to.

  BUY NOW

  Also Available by Evie North

  Two Days of Temptation

  The Brothers Mortmain, Book 2

  As Hannah approaches the imposing gates of Youlden Manor, she keeps reminding herself of why she is about to give her body to the master of the house. Two years ago, Lord Sebastian Youlden wronged her and their unborn child, and she cannot resume her life until she wreaks revenge.

  When Sebastian awoke weeks after a duel that stole his sight, he discovered he’d lost something else—the woman he loved. Grief-stricken, he retreated to his isolated estate, where he occasionally sends for women from the local inn to temporarily assuage his loneliness. Yet there is something strangely compelling about the latest lady of the night who comes to pleasure him.

  The first time they come together, Hannah’s icy resolve begins to melt in the heat of his bed. As passion begins to burn away the veil of secrecy between them—and gradually lift the blindness from Sebastian’s eyes—the only thing left standing between them and a love that never died is the naked, painful truth.

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  About the Author

  Evie North is a writer of erotic historical romance. Once Evie goes into her writing zone, she vanishes into a world of medieval knights and regency rakes, and the ladies who tame them. Here happy endings are obligatory and the bedroom door is left firmly open. During her quieter moments Evie likes to read and garden.

  Her books include, the Mortmain Brothers trilogy and Knights of Passion short stories and box sets.

  You can find her at www.evienorth.com or find her on Facebook.

  ortmain Book 1