Master of Seduction
Page 27
He bent down on one knee before her. “I love you, my lady, Lorelei. Marry me and I swear I shall never again do or say anything to harm you and I will slay anyone who does.”
She bit her quivering lip. A thousand thoughts and emotions tumbled through her simultaneously. Joy, happiness, and most of all love. Never in her wildest imaginings had she envisioned this man on his knee before her spouting such wonderful words of poetry.
Jack looked about uneasily. “Are you not going to say anything after all that?”
She could feel her face betray her giddiness, while her need for vengeance still stood strong. “And what would you have me say?”
He arched a brow. “That you love me, too, would be nice. Especially given the fact that I look like a complete ass kneeling here in front of you while two hundred men watch.”
She laughed as joy exploded through her and yet her vengeance was not so appeased that she could let him off the hook quite so easily.
She pursed her lips as if in serious debate.
He squirmed a little more and looked a bit sheepish.
“Very well, knave,” she said at last. “For some reason heaven only knows, I do find you…irritating.”
Panic flickered in his eyes.
“Forgive me,” she said, savoring her power over him. “That’s not quite the word I seek.”
She could read on his face the fear he had of her next word.
“Irresistible. Aye, that be the word. I find you irresistible.”
A slow smile spread across his face. “And?”
She cocked a haughty brow. “Who said there was an and?”
“Your eyes say it.”
“Oh, very well then. And I love you.”
The smile broke full force across his face as he stood and scooped her up in his arms. When his lips touched hers, he claimed her with a passion that stole all the strength from her limbs.
“I’m so sorry I left you,” he murmured in her ear. “I swear I’ll never do it again.”
She held him close and leaned her head against his shoulder, content to stay in his arms for the rest of her life.
The admiral stepped forward and cleared his throat. He looked to Jack. “I take it you’ll be joining us for the trip to Charleston?”
Jack shook his head and set her back down on the deck. “She’ll be joining us.”
The admiral nodded. “I understand. Follow us into port and I shall see to it you make safe harbor, but you’ll be on your own when you decide to leave.”
Jack said nothing. Instead, he moved to grab the rope he’d used to swing over to the admiral’s ship. He returned to her side and took her hand, then led her to the upper deck.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Taking you home,” he said as he dipped down and placed an arm about her waist. His arm tightened. “Lift your feet.”
“Don’t you dare!”
But he did. The two of them sailed off into the air, over the ocean, and to the deck of Morgan’s ship. Everything seemed to swim around her and she didn’t feel safe until her feet finally touched the wooden boards of the deck.
Lorelei’s entire body shook with fright. “I swear, Jack—”
“Jake,” he whispered as he let go of the rope. His loving gaze captured hers and left her bereft of words. “A fair maiden cast her spell upon Jack Rhys and transformed him into a new man she named Jacob Dudley.”
“You truly hate that name, don’t you?”
His look was playful and warm. “Something a little more masculine would have been preferable. However, I can console myself with the knowledge that you’ll be Mrs. Jacob Dudley.”
“And that I surely will.”
19
Six months later
Jack stood in the door of his father’s bedroom as the butler quietly walked past. He still wasn’t sure why he was here, only that Lorelei had asked him to make peace and he would do practically anything she wanted.
Wallingford’s eldest son, Adrian, stood at the window staring at him. And Justin, who sat by the bed, looked as if he were seeing a ghost.
“What are you doing here?” Justin asked, his voice almost accusing in its grief.
“Leave us,” Wallingford ordered, though his voice had lost its power and authority. “I wish to speak with him alone.”
“But Father—” Justin began.
“Do it!”
Reluctantly, they did as he wished. Adrian closed the door and Jack moved closer to the bed.
“Come to see me die to make sure the devil takes me?”
“No,” Jack said. “I’ve come to make peace with you.”
“Have you now?” Wallingford asked in disbelief.
Jack clutched his hands together before him as he grappled with his numerous emotions. “I guess it doesn’t make sense to hate you anymore. As Lorelei is so quick to say, the past is the past and it can do us no harm unless we let it.”
His father wheezed and coughed for several minutes into a blood-soaked handkerchief. When he finally regained himself, he motioned for Jack to come closer.
Reluctantly, he did. He was trying to give the man a little peace, and trying to find some for himself. But it was hard to be here and witness the destruction of a strong man. Even one he’d spent most of his life hating.
“You’ll never know how much regret I’ve had,” his father wheezed. “How many times I wish I’d had the strength your mother possessed. In spite of the sneers and ridicule, she stood strong, fortified by her love of me. I was so undeserving of her love.” He looked away, his eyes misting. “I should have been willing to do the same for her, but I couldn’t stand the thought of losing my commission, my family…”
Jack clenched his teeth as old wounds were gouged open.
His father coughed again, then rasped, “I’m glad you didn’t make my mistake. You’ll never know how proud I was of you when you knelt before Lorelei and told her what you felt. You’re the man I never was.”
The unexpected compliment hit him hard and he wasn’t sure how to take it. What did one say to such a thing?
“I’m sure she’s the reason you’re here, isn’t she?” his father asked. “You told her about us.”
“Aye. I keep no secrets from her.”
He nodded. “Women can’t help but try to set matters to what they consider right. But I’m glad she insisted.”
For some reason Jack was beginning to, too. “I do forgive you, Father.” The words were harsh against his throat and yet, once spoken, they seemed to remove some strange burden from his shoulders.
But I will never really understand why you did it. How you could have done it.
Jack buried those thoughts and the words. They were the past, and he was now willing to let it rest.
“Call your brothers in.”
Jack obeyed.
Once they were all in the room, Wallingford positioned them around his bed and smiled. “’Tis a sight I’ve waited my entire life to see.”
He looked to Justin. “Open the bottom drawer of my table and you’ll find a sealed parchment.”
Justin went and found it, then returned to the bed. Wallingford took it from him and handed it to Jack. “For my grandchildren. I would that they have at least part of what I should have left their father.”
Dumbfounded, Jack reached out and took the paper.
His father touched his hand for just a moment, and then he drew his last breath.
Adrian and Justin erupted into tears as they wailed for the father they loved.
Feeling awkward and unsure, Jack made a quiet exit.
Lorelei sat at the window of her drawing room, painting in the fading daylight. It was yet another portrait of Jack, her favorite piece of fruit.
Jack, she thought, warming at the mere thought of him. Her father had been most reluctant to accept his new son-in-law, but after a few days of pouting and prodding, Lorelei had finally swayed his affections for Jack.
Then there was the way Jack had
followed him around, making a nuisance of himself and warning her father that he would not stop bothering him until her father gave him a fair shake.
She smiled at the memory.
Lorelei looked up at the large room and stared at the molding on the ceiling. ’Twas a beautiful home Jack had bought for them and she hoped to one day fill the large plantation house with precious children. Especially since Kit had decided to sail with Morgan.
Jack had taken his son’s decision hard. But in the end, he’d let the boy go.
Morgan had promised to take good care of Kit and to bring him home at least twice a year. She hoped for Jack’s sake that Morgan kept his promise.
She heard the front door open.
Before she could rise, Jack came into the room, his face dour.
Without a single word passing between them, she knew what had happened. “He’s dead?”
Jack nodded.
Lorelei rose and went to him. After removing her stained apron, she pulled him into a tight hug. “I’m sorry.”
His response came as an even tighter squeeze.
They stood embracing each other for several minutes before Jack finally pulled away from her. “Thank you for making me go,” he said hoarsely.
She clutched his hand in hers, delighted that the final confrontation had done him some good. “You feel better, then?”
He brought her hand up to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “In some strange way I do. I feel so relieved. Like the past can harm me no more.”
“I’m glad for it.”
Jack released her hand and reached inside his coat. He pulled out a sealed piece of parchment and handed it to her.
Lorelei turned it over and studied the Wallingford crest. “What is this?”
He shrugged in that irritating way that often drove her to distraction. “He wanted me to have it.”
“And you didn’t open it?”
“I thought you might wish the honor.”
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, she broke the seal and opened it. As she scanned the page, anger, relief, sadness, and joy mingled inside her.
“Well?” Jack asked after she finished.
Lorelei debated whether or not she should let him know. But then they had sworn to have no secrets from each other—to be honest no matter the pain.
“Your mother’s father wrote to the admiral numerous times over the years begging him to bring you home,” she said, her voice cracking at the sadness that settled over Jack’s features. “It seems he had no other heir, and when he died eight years ago, he left everything to you.”
“What?” Jack breathed.
“Aye. The admiral wrote that he never had the heart to tell your grandfather what he’d done to you, and since he didn’t know how to tell you about your inheritance, he managed your estates and money in your absence.”
Anger darkened Jack’s cheeks.
Lorelei touched his arm lightly, offering him what comfort she could. “He took great care of it all for you. The admiral has also left you a large holding of his in Wales.”
“Did he honestly think—”
“Jack,” she said, cutting him off. “He’s gone now. Does it matter what he thought?”
Jack sighed. “I suppose not.”
Lorelei handed him the letter. “You’re a wealthy man, Jacob Dudley.”
He snorted. “I was already a wealthy man.” Jack pulled her into his arms. “But tell me, Mistress Dudley, were I merely a poor sailor bereft of jewels and wealth, would you still have a kind thought of me?”
She smiled. “Most certainly not, sir. For then I would see your thinning hair and poochy belly.”
“My what?”
“You heard me.”
“Methinks milady hasn’t seen my belly in so long that she has it confused with some other man’s.”
“I but saw it last night, and it was quite the flabby mound I claim.”
“Flabby?”
She bit her lip. “Then again, perhaps my memory is not what it once was.”
“I should say not.”
“Then come, my pirate, take me upstairs and refresh my memory.”
His smile was wicked. “Ever as you wish, sweetest. Ever as you wish.”
About the Author
Bestselling author KINLEY MACGREGOR knows men. She lives outside of Nashville, TN, with her husband and three sons. Raised in the middle of eight boys, and currently outnumbered by the Y chromosome in her home, she realizes the most valuable asset a woman has for coping with men is a sense of humor. Not to mention a large trash bag and a pair of tongs.
Writing as Kinley MacGregor, she is the bestselling author of the Brotherhood of the Sword and the MacAllisters series, and as her alter-ego Sherrilyn Kenyon, she is the New York Times bestselling author of the Dark-Hunters, Sex Camp Diaries, and BAD series.
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KINLEY MACGREGOR
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Romantic Times
By Kinley MacGregor
RETURN OF THE WARRIOR
A DARK CHAMPION
TAMING THE SCOTSMAN
BORN IN SIN
CLAIMING THE HIGHLANDER
MASTER OF DESIRE
MASTER OF SEDUCTION
A PIRATE OF HER OWN
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
MASTER OF SEDUCTION. Copyright © 2000 by Kinley MacGregor. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books™.
ePub edition July 2005 ISBN 9780061747403
10 9 8 7
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Kinley MacGregor, Master of Seduction