Seductive Wager

by Leigh Greenwood

  He had entertained no thoughts of marriage when he met Kate, yet with every passing day she became more necessary to his comfort, and he no longer even considered the possibility of living without her. At first he had been so bowled over by her beauty, so caught up by the stormy passions she aroused in him every time he set eyes on her, he didn’t stop to ask himself what he was doing or why. Even now, after weeks of what could pass for quiet married life, his quickening pulses still tended to block out all thoughts of anything but the immediate present.

  For the life of him he couldn’t figure out what it was Kate had in such abundance that every other female lacked. Never before had he confined himself to a single woman for very long, yet no matter how many hours he spent with Kate, he never grew bored with her company. He was teaching her to handle a man’s weapons because it amused him and because it was a useful skill to have, not because they had nothing else to do. He enjoyed each day’s practice and was filled with pride when she put a bullet through the center of the target without flinching at the loud report of the pistol. Yet if he roared with laughter when she berated herself mercilessly for a missed shot, she always took it in good part.

  His respect for her was growing with each passing day. She had unsuspected reserves of strength. She had taken command during his illness with calm determination and cool-headed intelligence. She didn’t panic when she was frightened or didn’t understand things; she didn’t shrink from unpleasant tasks or offer excuses for failure. When she needed to know how to perform a task, she set out to master the required skills and didn’t forget anything of what she learned.

  Even though he had decided to take her to Africa without consulting her wishes, knowing all the while she suffered from seasickness, she had settled into the routine of the ship easily and adjusted her life to fit his without a word of complaint. Her presence never seemed to cause extra work, but she would lend a hand when she could. She was friendly to a fault with the crew but never gave them reason to treat her with anything but the utmost respect.

  Brett’s presence alone would have been enough to ensure her preferential treatment. He was a man who inspired other men with confidence in his leadership and a belief in his ability to handle difficult situations. But at the same time it was easy to believe there was a black streak in his character. It wasn’t something you could explain or even point to, but one look at those coal-black eyes flashing with anger and his bulging muscles taut with scarcely restrained fury and no one could doubt a demon lay just beneath the polished surface.

  “The way you watch over your wife, one would think you’d kill anyone who touched her,” the captain had once remarked with a nervous laugh.

  The pleasant smile had faded from Brett’s face and his tightened mouth betrayed just how little he liked the idea. His reply was a succinct “I would,” but the captain felt eternity lay in those words for anyone foolish enough to approach his divinely beautiful wife, and he changed the subject to something less likely to arouse the animosity of a man he didn’t entirely trust.

  Brett entered the cabin on silent feet even though he knew Kate would be waiting for him. The room was in shadows and the light of the single lamp burning by the bedside seemed to flow toward Kate, framing her face against the darkness of the cabin like a Rembrandt painting. Brett was drawn irresistibly toward her, wondering all over again how anyone could be so lovely. He still found it hard to believe she was really his, that she wouldn’t suddenly vanish from the pillow without a trace.

  He moved to the bed and sank down beside her. He liked to look at her at any time, but he particularly loved to see her as she was now, in the half light with her face framed by the gold of her cascading hair. His hand reached out and his fingers caressed her cheeks, marveling anew at the velvety softness of her skin. He looked deep into sea-blue eyes that gazed at him with a look of deep contentment and he felt himself falling further and further under their spell, almost suffocating in their enveloping depths. Then suddenly he was snatched from his reverie by an unexpected revelation that whiplashed his mind, ricocheted down his body, and landed in his stomach with the force of a hammer-blow: he was in love with this girl.

  He was shocked and stunned to the very foundations of his being. Here, nestled within his arms, lay the only thing in the world that mattered to him. All the things that used to mean so much could never offer him half as much pleasure as one simple smile from this lovely, courageous, girl.

  She looked at him as though she, too, had found the object of her dreams. If that could only be true, he reflected, but how could she love him after all that had passed between them? How could any woman love a man who had done only a tithe of what he had done to Kate? He felt a sick sensation in the pit of his, stomach, a feeling of hopeless despair. In that moment, he would have traded everything he owned for a chance to start over again. He had never tried to make himself acceptable to her, not even after they were married; he had run roughshod over her from the moment they met. If she hated him forever, he would only have himself to blame.

  The sound of Kate’s voice penetrated the barricade of his unwelcome thoughts. She had been talking to him for some time, and he hadn’t heard a thing she had said until the word “love” erupted from her conversation to scatter his gloomy thoughts.

  “What did you say?” he asked suddenly. “I didn’t catch the first part,” he confessed.

  Kate laughed softly. “How like you not to pay the least attention when I’m talking. I should be used to it by now, but I hope you’ll want to hear what I have to say this time. I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time, but I’ve never had the courage. I was afraid, I’m not entirely sure of what, but I guess I didn’t want to leave myself open to be hurt again. After my father and brother, I found it difficult to trust any man. I kept it to myself, not telling anyone, not even Valentine until after she guessed.”

  “You were afraid of me?” he asked, surprised. “Why?”

  “How can you ask me that?” she demanded, amused in spite of herself. “You were mean, rude, cruel, and I was sure I would hate you with my dying breath. For weeks I planned and plotted to get to London once you were well. I knew Martin had forced me on you, and I couldn’t believe you wouldn’t get rid of me as soon as you could. Gradually I realized I was less afraid of you than I was of the future without you. It was then I realized I didn’t want to escape, that I wanted to stay with you, but I was afraid you wouldn’t want me.”

  Brett tried to speak, but Kate put her fingers over his lips.

  “Let me finish. Since we’ve been on this ship there has been a difference in you, from the very first morning when I woke up with that awful hangover. You’ve made me feel wanted, important, as though I were something valuable and precious in a way that had nothing to do with my looks or whether I could hit those stupid targets. I felt it was me you cared about, and I just wanted to curl up in the crook of your arm and never leave. Most important, I wasn’t afraid of you any longer.

  “I don’t know what the future holds for us, or if we have a future—I have a great fear it won’t be what I want it to be—but these have been the most wonderful days of my life. I never dreamed I could be so happy.”

  Brett held tightly to Kate and buried his face in her hair. For the first time in his life, he was content to be near a woman without devouring her like a raging fire consuming dry tinder. He tried to speak, but he had trouble swallowing and his throat wouldn’t let the words out.

  “Our idyll is about to come to an end,” Kate continued. The captain told me this would be our last night at sea. Once we land, all manner of things will intrude, and we’ll never be together like this again, just the two of us, without anyone or anything from the outside world to come between us. This could even be our last night together for a long time so there’s something I want to tell you, something I must tell you.

  “I love you. I have loved you ever since you were so sick, probably even before that. It doesn’t matter when it started, just that
it did.” His grip on her tightened until it hurt. “I hadn’t meant to tell you this. I was going to keep it to myself and then disappear to a little cottage where I could hide from you and the rest of the world, but I had to tell you. I hope it doesn’t make you angry. I know I often put you into a towering rage, but I promise I won’t say anything about it again.” She took his face in her hands and looked into the depths of the black pools that were his eyes. “I love you with all my heart,” she whispered. “And I will always love you as long as I live.” She kissed him lightly on the lips with a tenderness he found more overpowering than the fierceness of her passion.

  Brett gently forced Kate to lie back on her pillow. He propped himself up on one elbow and with his other arm steadied himself across her body. He looked at her lovingly and then kissed her very tenderly. Their lips clung to each other in a long embrace that lacked the fire of their other kisses but promised instead a warmth and permanence that no passage of time could diminish.

  “I love you, too,” he said, tearing himself from her warm embrace. “I didn’t know it until tonight when I looked at you lying on the pillow with your hair all around you and your eyes staring so steadfastly into mine. At last I understood why I have been so determined to hold on to you from the very first. I never did want to let you go. Even when I couldn’t think because my head ached from brandy or my brains were turned to mush by the coach ride, I rejected every plan that meant giving you up. Edward told me I fell in love with you at first sight. I begin to think he may have been right.”

  Kate made an ineffectual attempt to wipe away the tears that were coursing down her cheeks.

  “But what I felt for you then was nothing compared to what I’ve learned to feel for you since. You struggled so hard to keep me alive, fought to keep your independence and honor, and never asked for anyone’s pity. Yet after I forced you into this marriage, you still had the courage to laugh, eat at the same table without hating me, even aim your pistol without making me its target. I felt your anger melt and drain away, but I never thought it would turn to love. I didn’t even know I wanted it to become love until I came through that door tonight.”

  His infectious chuckle rumbled from deep in his chest. “All I had in mind was a lusty romp in bed. I am aroused by the very sight of you, but then you know that. I thought I knew everything there was to know about love, but I feel like I’m just starting to learn, that all I’ve experienced before had nothing to do with what I feel for you now.” He wiped away some of her tears. “I have to thank you for that, but I’m even more grateful for your presence. I know now that to grow old wrapped in the warmth of your love will be worth the loss of youth.”

  Brett enfolded Kate in his embrace and she clung fiercely to him, hardly able to believe he loved her as much as she loved him, hardly daring to allow herself to be convinced by the words she had heard with her own ears. His lips descended upon her mouth, greedily taking kiss after sweet kiss, yet waiting for her to join as an equal participant in this act of adoration. His lips parted and his tongue touched hers, seeking, tasting, probing, inviting, wanting. Kate’s arms tightened around his neck as his lips planted kisses on her neck and cheeks, tickled and teased her lashes on their way to plant a tiny kiss on the tip of her nose. His fingers moved through her silken hair like a comb, making her skin tingle and her body tense with expectation. Yet Brett’s kisses continued to linger on her lips, straying only occasionally to tease and torment her ear.

  Kate pressed herself against the length of him, reveling in the feel of his hard, heated body against her soft flesh, wanting his strength to satisfy her desire. Her breasts were pressed tightly against his chest, her legs, trembling and rigid, entwined with his.

  Brett paused only long enough for them to slip out of their clothes before his insatiable lips again sought her mouth, traveled over the exquisitely sensitive skin of her neck and shoulders and down the length of her arm. Cradling her hand in his, Brett kissed each finger, turned it over to plant several kisses in her palm before doing the same with the other hand. Then, placing her palms against the soft mat of black hair on his chest, he allowed his lips to sink to the excruciatingly tender tip of her breast. Kate gasped for breath as his tongue gently laved her inflamed nipple until her whole body squirmed and her other breast cried out for identical attention. She arched against him, brought her knees up on either side of his body as though to draw him within her, but his hands could not be deflected from their caressing of each breast nor his lips from the impassioned attention to each nipple.

  Kate moved more strongly against him, but still his attention was not diverted to the part of her anatomy which was torturing her with spasms of intense yearning. First one hand and then the other roamed over the skin of each leg, covering it with goosebumps of desire, setting her on fire with an urgent need, but he continued to slowly feed the fire in her body until Kate was sure she would perish in the flames.

  But when his hands did seek out the sweet agony between her thighs, their lovemaking took on a new and unreal quality. There was no rush, no urgency, no violent surges. Despite the convulsive shudders that periodically shook her body for its whole length, Brett continued to carefully tend the fires of his passion, inviting her to join him in a union which aimed toward the future, not just the pleasure of the moment. Gradually the desperate need for release left Kate and she felt herself being wound tighter and tighter, lifted higher and higher, until the admission of Brett’s driving heat deep into her hot, moist flesh became a continuation of the surging ecstasy.

  He moved in her with a delicate restraint which served to excite her in a way she had never experienced before. Instead of consuming her, fiercely demanding satisfaction of her, it seemed to invite her very being to become a part of his fulfillment, and Kate’s heart was filled with such an overwhelming sense of love she feared she might break into tears. She clung to him, longing to feel as one, to move as one, to be as one in this consummate expression of their love.

  With all the intensity but lacking the frenzy of previous nights, they rose smoothly to a passionate conclusion. Their bodies tensed, arched, and became rigid as the final release erupted from deep inside them, but there was an extra dimension of satisfaction, a kind of fulfillment that had not been there before. It was as if they had only been friends before, partners in a voyage of pleasure. Now they were truly united and every part of their being rejoiced in their newly achieved completeness.

  Kate was jerked awake by the sound of a bell ringing wildly in the crisp cool of the hour just before daybreak. She turned frightened eyes to Brett, but before her lips could form words to ask the questions in her mind, he was out of bed and staring through the porthole for the cause of the alarm. There was nothing, however, to be seen in the expanse of blue sea except tiny, whitecapped waves dancing about under the encouragement of the last breath of the night breeze. In the distance, a bare tracing of coastline lifted itself above the horizon, giving support to the captain’s promise that they would be in Algiers before noon.

  “That’s a general alarm,” Brett said as he left the window and jumped into his clothes with none of his usual regard for neatness and elegance. “We’re either under attack or threatened by some kind of danger. Stay in the cabin and lock the door. No matter what happens, don’t open it for anyone but me. No one, do you hear? I’ll send Marie to stay with you if I can, but we may need him.” He jammed his feet into his boots and grabbed his sword and a large knife he had been using only the day before for target practice. “Ill be back as soon as I can.”

  “No,” Kate cried. Her stunned immobility ended, she bounded out of the bed and clung to Brett. “Don’t leave me alone.” For a brief moment Brett’s eyes softened as he enveloped Kate in a short embrace.

  “I don’t think there’s any immediate danger, but I’ve got to know what’s happening. I’ll only be gone a few minutes.” Kate’s grip on him slackened and she watched with fearful eyes as he backed away from her and went through the door. />
  For a brief moment she stood still, listening to the hysterical ringing of the bell and the pounding of running feet as the crew prepared to meet this unexpected danger. What could it be, she thought? We can’t be sinking. Could the French Navy have mistaken them for an enemy ship? She hadn’t heard any gunfire.

  Then she remembered the group of small boats, and cold fear clutched her heart. Could they really be pirates? Could that absurd nightmare really come true? She wanted to reject the idea as too ridiculous to even consider, but she had a horrible feeling it was true. Somehow she knew that somewhere out there a pirate ship was coming after her. She knew it just as surely as she knew she would take her own life before she would let herself be despoiled.

  Kate dressed quickly in her ugliest dress – a high-necked gown of dark apricot with long sleeves and a full skirt trimmed with lace and ruched at the sleeves. She hid her hair under an oversize cap and slipped her feet into a pair of light slippers. As she looked around trying to decide what to do next, Brett threw open the door.

  Kate’s heart sank when her eyes flew to his face. For a second he stood framed in the doorway, his skin ashen and his eyes wide with a fear she knew was not for himself. He stumbled into the room and enfolded Kate roughly in his arms.

  “There’s a large ship bearing down on us from the rear. It’ll be upon us within half an hour.” He took her face into his hands, and she could see his eyes were moist with unshed tears. “The captain is certain it’s the flag ship of a bandit called Raisuli, the most feared pirate in the Mediterranean.” He paused to clear his throat. “His usual practice is to sell his captives at the slave markets of Damascus.”

  Kate felt her knees start to give way. “Do you mean me?” she asked, petrified of the answer she knew he must give. I will be sold as a slave?”

  “You’d be a bigger prize than all the rest of us put together.” He took her by the hands and pulled her down on the bed. His voice was steady, but the pallor of his skin betrayed his dread. “He has a very large force, and there’s no chance we can drive them off. He’ll probably try to capture us with as few injuries as possible—unmarked slaves bring higher prices—and that just might give us a chance to escape. We’re already within sight of the coast. If we can find some way to prolong the fight, maybe someone will come to our rescue.”