by Carrigan Fox
Lady Colchester patted her granddaughter’s shoulder and nudged her along to follow Colton and her sister. Reese was laughing musically in response to something he’d said. Elisabeth walked a step ahead of them. Chase increased her pace to bring herself closer to the trio in order to better hear their discussion. Her grandmother neither complained nor held her back. She silently matched her pace.
“The men of Slaughter are going to fall over dead when they see the two of you get off that train,” he joked charmingly. “They aren’t used to seeing such beautiful, feminine women.”
Chase snorted in an unladylike fashion before she thought to stop herself. The feminine comment had seemed almost deliberate, and she was most certainly taking offense. Her grandmother patted her shoulder again.
Webb barely looked over his shoulder when he said, “God bless you, Lady Chastity,” evidently hearing her snort and assuming it was a sneeze. Or was he pretending ignorance while also reminding her that she was a lady? One could never tell with Colton Webb these days.
“Thank you, Mr. Webb,” she answered with an especially sugary sweetness.
He glanced back at her again with evident amusement lighting his cocoa eyes. “Elisa is going to be ecstatic about your living in her home. She has been so lonely these past few years.”
Chastity was irritated that he felt he knew her sister-in-law intimately enough to presume to know how she’d been feeling. “She has had Marcus,” she reminded him shortly.
“Naturally,” Elisabeth commented. “But it is not the same as a woman’s company.”
“Very true,” Lady Colchester agreed.
Chase bit her tongue. With the exception of her sister and grandmother, there were few women in London society whose company she enjoyed. She loathed the activity of sitting up prettily while sipping tea and giggling over the most recent gossip. Had she ever been given a choice, she would have happily sprinted for the stables. Come to think of it, she and Colton Webb seemed to occasionally have similar feelings about women in general. That disturbing realization was quickly pushed out of her mind.
The hotel valet loaded their trunks into his automobile and called another valet to drive them to the train station. Although it was early, the sun was climbing rapidly. She felt a dampness collecting on her shirtwaist, indicating that the day was going to be a warm one. The past six days on board the Mauretania had been cool at sea. Her hair was beginning to stick to the back of her neck, and she could only imagine the curls springing to life in the early morning summer warmth.
She fanned her face with her hand, and Colton noticed the gesture while holding the automobile door for her. “Warm, Cochrane?” he muttered with an especially sexy grin.
“It was much cooler at sea,” she answered quietly.
“So it isn’t my nearness that is bothering you?” he all but whispered.
“It’s bothering me,” she confirmed. “Another wave of nausea is hitting me as you speak,” she added with what she hoped was a purely innocent and feminine smile.
He laughed and shook his head, closing the door behind her. Chase was disappointed when Marcus climbed into the front seat of the automobile, leaving Webb to ride with the second valet. She sat in silence, listening while Marcus warned them about the length of the train ride.
“I’ve heard that some parts of America are beautiful. Especially the wilderness and prairie,” their grandmother volunteered.
“That’s true. But seeing that same sight out your window for four days straight becomes dull and tedious, Grandmother,” Marcus replied.
“I can hardly wait,” Chase grumbled.
Marcus smiled and patted her hands, which she kept folded in her lap. “Impatient to get home, Chase?” he teased.
“Aren’t you?”
His smile became soft with thoughts of his pregnant wife. “I am,” he admitted.
***
That afternoon, Webb was sitting across the aisle from Lady Chastity Fairfax when her brother invited their grandmother and sister to lunch in the dining car. The three of them wandered to the last car of the train, not bothering to wake the sleeping beauty across the aisle from him.
The heat had created delicious curls around her face and brought an appealing flush to her cheeks. Her long dark lashes lay seductively on her cheek.
She was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. She was intelligent and passionate, too. He had never before met a woman like her. Chantal employed many women in her business, women who were attractive and clever and passionate. But not one of them was as arousing as Chase Fairfax. She had fight, and she bucked the rules of her high-bred society. She had had the gumption to pose as a young man…and successfully, too. And underneath it all, she was more innocent and naïve than Chantal’s women had been at birth. Perhaps that was her greatest appeal. She was bold and daring—bold enough to kiss him as she had the night before—but still innocent.
He heard someone near him sigh contentedly, and he was disgusted to realize that the sound had come from him. He scowled and turned away from her, staring out the window beside him. When he chanced another glance at her, her eyelids fluttered on her cheeks and opened slowly. Her brown eyes darted from side to side rapidly, reminding her of where she was. When she spotted Webb, her eyes widened a bit and the corners of her mouth lifted.
“I must have dozed off,” she greeted groggily.
“Your family went for lunch,” he responded with a nod toward the rear of the car.
She didn’t answer. Instead, she stood and moved to sit beside him. She looked past him out the window, but her nearness brought her spicy scent to his attention. He tried to pretend that she had no effect on him and frowned at her instead.
“Isn’t it beautiful here? Is Slaughter this beautiful?” she asked without waiting to hear his opinion on the current scenery.
He shrugged even though she was too captivated with the view to notice his gesture. “Some parts are. It’s not so green back home. Too hot. Not enough water.”
“Too hot? Do you mean it is even warmer in Slaughter than here?”
Suddenly, the heat that consumed him on that train seemed more unbearable than working in the noonday sun in August on the ranch. he wanted nothing more than to taste her and feel her lips on his.
“Webb?” she asked, still waiting for a response. His silence caught her attention, and she turned to look at him.
“Shouldn’t you be joining your family for lunch?” he asked her gruffly.
Her eyes narrowed angrily. “I’m not hungry.”
He was confused. What had her so riled up now? She wasn’t the one struggling with arousal on a crowded train. “I’m sure your brother would want you to join them.”
She breathed heavily out of her nose, seeming to take her time responding. “I’m not interested in going to the dining car, Webb. If I was, I would have gone. I don’t care what my brother wants. In case you hadn’t noticed, I am a grown woman, and I am fully capable of making my own decisions. That’s why we came here to begin with,” she added.
In case he hadn’t noticed? Her fury had her full breasts rising and falling rapidly, much the way they had after he had kissed her the night before. He most certainly had noticed that she was a grown woman. He clenched his fists, resisting the temptation to pull her into his lap. “Why didn’t you just marry some rich man and get out of your parents’ house?”
“There are far too many men in the world waiting to take control of us, men who are more than happy to make every decision for us so that we don’t have to be burdened with such nonsense. God forbid we think for ourselves.” Her cheeks were becoming more flushed with every passing moment, the color spreading to her full lips, too.
Her eyes were flashing now as they met his own with a challenge. He didn’t know what the challenge was, but she was certainly fired up about something.
“Go be with your family, Chase,” he suggested, trying to get her away from him before he lost control. He saw her suck in her breath
angrily, preparing to provide him with a verbal lashing again. He interrupted her. “I told you to stay away from me,” he reminded her nastily.
Her temper seemed to have been doused for a moment and then flamed up higher than it had been moments before. “I don’t take orders—”
He desperately needed to get this woman away from him. And while he certainly could have stood up and walked to the dining car himself, a childish part of him enjoyed getting her all riled up. “Listen, lady, you will take yourself off to dine with your family if you know what is good for you. And if you don’t—”
When she spoke, her voice was low and deadly. “Don’t you dare threaten me, Webb. I swear to God, I will never be controlled by any man. And no man will ever threaten me again,” she growled.
He was relieved when she stood and stormed down the aisle, undoubtedly to join her family. He hadn’t expected that kind of response. Naturally, he expected her to be angry and to storm off. He hadn’t expected her to become enraged. That had been a strange twist. Intriguing even. It sure as hell didn’t do anything to help dull his attraction.
CHAPTER 8
She paused at the door of the dining car to catch her breath before joining her family. They would know immediately that she was upset about something. And her mind was racing too rapidly for her to come up with a viable excuse for her anger.
Webb’s threat had startled her. And the anger in his ordinarily warm eyes…she was suddenly back in the Stockton’s library.
“Lady Chastity, so wonderful to see you,” he had greeted as she had entered his library. He sat behind a ridiculously large mahogany desk and had risen to kiss her fingers. “Although your methods might be unconventional, I won’t argue. For I am thrilled that you have come.”
She had forced a quick smile in response and swallowed repeatedly in an effort to moisten her suddenly dry throat.
“What can I do for you this fine afternoon?”
Her voice had come out too quietly, but judging by the expression on his face, he had heard her well enough. “You can call off our engagement.”
His eyes had darkened, and the muscles of his jaw had clenched. “We discussed this once. I think that I’ve made myself clear on the topic. Besides, you hardly have any more appealing options.”
“Why are you so insistent on this marriage?” she had asked desperately.
He had sneered at her with evident disgust. “Because no one else will have you. You should be on your knees thanking me for agreeing to this arrangement.”
She had recognized his intent. She had overheard him once saying that he would break her like a wild stallion. Clearly this was the beginning of his assault on her spirit. “That is undeniably true,” she had admitted, refusing to accept insult from him. “How unfortunate for you, Mr. Stockton, to be saddled with the likes of me.”
She had been baiting him. She had recently received some knowledge of his precise motivation for a marriage contract with her father. He had taken the bait.
“It will be my pleasure to announce our nuptials tomorrow.”
Chase had removed her gloves and clenched them in her hands, gathering strength to say what she had come to say. “If you are determined to publicly announce our engagement at the dance tomorrow, then I will be forced to make an equally public announcement of my own, Mr. Stockton. It has come to my attention that you have done an admirable job of accumulating a great number of debts to any number of gentlemen. I am perfectly aware of your reasons for approaching my father with your ridiculous declarations of love for me. And if I need to, I will make all of the ton aware of your reasons, as well.”
“Who told you these ridiculous lies?” he had spat out angrily.
“It is of no consequence. We both know that they aren’t lies. And certainly, many others at the dance tomorrow evening will be able to attest to the truth.”
He had lunged for her then with a curse, trapping her body between his and the gigantic shelves of books. His hands had circled her neck and tightened. Terrified, she had struggled for air without success. Grateful that she had removed her gloves, Chase used her fingernails to scratch at his face, in hopes that he would release her. Her vision began to darken, and she fought to remain conscious. And when he suddenly released her neck, she gasped for air. His hands moved roughly over the front of her blouse. As he squeezed her breasts painfully, she cried out; and he hushed her voice by putting his mouth over her own. His tongue pushed into her mouth, again cutting off her air supply. He tasted of stale cigars and whiskey.
As suddenly as it started, it had ended. He had abruptly pulled away from her and stepped back, looking at her with disdain. “Lady Chastity?” he had sneered. “Perhaps another name would have been more appropriate,” he had laughed. “I will ruin you if you tell anyone any of what has happened here today. You know nothing about me. And if you breathe a word of what you’ve learned, I will make damned sure that you and your sister die lonely spinsters.”
Despite the terror, the thought of dying an unwed woman had brought a small smile to her lips. “I would consider it an honor to die a lonely spinster, Mr. Stockton,” she had replied. “Certainly it is preferable to the alternative,” she had finished with a nod in his direction.
His eyes had flashed again. He had grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the shelves. He had dragged her toward the door, as though he was going to shove her out of his library. And then he seemed to have second thoughts. He had stopped suddenly and shoved her, forcing her to trip and fall to the ground. He was on her in an instant, reaching for the hem of her skirt and rubbing his vile hands up to her knee. “When I’m through with you, bitch, no one will dare touch you,” he growled in her ear.
He had sat back on his heels and forced her legs apart, shoving her back down when she had attempted to fight back. And then he had turned abruptly toward the library door as it opened. A large man with Jett Stockton’s coloring had towered in the doorway.
“Get off of her,” he had ordered.
She was left to push herself to her feet, as neither Jett Stockton nor his father had offered to help her. She had backed quickly away from the son, while the father had studied both of them with disgust. Without another word, he had lowered himself into the chair behind the desk and turned his attention to the papers on the desk. Jett had roughly gripped her upper arm and pulled her out of the library.
Outside the closed door, he had whispered, “Not a word of this. Or you will sorely regret it.”
Every encounter with the Texan until today had only intensified her attraction to him. After his kiss last night, she had been living in a world of perpetual arousal. But when he tried to order her around and control her with threats, ice ran through her body. She shivered and pushed at the damp curls that clung to the sides of her face.
The quality she had most admired about Colton Webb was his sincerity and masculinity. He wasn’t at all prissy, like the men she had met in London. And until today, he hadn’t been the power-hungry rogue that Mr. Stockton and Lord Booth were. But he had proven her wrong. He was no better than the rest.
And with that realization, she felt more alone than she ever had before.
She sighed heavily and turned away from the dining car. She was in no mood to confront her family. She wanted to be alone. She found an empty seat in the car between Colton Webb and her family. She moved close to the window and put her face against the glass. She closed her eyes for a moment, but opened them again when she was bombarded with visual memories of Jett Stockton attacking her. Instead of revisiting that nightmare, she gazed out across the land of her new country.
***
She didn’t know how long she had been sitting alone in that car, but the sky was darkening, and her family had wandered past without noticing her a few minutes before. She was startled when a man’s voice interrupted her daydreams.
“Is this seat taken?” he asked politely.
She turned from the window to study the man. He was tall and slender with
a tidy suit and a full blond mustache. His eyes were a watery blue, made to appear even more so in contrast with his bulbous ruddy nose.
“It isn’t,” she answered firmly, “but I’d prefer to be alone for a bit.” She offered a smile to soften her bluntness.
He nodded and began to walk away. “Perhaps you might be interested in company shortly,” he suggested, stopping and turning back to her.
“If I am, I will surely go rejoin my family. Thank you.”
Before he could answer, Webb was standing in front of him looking ferocious. “Find another seat,” he ordered gruffly. “This one is taken.”
The man nodded and moved to the back of the car. Webb fell into the seat beside her. She drew closer to the window in an effort to create more distance between them. He noticed her movement and frowned at her.
“Cochrane, just two hours ago, I had to practically beg you to get away from me. Now you’re acting like I am carrying the plague. I apologize for what I said. I know that was rude and disrespectful. You are a lady and deserve to be treated as such. I was just…” he trailed off. “There’s no excuse for my behavior.”
“No, there isn’t,” she snapped in agreement.
“After that kiss last night—” he began.
Chase interrupted him, not wanting to relive the pleasure he had made her feel. Not now, now that she knew that he was as controlling as every other man she’d known. “I don’t care to discuss that. As a matter of fact, we really don’t have anything at all to discuss.”
He looked into her eyes and appeared to be genuine. “I am sorry. Lord, you’re beautiful as hell. I just wanted you to go to the dining car because I look at you and want what I cannot have. I want you. And I tried to tell you to go, but you were being stubborn, and—”
Through gritted teeth, she asked, “You’re blaming me for your behavior?”
“No. Of course not. I’m just trying to make you understand. I would never actually threaten you.”
“Well of course not,” she replied with as much sarcasm as she could frost onto her tone. “Nevermind that you did exactly that. I thought you were different from the men in my life who threaten and try to control my every movement and thought. Apparently not.”
