Linna : Historical Romance (The Brocade Collection, Book 5)

by Jackie Ivie

  “Don’t you need to shave?” she asked.

  “Would it please you if I were to do so?” He stroked a hand across his face and smiled at her.

  Linna sucked in a response before she could acknowledge it. Or worse, he saw it. “I don’t give a damn what you do,” she replied finally.

  At her words, his eyebrows lifted. Linna clenched her teeth.

  “Well that answers my question, I suppose. Move closer to the edge.”

  He started unbuttoning his shirt. Linna was rather grateful he hadn’t begun sooner. She wouldn’t have been able to find her tongue. She didn’t know the size shirt he wore, but it probably wasn’t easy to find replacement ones. That made it especially stupid of him to yank his shoulders out of it as if he had another one available. She already knew the truth of that. She’d been over every inch of the cubicle he’d put her in. He didn’t have any spare clothes that she could see. She had to narrow her eyes even further on what he was displaying for her. She already knew how perfect his physique was. She didn’t have to see it again, especially as his stomach and chest rippled with his every movement.

  She very nearly sighed before catching herself. She knew the blush wouldn’t go unnoticed. She didn’t know how to stop it.

  He hadn’t moved his eyes from her face the entire time. “If you’re on the edge, my weight will balance better.”

  “Your weight....?” She would have finished it, but her mind didn’t seem to be functioning enough.

  “When I join you.”

  When he joins me? Linna swallowed around the shock and confusion. At least, she told herself that’s what it was. “Well! Let me disabuse you of that idea, Mister Larket.”

  He decided to ignore that statement and moved his glance. Linna watched as he poked his finger into a knothole at the side of the door with more force than it appeared was necessary. Then, he pulled. She gasped as a rack slid right out, holding replacement shirts and a very recognizable burgundy velvet jacket. Her reaction had to do with her failure at finding it herself, not at the ripple of muscle he’d just put on show, she told herself.

  She hoped he didn’t think it for any other reason, she decided, when he turned back to her.

  “I am joining you,” he said in a quiet tone, carefully enunciating each word. Linna felt the shiver up her back as she heard it. She hoped it wasn’t obvious.

  “I—I refuse...to allow such a thing!”

  He sighed heavily and moved his hands to his trouser buttons. Linna begged her own eyes to move, but they weren’t obeying. His seemed to have the same problem as he glared at her. He didn’t appear to be enjoying it.

  She wasn’t either, she told herself.

  “I’m sleeping. I just spent a long night. I have very little time for rest. I’m willing to forego it for other activities, however. Trust me on that, at least.” He finished, yanked open his trousers, and shoved them down his legs.

  Everything stopped. Her mind, her breathing, her pulse; her sanity. She was hard-pressed to find her next breath.

  Linna was grateful the cot blocked her view. Cord put a hand on the bed right beside her leg, to leverage himself as he released one foot, then the other. He wasn’t watching her as he did so.

  What had he said? Get to the edge?

  Linna wasn’t pretending as she scooted as far as she could without falling through the space between the bed and the opposite wall. She was frightened all right, but it wasn’t at him. It was at her own response. She only hoped he wore something beneath those trousers. She prayed he did.

  God hadn’t been answering her prayers for some time though. Linna gritted her teeth together, huddled against the edge and kept her eyes as tightly shut as she could. The board creaked in protest, bent slightly, but didn’t give. Linna had her breath held the entire time. She didn’t dare breathe. She had to be as quiet as possible to order to find out where he was.

  “Nice backside,” he commented, the air from his words flying down her spine.

  Linna stiffened. There was no way he could see her backside! He only said that to disarm her. The chemise wasn’t opaque. It was made of finely woven lawn. It wasn’t remotely see-through. She almost groaned. That kind of material clung to every curve.

  “I thought you said you were going to sleep,” she whispered.

  “First idea. Other…urges keep getting in the way. I don’t suppose you’d oblige, would you?”

  Linna’s eyes flew open as an arm snaked about her. This was against their bargain. Totally. She wasn’t his physical match, but that was no consolation as she was pulled easily toward his chest. She would have moved the arm, too, but she already knew how far struggling with him would get her. She only had two weapons against him, her cold-hearted responses and the baby.

  She wondered the best way to use them.

  He murmured against her neck, molding himself to her as he did so. He poked his nose against her collarbone, nuzzling into her throat. “Nice. So nice.”

  Linna tried to pretend that what she was being clasped against wasn’t Cord Larket. She tried to pretend that it was just the quilt. She tried to pretend it was Luthor. She tried any number of things. Nothing worked. He was still the man capable of stealing her reason and leaving a wake of passion in its place.

  Linna’s breasts tightened against the arm resting just below them. He had his hand hooked under her ribcage, leaving her absolutely no way to escape this forced embrace. Despite her every effort to the contrary, Linna felt her body warming, her legs growing weak with remembered ecstasy, her nipples hard against the chemise. She barely caught the movement to arch herself into the heavy bulge at the backs of her thighs.

  What is happening to me? Linna wondered, in an agony of embarrassment. I’m no wanton. Why, I’m cold-hearted and ruthless. Everyone knows this. Everyone.

  Cord’s breathing deepened, coming with a slight grunt of noise each time.

  Linna felt the hairs at the back of her neck prickling with it. She scrunched her shoulder, without thinking.

  She was still holding her breath when it occurred to her that he’d given no response. She didn’t realize he was actually sleeping, until the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest swelled deeper, moving her slightly each time.

  He’s sleeping? She wondered it, with surprise and a stab of what could only be disappointment. With me, barely clad and held fully against him, he’s sleeping? How dare he? Before she could gather another indignant thought, she groaned. What kind of an idiot was she turning into? She didn’t want him wanting her! She didn’t. Well...maybe a little bit. Oh, very well, she admitted it to herself. She wanted him panting after her, so she could toss it in his face. The one thing she didn’t expect was for her to desire him and be rejected and ignored.

  How dare he?

  Linna waited what seemed hours. His breathing only deepened. She moved her hand to his arm and slid her fingers along it, until she reached the back of his hand. How well she remembered clasping it! Linna flushed, warming her clear to her hairline. The heat he was giving off made it even more noticeable.

  She waited for any change in him, and receiving none, she got braver. She traced the spines of his hand before spreading her palm over it. Even his hand was enormous. Stupid girl. She already knew that, Linna chided herself. Everything on Cord Larket was built on the same lines. The man was a giant.

  He was also used to a lot of physical labor. Linna wondered how she’d been so blind the night they’d met. No French aristocrat would have the calluses and roughened skin Cord did. Linna’s mouth thinned. She’d been taken in like the densest idiot. She traced the underside of each of his fingers, feeling each hardened spot. This explained his physique.

  He was a common laborer. He had to be. She wondered for whom.

  Cord snorted then resumed his steady breathing. Linna had lifted her hand the instant he’d made that noise and had to wait for her heart to calm before she realized the obvious. Cord was a snorer. He even grunted in his sleep. She’d heard such thing
s before. It wasn’t like she’d never been around men. The Daniels Plantation had been overrun with all kinds of them, from slaves to soldiers passing through. They’d been everywhere. Just not in her bed. Not one of them would have been acceptable enough to wed with her!

  Linna rolled her eyes. What was she thinking? She’d wed so far beneath her scale in society, it was a blessing she hadn’t had time to show him to Rhea. For all his faults, at least Luthor Evans had been on the same social level.

  Linna turned, as slowly and deliberately as possible, until she lay on her back. His arm was even heavier in this position. She turned her head to look at him and caught her breath for an entirely different reason.

  Moss green eyes blinked at her, once, then twice as if he didn’t believe what he saw. Then he raised his brows.

  “This isn’t—! I don’t want you to think—.”

  “Shh,” he interrupted, sliding a leg up to encase her thighs then he lowered his mouth to hers.

  Linna was actually amazed that she waited until he reached it before struggling. She clamped her lips together and pushed at the constraint of his limbs at the same time. Arching her back to heave him off had no effect either, except that the ropes holding their plank groaned with each of her lunges.

  He was actually chuckling at her as Linna beat at him. She stopped when he tightened his leg and arm on her. His strength was her undoing, and he was catching each of her exasperated gasps in the caverns of his mouth. Linna was forced to stop and use her weapons.

  What are they again? Oh yes, my cold heart, and the baby. She stopped all movement and lay as docile as possible, while she waited for her heartbeat to calm and her breathing to return to normal.

  He plied his lips against hers. Linna had to concede that he was an expert with them. Even if he were lowly born and dirt poor, he was amazingly stirring. He was still the man that set her pulse to singing and her limbs to resembling saplings. No! She stopped the thought, barely keeping her torso from swaying toward him in time.

  Something of her passive response must have reached him, for Cord stopped sliding his body along hers and raised his head. Linna met his look as if he didn’t have incredibly mesmerizing green eyes and wasn’t less than four inches away.

  She was amazed she had the fortitude.

  “What game is this?” he asked quietly.

  “Game?” she asked.

  “You wake me from a deep sleep to torment me?”

  “I didn’t waken you at all.”

  His eyebrows rose even higher. “You were inspecting me. It woke me.

  Your turn.”

  Linna drew back and had to blink more than once. Her turn? “I don’t know what you’re talking about, and you’re touching me. Without my invite, I believe.”

  “You started it. What I don’t know is why. You wanted my attention. Well, you have it. What I don’t understand is why you don’t want it once you get it.”

  “I don’t want anything from you, Mister Larket.”

  “You keep calling me that and I’m not reminding you again. My name is Cord. If you don’t start using it, you’ll earn yourself a consequence. You can guess what it will entail, surely?”

  He ground his body against her side, leaving her no excuse for misunderstanding him. He was aroused and wasn’t making any secret of it. Linna paled. Isn’t this what she wanted?

  “Oh, to hell with this.”

  He didn’t give her any time! Linna found it nearly impossible to gain breath when he swiveled himself atop her, every bit of him seeming to meet every bit of her. Her question of what he wore to sleep in was answered, too. Nothing.

  Cord lifted onto his elbows, cupping his hands about her lower jaw. Then he brought his legs up to plant a knee on either side of her, in order to straddle her form. Linna was so grateful to be released from his weight, she cried it aloud. That opened her lips. Cord wasn’t waiting for any more response than that. She didn’t know where he’d gained such talent at kissing, but he most certainly had it. His lips captured hers. At the same time, he was arching his back, making certain she felt the heat of him trying to drill a way between the sensitive flesh of her inner thighs. Linna’s moans weren’t making it out of her throat, and that seemed fine with him, too.

  He plundered the recesses of her mouth, learning what she’d sworn to withhold. One hand snaked along her arm, moving to capture a breast. Linna couldn’t prevent the motion of her entire body as she heaved against him once he reached her.

  “Easy, baby,” he whispered into her mouth, before lowering his head to her flesh.

  Linna didn’t have his mouth to silence her cry, and with his gentle suckling motion where she most needed it at the moment, she wasn’t able to hide anything. She wasn’t moaning, she was mewing with pleasure. Cord chuckled when he heard it but didn’t release the suction.

  She’d been aching for his touch, for this, and now that she had it, her mind wasn’t interested in anything like fighting. Linna reached for his shoulders and flew along the muscles there to tangle in his hair. It was her motion moving him to her other breast, too. She was on fire!

  “Easy, love. We’ve got time,” he breathed the words onto flesh he’d just wet, and she nearly swooned at the sensation.

  We don’t have time! She was screaming the words in her head. You don’t understand! Sanity was going to return at any moment, and she was doing her level best to keep it at bay until—

  A loud knock at the door brought his head up. “Larket!” a voice yelled through the wood. “Topside!”

  “Bastard!”

  Cord ground out the word against her flesh and shoved away so quickly Linna hadn’t time to keep from seeing it. He had the body of the Grecian, Adonis - or the god had been cheated, and in Cord’s current state, it was jaw-dropping.

  That was probably the reason the crewman at the door had that expression when Cord threw it open. Linna slammed her eyes to the entire thing, just before she buried her head beneath the quilt. It didn’t help. The scene was emblazoned on her eyelids.

  She heard something about a mizzenmast, how sorry they were to disturb his sleep since he he’d been feeling ill, and a nice bit of laughter after that. Then, the man said that Cord had to handle it, and the door closed. Surely, he wouldn’t go without a stitch of clothing on! Linna thought in horror. And if he did, everyone would know why.

  What difference does that make, Linna? The crewman hadn’t any doubt on his face. She had to huff through the blush. She reminded herself that she was his wife. Anyone who had seen her arrive in wedding finery had to know that, but it was still embarrassing. It was broad daylight outside.

  “Don’t think I won’t return, Linna. And I fully expect to finish this when I do and to hell with my bargain. Damn it, anyway!”

  She peeked over the edge of the quilt. Cord had his trousers back on, but hadn’t done anything except don a shirt. It hung from his shoulders. He ran his hands through his hair before tying his scarf-thing back on. Even wearing that type of ensemble, he was stunning.

  He turned his head and speared her with a glance that said everything she felt. “Don’t you dare move. I won’t be long, and I’ve had enough of this. No games. No frustration. No denials. Do you understand?”

  He didn’t wait to see if she agreed before he pushed the door open and left, slamming it closed behind him. She watched the dust motes settle at the action and realized she hadn’t even heard it.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  It didn’t take as long to disobey as she’d thought it would. By her calculations it wasn’t more than a half hour. But he couldn’t be serious. She couldn’t stay abed, with her chemise hitched about her waist and surrounded with the scent of him. It was bad enough they’d had a witness without staying on that bed waiting for another one.

  Besides, she had yet to find the comfort room. It didn’t look like Cord was thinking of feeding her again anytime soon, either. She’d probably need to search out her own meal, too.

  With that in mind
, Linna lowered herself to the floor and searched out a serge skirt and striped broadcloth blouse. The buttons wouldn’t quite fasten about her bosom. That was quite noticeable. Linna frowned as buttons slipped their holes for the twelfth time. That hadn’t happened the last time she’d worn it.

  She knew Cord had worn a jabot at the ball. It would be just the thing to cover her. Linna searched for the knothole, but it didn’t move as easily as it had for Cord. She had to twist and turn and scraped her index finger before the thing finally opened.

  The purplish jacket was there, the white sleeveless shirt, another jacket, and…her stockings? Linna caught the gasp as she found them stuffed into a pocket. She rolled her eyes to the ceiling, although there wasn’t anyone to watch.

  Linna hands knocked a large, new, leather wallet from a pocket. A sheaf of papers spilled out. That frightened her more than it should. That was stupid. Cord couldn’t punish her for such a little thing. Linna knelt, shoving everything back in, then she caught a name. Fletcher? Rex Fletcher? No. Not that one. That name was burned into her mind. She’d heard it ranted from the plantation study when her father was drunk. She’d sent the recollection so far down it shouldn’t have surfaced. Rex Fletcher was the name of her mother’s lover.

  What had Cord to do with him?

  With shaking hands, she unfolded the papers and started reading.

  Cord blinked around the dizziness, finished tying off the sail, squaring the knot to keep it securely lashed to the mast. He held his breath when he finished. One of the men had let out too much canvas, and with this wind, it hadn’t taken long to rip. With the size of storm that was brewing, the last thing needed was a mast out of commission. There weren’t many who could scale the rigging like he could, hang upside down to maneuver a new sail into position with rain starting up to sting his face and taut lines whipping all about him.

  Cord twisted his lips at the inaccuracy. There were others who could do it, but he was the best. They all knew it. It had taken longer than he’d wished though, and Linna would probably be asleep again. That was fine with him. He hadn’t lied. She was truly beautiful when she slept.