Silver Sea

by Wright, Cynthia

  "I regret to hear it." Tentatively Nathan skirted the edges of emotion. "Perhaps you are right, and I am at fault for this botched wedding day. I—ah, haven't been very nice to you, have I?"

  "Well, we have both been unkind. I sometimes wonder if our relationship has changed into a battle of wills."

  Emboldened by the brandy, Nathan felt a sense of relief as they talked. "Adrienne, I am sorry if I have done a bad job of making you feel welcome at Tempest Hall. Zach and my father have both been at me about it, but I've found it keenly difficult to let someone else into my life... especially someone like you."

  "I am grateful for your apology." It made her heart pound harder to look into his eyes without glancing away and to recognize the embers there. "If I were a different sort of woman, you'd have an easier time of it, wouldn't you? You should have married a bit o' muslin who would content herself with managing the house, picking flowers, doing needlework, and plotting the takeover of Barbadian society." Adrienne's dimples winked invitingly.

  "Yes. I could ignore her except for the interludes of conjugal bliss."

  She blushed under his suggestive gaze. "Why didn't you marry someone like that, then?"

  "I didn't want to many at all, and as I recall, neither did you! It's one thing to care for one's friends and relations, but quite another to have a woman in my dressing room, at my table, and in my bed, daily, for the rest of my life!"

  "And in your library," Adrienne added impishly. She sipped the brandy and luxuriated in the sensation of happiness gently creeping back into her heart. All was not lost after all. "You seemed to think it would be worth marrying me to have my father's land. Didn't you? Or did you imagine that you could put your wife off to one side and tend your marriage at intervals, the way you've been handling other parts of your life—like Tempest Hall?"

  "I admire the subtlety with which you ply your rapier, my dear," he murmured, all irony. "You find the mark when your victim least expects it."

  "I am only speaking the truth. I know you better than you think, Nathan. And I like you, when you aren't trying to build a wall between us." A tide of emotion rose in her again. "I—I have missed my friend."

  He nearly put his hand to his heart, for she had struck deep with those last innocent words. "We have shared many good times, I will admit."

  "Are we never to laugh again? Will pride, or fear, keep us from enjoying the camaraderie of months past?"

  "Well... Adrienne, it is more complicated than that. We have shared much more than laughter, if you will recall."

  She dared to reach her hand out toward him, her fingers slim and pale in the candlelight. A tear spilled onto her cheek. "It is only as complicated as we choose to make it. Nathan—we could be happy!"

  His heart pounded in his ears. Every fiber of his being yearned to be close to her again. He reached toward her outstretched hand with his own dark fingers, captured it, and brought her onto his lap. Slowly he enfolded her in his arms, and a shudder ran through him. Nathan couldn't remember ever feeling anything as powerful, not even when he had battled for his very life, for this delved into his unacknowledged, deepest needs.

  Adrienne took the liberty of resting her cheek against his hair, basking in the sensation and scent of him. For once, she didn't want to ask about Eloise. "While lying awake in my bed tonight, I was thinking about our walks in the garden at Harms Castle. Do you remember the time, at dusk, when you introduced me to the gloaming?"

  "Yes." It was hard to speak. Memories rushed through the cracks that were opening in his heart. "You know, I'll have to show you our gloaming here on Barbados. The golden light is even richer and more magical... and then the sunsets over the ocean are beyond belief."

  "I long to walk on the beach again. And swim."

  "I might be able to arrange that, if you promise me that you won't wander off alone again!" He couldn't be angry; she smelled too sweet, too achingly familiar. Her wrapper and nightgown were tissue-thin, and the warm outline of her breast pushed against his chest. There was an insistent tightening in his groin.

  "I remember the first time I saw that ship's log, open in your room at Harms Castle. I had a feeling then that there was much more to Nathan Essex than met the eye."

  "It was stifling to pretend to be someone else," he reflected. "The only time I could bring out a few of my own things was late at night, in that room. I was horrified to see you there, peeking, dear chit." Nathan smiled. "You never could keep your nose out of other people's business. Why do I find that so charming?"

  Adrienne ran her fingers over the hand she loved so well. "You aren't being nice to me just because—"

  "No. But—" His tone was playful. "—it is our wedding night. What better time could we choose to make peace?"

  "You're sly."

  "Don't you want to seal our truce by making this a real marriage?"

  "I—" She melted when he traced the curve of her throat with his lips. "Yes. But... you must promise me that you won't turn away from me in the morning. Nathan, can we strive to be husband and wife?"

  He blinked. "I'm not certain how much I'm capable of. I'm bound to make brutal mistakes—"

  "I don't expect anything as deadly dull as wedded bliss!" she rejoined, laughing. "All I ask is that you not shut me out again."

  "I'll need courage," he admitted. "I'd rather fight a duel than trust my own cursed heart."

  "Then be my friend. Fight with me if you must, but be my friend again." She blinked back more tears. "I prize my independence too, you know, but there have been times when I have looked into your eyes and have seen the best friend of my life."

  Fear stabbed him again. It was a lot to ask of him, to be her best friend—and her lover and her husband! "I'll try. That's all I can promise." Gently he gathered her closer and stood up. "My father said the first step is the hardest."

  Adrienne wrapped her arms around his neck and gave herself over to the moment. The feeling of this tall, strong, raven-haired man carrying her as if she were a child was the stuff of her dreams. Every aspect of the bedchamber was romantically masculine, including the mosquito netting he'd tossed over the canopied four-poster. With infinite care, Nathan set his bride down on the edge of the feather tick and slowly drew back the rumpled sheet, watching for her reaction.

  There were brightly colored flower petals strewn across her marriage bed. It was a lavish invitation to love. Adrienne made a sound of delight. "Nathan! How—" Slowly her catlike eyes narrowed. "Did you know that I would come to you?"

  "How could I know that, unless you imagine that the lizard was in my employ?" He was smiling. "All right, I had an idea that you might come."

  "And... you wanted me to?"

  "What man would not?"

  "Some men would have forced the issue, as you reminded me earlier this evening. It is your wedding night, after all." She cuddled against his chest. "Thank you for waiting for me."

  "I may have faults, but taking a woman against her will is not one of them." As the hunger began to build within him, Nathan stripped off his shirt and boots before sitting down behind her and sliding his hands around her waist. "I do have one question for you, my bride."

  "Yes?" She leaned into him and felt his heartbeat on her back.

  "Was there really a lizard?" His tone was amused.

  Adrienne gasped. "Of course! What sort of a schemer do you take me for?" When he only laughed in response, she admitted, "I might not have really been afraid of him, though. It just seemed a good excuse to knock on your door."

  Nathan's manhood stirred and the blood surging through his veins grew hotter. "Oh, my sweet, I have missed you. I've missed your audacity." He drew the ribbon from her hair and buried his face in the fragrant cloud of her curls. "I've missed your laughter and the sparkle in your eyes, and the way your little chin sets when you have made up your mind and mean to convince me."

  She could have wept. "I was with you all along."

  "I know." His voice was ragged. It was hard to remember what
he'd been fighting against all these weeks.

  When Nathan's mouth touched the side of her neck, Adrienne jumped a little at the sheer intensity of sensation. All her nerves were deliciously on edge. He slipped her wrapper off, then untied her nightgown so that it fell open across her shoulders. His hands were on the bare flesh of her back, touching lightly, and suddenly the place between her legs felt warm, then congested.

  "Mmmm." As she sighed, her breasts tingled. So much longing had been stored up, locked away until the needs of her heart could be satisfied.

  He kissed her shoulder blades and the nape of her neck, while his hands slipped inside her nightgown to graze the curve of her lower back. Unconsciously, Adrienne nudged her bottom back against his crotch, starting a bit upon encountering the hard ridge of his manhood through his nankeen breeches.

  "You see what you do to me?" Nathan whispered, his breath hot on her ear.

  She shivered again. "How can it be me? I'm melting."

  It took every ounce of restraint he could muster to hold back, when he wanted to just draw her down into the flower-strewn sheets and ravish her. It was Adrienne who let down the front of her nightgown, reached back for both his hands, and covered her taut breasts with them.

  "Please, touch me."

  Clearly, his bride would not be passive during lovemaking. When he recovered his powers of speech, Nathan said, "I can never believe that one woman can be so exquisite."

  Her musical laughter filled the bed. "Don't be too charming. I won't trust you."

  "It's true." He felt her nipples burning the palms of his hands. "Oh, God, so true."

  "I ache." She moved his hand lower. "Here."

  His control snapped. "You're driving me mad." Turning her in his arms, Nathan brought his mouth down over hers in a hot, insistent kiss that left her breathless. Rough and tender by turns, he caressed the satiny curves of the body he'd dreamed of nightly.

  And Adrienne returned his kisses and ran her own fingers over Nathan's rugged form. She couldn't get enough. Finally, panting, her desire beyond bearing, she said, "Make love to me. Please. It's time."

  The rest of her nightgown was stripped away along with his breeches, and then Nathan pressed her back onto the feather bed. Pink, white, and coral flower petals clung to her hair, and as he lay down over her, he thought that she was more beautiful than the most exotic blossom on Barbados.

  Adrienne craved the feeling of Nathan's big body covering her. She loved the sensation of his chest crushing her breasts and his lean-muscled flanks pinning her slimmer legs—and the shaft of his manhood pressing between her thighs in a way that was pleasure beyond description. Her arms wound around his neck and she opened her mouth to his demanding kiss. Had God ever created a more splendid male animal than her husband?

  Her face was so warm, and the air around them was heavy with the scents of flowers and their aroused bodies. Crickets chirped, night birds called, and the softest of moonlit breezes wafted through the open shutters. Adrienne understood at last what drove animals to mate. She opened her thighs, aching for release, and arched upward. Nathan came into her, trying to go slowly, but she pushed to meet him and took him in to the hilt. Little groans escaped from her lips. Clinging to his back, her limbs pale in contrast to his bronzed body, Adrienne met each thrust, reaching farther and higher each time their bodies fused.

  In her heart, she whispered, I love you. Now they were one.

  Consumed by the impending moment of his release, Nathan wondered if he was dying. What else could such excruciating pleasure mean?

  Part Four

  Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of Heaven,

  That time may cease, and midnight never come.

  —Christopher Marlowe

  Chapter 20

  The clock was chiming ten when Adrienne reluctantly opened one eye to the sunlight that intruded through the open jalousie shutters. The air was already warm, and it came to her that she was not only naked, but uncovered, lying on her side.

  A strange, panicky excitement broke over her, and then she felt a fingertip touch the back of her neck. As Adrienne held her breath, the finger slowly traveled down the curve of her spine, past the last inch of her backbone, teasing the shadowed crease of her buttocks. Warm breath fanned her shoulder. The exploring hand crept back up to push her hair aside, and then the nape of her neck was being kissed in a way that sent a jolt of fire to the core of her womanhood.

  It wasn't a dream.

  As Nathan's arms enfolded her, she rolled back so that their faces were inches apart. The very sight of him filled Adrienne with joy and desire. His hair was ruffled, and in the sunlight she glimpsed a few white strands among the ebony. There was a pillow crease on his tanned cheek, and she could see all the shades of blue and turquoise that gleamed in his black-lashed eyes.

  "Good morning, Mrs. Raveneau," he whispered huskily.

  Her cheeks grew warm at the sound of his voice speaking her new name; words failed her. Had Nathan truly accepted their marriage? Could the walls have tumbled down so completely? She put a hand up, touching first his hair and then the roughness of his jaw, and smiled shyly.

  "My blushing bride." His tone was playful now, perhaps even sardonic. "Have marriage vows tamed you?"

  Adrienne rose to the test. While wrapping her arm around his neck to bring him down for a kiss, she reached lower with her other hand and boldly clasped his stiffening member. Nathan's eyes opened in surprise, and she drew back long enough to murmur, "Tamed? On the contrary. I blush because I am shocked at my own thoughts."

  He loved the study in contrasts that was Adrienne. He knew how soft and vulnerable her heart was, and yet she had a core of steel that would not be vanquished. Even now, when he realized that she needed gentle reassurances he couldn't quite give, she wouldn't betray her weakness.

  And his body loved her as well. Nathan couldn't remember ever losing quite so much control during lovemaking. He had urged her to trust him, to let herself go at the moments when she'd wanted to hold back, and it had seemed proper to set an example. It hadn't been too difficult to cross over into unguarded territory as the night deepened along with their passions. Now he was astonished by her daring.

  "You're a hellion, do you know it?"

  She nipped his wide shoulder with her teeth and smiled. "Do you mind? Would you rather have a prim wife?"

  He couldn't speak. Her hand was driving him over the brink. Reaching down, he caught her wrist and pinned it with its mate above her head. Adrienne squirmed, eyes flashing, and demanded that he let her go. Instead, Nathan covered her open mouth with his and kissed her ravenously. He was hard between her legs, and she was equally aroused, so wet and warm that he could have pushed inside her right then with ease. Her breasts were more beautiful than ever in the morning light, inviting his touch and then his lips—

  "Captain Raveneau?"

  They both looked up, frozen with surprise. Incredibly, the uninvited caller proceeded to knock loudly on the door. Nathan saw that his bride was panic-stricken, struggling out from under him and scrambling to find a sheet with which to cover herself.

  "Devil take it," he muttered darkly, then shouted, "Who is it?"

  More firmly, the voice replied, "It's me! Zachary!"

  "In that case, go away."

  "I wouldn't be here if it weren't important. Please, give me just a moment—" He paused, adding hopefully, "I have a tray for you as well. Retta has sent up hot coffee and pawpaws and little raisin cakes...."

  Clutching the sheet to her breasts, Adrienne smiled. "Raisin cakes! I'm ravenous."

  Nathan gave her a withering glance. "So was I, but not for cursed raisin cakes." A moment later he was out of bed, pulling on breeches and yanking open the door. "You can't come in," he told Minter. "Say whatever it is from the doorway."

  The smaller man goggled. "You don't mean—" He tried to steal a peek around Raveneau's back and saw a familiar figure in the big bed, and a mass of chestnut hair that shone in the sunlight. She
waved, just for an instant.

  "Why do you look so bloody shocked?" Nathan growled. "Did you forget what's involved in a wedding night?"

  "Oh. Well, no—but, I thought—I mean, you two didn't seem to be quite the usual newly married pair—" Bright red with embarrassment, Minter summed up: "I didn't think she was even speaking to you!"

  "I'm giving him another chance," Adrienne called irrepressibly.

  Raveneau snatched the breakfast tray out of his friend's hands. "If you don't mind—"

  "Wait! I didn't come up here just to deliver the raisin cakes!" Zach put his foot in the door. "You have a visitor, and I agreed to bring her to your room since she's been waiting downstairs for two hours—"

  "We're not entertaining today," Nathan interjected firmly.

  "I think you will want to see this lady." Minter looked around the corner and motioned to someone. "Here, wait—here she comes—"

  Exasperated, he put the tray on the nearest table and returned to look out into the corridor. A plain, thin woman was emerging from the shadows, and at first he had no idea who she might be. Then, as she came closer and looked shyly into his eyes, the truth hit him like a bolt of lightning.

  "My God," Nathan said. "It's Hortie."

  "Yes, it's me."

  "What the devil are you doing on Barbados?" he asked, stunned.

  "I came with Lord Harms!"

  "You can't mean—old Hunty?" If Nathan hadn't been so astounded, he would have laughed.

  "Yes, I am referring to Lord Huntsford Harms, Mr. Essex."

  "He's not in my house as well, I hope?"

  "No, sir. He doesn't know where I went, though he certainly might guess."

  Thoroughly confused, Nathan realized that Hortie needed more than a hurried interview in the corridor. He could hear his new bride whispering loudly from the bed in an effort to gain his attention and he turned back to wave her off. Then, facing Hortie again, he said, "Look, we should have a proper conversation. Would you mind waiting for a few minutes while my wife and I dress? We'll join you in the library."