by Faye Hall
“And don’t be thinking you can seduce my brother again, Phoebe. I see even a hint of a batting eyelid from you in his direction and you will rue the day you ever met me.”
Stepping from the carriage, she turned to her husband, feeling braver than she had in months. “I already rue the day I met you, Gordon.”
With that she stepped away from him and toward the door before he could pull her back and make her pay for her unusual outburst.
Inside the grand function hall of the MacAllester’s, Phoebe stood dutifully beside her husband with a glass of white wine in her hand, trying to think of any way she could escape this night before Duncan and his betrothed turned up. She thought maybe an accident causing herself some minor bodily harm might be enough for her to be excused, or maybe something simple as falling faint on the floor before the other guests.
Hearing the butler announcing Duncan and his fiancée entering behind her, she felt her heart sink and she knew it was too late to go through with her plan. Holding her tears in check, and trying to harden her heart, she let out a steadying breath and turned to see him walking into the hall with the most beautiful woman she had ever seen on his arm. They looked for all to see as they were the most devoted of couples.
Phoebe struggled to hold herself in check knowing she couldn’t afford to react to what she was seeing, knowing she would pay dearly if she did.
Duncan came to a stop before them, the woman beside him draped on his arm elegantly, her palm resting affectionately on his chest in a very familiar and suggestive way.
“Brother, you remember my fiancée, Carmen, don’t you?” he asked casually as if she weren’t even standing before him.
“You look more beautiful than ever, Carmen,” Gordon gushed, taking her hand in his and kissing it affectionately. “Your dress is simply exquisite. You surely are the most beautiful woman here tonight by far.”
Duncan held Carmen close to him, his arm affectionately around her waist, his fingers gripping at her tightly as one would with any precious thing. It was plain to anyone who saw them together that he was certainly a man in love, and this last thought stabbed at Phoebe’s heart as if he had attacked her with a knife himself.
“I truly am the luckiest man alive to have such a wonder for my fiancée,” Duncan finally replied. “Never could I have imagined finding such a beautiful woman to share my life with, brother.”
Duncan walked away from them then, not even acknowledging Phoebe was there or that he even knew her, certainly not that they had once shared a bed. It ripped at her heart being treated as though she were not even a memory to this man, a man she was fully aware already owned her heart.
“It seems you were right, my dear,” Gordon sneered close to her ear, dragging her from her sorrowful thoughts. “It seems Duncan can’t even remember you exist, so he certainly wouldn’t have returned to the town for you.”
Laughing then at what had just happened, Gordon walked away from her and went to get another drink.
Phoebe felt a fool. She honestly believed that when she first saw Duncan in Holme Hill a few weeks back, his hands holding her, his lips caressing her, that he had returned for her. She thought that after he saw the bruises that he would understand what she was living with and that he may want to rescue her and take her away from all this.
Looking out across the crowd of businessmen and their wives though, she realised what a fool she had been to ever think such a thing. Duncan was a MacAllester, and like Gordon and their father, he would do what suited them best and feed the positions they so desperately craved. Phoebe had nothing to offer him. No money and no position to speak of.
She was a nobody as Duncan had made so very clear barely an hour ago.
Knowing she could handle watching Carmen pawing at Duncan no longer, her hands groping him as if she were little better than a hired whore, she knew it was time she left this gathering, and be damned with the consequences.
Stopping beside her husband at the drinks table, she reached for a full glass of white wine.
“What do you think you are doing?” Gordon asked her, his hand on her wrist stopping her from grabbing the glass. “It is not customary to have a woman drink in excess, especially not the wife of the company’s chief executive.”
Pulling away from his tight hold, Phoebe glared at her husband, silently daring him to strike her in public. “I don’t give a damn about your customs, Gordon, nor about the rules of your company.”
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked her as she stepped away from him.
But she never answered him. She only turned away from him and kept walking toward the other drinks table, and grabbing a full glass of white wine, she walked out of the functions hall into the darkness filled gardens surrounding the estate.
Phoebe was near the exit door when she stopped beside an elegantly dressed woman, her hair as red as the Australian sunsets. Reaching into her small purse, she pulled forth a wad of bundled notes and handed them to the woman.
“Elizabeth, would you be free tonight to escort my husband home?” she asked.
Elizabeth turned to look at Phoebe, her hand reaching out and taking the money offered to her discretely.
“How long do you require his absence, Mistress?”
She reached forward, gratefully hugging the other woman. “Until morning if possible.”
Elizabeth nodded.
“Pleasure doing business with you as always, Mrs MacAllester,” Elizabeth smiled, nodding in agreement.
As Phoebe walked out into the cool darkness of the night, she knew full well it was not the usual practice to engage with one’s husband’s mistress, but she didn’t care. She didn’t want to see Gordon tonight, and certainly didn’t want to be made to pay for her outburst earlier.
Walking along the outskirts of the estate garden’s, she found herself longing for the life she’d once had, the life she thought to have upon inheriting Inkerman Downs Station. Phoebe longed to have her freedom back, but above all else she longed for the passions she had been shown along the rough journey from Ravenswood.
She knew what she had experienced along her journey back to her home town had changed her in ways that could never been undone. She had been given a taste of a life so unlike any she dared dream of, and of any she dared to might find again.
Throwing her now-empty glass across the green lawn, she grew sad as she realised the life she so ached for was forever gone and she would never find it again.
“Gordon will beat you within an inch of your life if he finds you out here, Phoebe,” a male voice called to her from the shadows.
Recognizing the voice immediately, she turned to face the man. “He will only beat me if he finds me out here with you, Duncan.”
* * * * *
“Why are you out here by yourself, Phoebe?” Duncan asked hesitantly stepping toward her, with his jacket hung over his shoulder.
He knew all he risked should he be seen with this woman tonight, but even knowing this could not force him to stay away. Watching her leave the function hall earlier, he knew he had to go after her. He had to try and make her understand.
Turning away from him, she kept walking slowly in the direction she had been.
“Why are you not with your fiancée, Duncan?” she asked. “I’m sure she will be looking for you shortly.”
He could hear the tartness in her words and knew instantly that she had believed his charade.
“I have to play the besotted fiancé,” he tried to explain. “Surely you can understand that, Phoebe.”
She stalled, glancing over her shoulder back at him. “I’m happy for you, Duncan. I’m happy you found the woman who can finally make you happy and give you what it is you desire.”
He reached for her, unable to hear her shrewd words. “What I desire is you, Phoebe.”
His fingers firmly on her elbow, he pulled her back to him, his lips hungrily taking hers. His other hand pressed firmly in the small of her back holding her against him be
gging her to respond, to give him something...anything.
She gave him nothing.
“Why are you doing this?” he asked, breaking his embrace and studying her, pained by her actions.
“You’re an engaged man, remember,” she reminded him coldly as she tried to pull away from him. “Carmen is a beautiful woman, Duncan. It is no wonder you came back home for her.”
He didn’t try to hide the pain her words caused him, and he knew to be filling his face. In this whole charade he was so concentrated on making everyone believe he had returned for his position in The Lester Company and all the benefits it gave him, that he never considered she would believe it too and think she wasn’t even a memory to him.
“I never came back for Carmen,” he admitted softly, unaccustomed emotions filling him as he stepped slowly toward this woman, trying to close the gap she had put between them. “I came back for you, Phoebe...and only you.”
She laughed slightly, though not sounding really amused by what he had said. “You must really think I’m a fool if you think I would believe that. I saw you in there, Duncan...I saw you in there with her.”
He grabbed for her, pulling her by the arm into the seclusion of the trees on the outer border of the darkened gardens, knowing he needed to make her understand that everything she was seeing, everything he was doing, was for her.
Stopping in the moonlit darkness, Duncan spun her around to look at him, his hands firmly on her forearms, his gaze holding hers.
“I begged my family for forgiveness, Phoebe...I let them arrange a marriage for me...I let my brother…”
He shut his eyes knowing he had to stay in control. He didn’t want his anger to scare her, more so his sacrifice to warm her heart.
“When I returned home I gave up everything, Phoebe...my freedom...my independence…”
Duncan struggled to hold his emotions and desire for her in check. Never had he felt so weakened in the company of such a woman.
Studying her now as she stood in the moonlight, her skin powder white against his own tan skin, he remembered another night like this when he held her close to him, her creamy naked limbs entwined with his, her soft pleas begging him for release.
“I gave up everything to come back here for you, Phoebe,” he sighed heavily, wondering now if his confession was coming too late.
She stood there just staring at this man before her, and Duncan feared he had taken too long to come back to this woman. He feared she had forgotten what they’d once shared with each other, the passions they had ignited in each other.
“I—I—” Phoebe struggled to speak, as if unable to find the right words.
His hands going to the back of her head, he pulled her to him, his lips hungrily taking hers, needing to remind her of just how much he once hungered for her...still hungered for her.
Though she returned his kiss, she was very shortly pushing him away.
“I-I can’t do this,” she struggled to say. “If we are seen—”
“My brother is well occupied for the night and he shall not return here tonight,” he uttered as his kisses trailed a path down her throat. His hands held her and stopped her escape from him.
“W-What of your fiancée, Duncan?” she asked, her tone strained. “Won’t she come looking for you?”
His lips left her skin, his stare lifting to hers. “I have known Carmen for many years, Phoebe, and I am more than certain she will already have arranged company for tonight.”
“How can you say that?” she asked, clearly shocked. “This woman is to be your wife.”
“She has slept with close on every man in this town, Phoebe,” he explained. “What she and I share is a marriage of convenience for our families. Nothing more.”
“Have you slept with her?” she asked, averting her eyes from his.
Duncan fell silent. He expected her question, but he wasn’t prepared to answer her. He didn’t want Phoebe to know of the way he had lived his past, and the many unsavoury things he had partaken in. Nor did he want to remember the man he used to be. He knew though that he couldn’t lie to her.
“You son of a bitch!” she spat at him, pulling free from his hold and turning back toward the house.
He knew the assumption she had made in his silence. Running after her, he pulled her to a stop.
“Yes, I slept with Carmen, but that was years ago!” he shouted at her, needing her to hear him. “Damn it, Phoebe, I was barely of age! And it was years before I even knew who you were!”
Pulling away from him, she slapped him hard across the cheek.
“You lying bastard!” she spat at him. “I have heard many stories about you since I’ve been forced back into this life, Duncan. I have heard of all the women you have seduced and bedded at your will!”
He caught her hand as she went to slap him again his fingers moulding around her thin wrist.
“For Christ sake, I’m not that man anymore, Phoebe!” he tried to reassure her. “I left that life behind me years ago.”
“Yet you seem to have walked back into it so very easily, Duncan,” she uttered in barely more than a whisper, tears filling her eyes.
Holding her wrists, his fingers engulfing her entirely, he stopped any further assault on him, his heart aching at her reaction to his past. He had come back to town to save her, not to cause her even more pain. Holding her stare, he felt himself drowning in the dark pools that were her eyes, and he knew he had allowed this game to go on long enough.
His body ached for the want of her and he knew he had been without this woman for too long.
Walking her slowly backwards, Duncan pressed her against the side of the old deserted servant’s quarters, her hands raised level with her head.
“You look so very beautiful tonight, Phoebe,” he spoke softly to her, needing to calm her if she were to listen to his explanations. “And I have missed you…I have missed the feel of your skin against my own.”
He never realised though that in their struggle several of his shirt buttons had come undone. The fabric loosened revealing the fresh scars that lay hidden underneath.
“What happened to you?” she gasped.
Glancing down at his chest, he knew he had to tell her the truth.
“My brother’s what happened, Phoebe” he answered her, his gaze returning to hers as he let go of her wrists. “Gordon asked me if I slept with you while I was bringing you back from Ravenswood. He thought torturing me would encourage me to tell him the truth.”
“And what did you tell him?” she asked hesitantly, reaching toward him, her fingers running gently over the scars.
“I told him you offered yourself to me as payment to keep you safe but that I never laid a hand on you.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You lied? Why, Duncan?”
“If I had told Gordon the truth he’d have killed us both, Phoebe,” he admitted. “I couldn’t let that happen.”
“But why?” she asked, her tone pleading with him to know the truth.
He knew he owed her that much.
Leaning into her, he kissed her softly, treasuring the taste of her on his lips again. “I have missed the taste of you, Phoebe...the scent of you clinging to my skin after we made love…”
Duncan never got to finish his explanation; her lips hungrily took his. Her hands pushed his shirt from his shoulders, begging him to do as he wanted with her. Following her lead, he laid her down on the thick grassy field, his hands holding her to him, moulding her against him. When her hands shifted to the waistband of his trousers, pulling frantically at them, he knew the hunger of this woman was something he didn’t just want to feel. He wanted to see her engulfed in pleasure. Holding her hip, he skilfully rolled her on top of him, her soft thighs welcoming him as he freed his throbbing organ and lowered her eagerly, pushing inside her tightness.
Chapter Fourteen
“Phoebe—you need to slow down—I can’t—” Duncan begged her, his hands going to her hips needing to still her actions. He felt his p
assionate release balancing precariously on the edge as she moved herself up and down his swollen shaft.
She threw her head back, a passionate gasp escaping her as she fought against his hold. “Duncan, please—oh yes!”
He could hold himself in control no more, and he pumped his cum deep inside of her as her quim released its honey around him, caressing him.
Holding Phoebe’s now limp, trembling body to him as she still lay on top of him, their passions momentarily sated, he kissed her forehead, brushing her hair from her face softly. He was painfully aware what this woman had risked by surrendering to him tonight.
“I have missed the feel of you,” she whispered softly against his skin, her lips lightly caressing his naked chest.
Her words filled him with a pleasure so foreign to him, but one he welcomed with open arms.
“I want you to stay with me, Phoebe,” he admitted, his words barely more than a whisper. “I want to keep you safe.”
Her caressing lips stopped, and she laid her head against him. “You know that can’t happen, Duncan.”
Still, he didn’t give up.
“Is there somewhere you can go where you won’t be found?” he asked her. “Do you have a safe hold somewhere?”
He hoped she knew what he was referring to.
Feeling her once caressing hand still against his naked skin, he knew this woman was fully aware what and who he had been referring to.
“I still own Inkerman Downs Station but that would be the first place Gordon would come looking for me,” she told him. “Besides, my parents were trying to take up residence there last I heard.”
Lifting her face slightly to look at her, he held her gaze.
“I have to get you somewhere safe, Phoebe. Somewhere where Gordon won’t be able to get to you anymore.”
She propped herself up on her forearms. “A few hours ago you didn’t even know I was in the same room as you, Duncan and now you are playing at being my knight in shining armour. Forgive me if I don’t leap at the notion of being rescued.”
