Her Wanton White: Dark Duke’s Legacy
Page 14
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I needed some time to think.”
“You can’t think in your cabin? You’re one of the few people on this ship who has their own.”
She made a tsking noise. “I like being outside. The fresh air clears my head.”
His eyes widened, surprise making him straighten up a bit. They had something they shared. “Me, too.”
“What do you know,” she murmured. “Common ground.”
He shook his head, stepping a bit closer. He’d come out here, if he were being honest, to think about her. Why she managed to have an effect on him. Of course, he’d been thinking about the future of his business and the events that had brought him to the moment where he needed to rely on Sam to help him move forward. “What are you thinking about?”
“Bogs,” she answered, her gaze casting back out over the water.
“Bogs?” he asked, disappointment making his shoulders slump. “You came out in the rain to think about bogs?”
“And swamps,” she answered, without turning back to look at him. “They require more precipitation than evaporation, so rain is the perfect time to consider. What were you thinking about?”
Well, shit. What did he say to that?
Why had she just asked that question?
Samantha closed her eyes for a moment, drawing in a deep breath. With his jacket about her shoulders, his scent had wrapped about her, clean and masculine with hints of the last cheroot he’d smoked. Lord Sayden White always managed to unsettle her. Satan his family called him. The name fit.
Which was why she should have just continued discussing swamps. Safer.
Swamps she knew and understood. They had specific patterns of behavior, and in various conditions, acted in predictable ways.
There was nothing predictable about Lord Sayden. Not that she understood most men, but until he came along, she’d never tried before or been curious about them either.
But that was not the case with this large and wild lord. From the start he’d unsettled her. It began with his dark, piercing eyes, his handsome, strikingly cut features, the strong line of his jaw. And then there was his smile.
His smile spoke of naughty secrets that both intrigued Samantha and made her pulse jump, her heart racing and her blood thrumming through her body.
He knew all sorts of things she was completely ignorant about. Which wasn’t difficult. Samantha had spent all her time researching the natural world and very little time studying people. It was a decision she’d been completely content with until she’d met Lord Sayden.
“I was thinking about William Parricide or Erwin Macklemeyer,” he answered, his features tightening. “Do you think he has more names than just the two?”
“Likely,” she murmured, glad they were once again on safe ground. Thinking about the smuggler who’d terrorized his family and hers was definitely easier than discussing her feelings toward Sayden.
The tiniest bit of disappointment twisted in her stomach, because she’d been thinking about him when he’d clearly been thinking about someone else. Parricide had attempted to marry Samantha’s cousin Violet while posing as a legitimate businessman, Erwin Macklemeyer. Of course, he’d also posed as Destrian White’s righthand man in Destrian’s shipping business while he’d been using the position to bring illegal wine into the country. “You’re worried that he’ll attack you again?”
“He did just burn my father’s masterpiece, Whitehaven, to the ground. Never mind the financial aspect of the attack. Ben was drowning in debt before. Now he’s likely sunk. My father betrayed us all to see that monstrosity completed and now it’s gone. I hated the house but our sacrifice was for nothing.”
Samantha winced. For a moment, she considered touching him but held back. They didn’t know each other well enough for such a gesture and besides, it was likely a bad idea to engage in physical contact. Who knew how she might react?
But like Sayden, she understood all about terribly selfish fathers who didn’t properly care for their children.
Granted, her own father’s lack of care had made her strong, independent and able to take care of herself. Unlike a lot of ladies her age, she didn’t dream of marriage. Her father’s aloofness and selfishness had taught her all she needed to know about the downfalls of marriage.
She was strong enough to make a living in a world dominated by men, pay off her father’s debts, and remain unattached in the future if she so chose. Which she did. Why had she even thought of remaining single as a maybe? She had a plan to help Sayden White find coal and then, with the money she earned, she’d be good to live on her own for the rest of her life. Free to pursue whatever interested her.
Migrating animals, or marine life, or deliciously devilish lords with rippling muscles and…she forced herself to stop.
Her uncles were attempting to circumvent her plan by marrying her off post haste. They even considered Sayden a possible candidate. Had they no sense? Couldn’t they see the man was too wild to tame? And didn’t they realize she herself was not in need of a husband to save her?
Samantha had to concentrate because Sayden’s patronage was important to her future. She’d managed to avoid debtor’s prison, but she’d been living off the care of her uncle and that was a state she couldn’t tolerate. She’d live by her own hand, no one else’s.
“I didn’t know dukes could be sunk,” she murmured. She, herself, was precariously close.
He shrugged. “They get a great deal more allowance to pay off their debt than the rest of us.”
She nodded. That seemed more like the world order she’d come to understand.
Sayden stepped closer. “If there is coal on my land, what kind of money are we talking about?”
She shook her head. “It’s too difficult to say. If it’s there. If the conditions have been right, there’s no telling what the size of the vein might be or the quality of the coal. Depending on the peat—”
“Peat?” he asked. “Like what they use for huts?”
“Precisely.” She turned to him, her mouth opening as she prepared to explain how, over time, peat was converted into the harder, more porous substance of coal. Certain environmental conditions made it more likely that veins of the substance might be found. But then his dark eyes met hers, penetrating and all-seeing in a breath-stealing sort of way. His body curled slightly to bend around hers and heat came off him, steaming the slightest bit in the cold moist air. Without his jacket, she could see it rising off him.
She ached in the most private places as her mouth went dry. What would it feel like to press into his warmth? “Peat,” she repeated completely lost for other words and aware that the repetition was useless, silly even. But all the other words had flown from her head. Where were the barbs she normally hid behind? Or the scientific facts?
She tilted her chin up as she found herself moving closer, a chill creeping up her spine. Was she cold or just aware of him? She couldn’t say but as she closed some of the distance between them, she really could feel the warmth that rolled off him in waves.
How delicious.
His eyes narrowed and for a moment she wondered why. Had she annoyed him by coming closer? Could he see her interest written all over her features? She’d been working so hard to disguise it.
“It’s starting to rain harder,” he said, low and deep, the sound reverberating through her.
“Is it?” She lifted her face to feel several drops of rain splash against her skin.
“It is. You should go below before you’re soaked to the bone.”
He settled his hand on the small of her back. Even through his heavy jacket, she could feel the heat of the touch. His palm and fingers were so large, they seemed to span the entire distance from one side of her waist to the other. Her chin snapped up as she stared into his face. His full lips curved into a partial smile, one corner lifting. It wasn’t that all-knowing smile, the one that whispered of secrets. This one was just like a warm, comfortable blanket.
> No less devastating, just different. “I’m a biologist, Lord Sayden. I’m used to the elements.”
His smile grew. “I’ve noticed that about you. Tough. And don’t get me wrong, I like it. But I need you in top condition when we reach Northumberland. All our futures depend on it. Even the Duke of Whitehaven’s.”
Even the duke’s? Samantha shivered for another reason besides the press of his large hand. Pressure. She’d had to rely on herself and she’d even had to support her mother before she’d died. She’d wanted this responsibility. But supporting herself and an entire family of nobleman? What if she failed? Or worse, what if the duke decided that he didn’t wish for her services at all? She could not go back to her uncles and be forced into some match. She’d have to plead her case, but fear made her chest tighten enough to turn her heart to coal.
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Check out the entire series! The Dark Duke’s Legacy:
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Her Wicked White
Her Willful White
His Wallflower White
Her Wanton White
Her Wild White
His Wedded White
His White Wager
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About the Author
Tammy Andresen lives with her husband and three children just outside of Boston, Massachusetts. She grew up on the Seacoast of Maine, where she spent countless days dreaming up stories in blueberry fields and among the scrub pines that line the coast. Her mother loved to spin a yarn and Tammy filled many hours listening to her mother retell the classics. It was inevitable that at the age of eighteen, she headed off to Simmons College, where she studied English literature and education. She never left Massachusetts but some of her heart still resides in Maine and her family visits often.
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Other Titles by Tammy
Lords of Scandal
Duke of Daring
Marquess of Malice
Earl of Exile
Viscount of Vice
Baron of Bad
Earl of Sin
Earl of Gold
Earl of Baxter
Duke of Daring and more!!!!
* * *
The Rake’s Ruin
When only an Indecent Duke Will Do
How to Catch an Elusive Earl
Where to Woo a Bawdy Baron
When a Marauding Marquess is Best
What a Vulgar Viscount Needs
Who Wants a Brawling Baron
When to Dare a Dishonorable Duke
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The Wicked Wallflowers
Earl of Dryden
Too Wicked to Woo
Too Wicked to Wed
Too Wicked to Want
* * *
How to Reform a Rake
Don’t Tell a Duke You Love Him
Meddle in a Marquess’s Affairs
Never Trust an Errant Earl
Never Kiss an Earl at Midnight
Make a Viscount Beg
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Wicked Lords of London
Earl of Sussex
My Duke’s Seduction
My Duke’s Deception
My Earl’s Entrapment
My Duke’s Desire
My Wicked Earl
* * *
Brethren of Stone
The Duke’s Scottish Lass
Scottish Devil
Wicked Laird
Kilted Sin
Rogue Scot
The Fate of a Highland Rake
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A Laird to Love
Christmastide with my Captain
My Enemy, My Earl
Heart of a Highlander
A Scot’s Surrender
A Laird’s Seduction
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Taming the Duke’s Heart
Taming a Duke’s Reckless Heart
Taming a Duke’s Wild Rose
Taming a Laird’s Wild Lady
Taming a Rake into a Lord
Taming a Savage Gentleman
Taming a Rogue Earl
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Fairfield Fairy Tales
Stealing a Lady’s Heart
Hunting for a Lady’s Heart
Entrapping a Lord’s Love: Coming in February of 2018
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American Historical Romance
Lily in Bloom
Midnight Magic
The Golden Rules of Love
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Boxsets!!
Taming the Duke’s Heart Books 1-3
American Brides
A Laird to Love
Wicked Lords of London