“Why, yes sir. I have no wish but to serve you, your Lordship,” he effused.
“I mean it. If you attempt to interfere with anything I’ve set in play here, you’ll pay for it dearly,” the man threatened cryptically.
What the hell did Thomas mean? Not home five minutes and already the man was warning him to behave like he was an unruly, young boy.
Catalina had run off on him, Thomas was already angry with him; was his mother the only person happy for his return? The thought stung, but he tamped it down quickly. He would not allow Thomas to believe he’d made even the slightest dent in his armor.
“If you’ll excuse me, I’d like to wash up after so much time traveling. I imagine that will do nothing to interfere…with your play,” he mocked.
“Make yourself scarce, boy, or else you’ll regret it.” Thomas turned on his heels then and returned the way he’d come. Good riddance to the wretched swine!
“Oh, don’t listen to him, Brandon,” his mother whispered, not before Thomas was well out of earshot.
“I never do, Mother.” He leaned down and placed a light kiss on her forehead. “I think I will see to a bath. The dusty trail home seems to have clung to my skin.”
“I will see you at dinner then. It is good to see you looking so well, my son. I imagine a certain young lady will be pleased to see you looking so well.” She strode away then, following Thomas’s direction. He imagined she’d go right past the man’s study to the sitting room beyond it. No one in the house spent any more time with Thomas than necessary.
And though it had been an excuse a moment prior, a bath and a fresh change of clothes sounded like a fine idea. He ascended the stairs, remembering the gentle sway of Lina’s hips and his mother’s words as he went, and cursing his mind for his weakness. She was just a woman after all, no different than the multitude of young things he’d dallied with the past two years. So why the hell couldn’t he free his mind of her after all this time?
Because there is no woman like Lina, a voice in the back of his mind whispered to him.
Chapter 3
Catalina descended the stairs at precisely six-o-clock. She knew if she waited any longer, her uncle would be displeased. And so she entered the parlor just moments before their guests were expected to arrive. Among them would be Lord Grafton, and her skin grew cold thinking to what laid ahead that evening.
Uncle Thomas was there as she entered the room and he eyed her warily, as if he was trying to size up her demeanor. But she didn’t pay him any attention. Instead, the man across the room, standing by the fireplace with a glass of golden liquid in his hand, caught her attention. His eyes followed her every movement, and when she raised hers to meet his, the heat radiating from his forest green gaze threatened to scorch her. Her entire body flushed from the intensity of it, and something deep inside her ignited, a fire of her own sparking to life deep in her core.
“Good evening, Lina. I fear you never returned to me with your preference for our horse race,” he teased lightly. How on earth did he appear so unaffected by whatever it was he was doing to her?
“There will be no horse races, Brandon. Catalina is not some young twit you can bend to your will,” Uncle Thomas chastised harshly. She wasn’t foolish enough to think he was paying her a compliment. His words simply served his purpose, and nothing more.
“Your guests have arrived,” Charles, her uncle’s footman announced then from the parlor door, and Thomas’s face took on a relaxed expression, though she could see by the tension around his eyes and mouth it was only an act. He stood as his sister—her Aunt Lily—and his niece—her cousin Alice—appeared in the doorway. Aunt Lily had never struck her as a terribly intelligent woman, and unfortunately, Alice had followed after her mother. Two years her junior, Alice was interested in nothing more than the latest in Ton gossip and which young men were the most eligible bachelors.
Greetings were made and then the room grew silent. Her tension rose high, knowing there was only one guest left to arrive—Lord Grafton. Conversation buzzed around her, but the voices blurred together. All her attention was fixed on the empty doorway, waiting…silently praying he wouldn’t appear there.
But moments later, her hopes were dashed as Charles announced the arrival of Lord Grafton and the man waltzed into the room, acknowledging her uncle first and then turning to her as Uncle Thomas made the introductions between them. He was an attractive man, far less lined than most men his age, but his dark grey eyes appeared cold, devoid of any human emotion. She tried to hide the shiver that raced down her spine.
“Dinner is served,” the butler, Wilson, announced then, providing her with a moment’s reprieve. She saw out the corner of her eye as Brandon pushed away from the fireplace and strode across the room to them determinedly, but Uncle Thomas stepped in front of him.
“My stepson would be delighted to escort your daughter to the dining room, Lily,” he offered, and Alice smiled brightly.
She saw no more of the exchange after that. Lord Grafton offered his arm and she took it reluctantly, allowing him to lead her down the hall to the dining room.
She was seated and served a moment later, but she couldn’t eat. She pushed the food around on her plate.
It could happen at any moment. Would he hold her back as the rest left the dining room to make his proposal? Would he corner her alone in the parlor?
Even with the tumultuous thoughts whirring through her mind, she couldn’t keep her thoughts and her gaze from straying to where Brandon sat between Aunt Lily and Cousin Alice. He looked so much the same as he had before he’d left, and yet in some ways, completely different. There was humor almost ever-present in his eyes, and yet that humor was tempered with wisdom now.
The last time she’d seen those eyes before he left she’d been angry with her uncle for sending Brandon away to the army. And angry with Brandon, too, for letting it happen—although there was nothing he could have done to stop it. Still, he had been her only friend. No one knew it, but she’d cried herself to sleep countless nights after he’d left. She hadn’t realized the full extent of her feelings for him until that first night, lying in bed, her tears spent and coming to see why his absence affected her so thoroughly; she’d loved him. Not in the way a sister loved a brother, or even as one dear friend loves another. But in a much more profound way, as if the sun in her world rose and set because of him.
He had never done anything to suggest she was more than a friend to him. She’d heard of young, besotted gentlemen stealing kisses from their beloveds, pressing them to show their affections in physical ways. But Brandon had never done anything of the sort.
Not that it mattered now. She’d known when he had left that whatever she felt for him would be futile—two years was a long time for a man so far away from home. And with her forced betrothal about to take place, there was no hope for anything more than the friendship they’d once had. Still, she watched in irritation each time Alice smiled coyly at him or brushed her hand against his. She was a stupid girl! Didn’t she know a woman with so little brain couldn’t possibly hold Brandon’s interest for long?
“Shall we retire to the parlor?” Uncle Thomas stood and asked the room at large.
A murmur of agreement went up all around her, but she was silent. Brandon stood and Alice followed quickly, latching onto his arm most inappropriately. She scowled at her cousin beneath hooded lids. Brandon looked down at her and she tried to smile up at him, though the corners of her lips did little more than quiver in response to her effort. Lord Grafton took her arm and she remembered the possibility of him holding her back there to speak to her in private. She secured her hold on his arm and started forward, anxious to follow the rest of the group then. It may only be postponing the inevitable, but she’d hold onto every last moment of freedom she could.
Lord Grafton chuckled at her but if he knew what she was up to, he didn’t let it on. Instead, he matched her quick pace, overtaking her lead in seconds, and she felt as if there was
a message in it. He was telling her he was the one in charge. The boorish oaf!
In the parlor, her aunt and cousin took seats on the settee while her uncle sat across from them. Brandon resumed his position next to the fireplace while Lord Grafton guided her away from the rest of the group, coming to a halt in a quiet corner of the room.
Oh no. This was it. She’d raced out of the dining room only to launch herself toward this inevitable end.
“There is something I would very much like to ask you, my lady. Your uncle has assured me that my question would be well-received.”
She opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. She had no choice in the matter, and yet every fiber of her being knew this was wrong. She should be fighting with every ounce of strength she possessed, but she couldn’t defend herself and protect Evelyn at the same time.
“Go ahead, Lord Grafton.” There was no way out. It was time to get it over with now.
He took both her hands in his, and she immediately got the impression his hands were made for violence. They were designed to hurt. “You are an attractive, young woman with a sound mind. It would do me great honor if you would consent to be my wife.”
The words reverberated in her mind, so much it made her nauseous, but she forced the words out, “I consent.”
“Very good then. Your uncle will make the necessary arrangements.” He released her hands then and she sighed in relief, but he leaned in so quickly to kiss her lips she was too caught off-guard to respond.
She saw Brandon jump to his feet and he was half way across the room in a flash. “Lina?” he queried in deep concern, but Lord Grafton had stepped back, and she waved him off.
“It’s quite all right, Brandon,” she told him, though she couldn’t hide the shakiness in her tone because it was anything but all right.
All of a sudden, her world had ended and nothing was all right.
Chapter 4
Brandon had kept an eye on Lina the entire evening, and something wasn’t right. She’d smiled and put on a good show, but it wasn’t genuine. He had always been able to read her and she’d hated that about him.
He’d watched her and Lord Grafton talking quietly in the corner and a shroud of dread had settled over him just a moment before the old fool leaned in to steal a kiss. He’d been outraged to think the man had taken such liberties against Lina’s will, but when she’d waved him off, he understood what was going on. He had just witnessed the betrothal of the woman he loved to a man as cold as ice.
How could she have accepted? Brandon wasn’t privy to all of London’s gossip, but he’d heard enough to know Lord Grafton was a heavy-handed blackguard. The man thought nothing of beating his house staff, and he treated the mistresses and prostitutes he took to his bed even worse. If the man so much as laid a finger on Lina, he’d rip him apart limb from limb.
But she’d welcomed him. She had agreed to become Grafton’s wife. Still, there was more to it—he could feel it. There was some reason she’d felt compelled to accept the man’s proposal, and it wasn’t misplaced love or affection spurring her onward.
He paced back and forth across the empty parlor now, long after the rest of the house had retired, but no matter how long he thought about it, he couldn’t understand her reasoning. But he was going to get to the bottom of it.
He stormed out of the room, down the hall and up the stairs to the bedrooms. Without hesitating, he knocked on her door loud enough to wake her and he waited. The door creaked open seconds later—which meant Lina hadn’t been sleeping either.
“Brandon! What are you doing here?” she whispered.
“I feared for your safety, my lady. I heard no noise from your room and I confess it had me concerned. There was naught to do but check on you myself,” he teased, trying to keep the mood light.
“Of course there was no noise coming from my room. I was fast asleep!”
“You were fast asleep?” he raised a dubious eyebrow, noting she was still fully dressed and her hair wasn’t the least bit mussed by slumber.
“And you were concerned for my safety?” she raised her own, delicately winged eyebrow in mockery of his own.
“All right, I’ve been found out. In truth, I hadn’t a chance to speak with you for more than a moment today.” If he told her outright he was concerned and wanted to discuss it, he’d never get passed her doorway.
“Well, you can speak with me in the morning. Certainly you know it is not appropriate for you to be coming to my bedroom at this late hour.”
“Since when were you so concerned with propriety, my lady? Certainly you must not be the same girl who used to ride a horse like a man?”
“Good night, Brandon.”
She moved to close the door, but he pushed against it. “You will let me in, Lina, or else I’ll be forced to make a commotion and bring down the household on us. We both know that will damage your reputation far more than mine, my lady.”
She heaved a heavy, irritated sigh, peeked her head out into the hall, and then opened the door to let him in.
“What is so urgent it cannot wait until morning?”
“What’s going on, Lina?” he came directly to the point now that he’d gained the access he needed.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You know that’s exactly what I meant.”
“Nothing’s going on, Brandon. Lord Grafton proposed and I accepted—not that it’s any of your business.”
“You don’t love him, Lina.”
“And how can you be so sure of that? You’ve been away two years, only just returned this very day. How can you presume to know me so well after so long?”
Fire ignited in her eyes, some mix of anger and something else…something else that looked so very much like desire. Did she want him? After years of pining after her had she finally come to see the man he was? There was no sense in asking her—it was entirely possible she didn’t know the answer herself. She was kept sheltered, so much the innocent in many ways.
There was only one way to find out. He didn’t stop to consider the repercussions of his actions if he was wrong. It was just too damn tempting.
He reached for her in a flash, pulling her hard against him and molding her soft curves to his hard body. God, she felt so good, so right.
Before she could object, he swooped in, capturing her lips beneath his. It took every ounce of restraint he could muster to keep from crushing her mouth, to stop his tongue from prying her lips open and thrusting in. He wanted her desperately, but he needed to see if she responded, to know if what he saw in her eyes was nothing more than a figment of his imagination.
Her body remained stiff against him, her hands at her sides, but he wasn’t defeated yet. She hadn’t pulled away. Why not? He teased her lips with the tip of his tongue, asking her to let him enter, to welcome him into her warmth.
And a fiery jolt of lightning crashed through him as she sighed and her lips parted for him.
God damn it, she was responding. And it wasn’t just her lips. Her hands moved higher, around his neck and twining in the short hair there. Her breasts pressed harder against his chest and her breathing quickened as he delved in, tasting her for the first time after wanting her for so long.
But she pulled back suddenly, moving her hands between them at the same time and thrusting with all her might. Her strength was no match for his, but she’d caught him completely off guard, and he staggered back.
“Brandon, what are you doing?” she cried in a ragged whisper.
Of course she’d pulled away. The intensity of her response had surprised even him—certainly, she hadn’t been expecting it either. And it had scared her—though Lina would never admit to experiencing that particular emotion. She was too brave for that.
“My apologies, Lina. I did not intend…”
“I know exactly what you intended. Another game, right? You’ve returned after being gone so long, and you go right back to turning me this way and that, more confused
after a moment with you than any other time in my life? Is that what you intended?”
What did she mean by that?
But as much as her response to him had been genuine, so was her distress. Tears glistened in her eyes and he knew he’d caused them. Damn it! He certainly hadn’t intended to hurt her.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I did not understand your Lord Grafton…”
“I do not understand it either, Brandon. Please go,” she pleaded emphatically and he could see why; her tears had brimmed so high they were about to spill over, and she wouldn’t want him—or anyone else—to see something she deemed so weak.
He nodded and strode out of the room.
He couldn’t look back. He felt bad for upsetting her, but his body was still enraptured with her response to him, so much that he’d swear all the blood in his body had drained to his cock, which throbbed painfully against his trousers. He’d never anticipated that kind of response from her. At best, he’d hoped she would be passive, allowing him to taste her, to feel her body against his. But the way her arms had pulled him closer and how she’d pressed her breasts against his chest…where on earth had she learned to act like such a wanton?
And what other surprises did the woman hide deep down inside?
***
He left his bed early after tossing and turning most of the night, images of the betrothed beauty playing about his mind. As the first light of day began to lighten the sky, he knew there was no hope for sleep. And so he dressed and quietly headed down the stairs and out the door to the stables beyond the manor. It had always served to soothe his frayed nerves before, but that was at least in part due to the company he kept on those early morning rides; company he was fairly sure would not be present that morning. Certainly, she would not have continued to ride out alone so early, no one at the manor aware she was sneaking out. It wasn’t safe.
“Good morning, Douglas,” he greeted the stable hand he hadn’t seen in two years. The man hadn’t changed a bit; even the number of grey hairs on his head seemed the same.
Bad, Very Bad Shifters- The Complete Mega Bundle Page 75
