Her unexpected question broke his line of thought.
He took her braid in his hand and trailed the tip of it across his jaw. There was something vaguely familiar about the beach where they landed, but he couldn’t remember what. Of course, he’d seen many islands similar to this and they all tended to blend together in his memory.
“I have no idea,” he finally said. “It would probably be a good idea to scout around and find out.”
She jerked back from him and quickly pulled her shirt on.
“I didn’t mean now,” he said.
“Well, you can lie there naked if you want to, but I have no intention of being caught in my altogether by a stranger.”
Jack poked his lip out as she finished dressing. “You know, we could be the last two people on earth.”
She paused and looked at him.
“Would you mind if we were stranded here for the rest of our lives?” he asked, not sure where the question came from or why her answer suddenly seemed so important.
“I’m not sure,” she answered honestly. “I would miss my father terribly.”
“Anything else?”
“Agatha’s apple pie and my horse, Samson.”
Don’t ask it.
And yet he couldn’t stop himself from asking what he wanted to know. “What about Justin?”
She looked him square in the eye. “What is it you want me to tell you?”
“I want the truth.”
She sighed. “If the truth you’re after is whether or not I still love him, then yes. There’s a part of me that will always love him.”
Disappointed fury squeezed his chest so tightly that he could barely breathe.
Well, what did you expect?
‘No, Jack, I hate the imbecile. ’Tis you I love.’
You know better, boy.
His jaw tense, he pushed himself up and dressed. “Aye, I suppose if given a choice you’d much rather be marooned with him.”
She tugged her shoes on, giving him an irritated glare. “I didn’t say that.”
Not one to be outdone by her anger, he jerked his pants on and laced the back. “You didn’t have to.”
Hands on hips, she faced him. “Why are you so angry?”
“I’m not angry,” he snapped, snatching his shirt down over his head. He heard another rending of fabric as the tear in his sleeve widened.
“Yes, you are,” Lorelei accused. “You said you wanted the truth.”
“And you gave it to me.” With both cannons of it blasting a hole in his heart.
Why couldn’t she love him?
Jack froze at the thought.
What the hell? He didn’t want her to love him. That would be…
Well…
Wonderful. Wonderful and terrifying and a whole lot of other things he didn’t want to think about.
He started off into the thicket.
“Jack, where are you going?”
“I need to think.”
Lorelei folded her arms over her chest as she watched Jack trudge away from her. Men, she seethed. You give them what they want and suddenly they don’t want it anymore.
“Fine,” she whispered. “Go off and pout.”
Wait a minute, her mind spoke. Maybe he wanted you to tell him you loved him.
She scoffed at the very thought of it. Jack Rhys was the type of man who needed no one. He would laugh in her face if she admitted that to him.
Or worse, run for cover.
Nay, to win him, she must make him say it first.
And then another thought struck her. She stood alone in the small clearing on an island she knew nothing about and the only one who had a weapon was quickly leaving her behind!
“Jack!” she called, chasing after him.
She caught up to him a little ways off. The trees and vegetation were much denser now. The sunlight barely penetrated the foliage. The ground under her feet seemed almost alive as she struggled to find the forest floor that wouldn’t trip her.
Foreign sounds whipped through the air, some from animals she couldn’t even begin to identify, and she suddenly remembered reading stories in books of people who found themselves trapped in quicksand….
As if knowing her thoughts, Jack turned around and faced her. “Leaving you alone wasn’t such a good idea, was it?”
She shook her head.
“Come on,” he said, draping his arm over her shoulder. “Let’s see where this trail leads.”
They followed it for close to two hours when suddenly it fanned out into a small town. The buildings were a mixture of huts and wooden and brick structures which reminded her a lot of Charleston. Lorelei gaped as they entered the town.
Men, women, and children bustled all about. She saw a busy smithy at the end of the street. There was a fisherwoman hawking mackerel and shark to passersby, and another man called out for people wanting a fresh drink of water from his cup. At a bordello just to her right, barely dressed women were leaning over the edge of a balcony and calling to the men who passed below them.
The road was filled with carts and horses as people made their way across town.
“I don’t believe it,” Jack said.
“Jack!” a male voice shouted.
Lorelei turned around as a man rode up to them on the back of a black Arabian stallion. The stranger was tall and lean with dark brown hair and laughing gray eyes. The right half of his face was scarred with what looked like a sword wound.
“Ben,” Jack said with a smile as he removed his arm from around her. “I can’t believe it.”
“You can’t,” Ben inserted. “Morgan told me you went down with your ship.”
“I did, and I washed ashore on the other side of the island.”
Ben threw his head back and laughed. “Only Black Jack Rhys would have that kind of fortune.” He swung his leg over the saddle’s horn and slid to the ground. Removing his gloves, he offered Jack his hand.
Shaking Ben’s hand, Jack asked, “Where is Morgan anyway?”
“Looking for you.”
Lorelei was confused by what was going on. She understood that they had somehow ended up on the correct island, but she didn’t know whom the gentleman was, or what he was to Jack.
Jack turned toward her. “Ben Gerrit, this is Lorelei Dupree, my current hostage.”
Ben clicked his heels together and bowed low before her like a true courtier.
Instinctively, she raised her hand, which he took, then placed a chaste kiss on her knuckles. “Charmed,” he said with debonair flair.
“’Tis my pleasure,” she returned politely.
Jack rudely took her hand out of Ben’s grip. “Don’t get too charmed.”
Ben laughed. “You know me too well.”
Jack narrowed his eyes on him and turned his head slightly toward her. “Ben is an old enemy of mine,” he explained to Lorelei.
Enemies? They didn’t behave as enemies. Completely confounded, she looked back and forth between the two men.
“It’s true,” Ben admitted. “When I was first appointed governor of Isla de Los Almas Perdidos, I swore I’d see this rogue hang. Turns out I was the one who was hanged and Jack here kept the mob from finishing the deed.”
“What?” She was stunned by his story.
“Ben has a way of completely alienating everyone around him,” Jack said with a hint of humor in his voice. “He’d barely been on the island two weeks before he’d passed so many laws the inhabitants revolted.”
Ben cleared his throat. “Yes, well I’m much better at that now.”
“Better at alienating people or being revolting?”
“Jack!” She gasped in surprise at his words.
Ben just laughed. “Pay him no mind. He always was surly. I still don’t know why he saved me.”
Jack folded his arms over his chest. “Because it never hurts to have a public official indebted to you.”
“True enough.” Ben smoothed the front of his shirt. “You two look like you’
ve been through a shipwreck. I’m sure you’d like to freshen up. Come along and I shall have rooms prepared for you both.”
Jack declined his offer.
“Now don’t get that look,” he told Ben as the man’s face fell. “There should be a British Navy ship headed this way and the last thing you need is for them to find out you harbored me. I dare say, I might not be here to pull your neck out of the noose next time.”
Ben’s face visibly paled. “That is a most excellent point.”
“I thought you’d see it my way.”
“I shall send word out to Morgan immediately. Several of your crew have taken rooms at Regina’s.” Ben glanced out toward the docks nervously. “A British ship, you say?”
“Aye, and no doubt armed to the teeth.”
Ben pulled his gloves back on. “Morgan should have warned me.”
“He most likely didn’t think about it.”
“Yes, well, I have plans I need to make.” Ben gave Lorelei a curt bow. “I bid you good day, mademoiselle.” He mounted his horse, then headed away from them.
“Did you really save his life?” she asked as Jack led her down the street.
“Aye.”
“You are the most remarkable man.”
“Hardly.” Jack pulled her in the opposite direction.
The streets were fairly crowded with every kind of rough-looking sort. Prostitutes and peddlers constantly approached them, begging their indulgence.
“This isn’t a very nice place,” Lorelei said as she sidestepped a drunken man who was making his way past them.
Jack pulled her away from the man. “It was named the Island of Lost Souls for a reason. Just stay with me and no harm will come to you.”
Well, she certainly had no intention of leaving his side. No, she thought as she watched two men break into a fight, no intention whatsoever.
Jack led her into a large building at the end of the dirt street. It had been blue at one time, but the paint was in bad need of repair.
“Don’t worry,” Jack assured her. “The inside’s much nicer.”
And it was, too, she realized as she entered the foyer one step behind him. Expensive gold embossed wallpaper decorated the narrow hallway. Before them was a large, winding staircase.
A huge dining room was to her right and a salon to her left. Jack led her into the salon, which was decorated in the latest style. The chairs and sofas were Chippendale pieces covered in brown and maroon tapestry. Ornately carved tables were set around the room, which was occupied by even more rough-looking men and women, several of whom paused in their drinking and card playing to look up at her.
“Well, well, Jack Rhys lives,” came a deep, sultry feminine voice.
A plump woman of about thirty came in behind them. Her dark hair was piled in braids atop her head and her face was beautifully exotic. Her gown was a modest brown color that only emphasized her strange tiger-like eyes. And Lorelei didn’t like the way she was looking at Jack one little bit.
“Regina,” he said, with that charming smile that made Lorelei ache to kick him in the shin.
The woman called Regina crossed the room and gave him a large hug that was just a little too long and a little too tight for Lorelei’s taste.
“My sweet,” she breathed in his ear. “You look dreadful. It’s not like you to take after these dogs.” She gestured widely to the men in the room.
At last, Jack pulled away from her. “What can I say? I have had a rough couple of days.”
Regina cupped Jack’s chin in her hand and licked her rouged lips suggestively while she focused her gaze hungrily on his mouth. “You shall have my best room and I will order Davis to draw you a bath and give you anything you need.”
Jack removed her hand from his face. “Thank you. I would appreciate that.”
It was only then that the woman’s eyes slid from Jack to take in Lorelei. Regina arched one finely plucked brow. “Gracious, I thought she was one of your men.”
Lorelei took a step toward her, intending to let the wench have her full wrath.
Jack took her arm and gave a warning squeeze. “This is Lorelei Dupree. Daughter of Sir Charles Dupree, and at present she’s my hostage. I shall need clothing and supplies for her as well.”
“Ah, Jack,” Regina purred. “How I wish you’d take me hostage.”
“Another time perhaps.”
Lorelei felt her jaw go slack. That was it. She was going to poison the man the first chance she had. Or better yet, strangle him in his sleep.
Regina beamed. She looked back at Lorelei, and the smile instantly vanished and was replaced by a withering glare. “You know where your room is, Jack, and I have a special place for your hostage.”
Jack shook his head at Regina, then cast a skeptical look to Lorelei. “I’m afraid she will have to share my room. I don’t dare give her any opportunity to escape. She’s quite cunning, you know.”
And she was getting very tired of being spoken of as if she weren’t present. Another urge to kick him shot through her.
Regina poked her lips out into a becoming pout. “If you insist.”
“I do.”
“Very well. Davis will be up shortly.”
Jack excused them, then took Lorelei back into the hallway and up the winding staircase.
“‘I have a special place for your hostage,’” Lorelei mimicked as he led her down a paneled hallway to the last bedroom on the left. “I’d like to show her a special place. Who does she think she is?”
Jack opened the door for her and she walked into a clean, well-kept room with a large four-poster bed.
His eyes were alight with mischief and humor. “Why, Lorelei. I’ve never heard you carry on this way before.”
“Oh, just you wait. I’d like to strangle that woman. Not to mention you’d better hire a taster from now on when you dine with me, you randy knave.”
Jack closed the door. “May I strongly caution you against any inclination to confront Regina. She isn’t above sending you a cup of poison if you anger her.”
Lorelei paused. “What?”
“She’s extremely vicious when crossed.”
“Then why did you bring me here? Was it to flaunt your mistress at me?”
He burst into laughter. “My what?”
She saw red. “It’s obvious by her greeting that you two are intimate. I really don’t appreciate this, Jack. Not one little bit.”
“I can’t believe it. You’re jealous.”
“Yes, I am, you cad.”
He cupped her face in his hands and stroked her cheeks with his thumbs. “There’s nothing to be jealous of. I came here because it’s the only hotel in town where prostitutes aren’t soliciting business in the lobby. Regina may be irritating, but she keeps clean beds and the food is almost edible. And as for being intimate with Regina, please give me credit for having some sense.”
She looked up at him suspiciously. “What do you mean?”
“I was raised in a brothel, Lorelei, and I learned early on the number of diseases a person can contract from promiscuous women. I’ve been very careful about my partners, and I can assure you bedding community property such as Regina doesn’t appeal to me.”
Lorelei curled her lip. “That’s so crude.”
“Crude or not, it’s the truth.”
Not sure if that knowledge made her happy or not, she walked stiffly to the other side of the room and took a seat at the table by the window. “Why do you keep telling everyone I’m your hostage?”
“Because the world is an ugly place and if I introduce you as anything other than my hostage, people will judge you harshly.”
And that thought bothered him. Greatly. She could see it in his eyes, in the rigidity of his body. And there was only one reason she could think of for him to be like that. “Is that what happened to your mother?”
Though she would have thought it impossible, he became even more rigid. “Aye, she didn’t start out as a whore. She actually had a decent
family and a gentle upbringing.”
Jack sat on the bed and ran his hands through his unkept hair before he tugged his boots off. “Her father was a major who adored his only daughter. There are times when I’m trying to go to sleep at night that I can recall him. Or at least an image of him.”
Lorelei moved to help him pull his boots off. “What happened to him?”
“I don’t know.”
She gave a deep “umph” as his boot came free and she lost her balance.
“I don’t understand,” she said as she righted herself and placed the boot by the bed. “If your grandfather loved your mother then why did she—”
“She fell in love with a young naval officer who had the misfortune of already being married. He took advantage of her, and when she became pregnant, he swore to her he’d never let her suffer.”
He handed her his other boot.
Lorelei placed it by the first, then took a seat on the bed beside him. “But your father didn’t keep his word.”
“He did for a time. My grandfather had an estate in Northern England where we stayed. I heard people whisper dreadful things about my mother, but at the time I didn’t understand. For all I knew my parents were married and my father was off at sea like any other naval officer. Whenever he could, my father came to visit.
“It was on his last visit that everything changed. He told my mother that he was going to leave his wife. He wanted us to run off with him and leave England. We were supposed to go to America, where no one would know us and start our life together.”
“How old were you?”
“Five. I can still remember him carrying me out of the house in the middle of the night. I felt so safe and I was foolish enough to think he’d never hurt us.”
“But he did.”
“Aye. ’Twas all lies. He didn’t take us to America. He headed out to the West Indies and rented a small room at an inn. He told my mother that he was going to shed his uniform and buy us passage to America and that he would return shortly. He never did.”
Lorelei closed her eyes as pain for him washed over her. She couldn’t imagine how horrifying it must have been for the two of them. “What did your mother do?”
“She tried to find him, only to learn he’d set sail with his ship. He left us no money and no way home. She was devastated.”
Master of Seduction Page 23