Wanton Little Mermaid

by Sandra Heath

  It was a kiss filled with passion, experience and art. He unlinked her arms again and stepped firmly away from her. “You’re no longer part of my life, Evangeline,” he said quietly, marveling at his own calm. A few weeks ago he’d have been in the seventh heaven to have her come to him like this, but not now. Not now.

  “But, James—”

  “Have done with it, Evangeline. I’m not fooled by your story of Harry’s boundary problems. We both know he’s cut and run, just as I told you he would. You’ve only come here to repair the damage to your vanity, and to your reputation as the lady every gentleman would give his entire fortune to possess. I’m right, am I not?”

  Her face hardened. “How very shrewd, to be sure.”

  “You’re a Siren, Evangeline, but this mariner has safely passed you by.”

  At that moment his coat slipped from the chair back and fell to the floor. The quizzing glass slipped out of the pocket, its diamonds twinkling in the candlelight. Evangeline stared, recognizing it in a moment, because Prinny had admired her through it only a day or so before it was lost. “How do you have this?” she demanded, pouncing upon it and brandishing it before Jake.

  “I found it tonight.” How lame the truth sounded at times.

  Her gaze, shrewd now, held his. “Tonight? Where?”

  “Down by the river.” He took the quizzing glass from her and put it on a table.

  “By the river? How can that be, when it was lost at sea?” Her voice rang with disbelief. “I know the Severn is tidal, but I can’t imagine it washes all the way around Cornwall from the Isle of Wight!”

  “I don’t know how it came there, except that I have reason to believe thieves are using my land.” He glanced away as once again his elusive nymph flitted through his mind.

  There was malice in Evangeline’s eyes. “I always wondered if Prinny really did lose it, or whether in fact it was…stolen.”

  Jake’s anger ignited. “Are you implying that I took it?”

  “Well, did you?”

  “Please leave, Evangeline, for I’ve had enough of you,” he said tersely, feeling an almost irresistible desire to manhandle her to the main entrance and apply his boot to her posterior.

  “You’re going to regret your decision tonight, James, I’ll make sure of that!” she cried. “I can ruin you in society, all I have to do is choose the right ears into which to mention the whereabouts of this royal bauble.”

  “Do as you damn well wish, madam, but for the moment please get out of this house!”

  She raised a hand to strike him, but he caught her by the wrist and turned her toward the door. “If you don’t leave this instant, so help me I’ll throw you out!” he breathed, releasing her.

  “You’ll be sorry for this,” she breathed.

  “So much for your undying love,” he answered drily.

  She whirled about and stalked out, blue silk hissing like angry cats, but as she emerged into the great hall she halted with a furious exclamation. “So there is someone else!”

  Jake hurried to see what she meant, and halted in amazement on seeing a young woman at the foot of the staircase. She was fully clothed now, but he recognized his ethereal nymph. She was dressed in a navy-blue leghorn bonnet and a velvet spencer of the same color, with a white muslin gown that was lavishly embroidered with delphinium blue sprigs. Her unruly tawny hair had been twisted up beneath her bonnet. She had clearly hoped to get into the house unseen, but her gown had caught on one of the carved wooden griffins at the foot of the staircase, and Evangeline had emerged from the grand parlor before she could free herself. She was still struggling to pull the muslin free, but the griffin did not relinquish its hold.

  Evangeline faced him, her lips thin, her eyes hooded. “No wonder you wish me gone, sirrah!”

  “I don’t even know who she is,” he replied truthfully, unable to take his eyes from the beautiful intruder, who in candlelight was even lovelier than he remembered.

  Evangeline was disdainful. “I don’t believe you, Jake, and I’m going to make you pay dearly for spurning me in favor of this-this demirep!”

  “She is not a demirep,” he retorted coldly, feeling oddly honor bound to defend the fair trespasser, who for all he knew might be a demirep of the lowest order!

  Evangeline’s fury was almost tangible. “Your reputation isn’t going to be worth a jot by the time I’ve finished. I’m going to brand you a thief and libertine, and the whole of society will believe me! I—” Something dawned on her suddenly, and she broke off to whirl around once more to face Sabrina. “Those are my clothes! I recognize them!”

  “Yours?” Jake stared at her, and then at Sabrina, who had given up the struggle with the griffin and now just stood there like a frightened doe.

  Evangeline’s nostrils flared. “It seems they were purloined in the same way as Prinny’s quizzing glass! You’ve been keeping this pretty little secret very well hidden, Jake, indeed I almost admire your skill! I suppose she is the actual thief? She certainly looks the part.”

  Sabrina was stung out of silence. “I’m not a thief! My name is Sabrina Winterleigh, and that is my father.” She pointed at the portrait on the staircase.

  Winterleigh? Jake turned to the painting. It’s wasn’t just the tawny hair, there were other likenesses too. There could be no doubt she was who she claimed to be, although surely she had to be from the wrong side of the blanket, because the Winterleigh name had died out. Sabrina. The name suited her. It was the old Roman name for the Severn.

  Evangeline was venomous. “Winterleigh? Well, you’re the fellow’s byblow, and no mistake, my dear, but whatever you are, I want my property back, and I want it now.”

  “For heaven’s sake, Evangeline, can’t it wait?” Jake asked.

  “I want what is mine, sir.”

  Jake strode to Sabrina, freed her, and then looked into her big blue eyes. “Go into the grand parlor and undress,” he said gently. “You can wrap yourself in one of the dust sheets.”

  “Undress? Oh but—”

  “Do as I ask. Please, or I’ll never be rid of her.”

  Their eyes met, and Evangeline immediately interrupted the moment. “And be quick about it, girl!”

  Sabrina did as he asked, and saw the quizzing glass on the table the moment she entered. Her response was reflex. Seizing it, she ran to the door that gave to the terrace, but it wouldn’t open, and in her frantic efforts to get out she was afraid of being heard from the great hall. The only other way of escape was past Jake and Evangeline, and she knew she’d be caught. She was frightened and trembling, partly due to being trapped, partly because it didn’t seem possible to retrieve Neptune’s prized belonging…and partly due to the exhilaration of being so close to Jake, the only man she had ever desired.

  The door stubbornly refused to budge, and she gave in. Putting the quizzing glass down again, she removed her bonnet. Her mane of tawny curls immediately tumbled down, and she glimpsed herself in a wall mirror. How silly and unsophisticated she was. She could never be a match for a sophisticated beauty like Evangeline, who obviously wanted Jake very much indeed. A mere half mermaid—a completely inexperienced virgin—could only be at a complete disadvantage. With a sinking heart, she began to remove the rest of her clothes.

  “Oh do hurry up, you tiresome little slut!” Evangeline’s imperious tone echoed from the great hall, as did Jake’s reaction.

  “Enough, Evangeline, for there’s only one slut here, and I’m speaking to her.”

  Sabrina pulled a dust sheet around herself like a cloak, and then took Evangeline’s clothes out in the hall, where she flung them defiantly at that lady’s feet.

  “Pick them up and give them to me this instant!”

  Sabrina’s chin rose mutinously.

  Evangeline looked to Jake for support, but he shook his head. “If you want your out-of-date clothes so badly, you pick them up,” he said.

  Nothing on heaven or earth would have moved Evangeline to so demean herself, and sh
e stalked from the house with fire and brimstone crackling from her very shoes.

  A moment later her carriage drove away at speed.

  Chapter Six

  Jake retrieved the clothes and took them to Sabrina, who shrank back into the grand parlor again, clutching the dust sheet as close as she could. But even as she moved away from him, what she really wanted to do was go into his arms. Her whole being was conscious of him, and her body was so awake and sensitive that she felt its pain.

  He closed the door and held out the clothes. “Please, put them on again, for I do not want you to feel such embarrassment. Or humiliation,” he added, erotically aware that beneath the sheet she was utterly and sublimely naked. His mind whisked back to the riverside clearing. What he’d seen then was only a few feet away from him now. Dear God, his desires had never been as stoked as this before. He wanted to seize her, toss the sheet aside, and fuck her until his dick hurt. So great was the urge that he had to turn away and put the clothes on a little table. “Well, they are here. I-I’ll leave you to dress and—”

  “No!” The word was blurted without warning, and a deep flush suffused her cheeks.

  He looked at her. “I think propriety would be best served by my absence, don’t you?”

  “I know little of your propriety.”

  “My propriety?” He smiled. “I can hardly lay sole claim to it.” He came closer and stood by the table on which the quizzing glass lay.

  “In your world you can.”

  His brows drew curiously together. “My world? What a strange thing to say. Look, I accept that you probably are Sabrina Winterleigh, but who exactly are you? I know of no living Winterleighs, indeed if there had been such a person, this estate would never have come on to the market. Was Evangeline right? Are you from the wrong side of the blanket?”

  “Certainly not!” Her eyes flashed indignantly. Her parents had been properly joined in marriage, according to the rites of both their worlds.

  He gazed at her, unable to stop drinking in every delicate feature of her face. Her draw was magnetic, fiercely so, and the effect was like a shock running through his veins. The way her incredible hair tumbled over her shoulders to her waist, the lustrous blue of her eyes, the flawless sheen of her skin, the way her lips trembled just a little… Oh to kiss those lips. His penis was erect, but at least the fashion for skintight breeches kept it firmly against his thigh, and in this dim light it was unlikely she could see. But if he moved his leg just a little, the gray corduroy tightened against his head in a most pleasing way.

  The secret little satisfaction almost had the better of him, until he made himself remember that she was probably a thief, one of a gang who had had the effrontery to use his land! He picked up the quizzing glass from the table beside him. “By what right do you come after this?” he asked, holding it up before her.

  She didn’t reply.

  “Surely you don’t deny this is what you want? I interrupted you just as you were about to get it from that damn throne, or whatever you call that seat, which, incidentally, was draped with my water lilies.”

  She colored a little. “I—I’m sorry we took your flowers.”

  “And this?” Once again he held up the quizzing glass.

  “It-it belongs to someone I know.”

  “So you’re acquainted with the Prince Regent, are you?” he inquired dryly. “Come on, Miss Winterleigh, you may as well tell the truth. Someone stole this from the prince, and you clearly know who that someone is.”

  She was stung into indiscretion. “It’s against our law to steal! Lord Neptune found it on the seabed, and that is allowed!”

  He stared at her, wondering if he could possibly have heard correctly. “I-I beg your pardon?”

  She bit her lip, knowing she should have held her tongue.

  Jake went nearer, his erect cock still concealed by the shadows. He was immediately conscious of her floral perfume. What was it? Lilies? Water lilies! The fragrance was cool, delicate and elusive, but had a searing effect on his already strained self-control. He swallowed, trying not to show the disarray of his senses. “Who is this Lord Neptune?” he asked, thinking it must be the gang leader’s nickname.

  “You haven’t heard of him?” she replied in amazement. Surely even humans knew of the god of the sea!

  He waved an arm at the room. “As you can see, I haven’t exactly been in residence recently, so I’m not well informed about the neighborhood villains.”

  She was horrified. “You cannot call the god of the sea a villain!”

  Jake was taken aback. “The god of the—” He would have laughed had he not seen how earnest she was. “You really mean it, don’t you?”

  “Yes, of course I do.” Oh this was dreadful. She shouldn’t have come to the house, but she had, and now things were going from bad to worse. Yet still her body wanted him, and the sensations writhing so voluptuously between her legs were small peaks of gratification. And it was all just for him. There was moisture down there too, ready to ease his path inside her. Ready for his cock. Now she was the one who had to turn away, certain her face was a page upon which her carnal dilemma was written large.

  He longed to stretch out a hand to touch her, but he didn’t know how she felt, only how he did. She hadn’t wanted him to leave, but there was no knowing why. Occasionally he thought he saw desire in her eyes, lighting them with such a seductive glow that he could almost have drowned in their exquisite blueness. But then, how could he possibly understand someone who spoke of Neptune in such a way? “You said something earlier about ‘our law’,” he said then. “What exactly did you mean? Whose law?”

  She turned to him again. “Mer-law,” she replied frankly, knowing she’d already said too much and might as well be frank.

  “Mer-law?” The word conveyed nothing to him.

  “The law of merfolk. You know, of mermaids and mermen.”

  His lips parted incredulously. “Are-are you telling me you’re a mermaid?” Involuntarily his glance moved toward her toes, which peeped from beneath the dust sheet.

  “I’m only half mermaid. My other half is Winterleigh,” she explained, withdrawing her toes a little self-consciously. “Please, you won’t tell anyone else about this, will you?” She was thinking of the odious Evangeline, who would take spiteful delight in trumpeting such an unlikely tale far and wide.

  Jake was too shaken to speak. He wanted to laugh. Dear God, if he’d been drinking cognac all night he could understand all this, but he was stone cold sober! She couldn’t be a mermaid, she had toes! “Miss Winterleigh, I cannot possibly believe such a claim, after all, you have feet.”

  She met his eyes. “I did say I was only half mermaid. Because Andrew Winterleigh was my father I look human, but I can breathe underwater and swim like a fish. Well, perhaps not as well as other mermaids, but I can stay underwater for as long as I choose.” She searched his face urgently. “You aren’t going to tell, are you? We’re not supposed to speak to humans or even let them know we exist.”

  “It would seem your mother did more than just speak to Andrew Winterleigh.” As I wish you would with me.

  She smiled. “They fell in love. It had never happened before and hasn’t happened since.” Until now, she thought, still fighting the urge to discard the sheet and go to him. Especially now that she’d glimpsed the outline of his hard cock, and realized that he was by no means indifferent! What would Anemone say at a moment like this? What would she do? Both questions were foolish, because Anemone would do whatever was needed to satisfy her desire.

  Jake gazed at her. Such love hadn’t happened since? He was experiencing such an eruption of emotion that he was sure he was spellbound by his own desires. But it was emotion as he’d never known before. His cock was on fire for her, and his veneer of civilization seemed stretched so thin he felt more animal than human. He wanted her in the most primitive of ways, so much so that he was hardly conscious of his own world, just of a sudden recognition of hers.

  “
Sabrina, I—” Suddenly his voice failed, and he could only gaze at her with such longing that it was almost tangible in the air around them.

  “Jake?” His nickname fell as easily from her lips as if she’d always known him. Intimately. She smiled a little smile, all hesitation evaporating into the recesses of the room. “Oh Jake, you have no idea how long I’ve been yearning to know you.”

  “You have?” He was lost in her eyes, and his balls were suddenly so tight it was agony.

  “I’ve spied on you most unashamedly, and I’ve missed you so much since you went away. I can’t believe you’ve returned, or that I’m here with you like this.” She allowed the sheet to fall slowly and sensuously to the ground, because she knew that it was what Anemone would do at a moment like this. “You cannot hide your desire from me,” she whispered, glancing down at the front of his breeches.

  Instinctively his hand went to conceal his rampant penis, but then dropped away again, for what point was there in hiding the truth?

  “I want you to make love to me, Jake. I want it so much that I’m consumed with craving. Love me. Come inside me.” She was startled by her own audacity, but there was more mermaid in her than she’d realized. She wasn’t as unlike Anemone as she’d thought, although her wantonness was directed solely at this one man.

  Jake knew he’d do as she wanted. He’d only just met her, and now he was about to fuck her? What in God’s own name was happening to him? Was he dreaming it all? But no, as she came closer he again breathed the elusive fragrance of water lilies. This was no dream, it was fact, and never before had he been so glad to be here, now…and so completely awake.

  “I have been with you a thousand times,” she whispered, “each one more exciting than the one before. I’m obsessed with you, I love you to distraction and need you as I need to breathe.” She stretched on tiptoe to brush her lips softly over his. A brush, an endearment, no more, but the first sweet communion. The blood rushed in her ears and she trembled like reeds in a current. She loved him, how she loved him!