Lynette Vinet

by Wild Eden Wicked

  “Is that cause enough to marry someone you don’t love?” Eden gently pulled Marjorie down beside her on the bed and looked at her in concern. “Does Jock know how you feel?”

  “Jock’s the one who initiated the whole thing. Mr. Carruthers would never have approached me, if not for Jock offering me to him like a lamb to the slaughter.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Well, I do!” Marjorie’s voice broke on a sob. “Jock is marrying me off to get Bert’s land. Somehow he feels he can gain control through me.” She grabbed Eden’s hands in her own, her face contorted with pain. “Oh, Eden, please don’t mention to Jock what I’ve told you and don’t think unkindly of him. I love my brother, but sometimes I’m fearful of him. He wields so much power around here and in Wellington. He’s a good man deep down, but he’s changed over the years into a manipulative one.” Her tears stopped, and hope suddenly shone within her eyes. “Perhaps if he has the love of a good woman, a woman like yourself, then he’ll become the brother I knew as a child. I know I shall have to marry Bert, for he is my last chance at having my own home and children. I do owe Jock something for providing for me all these years, and in the end, maybe the marriage will turn out for the best. Wouldn’t it be grand if you married Jock one day and we were related? I should like that ever so much!”

  Eden mutely stared at Marjorie. She didn’t know what to say or what to think. She pitied Marjorie for having to marry a man she didn’t love, yet she understood why she felt forced to do it, and why Jock had arranged it. Some people would say she’d married Shamus for monetary gain, and they’d be partially right. She had married him for security but also out of genuine fondness. A deep love had blossomed between them, and in that she’d been lucky. But she doubted Marjorie would ever feel the same emotion for Bert Carruthers. Still, she’d learned long ago not to judge others, and she wouldn’t judge Marjorie or Jock.

  “I hope everything works out for the best for both of us,” she whispered to Marjorie.

  A pounding rain pummeled High Winds the rest of the night. In the morning, it abruptly stopped. Eden woke to the sudden silence, followed by a dazzling sunrise above the mountains, just as Marjorie had promised.

  After a quick breakfast and a fond farewell to the Sutherlands, Eden joined Tiku in the buggy. A swift feeling of anticipation washed over her. It was time to go home.

  Chapter 9

  Eden had barely alighted from the buggy before Damon was upon her. “Where in hell have you been?” he demanded, his indigo gaze sweeping angrily over her.

  “High Winds, of course,” was her perfunctory answer as she took in his wet clothing and general disheveled state. “Tiku and I were forced to spend the night. We were quite safe. And please watch your language. Cursing isn’t gentlemanly.” She wasn’t certain why she was behaving shrewishly when it was apparent that Damon had missed her.

  “How was I to know you were safe?” he ranted on. “You could have been accosted by bushwhackers for all I knew. Then I would have had to search for your bruised and broken body.”

  “As you can see, I’m fine. There was no reason to be worried. The Sutherlands took good care of me, and Tiku is an excellent protector.” The knowledge that Damon cared enough to be worried about her warmed her.

  After giving her a long look, Damon was satisfied nothing horrible had befallen her. In fact, Eden positively glowed this morning. Her cheeks were rosy, her eyes sparkled. Never had she looked more beautiful or more desirable to him. Then he remembered what she’d said about his being ungentlemanly, and his anger sparked anew. Of course she’d say such a thing after spending the night at High Winds in the company of the most gentlemanly specimen on the face of the earth. He couldn’t compete with Jock Sutherland’s polished charm, especially not this morning after he’d been up all night worrying about Eden and what might have happened to her. And then, while he waited in the cabin for her return, the roof had buckled under the storm’s assault. The final straw to a miserable night.

  He was a sodden, disgruntled mess with his clothes still wet and damned lucky not to have been injured, or killed, when the roof collapsed. The cabin was uninhabitable in its present state and Damon didn’t intend to repair it. Certainly that would be the gentlemanly thing to do, but if Eden wanted a gentleman, let her hightail it back to High Winds. Maybe Sutherland was the reason she didn’t look any the worse for wear this morning. Jealousy ate away at him.

  “Aren’t you going to ask how things are here?” he snapped. “Or don’t you care now that you’ve slept in Sutherland’s fancy house?”

  “Yes, I care,” she shot back. “And, Damon, why are you so wet?”

  “I’ll show you why!” With that, he grabbed her arm and yanked her across the yard to what remained of the cabin. “If you weren’t so blinded by the gold dust in your eyes, you’d see that the roof has fallen in. I was lucky not to be killed.”

  “Oh, no!” Eden clamped her hands over her mouth. The entire roof was gone; some pieces of it lay strewn around the dwelling and some inside. “My trunk and my things—”

  “Are all safe. I was inside when the roof fell, but I rescued your precious trunk, at risk of life and limb, I might add.”

  So that was why he was so wet. He’d been waiting in the cabin for her when the roof caved in. He could have been killed. She’d been worried about her trunk because it contained all she owned, but now she forgot about it in her happiness to find him safe. No matter what he thought about her, she wanted him to know she cared. “Oh, Damon,” she burst out, “I’m so grateful—”

  “For saving your trunk?” he interrupted her. “God, woman, how shallow can one person be?”

  “I … you don’t understand. That’s not what I meant.”

  “Aye, I know what you meant; you’ve said it often enough to me. I’m not a gentleman with fancy trappings and fine clothes like your friend Sutherland.”

  “I never said that,” Eden protested.

  “And I’m supposing High Winds impressed you.” He scowled blackly at her, raising her own ire to be treated in such a disdainful way.

  “Yes, it impressed me. High Winds is a grand house.”

  “Ah, then, Eden Flynn, it’s a grand house you’re wanting.”

  She placed her hands on her hips and shot him a look just as black but filled with defiance. “Yes.”

  Damon moved closer to her, his breath fanning the curve of her cheek. “Then it’s a grand house you’ll get.”

  He scooped her up into his arms as she pushed ineffectively against him. “What are you doing, Damon? Put me down this instant.”

  “I’m going to show you something which puts High Winds to shame, Eden, love. I’m going to give you what you want.” Damon lifted her onto his horse which waited nearby, then climbed up behind her. His arms folded around her when he took the reins to urge the animal into a furious gallop.

  Raw fear shot through her. She didn’t know what Damon was doing, why he was acting so strangely. She’d done nothing to warrant this rough treatment. And where were they going? She’d never been farther than the cabin or the miners’ houses. Twisting around, she found that his gaze was focused straight ahead, blatantly ignoring her.

  They followed an uphill road through an area rich with beech trees, exotic palms, and tree ferns. It was a wild and untamed paradise, the sky sometimes hidden beneath tangles of greenery overhead. Sweet and cloying scents mingled in the air. Colorful birds flew from tree to tree, chirping their annoyance at the sudden disturbance. When Damon’s horse entered a clearing, Eden saw the white-pillared mansion on the hilltop.

  A pleased and surprised gasp escaped from her. Never had she expected to find something so elegant and imposing in this wilderness. At first the house seemed out of place, but with the sun layering a golden sheen across its ivory facade, it blended in with the cloud-capped peaks of the distant mountains.

  “Where are we?” she asked Damon when the horse skidded to a halt in front of the house. Her voice
held awe, her eyes were large and wondering, glittering like the greenstone Damon thought they resembled.

  Eden’s little-girl innocence was getting to him again, but he wouldn’t allow his heart to soften. He purposely decided to sound hard. He needed to humiliate her for preferring Jock Sutherland over him, for not caring that he’d risked his life to save her possessions. Lowering himself off the horse, he pulled Eden with him. “It’s Castlegate, my home.”

  She didn’t have a chance to reply before Damon picked her up and carried her through the pillared terrace into a large and exquisitely furnished parlor. Placing her on her feet, he didn’t miss the astonishment on her beautiful face as she took in her surroundings. Finally, after a careful consideration of the room, she gave a sudden, shuddering breath. “This is the house Shamus told me about. I wondered if he’d been delirious, but this is the house he said he’d helped build with his bare hands, not that shabby cabin I’ve lived in for the last week.” Trembling with rage, Eden’s eyes accused him. “This is where you’ve been taking most of your meals, isn’t it?”

  “Aye, it is.” He leaned against the mantel above the fireplace, his own eyes wary, his expression guarded.

  “Well, I have been a little fool. I felt selfish for not fixing supper for you when I cooked my own. Goodness but you must have had quite a laugh at my expense.”

  “That isn’t true, Eden.”

  “Oh, really?” She walked around the room, examining objects, gently stroking the soft velvet on the back of a chair. “I’d say you’ve been living in grand style. Not that I begrudge you anything. I know what it’s like to have nothing but the clothes on my back, to be at the mercy of strangers. But as hungry as those strangers were, they shared their food with me and offered me a roof over my head. But you provided me with shelter, too, didn’t you, Damon? And a roof—I mustn’t forget the roof. If I’d been sleeping in my bed last night, I might not be alive today.

  “You placed me in a dirty hovel and let me clean the filthy place, make curtains for it, and all the time this was here.” She opened her arms in an encompassing gesture, a sad smile turning up the edges of her mouth. “Will you do me the courtesy of explaining to me why you didn’t tell me about Castlegate when I’m your uncle’s widow? I had a right to know.”

  Damon lifted his brows in puzzlement. “Did you now? You think because you married Shamus that all he owned belonged to you?”

  “I never said that.”

  “But that’s what you were thinking.”

  “Damn you, I want an explanation!”

  “Eden Flynn, you’re cursing. Shame on you. How unladylike.”

  “Tell me!”

  Damon let out a long sigh. “Shamus turned over Castlegate to me before he left for San Francisco. The house is mine. You have no claim to it.”

  Eden winced. It was just as she’d thought. Shamus had mentioned the house, but hadn’t told her that he’d turned ownership over to Damon. Really, she didn’t care about the house. What bothered her was Damon’s assumption that if she’d known about it she would attempt to wrest it from him. He truly did believe the worst about her. But worse than being accused of gold-digging were the memories of the nights he’d slept on the other side of the blanket when he could have remained at Castlegate in comfort and luxury. Had he stayed with her out of a sense of duty to Shamus? To protect her? No, nothing as noble as that, she decided. Damon didn’t care enough about her to think of her needs. He’d wanted to protect his own interests—and bed her in the process. Yes, that was the only explanation for why he’d stayed in the cabin. He’d hoped to get lucky with the whorish widow and then send her on her way.

  Hot tears burned her eyes, and Damon floated before her in a haze. Even now, when the truth was out, when she realized how much he must want her gone from his life, she found him undeniably handsome. Indeed, she was a foolish woman, but no more would she fall prey to Damon Alexander’s rakish charms. She’d already made up her mind what she was going to do.

  Taking a deep breath, her breasts heaved with the effort. She attempted to steady her voice. “I don’t want your home. However, I do have something you want. I’ve decided to turn over my share of Thunder Mine to you. The price you quoted me in Queenstown was very generous and I accept your offer. I’d appreciate your sending Tiku to help me get back to Queenstown as I’ll be leaving immediately.”

  “So, you’re quitting.”

  “Let’s just say I made a mistake in coming to New Zealand. I shouldn’t have left San Francisco.”

  “Will you be going back to LaRue’s?”

  She’d never considered that for a moment. As Shamus’s widow, she was wealthy in her own right, but Damon didn’t need to know her plans. In fact, she didn’t really know them herself. She just knew that a lonely future stretched endlessly before her. “What I do is none of your business, Mr. Alexander.” Eden began to tremble so violently, she knew she’d be unable to stay in the same room with him. Moving a few feet to the doorway, he surprised her when he blocked her way.

  “Is this some sort of a ploy, Eden? Are you pretending to sell me your share just so I’ll beg you to stay?”

  This was too much for her. “You damned idiot,” she hissed at him, the emerald fire in her eyes matching her temper. “I don’t care if you beg me to stay. If you got on your knees and crawled after me until they were bloodied, I wouldn’t stay. To be free of you and know a moment’s peace again, I’ll give you my share.” She jabbed at the center of his chest with her index finger. “The whole world doesn’t revolve around you and your precious mine. I’m sick of the two of you, sick to death of your nasty remarks about what you think I am. Well, mister, maybe I have some things to say about you, too, and they aren’t pleasant. But I am a lady and I won’t tell you how unfair you are, how totally aggravating and—”

  His lips upon hers broke off her words and her train of thought. The heat of his kiss singed her mouth and sent shock waves of rampant desire through her entire body. Her heart sang at the intimate contact, but her mind cried out that this was wrong. He was toying with her, as he’d done from the very beginning, and she couldn’t allow him to use her again, to have a laugh at the expense of her own pride or to let the cad know she loved him—which would be the most awful admission she could imagine.

  “Ah, Eden, I love your fire,” he whispered as his lips descended to the rapidly beating pulse at the base of her neck. “I love how you feel in my arms. I want you, I do.”

  “No, Damon. No.” With tiny fists, she pushed against the broadness of his chest, but his arms locked around her waist and drew her nearer to him until she could barely think straight. No matter what had transpired with them moments before, Damon had the power to mesmerize her, to block the events from her mind. It was unfair that he should use this power to overcome her weakness. “Stop it. Leave me be,” she insisted. “I hate it when you do this to me.”

  “You know you love it.” She heard the amusement in his voice and cursed aloud because it was true. “Ladies don’t curse, love,” he reminded her.

  His hands wandered to her buttocks, expertly stroking the flesh beneath her skirt. She gave a strangled moan of pleasure, hating herself for enjoying her own weakness. “I … I’m leaving.”

  “Aye, Eden,” he breathed as his hand came around to the front of her dress to fondle the spot between her thighs. “You’re coming with me to the bedroom.”

  “No.” She barely found the strength to protest.

  “Aye, you are.” His voice was so dangerously low, she barely heard him, but his sensuous stroking was so seductively stirring that she found herself unable to speak. Taking her silence for acquiescence, he picked her up and carried her down a marble hallway, entered a bedroom at the end, and kicked the door shut.

  She found herself on a large four-poster bed with Damon lying next to her. He helped her shrug out of her jacket. “Such a prim outfit,” he noted with a grin when he began to undo the many buttons on the front of her shirtwaist. “B
ut you look damn alluring in it … though I prefer you without clothes.”

  Eden’s mind whirled with the tantalizing sight of his bronzed hand upon the stark white material, skillfully opening the small pearl buttons. He groaned when his hands parted the cloth to encounter her erect nipples through her chemise. His thumbs touched them and made a swirling motion before lowering the chemise to her waist. Her upper body was bared to his lusty gaze. Eden felt vulnerable and unsure. She attempted to cover herself with her hands, but Damon pulled them over her head, holding her wrists together.

  “False modesty is a bit late at this stage.” He smiled at her. “But if you like pretending, then I don’t mind.”

  “I’m not pretending,” she blurted out.

  “Shh, love, let’s not argue now.” He soothed her with his lips. Anything she might have said died beneath the quivering desire which erupted anew within her. A part of her hated this power he wielded over her flesh, another part of her reveled in it. She should demand he cease his kisses, allow her to leave in peace. But she knew she’d never have any peace until Damon’s possession quenched the burning ache that threatened to consume her.

  Her mouth parted to receive his kiss, naturally accepting his tongue with not the slightest bit of repulsion. The time she’d spent at LaRue’s hadn’t all been spent in the office. Many times she’d taken meals with LaRue and the women who worked for her. Their talk had been unrestrained and very candid about what men and women did in bed together. Eden had tried not to appear shocked when they openly laughed at or praised a particular man’s prowess. But she put aside her squeamishness to listen to them and discovered she was woefully ignorant about men in general. She was grateful for these conversations and thought herself totally prepared for what would happen when a man finally made love to her.

  But she’d never expected the flames which licked at her insides now, the warm, melting sensation between her legs. She knew this mating was preordained, yes, she knew it now for sure, and nothing would stop their joining. No matter Damon’s low opinion of her, she wanted him and would have him.