A Warriner to Rescue Her

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by Virginia Heath


  ‘Until yesterday he had never struck me. My father believes silent penance in solitary confinement is a far better punishment.’

  ‘Which is why you are afraid of locked doors.’

  Cassie sighed and rested her head against his strong shoulder. ‘Something, I am sure, which made the punishment more fitting in his eyes.’

  ‘You cannot go back there.’ His arm came about her shoulders and gathered her close. His chin rested comfortably on the top of her head.

  ‘I know.’

  Her father had almost killed her. If there was a next time she might not be so lucky. For several minutes they simply sat there, Cassie burrowed against his chest, his free hand idly stroking her hair. For the first time in the hours she had been here, she felt totally relaxed. Content. Sleepy. He felt her stifled yawn.

  ‘You are exhausted. I shall leave you to rest.’ He began to remove his arm to rise and she lazily wrapped her arms around his middle. Now that he was here she couldn’t bear him to leave.

  ‘Don’t go yet. I know this is silly and irrational, but I would feel safer knowing you are here. Just for tonight.’

  * * *

  There was nothing safe about him in the night. But a lamp was burning low on the nightstand and Cassie was clinging to him as if her life depended on it. Added to that was the desire to comfort her after everything she had been through and to know for himself she was all right. Being here would ease his own mind on that score. The red marks around her delicate neck troubled him. To know her father had attempted to strangle her, that she would have had to watch his crazed face as she was robbed of breath was too close to home and unsettling. He suspected what she had told him already about her father was merely the tip of the iceberg.

  The Reverend Reeves had effectively tortured his daughter for years. It was testament to her strength of character that she was not a meek and terrified creature all of the time. Jamie did not need to be told this episode had been the second one in as many weeks. The pinched, strained expression she had worn in church that day matched the one he had seen on her face when she had accidently been trapped in the store cupboard. The remnants of it still stained her lovely face now, hours since he had carried her from that dungeon, and it was obvious it had taken its toll. Angry bruises stained her skin. Bruises he wanted to avenge because he could not undo them. If she needed his comfort, right at this minute he did not have the heart to deny it.

  ‘I am not going anywhere, Freckles.’ He would sneak out once she was sound asleep and lock himself in his own bedchamber. A bedchamber, which by his own insistence, was as far away from Cassie’s as it was possible to be within the constraints of the house.

  Without dislodging her from her comfortable position against his shoulder, Jamie swung his legs up on to the mattress and reclined on the fluffy pillows behind his head. Instantly, she burrowed against him, the lower half of her delectable body fortunately covered in blankets. She snuggled closer still, her silken hair falling over her face and his waistcoat, touching all the way down his side from that shoulder to the middle of his booted calf, yet the tough leather nor the covers formed a satisfactory barrier. Every nerve ending was alive.

  Bizarrely, it was not lust which pulsated through him, it was something quite different. A sense of wonder, of rightness and the primordial need to hold her close. Protect her as if she were his woman.

  So he did. Muttering reassuring platitudes against the crown of her head, allowing the golden tendrils of her hair to run through his fingers. Enjoying, just this once, the heady feeling of being with the woman he loved, cuddled up together.

  Like lovers.

  * * *

  The bright slice of daylight shining through the gap in the curtains was a revelation. As was the feel of a delightfully rounded womanly bottom under the palm of his hand. He must have nodded off. A foolhardy and dangerous thing to have done considering his propensity for violence, but also a miraculous one. Cassie was still in his arms, the majority of her body sprawled atop his. One leg hooked proprietorially across his and her face was buried under a sea of hair. One errant strand tickled his nose and he blew it away rather than wake her by moving. Her breathing was the heavy, rhythmic sort of a person not inclined to rise any time soon and if anyone deserved the rest, it was Cassie. Besides, his hand was perfectly happy resting on the curve of her hip as if that particular curve had been carved by a master craftsman to be the perfect fit for his meaty paw.

  A quick glance towards the nightstand confirmed the lamp still burned, although its glow was pointless now. It was definitely morning. What time in the morning he was blissfully ignorant of, but as he could not hear any sounds of servants mulling about, if was fairly safe to assume it was early. With nothing better to do, Jamie tried to piece together the events of the night to ascertain at what point of it he had been taken by Morpheus.

  He remembered clearly holding her for at least an hour because it had been a perfectly splendid way to spend an hour. He had stroked her hair, then he had a vague recollection of burying his nose in it. After that was a huge gaping blank. Which meant he had inadvertently spent many hours snoozing contentedly with this woman in his arms. And she truly was a glorious armful. Clearly she had long ago fidgeted out of the bedcovers. The only thing separating her bare skin from his touch was the soft, gauzy nightgown. He had touched Cassie’s waist before, but without the layer of stays and petticoats, it was deliciously soft. Jamie suddenly became aware of the feel of her breasts flattened against his chest. The flash of lust was instantaneous and made him suck in a breath, causing the sleeping woman to stir. She burrowed and wiggled against him and he bit down on his bottom lip to avoid groaning out loud.

  Lust and wiggling was a heady combination indeed. Hot blood rushed to his groin, adding to his sudden discomfort.

  She wiggled again and sighed into his neck.

  Good grief! She was going to kill him. There were worse ways to go, he reasoned, than burning up with the flames of unspent passion. Under his palms he felt her body stiffen, then her freckled face emerged out of the sea of hair and she blinked down at him, startled.

  ‘Hello.’ The smile she bestowed upon him made his heart melt.

  ‘Hello, yourself.’ Thank goodness his aroused state had not affected his ability to talk normally, but by God she was beautiful. All mussed from sleep, hair all over the place and that face so close to his he could count every freckle. Jamie had never seen anything quite so lovely in his life.

  ‘I slept well.’ She had braced her head on one hand, the elbow of which was propped happily on his chest and showed no signs of moving. It should have felt awkward, but didn’t.

  ‘Glad to hear it. Sleep cures all ills, or so I am told.’ She shifted slightly, reminding him of those breasts pressed intimately against his chest and making his body throb with need.

  ‘You stayed.’

  ‘You asked me to’

  ‘Thank you.’

  It was the sleepy eyes that did it, he would recall later, she was looking at him dopily through those long lashes and he was seduced by her beauty and completely burning with desire. For her. Of their own volition, his arms wound possessively around her ribs and tugged her until her mouth fell within kissing distance of his. Then it was completely natural to close the small distance and press his lips to hers.

  Later, he would also recall the way she melted against him, which encouraged him to roll her over on to the warm, rumpled sheets and kiss her some more. And Cassie kissed him back, coiling her arms tightly about his neck and plunging her fingers into his hair. She felt the evidence of his desire and it did not repulse her. In fact, it apparently did quite the opposite. She arched against him, sighing into his mouth. Jamie could not have asked for a better response. Cassie in the throes of passion took his breath away.

  At some point his hand found the hem of her nightgown and
his hands dived underneath, running his greedy palms over the creamy, soft skin of the thighs which had haunted his dreams since he had spied them in the apple tree. They ventured further, lingered for a while on the ripe cheeks of her bottom before they were filled with her full breasts and he went to heaven. Of course, by then he was lost. All that mattered was the woman in his arms and the way she was making him feel.

  * * *

  Having never woken up with a man before, Cassie did not know what to expect. But as soon as she had begun to wake, she had been aware of his big body beneath hers. Initially, she felt safe, such an unusual emotion when she was used to living with her father, under constant threat of another of his cruel punishments that a constant sense of unease felt normal. Only when she was out in the open, riding Orange Blossom, did that state wane. It had never completely gone before, yet it was gone now and it was wonderfully liberating. So liberating she was giddy with it and wanted to giggle. Maybe that was because she knew she could never return, even though she had absolutely no idea how she was going to support herself in the short term, but it probably had a great deal more to do with who she had woken up with. Jamie looked positively delicious all rumpled. Cassie had immediately wanted to run her fingers through his hair and bury her nose in his neck. As it turned out, they were doing something infinitely better.

  Yes, she should have rolled off him the moment she realised she was shamelessly sprawled across him, however, he had seemed perfectly content with their intimate position. He had instigated the kiss, tugging her close and then brushing his mouth over hers, and that kiss had been so achingly perfect, so charged with emotion, it had brought tears to her eyes. It was very different from the first kiss they had shared, the one tinged with anger and done to prove a point—this time Jamie made her feel precious and special. The fact he was taking his time over it was also interesting. Each time his lips touched hers, her body reacted. Tingles, shivers, an unfamiliar awareness of her womb and her breasts, an awareness which grew when he began to use his teeth and tongue as well as those intoxicating lips.

  When it heated and became more, she welcomed it, loving the nearness and the intimacy of his weight above her. She could feel the evidence of his desire pressed against her belly, yet it was not close enough for her needy body. When his hands touched her bare skin it had come alive, the secret parts of her crying out to be explored and caressed. Cassie heard herself moan when he found her breasts and grazed the pad of his thumb over her aching nipples.

  That guttural noise had an interesting effect. He shifted position and tugged her nightgown up her body to see her nakedness with his own eyes. Those bright blue windows to his soul had darkened with passion as they lazily took in every part of her from the pointed tips of her breasts to the triangle of hair at the apex of her thighs, before coming back to lock with hers. ‘You are beautiful, Cassie. I hoped there would be more freckles and now I know for sure. His finger trailed slowly down one breast to rest on one of the blemishes before it traced the outline of her nipple. The grin he gave her was totally wicked, possessive and wholly male, and instead of feeling ashamed that she was bared before him her arms and legs became heavy and her body craved more of his touch. When he bent his head to kiss her, it was not her lips he sought, he kissed that freckle and, heaven help her, she wanted more. So much more.

  Shamelessly, she wriggled closer until his tongue began to trace the edge of her nipple and still it was not enough. Shockingly, she wanted to ask him to kiss all of it, thoroughly, and to touch her between her legs. Too shy and too frightened, Cassie kept angling her hungry nipples towards his mouth, yet each time his tongue came close to where she wanted it, he would change course and kiss another part of her breast. When she felt him smile against her heated skin she relaxed and accepted the sweet torture he was subjecting her to, waiting for his tongue to find the throbbing tip. He sucked it into his mouth and did wicked things to it, and like the true wanton she was, Cassie moaned and grasped his head in her hands, clamping him to her body so that the sensations would not end.

  But they did, thank goodness, because he worshipped the other breast with equal devotion. Needing to feel his skin on hers, Cassie clawed at the hem of his shirt, yanking it up towards his head while he went in search of more freckles. It got caught. Twisted. And he laughed and tugged it over his head for her. It gave her the very first look at the shoulders which she longed to touch properly. Broad and beautifully muscled, strong arms and a chest which made her mouth water. Her hands immediately went to it, explored the dips and planes, marvelled at the solid feel of it. The smoothness of his skin. The tantalising roughness of the dark hair which dusted it before narrowing and disappearing beneath the waist of his breeches. And this time, when he lowered himself on top of her to kiss her deeply, there was the joy of feeling him. Jamie. Her hero and knight in shining armour. His naked skin on hers. Almost no other barriers between them.

  Almost. Because he was still wearing his breeches. Emboldened by everything they were doing, Cassie set her fingers to work on the buttons of his falls, giving up to feel the long, thick length of him beneath the fabric and rejoicing when she heard the guttural sounds coming from his throat this time. One of his hands came down to assist her with the buttons, until between the pair of them they had managed to get a few undone before she pressed the flat of her hand against him again through the fabric. An open invitation that she was determined to be thoroughly ruined. In case he missed it, Cassie finally found the courage to tell him what she desired. ‘I want you, Jamie. Right now.’ Beneath her palm, his arousal twitched, so she slowly traced the outline through the taut fabric with the tip of her index finger to torture him as he had spectacularly tortured her. ‘I want to see you naked and kiss every inch of you.’ Shocking words, yet the truth nevertheless. She had never wanted anything more. His hand came on top of hers and he closed his eyes, pressing her palm firmly against that part of him. The part which would join their bodies. The part her body craved so much she could not hide the urgency in her voice. ‘Let me see you, Jamie. I need to see you!’

  He sat back on his heels sharply and stared down at her, his dark brows now drawn together in a frown, his chest rising and falling as rapidly as hers. Whatever trance of passion had bewitched him no longer held him now. She could sense his withdrawal and didn’t understand it.

  ‘I’m sorry.’ Before she could stop him, he was off the bed and hastily buttoning his breeches back up. ‘I can’t do this.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘I can’t.’

  ‘But I want you to.’ Surely he could see that she wanted him to?

  ‘No. It’s not right. I can’t explain.’

  He was shaking his head in agitation, unaware his rejection was like a knife to her heart. All at once, she no longer felt beautiful and tempting, but ashamed and exposed. She dragged a blanket to cover her nakedness and watched, devastated, as he snatched up his shirt and hurried to put that on, too. All the while, he resolutely refused to look at her. He was halfway to the door when he stopped and turned around, looking every bit as wretched as one would have expected a disgusted man to be. ‘For what it’s worth, I am sorry. I never should have let things go this far. Forgive me.’

  Then he was gone and Cassie was left staring at the closed door, wishing she had not allowed her true nature to surface and shock him. The evidence of her wantonness was everywhere. The limp and crushed nightgown was in a puddle on the floor. The sheet knotted from her shameless writhing, her hair a riot of tangles to match. And even now, even after he had spurned her so vehemently, beneath the blanket her breasts still ached and her secret area yearned for his body to join with hers.

  She did not need her father’s words to confirm the truth. She was her mother’s daughter after all.

  Chapter Sixteen

  He avoided her for the rest of the day, riding the grounds aimlessly rather than face up to what he had do
ne and tell her what was wrong. To say he was ashamed of himself was an understatement. Every muscle and sinew had been clenched in mortification since he had abandoned her naked on the bed. But he had panicked.

  Let me see you, she had said, and in one fell swoop he had remembered it was daylight. Broad daylight. And he was broken—something which around Cassie he had a tendency to forget.

  The early summer sun was already streaming through the gap in the curtains to highlight his deformity. Every hideous gnarled scar would be illuminated and he would have had to watch the wondrous sight of her passion-filled dark eyes cloud with distaste at the unpleasant spectacle. In daylight there could be no hiding it—which in turn meant he would undoubtedly have to talk about it. Then he would have to explain why half of the French garrison had been shooting at him and that he had murdered a man in cold blood when not completely in control of his faculties. Because he had been asleep when DuFour had come, and just as he had when his father had woken him with violence, the terrible uncontrollable savage which lay waiting inside him, the beast Jamie tightly controlled, had sprung forth and taken over.

  Even if the sight of him did not horrify her, if they had continued what had so naturally started, Cassie would be ruined. They would have to marry. Whilst he would happily marry her right this minute, he had to consider the hornets’ nest which she would have to contend with as his wife. There were so many things she did not know about him, things a wife would need to know before she said her vows. It hardly promised to be a casual chat.

  Before this goes any further, you might find the following information useful, my darling. I cannot abide the taste of cheese and I have a tendency to break people’s necks in my sleep.

  Separate bedrooms, obviously, but he would have to explain why. Not just what he had done, but what he was capable of. The danger he would pose to his future wife and future children. His irrational and pathetic fear of the dark. That ridiculous arsenal of weapons he slept with. Any one of which could kill her in an instant. He never wanted to put her in harm’s way again, let alone directly from his murderous hands. All of that had to be properly discussed, rationally, and understood before he could act on his desires.

 

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