by Nancy Bush
“And have you suffer?” She smiled. “Never.”
Jesse’s gaze narrowed on her lovely face. The fact that Samuel seemed to get intense enjoyment out of Kelsey’s never-ending twisting of the knife irritated Jesse.
“Get away from me before I do something we’ll both regret,” he warned her.
Amusement flickered in the gray depths of her eyes and twitched at the corners of her mouth. Jesse was intrigued in spite of himself. The creamy whiteness of her skin and the soft scent, the essence of her, filled his mind. Last night’s lovemaking had surprised him; his emotional reaction had surprised him even more.
His gaze dropped involuntarily to her smiling lips. He wanted to kiss her, and he didn’t much care that Samuel would be a witness. As if divining his thoughts, Kelsey suddenly stepped back, gazing at him nervously. The cool, capable woman who’d shot Captain Randolph in the foot was shaky facing her husband.
“Leave Montana Gray to me.” Samuel interrupted Jesse’s contemplation of his wife. His authoritative tone snapped Jesse back to the matter at hand.
“You think I can’t handle this myself?” he asked in a deceptively soft voice.
Samuel sighed. “Past history would suggest you don’t always make the best choices.”
“Montana’s mine,” was Jesse’s quiet answer, and the way he said it sent a chill down Kelsey’s spine.
“Did Captain Randolph discuss why you’d been brought on board in front of you?” Samuel wanted to know, not in the least disturbed by Jesse’s call to vengeance. “Someone wanted you shanghaied. Someone who bears you a mighty grudge.”
“Montana?” Kelsey inhaled sharply.
“Undoubtedly,” Jesse answered with a frown. He didn’t want to discuss this in front of Kelsey.
“Unless you have other enemies as well,” Samuel added blandly.
“If anyone’s behind my being knocked unconscious and dragged out of Briny’s and onto Randolph’s ship, it’s Montana. Our deal’s done. Montana decided to make himself a full owner in the way he knows best: elimination of his partner.” Jesse smiled coldly. “All I need is a few more days, Samuel.”
“And what about Kelsey?”
“I don’t want her to leave the house.”
“I’m perfectly capable of making my own decisions,” she pointed out tautly.
Jesse sent her a look from beneath his lashes that said quite clearly what he thought of her declaration. Kelsey’s mouth tightened. This from the man she’d practically rescued single-handedly.
“Randolph seemed perfectly willing to exchange me for you,” Samuel said to Jesse, following his own train of thought. “That’s not how Montana would feel.”
Jesse turned toward his brother. “Randolph simply made the best of a bad situation. He’d failed to capture me, so he decided to use you. You were there. You were obviously coming to rescue me, and he couldn’t have you around to raise a hue and cry. Besides, he had a whole voyage ahead of him to come up with a way to explain to Montana why the wrong Danner had been shanghaied.” Jesse turned to Kelsey. “You’re not going anywhere until I’m through with Montana. Understand?”
Kelsey’s eyes flashed fire.
“I’m not through talking about this, Jesse, but”—Samuel glanced from Kelsey’s stubborn face to Jesse’s implacable one—“for now I’ll leave and let you two work things out.”
As soon as he was gone, the temperature in the den seemed to drop ten degrees. Kelsey eyed her husband with mistrust. He’d changed from his soaking wet clothes into a pair of tan buckskin pants and a cotton shirt. The sight of him casually dressed disarmed her, reminding her of the Jesse of her youth. In fact, everything about him disarmed her now, which could be extremely dangerous.
“I think I’ll go change,” she said. The skirt and blouse she’d worn to the pier were still damp.
“Wait.”
Kelsey hesitated at the door, glancing back uncertainly.
“Last night…” he began, a deep frown marring his brow.
She stiffened.
Jesse swept a hand through his hair, his expression inscrutable. “I’d like you to move into my room.”
Oh, Lord. Kelsey drew a strengthening breath. “What makes you think I’d agree to that?”
“Because you enjoyed last night as much as I did.”
Through the east window she could see the sun just cresting the horizon, its ray lightening the dark corners of Jesse’s office a dull gray. “Last night I rescued you from certain death,” she parried softly.
“All right. The night before last. You enjoyed the night before last as much as I did.”
She shook her head mutely.
“You’re such a lovely liar,” he laughed.
“I don’t want to—repeat—what happened between us.”
“I’ve instructed Irma to put your clothes in my closet.”
His audacity sent a flood tide of renewed anger rushing through her veins. “You can take everything I own and put it in your blasted bedroom, but I’m not going to be there!”
He sobered, drawing a breath that must have caused him some pain because air hissed through his teeth and he froze. “We’ll move you in tomorrow. Tonight—today—” he corrected himself. “We both need some sleep.” When she didn’t answer, he added softly, “It’s only for a few more days.”
“Why are you doing this, Jesse?” Kelsey asked. “We’ll be free of each other soon enough.”
He didn’t answer and Kelsey resisted the sudden wild desire to press herself against him and beg him to reconsider the ending of their marriage. She didn’t want to leave him. She didn’t want to lose him. But she had to remind herself that he didn’t belong to her and never would.
“Any husband who leaves his wife’s bed to go to a whore doesn’t deserve even a kind word,” she told him in an effort to work up some anger.
“I did not go to a whore last night, nor on our wedding night, nor any other night since we’ve been married. Neither have I been with Lila Gray. In fact, since our wedding I’ve been completely celibate—except with you.”
Kelsey’s breath quickened. She didn’t want to believe him, but she knew he was telling the truth. And that made him all the more appealing. “I’ll—see you later.”
“Yes,” he agreed softly, “you will.”
Chapter Sixteen
Kelsey awakened late in the afternoon following Jesse’s ultimatum to move into his bedroom. Her husband, she was told by Irma, was waiting for her in the den. Curious, Kelsey dressed and headed downstairs, her heart fluttering with both anticipation and dread. But instead of bringing up their parting conversation, Jesse launched directly into the rules of the house, the main one being that she could not leave without an escort.
It was too dangerous, he told her. He was certain Montana was behind his abduction, and he didn’t want the same to happen to her. For the next few days she would have to do as he said.
He was reasonable, concerned, and completely detached. Kelsey could scarcely believe this was the same man who’d warned her in his husky voice that he wanted to make love to her.
She determined to ignore his orders entirely, especially when Lila Gray showed up on the doorstep that evening, white-faced and trembling, only to cry out with relief and fling herself in Jesse’s arms when she realized he was alive and well. Kelsey, unable to bear this particular scene, had climbed the stairs on leaden feet, locking her door behind her.
Unfortunately, in the intermittent hours, Irma had dutifully moved her belongings to Jesse’s bedroom. The canopied bed, however, still resided in the center of the room. It seemed to mock her efforts, but Kelsey was too tired and hurt and discouraged to go back downstairs and try to work things out with Jesse. She decided, instead, that she would sleep in her clothes rather than step one foot inside her husband’s room.
If he wanted her, he’d have to come get her.
¤ ¤ ¤
“The Lady Leanna’s still in port,” Samuel told Jesse quietly when he�
�d closed the double doors to the den behind him. “It appears Captain Randolph suffered a gunshot wound last night and is missing several toes.”
Jesse, who’d spent the day in a black mood, couldn’t help smiling at his wife’s handiwork. “Lila was here. When she saw me, she acted as if she’d seen a ghost.”
“Gray won’t stop,” Samuel said soberly. “You know that.”
“All I need is a little more time.”
“You’ll get yourself killed, and Kelsey too!”
Jesse paced the confines of the room, sick with worry himself. The papers were filed on his new shipping business with Montana. The money was being transferred. “Gray’s mortgaged his house for this. He’s sunk his entire fortune into this venture.”
“And so have you!” Samuel reminded him furiously. “You’re waiting for the right time to steal him blind; meanwhile he’s planning to murder you to control the whole company. It’s a deadly game of who will slit whose throat first!”
“I’m not planning to steal him blind, or slit his throat,” Jesse argued mildly.
“What the hell are you planning?”
“As soon as the money’s been used to buy lumber, and the warehouse, and ships to be refurbished, I’m going to burn it all down. It’ll happen before Montana can even consider insurance.”
Samuel gasped at him. “You’re going to destroy everything? Jesse, you’ll ruin yourself. You’ll be penniless and you’ll have the law on your neck. Montana will know it was you. You’ll go to prison.
“All you have to do is keep Kelsey safe,” Jesse replied as if he hadn’t heard a word his brother had uttered. “Zeke’s got his own funds, and I’ve set aside some for Kelsey. I want a week, Samuel. And then Montana Gray and his whole network of thugs’ll come crashing down.”
“You’re a bloodthirsty fool,” Samuel said angrily.
“Do I have your word?”
“Yes!” he hissed, striding from the room as if he couldn’t stand the sight of his brother.
¤ ¤ ¤
The light rap on her bedroom door sent Kelsey shooting off the bed. Jesse opened her door and switched on the light, eyeing her rumpled skirts and hair with something akin to amusement. Kelsey planted herself in the center of her room, hiding her fears and misgivings behind a frigid demeanor and furious glare.
“If you could patent that look, you’d be the richest woman this side of the Atlantic, because every man in the country who could still take a breath would pay you to keep it to yourself!”
“What do you mean?” she asked warily.
“I mean you’re about as approachable as a rattler and just as warm and loving.” He inclined his head toward the hall. “The door to my room’s that way.”
She carefully crossed her arms over her chest, and had Jesse not noticed the way those arms trembled slightly, he would have bodily thrown her over his shoulder and carried her to his bed out of sheer frustration. But that tremor was telling.
“I’m quite aware of the direction of the door. But I’m not walking past it.”
“Don’t fight me, Kelsey. Not tonight.”
“Jesse, you’re not well enough to—”
“To?” he demanded, crossing the distance between them and gently clasping her arm.
“You’ve got a cut above your eye and I know your ribs hurt you. You need sleep. Rest,” she amended hurriedly. “You don’t need me.”
“You’re exactly what I need,” he said in a low voice that sent frissons of awareness down her spine.
“I won’t give in this time, Jesse. I mean it.”
“Fine.” He expelled an impatient breath. “You’re welcome to come play this game if it makes you feel better. Lots of women do.”
“You’d be an expert on that, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes!” She’d made him angry and his gentle persuasion turned to out-and-out force. He grabbed her arms and dragged her across the polished oak floor, her high-button shoes actually sliding across the planks. Kelsey sputtered in outrage. It would have been farcial if she hadn’t been so mad and terror-stricken.
At the door to his room, Kelsey managed to yank herself free. Before she could move a muscle, his hard hands encircled her upper arms, squeezing hard. “Why are you fighting something we both want?”
“I don’t want—”
“The hell you don’t. What happened was good between us. I want you and you want me.”
“There’re only a few days left! You said so yourself! Why do you have to make this so complicated?” Kelsey blasted at him.
Jesse glared at her, his mouth thin. “Because I don’t like anything easy.”
His dark head bent to hers, the kiss hard and full of fierce need. I love you, she thought miserably. And if I don’t stop you now, the hurt will be so much worse later on.
“Jesse, please. Be reasonable,” Kelsey begged, dragging her mouth from the torment of his. “I want to get out of this marriage with some pride left. A few more hours. A few more days. It’s not going to last much longer. Neither one of us wants it to. All right. You win. You’ve got what you want. A society wife and Montana Gray. But you don’t need or want your wife any longer. And she doesn’t need or want you,” she said achingly. “Let’s not make this worse. Please. Please.”
She’d never seen him look so darkly handsome. Perhaps it was the intense way he listened to her, the shadowed depths of his eyes, and the tension of his lips. He didn’t want to hear what she had to say. He didn’t want to admit she was probably right.
“All right,” he said at length, taking Kelsey by surprise.
She nodded, stunned and relieved by his capitulation. When he leaned down for a last kiss, she lifted her mouth willingly, wryly disgusted by the twinge of regret that stabbed through her.
He kissed her lightly, sensuously, his palms cupping her chin like a lover. The sweetness of the kiss arrested Kelsey, and her lips parted beneath the teasing pleasure of his lips. Time spun out. Kelsey’s hand found his nape of its own volition, holding him to her.
When he finally lifted his head, it was to gaze down at her seriously, somberly, and with a smoldering passion she sensed he’d purposely leashed. “Don’t leave the house without me or Samuel,” he told her softly. “Promise.”
Kelsey nodded.
“No, say it. Promise me.”
“I promise not to leave the house without you or Samuel.”
His mouth quirked unhappily. “You can have your divorce in a week’s time.”
¤ ¤ ¤
Three days later the Oregonian reported that Montana Gray had invested a huge amount of his vast fortune in Pacific Shipping Ltd., a partnership venture with Mr. Jesse Danner. Mr. Danner had also invested an exorbitant amount. The news made the society column as well: It was rumored that Mr. Danner had also invested the considerable inheritance his wife, Orchid Simpson, had brought to their marriage.
Kelsey didn’t need to read about it in the paper. Tongues were wagging all over Portland and the men of the Establishment (those that mattered in the city) discussed the unlikely partnership over cards and drinks, while the women of the Establishment (the wives, mistresses, and daughters of those that mattered in the city) gossiped about it at their volunteer meetings, afternoon teas, and even while they promenaded the plaza blocks.
Kelsey slammed the paper down onto her vanity table, annoyed and anxious about this latest article. Her chest tightened at the realization that Jesse had put everything on the line. Every dime he’d scraped together. Everything he owned and cared about. Everything!
Well, almost everything. Her inheritance he’d placed in her very own bank account and given her the passbook. Next week, when they signed their divorce papers, she would be completely independent.
“Are you goin’ to Madame Duprés’s band concert?” Irma asked as she fussed over the gown Kelsey had carelessly tossed across her bed.
“Excuse me?” Kelsey murmured, lost in thought.
“The band concert this afternoon, ma’am.
Right across the way. Four hundred people’s invited into them tables.”
“Four hundred of Lacey Duprés’s closest friends,” Kelsey said wryly. “Yes, I’m going.”
“With Mr. Danner?”
“I think so.”
She had no idea. She wouldn’t even care to attend, except that Agatha had sent a note saying she was looking forward to seeing Kelsey this afternoon and that Madame Duprés had been kind enough to seat them all at the same table.
Madame Duprés, Kelsey thought with an inward snort. Since Kelsey was fully aware that Lacey had used her only as a means to cultivate Agatha’s friendship, she was both amused and irritated by the arrangement. She, too, wanted to see Agatha, and hopefully Charlotte, but did it have to be by Lacey Duprés’s invitation?
And what about Jesse? He didn’t seem the least bit interested in escorting her to Madame Duprés’s outdoor affair; there was no need to keep up social pretenses now. But since he absolutely refused to let her go anywhere by herself, she was stuck unless she could find an escort.
“I wish I could have accepted Agatha’s offer to ride Justice before now,” Kelsey sighed to herself, feeling a bit like a caged animal.
“Ma’am?” Irma was fluffing the pillows on her bed.
“I said I’m dying to get out of the house, with or without Mr. Danner.”
“He’s lookin’ much better, ma’am,” Irma said earnestly.
Kelsey had to fight back a laugh. Irma had been rendered speechless with horror at Jesse’s physical appearance after his escape from the Lady Leanna. His swollen eye had turned horrifying shades of purple and green. Along with the other bruises and cuts, even Jesse’s extraordinary good looks had suffered. Now the bruises were a sickly yellow and the swelling had subsided, but he still moved stiffly. Kelsey was sure he was nursing bruised, if not broken, ribs.
It amazed her he’d even wanted to sleep with her that first night. In any event, he’d certainly left her alone since and now the deal was done, the final ink laid down …