Captive Pride

by Bobbi Smith

  The sound of the tearing cloth penetrated Noah’s thoughts, and he drew back sharply to look down at the ragged piece of material he clutched in his hand, and then at her. Cecelia Demorest, Noah decided rather distractedly, had a beautiful body. Her hair…her eyes…and, bare for him to see for the first time, her breasts. Pale-hued and pink-crested, they rose and fell with the uneven tenor of her rapid breathing, and Noah could not stop himself from dropping the shred of cloth and reaching out to touch their creamy, hard-tipped perfection.

  CC stood still, watching dazedly as he reached out to touch, ever so lightly, the swelling, taut fullness of her breast before moving to tease the pert, aching peak. The thrill of those practiced fingers caressing her most sensitive flesh was so unbearably erotic that CC felt her knees weaken, and she began to shiver. It was only with the sound of a low moan, one she realized later had come from her own throat, that reality intruded. Jerking quickly away from his questing, arousing touch, she desperately attempted to cover herself with the frayed material.

  “No! Get away from me, Kincade!”

  Noah, not used to being denied, was not about to let her put him off. She had been playing with fire, and it was time she learned that he was the one in control.

  “Oh no, my little hellcat….” He leered at her appreciatively as he took hold of her shoulders, and the shirt once again gaped open. With slow, torturing precision, he drew her inexorably to him. “You started this, and by God, you’re going to finish it!”

  “I hate you!”

  “I know.” His mouth curved in an almost demonic slant as he bent to her. “You’ve hated me from the first….”

  Why not? Noah thought as the need for release pulsed hungrily within him. Obviously the chit had the morals of a streetwalker if she was dressing up like a boy and involving herself in such volatile, masculine matters as the political underground. Noah felt certain he wouldn’t be the first to taste of her lovely charms, and he knew he surely wouldn’t be the last.

  Crushing her to his chest, he kissed her hungrily. He wanted a woman, she was there, and despite her protests, Noah could tell by the response of her body that she was not as averse to his touch as she wanted him to believe.

  CC was scared, more scared than she’d ever been in her life. Kincade’s hands were everywhere, touching, probing, exploring, and yet all the while preventing her from escaping his dastardly clutches. Her breasts, bare and sensitive, were throbbing as his fingers worked their magic on their pink crests. When his mouth left hers, moving lower to suckle one hardened peak, her legs buckled. Only Noah’s strong arm about her waist supported her, and she was unable to fight…unable to flee. She was mindless in her need. Never before had a man touched her so, and never in her wildest dreams had she ever considered that a man’s caress could bring such physical ecstasy.

  As his lips and tongue continued their mesmerizing play, Noah slipped one hand lower to cover the sweetness of her heat. Suddenly he wanted more from CC than just to ease his manly need in the depths of her body. She was a flame of excitement to him…the feel of her…the scent of her. His senses were enraptured by her nearness. The desire for a passionate union with this woman surged through him, and Noah knew he would settle for no less.

  CC didn’t understand exactly what was happening to her, but the languid weakness that had spread through her at the touch of his lips on her breast became now a driving force, urging her to move against the hand he pressed so tightly, so intimately to her most secret places. Noah accommodated CC’s movements, matching the thrusting of her hips to massage her expertly to heights she’d never known existed. He wanted to please her and to show her the ecstasy only his touch could give.

  Hands that had fought him earlier gripped his shoulders now in rapturous desperation…wanting…needing…craving. CC’s breathing was strained, panting as her body responded wantonly to Noah. When he moved to kiss her again, bringing her hips full against the hardness of him, a rainbow of rapture shot through her at the alien contact that suddenly seemed so right. He held her hips pinioned to his, letting her move against him in feverish rhythm until she crested the peak her body had instinctively known would come. Shudders of spendor wracked her slim form as she collapsed in his arms, her head thrown back in sated ecstasy, her eyes closed, savoring the delights her body had just revealed to her.

  It pleased Noah to find that she was so responsive to him and that he could pleasure her so easily, and he laughed softly as he held her cradled victoriously against the hardness of his chest.

  It was that arrogant, deep-throated chuckle as his lips sought once again the soft flesh of her exposed throat that jarred her back to reality. CC blinked in shocked realization of what she’d done. She had allowed him liberties she’d never allowed another, and now he was laughing!

  “Now, love, you shall know true satisfaction,” Noah was saying as he started to strip her pants from her in preparation of introducing her to the joy of love’s completeness. He was caught totally by surprise when CC let out a high-pitched shriek of indignity and pushed away from him full-force. Stunned to find herself out of his restrictive embrace, she backed nervously away from him.

  “How dare you? You are more vile than I ever dreamed!” she cried, clutching her arms about herself protectively as she stared up at him with wide, terror-filled eyes.

  How could this have happened to her? Somehow she had to get away! She had to!

  Noah loomed threatening above her, his face dark with anger, his eyes narrowed and glittering. “So it’s a tease you are, is it?” he thundered, not willing to let it end so easily between them. His body was on fire with desire for her, and he had no intention of letting her flee from him. He reached out to her, wanting to finish what they’d started.

  CC backed desperately away from him, but she found herself pinned against the wall of the stable. He moved forward, his expression so ominous that she knew there would be no escaping his wrath. She thought about running, but he was blocking her only path of escape.

  “No…” She held up one hand to ward him off, turning her head against the sight of him, so tall and dark and foreboding.

  “Oh yes, my little hellcat. Even a tease has to pay the price sometime, and your time is now.” Noah’s tone was unyielding, as were his hands as he reached out and grasped her by her upper arms. The sweetness of the moment was gone. Before she could protest again, his mouth swooped down to cover hers as his hands slipped within the waistband of her trousers to touch the womanly core of her that he so longed to penetrate.

  Only the sound of the door to the meeting room opening and low, muffled voices coming their way saved CC from Noah’s full possession. Hearing the others coming, Noah gave a growl of complete frustration and released her abruptly, stepping away. He eyed her disdainfully as he straightened his clothing with a casual nonchalance.

  “I would suggest you cover yourself or leave,” he advised dispassionately. “Unless, that is, your friends are used to your doing this. In fact,” he added in a low tone, “if you wish, you may come to my room at the Red Lion Inn later. Then we can see this to a proper end.”

  “How dare you?” She gasped at his words and struck out at him with all her might, the sound of her hand connecting with his cheek rending the night.

  “This is not the end, CC. Not by any means.” His expression carefully blank, Noah stared down at her for a brief moment before turning away and walking off into the stable to meet the men who were coming for him.

  Numbly unaware of the compromising danger of her situation, CC stood stock-still staring after him as he disappeared into the building. When he’d gone from sight, the harsh truth of the moment assailed her. She knew she had to get home, and get home fast, by the darkest, most out-of-the-way route possible.

  Clutching her shirt across her bosom, CC ran from the scene. She was scared, but that was not the overriding emotion that was driving her as she skirted the more populated areas of town and stayed hidden deep in the shadowy cover of th
e night. No, hatred for Lord Noah Kincade was the fuel that was guiding her flight homeward. It was a hatred that burned so fiercely it left her wondering if she would ever be able to look at him again without wanting to wreak very real vengeance upon his person.

  Gasping for breath, she finally reached the haven of her tree, and with her last ounce of energy, she climbed it’s protective branches to the safety of her own bedroom. Secure within the protective surroundings of her own locked chamber, she moved unsteadily to her four-poster bed and collapsed weakly across it.

  Her heart pounding, CC lay panting upon the softness of the counterpane. As she stared up at the ceiling, her thoughts were of Kincade, and Kincade only. She despised him. He was everything she’d thought he was and worse! And to think that he had the gall to suggest she come to his room later! The thought embarrassed her, and she rolled quickly over to hide her burning face against the coolness of the covers. Still, the despicable visions of his unwanted kiss and touch would not be so easily dismissed, and a shudder wracked her as she remembered in humiliation the way her body had responded to him.

  The memory of the ecstasy she’d experienced at his hands troubled CC, and she drew a long, ragged breath as she thought of all that had happened. How could she have done it? How could she have sought his touch so eagerly when he’d brought her full against him? CC blushed as she remembered how she was all but climbing all over his lean, hard frame. A dull, hungry ache started anew within the heart of her as she recalled the heat of his mouth upon her breast and the taste of his passion-inducing kisses, and, frowning, she timidly touched herself. CC gasped at the sensation that shot through her and gritted her teeth as she climbed off the bed. What had that fiend done to her? She had never felt this way before, and it was all his fault!

  Her distress evident in her actions, she viciously stripped off the boy’s clothing and poured herself a bowl of cold water at her washstand. Vigorously she scrubbed every inch of her body, wanting to erase his scent from her skin, but even as she washed, thoughts of the way her breasts responded to him haunted her, and she threw the damp wash-cloth across the room with violent force.

  “Damn him!” she uttered in frustration. Why couldn’t she put the memory of him from her mind? He had used her…abused her….

  CC stormed to her armoire and rummaged through, looking for her nightdress. Finally locating the soft, filmy garment, she tugged it on impatiently, trying to ignore how sensitive her nipples were now to the material’s silken caress. Bundling up her boy’s things, she hid them carefully again in the back of her wardrobe.

  After climbing back into bed, CC curled on her side and tried to rest, but sleep would not come. Instead, her exhausted mind replayed again and again her degrading, outrageous encounter with Kincade. She had been helpless against his formidable charms, and she was devastated by the realization. He had manipulated her body just as he manipulated people. Though CC forced herself to acknowledge that she had responded to his touch, she vowed never to allow him near her again. She would see him Friday night only because circumstances forced her to, and after that he could fall off the ends of the Earth, for all she cared. She hated him. She despised him.

  CC wondered for only a brief instant if there was any possible way she could use her knowledge of his activities against him, but she knew the answer even as she thought about it. There was no way she could confess to her father the truth of his double-dealings without revealing to him her own involvement. Caught in a web of intrigue, she knew she had to remain silent.

  Clutching her pillow to her breast, CC hugged it tightly and sighed. If she could just make it through the ball Friday night, she would probably never have to see Lord Noah Kincade again. Yawning, she closed her eyes and, after lying quietly for a long time, finally drifted off into a deep, dreamless sleep.

  It was late, well after midnight, and Noah was frustrated in more ways than one as he sat alone in the taproom of the Red Lion Inn. Signaling Polly to bring him another tankard of ale, he accepted the mug of brew and was grateful when, after tossing her a coin in payment, she moved off to tend to her other duties, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

  Nothing had gone as he’d expected this evening. He had thought that his offer of arms would be snatched up eagerly by the insurgents, but they had hedged on making a firm commitment to him. He was now being forced to cool his heels while they bickered among themselves. He’d returned to the inn then, temporarily thwarted, but confident of ultimate success.

  He held out small hope that Cecelia Demorest would be eagerly awaiting him in his bed, and he stifled a sardonic chuckle as he thought of her reaction to his advances. Her display of “maidenly” nervousness had not amused him and certainly hadn’t convinced him of her innocence. No, CC was definitely not the sweet little virgin her outraged actions would lead a lesser mortal to believe. She had definitely known what she was doing with that lovely body of hers, and he wondered just how she would react when they came face-to-face Friday night at the ball. His own body tensed in remembered excitement as he saw in his mind’s eyes her naked beauty, and Noah knew that there was still much unfinished between them. Friday night was definitely going to prove an interesting evening.

  For a brief instant, Noah worried that CC might betray his business maneuverings to her father, but he knew she would keep silent. In betraying him, she would have to explain how she came about her knowledge of his activities, and there would be no way she could do it without revealing her own unsavory connections. Satisfied that he was safe from interference by agents of the Crown, he finished off his brew and headed for the stairs, intending to retire.

  The light shining from under his bedroom door brought him up sharply in the hall, and Noah frowned. Had CC come to him? His breath quickened at the thought, but as he opened the door his excitement rapidly died. He had forgotten. Matthew was waiting for him.

  “Well?” Matt stood as Noah entered the room, and he watched him expectantly. “What happened?”

  “Nothing.” Noah was tired and in need of sleep and had no desire to discuss the meeting.

  “Nothing?” He glanced at him in disbelief. “You’ve been gone all this time and you’re trying to tell me nothing happened?”

  “That’s right. I made my offer, and the man I’m dealing with said that they needed to think it over…that they’d be in touch.”

  “It’s not too late to change your mind, you know,” he prompted. “There’s no reason why you have to be involved in the dirty side of things.”

  Noah’s face was blank as he stared at his brother. “I’m not involved in anything. I’m merely trying to arrange a business transaction, and frankly, Matt, I’m not in the mood to debate the issue with you.”

  “Then I’ll say good night,” Matt told him tersely as he made his exit. “I hope you sleep well.”

  Though Matt meant his comment as a subtle curse in reference to the arms deal, Noah knew he wouldn’t be sleeping well; and it wouldn’t be because of the damned war supplies. He would find no rest this night, because the fire the damned Demorest vixen had stirred in his loins refused to abate. Every time he thought he had his desire under control, the memory of her luscious nakedness and wanton response to his lovemaking sent a shaft of pure excitement through him. Yes, he thought with some agony as he stretched out on the bed, he and Miss Demorest definitely had some unfinished business.

  “Sir?” The woman’s soft call penetrated Noah’s thoughts and he rose quickly to open the door.

  “Polly?” Noah was surprised by her presence.

  Polly had sensed his need to be left alone when he was downstairs in the taproom, but her desire for another taste of his passionate possession had driven her to approach him.

  “I was hoping you might be wanting me….” She was not quite as brazen as she had been the other night, for he had made no move to encourage her when she’d waited on him downstairs.

  Noah stared down at her, taking in her warm expression and the supple curves of her
rounded figure.

  “Oh yes, Polly. I’m wanting you….” he growled as he drew her into the room.

  Polly was thrilled to know that he did, and she wasted no time in coyness, quickly divesting herself of her restrictive garments.

  “I’m glad I came to you.” She smiled at him invitingly when at last she stood before him in all her glory.

  “So am I,” Noah admitted as he led her to the bed and followed her down upon its softness. “So am I.”

  Chapter Six

  Matthew wanted to sleep. He did not want to lie there alone in the darkness of his room, tense and miserable, dwelling on the chasm that had developed between him and Noah. Yet no matter how he turned and tossed, the peace and forgetfulness of rest would not come.

  It was very late, nearly three in the morning, when he finally gave up the struggle. He found his rented quarters stifling and knew a need to get away from the confining closeness. Rising, he pulled on his clothing, took up his tricorn, and strode impatiently from the room.

  The taproom below was empty, and only the soft glow of a single lamp lit Matt’s passage as he left behind the safety of the inn. Outside, the city seemed quiet, and the narrow, deeply shadowed streets were deserted. In the distance, a lone church bell hollowly rang out confirmation of the lateness of the hour.

  Matt paused and drew a deep, invigorating breath of the fresh night air before starting off. He had no idea where he was bound. He only knew that he needed to walk to rid himself of the agitation that was disturbing him. Hands thrust deep in his pockets, dark head down, he strode briskly through the maze of winding thoroughfares, paying little attention to direction or purpose.

  The scream, when it came, was blood-chilling. Matt stopped dead in his tracks, looking around himself with awareness for the first time since he’d left the inn. The deep, rumbling sound of drunken male voices came to him, and he glanced about trying to ascertain from which direction they’d come. Finally, pinning down the source of the ruckus, Matt sprinted quickly in that direction.