Captive Pride

by Bobbi Smith

  Hearing her promise of “later,” Geoffrey relented. “You know how much I want you, Eve….”

  “I know,” she replied, giving him a sultry smile.

  Thinking he was not going to protest, she started to return to the ballroom and Lord Kincade. However, Geoffrey was not ready to let her go yet, and he reached out to stop her.

  “Did the few private moments we shared at the Randolphs’ ball mean so little to you?” His expression was alive with excitement as he challenged her.

  “Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous,” she purred, giving him further hope that she wanted him as much as he wanted her, while, in truth, she disdained the idea of ever making love to him again. She had her sights set on a man more worthy of her love. In Eve’s mind, Geoffrey was now very definitely a part of her past. “It was a wonderful night….”

  Geoffrey smiled in arrogant male confidence. “I didn’t think you’d forgotten….”

  The night of the Randolphs’ ball, when they had made mad, passionate love on the balcony, had been forever emblazoned on his memory as the most sensual night of his life, and he felt assured that many more like it would follow.

  “As you said, my love.” He ran a caressing hand up her arm. “Later.”

  Eve managed a strained smile as she was forced to return to the ballroom in his company.

  Noah nodded to some inane remark the major had made. He lifted his glass of champagne to his lips and took a deep drink of the heady brew. Though he gave the appearance of listening to Winthrop, his attention was really riveted on CC and John as they moved about the dance floor. The memory of her passionate response to him taunted him, and the narrowing of his eyes as he watched her was the only outward sign of the state of his emotions.

  With iron-willed control, Noah forced himself to look away, and he was pleased to see Eve returning to the ballroom. Though she aroused no great ardor within him, she would provide a diversion from his thoughts of CC. Noah had no desire to become involved with anyone, but he would have no objection to a casual dalliance, should the lovely widow be willing to oblige. Her charms were obvious, and perhaps it was time for him to relax and enjoy life a little more. Certainly he had no pressing financial problems at the moment, and it was just a matter of time before the arms shipment arrived, after which they would be well on their way to rebuilding their lives and their lost fortunes. Greeting Eve with a smile, he invited her to dance.

  CC and John had rejoined a group of their friends after the music had ended, and she was enjoying a glass of champagne when she saw Kincade sweep Eve out onto the dance floor. Irritation surged. She didn’t understand it. She just knew that it aggravated her immensely to see the other woman in his arms. Still, she had to admit that they were perfect for each other. Kincade was an amoral predator, just like Eve.

  Feeling her determination to ignore Noah slipping, CC made a desperate effort to turn her full attention to John. When he suggested they dance again, she agreed almost too eagerly. John was thrilled to think that he was finally making some progress in winning her love, and he gloried in the thought that she was warming to him. Perhaps Eve Woodham’s earlier prodding had made CC realize just how important his feelings for her really were.

  CC’s endeavor to concentrate on John was sharply interrupted when she discovered to her dismay that Noah and Eve had lined up next to them for the dance. Was there no way she could avoid this man? Her gaze seemed drawn magnetically to Noah, and she found him watching her, but his expression was fathomless. Biting her lip, she looked quickly back to John and was glad to find that he hadn’t noticed her discomfiture.

  The music began then. CC found herself dreading the moment when, because he was the gentleman to John’s right, she would have to take Noah’s hand and allow him to escort her through the intricate steps. A cold knot formed in her stomach as she anticipated his touch. Why did his very closeness affect her so? Did the touch of his hand really have the power to stir such dramatic feelings within her?

  A terrible tenseness gripped CC as Noah stepped forward and extended his hand to her. Fighting down the shiver of apprehension that quivered through her, she moved mechanically to slip her hand in his. His hand was warm, enveloping her cold one in a firm, steady grip, and a myriad of electrifying sensations flooded through her at that simple touch. Her heartbeat quickened at his nearness, and as she caught the clean, manly scent of him, CC felt a surge of remembered excitement. Her mind screamed that it couldn’t be so, but her body ignored all her logical protests, responding vitally to just the feel of his hand on hers.

  Noah glanced down at her and a slight smile curved his mouth, almost as if he sensed her distress and found it amusing. His silver gaze raked over her then in a bold assessment. CC’s heart jolted painfully in her breast as his words of the night in the stable echoed menacingly through her thoughts…. Even a tease has to pay the price sometime…. This is not the end, CC…not by any means.

  It was with great relief that she found herself suddenly freed of his overwhelming presence. She continued through the motions of the dance completely unaware of anything save her desire to get away, to escape outside for a moment of peace.

  John, totally ignorant of CC’s distress, was so happy with the way things were going between them that he did not object when she pleaded the need to be alone after the dance had ended. Before she could make her escape, however, Matthew Kincade approached them.

  “Miss Demorest…may I have the honor of the next dance?” Matt invited.

  CC had felt an immediate affinity with Matthew when they’d first been introduced, and she didn’t hesitate to accept. “Of course, Matthew, but only if you agree to call me CC, as all my friends do.”

  “I shall be delighted, CC.” Matt smiled at her.

  “If you’ll excuse me, John?”

  “Of course,” John answered. Earlier, having seen the flash of appreciation in Matthew’s eyes when he’d first met CC, John would have worried at his intent, but now he felt confident enough to give her over to him without hesitation.

  “Have I told you yet how lovely you look this evening?” Matt asked with courtly earnestness as he led her out onto the dance floor.

  “No,” she replied, smiling sweetly, “but I’m more than willing to listen.”

  Matt laughed out loud at her retort, drawing quite a few stares from the other dancers. The women of his social set in England could not hold a candle to CC, he thought with firm conviction. She was fresh and exciting, just like the land in which she lived.

  “Your eyes are like the stars of night, your complexion, silken perfection, you—” he began in lighthearted good humor.

  “Enough!” she protested. “I believe you!”

  “Good, although there’s more if you’d care to hear it,” Matt added in mock confidence.

  “Perhaps later.” CC shot him a teasing look as she followed his lead through the intricate steps and glides of the allemande.

  “Ah, then there will be a ‘later.’…” He gave her the humorously exaggerated look of a hopeful suitor.

  “Are you always this outrageous?” she asked as the dance brought them back together again, and she was surprised when he frowned at her question.

  “I don’t know.” Matt paused for effect before adding with mock seriousness, “Am I being outrageous?”

  “Very.” She smiled widely, enjoying his easy banter.

  “Do you suppose your fiancé will be jealous?”

  “My fiancé?” She was suddenly confused.

  “John…”

  “John’s not my fiancé.”

  “Oh? I was under the impression…” Matt began, and then asked pointedly, “Then you’re not in love with John?”

  “Well, no. Why did you think that?” Admitting her feelings out loud made her understand once and for all that she really didn’t love John.

  “When Noah and I first arrived, you were talking to him about getting married,” Matthew related as the music came to an end, and he offer
ed her his arm.

  CC took it without hesitation and then answered honestly as they walked slowly across the room, “John wishes it were so, but there will be no marriage between us. I won’t marry a man I don’t love.”

  “So you’re a heartless heartbreaker. Are you?” He winked at her audaciously.

  “At twenty-two, I think I’m past the heartbreaker stage,” CC remarked facetiously.

  “You can break my heart anytime.” He said it so gallantly that she laughed.

  It surprised CC to realize that the entire time she’d been dancing with Matthew, she’d hardly given his brother a thought, and she felt more confident than she had all night.

  “I feel in need of a breath of fresh air….” she remarked, not quite ready to return to John.

  “Shall I escort you?” Matt offered willingly. He’d found CC a delightful companion and was in no hurry to leave her, especially since finding out that John Robinson was not her intended.

  “I’d like that,” she told him honestly. “Let’s go out on the patio.”

  They stepped through the French doors and moved out onto the terrace, unaware that Noah was watching them from across the room, his expression fierce and cold.

  Noah was livid. Watching CC laughing and flirting so boldly with Matthew had infuriated him. How dare she lead his brother on so openly! What was she plotting? Matthew was barely out of short pants and hardly her equal when it came to intrigue. Noah knew what kind of woman CC really was, and he wasn’t about to let her take advantage of Matt’s naiveté. Hadn’t he just heard her discussing her upcoming marriage with John? What kind of woman shared heated embraces with him, planned marriage with another, and toyed with a third as the others looked on?

  Noticing that John did not appear upset by her actions, Noah concluded cynically that they definitely had to be in this together. Why else would the man allow his fiancée to flirt with other men and lead them on? John, no doubt, had urged CC to seduce Matthew in order to gain influence over him. Then, once she had Matt within her power, they were going to use him to try to convince Noah to sell the shipment to the rebels at a lower price. The whole scenario certainly made sense to Noah, and his jaw flexed in anger. To think that CC had had the gall to accuse him of being double-dealing! She was nothing more than a conniving witch playing very treacherous games.

  Noah turned and excused himself from Eve, who had been practically clinging to him since they’d danced. Then he started across the room to follow Matt and CC outside. All thoughts of Eve’s seductive ways and the promise in her eyes were banished from his mind as he stalked his prey. Cecelia Demorest was going to learn a very valuable lesson this night. She was going to learn that Kincade men could not be used.

  Light from the interior of the house shone brightly through the French doors and illuminated the terrace and gardens beyond in a dim, golden glow. CC and Matt were standing in the deep shadows near the edge of the terrace, and CC was laughing easily at something witty Matt had said when Noah strode purposefully from the house. He paused for an instant to allow his eyes to adjust to the darkness, and in that moment the lilting sound of her laughter came to him. As he glanced in the direction of her voice, his anger became a scalding fury when he saw CC lay a hand on Matt’s arm in what looked to be a very intimate gesture.

  “Matthew!” He forced himself to keep the anger he was feeling from his tone.

  “Noah?” Matt turned calmly to greet his brother, completely ignorant of his mood. “Come join us. CC and I—”

  “You’re wanted inside, Matthew,” Noah told him conversationally. “I believe Edward had something he wanted to speak with you about.”

  “Oh.” Matt glanced from Noah to CC, but in the semidarkness could read neither’s expression. “Well, CC, if you’ll excuse me?”

  “Of course,” she replied, although she tensed at the thought of being alone with Noah. It was her worst imagining come true, and all her instincts were screaming for her to run from him, as far and as fast as possible. She trembled as she watched Matt disappear back inside the house. “It’s getting slightly chilly. I think I’ll go back in, too.”

  CC started to move past Noah, but he was too fast for her as he grabbed her by her wrist and stopped her flight.

  “Oh no, CC…you aren’t going back inside…not yet.”

  “You lied to Matt….” Her gaze flashed with sudden icy contempt as she recognized his ploy, and her anger overcame her fear.

  “Of course.” His feral smile was fleeting.

  CC stared up at him accusingly, but his features seemed carved in stone as he regarded her expressionlessly. She knew a feeling of very real dread then, for there was something terribly sinister about his manner. She swallowed nervously.

  “What do you want?” CC forced herself to sound more furious than fearful.

  “I think there’s something you need to understand.” He spoke tersely.

  “Oh?” she challenged him with foolhardy disdain.

  “I know what you and your fiancé are up to, and it’s not going to work.” His grip on her wrist tightened threateningly as he thought of her deceitful ways.

  “Let go of me!” CC snapped, tugging against his bruising hold.

  “In my own good time, my dear,” he snarled, looking around the terrace. When he spied the steps that led away from the house, he started toward them, drawing her along with him down the short flight of stairs and into the deep, dark privacy of the gardens.

  Panic seized her.

  “Just what do you think you’re doing?” CC cried as she found herself practically being dragged from the house. “I have no desire to be out here with you!”

  “Would you prefer Matthew? Or perhaps your loving fiancé, John?” he derided hatefully.

  “John is not my fiancé,” she snapped.

  Noah ignored her reply completely as he drew her on down one of the formal walks, and toward the secluded summerhouse near the rear of the garden. Usually CC loved the garden, but on this night the definite chill in the air and the leafless trees and shrubs of late autumn lent it an unnerving eeriness. She began to shiver as he led her onward, the lights of the main house fading in the distance until she was surrounded only by darkness and his overpowering male presence.

  “I said to let me go!” CC dug her heels in and managed to stop his progress for a moment. “I don’t know what it is you want, but you can tell me right here, right now.” Painfully she twisted her arm, trying to free her wrist, but his hand was like a steel band.

  “So your game is to play dumb? It won’t wash,” Noah sneered, turning on her. “I know what you’re up to…the both of you.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” CC seethed, finding his cryptic statement baffling.

  “You know damn good and well what I’m talking about!” There was an ominous edge to his voice that CC had never heard before, and she knew a true moment of fear.

  “Let me go! You’re a madman!” She began to struggle again, trying valiantly to break his grip. “You attacked me the night of the meeting, and now…”

  Noah chuckled then, and it was a very unpleasant sound. “On the contrary, my dear little rebel, as I recall…and believe me, I remember everything about that night…you were the one who attacked me.” The moonlight cast harsh shadows across his taut, angry features. “You’re in too deep, little girl. It’s time you learned that you have to pay the price, if you’re going to involve yourself in men’s affairs.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Noah gazed down at her dispassionately. He found her innocent, terrified look most amusing, and he applauded her thespian skills.

  “You really should take to the London stage,” he told her sarcastically. “Your performance is quite believable, and if I was not aware of your true colors, I just might be convinced by your wide-eyed claim of innocence.”

  “It’s no claim, and I have no idea what you’re babbling about!”

  “You’re boring me with your denials,
wench,” Noah drawled.

  “Why, you!” CC tugged forcefully and managed finally to free her arm from his punishing grasp. “You’re everything I ever thought you were and worse!”

  “Ah, yes. Let’s see, I was either fat and ugly or a ‘mincing fop’…. Wasn’t that it?” His eyes glittered dangerously. “And we both know I’m no fop, don’t we?”

  In a lightning move he crushed her to him, his mouth swooping down with unerring accuracy to possess hers. The kiss was meant to punish. He wanted to show her exactly who was in control.

  Though her arms were trapped between them, CC fought him, pushing with all her strength against the solid wall of his chest. She had been right to be afraid of him, and she should have run from him while she had the chance. What did he think he was doing? And what did he mean by all the mysterious accusations he’d just thrown at her? Her struggles to be free only heightened Noah’s desire to dominate her, and he broke off the chastening kiss to look down at her with hard, cold eyes.

  “Shall we see just how dedicated you are to this cause of yours? Do you do whatever John tells you to do, if it will help achieve your goal?”

  CC stared up at him in horror, trying to grasp what he was saying. “John? I don’t understand….”

  “Then let me make myself a little clearer. There’s no need for you to waste your considerable charms on someone as inexperienced as Matthew when I am more than willing to sample the fare you have to offer.” He bent to capture her lips again, his tongue delving within to duel and master hers in a ravishing exchange.

  With all the strength she could muster, CC broke off the kiss. She raised her hand to strike him, but this time Noah anticipated her move and snared her arm in a viselike hold.

  “I wouldn’t do that ever again if I were you. I might be inclined to hit back.”

  His grip was so fiercely unyielding this time that CC paled and swayed, fearful that the bone might snap.

  “You’re despicable! Let me go! I want to go back inside!” she gasped, tears of pain filling her eyes.