Mishap Marriage

by Helen Dickson

  ‘You are competent in the water,’ he remarked. ‘Do you often come down here?’

  ‘Every day. I come here to swim and to cool off.’

  ‘And, I suspect, to escape your sister-in-law.’

  She laughed. ‘Something like that. I look on the creek as my own special place. It’s private, so I have it all to myself—although today is an exception.’

  ‘Do you mind? It wasn’t my intention to intrude. When I arrived at the house, your sister-in-law informed me your brother had been delayed. You were just disappearing into the trees and she suggested I might like to walk with you. I wanted to see you anyway—as I said, to apologise.’

  Shona scrambled to her feet. ‘There really was no need.’

  Zack stood up and stepped towards her and as she turned to retrieve her dress, he caught her arm and turned her back to face him. ‘Yes, there was.’ His other hand rose and he gently took hold of her chin. ‘I couldn’t leave things as they were.’ Releasing her chin, he dropped his arm, his fingers, just like last night, unintentionally brushing her breast. He was instantly aware of the contact. And so was she.

  It was an intense moment for Shona. Her breath caught sharply in her throat. Suddenly he seemed enormous and very near. His powerful body emanated heat, matching the heat that was rising in her cheeks. She attempted to ignore the effect of his unintentional caress. ‘Would you please not touch me?’

  It was a supremely proper response, just the kind Zack would expect from a woman of her innocence and reserved manner. But her reticence to let him touch her and the state he was in were like a red rag to a bull. ‘Had I agreed to wed you, Shona, you would have to accept my attentions.’ When she did not move away he lowered his head, his face close and threatening. ‘Shall I show you what you could expect?’

  ‘I’d rather you didn’t,’ she said breathlessly. His suggestive tone made her uncomfortably aware of the raw sensuality emanating from his long, muscular frame outlined in the closely fitted breeches and white shirt, open at the throat. A muscle throbbed in his neck. A shudder ran through her as his gaze moved over her face, lingering on her soft full lips, before dropping to leisurely study the thrusting curves of her breasts beneath the clinging fabric of her petticoat. She was unable to move away as his fingers gently brushed the droplets of water away from her cheek.

  Running his hands gently up her arms, quietly, he said, ‘Come now. A kiss is all I want. I would be as gentle with you as you wish me to be.’

  Shona turned liquid inside at the meaning she read into his words.

  ‘Am I bothering you, Shona?’ he asked in a husky whisper.

  ‘You know you are,’ she murmured before she could stop herself. She heard his satisfied chuckle and turned her head away from him. ‘You’re doing it on purpose and it’s making me nervous.’

  ‘In that case, try to relax.’

  Without giving her time to protest, he lowered his mouth and assaulted her lips with a controlled expertise that left her gasping. It was a warmly seductive, lingering kiss that bestirred some strange, unexplainable pleasure in the pit of her womanly being and sent her vow not to wed Captain Fitzgerald soaring into the wide blue yonder. It was a heady brew that sapped her strength from her limbs and made her head swim and her heart race wildly out of control. When he raised his head, he slipped his arm around her waist and drew her closer still. Again his lips descended to hers. She gave herself up to him, completely abandoned, clinging to him as ivy might cling to oak, and the strength in that hard, lean body gave promise of pleasure she had never imagined.

  Their kiss seemed to go on for ever, became more passionate, arousing Shona’s blood to madness. She was no longer aware of what Zack was doing. It was not until his lips left hers and he buried his head between her breasts that she remembered she was half-naked in his arms. But the sight of her own flesh, rosy in the heat of the sun, still rosier in contrast with the dark hair brushing her face, did not embarrass her in the least. It was as though, from all eternity, she had been created merely to give herself to this man, as though she had been made for him alone.

  Passionately he sought her mouth again and pulled her supple body close to his, arching her slender waist. Shona moaned, a soft moan that was almost a call. She laid her hand against the reassuring strength of his chest and surrendered to delight as his hands caressed her bare shoulders and back, then slid lower, splaying against her spine to force her pliant body into intimate contact with every hard line of his legs and thighs. One hand lifted and curved around her nape, stroking it sensuously. The kiss advanced rapidly, startling her virginal senses as his tongue silkily plied her mouth and greedily consumed the sweetness within.

  Even though she’d only known him for forty-eight hours, Shona wanted this man, this stranger, to make love to her. She wanted it so badly she was shaken and amazed. The feel of him was just as masculine as she expected it to be, iron-hard flesh and sinews beneath his shirt. She had never imagined such a shocking thing could happen in a kiss and didn’t know how to respond, but one thing she did know was that, considering his rejection of her proposal, she must not give him access.

  Drawing back her head, she stared up at him, unable to believe he had dared to do this to her. ‘What are you doing?’

  Zack had the definite impression he had almost lost control of the situation, so soft and warm her lips had felt. ‘Am I to gather you didn’t particularly relish my kiss?’

  ‘I could say it was most illuminating, but I’ve never been kissed exactly like that before.’

  ‘Before I kissed you last night, have you ever been kissed before?’ Zack asked, continuing to hold her within the circle of his arms, reluctant to release her.

  ‘If I were to answer that, I’d be giving away secrets I’d rather not confess.’

  ‘I’d like to be made privy to your most intimate secrets, Shona.’

  ‘Intimate? Is that what you want, Captain, to be intimate with me?’

  Zack wasn’t at all sure he could answer that truthfully without destroying the moment. For her benefit he seemed to ponder her question. ‘Would you like us to become intimate?’

  Shona held his gaze. ‘I think I’m beginning to understand you, Captain Fitzgerald. You want to be intimate with me, but you have no desire to have your freedom curtailed for the rest of your life. So if you are making overtures to me, perhaps you should consider that I will not accept them without a lasting commitment. I do not do things by halves.’

  Zack sighed. ‘I thought you might say that.’

  ‘Disappointed, Captain?’ she asked with feigned concern.

  He looked down at her, his brows drawn together in bemusement. ‘Naturally. You’re too tempting by half,’ he breathed, his voice quite husky now. Bending his head, he claimed her lips once more, drawing her down on to the rocks, where he pulled her hungrily towards him.

  Subdued by the moment, she had neither the desire nor the strength to resist. Unconsciously she had waited all her life for this moment. She gave herself up to him, with complete abandon. Their kiss seemed to go on for ever, became more passionate, arousing her blood to madness. She moaned as with great gentleness he caressed her body, his fingers seeming to hesitate before each new discovery. Then, in joy and wonderment, they closed on each new discovery.

  Her loose hair was a glorious jasmine-perfumed silk tent that covered them both as they kissed. It fell on Zack’s cheeks, his lips and twisted in and out of his fingers. It was the thread that wove them together, that would keep them from ever separating.

  Absorbed in the enchantment of the moment, their ears were deaf to the approach of others into their own private world.

  ‘Good Lord!’ The exclamation exploded the silence of the creek. ‘You blackguard! What the hell do you think you’re doing? Get away from my sister, this instant!’

  Recognising Antony’s vo
ice, supple as an eel, Shona somehow managed to slip out of his arms and scramble to her feet. Zack, uttering a quiet curse, did so at a more leisurely pace. Springing back guiltily from her compromising embrace, Shona turned to see her brother striding towards them. His fists were clenched by his sides, his face darkened to a raging purple. She had to bite her lips to stop herself crying out in horror. Behind him were Carmelita and two of his planter friends with their wives.

  Crimson with shame, she drew back. She went cold and her throat tightened convulsively. Her disgrace was total. To have her virtue questioned before the elite ranks of Santamaria society was nearly as damning as if she had paraded naked through the town. To find herself half-naked before her neighbours, whose eyes fastened upon her greedily, their faces expectant... She reached for her dress and held it to her in an attempt to maintain her modesty. She heard the captain curse under his breath, but she was too numb to do likewise, even if she had known the proper words.

  Antony stared at his sister’s scantily clad form in icy stillness—silent accusation that promised there would be consequences later. ‘Just look at you. Have you no shame? Return to the house at once, where I will decide how to deal with this.’ He turned to his friends. ‘I owe you an apology. I invited you down here to introduce you to Captain Fitzgerald. What we saw speaks for itself. However, I ask for your discretion and hope you will have the goodness to overlook the unfortunate incident. Please—will you excuse us and return to the house where you will be served refreshments. I will be up shortly.’

  Both gentlemen bowed, politely enough, but stiff with reproach, and turned and walked side by side back along the path, the ladies with their heads close together quietly discussing what had transpired.

  Antony turned his fury on Captain Fitzgerald. ‘Damnation, sir, what do you mean by this? How dare you make a move like that on my sister! What do you think this house is? A brothel?’

  ‘That is exactly what he must think,’ Carmelita sneered with her harsh Spanish accent. ‘Although I must congratulate you, Shona,’ she said, looking at her sister-in-law, who chose to disobey her brother’s order to return to the house. ‘If you set out to seduce him, then what we have just witnessed confirms that you have succeeded admirably.’

  In a few seconds the captain’s face expressed first stupefaction, then fury as the full meaning of her words sank in, then a look of implacable contempt transformed his features. Although she was quaking inside, Shona remained where she was and faced him with outward calm. His eyes remained riveted on her. Those eyes of his, which only moments before had been soft with passion, were as hard as iron as they stared into hers. They raked Shona’s stricken face and she watched in agony as they registered first disbelief, and then a terrible anger—anger so deep that all the muscles in his face tightened into a mask of cold rage. She stood there, irate, guilty and confused, as his fury exploded around her.

  ‘You planned this!’ he hissed, his eyes turning to shards of ice, and in that moment he was absolutely convinced that Shona McKenzie was the most consummate actress on earth.

  ‘No,’ she cried, stricken that he should think that. His expression was as murderous as his feelings.

  Zack gave her in icy look, unable to disprove her contention that she had deliberately set out to deceive him.

  Shona sensed his desire to disbelieve anything she said. She was daunted by his glacial manner in the midst of his rampaging emotions.

  ‘You’re a liar and an ambitious schemer, a woman who doesn’t set too high a price on her charms. You lured me down here. You had me believing you were not upset by my rejection to your proposal, when all the time you were colluding with your sister-in-law to compromise me. You scheming, manipulative little... Well, whatever you cooked up between you, it won’t work.’

  He spat the words at her and Shona felt an agonising pain stab through her as sharp as a blow from a dagger. The blood left her face and rushed tumultuously to her heart, which seemed to have stopped beating. At this cruel attack she stepped back as if he had hit her. Her courage seemed to have abandoned her. The whole gentle interlude of a moment earlier had turned into a grotesque and humiliating farce. It was no use arguing, she realised, because he was blinded and deafened by fury. She now clearly saw the scene had been deliberately rigged by her sister-in-law, knowing Carmelita’s devious mind had worked to manipulate the situation towards her own gain.

  Desperately she sought something to cling to, some sort of help in her present plight. She felt Carmelita’s sharp eyes watching her, no doubt reassured by the reaction of the people she had assembled for this scene, and Shona had to make superhuman efforts to hide her distress. There was a strange look in Carmelita’s eyes. At first Shona could not read the expression—then, after a moment, she understood...and she was frightened.

  It was a look of triumph.

  Zack turned to Antony, hoping to appeal to his common sense. Instinct told him that he had gone too far and was near to making a deadly enemy of a man who had welcomed him to the island and shown him the hospitality of his house. ‘I think you’re in danger of letting this get out of proportion. All I did was kiss your sister—not an unusual occurrence, considering.’

  Antony bristled. ‘Explain what you mean by that.’

  ‘Considering Miss McKenzie—as you see,’ Zack said, indicating Shona’s absence of apparel with an insolent sweep of his cold eyes, ‘has removed her clothes. I am a hot-blooded male, Mr McKenzie, after all, and she certainly raised no objection to my attentions.’

  ‘That is not good enough.’

  ‘Then what do you want from me?’

  ‘Allow me to tell you what we want,’ Carmelita said, stepping forward, more assertive than her husband. Shona watched her and Captain Fitzgerald try to face each other down—the captain hard and cold and Carmelita aggressive, her eyes bright. Antony looked faintly alarmed and uncomfortable at the way things were going, but he was unable to stop his wife when she argued a matter of principle. ‘We welcomed you to Santamaria and into our home, and in return you have ruined my sister-in-law’s reputation.’

  Zack sounded ready to explode. ‘I did what?’ he grated ominously.

  ‘You followed a respectable young woman down here and tried to seduce her, leaving her open to ridicule and insult.’

  ‘I think you will find she will survive,’ Zack ground out.

  ‘Heaven knows how far it would have gone had we not arrived when we did.’

  ‘You seem to forget, Mrs McKenzie, that you were the one who suggested I follow your sister-in-law down here. I am a man of passion. I allowed my admiration for a pretty girl to carry me away and for that I am regretful.’

  ‘We may be far removed from London, Captain, but the people who live on Santamaria have a moral code, just like everybody else, and you publicly breached that code. Mr Frobisher and Mr Carpenter are two of the most important men on the island. Now their wives have been made privy to what has happened, there will be no stopping the gossip.’

  ‘And those two gentlemen and their wives just happened to come here by chance,’ Zack ground out sarcastically. ‘I am not stupid, Mrs McKenzie, and nor will I be manipulated by a woman who, it is clear to me, rigged the whole thing.’

  Antony’s face went white with fury. ‘Captain Fitzgerald! It is my wife you are speaking to. I do not like your tone, sir. Carmelita is not to blame for your irresponsible behaviour.’

  ‘Your wife cannot be absolved from blame. She knew exactly what you would find when she suggested I come here.’ He eyed Carmelita scathingly. ‘By God, you must be desperate to rid yourself of your sister-in-law to go to such lengths.’

  ‘I am concerned, Captain Fitzgerald,’ she said, glancing at her husband for his complicity. ‘There is bound to be a huge scandal over this and Shona’s marriage prospects reduced to nothing since no decent gentleman will marry her after what you have
done.’

  ‘What my wife says is correct, Captain,’ Antony seconded. ‘You must surely realise that no decent man is going to look at my sister now.’

  ‘If the self-righteous citizens of the island can make a scandal out of something so paltry, they need their minds examined.’

  ‘That is your opinion, Captain,’ Carmelita uttered brusquely, ‘but the fact remains that from this day forward, wherever she goes, scandal will follow her. For that you must pay, and dearly. Therefore, I am sure my husband will agree there is only one solution. You shall not leave this island until you agree to do the right thing by her.’

  Zack could not have been more astonished if a thunderbolt had struck him. The Spanish woman’s imperious tone appeared to be enough to daunt the most vigorous captain. Carmelita McKenzie was certainly no weak-minded woman who sheltered behind her husband, but Zack was not the man to be easily intimidated.

  ‘And that is?’

  ‘If you have any sense of honour, any sense of responsibility, to save her from disgrace you must wed her.’

  With the look of pure bloody-minded rebellion on his face, a nerve jerking in his cheek, Zack was so consumed with fury over the thought of wedding that scheming, deceitful fair-haired witch that he could hardly utter a word. Everything in him rebelled. When he could finally trust himself to speak, his voice erupted like hissing steam. ‘You ask the impossible. There is nothing I must do, Mrs McKenzie.’ Shifting his gaze to Shona, Zack’s eyes swept over her in the most insulting manner, contemptuous of what he was certain she had done. In cold, frigid silence, for an endless moment their gazes locked as they assessed one another.