by Faye Hall
Slowly, he turned to face his daughter, his face one of pure concern.
“My half-brother, George Fanti, followed me from England when I first moved to Australia. When we didn’t immediately find gold in Victoria, he became furious with me, saying it was my fault he was even in this country. He said that if I couldn’t find him and Jack Munroy gold, then they would find their own means to get what they wanted.”
“The stagecoach was George’s idea?”
He nodded. “Jack and I tried to pull out at the last minute, but George beat the hell out of us both and threatened our families. When he shot the boy traveling with the gold, I told him I would take my share and wanted nothing more to do with him or Jack. That’s why I moved up here.”
“I’m confused, Father. If you left them down south, why now is Jack Munroy here in Brandon?” Lotte questioned.
Turning his daughter in the direction of the dancers, David pointed across the crowd of revelers.
“The short, weed of a man with white hair standing near the waiter, the one smoking the pipe, is Devon’s father, Jack Munroy. The tall, large built man beside him with black hair is George Fanti. He is the son of my mother’s second husband. Both men heard talk of my investments here in Brandon and decided they needed to join me here. George needs to ensure the people he’s murdered stay a secret. And Jack… Jack will do whatever George tells him to.”
“But what does all of this have to do with me and Devon?” Lotte asked.
“George wants all the gold that was taken from that stagecoach. He thinks that by marrying his daughter off to Jack’s heir he will get his hands on that third by form of a dowry,” he explained.
Lotte narrowed her stare. “And how does he plan to get your share, Father?”
“I’m the only one who knows the whole truth of what happened that day in Victoria. I’m the only one who can reveal the real monster the townspeople worship as George Fanti.” He looked at his daughter. “He can’t kill me because he knows it will arouse too much suspicion, but neither does he want me alive. If you pursue your relationship with Devon Munroy, Lotte, be warned that you may also provoke the wrath of George Fanti.”
Chapter 5
Devon stood watching Lotte as she worked the crowd. Her father escorted her around to the sons of some of the wealthiest families in Brandon, and at each stop she played her part well. She curtsied like all young women were taught to, she blushed as these men kissed the back of her hand, and she twirled beautifully as they spun her around on the dance floor, their hands holding her far closer than Devon was comfortable seeing.
Though he knew none of these men, Devon hated them all for being able to share with Lotte things he wanted to be only his to sample. After almost an hour, he could take no more. Approaching Lotte as she stood on the side of the dance floor, Devon stopped in front of her.
“I think you’ve paraded yourself around enough for this night, madam.”
Lotte blushed slightly. “Those young men are sons of my father’s business associates. He said it is required of me.”
Devon reached forward, wiping a tendril of hair from her face. “Just because you are required to do it doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
She glanced up at him. “You sound as if you’re jealous, Devon.”
Before he could reply, the young Lord Joyce approached them.
“Miss Higgins, would you honor me with a dance?”
“Miss Higgins is not for your taking tonight, Harry. She’s indulged you slobbering bastards enough tonight.”
Harry Joyce laid his hand on Devon’s forearm. “I don’t think you’re in any position to say who the young lady can or can’t entertain.”
Devon shook off the other man’s hand. “You touch me again, Harry, and you won’t be in any position to entertain any woman…ever.”
Lotte stepped forward, intervening between the two men. “I’m not a bone to squabble over! I will entertain whom I wish.”
“So choose,” Harry demanded of her.
Just then, Patrick Higgins approached his sister. “Are these men bothering you, Lotte?”
Leaving the two men, Lotte laced her arm around her brother’s. “It seems these men think I’m some piece of meat to be fought over.”
“I can have them taken care of,” Patrick replied.
Lotte shook her head. “No need, brother. If these men really care for me, they will find me.”
* * * *
Devon watched Lotte as she moved with her brother across the dance floor and to the crowd of young men gathered around their father. He watched as she then followed these young men, one by one, out onto the dance floor. He tried to catch her gaze, needing to understand why she had not refused to dance with any of these men, but he couldn’t. It was almost like she was purposefully avoiding him.
Losing sight of her, he searched the dancehall, trying not to appear frantic in his search. Images of her locked in some sordid embrace with one of these other men haunted him as he continued looking.
“Where is she?” Devon demanded as he stopped before Patrick.
Patrick swirled his drink in his glass, his brown eyes narrowing on the taller man before him.
“If you mean your fiancée, Devon—”
Devon’s fingers tightened as he grasped hold of Patrick’s shirt collar. “Don’t play with me.”
Patrick knocked away his hand. “As you’re playing with my sister, Devon? Perhaps before you try to crawl between her thighs you may want to mention you’re an engaged man.”
Frustrated at Patrick’s lack of desire to help him, and the truth behind his caustic remark, Devon stormed away from Lotte’s brother and out of the hall. Though his engagement wasn’t of his choosing, Devon couldn’t ignore the truth in Patrick’s words. He was an engaged man. But it wasn’t his fiancée he desired to hold near to him this night. The woman his body craved to touch was another. That woman was Lotte Higgins.
Leaving the sounds of the crowded dancehall behind him, Devon walked out into the cool night air, needing to clear his head and try to make sense of the confusion filling it. He knew he couldn’t afford to keep following Lotte Higgins around like some love-sick youth, not when he had responsibilities that had to be adhered to. If they weren’t, he could be responsible for endangering the lives of everyone he cared about.
Lifting his hands to his head, Devon ran his fingers through his hair in pure frustration. This wasn’t the life he wanted to live. He didn’t want to be burdened in a loveless marriage of convenience to a woman he barely knew, knowing their relationship was built on little more than money and business agreements. Devon wanted more than this. He wanted to feel love. He wanted to experience unquenchable passion. He wanted Lotte.
His steps taking him further and further away from the noise of the dancehall, Devon’s body still burned for the young woman who had succeeded in giving him the slip. Remembering the waterhole up ahead, he wondered if a quick dip in the cool water may be what he needed to calm the yearnings of his body.
Stopping along the edge of the waterhole near the big old gum tree, Devon’s gaze rested on the stunning figure swimming in the water, his breath catching in his throat, a lust-filled heat shooting through his body, making him ache against the front of his trousers.
“It seems you were not so hard to find after all, madam.”
Chapter 6
“Bloody hell!” Lotte cursed, spinning around in the water to see the man standing behind her. “You scared the death out of me, Devon!”
Devon slid his boots from his feet, chucking them under the branch where her gown hung. His eyes never leaving hers, he removed his jacket and shirt and began unfastening his trousers.
“Does your brother know you’re out here?”
Lotte shook her head. “I doubt it. When I left the hall, he was trying to climb under the skirt of one of the local whores.”
Wearing only his undershorts, Devon began wading into the water. “So why are you out here, Lotte? You
finally get sick of all those men in the dancehall pawing at you?”
She lowered her gaze from his, her stare instead going to the firmness of his naked chest, and the slight trail of hair going down his stomach and to the waistband of his undershorts. Despite her innocence, Lotte wasn’t ignorant to what lay hidden beneath, nor to the hunger burning inside her belly at the thought of seeing him, feeling him.
“I told you I’m required to dance with those men,” she uttered, struggling to regain her composure.
Devon sank chest deep into the water and waded toward her. “Did you enjoy it, Lotte? Having them paw at you, their hands touching you? I heard you giggle as they spoke to you. Did they perhaps beg to share indecent pleasures with you?”
Lotte couldn’t answer him, she was so in awe of the figure of a man who had now stopped mere inches from her. She knew that he deserved some kind of a response to her behavior that evening.
“Why did you not ask me to dance, Devon?” she finally asked, her hand nervously resting on his bare chest.
She felt his sudden intake of breath as his hand came up and settled over her own.
“Lotte.” He gasped.
She neared herself to him, her thinly covered breasts now resting against his bare chest. Leaning into him, her lips were barely a breath away.
“Why did you not come to me in that hall and demand those men leave me be? Did you perhaps like seeing me with all those men? Is that why you’re here now? Do you like the idea of taking something that isn’t yours?”
His fingers gripped firmly in her dampened, loose hair, pulling her face back away from his. “I couldn’t go to you and risk shaming you in front of your family. But it killed me to see you with those men, to see them touching you, to see you allowing it.”
Lotte felt his lips touch hers. Her heart skipped a beat and her breath caught in her throat. Slowly, he withdrew from her, his fingers loosening in her hair, his other hand coming to rest on the curve of her bottom.
“I don’t want you going to those other men in there, Lotte. You are not for their taking, not anymore. I want you to be mine, to be only mine.”
Silence surrounded them, his words lingering on the cool night air that lay between them. Never before had Lotte been with any man, nor could she have imagined ever being this close to any man as handsome as Devon Munroy. That he was here now with her, begging for her affections, brought forth nervousness like she’d never known.
“Devon… I-I…”
Feeling his lips caressing her neck, her words trailed off, her fingers going to his shoulders, her fingernails piercing his tanned skin. His strong hands held her to him, one now stroking the softness beneath her rear, the other on the small of her back, pressing her softness against his own hard form.
Feeling his embrace lowering to her breast, Lotte gathered all her strength and pushed him away from her.
The pair stood there silent, each studying the other. Lotte knew she should ask him to leave, still she couldn’t. Closing the distance between them, she kissed his chest, her tongue tasting the masculine saltiness of his smooth skin mixed with the freshness of the waterhole. She felt his hands on her arms, unsure if he were holding her to him or readying to push her away. Lifting her face to his, her lips gently tasted his, her tongue brushing against him.
Devon pushed her away, his gaze studying the clear blue of her eyes. Reaching out to her, his fingers ran down her neck to where the straps of her wet chemise sat on her shoulders. Slowly, he lowered them down her arms, revealing her naked breasts. Lotte couldn’t stop her sharp intake of breath as his fingertips grazed her already erect nipples.
“You are so beautiful, Lotte.” His words were barely more than a whisper as he lowered her chemise further.
Lotte could hold back no more. Her hands resting on his cheeks, she joined her lips to his hungrily, her tongue begging for entrance, her hands frantically pushing at his undershorts. She felt like a woman possessed, needing something, anything, from this man that might quench the desire growing deep inside of her.
His arms engulfed her, holding her tightly, and Lotte allowed herself to be moved backward through the water until her back pressed hard against the large boulder near the bank of the waterhole.
Devon pulled at her undershorts, trying in vain to lower them down her legs.
“Please, Lotte. Let me touch you,” he begged her.
Her hands joining his, her own undershorts soon joined his on the grass near where the rest of their clothes hung. His hand going to beneath her knee, Devon lifted her leg, her foot resting on his now naked rear. Lotte gasped as she felt his fingers trailing softly along her most intimate, moist self.
“Devon, what are you doing to me?” she gasped as pleasure bolted through her.
He kissed her hungrily as he positioned his swollen manhood near her entrance. “I want to feel you, Lotte. I want to be inside of you.”
She lifted her legs invitingly, resting both of her feet on his rear, pushing him into her. Devon squeezed her hips as he plunged deep inside her, breaking through her purity.
Though she tried to stifle her slight scream of pain, as soon as Devon stopped moving Lotte knew he had heard her. Tears welled in her eyes from both the pain and the uncertainty of what would happen next. Devon’s hands went to her face, wiping back stray tendrils of hair, and he gently kissed away her tears.
“I’m so sorry, honey,” he apologized. “I-I wasn’t thinking.” He kissed the still wet tracks covering her cheeks. “I never wanted to hurt you, Lotte.”
Devon started moving slowly inside her, his eyes never leaving hers. “I will stop if I’ve caused you too much pain, honey.”
Lotte bit her lips nervously. “You’re not hurting me, Devon. You just feel…”
Her words trailed off as another bolt of pleasure shot through her. Feeling him buried deep inside her she gasped with pleasure, pushing her hips back against his own.
Devon’s fingers squeezed her hip near painfully. “Honey, you need to stop doing that.”
She ignored his plea, again pressing herself against him, forcing him yet deeper inside her.
“Please, Devon,” she pleaded with him. “Don’t stop. You feel so, so big. So wonderful…so…”
Pleasure filling her, her feet pushed him against her, her lips caressing his neck, her teeth gently biting him. Never before had she felt such desire as she did for this man. Her nails pierced the skin on his back as she felt wave after wave of unbridled passion crashing around her.
“Please, Devon,” she begged. “Please.”
In the distance, Lotte could hear him begging her to stop, but she couldn’t, wouldn’t. She wanted this man. She wanted more to feel his pleasures inside her. Her own desires calming, Lotte felt the moment Devon surrendered to her, felt him pouring his lust deep inside her, his hands squeezing her hips, holding her to him as if afraid she would leave him.
Their passions sated, they stood in the still cool water of the waterhole, their foreheads resting against each other, their bodies still intimately joined.
“You are beyond beautiful, Lotte.” Devon’s words caressed her as he lightly kissed her lips. “You are more pleasure than any man deserves.”
Lotte returned his kiss. “But I didn’t choose just any man, Devon.”
A low growl escaped him. “I don’t want to leave you, but I fear someone will come looking for us should we not return soon.”
Lotte kissed his neck. “I don’t care who finds us.”
Letting his sated self fall free from her, he stepped back away from her. “But I do, Lotte. I won’t cause you shame all for the sake of my own lust.”
Helping her from the water, he patted her dry with his shirt.
“I want to see you again, Lotte. I want to lay you in my bed and make love to you as you deserve to be.”
Lowering her hand, she placed it on his. “Our families won’t permit us, Devon. You know the past between our fathers.”
Watching her as she
stepped away from him and began to dress, Devon too dried himself and began to replace his clothes. “I don’t care about their past. All I care about is our future.”
Fastening her gown, Lotte turned to him. “Who says we will be allowed any future, Devon?”
Devon’s expression turned serious. “Would you come to me again if I asked it of you? Would you come to my bed?”
Lotte turned away from him. “Could you please check the back of my gown is fastened correctly?”
Going to her, Devon stopped behind her, helping her as she had asked. Finishing her fastenings, he softly kissed her neck. Lotte couldn’t ignore the shudder that went through her.
“Devon, we would have to see each other in secrecy. There would be no other way allowed to us.”
He turned her to face him. “I would rather hold you under a shroud than not at all, Lotte.”
Just then, in the distance, they heard a male voice calling for her.
“It’s my brother,” she uttered, fearful they would be discovered. “He can’t find you here with me.”
Devon wouldn’t leave her though. “I don’t want to leave you, not after everything we’ve just shared.”
Frantic Patrick would stumble upon them, Lotte kissed him hard and fast on the cheek. “I will find you soon.”
She left him then and ran toward the direction she’d heard her brother calling.
“I’m here, Patrick,” Lotte called out to her brother as she emerged from the trees. “Whatever is the trouble?”
Patrick’s annoyance was obvious. “Don’t play coy with me, Lotte. Father has been looking for you everywhere.”
Hearing a rustle in the leaves behind them, Lotte knew she had to divert her brother’s attention.
“Well I’m here now so best I get back before I am missed further,” Lotte said, linking her arm in her brother’s and starting to walk toward the house.