A Taste of Seduction (An Unlikely Husband)
Page 28
She knew that look in his eyes and was grateful it wasn’t meant for her. Jared Crayton would be captured. “You aren’t the only one in search of him. Sally’s uncle is on the hunt as well.”
“Sally’s uncle? What the devil are you talking about?”
With all the goings-on of the past several hours, she’d completely forgotten about the uncle. “I’m sorry. Sally’s uncle visited the duke and demanded to see his son. The man must have made a rather strong impression because a servant arrived at the cottage with money and a note for Jared Crayton to flee immediately.”
Alexander sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Is there anything else you forgot to tell me?”
“Just one more thing. Sally’s uncle is not just any uncle. He’s the stuff of legends.”
Alexander lifted a brow. “Indeed?”
“Sally loved to speak of her mysterious uncle and his gallant adventures.” She lowered her voice. “He’s a pirate.”
“A pirate?”
“Oh, Alexander, why such a sour face? I have it on good authority; the man is a pirate, though not a bad one. He’s what is known as a gentleman pirate.”
“I was not aware there was a difference.”
“Indeed there is.” She pictured a dark and dangerous man with a golden earring and devilish good looks. And politeness, of course. Those looks, according to legend, had stolen women’s hearts from England to the West Indies. “Have you any idea who I’m speaking of?”
Alexander rubbed his jaw and said, “I cannot begin to imagine.”
“His name is Mad Jack.”
“Mad Jack?” He said the name with equal amounts irritation and respect.
“You know of him?”
Pause. “Unfortunately, I do.”
“I thought tales of the man only lived in Amberden. The way Sally spoke of her uncle’s outlandish antics, I often wondered if he could possibly be real or merely the figment of a young girl’s imagination.”
Alexander frowned. “He’s real enough.”
“Truly? You met him?”
Her husband grew distracted at the question, which told Francie he did indeed know the man. But the look on his face suggested he’d rather not offer details.
“Alexander?”
His frown deepened and when he spoke, his voice contained a hint of anger. “I had a run-in with him a few years back over stolen lace and a trunk of gold. My lace and my gold. I lost half a cargo ship to the blasted thief.”
Francie peered into her husband’s eyes. “Oh, Alexander. He didn’t harm you, did he?”
He scowled. “Other than my pride? No, he didn’t harm me. I fared much better than most. We struck a deal; I could keep half of my cargo if I agreed to invest a portion of his ill-gotten wealth for a time when he quit the seas.”
Francie laughed. “Oh, but that’s rich! Mad Jack must be quite a businessman.” How many men could strike business deals with the very person they’d stolen from? “Was he terribly handsome?”
Alexander scowled again. “I assure you, I didn’t notice.”
Perhaps it was best not to discuss the physical attributes of a man who had stolen from her husband. “If legend is true, Mad Jack will do more than speak with him when he catches him.” A smile lit her face. “In fact, he’ll not speak at all.”
Alexander’s gaze darkened as it slid to her lips. “What a splendid idea.”
That look never failed to ignite her insides, making her want him with a deep, endless burn. “What? Not speaking?”
“Exactly.” He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and trailed a finger along her throat.
Francie forgot about Mad Jack and his adventures as Alexander’s hand toyed with the ribbon on her nightgown. She placed her hand atop his. “I need you, Alexander.”
His gaze jumped to hers. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
She shook her head and lifted her hand to caress his cheek, then she sighed and said, “I am most happy, dear husband.”
He undid the ribbon and the gown fell open. Alexander dipped a hand beneath the fabric and cupped a breast. “Why are you happy, dear wife?” he asked as he leaned over and kissed her nipple. His tongue circled until she moaned.
“I’m happy because you saved me. I prayed you would find me, and you did.” She buried her hands in his hair and held him at her breast. “But most of all, I’m happy because you love me.”
Alexander placed a soft kiss between the swell of her breasts and lifted his head to meet her gaze. How could she have ever thought him cold and incapable of emotion?
“I do indeed love you,” he said, “with my whole heart. I shall endeavor to treat you with the love you deserve for the rest of our lives.” He traced her lips with his tongue and whispered, “My one true love.”
And then there were no more words as he proceeded to show her exactly how much he loved her.
Epilogue
“Would you like another strawberry?” Alexander held a plump berry to Francie’s lips. It was late afternoon on a warm summer’s day. They were lounging on a blanket in a secluded area of Drakemoor, under an old elm tree.
“Mmm,” she murmured. “They’re delicious.” She opened her mouth and took a rather large bite. Juice streamed from the corners of her lips and ran down her chin. He reached out and swiped at the juice with his finger. She caught his hand and brought it to her mouth, flicking her tongue over his finger, tasting the sweetness.
Alexander sucked in a breath and pulled his hand away. “If you keep doing that, I shall be forced to summon your aunt and uncle back to Drakemoor at once. Imagine their surprise when they are called from Amberden much earlier than expected?”
“Oh, pooh. You would never do such a thing. Besides, am I not permitted to touch my husband?”
“You are, but if you continue to use your tongue for the touching, I won’t be responsible for my actions.” He tried to force a stern look on her but failed miserably.
Laughter tinkled through her. “Promise?”
“Be serious, Francie.” His silver gaze dropped to her swollen belly. “I would never do anything to hurt you.” He placed a large hand on her protruding middle. “Or the baby,” he finished in a soft voice that shivered through her.
“There’s no need to worry. I’m healthy as a horse.” She touched the dark hair peeking out of his lawn shirt. “And I have a very healthy appetite.”
A shadow of a smile played over his full lips as he turned to her. “You’re a witch.”
She ran her fingers down his shirt to the top of his breeches. “Then let me bewitch you.”
Alexander’s gaze darkened to a smoky gray as he unbuttoned his breeches. After all these months together, when he looked at her like that, it still made her heart skip three beats. She lifted her gown and smiled at the look of surprise on his face when he saw she wore no undergarments.
“You never cease to surprise me,” he ground out as he lay on his back and helped her straddle him.
She sighed as he filled her completely, reveling in the look of pure bliss on her husband’s face. He might sound fierce, but Alexander enjoyed her little surprises. Even anticipated them. And she so loved to surprise him.
“Francie,” he said in a tight voice, “what are you doing to me?”
What was she doing to him? She might ask the same of him. Alexander need only look at her, and her body heated with desire. She craved his touch, his taste, his scent. Good Lord, even the sound of his voice made her insides thrum. She craved every part of the man. The yearning grew as Francie rode him with slow, even strokes, teasing him with her body, tormenting him with her words. “Don’t you like it?”
His nostrils flared. “I like it overmuch. Put an end to this torment. Now.”
She stroked the jagged scar on his face and stopped moving. “Is that a command, husband?”
His gaze narrowed as he reached for her. “A plea,” he murmured, running a finger along her bottom lip. “A heartfelt plea from a thoroughly besotted husb
and in need of his wife.”
For a man unfamiliar with expressing emotion, he was certainly coming along. “Oh, Alexander.”
“You are my heart.”
She quivered, overcome by his words. “I love you.” She began moving over him again, slowly at first, and then quickening her pace until his expression turned dark and desperate. She loved that look. It came over him, right before he—
Alexander grabbed her hips and pumped into her with greedy abandon. Deeper and deeper, he pleasured her until she exploded with a lusty cry and a round of breath-stealing shivers. Alexander followed seconds later, his body tensing as he groaned her name and spilled his seed into her, hot, deep, and complete.
Afterward, they lay in each other’s arms, basking in the warm rays of love and spent passion. It was always like this when they came together, intense and explosive, stealing conscious thought, wiping out everything but that finite moment in each other’s arms.
“Something’s digging into my back,” Alexander said, pulling out a shiny black shoe and dangling it from two fingers. “If I’d left it on, I wouldn’t have this problem.”
Francie laughed. “No. If you hadn’t insisted on setting them beside you in such a neat little pile, you wouldn’t have this problem.” She grabbed his shoe. “If you’d done as I’d suggested in the first place,” she said, tossing the shoe in the grass, “we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”
“Francie! I like to keep things together.”
She rolled her eyes. He really had eased up on his stuffy habits over the past several months. When they strolled on the lawns or picnicked, he left his cravat and jacket at home. And just last week, she’d convinced him to take off his shoes and run his bare feet over the plush grass. Now, if she could only teach him to fling his shoes across the lawn and resist the urge to chase after them, then she’d say they were making real progress.
She sighed and pretended annoyance. She reached behind him, grabbed the other shoe, and flung it in the air.
“Francie!”
She threw him an innocent look. “Now they’re together.”
He started to get up, but she grabbed his hand. “Lie with me. It’s time for the baby’s story.”
Alexander glanced toward his shoes, lying several feet apart. Then he turned to his wife and placed his hand on her belly. “What shall we tell him about today?”
“You mean, what shall we tell her about today,” she corrected.
“Very well.” He kissed the middle of her belly. “Should we tell her about the villain who abducted her mother and found himself captive to one of the most notorious pirates on the sea?”
Francie shook her head. “I don’t think stories of a pirate shipping an earl’s son off to the Americas is what constitutes a fairy tale.”
Alexander rubbed his jaw. “Even if the story is told in all of Amberden?”
“They talk of the man’s private parts being eaten by a school of fish!”
Her husband shrugged. “Perhaps that is a bit harsh. We could tell her of the daring heroics her father employed as he outwitted the woman who was deeply enamored with him.”
Francie rolled her eyes. “She was obsessed with you but enamored with every breathing male.”
“Unfortunately for her, there are no males, breathing or otherwise, in the convent her father sped her off to once he learned of her dalliances.”
“Must I tell our daughter a story today?” Francie sighed her impatience. “You’re much too interested in villains and seductresses.”
Her husband’s lips twitched as they did when he tried to hide a smile. “I think I’ve got it.” He gazed into her eyes and began. “Once upon a time, there was a fiery young maiden who lived in a small village. She was very happy with her tiny cottage and the brilliant flowers that surrounded her. But one day she was taken from her small village and brought to a castle, where an ornery ruler lived. This ornery ruler never laughed and rarely smiled. Until he met the fiery young maiden...”
The End
If you would like to be notified when Mary releases a new book, sign up for her mailing list at http://www.marycampisi.com. Don’t miss A Touch of Seduction: a novella, Book 3 of An Unlikely Husband series, coming February 2014.
If you enjoyed A Taste of Seduction, please consider writing a review on the site where you purchased it. Many thanks!
Copyright 2013 by Mary Campisi
A Taste of Seduction is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and situations are all products of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to real persons, locales, or events, are purely coincidental.
First published 2011 by The Wild Rose Press.
About the Author
Mary Campisi writes emotion-packed books about second chances. Whether contemporary romances, women’s fiction, or Regency historicals, her books all center on belief in the beauty of that second chance.
Mary should have known she’d become a writer when at age thirteen she began changing the ending to all the books she read. It took several years and a number of jobs, including registered nurse, receptionist in a swanky hair salon, accounts payable clerk, and practice manager in an OB/GYN office, for her to rediscover writing. Enter a mouse-less computer, a floppy disk, and a dream large enough to fill a zip drive. The rest of the story lives on in every book she writes.
When she’s not working on her craft or following the lives of five young adult children, Mary’s digging in the dirt with her flowers and herbs, cooking, reading, walking her rescue lab mix, Cooper, or, on the perfect day, riding off into the sunset with her very own hero/husband on his Ultra Limited aka Harley.
Mary has published with Kensington, Carina Press, The Wild Rose Press, and Jocelyn Hollow Romance.
website: www.marycampisi.com
e-mail: mary@marycampisi.com
blog: http://www.marycampisi.com/blog/
twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/MaryCampisi
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marycampisibooks
Other Books by Mary Campisi:
At Amazon:
Contemporary Romance
A Family Affair (Truth in Lies Series-Book One) - link
A Family Affair: Spring (Truth in Lies Series-Book Two) - link
Pulling Home (That Second Chance Series-Book One) - link
The Way They Were (That Second Chance Series-Book Two) - link
Simple Riches (That Second Chance Series-Book Three) - link
Paradise Found (That Second Chance Series-Book Four) - link
Not Your Everyday Housewife (That Second Chance Series-Book Five) - link
The Butterfly Garden (That Second Chance Series-Book Six) November 2013
Pieces of You (The Betrayed Trilogy-Book One) - link
Secrets of You (The Betrayed Trilogy-Book Two) - link
What’s Left of Her: a novella (The Betrayed Trilogy-Book Three) - link
Begin Again: Short stories from the heart - link
The Sweetest Deal - link
Regency Historical
The Redemption of Madeline Munrove (The Model Wife Series-Book One) - link
The Seduction of Sophie Seacrest (An Unlikely Husband Series-Book One) - link
A Taste of Seduction (An Unlikely Husband Series-Book Two) Coming November 2013
A Touch of Seduction (An Unlikely Husband Series-Book Three) Coming February 2014
Innocent Betrayal - link
Young Adult
Pretending Normal - link
At Barnes and Noble:
Contemporary Romance
A Family Affair (Truth in Lies Series-Book One) - link
A Family Affair: Spring (Truth in Lies Series-Book Two) - link
Pulling Home (That Second Chance Series-Book One) - link
The Way They Were (That Second Chance Series-Book Two) - link
Simple Riches (That Second Chance Series-Book Three) - link
Paradise Found (That Second Chance Series-Book Four) - link
Not Your Everyday
Housewife (That Second Chance Series-Book Five) - link
The Butterfly Garden (That Second Chance Series-Book Six) November 2013
Pieces of You (The Betrayed Trilogy Book One) - link
Secrets of You (The Betrayed Trilogy-Book Two) - link
What’s Left of Her: a novella (The Betrayed Trilogy-Book Three) - link
Begin Again: Short stories from the heart - link
The Sweetest Deal - link
Regency Historical
The Redemption of Madeline Munrove (The Model Wife Series-Book One) - link
The Seduction of Sophie Seacrest (An Unlikely Husband Series-Book One) - link
A Taste of Seduction (An Unlikely Husband Series-Book Two) Coming November 2013
A Touch of Seduction (An Unlikely Husband Series-Book Three) Coming February 2014
Innocent Betrayal link
Young Adult
Pretending Normal - link
At iTunes:
Contemporary Romance
A Family Affair (Truth in Lies Series-Book One)- link
A Family Affair: Spring (Truth in Lies Series-Book Two) link
Pulling Home (That Second Chance Series-Book One) - link
The Way They Were (That Second Chance Series-Book Two) - link
Simple Riches (That Second Chance Series-Book Three) - link
Paradise Found (That Second Chance Series-Book Four) - link
Not Your Everyday Housewife (That Second Chance Series-Book Five) - link
The Butterfly Garden (That Second Chance Series-Book Six) November 2013
Pieces of You (The Betrayed Trilogy Book One) - link
Secrets of You (The Betrayed Trilogy-Book Two) - link
What’s Left of Her: a novella (The Betrayed Trilogy-Book Three) - link
Begin Again: Short stories from the heart - link
The Sweetest Deal - link
Regency Historical
The Redemption of Madeline Munrove (The Model Wife Series-Book One) - link