Sham tossed his noble head in irritation at the sight of Landon’s stallion tethered nearby. Nostrils flaring, Sham pranced sideways; Landon’s grip tightened as he spoke in a low, commanding tone to the animal. Sham quieted and returned to a more docile walk. The captain secured the reins around a nearby branch and patted Sham’s neck before turning to approach her.
“Keelan, this is a fine steed but truly not an appropriate mount for a lady.” His voice was even, but she still heard the chastisement in his tone. She stiffened as Landon continued, “I understand you are an accomplished equestrian. However, this stallion requires a rider with strength as well as experience.”
She lifted her chin. “I am quite capable of keeping my seat. So far, this creature has given me no trouble.” Approaching Sham, she caressed his velvety nose. “He has been the perfect gentleman today.” She chanced a sideways glare at the captain. “Unlike some people with whom I am acquainted.”
Landon smiled down at her. “’Twill be interesting to see how well you keep your seat while also trying to maintain control of your garments.” He raised an amused eyebrow while leaning over to glance at the back of her skirt. “Or would you like some assistance to that end?”
She took a deep breath and prepared for more mockery. “I have done the best I can do,” she stated, “but I fear my efforts at tightening these might lead to my further embarrassment if left unaltered.” She hesitantly presented her back to him and peered over her shoulder. “Would you mind…?”
Without hesitation, he nimbly grasped the ribbons. In a matter of seconds, they were deftly tied, neither too loose nor too tight. Slaney could have done no better. It made her wonder, how many times in the past this same opportunity had presented itself to the captain.
“You seem quite good at this,” she quipped.
“Aye,” he said. “But I am much more skilled at removing them.” He reached up and playfully tugged the ties. “Would you care for a demonstration?”
She whirled away from his reach. “Certainly not!” Seeing his amused visage, she fought a sheepish grin, relieved for once that he was teasing her because heaven knows how hard it would be for her to refuse one more advance from him. She fought to regain a more composed countenance. “No doubt, you have much experience to that end.”
He grinned as he untied Sham’s reins. “I never kiss and tell, fair maiden.”
She couldn’t help but roll her eyes in response. She was painfully aware of her tousled appearance, certain she looked nothing like the ladies of the captain’s past.
Landon’s grin faded when he glanced up and scanned the darkening sky. “The other reason I followed you was because I fear a violent storm is approaching. It appears it’ll soon be upon us. If we’re to make it back to Twin Pines before it hits, we should make haste now.”
She followed his gaze and caught her breath at the sight of the purple and green hues coating the sky above them. She hurriedly wrapped her braid into a twist at the nape of her neck, and began to place the pins by feel alone.
“Would you hand me my hat, please?”
Landon shot his head as he retrieved her bonnet. “My dear, the gesture is valiant, indeed. However, I fear the ride and the wind will destroy your efforts.”
He obviously had no idea how precarious her situation now was. It would have been easier to take the admonition from her father and uncle for riding without a chaperone than it would be for arriving home with Captain Hart as her sole escort. Although knowing Doreen, her cousin might have already informed Papa that the two had ridden to the mill together.
She whirled and clenched her teeth, trying to remain composed. “First, I am not your dear. Second, were I to return alone or with a chaperone to the plantation in this disheveled state, my reputation might remain intact.” She lowered her brows at him. “However, returning with you as an escort will certainly tarnish it beyond all hope for repair. My uncle and my father will undoubtedly believe you seduced me with your handsome face and charm.”
She poked him in the chest. “You might take this lightly, but I assure you, Captain, I am most serious. I do not wish to be shackled in marriage to one such as you. Understand, sir, that unless I wish to be wed to an old codger, a bumbling doctor or…” She gestured to him. “A lecherous sea captain, I must do what I can to preserve my integrity as well as my unsoiled state. Now if you don’t mind, please give me my bonnet and my jacket!”
Landon swallowed and gave her a helpless shrug, obviously willing to retreat. “As you wish.” He held her jacket as she shrugged into it, then gave her the bonnet. He cocked his head and studied her face for a moment. “Do you truly believe I have a handsome face?”
She choked back a laugh. “I truly believe that you believe it.”
He grinned, revealing the dimples again. It was hard not to stare at them. They gave him a more boyish appearance…more innocent. Which, of course, made him more dangerous.
Landon leaned in and whispered, “You think I’m handsome and charming. You just said so.”
She focused on securing her hat on her head. “Just because someone might think you’re handsome, doesn’t mean they want to marry you.”
Landon stepped closer and stroked his finger across the back of her exposed neck. “You want to marry me?”
She was momentarily speechless. For one thing, it was impossible to talk because the sensation he was creating with a single finger was completely distracting. Was this the game he played…to charm and seduce? Did it amuse him? Well, he’d no longer find her an easy mark anymore. As long as he didn’t touch her ever again.
“I didn’t say I wanted to marry you. If you recall, I specifically said I didn’t wish to be shackled in marriage to someone like you.” Finally, her voice returned.
The captain clutched his heart and staggered backward. “Woman, you wound me with your sharp tongue and harsh words. But to describe our bond as being shackled, leaves me broken-hearted.”
He gave her such a sorrowful look that for a moment, she almost took pity on him. Keelan turned her face away and bit her lip to avoid laughing. She had no doubt he would consider her amusement as encouragement. It was best for him not to see it.
“You are a strong, healthy man with a thick shield of arrogance, Landon Hart. I’m sure your heart will recover at a record pace.”
His head perked up. “But I’ll be forever scarred, fair maiden,” he replied, amusement lacing his words. “Besides, you called me Landon. You do love me.”
The humidity intensified ahead of the storm, and the added warmth of the extra layers of clothing increased her discomfort. However, taking the captain’s advice and tying the jacket and hat to the saddle raked across her pride, so she chose to suffer in silence, unwilling to yield the argument to the irritating man.
She glanced around for a stump or a rock she could use as a step up.
“Allow me, Miss Keelan.”
She quirked a brow. “With the exception of your aid in pulling me from the depths, I am quite certain you have ‘helped’ me enough today.” She perched her fists on her hips. “Exactly what do you plan to do? Throw me across the beast’s back like a sack of rice?”
Tossing her a grin, Landon sank to one knee and laced his fingers together. “My intentions are a bit more chivalrous, I assure you. I mean only to give you a step up.”
There appeared to be no other option, so she relented and placed her foot into his waiting palms.
Landon helped her into the sidesaddle, and boldly guided her foot through the stirrup. She tensed at his touch, again shaken by his effect on her. Although it blanched her pride to do so, she should thank the sea captain for pulling her from the lake. If only he wasn’t such a scoundrel, and an arrogant mocker of impulsive young ladies, then the words wouldn’t stick in her throat so tenaciously.
But it had to be done.
“Captain Hart.” She touched his shoulder. She shouldn’t have touched his shoulder. Now her hand burned. She curled her fingers into her pa
lm.
“Landon,” he corrected, lifting his gaze to her face.
“Landon.” She cleared her throat and hoped her voice wouldn’t falter. “Thank you for saving my life. It was foolish of me to step into the lake to begin with. I would have surely drowned had you not pulled me from the water.”
“It was my greatest pleasure, my lady.” Landon’s expression conveyed a knowing message, and the heat flared in her cheeks. She should have expected such a response. She snatched up the reins. Sham seemed to sense her discomfort and pranced and fidgeted.
A low, angry rumble of thunder echoed through the pines. The gentle breeze of the afternoon had dropped in temperature and picked up speed. A fat drop of rain splattered on her hand, she’d have to hurry home to avoid the brunt of the storm. The ground was already spotted with large dark blotches where raindrops hit and rolled in the soft thick dust. They began to fall with more frequency, and she shivered as a rivulet of water dripped off the back of her hat and down her neck.
“Keelan." Landon’s expression was serious now. Both his hand on the bridle and his use of her given name made her pause. “It would ease my mind if you would allow me to lead your mount. I can tether him to my saddle and keep him better controlled if the weather worsens and unsettles him.”
She eyed Captain Hart warily. “I think not.” She lifted her chin. “I appreciate the offer, Captain. However, I am perfectly capable of handling a horse.” She reined Sham away from Landon and gave the stallion a sharp heel. Perhaps she could make it back to Twin Pines before Landon, thus avoiding any speculations by the staff or family as to whether or not they were together without a chaperone. She could act as if she did not know the captain had been riding about the plantation.
Let him hurry to catch up.
She didn’t expect Landon to try to stop her.
He snatched at the reins and succeeded in getting a couple fingers on one of them, pulling it from Keelan’s hands. His quick movement startled Sham, who spun away from him, nearly unseating her in the process. She grabbed at the saddle horn with her rein-free hand, an angry admonishment on her tongue. As she tried to jerk her body upright, her heels hit against Sham’s side, which sent the stallion leaping forward.
A scream erupted from her lungs before she could stop it. The panicked sound only spooked the horse more, and he took off at a dead run.
Without warning, a bright flash of lightning and earsplitting crack of thunder ripped through the air around her and shook the ground. She heard a loud snap, and the shriek of ripping wood. Sham slid stiff-legged to a stop, squealed, and reared up in fright. A scream froze in her throat as Keelan clawed at the horse’s mane in a frantic attempt to keep her seat. She barely heard Landon’s warning shout before a large pine to her right toppled toward her.
A sudden bone chilling fear gripped her chest, and she instinctively thumped Sham’s side with her heels. The stallion jumped forward, dislodging her feet from the stirrups and jolting her off-balance again. Only by twisting her hands further into the horse’s mane, did she manage to stay on Sham’s back. The powerful stallion flew down the lane at breakneck speed, and the next loud clap of thunder almost drowned out the drumming of his hooves as well as the sound of the tree crashing to the ground behind them.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Keelan snatched another handful of Sham’s mane and clutched it until her knuckles whitened. Her hair again had gained freedom from her bonnet and whipped around her face and neck, impairing her vision. Seized by panic, a new horror gripped her stomach when she realized she had dropped the other rein in the fight to maintain her seat.
She now had no way to control Sham or slow him down.
“Stop!” she screamed. “Whoa, Sham!”
Sham continued at a thundering gallop, with Keelan powerless to stop him. The stallion seemed to sense her fear and react in kind. She choked back a panicked sob and again shouted the command to stop, but the rising wind swallowed her voice. The furious storm-chased rain pelted her face in a blinding assault. Her insides churned with cold dread; she gripped Sham’s mane as tightly as her trembling fingers would allow.
“Keelan!” Landon’s shout was close and she cast a terrified glance over her shoulder. His horse was only a length behind. Orion soon pulled up alongside Sham.
Landon leaned to the side, reaching toward her. His arm shot out and wrapped around her waist like a steel band, plucking her off Sham’s back like a rag doll. He pulled her sideways across his lap; she impulsively wrapped her quaking arms about his neck and buried her face against his shoulder. Tears threatened and she tried to close her mind to the vision of the toppling tree or of her, crashing head first to the ground. Landon’s arm remained wrapped around her, thank goodness.
The swirling wind dipped and danced about them and the rain, like small stones, stung their flesh. Landon reined his horse to a soft canter, then a light trot, and finally a walk before he turned from the path. His arms tightened about her and she numbly heard his voice, low in her ear.“You’re safe, Keelan. I have you.”
The words passed her lips before she had time to think, “Landon, please don’t let go of me!”
“I won’t let you go, love. I promise.”
Her shoulders were quaking uncontrollably, and she fought to take a deeper breath. A crash of thunder shook the ground, and another bold streak of lightning split across the heavens. Blinded by the flash, disoriented by panic, she threw her arms up to shield her face. Her entire body shook with racking, hysterical sobs. The rain’s nearly horizontal attack was lessened by the huge pines which made up most of the forest on either side of them. With a low curse, Landon grasped her wrists and forced her arms away from her face so she could see him.
“Keelan! Look at me. You’re safe.” Landon scowled then slipped his hand behind her neck and pulled her face to his. His mouth crashed into hers with the same fierce intensity of the storm raging around them. A shock coursed through her body as if a bolt of lightning had struck her. Unconsciously, her fingers curled around the wrist of his hand cupped firmly at her nape. A sudden heat consumed her right breast, and the dull understanding that the sensation was caused by Landon’s other hand crept into her brain.
With a shocked gasp, she opened her eyes and jerked away. Before he could say another word, she landed a stinging slap against his cheek. She was rewarded with a lopsided leer and a burning palm.
“There you are,” Landon said with unmasked satisfaction.
“How…dare you!” she stuttered. What kind of man takes advantage of a woman when she’s in a panic? What…What a ridiculous question to ask herself. Landon Hart, of course, was the kind of man who’d be so bold. It had taken her a moment to register the kiss, but it was glorious and now they were about to return home together riding the same horse. She was doomed.
A warm finger touched her chin and she glared up at the source of her own personal storm. The sea captain stirred such a turbulent tide of emotions in her heart, that it pitched and rolled hither and yon like a small dingy in a roiling sea. She had no control over it and that thought terrified her.
Landon’s eyes clouded with concern and stared intently back at her. His nearness unnerved her, and her senses reeled again from the manly scent of him.
“My apologies, my love, but it was the only thing I could think to do to snap you out of the state of near hysteria that took you.” He grinned. “I am extremely pleased with the results, although somewhat worse for it,” he said, touching the red outline of her hand on his cheek.
“You’ll not get an apology for that,” she retorted. “You most certainly deserved it.”
His grin widened. “It was worth the price paid.”
She huffed and glanced away. He was so…irritating. She irritated herself by enjoying his ridiculous admission.
“I blame myself.” Landon’s mood sobered. “I should have never let you get on that horse. Instead, I should have damn well thrown you over my saddle and tied you there!”
Keelan managed a cool smile. “It would have been interesting to see you try.”
Landon’s eyebrows jutted upward then his chest rumbled with a chuckle. “Yes, it would have been a fascinating physical engagement.”
Keelan managed a weak grin. Hard, dense rain soaked her shoulders and the wind howled around them. She shivered. Animals had a gift for finding their way home, but she still worried about Sham. The captain stopped at the cluster of abandoned cabins she’d passed earlier in the day.
What was he doing? She turned her questioning gaze toward him.
He spoke into her ear so she could hear him above the rising wind. “The storm will be upon us before we can return. We need to find shelter now.”
Keelan’s heart lurched in her chest. “Nay! I cannot!” She glanced wildly at the sky. “We must get back. It can’t be very far, and Sham is still running loose. We must find him!”
He ignored her tirade and urged his horse forward to a cabin near the edge of the clearing. Wind gusts began to hiss through the pines with frightening intensity. The rain hammered down so hard it hurt her head. Small pellets, resembling white glass beads, bounced about crazily.
“It is beginning to hail!” Even as she realized the lunacy of her demands, she pushed against his chest and tried to raise her voice above the wind. “Please, Landon, take me home!”
He gripped her shoulders. She could barely hear his shout above the gale. “Keelan, can you see what’s happening?” He swept an arm wide. “The wind has picked up several knots, and soon it’ll be strong enough to pick up debris as well.” He slid his hands down her arms until he could grasp her elbows. “Your safety is more important to me now, than your precious reputation.” His voice strengthened into a commanding tone, which allowed for no further argument. “We shall seek shelter now. My decision is firm in this regard.”
She hid her panic by lashing him with her words. “A comfort, to be sure, Captain.”
Hart's Desire (Pirates & Petticoats Book 1) Page 13