Linna : Historical Romance (The Brocade Collection, Book 5)

by Jackie Ivie

  “Are you inferring...something?”

  “I already told you, I never infer. It’s a waste of breath. Captain Watkins is a sot and a lady’s worse nightmare...or not. I guess it depends on what a lady is looking for.”

  “I’m telling you he was here,” Linna told the wall beyond him.

  “Wasn’t. I’d have remembered. Fletch was here, though. Is that who you mean?”

  “Fletch...? As in...?” Oh no! That really was Rex Fletcher? She was going to faint. Linna held her hands to her cheeks to hide. She’d actually stood next to the man who’d ruined her life and treated him with respect and dignity? Worse yet, she’d spent the previous day in his cabin, unburdening herself to him for three solid hours, figuring prominently on what a horrid creature he was...and he’d said nothing?

  “Rex Fletcher owns this ship, darlin’. Actually, he owns several of them. If he chooses to wear a captain’s uniform and parade as one, I suppose he has his reasons. Since you were all het-up to go and make trouble for me, I’m pretty sure I know what he listened to from you. It’s almost laughable, if I felt up to that sort of thing right now.”

  “I hate you.” The tears that rose to her eyes scalded before they slipped out. She’d never felt so stupid or naive or ill-used.

  “Sure you do. You proved it last night, too.”

  Linna was so grateful she had her hands over her face, she could have cried again for that luxury. He couldn’t see the reaction. He knows? Oh, dear God. The possibility was so horrid, she felt new tears prickling at her eyes. She had to remind herself that she wasn’t the type that cried.

  Linna shoved the heels of her hands to her eyes and held them there until the torrent was under control. He was fishing. He didn’t know. He hadn’t been aware. He wasn’t awake. He wasn’t. He didn’t know of her lack of self-control, he didn’t know of her feelings, he didn’t know anything. As close to hovering between wakefulness and unconsciousness as he had been, he’d couldn’t possibly recall it, except perhaps as a dream. She shuddered in a breath, released it, and took another.

  She told herself he couldn’t remember anything. And she’d never admit to it. Never.

  She pulled her hands away from her face, put on her most innocent expression and looked toward him. “Nothing happened last night,” she said, moving her lips to make the words through her teeth.

  “Right.” He lifted his eyebrows.

  A light ringing sound filtered through her ears. Linna ignored it. “Are you arguing with me?”

  “I’m agreeing with you, lady. If you choose to tell stories, who am I do dispute them?”

  “Nothing happened.”

  “If it was nothing, it was nice. That’s all I’m going to say about it.”

  “What does that mean?”

  He shrugged and sat up farther, leaning on his arms. Linna was afraid of the expression on her face as the quilt dropped into his lap. She knew it was there though, and that he saw. His smile showed it. She narrowed her eyes. The slit of sunlight carving over his shoulder only molded more of him with shadows.

  “Why don’t I just state the obvious then. You desire me. And I definitely desire you.”

  “I do not!” she interjected.

  He pulled his knees up and rested his elbows on them, lifting the quilt near his ankles and offering her a very good view, if she glanced that way. She didn’t. His movement placed him dangerously close to her. Linna didn’t have enough control of her own reaction. She couldn’t fault him for knowing it as her mouth dropped open.

  “Let me repeat it. You desire me. I desire you.” He reached out and used his index finger on her chin to push her mouth back together. Linna actually watched him and couldn’t find one iota of protest. “I’m hampered in pursuit of this mutual desire by our bargain. You aren’t.”

  “Bargain?” she whispered.

  He moved his finger away with a trace of reluctance. Linna couldn’t move her gaze, her body, anything.

  “I’m not allowed to touch you. Do you know how that feels?”

  She shook her head.

  “I think you’re the most sensual woman I’ve ever met, and I’ve met plenty. You make my blood feel like it’s boiling unless I find a way to appease it. I want to bury myself as deeply as I can in you, any time I can, as many times as I can. It’s as natural as breathing. I don’t bother denying it. You shouldn’t either.”

  The ringing in her ears subsided. Linna wondered if it was because of his words or how hard she was listening. He wasn’t speaking in a lover-like tone, although the words held that quality and more. He was talking more as if he hated what he was saying.

  “You’re also incredibly beautiful. More so than your portrait, although I wouldn’t have believed it. The sun right now, for instance, it’s making your skin a pink-pearly sort of color and shadowing just a bit into where that damned shift is holding to you. Right...here.”

  He moved to dip a forefinger into her cleavage but stopped just shy of touching her. She was held by his gaze but could see the twitch of his shoulder and right arm as he just held his hand there, close enough she could feel his heat but not touching. Linna couldn’t believe how much she wanted him to. Her entire body seemed poised for him, like the morning glories opened for the sun, only it wasn’t happening.

  “But…see there? I’m not going to touch you. No matter how I want to, I can’t do it. Only you can. That’s the bargain I made. It’s the bargain I’ll keep, as a gentleman. I only wish I was as barbaric as you imply. Do you see what I mean now?”

  She gulped and nodded slightly.

  “Release me, Linna.”

  She shook her head slightly and watched the hardening of his lips and the brown of his eyes enlarge just before he narrowed them.

  “Please?” he whispered.

  Linna swayed backwards on legs that had lost their feeling from sitting on them so long. He moved onto his hands and knees in order to follow her. The blanket fell away, but she only saw it with a peripheral view. She couldn’t move her eyes from his. He crawled closer and she fell, bruising her rump and her elbows as she landed.

  “I’m begging you, Linna love. Please? It’ll feel so good. I promise.”

  His voice was as hypnotic as the rest of him as he hovered over her. His breath against her throat was telling her everything he was going to do to her, if she would just say the words.

  “I—” she began, only to lose the intention at the feel of his heated breath below her ear.

  “Say it, love. Say the words. Release me from the bargain. Please?”

  Linna actually welcomed the sting of returning sensation to her calves, gifting her sanity back just when she needed it most. It certainly wasn’t the feel of his chest on her palms when she reached up to hold him from her.

  “I can’t,” she managed to choke out, as what could only be his tongue slid along the edge of her jaw and down her neck.

  “Just say yes then. It’ll mean the same. Say it, Linna, say it. Please? Release me...release us.”

  He hadn’t raised his voice, he’d actually lowered it. The husky timbre was infiltrating her consciousness and making her as wanton as she’d felt last night.

  “I...can’t,” she repeated.

  “Why not? Tell me why.”

  He’d reached the other side of her jaw and was feathering every nerve ending with an eroticism only he wielded. Linna suspected if it hadn’t been for the needle-like ache in her limbs, she’d have been answering with exactly what he wanted. Face it, Linna, she admitted to herself, just bloody face it! She would have been the one begging.

  “Why not, love? Why?”

  “B-because...you took gold.” she stammered.

  “I always take gold when I earn it. Say something else.”

  She stiffened before he’d finished, the ache of her legs dulled by a newer pain that approached agony. It burned in the area where her heart was supposed to be, and it was translating instantly to the area behind her eyes, gaining momentum at the same t
ime.

  Linna was afraid to look anywhere but at his face. She was afraid of him and of herself. Tears filled and over-flowed her eyes. She ignored them.

  It was better to be heartless. Much better. She should have known.

  “You took gold...to bed me,” she managed to whisper.

  He swore and shoved from her, gathering the blanket about himself as he did. Linna was grateful for that. He was a lying, cheating wretch, with the face of an angel and the body of a Greek god. It was better if the physique was covered, but not much.

  “Is that all you have...to say?” she asked.

  “I’ll have plenty, when I know what you’re asking.”

  Linna pulled the chemise back into place and moved to a sitting position to face him. She hadn’t even felt her shoulder straps move, yet here they were, dangling from her elbows, making her look as wanton and eager as she’d felt. The man was good with his hands, she had to admit.

  “You know what I’m asking. I want to know about the gold. I want to why Rex Fletcher paid you. Now. Right now,” she began, gaining momentum to her voice so that each word came out louder and higher-pitched.

  “Well. I took the gold to bed you. I would have done it for free though.”

  “What?” She screeched the word. She couldn’t help it.

  “This is an odd reaction. You don’t have any reason for it either. You were the one that started it that night. You proposed to me. Remember?”

  “I have every reason! Rex Fletcher is a—a rake! A seducer of women! A scoundrel! He paid you to ravish me...and then he paid you to discard me!”

  “A seducer of women? Fletch? No way. Women don’t even look at him.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he’s old and mean.”

  “Not that! Why did you do it?”

  “Oh. Because I needed gold. And I wanted you.”

  “Then why did you come back...and finish it? Why? I didn’t deserve marriage to someone like you – and that wasn’t in the bargain…so why?” She’d been mistaken earlier. She didn’t feel anything like love for him. She didn’t. She couldn’t.

  His upper lip lifted. “I was wondering when we’d get to this part.”

  “What part?”

  “Didn’t you read that far, sweetness?”

  The loving word didn’t have anything sweet about it. Linna was breathing hard and loud. “Read what?” she asked finally.

  “It’s in my papers. You did read my papers, didn’t you?”

  “Papers?”

  “The ones you scattered about my cabin. The ones that sent you running off to find the captain. The posters. The bank draft from Fletch. The marriage license. The papers with the embossed name running through them, assigning me without reason. The official-looking papers you found in my jacket when you went snooping around.”

  “Papers?” Her voice was missing this time. So was her breathing.

  “Aren’t you really asking what the official-looking ones mean?”

  “I—”

  The room was getting darker. Linna watched the corners blacken like they had when the storm had gathered, only it was much more rapid and confusing.

  “They’re arrest orders, love. They come from being on a pirate ship.”

  “P-p-pirate?” she stammered.

  “That’s what I said. That’s where I meant. I’m wanted for piracy. Just as Fletcher is and Simons, and a host of others you’ll never meet. All of us, love. All.”

  “Piracy?” she whispered it.

  “Piracy,” he said agreeably.

  Linna knew then what shock felt like. It felt like the deck of their room as she fell face first into it.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  “That’s going to leave one hell of a shiner.”

  Linna stiffened against the chest she was being held to, instinctively knowing she should struggle.

  “Stop that and be a good girl. And here I’m the one supposed to be ill and weak. Can you sit up and sip this?”

  Linna opened her eyes. The light hurt. She swallowed.

  “You’re awake now. Good. I’d hate to have to ask Simons for another bloody thing.”

  “Put...some clothes on,” Linna whispered and shut her eyes again. If he had to run around naked, she shouldn’t have to see it. She opened them again to his grin.

  “You must be over the shock to think that way.”

  He ignored her request and simply burrowed beneath the quilt to her side. Linna regarded him for a moment.

  “Shock?”

  “You always faint on your face? It’s amazing you didn’t break your nose.”

  “I don’t faint.”

  “Right. You don’t desire me either. Care to try for another?”

  He was on his side, facing her, his head resting on his crooked arm, and his other hand busily tracing along her arm.

  “I’ve never fainted before.”

  “Better.”

  He grinned wider. Linna decided he had to have the whitest, straightest smile she’d ever seen. She turned her head aside.

  “Take my advice. Don’t nose-dive onto your face next time. It’s made your nose puff up and your eye is a sight. Trust me.”

  He said the last as she began to sit up, intent on the sliver of glass above his wash stand that went for a mirror.

  “It’ll go down. Probably by tonight. I’ve seen worse. Given worse, too.”

  “You’ve given puffy noses and black eyes?”

  “Only when it was required,” he answered.

  Linna frowned, then she remembered. He’d been on a pirate ship. He wasn’t a pirate or a murderer though. He just couldn’t be.

  “What were you doing there?” she asked.

  “Where?”

  “On the ship?”

  “Oh. Working.”

  If he’d cease drawing never-ending circles on her arm and to her shoulder, she could think. As it was, her mind was concentrating where it shouldn’t be. Working? She repeated to herself and felt the relief at the word. Working. He’d been working. He hadn’t been killing anyone.

  “Breakfast! Is he awake yet?”

  The voice was followed by Simons’ face as he pulled the door open enough to look in. Linna watched him take in the scene at a glance, then his face fell.

  “Awake and starved. You better have brought enough for six.”

  Cord sat as if he’d never been ill a day in his life. Linna rolled onto her front into the indentation he’d made. It was more to shield herself, since the chemise had slid down to the tips of her breasts. Cord’s ability to undress her without her awareness was truly amazing.

  “Looks good. Merci. Now go. Get more.”

  She looked over her shoulder and met the look Simons gave her. She was tempted to return it, but changed her mind.

  “Come along, Linna. Join me. He’s brought toast, eggs, bacon. Lovely. How long was I ill? Feels like I haven’t eaten for a month.”

  Linna watched him stuff everything from the tray into his mouth before answering. “What would I eat if I join you, mon cher?”

  “Mon cher? I think I could grow used to that. I could. He’ll be back with more.”

  “How do you know?”

  “He doesn’t like to anger me.”

  Linna drew a finger along the stitching of the quilt behind him. She directed her question to it, rather than to him. “What’s he to you anyway?”

  “Who? Simons? He’s an incredibly gifted man, capable of finding anything, and I do mean anything. I don’t ask how he gets it either.”

  “And...that means what?”

  “He’s useful. When he quits being useful, he’s out. He knows that.”

  “Out of what?” she continued asking.

  He shrugged. Linna watched the motion of his back, and couldn’t repress her sigh. She reached out and traced a jagged scar just below his ribcage, amazed to feel the tingle clear to her wrist at the contact.

  “What’s this from?”

  “Knife,” he answered.
>
  “Knife?” she echoed with more inflection than he’d given it. She lifted her fingers. “Someone put a knife into you?’

  “Yes.”

  “From behind?”

  “If they’d come from the front, I’d have given worse. I don’t have any scars there. See?”

  He swiveled, catching her unaware and giving her a very good look at the flesh she’d bathed, climbed atop, and sighed over. It was still exactly as masculine and easily as stirring. A light stripe of hair sprouted from below his belt line and ran up him before disappearing somewhere at the center of his chest. Linna put a finger to it and traced it down, stopping when she reached his belly button. His groan was audible and she smiled.

  “Vixen,” he said.

  “I have the right to touch, remember? In fact, I think you asked me to. Maybe it was more along the line of begging.”

  “You sure you still want to?”

  Linna kept her fingers on him as she lifted her eyes to his. She’d been afraid of this, and here it was. She hadn’t a prayer of halting what she felt when the gray-green of his gaze darkened to a smoky brown. She’d been naive. She’d been unawakened. She’d been tormented with all sorts of emotions, but the real one.

  It really was love. It had to be. It shocked, frightened, and mortified her. It was still the truth. And it was horrible. She swallowed. “Why...wouldn’t I?” she asked, sliding her fingers around his waist, and feeling the thick ropes of muscle twitch beneath her touch.

  “I was on a pirate ship. I’m a wanted man.”

  Linna slid onto her haunches, bending to fit her knees into the archway he’d made with his arm beneath his head. She liked being above him and looking along the length of him. It was a heady feeling. She also liked knowing he wouldn’t touch her, no matter how much he wanted to.

  That was even headier.

  “I’m not surprised you’re wanted,” she told him, running her hand up his side, and watched as shivers flew from her fingers to tighten his nipples. “I hear you’re very good with the rigging.”

  “Rigging...and anything else I’ve a mind to try. You’re pushing this, lady.”