“My thoughts do not revolve around touching you gently or taking it slow, my little virgin.”
“Then take me as you want me. I would rather that, rather you approach me with honest emotion than constant denial.”
He scooped her into his arms and carried her to the bed, where he kissed her with such wild abandon, with such single-minded determination, she thought he would finally take her maidenhead. But he didn’t. He used his hands in the same way he had used his tongue—touched her until she was wracked, again and again, with the most exquisite pleasure. And she touched him, freely and openly, reveling in the beauty of his form and the smoothness of his skin as it slid against hers. Then they bathed each other and curled up in bed. Abby was satiated but as she fell asleep in his arms, she was also curious.
Why did he continue to deny them both?
Max woke with Abby’s soft bosom pressed up against his arm and the smell of her sex on his fingers. He breathed deeply, taking in that heady scent and remembering. She satisfied something inside him no other woman ever had. And yet, no matter how many times he brought her to orgasm, or achieved orgasm himself, it wasn’t enough. Apparently, there was no substitute for fully possessing her. Even now, he longed to roll her onto her back and press himself inside her, to feel her close around him, warm and tight, while she stared up at him with those beautiful eyes.
But he could not justify taking her virginity—not when she didn’t even know who he was. He had already gone much further than his conscience dictated. It would be different if he had any hope of continuing the relationship. But that was out of the question.
“Am I still a virgin?” she mumbled.
She was certainly unafraid to say whatever was on her mind. Not many women were so bold. But he liked her honesty. She bravely wore her heart on her sleeve. That was another reason he had to do all he could to protect her. He didn’t want to destroy her emotional courage. It was one of the things he loved about her.
“Through no small feat of my own, yes.”
“And that is supposed to be some sort of favor on your part?”
He smiled that she would sound so disappointed. “Someday you might thank me.”
“That day isn’t today.”
“You are not satisfied yet?”
“Are you offering me another substitute? Maybe I will be lucky enough to meet a man who will not be so stingy with me.”
Max could tell she was teasing, but he didn’t like the sound of another man taking what he so desperately craved. “Are you such a lusty wench?”
Her lips curved into a lazy smile. “Only when it comes to you.”
“I wish things could be different, Abby,” he admitted but a noise from downstairs broke into the conversation.
“Jack’s home,” he said.
Hearing the same noises, Abby propped herself up on her elbows. “Do you think Emmett is with him?”
“I hope so.”
“Max! Max, get down here,” Jack called. “And bring that bitch of yours. Emmett didn’t make it home last night.”
With a curse, Max rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. “I guess that answers our question.”
“He won’t be happy to hear what happened,” Abby said.
“He’s never happy regardless,” Max grumbled as he got out of bed.
Abby admired his body as he dressed, and grinned when he caught her looking.
“If you are trying to make me want to come back to bed, it’s working.”
She arched her eyebrows. “You are all talk.”
“If only I could do as I wished.”
“Someday I will have you so desperate for the feel of me that you will give in.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” he said and headed down.
Abby couldn’t go quite yet. She hadn’t braided her hair before falling asleep with Max and needed to do so. After the night they had spent, it was tangled about her face.
When she did go below, she found Max leaning against one wall, Jack slouched at the table with a beer and Bill drinking with him.
“So you have no idea where he is,” Jack said.
Obviously, Max had already indicated that they had encountered some difficulties at St. George’s. “No.”
The glower on Jack’s face made Abigail uneasy. She purposely kept her mouth shut as he turned his tankard in a circle.
“What happened again?”
“I told you. We were spotted in the cemetery.”
“And?”
“Set upon,” Max replied.
Bill’s eyebrows shot up. “Hasn’t this been a week!”
Jack ignored his brother. “The police came after you?”
Max shook his head. “Not the police—friends and family of the deceased.”
“I’m not sure I understand how that happened.” Jack thrummed his fingers on the table. “Wasn’t Abby supposed to make sure the coast was clear?”
A fissure of alarm snaked through Abby. Jack hadn’t yet made it to bed. He was drunk, and looking for someone to blame. And she had a feeling she would be the scapegoat. She was certainly easier to blame than Max. Jack always picked on the weakest member of the group, and he perceived her as the weakest now that Tom was gone.
“Abby did her part,” Max said. “She was supposed to find out if there were any booby traps. She told us there weren’t, and she was right. Last night’s should have been an easy take. It was just bad luck that things went as they did.”
“We seem to be having a lot of bad luck since Abby came here,” Jack said.
“You’re the one who didn’t want to let her go,” Max pointed out and shoved off the wall to pour two beers.
Abby didn’t like the sound of that. But she could see why he would say it. She hoped it was only for Jack’s benefit. Max was such a contradiction. He wanted her—but something stood in the way.
Accepting the mug he handed to her, she sat next to Bill. Max acted as if he expected her to behave as any other member of the gang—and she instinctively understood she had to let Jack know she wasn’t that easily intimidated, or his abuse would continue.
“You seem happy enough about that decision, Max,” Jack said. “And it’s no wonder, since you’re the one who gets to sleep with her.”
Abby didn’t dare look at Max for fear he would act as if that held no value to him.
“This isn’t about who I sleep with,” he responded. “You’re upset about how it went at St. George’s, and you have every right to be. We’re all upset. Someone must have been looking out—”
Jack came to his feet. “So there was someone guarding the body.”
At the accusation in his tone, Max grew impatient. “Calm down.”
Hoping to distract Jack, to keep him from getting angry at Max’s tone, Abby came to her own defense. “Not specifically. Not that anyone talked about at the burial.”
She cringed when Jack turned his bloodshot eyes on her, but Max stepped in again, drawing Jack’s attention back to him. “Someone spotted our lamp and called out an alarm that brought down what felt like an army. It could happen any night. We could have been arrested, or beaten, or . . . only God knows. You’re well aware of the risks.”
“An army, eh?” Jack focused on that part and ignored the rest. “One would think you’d be done for.”
“That’s what we thought,” Max said.
“Then how is it the two of you got away?”
There was that doubt again, that underlying suspicion that kept them in constant jeopardy. Abby held her breath while she waited to hear what Max would say.
“We broke up, spread out, and did the best we could.”
“And Emmett? You don’t know what became of him?”
“I’ve already told you I don’t,” Max said. “We were too busy doing everything in our power
to escape.”
“I’m sure he’ll thank you for running out on him.”
Max grabbed his mug and stood. “I wouldn’t call that running out. I had Abby to consider. Would you have wanted her to be arrested? For it to come out that she has been here with us the whole time?”
“With you, Max. You’re the only one who’s had any benefit from her being here. So far, she’s only cost me money.”
“Makes no difference,” Max argued. “I couldn’t let her fall into their hands. There’s no telling what they would have done.”
“I wonder if Emmett knew you’d put her first, that’s all,” Jack said.
Bill chuckled uncomfortably. “Come on, Jack. Emmett might be young but he can fend for himself. She’s a woman.”
“So?” Jack challenged. “Emmett’s more valuable to me than she is.”
“We went back later,” Max told them. “We couldn’t find Emmett.”
“Listen to that,” Bill said. “They did all they could. Emmett will show up eventually. There’s no need to cause a row with Max, or before you know it, we’ll be a gang of only two. And what we do is too hard for that.”
“We could manage. At least I can trust you,” Jack grumbled.
“You think Abby and I wanted this to happen?” Max asked.
Jack took a long pull on his beer. “I can’t figure out what you want.”
“I’ve told you. I want the money to pay off my debts.”
“Then you’ll have to be more successful than you were last night, won’t you!” Jack glared at him over the rim of his cup. “Where’s the corpse you went after? If it’s still in the ground, we should go back there tonight, before it can decompose any further.”
Max shook his head. “It’s not in the ground. Emmett hauled it away.”
Abby wondered what Jack would do if he learned that they had taken the body to Aldersgate. She had been grateful for Max’s help last night, but only now did she realize just how much he had done for her, and why he had insisted they not dispose of the cart until they were well away from Smithfield. Jack had regretted letting her return the college’s money almost from the moment he agreed to it. He would not be pleased that she had cost him even more.
“You gotta love that kid,” Jack said. “You’re protecting your willy’s interests while he’s seeing to business.”
“In all likelihood, trying to take the body is what got him caught,” Max pointed out. “That cost us a good cart.”
“Now you’re seeing the wisdom of it. Maybe we can find it.”
“I told you. We went back to the cemetery. There was no Emmett and no cart. So why return again? They’ll only be waiting for us next time.”
Jack sneered at him. “They were waiting for you last time. Maybe tonight we fight back—teach ’em a lesson for Emmett.”
Although it wasn’t unheard of for mourners to get into a skirmish with resurrection men, Max rolled his eyes. “You’re drunk.”
The contempt in those two words made Abigail fear how Jack might respond. Bill must have had the same reaction because he stepped in to smooth things over. “We made up for the loss, Jack. Got fifteen guineas ourselves last night, didn’t we?”
Instead of ratifying what he had just heard, Jack sent Bill a quelling glance. “Shut the hole in your face before I shut it for you.”
Bill’s placating smile withered and he went back to drinking.
“You sold another corpse? Where’d you get it?” Max’s questions were directed at both of them, but Bill kept his eyes on his cup and didn’t answer.
“There was no other corpse,” Jack said.
“You got fifteen guineas for something,” Max responded.
“Bill doesn’t know what the hell he’s talkin’ about,” Jack said. “He never does.”
Max sat back down and stretched out his legs. “Emmett told us you went looking for Tom. Did you manage to find him?”
Jack glowered at him. “Emmett doesn’t know what he’s talkin’ about, either. We met a gravedigger who led us to his last few graves. Right, Bill?”
When Bill grunted in agreement, Max pursed his lips, considering. “You just said you didn’t sell another corpse.”
“Doesn’t matter. What we did tonight is none of your damn business,” Jack snapped.
Max leaned forward. “And Tom?”
“Forget Tom! He left of his own accord, and he won’t be coming back.”
“Because . . .”
“He knows better than to show his face around here after what he did.”
He sounded so certain . . .
Abigail noticed how Max’s knuckles whitened on his cup and guessed he was thinking the same thing she was: Tom knew better than to come back—or, now that Jack had finished with him, he couldn’t.
Chapter 18
When Abby entered their room, she expected Max to follow her. But he didn’t. He continued down the hall, only to return a moment later—with her elephant.
Suddenly homesick, Abby took it and hugged it to her chest. “Thank you.”
He didn’t respond. He just stood there, watching her.
“What?” she said, growing self-conscious beneath his unwavering regard.
“I was wrong to let you talk me into bringing you back here, Abby. It’s not safe.”
“I told you I won’t go out again, not at night. I’ll leave the body snatching to you and the others.”
“But you’re not safe even in this house! I was deluded to think you might be. Maybe Jack has accepted your presence, but he can’t be trusted. You saw how he acted a minute ago. And there’s no telling what he and Bill did to Tom.”
“Tom betrayed him.”
“And what are we doing? What if he were to find out? Tom’s probably dead!”
“That’s one of the many reasons Jack must be stopped. I’m trying to help you accomplish that.” After last night, he had to know that he was the real reason she had stayed. But he was suddenly acting as if her presence was all about the practicalities of their situation.
“I’ve told you, this is not your fight. The college has its money and its cadaver, and you have your mother’s last gift. Let me take you back to Aldersgate right this minute, while it’s still possible to get you home unharmed.”
She could hear Jack and Bill downstairs, and lowered her voice so they wouldn’t be able to hear her. “If I wanted to be at Aldersgate, I would have stayed when we were there delivering that corpse.”
He had tried to convince her to do just that, and she had briefly considered it. What they had encountered at the cemetery had scared her enough to make her realize that she was in real danger, and not just from Jack. Anything could happen.
But after they put the corpse in the cellar and she pressed her hands up against the brick building that had been her home for so many years, deliberating, she no longer felt as if she belonged there. Something had changed in the brief time she’d been gone—she’d changed. She felt like a butterfly that had been let out of a jar. She was no longer provided for—but she was no longer caged, either.
There was also the fact that she couldn’t bring herself to let Max walk away, of course. She feared if she did, she would never see him again.
“Surely, after all that’s occurred, you must see that this is no place for a woman,” he said. “No business for a woman to be in.”
She put her elephant on the vanity with the brush and mirror set he had given her. “Without me, you would have been caught at St. George’s.”
“You don’t know that.”
“They caught Emmett. They only let us go because they thought we were . . . you know.” After the pleasure they had given each other, she could no longer address those issues from a clinical standpoint. He had been right that first night when he told her intimacy was nothing like what she had read in her father�
��s medical journals—at least it wasn’t when the heart was as engaged as the body. And, for her, that had definitely been the case.
His beard growth rasped as he rubbed a hand across his chin. “Emmett tried to escape while encumbered with a corpse. He’s young enough to feel invincible. I would not have been so stupid.”
“That doesn’t mean you would have escaped without me. Anything could have happened.”
“That’s what frightens me!” he said, exasperated. “I’m afraid if we ever get into another situation like that, I won’t be able to protect you!”
“So you’d like me to leave.”
“Yes! Jack resents the fact that I have you in my bed. He won’t let it go.”
“What about us?”
A pained expression crossed Max’s face. “Abby—”
“I know you care about me,” she insisted.
“Let’s not go into that.”
“Why not? What are you so afraid of?”
“I’m afraid of hurting you! We have no future together!”
It was difficult not to wince. He had told her that before but . . . she had been certain she could get him to change his mind. The way he looked at her had to count for something, didn’t it?
Or had she misjudged his many kindnesses? The way he protected her from Jack? The desire he seemed to feel when they touched?
“That could change, couldn’t it?” she said. “I mean—”
“No!”
He was so absolute she could scarcely breathe. “Why?”
“Because my plans don’t include you! I thought I made that clear.”
He had—but he had also made her feel as if she were the only woman in the world. Last night had encompassed so much more than the physical. She knew it did. “You have to feel more than you’re admitting.”
With a muttered curse, he put his back to her.
“Max?”
He didn’t respond immediately. When he did, his voice was so low she could barely hear him. “Abby, this isn’t about what I feel.”
“Then what is it about? Tell me! Tell me at last!”
With a sigh, he faced her. “I’m afraid there’s someone else.”
A Matter of Grave Concern Page 19