by Brenda Novak
Nathaniel grinned. “Well, I’ll be happy to show you my more exciting parts—”
Alexandra gently elbowed him in the ribs.
“Ow!”
She smiled up at him. “Sorry, did I hurt you?”
He scowled at her, but Alexandra noticed that he didn’t bother averting his gaze from her bosom.
“You’re incorrigible,” she told him.
“So they say.”
“Who says? The ladies?”
His grin widened, tempting Alexandra to kick him in the shins.
“Really, you’d think a man on the verge of death would care about more important things—”
“Are there more important things? After a month in the hulks, I’m beginning to wonder.”
Alexandra heard the serious note that had crept into Nathaniel’s voice, but when she glanced up at him, he looked away. After a moment of silence, he said, “Let’s get a room at the first inn we find. I think we’ve gone far enough.”
“Do you not expect me to draw a connection between that statement and several others you’ve just made?” she asked.
She could feel Nathaniel’s ribs shake as he chuckled. “If only I had the strength.”
“And how do you propose we pay for this room?”
“Trenton will pay for it. You’ll simply have to talk the innkeeper into giving us a room until our friend joins us.”
“And why would an innkeeper trust me, especially one in these parts?”
“With a face like yours?” Nathaniel winked. “I have faith in you, my love.”
The inn they selected was a small, ramshackle building that sat back off the main streets. The lobby was sparsely furnished with threadbare rugs and dingy draperies. The innkeeper sat behind a tall counter, chewing a soggy cigar butt between rotting teeth. He glanced up from his newspaper as Alexandra entered.
“Good afternoon,” she said, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room. She had left Nathaniel outside, hoping a lone woman would elicit a more positive response from the innkeeper. But she doubted anything could influence the hard-looking man she saw before her. With a bulk easily approaching three hundred and fifty pounds, he wore a grease-stained shirt that showed rings of perspiration under his armpits.
He grunted, setting his paper aside and somehow managing to stand despite his incredible weight. “Would ye like a room?”
“Yes… however, I have one small problem.” Alexandra swallowed hard and gave him her sweetest smile. “You see, I don’t have any money—”
“Then ye don’t ‘ave a room.” He heaved his hulking mass back onto his stool and took up his paper.
“I’m supposed to meet a man here. He’ll pay you when he comes. He’ll be here before nightfall.”
The innkeeper kept reading.
“Sir?”
He removed the cigar from his mouth and let it smolder in a crystal ashtray, the only delicate-looking object in the room. “There’ll be a premium then, providin’ yer man shows up.” He looked up. “I don’t run no almshouse ‘ere. An’ if ye don’t pay, I’ll boot ye out onto the street long before mornin’, understand?” His gaze searched her face.
“Perfectly,” she said. “I’m sure he’ll come.”
“That’s what they all say.” He stuffed the cigar back into his mouth and clamped down on it while he gave Alexandra a gaping leer. With her ill-fitting dress and bedraggled appearance, she knew she probably looked like a girl of dubious character, and his next words confirmed his opinion of her.
“If yer man don’t show, I might be able to replace ‘im with another uh… client, if ye like. Providin’ ye work, I’ll cover yer room an’ board for as long as ye want to stay.”
“No, thank you. I’m not what you may think, but I’ll take that room you promised.”
The innkeeper paused, obviously doubtful, then handed her a key from the wall of pigeonholes behind him. “‘Tis just down the hall to yer left. An’ don’t forget—ye might not like the method of payment I require if yer man don’t come through,” he said, and his raspy laugh followed her out.
* * *
“That wasn’t half as easy as you made it sound,” Alexandra complained as soon as she reached Nathaniel.
Sitting against the outside of the building, he squinted up at her when her shadow fell across him. “I just hope you got a room,” he said, his voice weaker than before.
Alexandra felt a prickle of fear crawl up her spine. Had his wound begun to bleed again? “I got the room. Let me help you up. Do you think you can make it past the innkeeper while I distract him? Otherwise he’ll demand payment right away.”
Nathaniel nodded.
When they reached the door, Alexandra entered first. She approached the counter and smiled when the innkeeper finally looked up from his newspaper. “I just wanted to be sure you would tell my friend, when he comes, which room I’m in.”
His eyebrows drew together, but he nodded, the smelly cigar moving in his mouth as he spoke. “I’ll tell ‘im—right after ‘e gives me my money.”
Alexandra moved to the right, drawing the innkeeper’s eye with her so he wouldn’t see Nathaniel. “That’s very kind of you.” She lowered her voice. “You know, there are not many men in your position who would have treated me so generously.”
He grunted, the kindness of her words obviously throwing him off-balance. “Don’t think ye’ll change my mind,” he rallied. “Yer fellow pays or ye don’t stay.”
“Of course. Oh, and I was wondering, do you happen to have a porter or someone with whom I could send a message?”
“Not without money, I don’t.”
“Fine.” Alexandra could see that Nathaniel had already made his way down the darkened hallway so she smiled again, then followed him.
Nathaniel sagged onto the bed as soon as she opened the door. Propping a pillow behind his head, Alexandra swung his feet up and rolled him onto his side to examine the bandage. There was little fresh blood. He just needed to rest.
Breathing a sigh of relief, she turned her attention to the room, which was almost as sparse as the lobby. A washbasin containing gray, tepid water stood near the window, and a chest and a chair were placed on either side of the iron bed. One small rug covered the filthy wood floor. None of the mismatched furniture was in good condition, but it was the smell of the place that offended Alexandra most. Old sweat and camphor balls combined to create a musty odor that prompted her to open the window straightaway. The stench of the open sewer that ran through the gutter outside, made worse by the warmth of the afternoon sun, motivated her to hurry and close it again.
Taking the pitcher from the washstand, she left the room in search of fresh water.
“Pump’s at the end of the street,” the innkeeper told her when he saw what she carried.
Alexandra scowled at him, wondering why she’d been left with dirty water in the first place. “And some clean linens?” she pressed.
“Yer a picky sort for not ‘avin’ paid a farthin’ as yet.” He entered a small room behind him and returned with two towels and a set of sheets.
When Alexandra returned, Nathaniel felt hot to the touch. She took a clean rag, dipped it into the cool water, and dabbed it across his forehead. He didn’t move, but he seemed to be resting comfortably.
“You’re going to be all right, my pirate captain,” she whispered. Then, exhausted herself, she curled up next to him as a vision of the house and children she had always wanted flashed across her mind—the one that came with a husband who was kind and stable.
She had craved such peace and comfort since her mother had died. But when she looked at Nathaniel and felt the warmth of his body next to hers, she was tempted to trade it all away for whatever the pirate captain could provide… if only he would ask her.
* * *
Alexandra was awakened by a gentle hand stroking her arm. The sun was setting and its rays filled the room with a golden light as she glanced up to see Nathaniel watching her.
> “Are you all right?” she murmured.
“You could make me better,” he replied, giving her a crooked grin.
She batted her eyelids coyly. “Meaning…”
“Meaning it’s about time you made good on that offer you made me at Gunther’s place. Didn’t you say you wouldn’t charge me a farthing for an hour or so with your glorious body?” He reached over to cup her chin in his palm and began kissing her neck.
The feather-light touch of his lips made Alexandra shiver. “I was speaking hypothetically,” she reminded him.
“Well, the hypothetical is here.” He lowered his mouth to where her dress gaped away from her chest and tickled the swell of each breast with his tongue. “I never pegged you as the type to go back on a bargain.”
She tried to bat him away, but the attempt was halfhearted at best. “Unlike someone else I know,” she replied, lowering her eyelids as desire pooled, warm in her belly. “What was it last time? A trip to shore for a kiss? “
His smile broadened. “Don’t worry, I don’t plan to cheat you this time. I plan to take my time and give you all you want and more.” He slowly undid the buttons of her dress and pushed it off her shoulders to below her bust. Admiration filled his eyes as his gaze lowered. “You’re beautiful,” he whispered. “Even more beautiful than I imagined.”
Alexandra could see his outline in the dwindling light, the aristocratic features, the strong chin, the square jaw. She’d removed his shirt before checking his wound, and the muscles of his torso rippled smoothly beneath his bronze skin as he moved. Nathaniel was thinner, but his body was no less defined for all his ill treatment. In repose, his face could look boyish, especially when his dark hair fell across his brow. But when he was filled with hate or anger—or passion, like now—the planes of his face looked chiseled from stone.
Luxuriating in the heat their bodies generated, Alexandra let her fingers travel up his bare arm. He closed his eyes as her hand moved onto his chest, where she spread both palms against him, feeling the softly curling hair that grew there.
“See? I don’t bite,” he whispered hoarsely. Nipping at her ear, he added, “Not hard, anyway. Do you remember that time I walked in on you after your bath on the Vengeance?”
Alexandra nodded. “How could I forget? You looked as though you might eat me for dinner.”
He chuckled. “A promise I still intend to fulfill.”
“We can talk about the past,” she said, “but please, don’t let me think about tomorrow.”
Nathaniel pulled back to look at her with shocking intensity. “You can’t go into this blind, Alexandra. I don’t know what my future holds, or when, if ever—”
She raised a finger to his lips. She didn’t want to think. She wanted only to relish the way his hand moving over her body made her quiver like the most delicate note of a harp vibrating on the air. Nathaniel was not the one she had always pictured in her dreams. In fact, he was almost the opposite. He was headstrong, sometimes arrogant, definitely dangerous. His emotions were palpable and often tempestuous. She couldn’t see him in the role she had assigned to her calm, steady, imaginary husband.
But she could picture no one else as her lover. No one else could possess her body—and her soul—like she knew he could.
She pressed her ear to his chest to hear the steady thump of his heart until Nathaniel once again lifted her chin and found her mouth with his own. His lips were soft but firm as they moved with mounting pressure. The warm, velvety softness of his tongue slid into her mouth. Yielding, Alexandra let herself be carried away by the passion that swirled about them like a river’s strong current, pulling her away from safety to some unknown destination.
Nathaniel left her lips to trail kisses down her throat, stopping only when her hands delved into the thickness of his hair to pull him back for more. The unforgiving muscle of his body, the unique smell of the sweat glistening on his torso, and the budding desire to know him in a way she had never known a man created a heady mixture that put sanity safely out of reach. How long had she imagined this moment? No matter how many times she had tried to force away any thought of Nathaniel making love to her, such visions had encroached on her dreams, slowly ensuring her heart won the battle with her head.
His large hand cupped her breast, circling below it and lifting it for his examination as though he saw some magnificent work of art. He traced its swell from her collarbone to its very tip, then his mouth lowered to take her nipple between his lips and to tease it with his tongue.
Alexandra’s stomach did a somersault, and she arched toward him as he moved from one nipple to the other.
Pulling her dress down to her waist, Nathaniel’s eyes followed his hand along the flat planes of her stomach.
Alexandra felt a moment of self-consciousness and was tempted to cover herself, but something more powerful wanted no barriers between them. Reaching out, she fiddled with the buttons of his breeches, and his hand quickly moved to help her.
He slid his pants off his lean hips, and Alexandra gasped at the sight of his maleness. Never had she seen a man without his clothes; the sight nearly melted her bones.
“I don’t know what to do,” she whispered, hearing the wobble in her voice as his hand began to seek out the most private parts of her body. “You’ll have to guide me.”
“Everything will come naturally,” he said, but her words seemed to give him pause. After a moment he lay without moving, as though trying to rein in his desire.
Finally he rolled away, his face set. “We can’t do this.”
Alexandra stared at him, willing herself to feel something besides a longing so powerful she almost reached out to pull him back to her. The quiet, safe existence she had always wanted seemed less important than having Nathaniel fulfill the promise his body had already given hers. “I want to feel you inside me,” she whispered. “Don’t stop.”
He closed his eyes, breathing deeply through his nose, but didn’t speak.
“What’s wrong? Don’t you want this?” she asked.
Moving beyond touching distance, as though he feared the slightest contact, he sat on the edge of the bed with his head bowed. “I’m wanted by the authorities. It’s bad enough that I must leave you in London on your own. I won’t deflower you as well. What if I leave you with child?”
Alexandra tried to slow the pounding of her heart by taking several carefully measured breaths. She almost said that she didn’t care, that she’d welcome a child of his. But she knew he was right. How would she care for a baby? She had no job, no home. And would she want to bear a child that would never know its father? It was only a matter of time before the duke—or the constabulary—caught up with Nathaniel to take him away forever.
She watched him scrub the whiskers on his face with his hand and nearly drew him back to her, in spite of everything, when a knock sounded on their door.
“Where’s my money, wench?” the innkeeper shouted through the panel.
Chapter 20
“Open up!”
Nathaniel reached for the pistol he’d left at the side of the bed, but Alexandra motioned for him to lie back and be silent. Coming to her feet, she threw the covers over him and quickly repaired her clothing before crossing to the door and cracking it open.
“I don’t know why my, er, friend isn’t here yet,” she said, hearing the breathless quality to her own voice. “I’ll send a messenger to fetch him right away.”
The innkeeper scratched his crotch. “Ye got an ‘our.” He tried to peer around her. “I thought I ‘eard voices.”
“I’m alone now, but I won’t be for long. My friend should arrive any moment.”
“That’s what ye said before.” He sniffed, apparently reluctant to go. Only when Alexandra shut the door in his face did he finally lumber away.
She turned to face Nathaniel, suddenly embarrassed and uncomfortable in light of what had just transpired between them. “I’ve got to find Trenton. Do you know where Marley House is?”
/> Nathaniel threw the blankets back, and Alexandra looked away as he set his gun on the table and began pulling on his clothes. The blackness of his mood showed in the scowl on his face. “That man needs to learn some respect.”
“But you are not the one to teach him. We definitely don’t need you shooting someone right now,” she said.
He fumbled with his trousers. Guessing how difficult buttons would be with only one arm, Alexandra nearly moved to help him, but she dared not get so close again.
“The next time he speaks to you in that tone, I’ll shoot him for good measure,” he grumbled, but he gave her the directions she needed.
Alexandra smoothed her hair before the mirror. She could see Nathaniel in the glass and felt a sudden impulse to go to him and kiss his brow. Instead, she crossed to the door. “Just be good, for once, all right? I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
With that she headed out, but Nathaniel called her back. “Perhaps you should take this.” He groaned as he reached for the gun. “I don’t want you out on the streets alone. It’ll be dark soon.”
“I wouldn’t know how to use it anyway.” Alexandra waved the pistol away. “I’ll be fine,” she insisted, and closed the door behind her, grateful that the obese innkeeper was absent from his post behind the counter when she passed through the lobby.
* * *
Nearly two hours passed before Alexandra returned to the inn with Trenton. The trip to Marley House had been quick and uneventful, but Trenton had been gone when she first arrived and she’d had to wait.
“So there ye are,” the innkeeper said when he saw her.
“Yes, I’m back. And I’ve got your money.” She stepped aside so Trenton could pay for the room.
“Ye got yerself quite a business goin’.” He watched Alexandra closely. “The bloke in yer room can scarcely move, ‘e’s so tired.”
Trenton shot Alexandra a questioning glance.