‘One-Eye goes, or I do not.’ The old hound and Eliza were all she could take of Jamaica into her new life and she wanted them both, she realised.

‘I’ll be getting back to the ship, ma’am, if you don’t need me any more?’ If a naval officer could be said to sidle out of a gate, the lieutenant was managing it now.

‘Thank you so much, Mr Conroy,’ Clemence said with warmth. ‘I am sure Mr Stanier will be joining you directly.’

Nathan waited until the other man was out of earshot, his arms folded across his chest. ‘You are not Clem now, you must not indulge in that sort of behaviour.’

‘What sort?’ Clemence folded her own arms just as assertively. ‘If Eliza and I had been bathing the dog with only Street to help us, you wouldn’t have said a thing. Simply because Mr Conroy is an attractive man, you react like my brother. Well, you are not.’

‘I am well aware of that! Clemence, you have your

reputation to think of now.’

‘Nonsense,’ she snapped. ‘I can dress as a boy, run away to join the pirates and sleep for nights with a man and yet my smart relatives can magic all that away, according to you. I am sure mixed dog washing can be excused as a very minor sin for the rich, well-connected Miss Ravenhurst.’

‘Just because I will not marry you does not mean you have to start flirting with every young man you come into contact with! Wait until you get to London and the chaperonage of one of your aunts, at least.’

Clemence was not quite certain which part of that comprehensively inflammatory statement she most took exception to. She closed the four-foot gap between them, index finger extended. ‘If you are suggesting that I am flirting with Lieutenant Conroy—’ prod ‘—because my nose is out of joint—’ prod ‘—because you will not marry me, Nathan Stanier—’ prod ‘—then you have a more swollen head than I could have imagined!’

He grabbed her hand and held it an inch away from his chest. ‘I am suggesting that you are unused to not getting your own way, Miss Ravenhurst, and that you want to show me that you do not care that I am taking a more mature view of this.’

‘Mature?’ Clemence drew in a long, shuddering breath. ‘We are back to my age again, are we? Might I point out that a mature response on your part would be to ignore a perfectly normal episode of domestic life and avoid embarrassing poor Mr Conroy.’ Nathan’s face darkened in a most satisfactory manner, so she cast around for oil to throw on the flames. ‘Of course, I appreciate that your temper will be uncertain this morning after last night’s frustrations.’

‘Frustrations?’ The blue eyes glittered dangerously. ‘Allow me to demonstrate what frustration involves, Miss Ravenhurst.’

The yard was neglected, like the house, but at one time someone had constructed an arbour, screened with climbers. They were overgrown now and the seat within was rickety with age. It creaked ominously under their weight as Nathan scooped Clemence up and threw himself down on it, holding her across his knee with one hand despite her furious wriggling.

He is trying to frighten me for my own good, she thought, suddenly still, suddenly understanding. But I am not frightened and I want him to want me, want him to understand what he is giving up.

Her mouth was open under his as he thrust into the moist, soft interior and she let him, passive for a moment while she learned the rhythm, then her tongue joined his, touched, probed, fenced and her body curled against his, finding the places where they fitted together, feeling his erection under the curve of her buttocks, wriggling against it in wanton invitation.

Everything that his gentle caresses of the night before had aroused sprang into hot, urgent life again. Nathan growled, freeing her mouth, bending his head to see what he was doing as his free hand pulled down the loose neck of her damp muslin gown so that the newly burgeoning curves of her breasts were exposed to his gaze and his hot, avid mouth.

They ached and tingled and seemed to grow as he licked and nibbled and then his thumb rubbed under the corset edge and found her nipple and she arched, panting, her head thrown back on his shoulder, utterly unable to do anything but surrender to the impossible pleasure.

And then he stopped. He pulled up her gown, tied the ribbons, got to his feet and placed her on to the seat, then stood there regarding her as though absolutely nothing at all out of the ordinary had happened in the last few crowded minutes.

Nathan’s breathing was fast; she could see the rise and fall of his chest under the shirt ruffle, the vein in his temple standing out, but his voice was controlled and his bow, immaculate.

‘That, Clemence, is what frustration feels like. I am but a short walk from the highly skilled means of relieving it, just as I was last night. You, I regret, must learn the consequences of teasing a man, and especially, of teasing me.’

‘You…’ At least days on the Sea Scorpion had enriched her vocabulary; she searched for the worst word she could recall.

‘Tsk.’ He shook his head in reproof. ‘Ladies do not swear. Good day, Clemence. We will come to collect you and your baggage tomorrow morning at six.’

‘…bastard,’ she finished in a whisper as he picked up his cocked hat and strode out of the gate. He would not hear her, but she felt better for it. Her body was on fire with new confusing sensations, her pulse was all over the place; if he had intended to utterly wreck her composure, he had succeeded a thousand-fold.

‘Eliza!’

‘Yes, Miss Clemence?’ the maid called from the door.

‘A cold bath, if you please. I have become intolerably overheated.’ And then, to crown it, to be told he had gone to a brothel after leaving her bed and was going to one now! She hoped he had his pocket picked and his boots stolen and drank bad rum and felt like hell in the morning. Because that was how she felt now.

‘Miss Clemence? You’re crying, Miss Clemence.’ Eliza was patting her hand.

‘Only because I am so angry with that wretched man, Eliza, that’s all.’ But anger had never made her cry before. Never.

Nathan strode along the harbour front, his expression enough to send anyone in his path diving to the side. How that outburst over Conroy had happened he had no very clear idea. Of course Clemence was not flirting with the lieutenant, let alone contemplating any more shocking behaviour. They were two attractive young people who had been having strenuous fun in the company of a perfectly respectable lady’s maid and one disreputable ex-pirate.

Tags: Louise Allen Historical
Source: readsnovelonline.net