Gift of Desire (7 page)

The following is an excerpt from
LOVE’S SURRENDER
, a Brothers in Arms Christmas novella available from Samantha Kane.

Love’s Surrender

Samantha Kane

Book 9 in the Brothers in Arms series.

Lady Vanessa Carlton-Smythe is from one of England’s most well-respected families and the daughter of an earl. She has lived an exemplary life—the perfect daughter, the perfect lady. Until one Christmas Eve, when she meets two men who unleash her secret desires. She can’t surrender her heart, only her body, and only for the next twelve days. After Twelfth Night, their affair must end and she will return to a life that is slowly suffocating her.

Veterans Nick and Oliver have been constant companions since Waterloo. They share everything, including women and a bad reputation. When Lady Vanessa catches them in a compromising position, they are seduced by the longing in her eyes. Cool, distant, unattainable—the more she protests, the more they want her. Vanessa’s desires prompt the two men to finally give in to their feelings and become lovers. When desire becomes love, can they convince Vanessa to leave her privileged life behind and surrender to them forever?

Excerpt:

Chapter One

No one had asked to partner her in a dance.

It had been happening more frequently. And it was glaringly obvious here in this small drawing room, where the furniture had been pushed back for dancing. There were no potted palms or columns to hide behind.

She never would have come if she’d known there would be dancing. It was supposed to be a small Christmas Eve dinner, nothing more. Ordinarily she wouldn’t have accepted an invitation from the Shelbys’, but it had been last minute and she hadn’t wanted to stay at home on Christmas Eve. She should have known there were ulterior motives behind her invitation. There always were. Tonight’s agenda seemed to be to humiliate her while showcasing young Melinda Dorsett’s popularity and vivacious beauty.

Lady Vanessa Carlton-Smythe felt all the weight of her ponderous name and her equally weighty ancestors. Not to mention The Incident.

Lady Dalrymple chose that moment to take pity on Vanessa and sidled over to where she stood alone.

“No partner again, my dear? What a pity.” Lady Dalrymple languidly applied her fan as she surveyed the ballroom. Curls the color of a cold, gray dawn barely moved in the tepid breeze she made. “Perhaps you can convince your father to…
lower
his standards a bit, hmm?” Lady Dalrymple continued mercilessly. “You are getting on, my dear. If he isn’t careful you’ll be on the shelf, like poor Miss Peasbody over there.” The old woman tsked as Vanessa choked on a horrified gasp.

Miss Peasbody was
old
. And unwed. And unwanted.

“Certainly one would think with your bloodlines that some gentleman would come up to scratch,” Lady Dalrymple mused unkindly. “The Carlton-Smythe connection alone is enough to forgive any deficiencies in character or looks.”

Vanessa pasted on a brittle smile. She’d forgotten Lady Dalrymple was Miss Dorsett’s great aunt. Which reminded her, where was her Aunt Grace? Her job as chaperone was to help Vanessa avoid situations just like this. “It does seem to make a difference,” she agreed coolly. “Dancing and coy artlessness are not required of a woman in my circumstances. My name alone recommends me, as good breeding, impeccable manners and intelligence are understood in any Carlton-Smythe.”

Lady Dalrymple was not so stupid that she didn’t recognize the censure in Vanessa’s words. Other than a thinning of her already thin lips, however, she did not acknowledge the set down. “Surely a man requires more than a name, my dear. It might be enough to attract, but to secure him you must display the warmth and sensibility that a man wishes for in a wife. Wit, dancing, intelligent conversation are all required to keep a man’s attentions.”

Vanessa gave Lady Dalrymple the coldly blank look she had achieved at a young age, after rigorous training with her mother. The look reserved especially for those who did not know their place when addressing a Carlton-Smythe. “A Carlton-Smythe has no need to snare a man through posturing, Lady Dalrymple. While some young ladies,” she glanced over at Miss Dorsett, laughing a little too loudly while she was spun around the dance floor, “feel a less refined manner will attract and secure, it is not required of me.”

“Perhaps the handsome Duke of Ashland would argue that point.” Lady Dalrymple drove that nail home with undisguised malicious pleasure. “Her Grace is well-known as a lively young woman who enjoys dancing and laughing and the pleasures to be found in such endeavors.”

Vanessa took a quiet, dignified, deep breath. Of course Lady Dalrymple would bring up The Incident. “Then His Grace was quite right when he felt we would not suit. As I have said to Ashland,” she used the familiar address to show she was intimate with the Duke and Duchess while Lady Dalrymple was not, “if he had not behaved so badly when he broke our engagement, neither of us would enjoy the happiness we do today.” She inwardly cringed. Happiness, indeed. She hardly knew what the word meant these days.

“If you will excuse me, Lady Dalrymple, I believe I see my aunt. Good evening.” Vanessa hurried in the direction of her Aunt Grace, whom she’d spotted gossiping near the far end of the room. She passed the dance floor on her way to her aunt’s side, and noticed Miss Dorsett was no longer displaying her dancing and wit there. She caught her aunt’s eye and the small, older woman excused herself from her companion and stepped forward to greet her niece.

“Is something the matter, my dear?” she asked quietly, taking Vanessa’s hand and tucking it in her elbow as she slowed Vanessa’s steps to a stately walk around the room’s perimeter. To most observers it most likely seemed as if the two had met deliberately to stroll around the room and chat.

“I was ambushed,” Vanessa said softly as she smiled politely at Mrs. Crusher and her two daughters. The girls were rather plain but very sweet and well dressed, ensuring at least one offer for each of them this season, Vanessa was sure. She always made it a point to show her approval of them when they met. The opinion of a Carlton-Smythe was enough to sway many families in favor of a match they might not have sought otherwise.

Her smile grew brittle as they passed the Crushers and strolled into enemy territory. Lady Dalrymple now stood with her sister and grandniece, Miss Dorsett’s grandmother and mother, all three glaring at Vanessa and her aunt.

“I saw. Keep smiling,” Aunt Grace said. She nodded at the ladies, forcing them to acknowledge her and Vanessa. She knew they couldn’t afford to risk a falling out with the Carlton-Smythes. They all nodded back politely.

Vanessa felt a spurt of disgust. She knew they disliked her and resented her family, and yet they all put on masks and pretended an affinity none of them felt. Including Vanessa. But she was reluctant to ruin their family and Miss Dorsett’s chances for an advantageous match, simply because she disliked them. As a Carlton-Smythe she may wield a great deal of power, but Vanessa had been taught from a young age to use it wisely and judiciously. It simply wasn’t in her nature to be so spiteful.

“Do you need a moment, Vanessa?” Aunt Grace asked, continuing their stroll, smiling and nodding as she went. She had been raised a Carlton-Smythe as well and knew how to maintain appearances. She also knew how this life sometimes suffocated Vanessa, and she was sympathetic. Aunt Grace had never married, not by choice but because her father and brother had never found a suitor worthy of her. She had once confided in Vanessa that were the grocer to offer for her at this point, she would say yes without a moment’s hesitation or consideration.

“Yes.” She did need a moment alone. She needed to regroup and settle her nerves. It wouldn’t do for anyone here to see her flustered or in a temper. She lived her life in a glass bowl. Her thoughts and feelings were her own, however, and not for public scrutiny.

Suddenly her aunt stumbled and caught her heel on Vanessa’s hem, tearing it. “Oh, dear!” Aunt Grace exclaimed. Several ladies and gentlemen standing nearby rushed over to help her unsteady aunt. “Oh, I’ve torn your hem, Vanessa,” Aunt Grace said sadly. “I’m so sorry.”

Vanessa wanted to applaud her masterful performance. Instead she smiled warmly. “I’m fine, Aunt Grace. As long as you are all right?”

Her aunt was glancing around the floor. “I’m fine, dear. I just can’t fathom what I must have tripped on,” she mused. By now there were at least ten people searching the floor in vain for the offending article. “Run along and get your hem fixed, Vanessa,” Aunt Grace begged. “I shall be well cared for, I’m sure.” A chorus of assurances came from her aunt’s rescuers as Mrs. Crusher pressed a glass of lemonade into her aunt’s hand and she was led to a chair.

Vanessa didn’t answer. Instead she slipped out without anyone noticing.

* * *

She had almost reached the relative seclusion of the retiring room when a small noise to her right made Vanessa stop. It had sounded a little like distress, but not quite. Was it a man or woman? Again, Vanessa wasn’t sure. It might have been a cat, even.

The noise came again and Vanessa turned her head slowly, until she gazed into the dark shadows of a small hallway, partially hidden by a chest of some sort. She couldn’t immediately discern what was happening. There appeared to be a couple, or perhaps more? They were hiding in the shadows, and a gentleman was holding a woman up. The dark material of his coat sleeve stood out in stark relief against the lady’s pale dress. Vanessa took a step toward them, still silent. The man raised his head from the woman’s shoulder and his eyes met Vanessa’s.

Her heart stuttered and then beat erratically. His eyes were black, one speck of light burning in each, mesmerizing her. She was frozen in place by the heat and intensity of his stare.

The moment was broken when the woman in his arms squirmed and sighed. The sound was the one that had caught Vanessa’s attention. Breaking eye contact with Vanessa, the man bent over the woman’s shoulder, one hand cupping the back of her head to hold her steady. Then he licked her neck.

Vanessa’s breath caught in her throat. It was an assignation. She’d stumbled upon lovers, it seemed. Embarrassment burned in her cheeks. Only the man was aware of her. Vanessa was uncharacteristically flustered. Should she turn and hurry on to the retiring room, probably alerting the woman to her presence? Or should she quietly back out the way she’d come? That seemed somehow like a retreat, surrender to the challenge she’d seen gleaming in the gentleman’s dark eyes.

When a second man stepped out of the shadows and took the woman’s hand from the first man’s shoulder, Vanessa gaped like a green girl. He, too, was watching Vanessa as he kissed the woman’s hand. His hair gleamed in the faint light from the hallway sconce, obviously golden, though light or dark she couldn’t tell. He was taller than his companion. The woman giggled and it was then Vanessa recognized who it was. Miss Dorsett. Not a woman then, but a girl too young to understand the trouble that had found her. With a sigh, Vanessa realized it was up to her to rescue the foolish chit.

Before she could make her presence known the blond gentleman spoke quietly. “We must return you to the drawing room before you are missed, Melinda.” His voice was a deep whisper, a mere rumble that carried across the hall to Vanessa and she shivered. The dark-haired man smiled at her as if he’d seen the telltale sign of her discomfort and it amused him.

“Oh pooh,” Melinda said, sounding like a spoiled child. “I was told you two were dangerous, a threat to my virtue. A few kisses and a pinch or two and you’re sending me off? That hardly signifies. I shall have to tell everyone your reputations are much exaggerated.” Vanessa could picture her pouting, though she faced away from Vanessa.

The dark-haired man laughed quietly. “So now you know our secret. We are truly saints in disguise.” He untangled her arms from around his neck. “Go now. We shall follow after so no one suspects your virtue was threatened.”

“Well, it wasn’t,” Miss Dorsett declared testily. “I was hoping for some fun with you two this season before I must settle into a staid marriage with someone appropriate. God knows I can’t encourage you as suitors, but I thought at least you could satisfy me in private. I begin to think I shall have to find a different lover to do so.” She patted her hair. “Don’t ask me to dance again. Mama had a fit when I agreed earlier. You are not marriage material, after all.”

Miss Dorsett turned toward the drawing room and Vanessa swallowed a gasp and stepped back quickly, pressing against the wall behind her as if she could blend into the garish oriental print on the paper there. Even though Miss Dorsett faced the opposite end of the hallway from where Vanessa stood, she feared the girl would detect her presence. She needn’t have worried. It was apparent the young lady was quite put out and too self-interested to notice her surroundings.

“I shall send for you if I want you,” Miss Dorsett said dismissively. “Until then, stay away. I won’t have you two ruining my chances at a brilliant match. Mama says I am the catch of the season.”

The dark-haired gentleman bowed over her hand as if in agreement, keeping her attention focused on him while the taller one moved to stand between Vanessa and Miss Dorsett as if to help her hide from the girl. “Of course,” he said in reply. Vanessa recognized the amused disdain in his voice. It was quite confusing as to who had been using whom in their little assignation, for there was clearly no love lost between the three.

Without a word or look in Vanessa’s direction the two men ushered Miss Dorsett down the hallway between them, leaving Vanessa feeling like an eavesdropping fool as she hurried to the retiring room.

* * *

Once they were out of sight of the blonde beauty, Nick watched as Oliver grabbed Miss Dorsett’s hand, slowing her retreat to the drawing room. “Melinda, my dear, a question, if you will.”