Nightwind (29 page)

“You she-bitch!” he spat, spinning away from her condescending gaze to glare out the window at the

rolling waves of the Gulf of Mexico.

“I would be careful what names you called me, Syntian,” she warned him in a neutral voice. “I could

stop the wedding, you know.”

He jerked, coming around to face her as though he could tear out her throat. His words were thrust from

between gnashing teeth clenched with primal rage. “Do not dare try.”

“Not that I will,” Angeline told him, amused at the lethal intent in his handsome face. “As long as you

behave and do as you are told.”

Syntian knew a wild moment of absolute mindlessness as he stared at her laughing face. His vision filled

with a scarlet haze of violence and his nostrils quivered as though he were a wild beast on the prowl for

fresh kill. Beneath the tight grip of his hands, his palms were slimy with sweat just as there was a thick line

of it over his upper lip.

“If you don’t sit down,” she told him, “I will have you caged like the animal you are behaving.” Her eyes

narrowed. “Is that what you want on the night before your wedding, Syntian?”

“Don’t fuck with me, Angeline!” he spat at her, taking a step toward the chaise.

“Don’t speak to me like that, Syntian. You know I don’t like it.”

“Tough shit,” he hissed, turning away from her steady gaze, feeling his helplessness closing around him

like the sharp teeth of a steel trap.

“She will come to her wedding day as pure as the day you forced yourself into her life,” Angeline

reminded him.

He tried to shut out the woman’s words, but they penetrated his mind. He heard her berating him,

chastising him, as she had nearly every day over the month-long period he and Lauren had been engaged.

He had anticipated her anger, had prepared himself for it, but when she had merely smiled at him, wishing

him happiness in his marriage when he had rebelliously told her of Lauren’s acceptance of his proposal,

he should have known she was being too accommodating by far.

“Oh, I’ll let you marry her, Syntian,” Angeline had agreed, confusing him and alerting him to a danger far

beyond her words. “I’ll even attend the wedding.”

He had stared at her, his instinct telling him there was something lurking behind her calm words. “In

exchange for what?” Angeline had smiled. “I don’t know, yet.”

When she had summoned him on the eve of his marriage, Syntian had been furious. He had ignored the

call, making it necessary for Angeline to send Delbert after him. He had fought Delbert, but it had availed

him nothing. Del was good at what he had been created to do.

“You could have saved yourself the pain,” Angeline had said as she had stood over him, shaking her

head at the blood that dripped down his face.

“Go to hell!” he’d snarled at her, swiping at the blood on his cheek.

Angeline swung her legs from the chaise and stood up, unlaced the ribbon at the throat of her peignoir.

“Come here,” she told him, not surprised when she saw his back stiffen and refuse to turn around to face

her. “Don’t make me call you again, Syntian.”

He spun around and fixed her with a malevolent glower that should have struck her dead. “I will not

have you pawing me, Angeline! Not tonight!”

“You, my dear sweet demon,” she told him, “have no say in the matter.” She let the peignoir drop to the

floor. Her naked breasts gleamed as she reached up to lift them and separate their fullness. She caressed

the heaviness with her slim fingers. “Would you rather I called you on your wedding night?”

He knew she was as likely to do that as not. He also knew he would be dragged to Angeline—kicking

and screaming in front of Lauren—if that was what Angeline decided she wanted. His shoulders sagged

in defeat.

“That’s a good boy,” she said, crooking her finger at him. “Come, Syntian.”

His entire being shivered with distaste as she made him kneel at her feet. He had to force himself to put

his arms around her, to draw her supple body to his cheek as he laid his head against her belly.

“You know what I want you to do,” she said in a sigh of anticipation. Her fingers threaded through his

long dark hair.

He forced himself away from the terrible place in which he was being kept; invoking every demon he

knew that she would not keep him here past the early morning when he should be leaving for the docks in

Panama City.

“Syntian,” she purred at him.

He lifted his head and looked bleakly at her, wondering what new tortures she had in store for him for

her voice had been too sweet.

Angeline smoothed the lush hair back from his forehead. “I will drive Lauren to P.C. tomorrow.”

He groaned. “Angeline—”

“I will drive her,” she stated, brooking no further discussion. “Consider it my wedding present to you.”

He searched her face, looking for the treachery he knew was there, but all he saw was amusement. He

flinched as she laughed at his helplessness.

“Love me, Syntian,” she warned him. “And love me well else you’ll spend the rest of Lauren’s life right

where you are at this moment.”

Angeline dabbedat the corner of her eye as Syntian turned to Lauren and took her into his arms to place

the stamp of possession on the young woman’s lips. The wind ruffled her sleek hair and a few stray wisps

escaped the confines of her chignon. She pushed them back with her hand and smiled as Robbie’s gaze

met her own.

“They make a handsome couple, don’t they?” Robbie chuckled. His pale blue gaze widened with spite.

“I don’t know why he’d want her instead of you, though.”

“Oh, I still have him, Robbie,” Angeline assured him. Her eyes went to the happy couple. “Now, more

than ever.”

Robbie lifted a glass of champagne from a tray Delbert held before him. He turned and raised the glass

high. “Ladies and gentlemen!” he said, gaining everyone’s attention. “May I propose a toast to our newly

wedded friends?”

Syntian caught Angeline smiling at him and he tore his gaze away, feeling every moment of her vile

attention crawling over him as it had the night before. He drew Lauren closer to his side as though to

protect her from the other woman’s wrath.

“To Lauren and Syntian!” Robbie intoned.

“To Lauren and Syntian!” Agnes Black echoed and her sister repeated the toast.

“To Lauren and Syntian!” the Athertons, Lauren’s neighbors, and new friends, chanted.

Henrietta Malone had declined the champagne, but raised her glass of Sprite to the couple. “To Lauren

and Syntian!”

Angeline lifted her glass, her gaze steady on Syntian as she commanded him to look at her. As his

attention leapt reluctantly to her, she arched one perfectly shaped brow at him. “To Lauren and Syntian,”

she said. “May the wind be always at their backs.” She held his gaze as she took a sip of her wine.

He understood her warning and he brought Lauren even closer to him. As his bride looked up at him

with love and adoration in her pretty face, he glanced down at her and smiled. “To my lady,” he said

softly, entwining his arm with hers in the traditional toast every newly married couple made to one

another.

Applause and cheers rang out over the docks. Robbie slapped Delbert on the back then caught the

attention of James Brigman, the notary public who had married the couple. “Do you need a ride home,

James?”

Brigman nodded, putting his champagne glass down on the sleek teak rail of the ship. “If it wouldn’t be

too much trouble.”

“No trouble at all,” Robbie answered. He bent over and kissed Angeline’s cheek.

“Tonight?” he asked, sweeping his fathomless gaze over her flushed face.

Angeline nodded.

Paegan Hesar, the owner and captain of the Revenant, held both arms out to the older ladies beside him.

“May I escort you lovely women to your car?”

Agnes blushed, quickly taking the proffered arm. “It would be our pleasure, wouldn’t it, sister?”

Anna Black was slower to take Hesar’s arms, but when she did, she pressed it intimately against her

shriveled bosom. “Indeed, we would.”

“I’ll return in a moment and get us underway, Syn,” Paegan told his age-old acquaintance. His dark eyes

roamed over Syntian’s bride with admiration. “If you’re ready, Lauren, I’ll take you where you’ve never

been before.”

Lauren smiled. She liked this handsome Norwegian. “I can’t wait,” she answered, looking up at Syntian

and wondering why he was frowning at Paegan.

“Have fun, you two lovebirds,” Angeline laughed as she motioned for Delbert to join her.

She locked her gaze with Syntian’s. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

He had to catch himself before he growled at the bitch. Instead, he forced a smile to his lips,

acknowledged the good-byes of the Athertons and the Blacks, and graciously accepted a wet kiss from

Henrietta Malone’s nearly toothless mouth.

“You take good care of this precious little girl, now, Synti,” Henrietta made him promise.

“I will, Miss Henrietta,” he vowed.

They waved at the people on the quay as Paegan pulled the sleek ship out of its berth and into the

sound. They laughed at Robbie’s beep on his Jeep’s horn, answered by Thadeus’ toot on his Fairmont’s,

Anna’s blare of her Oldsmobile’s horn, and Delbert’s long, elegant chime on the limo’s.

“Happy?” Syntian asked Lauren as the ship moved out past the buoys for the open seas.

She snuggled against his side, her heart near to bursting with emotion. “Yes.”

Paegan looked away from the wheel and watched as the couple disappeared below decks to the

stateroom he had given over to their comfort. He glanced back at the dock, not surprised to find

Angeline still standing there, staring after them. He cast his gaze back to the hatchway into which the

couple had gone. “I wouldn’t be you for anything, Syntian Cree.” He shivered. “For anything!”

His hands weretrembling as he eased her out of the lace and silk wedding gown Agnes and Anna had

insisted on buying her. The tiny pearl buttons were proving to be more of a hindrance than he could have

imagined, frustrating his already nervous hands and making him groan with hopelessness as he snagged

the lacy fabric with his short nails.

“You’d better let me,” said Lauren, turning around to face him as she struggled to undo the last three

buttons at her waist. The gown gave way and she drew in a breath, reluctant to pull the sleeves down

over her arms. She clutched at the neckline and blushed, avoiding his eyes.

“Lauren,” he sighed, drawing her gaze to his. “I love you. “

Her smile was tremulous as she released her death grip on the fabric and the gown moved off her

shoulders. She sucked in her breath as he put his hands on the sleeves and pushed the silk and lace

confection from her, letting it slide unhindered to her hips where he tugged it and sent it cascading to the

floor.

Lauren was trembling. He stared at her, his heart in his eyes, and she heard the ragged intake of his

breath as his gaze wandered to the rapid rise and fall of her chest beneath the silk of her slip. When he

reached up to tug at the straps, she started to stop him, but then remembered this man had every right in

the world to undress her. He was her husband.

“I don’t know what to do.” He placed a finger against her lips. She watched him shake his head.

“I know,” he assured her. His fingers splayed out over her collarbone and slid under the straps of her

slip. Very slowly, he eased them over her shoulders and, with little tugs, slid them down her arms,

pushing the slip down with them. “I’ll teach you.”

Lauren swallowed. Her heart, beating as fast as it could within her chest, was filling with love and

something she could not name. Her body was quivering at his touch, aching to have his hands caress her.

As the slip slid to the floor to pool atop her wedding gown, nothing stood between her and Syntian but a

lacy bra and pair of panties and a blue garter belt holding up a pair of real silk stockings that had been a

present from Henrietta Malone.

“Only silk, dear,” Henrietta had assured her. “Never nylon.”

He turned her, putting her back to him, and he licked his lips as his fingers went to the hooks of her

strapless bra. His palms were sweating and he could see the tremor in his hands as he unhooked the lacy

contraption. He saw Lauren’s hands come up to cup the bra to her. He bent his head and placed a gentle

kiss at the juncture of her neck and shoulder.

Lauren shivered all the way from her head to her toes as his mouth touched her flesh. She leaned against

him, feeling the silk of his shirt against her naked back. His arms came around her, pulling her to him, and

she gave herself up to the wonderful feeling that was invading her lower belly.

“I want you,” he whispered against her cheek, fanning the hair at her temple.

Closing her eyes for a moment, gathering her courage, Lauren turned in his arms, glorying in his strength

as he loosened his hold on her. When she faced him, she let her hands fall away from the bra and the lacy

protection fell away from her.

Syntian looked down to take in the twin perfections that rose and fell with every ragged breath his lady

took. He reached out, cupped the soft mounds in his hands, hearing Lauren’s gasp. He eased his thumbs

over the stiff peaks, stroking the hard little nubs, smiled at her groan then looked into her face.

“Lauren,” he said, sliding his arms around her and drawing her against him. “My Lauren.”

She held him, aching to know him, aching to have him know her. Her moan of pleasure was breathless