Sweet Silken Bondage (27 page)

"Damn," he muttered as he reacted to that innocence. He struggled to resist the compelling temptation to reach out and caress her. She might look
sweetly innocent while she was sleeping, but he
knew better. Reina was a woman who used her
feminine wiles and physical attributes to her advantage. She was so good at it that she'd almost made
him forget himself twice. He had himself under
rigid control now, though, and was positive it
wouldn't happen again.

Clay wondered what Reina was going to try next.
Knowing how cunning and manipulative she could be, he didn't expect her to return with him without
a fight. But he was ready for her.

Keeping her tethered to the bed for the rest of
the voyage was not an idle threat to Clay. He wasn't
about to let her destroy his only chance to rescue
Dev. In silence, Clay once again cursed her father
for his devious plot in getting him involved.

While he sat there, naked to the waist, watching
Reina, her eyes suddenly opened, and she looked
straight at him. He found himself staring, mesmerized, into the brown velvet of her gaze. Clay marvelled at the total guilelessness of Reina's expression,
and he wondered how she could assume this innocent act of hers so immediately upon waking. He'd
expected to see hatred and resentment for him on
her unguarded features. It irritated him that she
could appear so blameless, and it annoyed him
further that he allowed it to bother him.

In the softness that comes with first waking,
Reina stared at Clay for a long, quiet moment. She
wondered if it would do any good at all to try to
explain her situation to him...to tell him why
she'd run away and try to sway him over to her
side. She was almost ready to try to reason with
him, when his distant regard suddenly turned
openly hostile. Reina realized then that there was
no use. If he wouldn't take her money, he certainly
wouldn't care what her real reasons had been for
running away. He was her father's mindless henchman. He wouldn't listen. Reina's anger with him
returned, and with it, her iron-willed determination
to escape him.

"You look lovely in the morning," Clay said in a
low, almost seductive voice, before adding his hateful commentary. "I'm sure your fiance is going to
enjoy waking up beside you every day!"

"I don't have a fiance!" she countered sharply,
sitting up and turning her back on him. While she gave the appearance of being angry, on the inside
she was cringing at the thought of ever being in bed
with Nathan.

"Oh, yes, you do, and according to your father,
he's anxiously anticipating your upcoming nuptials,"
Clay taunted. "With any luck, we'll be there in
plenty of time for the wedding."

Reina refused to be baited into an argument. She
wanted to turn on Clay and throw it up to him that
they still had a long way to go to California, but
she held herself back, for she sensed his ability to
do even worse things than tie her to the bed to
achieve his ends. She would play his game by his
rules. If he thought she'd been acting before, now
he was really going to see a masterful performance.

"It looks at this point as if I have no choice," she
finally said, hoping she sounded resigned to her
fate.

"Oh, you have choices all right, Reina, but not
about making the trip. You're going. You can,
however, choose how you care to spend the time
involved. You can pass the entire voyage locked
here in our cabin or you can make things easy on
yourself and go along with the story I told the
captain." He saw her stiffen as he spoke. "It's all up
to you."

Turning to face him, Reina paused. He'd left her
no choice, no choice at all. Her expression was a
curious mixture of anger and an almost haunted
desperation as she stared at him.

Clay was surprised that he felt a twinge of conscience, and he quickly put it from him. Her feelings were of no importance to him. "Well?"

"All right," she finally responded. "I'll go along
with you."

Her acquiescence left Clay suspicious. "You realize what this will entail? You know you've got to
play the part of my new bride."

Reina glared at him. "Oh, I'll play the part of
your adoring little wife when we're in public, Clay,
but that's all it will be - an act! The charade ends
the minute we step back through that door."

He gave her a mocking look and said pointedly,
"I don't remember asking you to do more than
that."

At his sarcasm, heat crept into her cheeks. Not
wanting him to see her embarrassment, she mumbled, "Good." Then she got up and started rummaging through the small trunk she recognized as her
own. "If you don't mind, I do have to change
clothes."

"My, my, such modesty in my new bride after
we've just spent the night sleeping in the same bed."
Clay got up and leisurely began to pull on his
clothes.

Reina wished she could throw something at him
and wipe that arrogant, superior smirk off his face.

"I'll be waiting for you on deck," Clay told her
coldly. "Don't be too long or I'll come looking for
you.,,

It was a threat Reina knew he'd keep, so she said
nothing as he left the cabin. The minute he shut
the door behind him, though, she picked up her
hairbrush and threw it furiously at the closed portal. It bounced off the door and clattered harmlessly
to the floor while she continued to seethe in frustration.

It was much later in the day when Reina stood at
the rail of the ship, enjoying the feel of the wind
whipping around her as they sped ever southward.
After being cooped up in the cabin for so many
hours, just being out-of-doors was wonderful. The
warmth of the late afternoon sun combined with the
fresh air buoyed her spirits considerably. She didn't doubt for a moment that she was going to find a
way to rid herself of the obnoxious, tenacious Clay
Cordell.

Reina knew she couldn't go to the captain. Not
that he didn't appear to be a nice man. She'd met
him earlier in the day when they'd first come up on
deck, and he'd seemed decent enough. It was just
that what Clay had said was true. Her reputation
would be thoroughly compromised if she tried to
tell anyone on board the truth about her situation.

Coming up with a whole new way to escape her
captor's clutches was proving a challenge, considering where they were, but she already had another
idea. There were a few days left before they reached
Panama and made port. She had that much time to
put her new plan into action. She would start
tonight, at dinner. It just might work.

Clay was standing across the deck talking with
the captain while he kept a careful watch over his
bride.

"Lovely young woman, your missus," Captain
Gibson, a barrel-chested, full-bearded, gray-haired,
mountain of a man, observed as he regarded
Reina's trim figure with open male appreciation.

"Thank you. I think so, too." Clay realized his
words were true. He did think her beautiful, and he
was touched with the kind of pride a husband
might have. It annoyed him.

"Are you two heading for the gold fields like
everyone else?" Gibson pried.

"No. My wife is from California. Her family is
there."

"I'm looking forward to our dining together this
evening and getting to know her better. She looks
like quite a charming lady," the captain said, his
gaze still resting on Reina, for she was by far the
most attractive female on the boat.

The ship's master's appreciative gaze was begin ping to stir an emotion in Clay he would never
recognize jealousy. It struck a raw nerve, and he
grew tense and uncomfortable as they continued to
talk. He noticed a handsome young man join Reina
at the rail, and he thought the fair-haired youth far
too attentive where she was concerned. He didn't
like it one bit, and in spite of himself, he scowled
blackly.

"Excuse me, Captain Gibson. I think I shall see
to my wife," Clay bit out tersely, striding straight
across the deck to where Reina was chatting with
the young man,

Gibson watched him go, and he chuckled to himself. "Cordell 's one jealous man, and I got a feeling that
that pretty, little bride of his is going to run him ragged.
She's a beauty, and men are drawn to her like a magnet.
He's going to be one busy man if he thinks he can keep
them away from her and keep her all to himself."

Clay's features were like carved granite when he
stopped by her side, interrupting her lighthearted
repartee with the gallant, would-be suitor. He told
himself that the only reason he was angry was
because he thought she might be up to something.
Why else?

"Darling," he stressed the word as he took possessive hold of her arm. "Are you going to introduce
me to your friend?"

"Of course," Reina said tautly, "Michael Webster,
this is my husband, Clay Cordell. Clay, this is
Michael Webster. Michael's going to California,
too."

Clay bristled. Considering that she'd just met the
young fellow, he thought she was being much too
familiar in addressing him by his first name. "How
nice for you, Mr. Webster."

"Yes, it should be exciting. I've heard a lot about
California. I'm really looking forward to it," Michael
reported cheerfully, ignorant of the dangerous un dercurrent that lurked just beneath Clay's civilized
veneer.

"Reina, don't you think it's time we went below?"
Clay turned away from the young man, in an
attempt to cut him dead, but Reina wouldn't allow
it.

"I'd really rather not just yet, sweetheart," she
emphasized the endearment. "It's such a beautiful
day out, and you know how much I hated being
forced to stay in our cabin when I was feeling so ill
before." She faced him fully, meeting his glowering
silver stare without flinching.

"You did say you wanted to rest up before dinner, though, didn't you?" he came back at her, not
giving her an easy out.

Reina's eyes flashed fire, and she refused to be
coerced into going along with him. "I really feel
quite fine, dear, but if you want to go back to the
cabin for a while, go right ahead."

Clay was about to erupt. He'd never had a
woman so openly defy him before. "I really would
prefer you come with me, darling. I'm sure we'll see
Mr. Webster later at dinner." He tightened his hold
on her arm in a subtly threatening gesture that only
she was aware of.

Reina knew she'd pushed him as far as she dared
for right now. Smiling at the unsuspecting Michael,
she turned the full power of her potent female
charm on him. "My husband needs me, Michael. If
you'll excuse me 'til later?"

"Yes, ma'am," Michael responded, beaming.

"We will be seeing you at dinner tonight, won't
we?" She made sure to include her husband in her
question.

"You surely will, Mrs. Cordell," he promised eagerly.

She gave him a gracious nod as Clay led her
away. They appeared the perfect couple as he es corted her below, and more than a few eyes followed
their progress with silent approval.

Clay didn't speak again until they reached the
privacy of their cabin. Only then did he allow
himself to explode. "What the hell did you think
you were doing out there?" he demanded.

"I was having a simple conversation with a very
nice, very lonely, young man," Reina explained simply. She was pleased that she could stay so remarkably calm on the surface, while deep inside she
wanted to rage at him that it was none of his
business what she did or who she did it with.

"I don't care how lonely young Webster is. I don't
care if the man doesn't have a friend in the world!"
Clay ground out. "It's going to stop, and it's going
to stop now."

Reina regarded him from beneath lowered lashes.
If she hadn't known better, she might have thought
him jealous, but that couldn't be. If there was one
thing Clay Cordell wasn't, that was jealous of her.

"I agreed to go along with your little charade of
pretending to be married, but that's all I agreed to!"

"You're supposed to be acting like a married
woman."

"I didn't know that married women weren't allowed to have conversations with other passengers,"
Reina challenged.

"Not with single men. I've seen you work your
wiles on men. An innocent like Webster would be
putty in your hands. I want you to stay away from
him. Leave him alone."

Reina wondered how he could have come to have
such a low opinion of her. He didn't really know
her. It enraged her that Clay thought her decadent
enough to try to seduce the youth. The only thing
she wanted from Michael Webster was his help in
escaping, if the opportunity ever arose.

"There's a big difference between you and Mi chael Webster, Clay. He's"

"You're right," he cut her off in mid-statement.
"There's a damn big difference. He's a boy still wet
behind the ears, and I'm a man. You'd do well to
remember that."

"I was about to say," Reina continued with precision, ignoring him. "There's a big difference, Clay.
Michael Webster is a gentleman."

"I'll tell you what," Clay said smoothly when she'd
finished. "I'll act like the gentleman you say I'm
not, if you'll act like a lady."

Clay's barbed comment left Reina seething, but
she held herself in check. This was not the time or
place to push him further right now. She had to
wait, bide her time.

"I never forget that I'm a lady, although you seem
to have," she replied with dignity.

"I never knew it to forget it," Clay countered
hatefully.

Reina wished their stateroom was ten times bigger so she could get away from him and his overbearing ways for a while. But she knew there was
little hope of any real privacy for her between here
and California. If anything, it seemed that Clay was
even more determined than ever not to let her out
of his sight.

Reina pretended as though nothing he'd said had
bothered her in the least, and she went on about
the business of getting ready for dinner. She drew
the one nice evening gown Emilie had packed out
of the trunk and smoothing the wrinkles from it,
she spread it out on her half of the bed. It was a
teal blue gown that, while not as dramatic or as
eye-catching as her gold gown, certainly paid full
tribute to her loveliness.