Too Dangerous to Desire (20 page)

“Why don’t I help you to your room so you can rest?”

“No, really, I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine, Belle. You have to rest.”

The duchess regarded her with surprise
.
“You’ve become more headstrong, haven’t you, Evie?”

“I insist, Belle.”

“Yes, I gathered that.” She sighed in discontent. “Oh, very well. If
you
insist.”

nm

dam hoped she would come. He had penned a note and slipped it under her door. Now he stood beside the pond and waited, listening to the soft and lyrical chirp of night critters, observing the hazy reflection of the castle in the smooth surface of the water.

It was dark out, the warm air brimming with the scent of wildflowers. He closed his eyes and inhaled the fragrant summer breeze.

Slowly he divested his clothes. In a pair of flan
nel drawers, he stepped closer to the water’s edge and immersed his foot in the cool pool before he waded through the tranquil waves. Making his way deeper toward the center of the pond, he arched his body forward and stroked across the healing waters.

A good swim always put his mind, his muscles to right.

Adam made a few laps before he sensed a pair of eyes watching him from the darkness.

“Good evening, Evie.”

Her shadow stirred beside a tree, and he shifted his eyes to capture the movement.

“How good of you to join me,” he said.

“Why did you summon me here?”

He stilled, waist-deep in water. “I have some
thing more to teach you.”

“What?

“Take off your clothes and come into the water.”

She fell quiet.

“You don’t have to remove all your clothes, Evie. Just strip down to your shift.”

“I’d rather not.”

“Are you still afraid of me?”

Silence.

He sighed. “I might have made a mistake many years ago, an unforgivable transgression against my brother. But I won’t hurt you. Besides, if you want to go to America, you will do as I say. I won’t let you board that pirate ship before I teach you how to swim.”

She moved away from the tree and slowly approached. “Why do I need to learn how to swim?”

“Any number of things could happen aboard a ship: you might slip and fall overboard, for one. I want to make sure you don’t drown during the voyage.”

“What if I promise not to leave my cabin?”

The ship might sink
, he thought in morbid reflection.

“That’s not good enough, Evie. You need to know how to swim. Come.” He stretched out his hand to encourage her. “It’s dark. No one will see you, I promise.”

She let out a huff in protest before she reached for the buttons of her dress.

Adam turned around to offer her privacy.

After a few moments, he heard her tepid steps sink into the pond. Slowly he turned around.

His heart shuddered at the sensual sight. Draped in a chemise, she waded through the still water, her trim figure cast in the milky white glow of the moon. The ghostly light bounced off her sooty locks, too, the tendrils twisted into a knot atop her head. She was a vision of loveliness—and he was having a devilishly hard time keeping his thoughts chaste.

“It’s cold,” she griped.

It was indeed. He noted the hard points of her nipples pushing against the immodest shift. The impulse to cup her bountiful breasts and chase away the chill gripped him.

“Your body will adjust to the water,” he said roughly.

Her skirt ballooned around her waist the deeper she entered the water, and she quickly
tried to drown the garment by pressing her palms against it.

He imagined lifting the feckless shift up over her shoulders and pressing his lips to every part of her body.

Swiftly he smothered the thought.

“I want you to lie across the water on your back, Evie.”

“Why?”

“So you can float. I want you to get a feel for the water.”

She was uneasy; he could sense it.

“You won’t sink. I’ll place my hand under your back to keep you buoyant.”

At length she acquiesced and eased her torso backward.

She gripped him for support. The muscles in his arm capered under her tight, almost clinging hold.

He pressed his palms against the curve of her spine. “Stretch out your legs.”

She did. The water rushed over her chest, filled the space between her breasts, soaking the shift.

Adam’s body hardened. The diaphanous mate
rial hugged her every delicious curve, exposing each dip and groove and smooth expanse to his avid eyes.

“Close your eyes, Evie. Feel the water.”

Her lashes fluttered before she shut her eyes.

“Now take a deep breath,” he said.

Air filled her lungs, the sharp sound too audi
ble to miss. He noted the quick rise of her breasts, too.

The sultry image of her bare and plump breasts bobbing in the water came to play in his mind. He lingered over the wanton thought, imagined the tender way he would widen, then peel back the wet layer of her bodice to expose the heavy mounds of flesh. The raw joy he would take in parting his lips and taking the hard nub of her nipple into his mouth and sucking.

The ache in his body pulsed with such vigor, he removed his hands from her back.

She flapped her arms and disappeared be
neath the surface of the water for a moment before he fished her out and propped her back on her toes.

“I lost my grip,” he said tightly.

My grip on reason.

She sputtered and wiped the moisture from her eyes, her locks an adorable slop of curls around her head. “You tutor in swordplay and fisticuffs with more ease,” she charged.

He was chagrined. “Why don’t we try it an
other way?”

“Why don’t I go inside and dry off?”

“You have to learn how to swim.” And he
would
teach her, despite the wild cravings in his heart. “Lie on your front this time.”

He reckoned if she rested across her mid
riff, he wouldn’t see her swollen and tempting breasts. Perhaps
then
he could keep a cap on his wits.

She let out a short huff before she shakily stretched out across the water.

Adam maintained a firm hold of her belly as she dipped forward. But he stiffened at the sight of her plump arse, the round flesh so incredibly erotic. Blood hastened through his veins, pounded in his groin.

He stifled a curse.

“Stretch your legs and kick, Evie.”

Lightly the water splashed.

“Good,” he praised. “Move your arms now. Paddle.”

She stopped kicking and stroked across the water instead.

“Evie, you must do
both
movements at the same time.”

She started to kick again.

“Much better.” He moved beside her as she practiced, keeping her afloat. “Get accustomed to the rhythm. I’m going to let you go soon.”

“No!”

She wavered and dunked beneath the waves again.

“I’ve got you.” He curled his arms around her waist and hoisted her back to her feet. Pressed against him in such an intimate embrace, she stirred the embers of desire in his belly. “You have to learn how to swim without my help.”

“I can’t do this, Adam.”

“It will take time to learn,” he assured her. “But we’ll practice in secret every night until the ship sets sail.”

She appeared dubious. “Every night?”

“Yes, you must learn to swim with confidence. Now let’s try again.”

Shakily she assumed the position, and Adam once more supported her underside as she re
hearsed the movements—and once more he was distracted by her plump behind.

He forced himself to focus on the swimming lesson. “Turn your head from side to side.”

She followed instruction . . . but then she screamed.

Evelyn reared up and grabbed ahold of him, clinging to him like an iron shackle. She was shivering, and his instinct was to keep her warm, so he slipped his arms around her midriff.

He wondered, “What the devil . . . ?”

A thin shadow slithered across the surface of the pond.

“It’s just a snake, Evie.”

“I hate snakes!”

He gathered that. The prince was akin to a serpent in many ways, so Adam suspected the woman’s distaste for the reptile a more subtle phobia.

Her quivering limbs vibrated against him, making him warm. He closed his eyes to better enjoy the comforting feel of her feminine body crushed against him.

He was starved for closeness, and Evelyn’s heal
ing touch aroused him from a deep and lonely sleep.

Once the snake had slinked away, Evelyn loos
ened her hold on his neck. She appeared sheepish after her outburst. And he found her discomfiture endearing.

A gruesome pang gripped his heart at the thought of parting from her. He was determined not to abandon her in America. He had only to convince the woman it was wise for them
both
to remain in the New World.

She lifted her sweeping lashes to look at him.

Moonbeams filled her eyes with enchanting light.

He tried to beat back the fierce desire growing in his belly, but he was bewitched by her haunting expression, her plump lips swollen with blood, so inviting . . .

Adam dropped his head and pressed his mouth over hers with savage hunger. When she didn’t
protest, he deepened the kiss, claimed the sweet
balm she offered him with her heady lips.

Tremors wracked her body; she weakened.

“Hold me, Evie,” he said roughly
.
“Don’t let me go.”

She shuddered, her every quiver a visceral spark of energy that danced along his rigid body.

Adam scooped her in his arms and carried her toward a nearby boulder. He pressed her against the smooth surface of the rock, hooked his hands under her knees, and forced her legs apart.

He needed to feel her arms, her thighs wrapped tight around him. He needed to sink inside her, to be one with her. It burned in his blood, the wild desire.

“Evie,” he breathed, and kissed her throat, her bust. “I need you.”

Hard with passion, Adam reached between his legs and unfastened the buttons of his drawers.

Evelyn’s moist flesh was opened to him, and he slipped inside her dewy cleft with a hoarse cry.

Evelyn was mesmerized.

The swift passion unleashed inside her was overwhelming. She squeezed Adam’s neck, pinched her legs together to keep him close.

This was not the vile experience her sister had written about in her letters. Every sense inside Evelyn danced with life. The heat, the energy, the
sheer thickness and strength invading her body filled her with indescribable warmth, chased away the lonely darkness.

Hot blood rushed through her limbs, giving her vigor. Her heart pounded in rhythm to the desperate swell of Adam’s movements.

She could hear the water lap against his but
tocks as he thrust into her deep, yet with a mea
sure of tenderness. It confounded her, the very thought of being
part
of someone else.

The sultry coupling dazzled her wits. Each stroke disarmed her, whittled the fear inside her to a nub. Only one dangerous desire consumed her: the yearning to share her heart, her soul, her body with another being.

Evelyn groaned at the sweet pleasure of Adam’s teasing touch. She was so sensitive, her core throbbing, aching with life. Tears filled her eyes, and she gasped at the intense fire burning between her legs: a heat so profound, she cried out at the crushing pressure that swelled in her veins before a surge of relief washed the tight
ness away.

Life drained from her limbs; she was weak. She relaxed her arms, her legs, though she still hugged Adam close.

Tears spilled from her eyes as she searched for breath. Her thoughts drifted to the man snug in her embrace. Lightly she stroked the
moist curls at his head, appeased her curiosity to better know the texture of him. All the while she mused about the unearthly experience she had just shared with the man.