Wicked Proposition (16 page)

“Captain Van Ryker, I would ask you to leave! We
will forget this conversation ever took place!” Catherine said
forcefully, eyes glittering in anger.

“I will leave when you tell me what you are
after!”

“You imagine something that is not there,
Captain!”

“You lie, and not very well, Catherine,”
Nicholas grated harshly. “You are obviously a better whore than a
liar, I see.”

Catherine stiffened in outrage at his condemning
words, even if she knew them to be true. He had no idea how close
he was to knowing the truth.

“How dare you accuse me, sir? You have no
right!”

“Oh, I am no sir! And I do dare, little girl! I
have every right! Gabriel is my friend! I will not see him taken in
by the likes of you and Clarice,” he said in irritation, his gaze
flicking over her insultingly.

“You are mistaken, please leave!” Catherine
demanded again furiously, her temper rising.
“I will leave. But know that I am watching you, Catherine,” he said
menacingly. “I ask you to think very hard before you follow through
on whatever she asked you to do. If I must double whatever she pays
you, so be it.”

Catherine was shaking in fear inside. The
dangerous-looking sea captain was on to her masquerade. She could
see it in his eyes. She shivered in fear from the frigid look in
that bright blue gaze. He seemed to look right through her and know
she lied.

“I have done nothing wrong,” she insisted
furiously and backed farther away from him. “You have no reason to
accuse me! I didn’t ask for any of this!”

“No? Clarice brought you in to work your wiles
upon Gabriel! The other girls told me you met with Clarice for
weeks before that night. They said you were to be given to only
him!” Nicholas snarled, his bright gaze slashing through her
façade.

Catherine laughed scornfully, her emerald eyes
blazing. “I fear you were misled by your lovely companions, Captain
Van Ryker. I did not ask Gabriel to buy my debt! Nor did Clarice! I
did not plan any of this! He did all on his own! And as to what you
were told, I know nothing of which you speak!”

“You might try harder to convince me,
sweetheart,” he drawled, his gaze ripping apart her lies. “You are
really not very good at deceit. I do hope you are better on your
back for Gabriel’s sake.”

Her eyes flew wide in outrage. “I don’t care
what you think of me, Captain Van Ryker!” she snapped, her face
flushed with anger. “I have done nothing!”

“Don’t think for a minute Gabriel is so blinded
by his own lust, he will not see through your efforts to cheat him
of his fortune,” Nicholas advised with an infuriating smile. “He
has been played by better than you.”

“Is that what this is all about?” Catherine
asked. “You think I am here to cheat him out of his wealth?”

“Aren’t you?” he countered, his eyes raking over
her boldly.

“You are wrong!” she scoffed.

“Clarice will only betray you in the end,
Catherine,” Nicholas warned her harshly. “Whatever she has promised
you, she will not deliver it. You will find yourself back at her
house, flat upon your back with nothing.”

Don’t I already know that?
She needed to
alleviate his suspicions before he began delving into other
matters.

“I think you jump to conclusions to excuse your
own jealousy and spite,” she said with a sneer, eyeing him
contemptuously. “I will tell him you came to see him, Captain. I
will make sure to exclude your insults to me.”

She intended to leave him then, her face flushed
with anger. Nicholas stood on the path and blocked her way as she
intended to pass, grabbing her arm roughly and swinging her towards
him. The basket fell to her feet, roses scattering everywhere.

“Let us just see if you are right about that
jealousy of mine, sweetheart,” Nicholas snarled as he dragged her
nearer, his bruising grip on her arm keeping her from fleeing him.
“A pretty little trollop like you probably wouldn’t mind. I will
even pay you for it to satisfy my spite!”

Catherine swung and her other hand slapped him
hard across his face in fury. She kicked and twisted to get away
from him, but he was too strong. Nicholas yanked her into his arms
and she found herself forced up against his rock-hard chest. Before
she could cry out his mouth descended harshly upon hers.

The thick bands of his arms slid around her and
held her fast. Catherine whimpered under his bruising mouth. His
lips were hard and hurting, taking cruel possession of hers. She
could not breathe, her cries of outrage stifled under his punishing
kiss. His hands molded her to him, pressing her to him boldly.
Catherine fought against him.

Nicholas’s mouth suddenly softened, his lips
teasing hers apart. She struggled futilely in his powerful arms as
his tongue now delved deeply inside her mouth. Shock filled her to
feel a sudden jolt of desire in the pit of her belly as his tongue
mated insistently with hers. The heated ache in her middle grew,
her pulses danced furiously.

Nicholas smelled of sea salt and sweat, a heady
masculine scent that filled her senses. He tasted of mint, with a
faint hint of tobacco. She remained trembling in his passionate
embrace. The hands that were braced against his chest, slackened,
flattening against his shoulders. His mouth was hungry as it sought
answers from hers, robbing her of her will as he deepened the
kiss.

Catherine was horrified to feel the dizzying
excitement building within her. His tongue stroked softly within
her mouth, mating insistently with hers, making her feel
light-headed from the drugging sensations.

Her arms slid around his neck, leaning into him
deeper. He groaned against her lips, his hands sliding down into
her hair, sending the pins flying as the heavy mass tumbled down
her back in lustrous, raven waves.

Catherine gasped as his large hands slid down to
cup her buttocks roughly, bringing her flush to his hard arousal.
She gasped as she felt him pressing hard against her loins,
shivering from the primitive sensations coursing through her. Her
blood was growing heated as he brought their bodies flush with one
another.

A low moan escaped her, her body reacting
violently to his. Catherine shivered with some dark primitive
yearning as he rubbed her against his hardness deliberately. The
stabs of longing she felt made her weak, clinging to him
breathlessly.

A ragged sigh was trapped under his lips as he
began to walk with her suspended in his arms, never breaking the
drugging kiss as he moved them into the trees. Catherine gasped as
he pressed her boldly up against a nearby tree. The rough bark cut
into her back as he pinned her there. Nicholas pressed against her
harder, making her squirm to get closer to him.

Nicholas’s mouth was urgent and seeking. Rough
calloused hands held her aloft as he began pulling up her skirts.
He was breathing raggedly, struggling with the fastenings of his
buckskin breeches. She gasped when she felt his seeking hardness
against her thigh.

She realized what they were about to do and tore
her mouth from his, pushing at his shoulders. She twisted against
the tree trunk to get away from him.

“No! You must stop! Please, Nicholas, stop!” she
cried as her eyes filled with tears, trembling violently as she
tried to reason with him. “Let me go! We cannot do this!”

Nicholas realized what he was doing, cursing as
he let her go, stepping back from her quickly. He was breathing
raggedly, pulling up his breeches. His eyes were as dark as a storm
at sea, filled with regret as they met hers.

Nicholas was stunned from the violent way he had
reacted to her. He ran a shaking hand through his ebony locks,
dismayed to know he had nearly taken her against the tree with no
thought of where they were. Catherine covered her bruised,
trembling lips and fled from him then. She ran past him, leaving
her basket behind in her haste.

Nicholas watched her return to the house in a
dead run with a dark scowl. He had not meant to let things get so
out of hand. The fantasies of her had taken their toll upon him. He
got himself under control with difficulty. His heart still hammered
in his chest. His cock was a different matter. He was disgusted to
remain in the gardens a good deal longer due to his blatant
arousal.

Nicholas despised himself for what he had nearly
done to them both. Never in his life had he ever forced his
attentions upon an unwilling woman. The minute he had touched her,
he had lost all his reason. He had seen the fear and revulsion in
her eyes before she fled, even if he had felt her body answering
his. She hated him, even if she wanted him.

Catherine was hiding something. He was certain
of it. He had seen it in her face. She didn’t trust him enough to
tell him what it was. Nicholas smiled grimly as he bent to pick up
a fallen bloom on the ground. He sniffed the rose appreciatively,
retrieved her fallen basket, and left the things with Higgins when
he left. A pained look was on his face as he sat in his coach on
the way back to the docks.

Nicholas had learned nothing of value from his
visit. Well, almost nothing, but definitely something. He knew he
was no closer to controlling his raging desire for Catherine, and
had only made it worse now. He still tasted her honeyed sweetness
in his mouth and smelled her luscious scent upon his hands. Kissing
her and touching her had been a heady, intoxicating experience.

In another moment he would have ended his
torment, in a way that would have made him unable to face himself
or her again. Nicholas knew he would be haunted by the look he had
seen in her eyes before she ran from him. He vowed to stay away
from Catherine in the future, before he gave into that urge
again.

###

Catherine trembled as her fingers felt her
swollen lips, still tingling from Nicholas’s angry kisses. She
closed her eyes in shame, realizing what nearly happened in the
gardens with him. Self-loathing filled her to think of her reaction
to Nicholas’s kissing her. Her eyes filled with tears to think she
was some immoral creature for her response.

She felt disgust course through her for what he
thought of her. He believed she was working for Clarice to cheat
Gabriel out of his wealth. Catherine bit her lip in dismay to know
she was far worse. She lay upon the coverlet, tears filling her
gaze, shrinking from the contempt she had seen his eyes. She wished
she could block out his disparaging words, but they repeated
themselves over and over in her mind.

Catherine was then furious, wondering why she
even cared what the uncouth sea captain thought of her. What sort
of friend was he to Gabriel by his actions? She shook with anger
now, knowing she should tell Gabriel the truth of what happened in
the gardens out of sheer spite.

Her hand touched her throbbing lips, recalling
the immediate response in her body to the depths of her soul. She
wouldn’t tell Gabriel of it. Catherine would certainly make
Nicholas twist in the wind to think she would though. Hopefully
that would be enough to keep him away from the secrets she could
not tell him.

###

Catherine returned to the study where she
resumed the task of organizing Gabriel’s papers. She sipped at her
tea as she set about sorting through the piles of correspondence,
bills, and credit invoices. After more than two hours she had
managed the impossible and had formed five separate stacks of
documents. Her back began to ache from being bent over the task.
She sighed and pushed the chair back and stood to stretch after
being hunched over so long.

Later, Catherine came across an old yellowed
document and she gave a start as she opened it. It was the original
marriage contract between Gabriel’s father and hers.

She would have tossed it aside, but curiosity
got the better of her. Catherine read it and certain things caught
her eye.

Catherine held the document in trembling hands.
Seeing her name there, knowing what had been done, did not make it
any easier to bear. By a cruel twist of fate, her sister was sent
to marry the Earl of Iverleigh instead of her. Knowing her father
had to have approved made her hesitate to blame Edward Thornton for
the deliberate switch. She read further. Trembling hands dropped
the documents.

Catherine dug through the stack of contracts and
pulled out the more recent marriage documents negotiated by Edward,
and saw the blatant forgery of her father’s name, dated one year
before Lilly left Ireland.

Catherine remembered the angry words muffled
behind closed doors. Her father was regularly sleeping in the guest
room. Lilly was always arguing with her mother, and everyone
tiptoed around each other. All of that tension in the house had
eased after Lilly left for England. The house became filled with
laughter and joy once more. She had never seen her parents argue
after that. Now she knew why.

It was not hard to feel resentment over what was
done to keep the peace. Knowing she should have married Gabriel and
not Lilly made her want to weep for the injustice played against
them both.

Catherine took the original papers and tucked
them in her wrapper pocket. She knew the papers were a powerful
tool to negotiate with if Lilly refused to honor their
agreement.

The document proved their marriage was not even
legal. She was relieved to know she wasn’t going to Hell for her
relationship with Gabriel now. He had the means to nullify his
marriage in front of her, based on the forgery alone.

The ramifications of it were not lost upon her.
Gabriel would no longer be her guardian and brother-in-law, and no
longer responsible for them. Catherine avoided the harsh, insidious
feeling of bitterness that began to creep inside of her. Knowing
Gabriel should have been her husband made her heart ache for some
unknown reason.