Andrea Kane (21 page)

“Of course, Your Grace.” She curtsied quickly and left the room. In the hall she paused, hoping that she had done the right thing. But her heart told her she had.

Braden’s told him the same. He arrived at the stables, grimly determined to get to the root of Kassie’s problem. He had sworn to take care of her, to see to her happiness. And he would.

“Kassie?” he called out.

“ ’ello, Yer Grace.” It was Dobson that answered, leading Star over to him. The glistening Thoroughbred was saddled and ready to be ridden.

Braden shook his head. “Dobson, I don’t know who told you to prepare Star, but you were given the wrong information. I came here to meet—”

“I told Dobson to prepare Star.”

Braden spun about at the sound of Kassie’s voice. His wife was gracefully seated atop Little Lady, smiling down at him. Her aqua eyes were alight with pleasure, her dimples prominently displayed and deepening as she watched the stunned surprise register on Braden’s face.

“Kassie … when did you … how did you …”

“For several weeks now, mostly with Charles’s help—and this past week, with a great deal of persistence and some professional guidance from Dobson.” She shared a private laugh with the beaming young groom.

“Your lovely wife is being overly modest.” Charles’s voice came from the stable door. “The credit belongs to her. She did all the work, learned at a remarkable pace, and withstood all the instruction, as well as the good-natured teasing and gossip,” he added, grinning. He had already heard reports of Kassie’s incident with Star.

Kassie giggled. Now that it was over, she could laugh at herself. “Would you like to witness the extent of my skills?” she asked her husband eagerly.

“Star is ready for ye, Yer Grace,” Dobson urged Braden, who was gazing up at Kassie with proud, glowing eyes.

“It would be my pleasure.” Braden swung himself into the saddle of a now-docile Star.

Kassie inclined her head slightly, giving Star a measured look. “I suppose we must settle our differences and resume speaking to each other now that Braden is home,” she informed the Thoroughbred, who pricked up his ears in response. “I recognize that some of it was my fault, brought on by my own inexperience and conceit. But you were to blame as well.” Kassie punctuated her admonishment with an injured sniff. “So I propose that we forget the whole nasty incident.”

Star snorted his agreement.

“Good.” Kassie seemed unsurprised by Star’s ready response. “Then that is settled.”

Braden stared openmouthed at Charles. “I don’t believe this.”

“Kassandra has quite a way with horses,” Charles replied, chuckling. “They seem to understand one another.”

“So I see. And apparently I missed quite a spectacle while I was away.”

Charles and Dobson said nothing, both giving Braden a blank stare.

Kassie’s smile drenched her friends in sunlight. “Thank you. You are true gentlemen.” She turned to Braden. “Shall we go?”

“Lead the way,” he urged.

They rode for a time in silence, Braden thinking how natural his wife looked on horseback—as if she had been born to it. He knew she had done this for him, and he felt a warm glow unfurl inside his chest.

They both knew where they were headed. It was the one thing that had remained unchanged between them, the place in which they sought solace … the place where they had met.

B
RADEN DISMOUNTED FIRST, REACHING
up to help Kassie to the ground. She placed her hands upon his shoulders, and he lowered her slowly, unable to resist prolonging the moments when her body was against his.

At last her feet touched the ground.

“Thank you,
ma petite.
It was a wonderful surprise.” Braden’s voice was deep and husky.

Kassie smiled. “I’m glad.”

With his forefinger he traced the dark circles beneath her eyes. “You’ve been having the nightmares again.”

She sighed. “You’ve been talking to Margaret.”

“She’s worried about you. So am I.”

Kassie nodded. “I don’t know why they’ve gotten so severe.”

“Has he been back?”

Kassie knew Braden meant her father. “No. Not since that day.” She raised her head to meet Braden’s penetrating gaze. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about it. I only wanted to block it from my mind. And I knew how angry you would be.”

“What did he want? Money?”

“Yes.”

“That miserable basta—”

“Braden, please,” she whispered. “He’s not worth it. I don’t think he’ll be back. I told him that I wouldn’t give him any more money.”

“Does he know about these dreams of yours?”

She nodded. “Yes. But he’s always brushed them off as nonsense. He believes that my imagination is my real enemy.”

Braden believed otherwise. “Tell me about the nightmare.”

Kassie stepped away from him and wrapped her arms about herself, staring off into the sea.

“It’s always the same,” she murmured at last. “For as long as I can remember. It’s dark. I’m alone, walking, and I’m frightened.”

“Of what?”

“I don’t know. Something.”

Or someone,
Braden thought to himself.

“And then a huge black beast begins to chase me.” Her voice quivered, and she could feel herself grow cold. Braden came up behind her and drew her back against him, offering her his strength. But Kassie was hardly aware of his presence, so absorbed was she in her own words. “I try so hard to escape him, but I know that it’s impossible. And then I am swallowed. …” She shuddered.

“By the beast?”

“No. By a huge, bottomless hole. I can feel myself dropping … falling … and I can hear the screams. But no one comes. No one saves me.”

Braden turned her around, pressing her face to his chest and wrapping his arms around her. “I won’t let anything or anyone hurt you,” he vowed. “Not ever.”

She looked up and gave him a tremulous smile. “I know.” She stood on tiptoe and touched her lips to his, her eyes damp with emotion. “I missed you.”

“Good,” he responded with a lazy grin. “There’s nothing sweeter than being missed by a beautiful woman.”

Those were not the words Kassie wanted to hear.

She could feel the extraordinary mood shatter into a million fragments around her, all the insecurities of the past few days coming to the surface. Inadvertently she found herself wondering if another woman had kept Braden company during his absence.

“Why are you frowning?” Braden asked tenderly, unaware of the approaching storm.

“Exactly how many women preceded me?” Kassie blurted out.

Braden started. “Excuse me?”

Kassie flushed and stepped out of his grasp. “I said how many women were you involved with before you married me?”

“What kind of a question is that?” Braden demanded.

“A simple one. I want to know just how many women know my husband intimately … aside from
Lady
Abigail Devon, of course.” Kassie couldn’t keep the anger from her voice any longer. She had just revealed things about herself to Braden that she had never told another person, bared her soul and let her heart shine in her eyes. He had given her nothing in return except more fuel for her ever-growing doubt. And it hurt.

Braden raked his fingers through his hair. “Abigail. I should have known.” He took Kassie’s arms firmly and shook her. “Kassie, don’t believe anything that woman says.”

“Does that mean that you were not involved with her?”

Braden’s jaw tightened. “It means that you have never come up against someone such as Abigail before. She is nothing like you—”

Kassie flung off his arms, tears sliding down her cheeks. “Obviously not.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Now Braden was becoming angry.

Kassie ignored the question. “I notice that you didn’t deny your involvement with her,” she accused, her voice rising.

“Whether or not I was involved with Abigail Devon has nothing to do with you!” he shot back.

“Oh, really?” Kassie was furious. “I suppose that was my mistake. Here I thought I was your wife.” She turned and ran down the beach.

“You are my wife, damn it, not my keeper!” Braden shouted after her. She didn’t stop. Braden felt the combined emotions and frustrations of the last weeks converge, then explode inside him. “Kassie! Come back here
now!
”

She didn’t even pause.

Braden tore off after her, feeling the blood pound in his head. He was going to catch up with her, and then he was going to wring her beautiful neck. The audacity of that blasted chit, asking him whose bed he had shared, when all these weeks she had been taunting him with that luscious, unattainable body of hers!

He grabbed her from behind and spun her around.

“Let go of me!” There was no fear in either Kassie’s voice or her flashing eyes, only anger.

“Not until you explain yourself.” Braden dragged her up against his powerful body.

“I think I made myself perfectly clear,
Your Grace
,” she snapped back, still struggling. “But apparently you think I have no right to know who you’ve taken to your bed!”

“I wouldn’t need to take anyone else to my bed if you weren’t so damned untouchable!” The words were pouring out before he could censor them, his rage making him reckless. “Damn you, Kassandra, I’m constantly aching, burning alive. And for whom? For you, my naïve little wife. For you.”

“Is that why you left Sherburgh? You have a very strange way of showing that you want me, Braden.” She threw back her dark hair defiantly, her eyes twin jewels of fire.

“Want you?” he demanded in a rough, deep voice. “Do you want to see how much I want you?” He dug his hands into her hair and anchored her head so she was unable to move.

Before Kassie could speak, Braden had captured her mouth with his, devouring her with all the pent-up passion and none of the restraint of the past. He crushed her lips beneath the heat of his kiss, moving his mouth back and forth roughly again and again against her soft, trembling lips. Kassie felt the insistent pressure of his mouth forcing hers open, and with a moan of protest she gave him what he wanted. His tongue swept inside to capture hers; his arms tightened around her like steel bands. Waves of dizziness seized Kassie, and as if in a trance she accepted Braden’s brand of total possession. The kiss was violent, shattering … and yet Kassie could feel a kind of sweet desperation within its whirling tempest. It was like Braden himself, she thought wildly: hard and impenetrable, yet possessing an inner softness that she alone could reach.

Responding to this unspoken core of gentleness, Kassie relented all in a rush, wrapping her arms about his neck and pressing herself unashamedly against her husband’s powerful thighs.

The effect on Braden was electrifying.

Tremors shook his broad frame, and he ground out Kassie’s name, lifting her off the ground and sliding one of his hands down her back to hold her against his hard, throbbing body. Half expecting Kassie to freeze with fear, Braden was stunned to feel her mold herself closer to him, sliding her fingers into his thick, dark hair and whispering his name with the same fierce longing that pounded through his famished body and into his loins.

Uncontrollable hunger took over.

The world existed only for them, between them, and no earthly force could have stopped the inevitability of that moment. Kassie felt the sand beneath her back, felt the sun on her face, felt Braden urgently unfastening her gown, tugging her clothes from her body. She helped him, as desperate as he to rid herself of the barriers that stood between them. She opened her eyes, and the dazzling light of the sun combined with the harsh, blinding passion that blazed in Braden’s eyes, that was etched on every line of his handsome face.

The need inside Kassie was more than she could bear. Sitting up, she brought shaking hands to Braden’s shirtfront, trying unsuccessfully to release the buttons and lessen the time until she could feel him against her. Braden rose to his knees and brushed her hands away, freeing the hindering buttons in mere seconds and tearing his shirt from his body. He tossed it carelessly onto the sand; then, seeing his own need reflected in her eyes, he lowered himself against her, melding their naked skin.

Kassie’s eyes closed on a whimper. Never had anything felt so good. The soft abrasiveness of Braden’s chest hair rubbed sensuously against her suddenly taut, straining nipples. Arching her back, she moved slowly back and forth, making the pleasure almost unbearable.

“Kassie … God …” Braden was being enveloped in flames, and he wondered for one intolerable second if he could control himself long enough to finish undressing her. He had never been so out of control. Nothing mattered in the world but having Kassie naked and under him … now.

Braden rose back to his knees, his chest heaving with the strain of waiting. Kassie opened her eyes and stared up at him, her gaze filled with wonder and unappeased hunger.

“Braden … please …”

Like a man possessed he tore off the rest of her clothes. As he pulled off his breeches and boots he stared down at her, knowing that no fantasy had ever come close to the perfection that was before him. He slid his arm beneath her back and lifted her, dragging his discarded shirt under her to protect her tender skin. Then he lowered himself beside her, stroking the length of her body, worshiping her with his gaze and his touch. Kassie felt his reverence, his whisper-soft caresses, and all her shyness and her doubts evaporated. This was Braden, her husband, and she belonged to him, totally and always.

“Kassie … you are so beautiful, so utterly, incomparably exquisite.” He breathed the words against her throat, fighting the relentless urge to forgo words and caresses and drive himself deep into her flawless body. “Do you have any idea how much I want you?” he gasped. He kissed his way down to her shoulders, to her breasts, teasing the hardened peaks with light tugs of his lips and tongue. “I’ve never”—he drew her nipple deep into his mouth—“never”—he tugged again—“never felt like this in my life.” Panting, he turned his attention to her other breast, drawing on it hungrily until Kassie cried out with pleasure.

“Braden …” Kassie arched upwards, offering more of herself to him. Her body was dissolving in liquid fire, a raging need like none she had ever imagined pooling between her thighs. Instinctively she opened her legs, not knowing what she needed, knowing only that Braden could ease the growing, pulsing ache inside her.