The Handmaiden's Necklace (13 page)

“Why don’t you sit down…” he said in that same rough-husky voice, “and I’ll unpin your hair.”

Her stomach contracted. Sweet heaven above! “I—I can do it myself. I don’t…don’t need your help.”

He smiled and something melted in her stomach. “Surely you won’t deny me that small pleasure. All evening, I’ve been imagining how silky it would feel in my hands.”

She swallowed. Since she had no idea how to reply to such a statement, she sank down on the stool and simply turned her back to him. Rafe moved behind her, his tall frame coming into view in the mirror. One pin at a time, he released each heavy red curl, then combed his fingers through the strands.

“The color of fire…” He spread the heavy mass around her shoulders. “I used to imagine how good it would feel draped over my chest when we made love.”

She started to tremble. Once in the summer before they were to wed, she had come upon him down at the pond sit
ting on a tree stump in the sunshine without his shirt. He had a magnificent chest, she remembered, broad and heavily muscled. Rafe was a staunch outdoorsman who enjoyed hunting and riding, an athlete who boxed at Gentleman Jackson’s parlor when he was in the city.

He kept himself in excellent physical condition and it showed.

In the mirror, she watched in fascination as he bent his dark head and pressed his mouth against the side of her neck. He drew an earlobe between his teeth, gently bit down, then retreated, drawing slowly away.

It took a moment to realize she wasn’t breathing. She sucked in a shaky breath and noticed her hands were trembling. Praying he wouldn’t notice, she busied herself braiding the hair he had just unpinned. Though Rafe had backed a few steps away, she could see him in the mirror, his eyes still fixed on her face.

“Do you need me to help you finish?” he asked.

Dani practically leapt from the stool. “No! I mean…no thank you. I am fine. I’ll just step behind the screen so that I can put on my night rail.”

Rafe just shook his head. “You’ll stay right where you are. You’re my wife, Danielle. I’ve agreed to certain of your demands, but not this.”

She swallowed. “You…you intend for me to finish undressing in front of you? You wish to see me…naked?”

A corner of his mouth edged up. “That is exactly my wish. There’ll be no secrets between us, Danielle.”

“But—”

“We’re merely getting used to each other, love, nothing more.”

Her heart pounded, thumped like a battering ram against the inside of her chest. Rafe wished to see her naked. He made the demand as if it were his due. Worse yet, as he was her husband, perhaps it was.

“What if I refuse?”

He shrugged those wide shoulders. “You’re welcome to sleep in your chemise, if that is your wish. I believe, now that you suggest it, I would like that very much.”

“You are insufferable!”

Something flashed in his eyes. “That is what you believe? What do you think Richard Clemens would demand of you on your wedding night?”

Her stomach constricted. If she had married Richard, he would have taken her virginity without a moment’s hesitation. For reasons she couldn’t explain, she thought that he wouldn’t have been the least concerned with her feelings in the matter.

Still, marrying Rafael had not been by choice, and his arrogant demands didn’t sit well at all. Turning away from him, she propped each foot on the stool in front of the dresser and, one at a time, removed her garters and rolled down her stockings. Keeping her back to him, she snatched her long white cotton night rail off the hook beside the door, dragged her chemise off over her head, and tossed it over the dressing screen.

For several seconds she fumbled with the nightgown, her entire backside bare to his view, and she cursed him for the rogue he was. An instant later, the cotton gown fell into place and she felt a wave of relief.

Trying to pretend her face wasn’t on fire, she lifted her chin and turned to where he stood leaning back against the
wall, his arms crossed over his chest. His eyes were a scorching shade of blue and the muscles in his jaw looked iron hard.

He was fighting for control, she realized, immensely disturbed by the display he had just viewed. A sense of power swept through her, unlike anything she had known, and some evil little demon she had thought long dead reared its ugly head.

“I am ready for bed. What about you?”

D
ani fixed her gaze on the tall man lounging across the room. At the challenge in her words, Rafe’s whole body tightened. He came away from the wall like a panther on the prowl and she forced herself to remain where she stood, though every instinct urged her to run from the cabin.

“I had thought to spare your maidenly sensibilities and dress behind the screen—at least for the first few nights.”

He was giving her the chance to back down. She should take it, she knew. “You said there would be no secrets between us.”

A corner of his mouth edged up. The heat in his eyes seemed to go hotter. “As you wish.”

Dani moistened her lips. Part of her feared she had just uncaged a very dangerous beast, while the other part watched in fascination. Aside from tending a sick child at the orphanage, and a quick glimpse of Oliver Randall’s skinny backside as he had climbed out of her bed five years ago, she had never seen a naked man, certainly not a virile man like Rafe.

She watched as he began to undress, removing his coat, waistcoat and wide white stock, then shrugging out of his shirt, revealing the wide, powerful chest she remembered. A swatch of curly dark brown chest hair arrowed down a flat stomach as solid as the rest of him.

He slid off his shoes and stockings. Her eyes widened as he began to unfasten the buttons on the front of his snug-fitting breeches. He shoved them down a pair of long, lean-muscled legs and stepped out of them, leaving him in only his small clothes, which stretched like a second layer of skin over the lower half of his body, ending just above his knees.

“I don’t know how much you know of a man’s anatomy, my love, but if you have not already noticed, watching you has aroused me greatly.”

Her eyes lit on the thick ridge rising up beneath his thin cotton undergarments, and a cry of alarm escaped. Her bravado instantly faded. Whirling away from him, she hurried over to the bed, drew back the covers and slid between the sheets, turning onto her side, away from him.

She heard Rafe’s soft chuckle but paid him no heed. It was one thing to see a man without his clothing, another altogether to see him rampantly aroused. She knew enough of the male anatomy to know that heavy ridge was the masculine reproductive organ and she knew where it joined with her body. Now that she had some idea of its size, she couldn’t imagine how it would ever fit.

Behind her, Rafe moved closer to the bed and she held her breath as the mattress dipped beneath his weight.

“For the present, I suppose I’ll have to give up sleeping in the nude, but I promise you, love, it won’t be for long.”

She couldn’t help herself. Astonished at his words, she
rolled over to look at him. He was still wearing his small clothes, but his wide, furred chest was completely bare. “You don’t sleep in a night rail?”

“As I said, I prefer to sleep in the nude. It’s far more comfortable, as you will discover once you are over your maidenly nerves.”

He slept without a stitch of clothing and expected her to do the same! For heaven’s sake, what other depravities was the man capable of committing? And why did she find the idea so titillating?

Face burning, she turned her back to him again. She couldn’t imagine sleeping naked with a man. She had always believed that a man lifted a woman’s nightgown when he made love to her, then lowered it when he was finished. Apparently that wasn’t the case. Why had no one told her?

She felt Rafe’s weight on the bed as he moved beside her on the mattress. She needed to use the chamber pot behind the screen in the corner, but she would wait until he had fallen asleep.

Easing closer, he settled an arm around her waist and drew her body spoon-fashion against him. Even through her nightgown, she could feel the brush of his curly dark chest hair, the rough hair on his calves.

She squeezed her eyes shut at the feel of the hard male ridge pressing against her bottom and tried to move away, but Rafe’s hold merely tightened.

“It’s a natural occurrence, Dani, when a man wants a woman as much as I want you. On our journey, I’m afraid I’ll be in this condition a good deal of the time…unless, of course, you would care to release me from my vow.”

She wildly shook her head.

He pressed a light kiss against the side of her neck. “Then go to sleep, love. Tomorrow we sail for home.”

A week slid past, then another. It was the middle of September and even at sea, fall was in the air. The days had begun to grow shorter, the nights more chill. A heavier mist hung in the salty sea air.

As a newly married couple, it was expected that Danielle spend a great deal of time with her husband, and Rafe paid her a goodly amount of attention. During the day, they played cards or read, conversed with the other passengers, or strolled about the ship.

After supper each night, he led her up on deck to a secluded spot he had discovered where they might be private. At first she had been uneasy with the notion, for somehow he seemed different during the time they were there.

In the cabin, an air of tension existed between them, Danielle wary, Rafe carefully reserved, fearful, she imagined, that if he let down his guard in such intimate quarters his thin control might snap. Aside from the evening ritual of undressing in front of each other and the intimate contact of their bodies during the night, he maintained a guarded distance.

Dani was grateful. She needed time, needed these weeks to resign herself to a future as Rafael’s wife.

He was reserved in their cabin, but out here in the moonlight, the sea splashing frothy white foam against the hull, Rafe allowed himself certain liberties, and as his wife, Dani could hardly protest.

And in truth, she was beginning to look forward to his advances, the heated kisses, gentle those first few nights,
then growing deeper and more passionate. Out here, she felt safe in a way she didn’t in the cabin, where his tall, hard-muscled frame curled against her on the mattress kept her awake late into the night.

She looked up at him tonight as they stood in the darkness of their private world, bathed in the glow of the moon and stars. The glitter of desire was there in his eyes, and the tightness in his jaw that marked the restraint he used to control it.

His hand brushed her cheek. “London is still so far away….”

She knew he referred to the moment when he would take her, claim her as his wife and consummate their marriage, and a fine thread of wanting slipped through her. Framing her face between his hands, he bent his head and kissed her and a sweet warmth tugged low in her belly.

Unconsciously, she leaned toward him. He was her husband, after all, and though she feared where such a kiss might lead, the heat of desire had begun to burn in her, too.

Rafe deepened the kiss, coaxing her lips apart, taking her deeply with his tongue. He kissed her and kissed her, soft butterfly kisses, deep sensual kisses that stirred the same hot need she had felt so long ago, a need she never thought to feel again.

It frightened her. She knew the folly of trusting him, of needing him, and yet as the moments slipped past, she no longer cared. Instead, her arms went around his neck and she kissed him back with the same fierce passion she could feel vibrating through him. Her pulse quickened as his hands slid down her back and he cupped her bottom, settled her in the vee between his long legs.

He was hard where he pressed against her, amazingly so, and a fierce heat centered in her core.

“Can you feel it, Dani? Can you tell how much I want you?”

There was a time she would have been afraid. Tonight, she was more curious than frightened, dangerous thinking, she knew, and yet it was the truth.

Rafe kissed the side of her neck and began to caress her breasts, touching her as he hadn’t allowed himself until tonight, molding them in his palms, kneading the fullness through the fabric of her high-waisted gown. She remembered the way he had touched her that day in the apple orchard, and a wave of heat tore through her.

Her breasts ached and swelled. Rafe cupped them, chafed the ends until they were hard and throbbing. All the while he kissed her—deep, drugging kisses that left her restless and longing, hot, sensual kisses that made her ache inside.

She knew she should stop him. There were weeks yet until they reached home, but her nipples felt swollen and raw, sensitive in a way they never had before, and liquid heat burned between her legs.

His large hand continued to caress her breast. “Tonight I’ll put my mouth there,” he promised in a voice gone rough. “It’s time you slept without your nightclothes.”

A jolt of desire tugged low inside her, so strong she was frightened. Trembling, she tore free of his embrace. Her whole body burned for his touch and yet she recognized the danger. She needed more time, needed to understand what he wanted from her, needed to trust him at least a little, with her body, if nothing more.

She pressed a hand against his chest, as if to keep him away. “I’m not…not ready for that, Rafael.”

His eyes searched her face, dark blue in the moonlight, yet so hot they seemed to glitter. “I think you are. I think your body is more than ready.” As if to prove it, he cupped a breast and gently squeezed, and a flood of heat washed through her.

“Please, Rafael. It’s been just…two weeks.” Two weeks of sleeping next to him, two weeks of feeling the heat and hardness of his body, the strength of his nightly arousal.

Rafe captured her lips in a slow, thorough kiss. “All right. If that is the way you feel, I’ll give you a little more time. We’ve hardly begun our journey.”

He was right. They had hardly begun and already she craved him, craved his hot, lusty kisses, the feel of his hands on her body.

Ached to touch him in return.

The truth hit her like a blow. She wanted to touch him the way he touched her, wanted to know the texture of his skin, press her mouth against his bare chest, examine the heavy ridge she felt each night when they were in bed.

Dani turned away from him and stepped out of the private, secluded spot in the moonlight. Silently she made her way over to the railing and looked down into the sea rushing past the hull. Above her head, yards of white canvas sail strained into the wind and the rigging clanked and clattered.

Dani turned her face into the chill ocean breeze and let the wind cool the heat in her face, the hot race of her blood. She turned a little more, saw a man’s shadow approaching from behind her and thought for a moment that Rafael had followed.

Instead, Carlton Baker stepped out of the darkness into the moonlight beside her.

“Pleasant evening for a stroll,” he said. Pale blue eyes moved over her, taking in the heightened color in her cheeks.

“Yes…yes it is.”

He was a large man, perhaps in his forties, his temples touched with silver, a well-built man and attractive. And yet there was something about him….

“I don’t see your husband. Perhaps you had a different escort tonight.”

Her cheeks went warm. Surely he wasn’t implying she was having an illicit rendezvous with another man.

“I had no other escort.” She glanced around, hoping Rafael would appear when only moments ago she had hoped to escape his disturbing presence.

Baker’s gaze sharpened. “Then you are alone?”

“No! I mean, no I—”

“There you are, love. I lost track of you for a moment.” Rafe stepped out of the private spot that she had just fled and relief swept through her. “I won’t make that mistake again.”

Baker’s smile looked false. “With a wife as lovely as yours, I’m sure you won’t.”

“Enjoying the evening, Mr. Baker?” Rafe’s tone was polite but his eyes looked hard. Perhaps, just as she, he had also noticed something not quite correct in the American’s demeanor.

“Indeed,” he said. His eyes ran over Danielle. “As I’m sure you are.”

“Actually, it’s a bit damp out here and the air has begun to turn chill.” Rafe rested a possessive hand at Dani’s waist. “I think it’s time we went in.”

She nodded, eager to escape, yet she couldn’t quite say why. As they walked off down the deck, Dani cast a last glance over her shoulder at Carlton Baker. Though she dreaded another restless night sleeping next to Rafael, she was anxious to get back to the cabin.

The following morning, Danielle met Caro for breakfast. She hadn’t slept well. She didn’t believe Rafe had, either. Sleeping beside him night after night while trying to guard her virtue was beginning to take its toll.

Dressed in a russet day dress trimmed with dark brown velvet, Dani spotted her friend at a small table at the rear of the salon and started toward her. As she drew near, it occurred to her that Caro’s thin face carried the same hints of fatigue as her own.

Caro smiled in welcome. “We might need a larger table if the duke will be joining us.”

“I think he has already eaten. He was gone from the cabin when I woke up.”

“Lady Wycombe is still sleeping. I didn’t want to wake her.” Caro said no more as Dani sat down at the table across from her. A steward came to take their order of chocolate and sweet biscuits, then left them alone.

“You look tired,” Caro said, assessing her. “I’ll wager you aren’t sleeping very well.”

“I’ll wager you aren’t, either.”

Caro sighed and shook her head. “I keep thinking of Robert. I am so worried, Danielle. Do you think by now he has tried to escape? Escaping from an indenture contract is a crime, Dani. What if Mr. Steigler catches him?”

Dani reached over and took her friend’s hand. “You
mustn’t do that to yourself, Caro. You mustn’t think the worst, only the best. Whatever Robert decided to do, I’m sure he planned very carefully. Perhaps he has successfully escaped and found a ship to take him home. Perhaps he will reach England shortly after we do.”

Caro glanced away, tears welling in her eyes. “I don’t know, Dani. Perhaps he never really intended to return. What if he was only using me? What if he cared nothing for me at all, but simply wanted me to help him find a way to escape? I’m a plain woman, Dani, and Robert is so very handsome. What if he simply made a fool of me?”

“I don’t believe that—not for a moment. And you are not plain. You are a very attractive woman. You have an elegant sort of beauty that is different from other women. Robert saw it. He saw your inner beauty, as well. I believe he was telling the truth in all that he said.”