Moonwitch (31 page)

“Meaning me? Well, let me tell you, he ain’t… isn’t. And he hasn’t been fooling with any of my gals, either. Kyle’s had women chasin’ him since he could fill out his britches, so he can pick and choose who he wants. And he
is
right choosy, let me tell you. He never looked twice whenever I brought a new gal in. Always stuck with—er, but you don’t want to hear about that.”

“No.” Selena looked down at her gloved hands, her cheeks flaming. Never would she get used to the candid way Americans had of speaking.

“So you came here to drag him back home by his hair?” Angel prodded. “Honey, take my advice, that ain’t no way to win a man, especially not Kyle.”

Selena had the miserable notion the woman was right. She had shown incredible naïveté, thinking she could convince Kyle to return home. A babe, Angel had called her. More like a fool. But she had felt desperate. She wanted Kyle at home, with her, in her bed. And she had no idea how to go about getting him there.

But…perhaps Angel knew.

Selena cast a surreptitious glance at the beautiful redhead. Did she dare ask for guidance from a woman like that? But yes, she was willing to listen to any suggestions that would improve her chances of winning Kyle. Indeed, she was willing to try almost anything.

Taking a deep breath, Selena swallowed her reserve and her pride. “If I’m not going about it the right way, then what would you suggest?” she queried, at last meeting the redhead’s gaze directly. “I do want to win Kyle, I assure you, but I haven’t had much success. He hasn’t looked at me lately any more than he has your girls.”

“I don’t believe it,” Angel said flatly. “If there’s one thing Kyle’s not, it’s blind. And you’re not exactly the kind a man can overlook, anyways. Do you know what kind a price a gal with your looks could fetch here? In New Orleans, it’d be double.”

“But it’s true. He hasn’t… not recently.”

The redhead gave her a look of patent skepticism. “I was sure it was ‘cause of you that Kyle’s been so unfriendly lately.”

“I don’t think I’m the reason. Kyle isn’t…” Selena hesitated, knowing she was blushing to the roots of her hair. She didn’t know how to say this. “He isn’t…sharing my bed.”

Angel’s mouth dropped open. “But you’re his wife!”

Selena briefly described the circumstances of their forced marriage. At the end of the story, Angel looked relieved.

“Thank the Lord. I thought maybe Kyle took sick—brain fever or somethin’. At least nothin’s happened to his… er…private parts.” She had the grace to look embarrassed then and took a swallow of brandy to cover up her blunder. “All right, let me figure a minute. There oughta be somethin’ you can do.” She thought for a moment, tapping her fingers against her cheek. “Seems to me, the thing you gotta do is seduce him.”

Selena’s eyes widened. Seduce Kyle? Four weeks ago the suggestion would have shocked her; never would she have considered such a thing. But then, she wasn’t the same person she was before her marriage. Indeed, from the moment she had met Kyle, she hadn’t been the same. Even so, she wouldn’t know the first thing about seducing a man.

“I’m afraid I wouldn’t know how,” she said forlornly.

Angel chuckled, shaking her head. “You got instincts, don’t you? Even if you are a fine lady. Now listen to what I’m gonna tell you…”

She leaned forward with a confidential air. Ten minutes later, Selena was the one shaking her head. She was too shocked to be embarrassed. “I don’t know… I’m not sure I can do it.”

“Sure you can. You jest let nature take its course, and Kyle’ll do the rest.”

The redhead rose from the table and went to the door. With rising panic, Selena latched on to the one excuse that might save her. “Angel, I can’t! Not tonight. I left Thaddeus waiting outside.”

“Thaddeus Sidlow? He hasn’t been around here in an age. Well, I’ll just invite him in. The girls’ll keep him entertained.”

“No! I mean…Bea would prefer that Thaddeus go straight home, I’m sure.”

Angel grinned at her. “Then I’ll send him straight home. If what you got planned works the way I think it will, you won’t be gettin’ outa that bed till long past daylight, anyways. Now, you get ready—and mind what I told you.” And then she was gone.

Selena stared at the closed door for a long moment. Then, with unsteady hands, she reached for the ribbons of her bonnet.

K
yle came too soon. Selena wasn’t ready, having only just removed her gown.

When the knock sounded on the door, she snatched up the wrapper she had retrieved from Angel’s wardrobe and held it up before her, trying to cover her corset and shift.

Kyle must have been intimately familiar with the room’s proprietor, she noted, for he didn’t wait but a moment before he strode into the room.

“Angel? Belle said you wanted—”

He stopped abruptly, arrested in midstride, his words cut off in mid-sentence. “Sweet heaven.” He breathed the words as he stood there staring at Selena. She had snuffed out all but a single candle, and her skin glowed pale and lustrous in the dim light.

Seeing her unbound hair falling in a silver cascade over her naked shoulders, Kyle drew a quick breath. For a space of a dozen heartbeats, he didn’t move. Then slowly, he pushed the door shut behind him and propped his left shoulder against the door frame, as though he needed the support.

Selena returned his gaze, wide-eyed and uncertain. This was going to be much harder than Angel had suggested.

It was a long moment before Kyle slowly let out his breath. “I suppose,” he said softly, “you’re going to tell me what this is all about.”

“I… I came to keep you company.” Selena could feel herself flushing. “Angel thought you might be in need of some…female companionship.”

Kyle didn’t reply at first, knowing full well what Angel’s idea of female companionship was. He shook his head, not trusting his ears—or his eyes. It couldn’t be Selena standing there, issuing him a provocative invitation for the use of her body. “Let me see if I’ve got this right… You’re here to provide me with a woman for the evening?”

“Yes.”

“You’re going to
service
me?” He couldn’t believe it. Not his prim, proper wife—though just the idea made him harden with arousal.

Selena’s color deepened at the crude word, but she was committed now. She couldn’t retreat. “Yes, if that’s what you want.”

“You’re too much a lady.”

“Well, perhaps… I mean… I think I could try…not to be a lady.”

Kyle stared at her. This wasn’t the first time she had set him on his ear with her unpredictable behavior, but he still couldn’t believe what he was seeing. And now that he had started to recover from the shock of her presence in a bordello, he began to feel an undercurrent of anger beneath his skepticism. Anything could have happened to Selena in this notorious town. If it wasn’t for that, he might even be able to find this incredible situation amusing.

“How did you get here?” he asked with sudden seriousness.

“I came in the carriage.”

“Alone?”

“No, Thaddeus accompanied me.”

“I’ll wring his neck,” Kyle muttered.

“No, please… I asked him to bring me.”

Incredulously, Kyle shook his head. He couldn’t quite work out what his wife was doing in a bordello, but he certainly wasn’t going to turn down what she appeared to be offering. If, of course, that was really what she was offering. It was hard to believe, so unlike the cold-blooded woman he had convinced himself she was.

“All right,” he said. His mouth curved in a faint smile as he crossed his arms over his powerful chest. “I’m waiting.”

Selena stood unmoving, unsure how to respond. The intent way Kyle was looking at her made her forget every point of Angel’s sage advice. His hazel eyes were narrowed on her body, reflecting the glint of candlelight. She felt undressed, naked, vulnerable, even though she was partially clad. “I don’t know what to do,” she said in a small voice.

“Drop,” he replied helpfully, “whatever that is you’re clutching so desperately.”

She hesitated for a moment, then obediently let the wrapper fall. It was all she could do to stand there motionless under Kyle’s inspection. Her corset came to the top of her hips, her shift to midcalf, but her shoulders and upper bosom were bare, and her legs were clad only in dark silk stockings. Kyle’s bold stare assessed her frankly, raking her with practiced detachment, openly speculating.

When his gaze focused intently on her barely covered breasts, an uncontrollable blush covered Selena’s entire body. Which was absurd, she realized. Kyle had seen her without her clothes on; indeed, he had thoroughly explored her body with more than his gaze. Selena bit her lip in consternation. She was making a terrible mess of this. Kyle would send her packing if she couldn’t do better than act like a frightened innocent.

“What comes next?” he asked dryly, as if to underscore her thought.

Give him a drink o’ brandy to turn him up sweet, Angel had said. She could at least do that much. Seeing the skeptical smile that hovered around the corners of Kyle’s mouth, Selena went to the table. She could feel his eyes following her, and when she had poured him a full measure of the peach brandy, she carried the glass to him, using both hands because they were so unsteady.

He accepted her offering silently and raised it to his lips, watching her all the while. Uncertain what to do next, Selena looked up at him, searching his rugged features. There was a maddening hint of amusement in his eyes, as if he found her efforts to please him humorous. Selena stiffened her spine.

Kyle held the glass to her lips and murmured, “Now your turn.” She stubbornly took a quick sip of the brandy, realizing he had expected her to refuse. The potent liquor burned a fiery trail all the way down to her stomach.

Kyle startled her then by cupping her throat with his long fingers, tracing the rippling path the brandy made as she swallowed. Selena closed her eyes and shuddered, partly because of the unaccustomed spirits, mostly because of the delicate massage Kyle’s fingers were giving the soft underside of her jaw.

“I think,” he murmured with a warmth that bathed her heightened senses, “I’d like to know how peaches taste on your lips.” He pushed away from the door, where he had been lounging, and bent his head.

Yet to Selena’s surprise and dismay, he didn’t kiss her. His mouth hovered just above hers, heating her lips, caressing them with his breath and the heady fumes of peach brandy, making her feel hot and shivery.

Use your instincts and Kyle will do the rest, she remembered. And her instincts told her he was too far away. Impatiently, she strained toward him. She was bewildered when Kyle drew back, just out of reach. Opening her eyes, Selena stared at him.

But he wasn’t even looking at her. Or rather, he was, but it was her bosom he was scrutinizing so intently as he slowly reached up and curved his fingers around the top edge of her corset. Gently he tugged, gliding his hand from left to right as he drew the stiffened buckram of the bodice downward.

Selena caught her breath, her entire body tensing. The tips of her breasts were hard and aching under Kyle’s warm fingers, and she realized that she quite desperately wanted him to continue touching her there. She remained perfectly immobile as he drew down the lacy edge of her chemise, exposing the erect peaks.

She saw his reaction in his gaze. His eyes changed, the teasing glint darkening, turning into something both primitive and powerful. Without a word, he dipped a forefinger in the brandy and slowly lifted it to touch a taut nipple.

Selena gasped at the ice-hot sensation, her hands clenching involuntarily.

“Do you like that, Moonwitch?”

His voice seemed to come from far away, penetrating her dazed mind. But she couldn’t find the breath to speak. His brandy-drenched finger moved to the other nipple, just barely touching, slowly circling the rosy aureole. “Come now, lovely lady. You’ll have to tell me what you like.”

“Yes,” Selena said mindlessly, this time clenching her jaw against the powerful ripples of heat that were streaking from the aching tips of her breasts to gather lower, between her thighs.

Any minute now she will pull away, Kyle thought distractedly, and found himself praying he could hold out till then. His blood was racing with sexual frustration, the tension in his body making his pulse pound. It was pure torture to have Selena standing half-naked before him. He ought to end this, Kyle knew, before she did—if he wanted to retain any vestige of male pride. Yet he couldn’t resist the lure of her pale breasts, the tight buds that were alert and beckoning. Lifting a softly swelling weight in his hand, he bent against his will. His tongue flicked the brandy-wet nipple, tasting peaches and warm woman.

He intended to draw the taut peak gently into his mouth but found himself urgently suckling, instead, rolling his tongue around the bud, biting it softly. He felt a fierce satisfaction in Selena’s muted gasp of pleasure but knew that if he kept it up, he would soon be groveling at her feet.

Keeping himself in check with superhuman effort, Kyle drew away. “Give me your mouth,” he said almost harshly.

She looked startled, but she complied, raising her lips for his kiss. With a grim determination, Kyle took her tantalizing mouth with his, forcing himself to divorce his thoughts from Selena’s luscious body and what it was doing to his. He was determined to keep control of the situation—if it killed him. She couldn’t really—after so many cold days—be offering her body to him like this.

His kiss was hard and hot and slow, almost lazy, and Selena melted under the heat of it. Her body, of its own accord, pressed against Kyle shamelessly, seeking the intimate contact, quivering as the fabric of his shirt rasped against her unrestrained breasts, as his vital hardness caressed her belly. She found herself longing to feel his skin.

She was supposed to remove his clothes, Selena remembered vaguely. She drew back slightly, and with trembling fingers she loosened the buttons of his shirt one by one and parted the edges of the fine cambric. Then she slowly reached up to touch a taut cord in his neck. He flinched as if burned but didn’t move away.