Redeeming Jack (27 page)

Jack drew back a little. “If I’d known you carried my child, I would’ve swallowed my pride and begged my father’s forgiveness.”

Color flooded her pale cheeks. “And what then? You would’ve spent the last five years resenting me and your child for putting you back under your father’s thumb. Our marriage would never have survived that.”

Jack slumped back against the wall. A raindrop fell on his nose, swiftly followed by another. He picked Carys up and dumped her between his legs, her back to his chest. He covered them both with his cloak. Enclosed within the warmth of his arms, Carys relaxed against his broad chest.

His warm breath stirred the hair at the back of her neck. With a strangled groan, he dropped his head to nuzzle her neck. His mouth grazed her soft cheek, and she turned her head to meet his lips.

Salt and sweet, bitterness mingled with need, her unforgettable taste filled his deprived senses. She opened her mouth wider and drew him deeper. The rain pattered down on Jack’s cloak. He turned her easily until she straddled his lap.

Carys threaded her fingers through his thick, wet hair and kissed him back with all the strength she possessed. Jack’s arm tightened around her waist. He released her, but only so he could continue kissing her throat and then down to her breasts. Carys took the opportunity to work her hand between them and wrestle with the buttons of his breeches.

Jack grabbed her fingers. “Not here. I want to see you.”

Before she could protest, he picked her up and set her on top of the wall. He clambered over, settled her back in his arms and carried her down the long line of steps to the cottage. The kitchen was warmer now, the range radiating heat.

Without speaking, Jack stripped off his soaking clothes; his gaze never leaving Carys’s as she undressed beside him. He shucked off his boots and came to her, wrapping his arms around her nakedness. He kissed her as though he might never be able to let her go.

His blood roared in his ears as she responded to him. No innocent girl now, but his equal, his temptress and his salvation. At this moment, her forgiveness and the gift of her body meant more to Jack than anything. Certainly more than anything the Duke of Diable Delamere might accomplish on his behalf.

His fingers shook as he combed out her damp red hair. She smiled at him, a welcome in her eyes he’d dreamed of a thousand times. His body tightened in response, his cock throbbing in time to the beat of his heart.

Carys took his hand and led him back up the stairs to her bedroom. She’d left the curtains open, and the bed was now flooded with the promise of sunshine. Jack sank down onto the side of the bed and braced his hands on the mattress. Carys stood between his outstretched knees, her breasts at his eye level. Jack hesitated.

“I don’t want to make love to you to forget any more, Carys. I want to make love to you to remember.”

Carys frowned as she put her hands on his shoulders. “What do you mean?”

Jack struggled anew to forget his urge to confess and get on with the far more pleasurable duty of making love to his wife. “I used your body to forget the war, to forget that I killed without mercy, to forget the faces.”

Carys brought her hand up to his cheek and stroked him. Compassion shone in her eyes. “I know you did. I heard your nightmares. I understood.”

He encircled her wrist and kissed her palm. “But I made you pregnant and I almost killed you.”

Carys came down on her knees in front of him, her expression fierce. “I wanted those babies. I wanted to give you new life to help you forget the dead.”

He swallowed down an absurd desire to weep as she leaned forward to kiss his mouth.

“And Jack, you gave me Owen. You gave me the courage to live my life as I wanted to.”

He couldn’t speak, his throat clogged by an emotional rock that seemed determined to burst out of him. Carys kissed him again, her arms around his waist. Jack let himself fall backwards onto the bed and brought her with him.

She raised her head, and her hair flowed over his naked chest like rough silk. “Take me to bed, please, Jack. Love me.”

He needed no second invitation. He rolled her over and slid his knee between her legs. She yielded to him with sensual ease as he fitted his mouth over hers. The soft texture of her skin, the scent of salt and wildness made him ache with desire. He needed her to complete him. Why had he ever doubted it?

He slid his hands down and followed the curve of her hips to her buttocks. Carys moved against him more urgently and he knew he was lost. Five years of frustrated desire refused to be contained. This wasn’t the time for a more leisurely exploration. He wanted to be inside her.

He crouched between her legs and watched the rising sun turn her hair to red-gold. Her blue eyes stared back at him, no shadows darkened their lustrous depths, only a need that matched his own.

* * *

Carys kept her eyes fixed on Jack’s face as he slowly lowered himself over her. It was fitting that they should make love in the sunlight, with no barriers between them. She gasped as he filled her with one long, smooth stroke.

“Are you all right,
anwylaf
?”

Carys let out her breath. He called her his beloved. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed that most intimate of endearments until this moment. She tilted her hips and allowed him to slide further inside her. The taut muscles in his stomach tightened.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been with you, Jack. I’m almost afraid I’ve forgotten what to do.”

Jack smiled at her then, the sunlight making him a golden statue. “I think I can remember, love.” He rocked gently against her, his arms braced to take most of his weight. “I think I can help you remember too.”

He drove into her harder and she welcomed him. Her body melted against him as her soul rediscovered its mate. It felt so right to be in his arms again. She slid her hands over his scarred back as he thrust into her. Her own arousal built then flowered and shuddered through her like an endless intoxicating fever. This was right. This was real. This was her future.

She wrapped her legs around his waist as he continued to pound into her, his mouth everywhere, his hands urging her onward toward another peak of pleasure, and then another. Her hand slid to cup his flexing buttocks, and he groaned her name.

“I want to come inside you. God, I want…”

He shuddered and levered himself away from her, his arms trembling with the effort as he tried to withdraw his still-hard cock from her needy heat.

She clung to him, not understanding.

“Let me go, love. I don’t want to give you my seed. I want—”

“But I want everything.” She stared into his eyes locking her feet around his back.

He held still, his expression torn between need and the desire to do the right thing. She deliberately used her internal muscles to caress his hard length until he bucked against her. “God, Carys…”

With a groan he started to come thrusting hard and deep. She felt the heat of his seed and gloried in it, holding him until he collapsed over her with a last convulsive shudder.

“Thank you.”

She kissed the side of his face, enjoying his weight over her and the mixture of their scents. Outside, the sea crashed against the rocks and she fell asleep to the sound of it and Jack’s regular, contented breath.

CARYS SMOOTHED HER hand over Jack’s muscled chest and cuddled against his shoulder. His lovemaking had made her lazy. Late morning sunlight illuminated the fine golden hairs on his unshaven chin. She’d once tried to count all the shades of his hair from brown to gilt and failed miserably.

With her eyes half-closed, Carys traced the firm outline of Jack’s mouth with her fingertips. He was the first man she’d shared her bed in the cottage with. The only man she’d dreamed of loving there.

“Shouldn’t you be chasing after Mrs. Forester this morning?” she whispered.

Jack groaned, and his warm breath feathered her fingers. “I’ve decided that Richard is quite capable of taking care of Mrs. Forester.”

Carys raised herself up on one elbow to peer into Jack’s face. “But what if Captain Fury finds out about what happened? Won’t he pursue her?”

He tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. His smile was so tender, Carys struggled not to melt against him and beg him to make love to her again. “From what I can tell, Captain Fury is motivated by money. As he’s already been paid, I doubt he’ll care what happened to his ‘cargo.’ Richard won’t fail a second time. I should imagine he will personally escort his prisoner to the Duke of Diable Delamere’s front door.”

“You don’t seem to care very much.” She stared into his amused brown eyes.

“Perhaps because I’ve discovered I have more to live for now than just restoring my reputation.”

Carys sat up, clutching the sheet to her naked breasts. She raised her eyebrows encouragingly as Jack settled back on the pillows with the air of a man who had explained everything.

“My original plan was to fulfill my mission for the duke, restore my somewhat battered reputation and return in all my glory to claim you. But since I’ve learned about Owen, everything else seems less important.”

Reluctant to destroy Jack’s good mood but determined to be honest, Carys asked, “But what about Marcus Stortford?”

The good humor drained from his face. “If Captain Fury won’t help, I fear Marcus is lost to me.” He rubbed his hand over his chin. “I can’t regret my decision. I’ve regained you and found Owen.”

Desolate at having put Jack in such an invidious position, Carys grabbed his hand. “It doesn’t have to be like that. Captain Fury might be persuaded to work with you again. We can go to Spain and search for Marcus ourselves.”

Jack squeezed her hand. “It’s all right. I’ve learned to my cost that life is a series of choices. All a man can do is live with the consequences of his decisions.”

Carys noted the fine lines of tension around Jack’s mouth. “Marcus must have been a good man.”

“One of the best. He had a way of making the most serious situations bearable and a calm disposition that defied the odds. If anyone could survive captivity for several years, it would be him.”

He pictured Marcus’s cheerful face, still distinct in his mind despite the intervening years. Not a particularly handsome man, but women had been drawn to him like bees to honey. It was impossible to believe that all Marcus’ vitality was gone, reduced to a pile of picked-over bones littering a mountain pass in Spain.

Memories overwhelmed Jack. “On our last journey together, Marcus was the only thing that kept me sane.” He glanced at Carys. “I’m sure Oliver Rice is a fine man, but his brother, David, was unsuited to the life of a soldier. I’m not even sure how he came to accompany us on our mission.”

In Jack’s mind, the bedroom shimmered like a mirage and disappeared to reveal the harsh sunlight and barren terrain of the Spanish mountains.

“David didn’t stop complaining for the entire journey. Since I’d been demoted, he was supposed to be the second most senior officer after Marcus, yet he behaved like an insecure young puppy. I was anxious to move quickly through the passes. The information I had to deliver back to headquarters contained details of important enemy troop movements. I had a bad feeling that we were being followed, and so did Marcus. We’d been in dangerous situations together before and trusted each other’s instincts.

“Rice slowed us down considerably. Even Marcus, who was renowned for his cool head, came close to reprimanding him on several occasions. At one point, I respectfully suggested knocking Rice out and slinging him across his horse, but Marcus wouldn’t allow it.”

Jack drew in an unsteady breath. “But even though he was a liability, no one likes to see fellow officers get shot.” An image of the crimson blood soaking through Rice’s white waistcoat as he staggered backwards made Jack frown. “If only he’d listened to me and stayed under cover. It was almost as if he wanted to be killed.”

Carys stroked his shoulder. “I remember you telling me that no one can predict how they will respond to the violence of war at first hand. Perhaps you were right, and David should never have joined the army.”

Jack shook his head to dispel the horrific images. “I always feel I could have done more.” He studied the tranquil scenery beyond Carys’s window and wondered how far Rice’s family home was from the cottage. Had David visited here as a boy?

Carys lay down beside him on her side, her body position mirroring his. “You were trying to stop the French soldiers from dragging Marcus away and attempting to remain alive yourself. I hardly think anyone would blame you.”

“Ah, but they did. My commanding officer insisted that as I was recovered far away from where the ambush took place, it indicated that I had tried to escape, leaving my companions to their fate.”

Carys frowned. “That is ridiculous. Anyone who knows you would assume you were going for help, or trying to complete your mission.”

“That’s the beauty of the military,
cariad.
No one who knew me was allowed to testify on my behalf. And I was too ill in the hospital to care what went on. My father arrived and attempted to have the charges dropped in favor of having me declared insane.”

Carys stirred. “I remember him leaving for the continent, but no one would tell me what was going on. I didn’t even know you had been wounded.”

Jack marveled at yet another example of his parent’s petty cruelty. “In my heart I hoped you would come to my bedside and take me home. I was bitterly disappointed when my father said you were too busy enjoying the Season to attend me.”

Carys let out an exasperated breath. “Sometimes I would like to throttle your father.”

Jack caught her hand and kissed it. “Even if the opportunity arose, I suspect you would have to wait your turn. He does not endear himself to many people.”

“If I had known you were ill, of course I would have come to you. Your mother told me you were busy with your affairs in London and too bored with my miserable face to require my presence.”

“And there I was, after my return from Spain, stuck in Carmarthen House with only my old nanny for company. With the added attraction of periodic visits from a doctor who insisted on bleeding me.” Jack held her gaze. “It’s no wonder we were so easy for my parents to drive apart.”