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She was accusto women, to the open admiration of men, and this she had from Lord John as well But below such adlance or gesture, a vibration like the distant chiht she felt it froone on subsequent s, and she had concluded that she had uessed before, she thought; she’d encountered that inner indifference once before, in the roommate of a casual boyfriend But then, Lord John hid it very well; she uessed, were it not for that chance encounter in the yard No, he didn’t chime for her But when he ca like a firebell
She wondered briefly if her father knew, but dismissed the possibility After his experiences in Wentworth Prison, he couldn’t possibly hold a ard as she knew he felt for Lord John
She rolled onto her back The polished cotton of the sheet slid across the bare skin of brsts and thighs, caressing She half noticed the feeling, and as her nipple hardened she raised a hand to cup her breast in reflex, felt Roger’s large war Then inand ed at once to sickened fury She flipped onto her stomach, arms crossed beneath her brsts and face buried in her pillow, legs clenched and teeth gritted in futile defense
The baby was a large, uncomfortable lump; impossible to lie that way now With a small half-spoken curse, she rolled over and jerked out of bed, out fro, seductive sheets
She walked nakd through the half-lit roo rain Her hair hung dalass, pebbling the white flesh of arhs and belly She o back to bed, but only stood there, one hand on the gently squir out
It would be too late soon She had knohen they left that it was already too late--so had her mother Neither of theh; they had both pretended that Roger would come back in time, that he and she would sail to Hispaniola, and find their way back through the stones--together
She laid her other hand against the glass; at once, a ers It was early March; maybe three months left, maybe less It would take a week, maybe two, to travel to the coast No ship would risk the treacherous Outer Banks in March, though Early April, at the soonest, before a journey could be undertaken How long to the West Indies? Teeks, three?
The end of April, then And a few days to hting through the jungle, h that didn’t er were here now But he wasn’t He ht hard against envisioning If she didn’t think about all the ways he could die, then he wouldn’t die; it was one article of her stubborn faith; the others were that he wasn’t dead yet, and that her mother would coe boiled up again, as it did whenever she thought of him--him or Bonnet--so she tried to think of either of them as little as possible
She prayed, of course, as hard as she could, but she wasn’t constituted for praying and waiting; she was one with theh Her jaw tightened, and her hand splayed flat against her belly She hadn’t had a choice about a lot of things But she had made one choice--to keep her child--and now she’d have to live with the consequences of it
She was beginning to shiver Abruptly she turned away froue of fla, the heart of the eold and white
She sank down on the hearth rug, closing her eyes as the heat of the fire sent waves of co as the stroke of a hand This ti hi fiercely instead on the few precious er
…put your hand on my heart Tell me if it stops…She could hear hihter and passion
How the hell do you know that? The rough feel of curly hairs under her palms, the smooth hard curves of his shoulders, the throb of the pulse in the side of his throat when she’d pulled hiency to bite him, to taste him, to breathe the salt and dust of his skin
The dark and secret places of hiht, rolling and vulnerable in her palm, a complexity of curve and depth that yielded reluctantly to her probing fingertips (Oh, God, don’t stop, but careful, aye? Oh!), the strange wrinkled silk that grew taut and s, silent and incredible as the stalk of a night-blooentleness as he touched her (Christ, I wish I could see your face, to kno it is for you, aood, just here? Tell me, Bree, talk to me…), as she explored him, and then the moment when she had pushed hiain the sudden ae of power in hi her as though she weighed nothing, rolled her back against the straw and took her, half hesitating as he re the de her past the fear of impalement, into acceptance, and welco the lastthem forever in a flood of sweat and musk and blood and semn
She moaned out loud, shuddered and lay still, too weak even to , very slowly Her belly was tight as a drurip on her swollen womb One half of her body blazed with heat, the other was cool and dark
After a moment she rolled onto her hands and knees, and crawled away from the fire She hauled herself onto the bed like a wounded beast, and lay half stunned, ignoring the currents of heat and cold that played over her