Читать книгу The Regency Bestsellers Collection - Bronwyn Scott - Страница 21

Chase strained in the bindings, attempting to wriggle loose. His movements only seemed to make the ropes tighter.

To add to the predicament, all that wriggling began creating other problems. Virile-man-with-a-functioning-cock problems.

Be calm, he told himself. This was hardly his first time dealing with an unwanted cockstand. He could coax it down.

Cricket. Think about cricket. That’s what they say, isn’t it?

Unfortunately, Chase didn’t know much about cricket. His knowledge began and ended with heavy balls and long, rigid bats—not particularly helpful right now.

“How the devil did they manage to do this?” he asked.

“Knots were among our pirate lessons.”

He rolled his eyes. “Of course they were.”

“They’re an essential part of seamanship,” she said, as if this should be an acceptable excuse. “I’ll have us out of this in a trice. They’ve only learned the simplest types so far, and they made the mistake of leaving me one hand to untie it.” She moved her free hand along the rope lashing them together. “Now where is the knot?”

“At the small of my back, unfortunately.”

She had her arm around him as far as she could reach. As if they were locked in an embrace.

“Just a little further. Aha.” Her fingers traced the contours of the knot where it lay against the small of his back. “A simple reef knot. I’ll have it loose in moments, if I can just . . . find the proper . . . angle.”

She moved up and down, sliding along his body to angle for a better grip. If he had any hope of subduing his swelling erection, it quickly evaporated.

No cricket could save him now, unless he took a bat to the head.

Alex felt it. The thick, hard ridge pulsing and growing against her belly. Her fingers froze in place. She’d already been overwhelmed by the scent and heat of him, and the solid wall of his chest. But this? The crude, unmistakable proof that he was feeling it, too? It set her brain spinning.

Thank heaven he was so tall. At least she was staring, crimson-cheeked, into his waistcoat rather than his face.

Ignore it, she told herself. Think of celestial navigation.

But his swelling groin proved difficult to ignore. Its size was an inconvenient wedge between them, making it even harder for Alexandra to work the knot loose. She would have a devil of a time freeing it with one hand.

“Perhaps we should talk.”

“Yes,” she jumped to answer. “Let’s talk.”

“So your friends call you Alex.”

“It’s simpler. Alexandra is quite the mouthful. And your friends call you Chase, I gather.”

“It’s Charles, properly. But ever since school, I’ve answered to Chase.”

“Ah. So your schoolmates gave you the nickname.”

“No, I chose it.”

“You chose your own nickname?” She laughed to herself. “That is a bit pathetic, I’m sorry to say.”

“The name didn’t fit my lifestyle. Charles is dull. Chase sounds roguish. Exciting. No woman wants to cry out, ‘Oh, Charles! Yes, Charles!’ in bed. I mean, would you?”

“Er.”

“Forget I said that.”

Alexandra would try, but she doubted she would succeed.

“Tell me about your schooling,” he said.

“My schooling?”

“Boring lessons, grim schoolrooms. If by chance you had any dour, dried-up, snaggletoothed headmistresses, I’d love to hear about them right now. In detail.”

“My least favorite teacher wasn’t dried up or ugly at all. She was quite pretty, as a matter of fact, but she would spank us for misbehaving.”

“Really,” he said, groaning weakly.

“A smart thwack of the ruler, straight on the backside.”

“On second thought, let’s not talk.”

She managed to snag a fiber of rope with her fingernail. “I think I’m making progress.”

“Thank God,” he breathed.

“I’m not certain I can loosen it without a bit more slack. Is there any way you can press just a bit closer? A few moments, no more. All I need is a half inch.”

He made a strangled noise. “If you must, but do it quickly. Otherwise we’re going to move a good seven inches in the wrong direction.”

“What?”

“Never mind.”

Alexandra leaned in, turning her head so that her cheek rested on his chest. His chin settled atop her head, heavy and square. The hollow thump of his heartbeat drummed in her ears and echoed in her belly.

For a moment, she forgot all about the knot. And the nursery, and the children, and anything else in the world that wasn’t his hard, lean male body. She was wrapped about him like a sailor lashed to the mast in a storm. And then his hand gripped her hip and pulled her closer still. As if they were lovers in an embrace.

He exhaled a shaky breath. The sigh gave her just enough space to work with. She wiggled her trembling fingers into the loop of rope, then pulled.

There. The knot was undone, and so was she.

They weren’t prepared. Pressed together so closely, they had all the stability of a lawn bowls pin. The sudden release sent them toppling, and his grip on her backside meant she tumbled with him.

And landed atop him, as they hit the floor with a thud. He cushioned the fall, taking the brunt of it.

“Oof.”

Alexandra levered herself on her elbows. “Are you injured?”

“No.”

“But you thunked your head.” She felt his skull. “Say something.”

“Ouch.”

She laughed, both relieved and nervous.

“Now I know what that dratted doll feels like.”

“Are you hurting terribly?”

“Tomorrow I will be. At the moment, I’m fine.”

“You’re certain? Perhaps I should—”

“Alexandra.” He cupped her chin and forced her to meet his eyes. “Enough.”

Goodness. The sound of her name from his lips, in that forceful, husky voice . . . He still clutched a handful of her backside.

“I know you don’t approve of the piracy game, but it’s the one way I’ve found to reach them. Daisy’s struggling with her lessons. She can scarcely read. Rosamund is so protective of her. Her instinct is to push me away rather than risk being hurt. They need patience.” She paused. “More than that, they need to feel safe and loved.”

“I’ve told you. I cannot give them that.”

“You could if you tried.”

“I thought you understood this from the very first day. I’m a bitter disappointment, remember. A poor excuse for a gentleman. A man incapable of understanding the consequence of stockings.”

“But you’re also a man who holds a little girl’s hand and eulogizes her doll every morning. A duke’s heir who builds cozy window seats and bookshelves by hand for his orphaned wards.”

“How did you know that?”

“I guessed. Downstairs, you were hanging your own paneling. Thank you for my verandah, by the way. You’re good with your hands.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” he growled. He gathered another handful of her bottom and squeezed.

An electric thrill forked through her. After zinging wildly all over her body, the sensation settled in her nipples, drawing them to tingling points.

“See? Don’t waste your time attempting to ‘reform’ me. It’s a lost cause.” He muttered, almost too low for her to hear: “I’m a lost cause.”

A lost cause?

That wasn’t the sort of conclusion one came to on one’s own. Someone had taught him a lie, etching it not only on his mind, but in his soul. Whoever it was, Alexandra despised them—on behalf of Rosamund and Daisy, and on behalf of Chase Reynaud himself. She couldn’t allow such a falsehood to pass unchallenged.

“Chase.” She softened her touch, smoothing back his hair. “No one’s a lost cause.”

His eyes held a clash of emotions. Doubt, mixed with a desperate yearning to believe. Denial, warring against desire. Push, tethered to pull.

Don’t imagine things, she told herself. In all likelihood, his eyes merely reflected the confused emotions in her own.

His grip on her bottom went firm as a decision. Her breath caught. In a flash, he’d rolled her onto her back, pinning her beneath him.

“Listen to me,” he said. “If I were any sort of decent man—one who could be trusted to care about anyone other than himself—I wouldn’t have a governess flat on her back, beneath me, on the nursery floor. If you refuse to believe that, I’ll have to teach you a lesson.”

She gave him a teasing smile. “What if I teach you one first?”

She kissed him square on the forehead.

He kissed her back, square on the lips.

And the passion of it took her breath away.