Page 97 of After the Abduction

“No one on the Navy Board would say whether Miss Willis was taken with the others—apparently, it’s some great secret—but the earl is enraged all the same. And when the great Blackmore is enraged, they’re enraged. They want the Pirate Lord’s head, and failing that, Morgan’s.” He grimaced. “I swear, if Morgan has gotten himself involved with kidnapping a gentlewoman—”

“Yes, that would be truly awful,” she put in dryly. “Kidnapping a gentlewoman—what kind of scoundrel would do that?”

He blinked, then groaned.

She took a petty pleasure in his discomfort. “You Blakely twins seem to have a penchant for this sort of thing. I do hope Morgan comes out of it as well as you have.”

His eyes narrowed. “What the devil do you mean?”

She shrugged. “Only that you have yet to suffer any inconvenience because of what you did. You won’t even tell my family of your part—”

“One word from Knighton to the Navy Board about my kidnapping you, and any possibility of a pardon for Morgan vanishes, even if Morgan had naught to do with this latest outrage. You know very well I can’t risk it!”

She ground her teeth in sheer frustration. Why was the man cursed with such a perverse sense of duty to his family? “You needn’t tell Griff about Morgan, you know. He still thinks your brother is dead. Just let him believe that. Tell him why you kidnapped me, and leave it at that.”

“Then he’ll wonder why I didn’t simply tell the truth from the beginning. Why I blamed it on my brother.” He drew himself up stiffly. “He’ll think I was too cowardly to admit what I’d done. That won’t make him any more eager to countenance a marriage between the two of us, will it?”

“I don’t care what he countenances! I want him—and the rest of my family—to hear the truth.” She put some distance between them, though it wasn’t easy to do when he held her with all the intimacy of a lover. “You won’t change my mind on this, you know. If you won’t tell him until after Morgan returns, then we won’t marry until then.”

He glowered at her. “All the same, I shall ask Knighton for your hand.” His hand slid to her back. “At least we can be engaged while I’m cleaning up this mess.”

“No.” Leave it to Sebastian to try to wriggle through her conditions however he could. She saw Rosalind across the room speaking to Lady Brumley, who was probably trying to find out how much of the gossip about Juliet was true. That firmed her resolve. “Until you can ask Griff properly, I won’t accept any offer of marriage from you. If you even mention marriage to him, I’ll tell him flat out that I refused you, and that will hamper your efforts later.”

“Deuce take it, be reasonable!” he hissed. “It won’t be long before Morgan returns, one way or the other. Blackmore is going after the Pirate Lord with a well-armed crew. If Morgan is no longer with the pirates, then he should be in England any day. If he is still with them, Blackmore will bring him back in chains, as Morgan deserves. But one way or the other, the whole matter will be settled soon enough. So if we agree to marry—”

“No, I tell you,” she said firmly. “Until this is all worked out, I’m not agreeing to anything.” Because then he’d find another way around it, another reason, and she’d be marrying a man her family didn’t really know. “As you say, it’ll be settled soon enough.”

Eyes hard as onyx glared down at her. “You do know you’re being incredibly exasperating, irritating—”

“Don’t forget ‘childish’,” she put in.

“—and stubborn?”

She tipped her nose up airily. “Then I wonder why you want to marry me.”

The anger in his expression was suddenly tempered by a healthy dose of desire. “If we were alone, sweeting, you wouldn’t have to wonder.” He danced his fingers sensuously across her back, stopping just short of smoothing them down over her derriere. But she could feel the heat of them, muted by her silk gown and his kid gloves, but palpable all the same against her spine. “Perhaps you’d fancy a walk in Feathering’s gardens.”

Her mouth fairly watered at the thought of slipping outside with him where he could kiss her and caress her and do all those other wicked things he excelled at. But she knew better than to let his seductive voice coax her this time. “We shan’t be alone again, sir—either in the gardens or anywhere else—until you speak to my family. I shall not be your paramour while you wait for matters to turn out to your satisfaction.”

“You know I don’t see you that way!”

“Oh look, the waltz is done,” she said brightly as the music came to an end. “And I desperately need some punch.”

Jaw set, he gestured toward the open French doors that led to the gardens. “Come with me for a walk in the fresh air, so we can finish discussing this.”

“We’ve already finished discussing this.” And the last thing she needed was to be alone with him where he could melt her iron reserve into a slag heap.

She started to leave him right there, but he caught up to her and tucked her arm firmly in the crook of his elbow as he led her off the floor. “I sometimes miss the old Juliet, the one I met two years ago.”

She scowled at him. “Why? Because like a ninny, she did whatever you asked?”

“No. Because she was so eager to have me that she asked me to kiss her.”

A reluctant smile touched her lips. “You refused me at first, as I recall.”

“Temporary insanity. I won’t make the same mistake again, however.” He rubbed her hand with his. “Now where is this blasted punch you say you want?”

“In the supper room. But you needn’t accompany me—”