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“They’re coming,” Drake said as he surged away from Heather. “Make yourself decent.”
For a moment, she just laid there, her breath coming in short gasps as she tried to understand what was going on. One moment, she’d been experiencing the most amazing desire she’d ever known. Drake’s hands and mouth had been all over her, and passion had surged through her in waves. The next, she was alone, her breasts hanging out of her dress as she stared up at the ceiling in confusion. Why had he stopped?
Drake stood above her, sheltering her protectively, his entire body vibrating with tension.
Then she heard it, the door unlocking. Gasping, she pushed to a sitting position and turned her back to the door, trying to shove her breasts back into her bodice. “Make yourself decent,” he’d said, and she felt anything but decent at the moment.
How had she let things get so out of hand? She’d meant to share one kiss with him, nothing more. But the moment their lips had touched, a fire had erupted between them.
If their captors hadn’t chosen that moment to enter the cellar, who knows what she might have let him do? Maybe she truly was the whore Jacob had accused her of being, though she’d certainly never felt anything like this for him.
The door swung open, and she heard heavy footsteps and then something being set down on the table. Taking a deep breath, she turned around and saw a masked man she believed to be Oscar setting another tray down and picking up the one they’d left earlier. In the doorway stood Jacob and another of his men.
“What the bloody hell do you want with us?” Drake asked, looming over Oscar as he turned back toward the door. “We’ve been down here for an entire day. When are you going to tell me why?”
Oscar shrugged. “It’s not my place to talk to you. I’m just supposed to see that you’re fed.”
Drake’s frustration was palpable as he slammed his hands down on the table, making the new tray shake. “Tell whoever you work for that I want to speak to them immediately.”
Oscar just laughed. “He’ll talk to you when he’s good and ready. Ain’t nothing you can do till then.”
Backing up, the old tray in his hands, Oscar exited, but then Jacob stepped forward.
“You have two members of the Citizens Committee in your stinking jail,” Jacob said at last, finally getting to the heart of the matter. “Have either of them given up the rest of the group?”
Drake stalked toward Jacob, his large body vibrating with menace. “That’s why you took me? Because you’re afraid some of your men have ratted you out? Don’t you realize what you’ve done? You condemned yourselves all to jail or worse!”
Jacob gave some sort of signal to the man beside him, and he lifted a gun and pointed it squarely at Drake’s chest. Drake froze, and Jacob laughed, moving around him and crossing the room toward Heather. Still on the bed, she tried to scramble away from him, but he grabbed her arm painfully and jerked her to her feet, crushing her against him, her back to his front.
Wrapping his arm around her neck, he squeezed until she thought she’d lose consciousness. Gasping, she tried to claw his arm away but he was far too strong. He held fast, and bright lights flashed before her eyes as she fought for breath. “If you don’t tell me what I need to know, I’ll kill her,” he snarled.
Drake lifted his arms in submission, frustration in every line of his body. “Do you know how many cases the Metropolitan Police are working on at any given time? I don’t investigate these things myself. Why would you think I’d know any details about some low-level communist group?”
If the situation wasn’t so dire, Heather might have laughed. She didn’t think Jacob had any idea how completely insignificant he was to the man in front of them. Why would the assistant commissioner of the whole department concern himself with something so trivial in the grand scheme of things?
But as Jacob’s arm tightened even more around her throat, she really wished that either she or Drake could give him something. Anything that would keep them alive.
“If you let me go, I can check into it for you,” Drake said tightly. “But let the girl go. She can’t tell you anything. I don’t even know why you took her.”
Jacob only laughed though his arm loosened enough so that she could finally draw a breath. Apparently, he didn’t plan to kill her. Yet. “Do you think I’m a fool? If I let you go, you’ll bring the entire police department down on my head.”
“Your only hope is to keep me alive.” Drake gave Jacob a look of utter condescension, the sort of look only a man born to the nobility could give. “The entire department is probably looking for me as we speak. If they manage to track me down, you’re going to need me as a bargaining tool.”
“I told you this was a bad idea,” Oscar said from the other side of the room, the gun wavering in his grasp. “We should let them go.”
Sensing the weak link, Drake began to edge toward Oscar, seeming oblivious of the gun in the other man’s hand.
“Stop right there!” Oscar cried, steadying the gun and trying to act as though he wasn’t frightened out of his mind.
With a growl, Jacob suddenly threw Heather back to the cot, striding past Drake and joining Oscar and the others at the door. “I’m going to give you one more day,” he said, his voice vibrating with fury. “When I come back, you better have some information for me. If you don’t, I won’t kill you, I’ll kill the girl.”
He stepped back, and they locked the door behind them.
Drake bent over the table, his hands braced on the surface, his big body vibrating with tension. “I don’t have the answers he wants, Heather. I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to tell him when he returns.”
Swallowing, she crossed the room to his side, placing one hand tentatively on his back and rubbing gently, trying to ease a little of his anger and frustration.
“I don’t understand it,” he said at last. “What kind of an idiot would kidnap me to find out something like that? Why would he expect me to know whether someone in one of our cells had given him up?”
“I don’t know,” she agreed. “You’re right. It doesn’t make sense. He must be an idiot.”
That at least was true. Nothing Jacob had done lately had made any sense. His entire plan had been foolish beyond measure.
“We have to get out of here,” he growled. “I don’t want anything to happen to you because I can’t tell them what they want to know.”
She shivered, tears stinging her eyes as she rubbed at her sore throat. She’d have bruises tomorrow. “It won’t be your fault,” she whispered. “No matter what happens... I don’t ever want you to think that.”
He turned and pulled her into his arms again, but this time there was no passion in it. This time, it was a comfort to both of them. In his arms, she could almost pretend that Jacob hadn’t issued an ultimatum that ended with her dying tomorrow. She could almost believe that Drake would actually find some way to save her from this mess she’d gotten herself in.
If she didn’t believe it, she’d go mad.
His hands stroked tenderly up and down her back, but then he paused. “I don’t know how you ladies wear all these layers upon layers of clothes. Would you like me to help you get rid of some of them?”
She frowned up at him, but he just smiled and held his hands up as if to show that he had no ulterior motives. “Please, just let me help you get more comfortable. I have a feeling it’s afternoon now, and he said he was giving me until tomorrow. I don’t think anybody’s coming back tonight.”
Biting her lip, she finally nodded. She was completely miserable, and it seemed the time for false modesty had passed. He’d already seen far more of her than he would if she loosened her stays a bit.
She turned her back to him, and he helped her shrug out of her tightly fitted jacket. Then he unfastened the back of her gown and loosened her stays with far more familiarity with women’s clothing than was probably decent.
“Why don’t you just strip down to your chemise and then get in bed?” he suggested. “I’ll turn my back if you like. You should really try to get a little more sleep.”
The temptation was too strong. The day had been mentally taxing, and the thought of taking some unfettered breaths and getting some much-needed sleep decided her. She was too exhausted to think about all this at the moment. When tomorrow came, they would both need to be ready. As he said, they might only get one chance to save themselves.
“All right. Thank you. That would be lovely.”
As soon as his back was turned, she slithered out of her stiff dress like a snake shedding its skin, removed the stays entirely, and then slid beneath the scratchy sheets in just her chemise, sighing in bliss at the freedom of movement she hadn’t had in days.
“Can I turn around yet?” he asked, a faint teasing tone in his voice.
“Yes,” she said, making sure the blankets were covering her from toes to chin, however silly that might be given the intimacies they’d just shared.
He crossed toward her and sat on the edge of her cot, a smile on his lips. “I don’t know why it gives me such pleasure to see you comfortable, but it does. May I take the pins out of your hair?”
She shivered and wordlessly lifted up on one elbow, bending her head toward him.
Humming some tune under his breath, he started picking out the pins, laying them on the bed by her hip, his hands surprisingly gentle as he worked his way through the heavy dark strands until it hung loose around her shoulders. He then ran his fingertips through it, working out the tangles gently. This was what she did for Allison every night. But no one had ever done it for her.
“That feels very nice,” she whispered, almost afraid that if she spoke she would ruin the moment, that he’d stop. She wasn’t used to being pampered, to feeling as though her comfort mattered in the slightest.
“I’m glad,” he murmured.
Silence fell between them once again for a while as he continued to play with her hair, but then he cleared his throat. “Has anyone ever told you that you have beautiful hair? It’s just as silky and soft as I imagined it would be. Like a river at midnight.”
Had Jacob ever told her that? She didn’t think so. In fact, she was hard-pressed to remember a single sweet word he’d ever given her and wondered once again what she’d ever seen in him. She shook her head. “No. You’re definitely the first.”
“That’s a shame,” he said softly. “You were made to be cherished, Heather.”
She swallowed. “You don’t have to bother with sweet words. I don’t expect anything from you, Drake. I was grateful to taste a little passion before... whatever happens.”
His eyes sparked with something she couldn’t decipher. “I want to give you sweet words. I want to give you all the good things I can tonight.”
While we’re still alive.
He didn’t say the words, but they hung between them, heavy with foreboding. Neither of them knew for sure what tomorrow would bring, but there didn’t seem to be any way out of their prison that didn’t end with Jacob getting rid of them for good.
Leaning down, he pressed his lips tenderly to her forehead then gently touched her throat, which surely must be bruised from Jacob’s arm. “Get some sleep. I’ll be just over there if you need anything.”
She caught his hand as he pushed to his feet. “What about you? You’ve slept even less than I have.”
“I’ll be all right,” he said, his tone brooking no argument. “After you’ve rested, we can trade places again for a while.”
Still, she didn’t let him go. “Can you lay here with me a while? Can you kiss me again?” She swallowed convulsively. “I’m so afraid, Drake. I’m afraid that tonight might be my last, and I don’t want to spend it alone.”
Where had that come from? She hadn’t even known she was going to ask that of him until the words had exited her mouth. But now that she’d said it, she didn’t want to take it back. The kiss they’d shared had been unlike anything she’d ever imagined. She knew that making love to this man would be completely different than it had been with Jacob. This was the kind of passion her friends had found, and it seemed wildly unfair to her that she’d only had a taste of it now, when it was too late.
“Heather...” His dark gaze met hers, and what she saw there took her breath away. “I know you’re afraid, but I’ll keep you safe. I promise. I just don’t want you to do something you’ll regret once we’re safely away from here.”
“But what if that doesn’t happen?” She tugged harder on his hand, and he sat wordlessly back down beside her. “What if he really kills me tomorrow? I’ve had so few beautiful moments in my life. But what we shared earlier... it was so beautiful.”
He groaned and gathered her up against him, crushing her against his chest as his lips hungrily found hers, kissing her with all the passion and intensity he’d shown her before. She straddled his hips, wrapping herself around him as though he was the only port in the storm that had become her life.
His kisses, his touches, they made all the terror and guilt go away. Tomorrow was an eternity away. All that mattered in this moment was now. Tonight. Because tonight, he wasn’t the son of a marquess and she wasn’t the bastard daughter of a lady’s maid. They were just two people who cared about each other. Two people who wanted for this brief moment in time to be one.
He skimmed his hands up her bare thighs, never breaking the kiss, and she moaned into his mouth as his fingertips brushed the soft curls guarding her sex.
“Tell me if I do anything you don’t want,” he whispered roughly as his finger delved within her, a sweet pressure that she’d never expected to enjoy. “I don’t want to hurt you, Heather, but the first time can be a little painful.”
Heat stung her face, but this didn’t seem to be the right time to tell him that she was not a virgin. For right now, for tonight, she just wanted to pretend that she deserved a man like this, that she’d waited, that this was their wedding night.
As he moved his finger gently in and out of her, his thumb circled the little bud at the apex of her thighs, making her squirm and press against him, wanting more but also embarrassed that she seemed so... damp down there. Was she bleeding?
Before she could break away, he lifted his dark gaze to hers. “You’re so damp, Heather. So wet.”
“I’m sorry,” she gasped, trying to close her thighs, flushed with embarrassment that he’d noticed. She should have known that she couldn’t even do this right.
“No,” he breathed, taking her lips in a long, lingering kiss. “You’re supposed to be. This is how your body prepares itself to take mine. It’s a good thing. It means you want me. I can’t wait to slide through your wet heat and bury myself deep inside you.”
Jacob hadn’t said a word when he’d taken her virginity. He’d just pushed himself brutally inside her. She was nearly certain that she hadn’t been damp then. But now she could see how it would have helped. Oh, how she wished she’d had someone to tell her what to expect.
“Thank you for telling me,” she whispered, gasping as his thumb once more swiped across the spot where all the delightful sensations seemed to be centered. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Just enjoy it,” he told her. “I plan to make you feel so good, Heather. So good that the whole world falls away.”
As he spoke, he put another finger inside her, his thumb still working its magic, making her moan softly and grind against him, feeling on the verge of something she couldn’t name but instinctively knew was the reason her friends had been willing to risk everything for it.
“Relax,” he whispered. “Let yourself go, beautiful girl.”
She had no idea what he was trying to do, what he wanted from her. Why wasn’t he putting himself inside her?
But she pushed those thoughts away and focused on nothing but the pleasure, the feeling of being... cherished. His tenderness made her almost believe that he truly cared for her.
And then he swiped his thumb over her one more time, curling his fingers inward, and the combined sensation made her bite on her lip to keep from screaming as a wave of pleasure unlike anything she’d ever known rocked through her, radiating out through her fingers and toes.
“Dear God,” she gasped afterward, little shocks of awareness still curling her toes. “What was that?”
“Pleasure,” he said with a cocksure grin. “That’s how a man should always make a woman feel when he makes love to her.”
“I’ve never felt anything like that,” she breathed, tingling all over. “But that’s not what I thought lovemaking was. I thought you put your...” She trailed off, having absolutely no idea what one was supposed to call it. “...in me,” she finished weakly.
“Oh, darling,” he murmured, cradling her against his chest. “We’re not done yet. We’re just getting started.”