Bobbi Smith - Captive Pride

“If you’ll excuse me, John?”

“Of course,” John answered. Earlier, having seen the flash of appreciation in Matthew’s eyes when he’d first met CC, John would have worried at his intent, but now he felt confident enough to give her over to him without hesitation.

“Have I told you yet how lovely you look this evening?” Matt asked with courtly earnestness as he led her out onto the dance floor.

“No,” she replied, smiling sweetly, “but I’m more than willing to listen.”

Matt laughed out loud at her retort, drawing quite a few stares from the other dancers. The women of his social set in England could not hold a candle to CC, he thought with firm conviction. She was fresh and exciting, just like the land in which she lived.

“Your eyes are like the stars of night, your complexion, silken perfection, you-” he began in lighthearted good humor.

“Enough!” she protested. “I believe you!”

“Good, although there’s more if you’d care to hear it,” Matt added in mock confidence.

“Perhaps later.” CC shot him a teasing look as she followed his lead through the intricate steps and glides of the allemande.

“Ah, then there will be a ‘later.’…” He gave her the humorously exaggerated look of a hopeful suitor.

“Are you always this outrageous?” she asked as the dance brought them back together again, and she was surprised when he frowned at her question.

“I don’t know.” Matt paused for effect before adding with mock seriousness, “Am I being outrageous?”

“Very.” She smiled widely, enjoying his easy banter.

“Do you suppose your fiancé will be jealous?”

“My fiancé?” She was suddenly confused.

“John…”

“John’s not my fiancé.”

“Oh? I was under the impression…” Matt began, and then asked pointedly, “Then you’re not in love with John?”

“Well, no. Why did you think that?” Admitting her feelings out loud made her understand once and for all that she really didn’t love John.

“When Noah and I first arrived, you were talking to him about getting married,” Matthew related as the music came to an end, and he offered her his arm.

CC took it without hesitation and then answered honestly as they walked slowly across the room, “John wishes it were so, but there will be no marriage between us. I won’t marry a man I don’t love.”

“So you’re a heartless heartbreaker. Are you?” He winked at her audaciously.

“At twenty-two, I think I’m past the heartbreaker stage,” CC remarked facetiously.

“You can break my heart anytime.” He said it so gallantly that she laughed.

It surprised CC to realize that the entire time she’d been dancing with Matthew, she’d hardly given his brother a thought, and she felt more confident than she had all night.

“I feel in need of a breath of fresh air…” she remarked, not quite ready to return to John.

“Shall I escort you?” Matt offered willingly. He’d found CC a delightful companion and was in no hurry to leave her, especially since finding out that John Robinson was not her intended.

“I’d like that,” she told him honestly. “Let’s go out on the patio.”

They stepped through the French doors and moved out onto the terrace, unaware that Noah was watching them from across the room, his expression fierce and cold.

Noah was livid. Watching CC laughing and flirting so boldly with Matthew had infuriated him. How dare she lead his brother on so openly! What was she plotting? Matthew was barely out of short pants and hardly her equal when it came to intrigue. Noah knew what kind of woman CC really was, and he wasn’t about to let her take advantage of Matt’s naiveté. Hadn’t he just heard her discussing her upcoming marriage with John? What kind of woman shared heated embraces with him, planned marriage with another, and toyed with a third as the others looked on?

Noticing that John did not appear upset by her actions, Noah concluded cynically that they definitely had to be in this together. Why else would the man allow his fiancée to flirt with other men and lead them on? John, no doubt, had urged CC to seduce Matthew in order to gain influence over him. Then, once she had Matt within her power, they were going to use him to try to convince Noah to sell the shipment to the rebels at a lower price. The whole scenario certainly made sense to Noah, and his jaw flexed in anger. To think that CC had had the gall to accuse him of being double-dealing! She was nothing more than a conniving witch playing very treacherous games.

Noah turned and excused himself from Eve, who had been practically clinging to him since they’d danced. Then he started across the room to follow Matt and CC outside. All thoughts of Eve’s seductive ways and the promise in her eyes were banished from his mind as he stalked his prey. Cecelia Demorest was going to learn a very valuable lesson this night. She was going to learn that Kincade men could not be used.

Light from the interior of the house shone brightly through the French doors and illuminated the terrace and gardens beyond in a dim, golden glow. CC and Matt were standing in the deep shadows near the edge of the terrace, and CC was laughing easily at something witty Matt had said when Noah strode purposefully from the house. He paused for an instant to allow his eyes to adjust to the darkness, and in that moment the lilting sound of her laughter came to him. As he glanced in the direction of her voice, his anger became a scalding fury when he saw CC lay a hand on Matt’s arm in what looked to be a very intimate gesture.

“Matthew!” He forced himself to keep the anger he was feeling from his tone.

“Noah?” Matt turned calmly to greet his brother, completely ignorant of his mood. “Come join us. CC and I-”

“You’re wanted inside, Matthew,” Noah told him conversationally. “I believe Edward had something he wanted to speak with you about.”

“Oh.” Matt glanced from Noah to CC, but in the semidarkness could read neither’s expression. “Well, CC, if you’ll excuse me?”

“Of course,” she replied, although she tensed at the thought of being alone with Noah. It was her worst imagining come true, and all her instincts were screaming for her to run from him, as far and as fast as possible. She trembled as she watched Matt disappear back inside the house. “It’s getting slightly chilly. I think I’ll go back in, too.”

CC started to move past Noah, but he was too fast for her as he grabbed her by her wrist and stopped her flight.

“Oh no, CC…you aren’t going back inside…not yet.”

“You lied to Matt…” Her gaze flashed with sudden icy contempt as she recognized his ploy, and her anger overcame her fear.

“Of course.” His feral smile was fleeting.

CC stared up at him accusingly, but his features seemed carved in stone as he regarded her expressionlessly. She knew a feeling of very real dread then, for there was something terribly sinister about his manner. She swallowed nervously.

“What do you want?” CC forced herself to sound more furious than fearful.

“I think there’s something you need to understand.” He spoke tersely.

“Oh?” she challenged him with foolhardy disdain.

“I know what you and your fiancé are up to, and it’s not going to work.” His grip on her wrist tightened threateningly as he thought of her deceitful ways.

“Let go of me!” CC snapped, tugging against his bruising hold.

“In my own good time, my dear,” he snarled, looking around the terrace. When he spied the steps that led away from the house, he started toward them, drawing her along with him down the short flight of stairs and into the deep, dark privacy of the gardens.