Seduced: The Scandalous Virgin Read Online Free

“The one to make amends for my earlier neglect? I assure you, I have endeavored to fulfill it at every opportunity.”
    â€œSo you have.” She laughed—a warm, hearty sound that never failed to nourish his spirit. “It will take very little more to persuade me of your sincere repentance. But it is the other promise I meant, to tell me why you would allow your family to choose a wife for you.”
    Secure in the knowledge that they would move in very different circles once they reached England, Blade felt safe confiding in her. “My family shipped me off to the Indies after one scandal too many. Father said three years should allow the tattle to die down and give me plenty of time to sow my wild oats. After that, he would expect me to return home and make myself useful to the family by marrying a neighboring heiress.”
    The teasing mirth in Genia’s eyes was quenched in a blaze of indignation. “But he cannot force you to wed against your wishes. You are his son, not his slave!”
    â€œA slave would be of more value.” Blade gave a bitter chuckle. “I am nothing to him but a cipher, a spare cog for the family engine, a measure of insurance lest some harm befalls to my elder brother. In the meantime, if I do not toe the line and marry the chosen bride, I shall be disowned and disinherited.”
    â€œYou make it sound as if you are bound for the gallows.” Beneath the warm sympathy of her tone there rang a steely challenge. “But surely that needn’t be. You could make your own way in the world, leaving you free to make your own choices.”
    â€œHardly the gallows,” Blade protested. What she’d proposed was not nearly as easy as it sounded. “More like the world’s most comfortable prison cell.”
    A troubled frown did nothing to detract from Genia’s beauty. “And what is your crime, pray?”
    Blade shrugged as if in jest. “Being of no earthly use to anybody. Not having a scrap of ambition except to amuse myself. Being no good at anything that matters.”
    He found himself telling her about Ford and his partners, the successful business they had built from nothing. “Part of me envies them for having accomplished so much. Yet I shudder to think of the hours they work and the conditions they endure. Compared to them, I am too idle and irresolute to make anything of my life.”
    When Genia shook her head and parted her luscious lips to contradict him, Blade refused to let her. These feelings had been brewing within him for so long, despite his effort to divert himself with superficial pleasures. She was the first person who truly seemed to listen and care.
    â€œI hope that sowing my last wild oats on this voyage may make me ready to settle down and shoulder my responsibilities.” Urgently as he longed to unburden himself, Blade regretted having confessed too much—both to her and to himself.
    The past haunted him with its ghosts of failure and unworthiness. The future lay in wait to take him captive. Only in the present moment, with Genia, was he free to grasp at a few last moments of happiness.
    â€œWe should get back to the roundhouse.” He glanced up at the sky, which seemed darker than usual for the hour. Now he saw why. A great bank of dark clouds massed on the western horizon like some vast, mountainous continent. “I fear we may be in for a storm.”
    Grasping Genia’s hand, he led her toward their usual trysting place beside the stairs to the quarterdeck. “We should take advantage of this opportunity. If we sail through rain, it may be some time before we can enjoy another stroll.”
    â€œI wish we could have more time,” breathed Genia when he had backed her into their darkened corner, “and privacy to enjoy moments like these.”
    â€œSo do I.” Blade drizzled kisses down her neck and caressed her softly curved body through her light muslin gown.