Emily's Seduction Read Online Free Page B

gaze jumping around the page as words leapt out from the text.
    English privateers — Jamaica — No further details at this time.
    His mouth went dry and his heart pounded into life again with dizzying speed.
    “What’s wrong? Has someone died?” Emily’s voice cut into his thoughts, confusing him.
    He forced his eyes and thoughts back to the letter.
    She was at his side, laying a hand on his arm. “What is it?”
    He touched her cheek. “Please, my love, I am trying to read.”
    “But you’ve gone so pale. What is it?”
    He could never tell her about Aimee, not without telling all of it—all of the horrors he’d known and the anguished choices he’d been forced to make—and that he would never, ever do. He would not spoil her sweetness, her fresh innocence, with his tarnished past.
    He smiled. “I lost badly on an investment in a voyage. It’s nothing to worry yourself over.”
    So now he was starting to lie to her. Something he’d sworn he wouldn’t do.
    Her lush lashes swept over her eyes and a small smile curved her mouth. “I’ll wait for you, then.”
    Her ready trust put a sick feeling into his stomach.
    “No,” he said, trying to keep his voice light. “Please dress yourself. I need to see to this business as soon as possible.”
     
    * * * *
     
    In the carriage, Alex was silent and tense. He was hiding something. This was no loss on a voyage. She’d known it the moment he’d given her the smile. Not the open, tender smile that was hers alone but the glib, charming smile he used to ease his way with others. He’d lied to her. Freely. And now his secret pulsed on the air between them as if it were a living thing.
    This secret had made Green hate Alex with insane passion. He had threatened to spread baseless rumours about Emily’s sea captain father having traded slaves from Africa. He had even abducted her to lure Alex to his offices, perhaps intending to murder him. But Green had killed himself instead.
    She shuddered at the memory.
    Something owned Alex’s soul. Something dark and dangerous and she didn’t know what. He had told her as much when he’d asked her to marry him, and he had made it clear that he never intended to enlighten her. She didn’t know how to fight something unknown. But she was going to have to learn because she loved him more than her life. She wanted him. All of him.
    She would win.

Chapter Two
     
     
     
    “Alexander,” Catarina whispered, for here he was not Alexander and she was not Catarina. Using their forbidden names was a way to maintain their solidarity. “Is she not beautiful?”
    He glanced up from the red-faced scrap of humanity to Catarina ’ s exhausted face. “She is.”
    “And yet it would have been better had she died.”
    His jaw tightened. “Don ’ t say that.”
    “He means to sell her off— just as he does the others, when she is old enough.”
    The pit of his stomach burned. “I told you, before that happens I will find a way and get us out of here— all of us.”
    She closed her eyes and shook her head. “We will never be able to escape with an infant.”
    Exhaustion swept through his body. It had been a long night. They wouldn ’ t let him see her nor would they tell him anything about her progress. He was only here with Catarina now because he had bribed her handmaiden. Well, fucked her would have been a more apt term. Up against a wall with his hand fastened firmly over her mouth to silence her cries of pleasure. Every single female servant in this household was desperate for a hard shagging. However, he could be killed for spending his precious, expensively purchased seed in such a lowly vessel. It was a very strange world for a young American to find himself in.
    “It just can’ t be done. Better that she had died.” Catarina ’ s soft voice broke on the last word.
    Anger rose, hot like bile in his throat. Anger at the situation, anger at the madman who had created the situation. But most of all, anger at himself