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BOOK: Bobbi Smith
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“You’re not a priest?” Matt repeated as he looked from Winn to the collar he’d just tossed on his bed. “What the devil are you talking about?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Then the wedding was a fake?” he asked in disbelief.
“Yes.”
Laughter roared from Matt as he pondered all the ramifications of Winn’s disguise.
“I don’t know what you find so comical,” Winn told him with as much dignity as he could muster considering the circumstances.
Matt was still grinning. “It’s a damned good thing Alex and I didn’t take our marriage vows seriously. No wonder you were so vigilant in keeping us apart.”
Winn didn’t even want to talk about that. He pulled one of his own white linen shirts out of his bag and started to change into it, glad to be free to be himself again. “The good news is you won’t have to worry about an annulment. There was no marriage in the first place.”
“Amazing. What’s this all about? If you aren’t Father Winn Bradford, who are you?”
“Are you sure you want to hear it?”
“I think I’d better,” he answered as he sat down on his bunk.
Winn told him about his uncle’s death, about receiving the letter and book from Lawrence Anthony at about the same time, and about Philip’s and Robert’s visit. He explained how, after their visit, he’d read Lawrence’s desperate plea to his uncle and how he’d decided to follow through on the collector’s wish that the three of them should go on the hunt for the crown and also make certain that his sons did not lay claim to it.
“I wanted to get out of London without either Philip or Robert finding out, so I assumed my uncle’s place and left the very next morning for Boston. Lawrence’s letter indicated that only my uncle could lead the search, for his faith marked him as a man to be trusted. I did what I thought best . . . what I thought I had to do at the time.”
Matt stared at Winn, seeing him for the first time in an all new light as he shed his identity as a priest. Winn was an adventurer just like himself—a man on a mission, not a priest trying to save souls and right the injustices of the world. He started to laugh again as he tried to imagine himself in the same strictures. “Difficult, was it?”
“You’ll never know,” he answered, thinking of the long hours on the train and the time at the convent trying his best to act knowledgeable and not give himself away.
“What about Alex?”
“What about her?” he countered sharply.
“Why do I have a feeling that Alex is a part of the problem?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’m talking about your determination to keep our marriage one ‘in name only,’ and I’m talking about the way you two danced in the ballroom last night.”
“It was a waltz, nothing more.”
Matt didn’t believe a word of what Winn was saying. “Now I know why you tried so hard to leave her behind . . .”
“It hasn’t been easy.”
“Do you want to keep this just between us? Do you want to maintain the charade for Alex?”
“No. I’m tired of living a lie.”
“What will you tell her?”
“The same thing I’ve told you. The truth. This shouldn’t change anything about our quest. We’re still going to follow the clues and find the crown. But from now on I’m going to be simply Winn Bradford on the trail of the treasure, not Father Bradford. There’s been enough deception already.”
“All right. That’s fine with me.”
“Then, as my last official act as Father Bradford, I want you to consider your marriage officially annulled.”
Matt gave a rueful shake of his head as he opened the whiskey bottle and lifted it to Winn in a mock toast. “And Alex and I could have been so happy . . .”
“I’ll have a drink when you’re done—a toast to my vocation,” he replied.
Matt got two tumblers from where they sat on the nightstand and poured them each a healthy splash.
“I still have to tell you that you did make a very good priest. Your uncle would have been pleased,” Matt told him.
“I hope so,” Winn said softly as he took a deep drink from his glass.
It was nearly an hour later when they finished off the last of the liquor. Matt stretched out in contentment on his bed and fell quickly asleep. Winn, however, still feeling restless, knew it would be a pointless endeavor to try to sleep just yet. He left the cabin to stroll the deserted deck alone.
Winn was lost in thought as he tried to plan what he was going to say to Alex in the morning. He would tell her the truth, and then he would deal with her disillusionment and anger. Winn knew that it would be far easier to face those emotions from her then to let her continue to believe that she had tempted him from vows.
Winn didn’t deliberately set out for Alex’s stateroom. He just started walking and found himself nearing her cabin. To his surprise, Alex was standing at the rail, gazing out across the river, unaware of his presence. He quietly moved closer.
“Alex . . .” he said her name in a husky whisper.
Alex had been lost in a dream of Father Winn, reliving that one precious moment when they’d been just a man and a woman with nothing to keep them apart. She gasped as she recognized the deep timbre of his voice, and she looked up quickly to find him just a few feet away from her. For a moment, Alex almost believed that she’d somehow magically conjured him up. He was dressed casually as he had been that day in Boston when she’d gone to see him at the hotel. Seeing him again this way set her pulses spinning, and, unnerved by his nearness, her thoughts reeled in confusion.
“What do you want?”
“I need to talk to you.” His voice was low and smooth.
Her expression was stricken. The last thing she wanted to do was send him away from her again, but she had to.
“It would be better if we waited until morning to talk,” she told him, denying herself that which she wanted more than anything.
Alone in her stateroom, she’d berated herself for being so foolish. She’d told herself that she should never have kissed him. But now as he stood before her looking more handsome and desirable than ever, an ache grew deep within her, and she knew if he asked she would deny him nothing. Tears burned in her eyes at her weakness. She was so affected by his presence that she had to force herself to look away from him.
“What I have to say to you can’t wait until morning, Alex. Please,” he asked softly, “invite me in.”
He waited for her answer. He would not pressure her to listen to him. She remained quiet as if she were fighting some terrible war within herself over his request.
“Alex, love, I promise you, nothing will happen between us that you don’t want to happen.”
Lifting her starry-eyed gaze to him, she finally answered, “All right.”
She turned and opened her cabin door and went in ahead of him.
Winn stepped inside, but made no move toward her. He waited while she closed the door behind them. Only then did he speak.
“Alex, there’s something very important that I have to tell you.”
“No, Father Winn. Wait. Let me go first. It’s important that I tell you how I feel, and as frightened as I am right now, I have to say these things before you say anything more.”
“But . . .” With a simple sentence he knew he could set everything straight between them, but she would not let him speak.
“Please, Father Winn. Listen . . .”
He fell silent. She waited to make sure he wasn’t going to try and stop her, then she began.
“What happened on the deck between us earlier was a mistake. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kissed you. It’s just that . . .” She stumbled over her words, trying not to speak the truth, trying not to tell him that she loved him. “It’s just that I care about you deeply. I know you’ve dedicated yourself to another way of life, and I want you to know that I would never intentionally do anything to cause you any pain or embarrassment. Matt and I, well, I know our marriage is in name only, but I did promise to be his wife, and until the marriage is annulled, I have to keep that promise. So, I want you to know that as far as I’m concerned, our kiss never happened. I want us to be friends as we have been, Father Winn. I don’t ever want to jeopardize our friendship.”
Winn waited, listening to her and wondering how he’d ever gotten himself into such a mess. Her pain was so obvious, her desire to do the right thing so wonderful, that he could no more have stopped himself from holding her than he could have stopped breathing. With infinite tenderness, he closed the distance between them and took her in his arms.
“No . . . Father Winn, don’t . . .” Please don’t!” She tried to pull away from him, but he held her close. His grip was firm but not painful in any way. After a moment, she gave up the struggle.
“I listened to you, Alex. Now, it’s your turn to listen to me.” He held her slightly away from him so he could see her, and he gazed down at her tear-streaked face. “Alex, you are one of the few truly honest people I’ve met. I care about you . . . deeply, but there’s something I have to tell you. Something I should have told you long ago, but until tonight, it was impossible.”
“I don’t understand.” She blinked in bewilderment, trying to make sense out of what he was saying.
“I came to you tonight dressed this way for a reason. You see, I’m not wearing a collar any more.”
“What are you saying?” she cried, shocked by what she believed he was implying. “You can’t give up your calling! Don’t you realize how wrong it would be for you to forsake your vows?”
“Alex . . .” He soothed. “I’ve taken no vows.”
She looked up at him startled. “What are you talking about?”
“Alex. I’m not the wonderful, dedicated man you think I am.”
“Yes, you are. I’ve watched you helping people, and I saw you with the sisters at the convent.”
He chuckled tenderly. “I’m a better actor than I thought I was. The truth is, Alex, I’m not a priest. It’s all been a lie—my vocation, your marriage . . .”
“What?!” This time when she tried to get away from him, he let her go. She took a step back, distancing herself from him.
“I’m not a priest, Alex. My name is Winston Bradford. My uncle, Edward Bradford, was the priest.”
“I don’t understand.” Her eyes had widened and her expression was bewildered. “You’re not a priest?”
“No, and you’re not married to Matt, so there’s no need for an annulment.”
Twelve
“You made a fool out of me!” she challenged, her temper flaring. “You’ve been laughing at me all this time, while I was trusting you completely!.”
“Alex,” he began in a conciliatory tone, “I know what you’re thinking, but believe me, if there’s one thing I’ve never done, it’s laugh at you. The more time I spent with you, the more difficult it became for me to deny what I was feeling for you.” His confession was in earnest.
“Does Matt know about this?”
“I told him just before I came here, to you. He thought the whole situation was amusing, especially the fact that your marriage wasn’t valid.”
“He would.”
“I have to tell you now, Alex, that the night I ‘married’ you and Matt was one of the most difficult of my life. You will never know how worried I was that the two of you might decide to take your vows more seriously than we’d intended.”
Her anger was fading rapidly before the joyous realization that he really wasn’t ‘Father’ Winn. “I wouldn’t have,” she said softly.
“How was I to know that? You just sat at dinner tonight and told me how much you like him and how wonderful he is. How was I to know you weren’t falling in love with him? All I could do was sit helplessly by and watch.”
“Why are you telling me this now, after all this time?” Alex asked, her heart beating a powerful rhythm as she waited for his answer.
Winn took a step closer and lifted a hand to caress her cheek. “After our kiss, I couldn’t live with the lie any longer or with the pain I was causing you.”
His touch was unbearably tender, and his words were like a balm to her savaged soul. Alex wanted to know why he’d felt the need to lie in the first place, but she would ask that later. Right now, kissing him again seemed much more important. “Winn . . .”
Winn smiled tenderly down at her as she said his name without the ‘Father’ in front of it. She knew the truth now, and he could no longer deny himself the wonder of her embrace. He reached for her and drew her to him, his lips capturing hers in a slow, tantalizing kiss.
Winn’s mouth seared hers with the heat of his need, and Alex responded without reserve. There was nothing standing between them now, nothing to prevent them from being together. He was the man she’d always dreamed of, and he was here, with her. They clung together, wrapped in the splendor of their desire.
Alex trembled before the power of the emotion flooding through her.
He wasn’t a priest. . .. He wasn’t a priest. . ..
The thought sang in her heart as she savored his closeness. When at last the kiss ended, she drew just slightly away, enough so she could look up at him.
“Winn, I could never fall in love with Matt—not when I’m already in love with someone else.” She gazed up at him, seeing his passion-darkened eyes and remembering how desperately she’d wanted to kiss him the night they’d danced. She smiled dreamily as she allowed herself the luxury of touching his hard, lean cheek. “I thought I could never have you. I thought . . .” There was a catch in her voice as if she were still having trouble believing something so wonderful could have happened.
“I’m no priest, Alex. I’m just a man,” Winn said gently, and he held her to his heart.
His mouth descended to hers again, and he claimed her lips in a passionate exchange. Alex knew that this was what she’d waited for all her life. She lifted her arms to him and looped them about his neck as she pressed herself against him. The contact of her soft, womanly curves with his hard lean body was electric, and Winn groaned as he pulled back from her.
“Ah, Alex, I’ve wanted you for so long . . . needed you. . .. But I’m supposed to be protecting you. If you don’t want this to go any further, tell me now, and I’ll stop.” He waited tensely for her reply.
She could hear the agony of his dilemma in his voice, and she smiled at him. “Tonight, I don’t want or need your protection, Winn. Tonight, I just want you.”
Alex’s words were an invitation he couldn’t refuse. Without another word, he lifted her up into his arms and carried her to the bed. The narrow stateroom bunk was a far cry from the plush surroundings he was accustomed to, but somehow none of that mattered right now. He cared nothing about the cabin or his surroundings. He cared only about Alex . . . about pleasing her.
They came together in a fiery rush. The long-denied desire they’d harbored deep within them flared into an inferno of unquenchable passion. There would be no self-denial tonight. There would be no sleepless hours of frustration or worry. They would be together. They would be one. They would love.
Winn wanted her with a blazing need, but he knew Alex was an innocent. She was nothing like the other women who’d been in his life, and he reveled in her virtue.
With utmost care, Winn helped her undress. What could have been an awkward moment became a memory of pure beauty as they shared the intimacy with soft kisses and gentle caresses. As he stripped away the last of her clothes, baring her feminine beauty to his heated regard, an incredible rush of tenderness tempered his desire. Alex was perfect. She was slender, yet still all woman. Her creamy breasts were high and firm, their dusky pink crests taut. Her legs were long and shapely, her hips round and inviting. His throat went dry as he realized that she was giving to him her most precious gift. She was offering him her very self. The knowledge both humbled and honored him.
“You’re so beautiful,” he told her, his voice thick with passion. Suddenly, he could just look at her no longer. He needed to feel her flesh against his, the heat of her body pressed to his own. He began to unbutton his shirt, struggling with the buttons in his impatience.
“I’m glad you think so,” Alex said as she watched him take off his own shirt and cast it aside.
When he turned back to her, naked to the waist, she reached for him hungrily. Her hands eagerly sculpted the powerful muscles of his broad chest and shoulders.
Winn had never known a woman’s touch could bring such delight—and such pain. His breathing grew ragged as he gladly suffered her innocent torment. He wanted to strip away the rest of his clothing and put an end to his glorious frustration, but he knew he couldn’t rush her. He had to go slowly. Even so, as logical as he was, his rationalizing was a weak defense against the compelling heat of his need. It took all of his impressive self-control to contain his desire.
“I’ve wanted to do this ever since the day I saw you painting the widow’s house,” she admitted as she caressed him.
Her touch was unschooled, but the sweet innocence of her exploration made it much more exciting.
“I didn’t know.”
“I couldn’t let you know. You were forbidden to me. I thought I would never be able to kiss you or tell you how I felt.”
“And how do you feel?” he urged.
“I love you, Winn.”
At her declaration, his mouth took hers in a fiery, possessive kiss that stirred both of them to mindless ecstasy. She had touched his heart as well as his soul. He moved over her, and the softness of her breasts seared his chest as they lay together. His hands began a sensual foray over her satiny limbs. Her skin was silken beneath his touch, and his hunger grew to make her his own.
He shed the rest of his clothes and then lay down beside her. He did not know the extent of her knowledge about the male body, and he was careful to try not to distress her.
“I want to see you, too,” she said, surprising him.
He shifted his position so she could gaze fully upon him, and he gasped in pleasure as she reached out to explore the leanness of his hip and the flat plane of his stomach with a gentle hand. When she would have touched him even more intimately, he was forced to stop her. Catching her wrist, he brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. His control had been good so far, but he couldn’t guarantee he could withstand such exquisite torture without shaming himself.
“Open to me, love. Let me make you mine now,” he whispered, his eyes burning into hers.
“Oh, yes, Winn . . .”
She opened to him as a budding flower opens to the sun. He came to her then, fitting himself intimately against her and breaching her innocence as he claimed her for his own.
It was a beautiful blending of male and female. Each created perfect for the other. Hardness yielding to softness, velvet conquering steel. The offered to each other without constraint the fullness of their love.
Sheathed within the virginal heat of her body, Winn gloried in their joining. It was ecstasy to become one with her.
Never before had Winn cared about a woman’s pleasure before his own. Never before had he wanted to please someone more than he wanted to please himself. It was a new experience for him, and it was a revelation. He gave of himself from his heart and his soul. He wanted to please Alex, to satisfy her in every way.
Alex surrendered to his practiced lovemaking. She was his to do with as he pleased. For so long, she’d thought she would never know the beauty of his love. His thrilling revelation, however, had set her free to explore the wonder of her feelings for him. She gave herself over to his tender tutelage, and as he began to move within her, she matched his rhythm.
They ascended to the heights of love together. Alex reached the pinnacle of pleasure with Winn. When ecstasy burst upon her, she clung to him, savoring his strength and his warmth. They crested and then drifted softly back to earth.
Winn cradled Alex to his side, her head resting on his shoulder, her hand spread out on his chest, her silken curves nestled against him. His embrace was cherishing. Never before had lovemaking been so fulfilling, and never before had he cared so deeply that it would be.
“I knew it would be this way,” Alex sighed.
“What way?” He was curious. Even as innocent as she was, she’d been more responsive and passionate than any other woman he’d ever known.
“Perfect.” Came her answer.
He smiled, and they lay quietly, their limbs entwined, enjoying the freedom and intimacy of being alone together. As the night aged, though, Winn knew he had to leave her.
“I have to get back to my own cabin,” he muttered regretfully.
“Don’t. Stay here with me until we dock in New Orleans,” she invited daringly as she raised up on one elbow to look down at him. As she did, her breasts grazed his chest.
He groaned in sweet arousal. “There’s nothing I’d like better than to stay in bed with you,” he admitted, pulling her down for a kiss. “But, in case you’ve forgotten, sweet, everyone on board still thinks I’m a priest.”
“I’m glad you’re not.” She murmured, leaning down to press a soft kiss to his lips.
“So am I.”
His arms came around her again, and for a little while longer, they forgot about everything else.
It was later as they lay together, momentarily sated, that Winn noticed the first hint of dawn brightening the eastern sky. He was putting Alex in jeopardy by staying so long.
“I have to go, Alex. I can’t let anyone see me coming out of your cabin at this time of the night.”
“Or day,” she finished, feeling decidedly wicked after having loved him so long and so wildly. It seemed quite natural to be lying with him this way, and yet she knew that only hours before she’d believed he was unattainable and lost to her forever.
“Or day,” he admitted. “I promised you when we left Boston that I would protect you, and I will.” Their eyes met. “Now, more than ever.”
Alex, saw the fervor in the emerald depths of his gaze as he pledged to keep her safe. “Thank you.” “Alex, I promise never to let anything hurt you.”
She closed her eyes against the earnestness she saw in his gaze. Winn was a good man, and she knew he would do everything in his power to help her if she needed him. She did need him, desperately, in fact. But the situation with the Anthonys was dangerous and potentially deadly. She trusted Winn completely, and she wanted to confide in him, but fear for her father’s life held her back. His life was in her hands, and she had to be careful.
Their lips met again. It was a sweet and tender exchange, and it told Winn everything he need to know about her feelings for him. When it ended, he reluctantly put her from him. The thought of having her one last time was tempting, but he had already taken too many risks with her reputation as it was. He got up and started to dress.
“I wish you never had to leave me.” Alex told him.
She rose up on her knees and held her arms out to him in an innately sensuous invitation that nearly drove all logical thoughts from his mind. As he gazed at her, he knew it wouldn’t take much to convince him to stay in her bed until they reached port more than a day away. A fragment of some sense remained, though, and Winn went to her just to hold her. He marvelled at how her touch could rouse him so, for her simple embrace stirred his desire to full flame again. When he’d left London, Winn had never thought he’d discover anyone like Alex on this trip. He’d come on this journey to help his uncle’s friend and to seek the hidden treasure. Now, he knew the crown was important, but the treasure he’d found in Alex made the other prize pale in comparison. Her love was the most priceless treasure of all.

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