Kane, Samantha - Brothers In Arms 4 (45 page)

conscious but groggy Jack were tied to their own horses and ready to be transported back to London. The two bodyguards were watching them as the others caught and

mounted their horses.

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“Take her home,” Devlin told Derek as his horse pranced under him, impatient to be out of the dark woods. “We’ll take care of these two.”

“What are you going to do to them?” Derek asked. “I need to know who hired

them.”

Devlin smiled. It was a wolfish grin, and it was clear he was going to enjoy meting out their punishment. “I’ll get it out of them, don’t worry. I’ll send the information to Witherspoon’s.” He turned and nudged Jack’s leg with his foot and the trussed

kidnapper snarled at him. “Then, well, I heard His Majesty’s Navy is recruiting again.”

Jack’s snarl turned to a whimper and it was Derek’s turn to smile. “I like the way you think, Devlin,” he said with a chuckle.

Derek climbed on his horse behind Sophie and gathered her close. Wolf rode ahead and Simon behind as they set out for London. He was exhausted and could only

imagine how much worse Sophie felt. But he needed to get her home to Ian. Sophie snuggled against him and was asleep almost instantly. Derek marveled at the trust in that simple act, his heart swelling with gratitude for whatever deity had brought him to her side tonight just when she needed him most.

They’d been riding for quite a while when the sound of fast-approaching horses

drove them off the road to hide behind some haystacks. Wolf dismounted and crept forward to get a glimpse of who was riding so furiously just before dawn. When the riders were almost upon them, Wolf suddenly jumped up and began shouting. There was a great flurry of activity as the band of riders stopped. Derek stole a glance from his hiding place and then rode slowly out to the road just as the early morning sun began to tint the sky.

Ian walked his horse toward Derek, his heart filled with joy at Wolf’s news, but trepidation set in when he saw how still Sophie was in Derek’s arms.

“Is she…” he croaked, his chest constricting with fear so he couldn’t finish the thought.

“Sleeping,” Derek whispered as he rode up next to Ian. “She’s exhausted. Your

arrival didn’t even wake her.”

Ian closed his eyes in abject relief at Derek’s reply. He opened them quickly and surveyed Derek. “Are you all right?” he asked.

Derek smiled, clearly exhausted but also…content. Ian felt tears prick his eyes at the sight of Derek holding Sophie so closely, so intimately. Seeing them together like this completed Ian, as if the last puzzle piece had finally fallen into place.

“I’m fine, Ian,” Derek told him, “now.”

Ian turned his horse back toward London. “Then let’s go home.”

* * * * *

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When Sophie awoke, she wasn’t sure where she was at first. She sat up in bed

alarmed and looked around. She sighed with relief and sank back down in the bed when she realized she was home. The last day ran through her mind and she shuddered in horror at the memory of Jack slavering over her and the painful grip Lukey had had on her arms. Then the image of Derek beating them both and nearly killing Jack in his anger made her smile. Then she giggled. Clearly association with Derek had turned her into a bloodthirsty wench.

She leaped out of bed and rang for her maid. Discreet questioning revealed she’d been asleep for a day and a night. She was aghast. Where were Ian and Derek? She had the quickest bath she’d ever had since marrying Ian, dressed and headed for Ian’s study.

When she entered, Ian looked up from the papers on his desk. It was obvious he

hadn’t been expecting her from the look on his face. He rose from his chair so fast it nearly fell over behind him before he caught it.

“Sophie,” he said softly, and she ran to him. He swept her into his embrace and held her tightly. She felt his arms tremble as they wrapped around her.

“Ian, Ian,” she said, and then she inexplicably began to cry. He stroked her hair and back and murmured silly love words in her ear, but he didn’t loosen his hold on her.

By the time she’d calmed down Ian had sat down again and pulled her on to his

lap. “I’m sorry,” she told him, taking his offered handkerchief and wiping her face. She discreetly blew her nose and looked up to see Ian smiling at her.

“What?” She could feel her face turning red in embarrassment. She must look a

sight with her swollen eyes and tearstained cheeks.

“Are you also sorry for the crops lying fallow?” he asked with a quirk of his

eyebrow.

It took Sophie a moment to remember Derek’s words that morning after the

wedding. She laughed and pushed off Ian’s lap. “No, I’m not sorry for that. I did that on purpose.” Ian laughed with her. “Speaking of which, where is Derek?”

At Sophie’s question, Ian’s smile was wiped from his face. Sophie felt the relief and expectation she’d been feeling melt away, leaving resignation and weariness behind.

She wandered over to the back wall and kept her back to Ian. She didn’t want him to see how disappointed she was. “You don’t have to answer. He’s gone again, isn’t he?”

“I don’t think so,” was Ian’s enigmatic answer. His voice was very carefully neutral.

Sophie laughed bitterly and leaned her head into the small corner created by the wall and the edge of the bookcase there. “What exactly does that mean?”

“It means I haven’t seen him since we brought you home, but his things are still here and his bed has been slept in.” Still neutral, he was hiding his feelings behind a dispassionate brick wall.

Sophie pulled her head up. “And what exactly does that mean?” She closed her

eyes against tears.

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“It means I don’t think he’s gone.” Ian didn’t seem perturbed by her determination in the slightest.

“I think it means he’s just as far away from me as he was before, and he has no intention of closing the distance. I think it means he rescued me, but he still doesn’t need me, or love me. I think it means he’s a stubborn, selfish bastard who made me love him just to watch me suffer.”

Sophie kept her face to the wall and her eyes closed. She was trying her damnedest not to cry. She wouldn’t cry any more tears over Derek. She wouldn’t.

“Sophie—” Ian began soothingly.

“Is that what you really think of me?” Derek’s voice cut Ian off in mid-sentence and Sophie spun around to see Derek standing in the open French door that led to the garden. “The things you learn eavesdropping.” He took two steps into the room and very deliberately turned back and closed the door behind him. When he swung to face Sophie again he wore a scowl. “I practically throw my fucking heart at your feet the other night and you have the audacity to call me a stubborn, selfish bastard.”

Sophie stood her ground, though inside she trembled. “Yes, I do. Where were you?

Do you love me?”

Derek looked startled at her rapid-fire questions. “You sound like a fishwife. I do have a life, you know. I had some things to take care of, and since you were doing a fairly good turn as Sleeping Beauty, I did them. And of course I love you. I said so, didn’t I?”

Sophie’s hand curled into a fist as she held it to her heart, her chest tight with emotion. She shook her head. “No,” she whispered, “you never did.”

Derek looked at her incredulously. “Of course I did. Maybe not in words, but in deed. In the way I need you, the way I can’t breathe, eat, sleep, live without wanting you. In the way I held you the other night, as if I could absorb you into my body and never let anyone hurt you again. Did all that mean nothing to you?”

He loves me
.
He loves me
. Sophie leaned back against the wall, weak with relief and joy. “I thought…I was afraid to believe.” She licked her lips, her stomach fluttering with the beauty of Derek’s words. With the matter-of-fact way he described how much he loved her. “I—”

Derek tore open his coat and placed his hands on his hips. “You were afraid? How do you think I feel? I’m jumping off the cliff here, Sophie. I didn’t want to love you, or need you. But you wouldn’t leave me alone. Night and day thoughts of you haunted me, and then you let me fuck you, Sophie. We fucked. And it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Did you feel it? Did you know then? I did, but still I ran.” He stalked over and roughly pulled his coat off and threw it on the chaise.

“At the rate you’ve been ripping those off, you’re costing a fortune in coats, Derek,”

Ian murmured. Sophie turned her head to look at him, and she could see Ian hiding a smile behind his hand. He couldn’t hide the love and fierce joy in his eyes, however, as he watched Derek rant.

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“I don’t care about the fucking coats, Ian,” Derek growled, never taking his eyes off Sophie. “What will it take to convince you, Sophie? I’m done running. I’m here now, and there’ll be no getting rid of me. Is that what you want to hear? Christ, I’m so hard I ache. I need you. I need to take you now, to be inside you, to claim you.”

Derek had been stalking her as he talked and now he stopped in front of her. He placed his fists on the wall on either side of her and leaned close. He lowered his head to the sensitive spot on the curve of her neck and breathed in deeply but didn’t touch her. “I’m like an animal, Sophie, a wild thing in the forest that hunts its mate. Your smell, your taste, your nearness, they bring every instinct I have alive. I want to mark you with my scent, my claim.”

“Derek,” Sophie whispered. He pulled his head back and she placed her hand on

his cheek tenderly, overwhelmed by the love she felt for him.

“I own you, Sophie,” he said softly, turning his head to kiss the palm of her hand.

He looked back into her eyes. “And you own me.”

Sophie heard a sound from behind Derek, and she looked over his shoulder to see Ian walking toward the two of them. He stopped and stared at them, not even

attempting to conceal the desire flaming in his eyes. “Ian,” Sophie said, her voice strange to her own ears, thick and pulsing with need.

“Don’t you know, Sophie?” Derek leaned in and whispered directly into her ear.

“Ian knows. Ian knows that he owns both of us.”

At Derek’s husky words, Ian smiled, and Sophie felt that feral smile deep in her womb as it wound tight and began to throb, sending moisture to her cunt and making her gasp. Derek chuckled. “Yes, you know it too, Sophie.”

Suddenly Derek pressed his full length against her, dwarfing her with his heat and size and strength. He spread his legs wide so that Sophie was tucked between them and he wasn’t so tall. His hands ran up her arms to her shoulders and then his fingers lightly traced the rounded neckline of her gown. He pressed his pelvis into Sophie’s, and she felt his thick, hard arousal against her stomach. “Fuck me, Sophie,” he whispered enticingly. “Fuck me like a wild thing in the forest, Sophie. Give yourself to me.” One hand cupped her jaw and raised her lips to his. “Give yourself to me,” Derek repeated and then his lips came down on hers.

Derek kissed as if there were no tomorrow, no yesterday, just now, just this hot, wet suction of mouth on mouth, tongue on tongue. He ate and drank at her mouth, shared his breath at the same time he took hers away. Sophie wrapped her arms around his neck and held on as her legs grew weak. He tasted of sunshine and coffee and spices, and Derek and heat.

Even though he’d tried to lower himself, Sophie’s head was tilted back at an impossible angle to accept his kiss. His shoulders were so big her arms ached to reach around them. She whimpered as he bit down lightly on her lower lip and then licked the sting away. She felt like juicy prey to his predator and a thrill shot down her spine.

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“Christ, I’ve been dying to kiss you, Sophie,” he whispered as he laid his forehead against hers. He pulled away and Sophie was caught in his heated gaze. “Say it, Sophie,” he demanded roughly. “Tell me.”

Sophie’s breath was ragged, her control willingly relinquished. Without hesitation, she gave the answer she knew he was looking for. “I give myself to you, Derek. Take me. Take all of me.” The next moment Sophie gave a little surprised scream as Derek ripped her dress open from the neck down to the hem. He pushed it off her shoulders.

Sophie’s heart was racing.

“Derek,” Ian rumbled warningly.

“Tell him how much you like it, Sophie,” Derek ordered. “Tell him how much you

want to be taken.”

Sophie shook her head mutely as it leaned against the wall, embarrassed by her

arousal, by the warm rush of hot liquid that was even then leaking out of her slit at Derek’s rough treatment. Another rip rent the air as Sophie’s chemise met the same fate as her dress. Having dressed in a hurry that morning, Sophie wore no corset or

drawers. She stood nude against the wall, wearing nothing but her stockings and shoes.

“Derek!” Ian’s voice rang with command. Derek ignored him and thrust his fingers through the curls hiding Sophie’s wet and swollen pussy. When he touched her

drenched lips, both he and Sophie groaned.

“She’s soaking wet, Ian. Christ, she’s so aroused by what I’m doing she’s going to come right here with just my fingers on her, aren’t you, sweetheart?”

Sophie mutely shook her head against the wall as she bit her lip to keep her moan trapped in her throat.

“Don’t lie, Sophie,” Derek whispered wickedly, “or you may not get what you

crave so much.” As he spoke, Derek pressed one finger deeply inside her and Sophie couldn’t stop her whimper, or the shiver of deep pleasure that danced down her spine.

“Yes,” Derek murmured approvingly, “that’s what I like to hear, Sophie, honest

desire. Be honest with me, Sophie.”

Sophie broke down and grabbed Derek’s forearms. The muscles of his arms were

tight with desire and Sophie realized Derek was holding back. The thought heightened her arousal and she thrust against his hand, down onto the finger that was penetrating her deeply over and over in a slow, intoxicating rhythm. Derek’s laugh was a low rumble of satisfaction.