No Other Love (29 page)

One afternoon, when Jack walked in, he was wearing his mask. Nicola’s eyes went to it, and an odd thrill ran through her.

“Oh. Sorry.” Jack reached up and untied the mask, stuffing it into the pocket of his coat. “I went into the village today. It’s better if they aren’t able to recognize me. I forgot I had it on.”

“No. Don’t take it off.” Nicola started toward him, her gray eyes warm with sensuality. She stopped before him, looking up at him in an unmistakable invitation, and reached her hand into his pocket, pulling out the black satin mask. “You know, when you took me in front of you on the horse that night…when you kissed me, I could feel your mask against my skin, soft and cool, and it was…exciting.”

His dark eyes flared with light. “Was it?” he asked huskily.

Nicola nodded, one corner of her mouth lifting in an alluring way. “It’s a little dangerous, your identity hidden like that.”

“Mmm…I see. And here I always thought you were such a proper girl.” Jack smiled with pure sexual anticipation. Taking the mask from Nicola’s hand, he put it on again, tying it in the back, transforming himself once more into the highwayman.

Nicola could not deny the shiver of delight that ran through her. There was something primitively stirring about seeing him this way—himself and yet a stranger, a dangerous stranger, who took what he wanted, wild and free—until her touch tamed him. She did not move, merely smiled at him, her face beckoning, challenging.

He wrapped one hand around her wrist and pulled her to him until she was flush against his body. He took her other arm in his hand and pulled both her arms behind her, holding her without pain, but helpless and vulnerable to him. He gazed down into her face, his eyes blazing through the holes in the mask.

“You are mine.” His voice was low, darkly vibrant. “Now and always.”

“I am no man’s,” she challenged.

“Indeed?” He smiled, amused, and his mouth came down to claim her.

His kiss was deep and voracious, as though he could summon up her very soul through it. Nicola was limp, breathless, shaking with the force of her desire. She moaned, struggling to free her hands so that she could touch him. But he would not let her go. Instead, he put both her wrists into one of his large hands, holding her securely, and brought the other up to travel over her body. His hand roamed over her freely, caressing her through her dress, cupping her breasts and teasing the nipples to aching hardness. His lips explored the tender flesh of her throat, arousing her with frustrating slowness, teasing and stoking her passion, until she writhed against him, moaning.

“Please…” she panted. “Let me touch you. Let me…”

A long shudder of desire ran through him at her words, and his skin flamed hot against her even through their clothes. He released her hands, his arms going around her and lifting her up into him, grinding her pelvis into his. Nicola gasped with pleasure, her hands going to his shoulders. She caressed his chest and back and shoulders, sliding up his neck and tangling in his hair. Her fingers found the slick, cool cloth of his mask, and the touch stirred her sensually. Heat bloomed deep inside her, pooling like liquid fire between her legs. She kissed him, wrapping her legs around him and pressing the aching seat of her desire against him. Her fingers dug into the cloth of the mask and pulled it from him, tossing it aside.

He walked with her to the bed and laid her down upon it. Roughly, his fingers clumsy with hunger, he stripped her undergarments from her and unbuttoned his trousers. With a primal groan of satisfaction, he sank deep inside her. Nicola cried out and jerked, pleasure rippling through her already. He waited, teeth clenched, until the waves of her passion died away.

“Oh, no, my sweet, that’s not nearly enough.” He began to stroke within her, slowly, steadily building the hunger inside her again. His hands caressed the smooth bare skin of her buttocks beneath her skirts, lifting and guiding her, holding her to the same steady pace until she was groaning and clawing at his arms, aching for the surcease only he could give her. Twice he brought her to the edge, then retreated and began again.

Nicola moaned his name, clamping herself tightly around him, and he could hold back no longer. With a cry, he plunged deeply, his seed spilling into her in a supreme rush of pleasure. Nicola gasped as she hurtled into her own maelstrom of passion, clinging to him.

Jack shuddered and collapsed against her. They lay there on the bed, damp and depleted, recovering from the violent release of their desire.

“We’re still dressed,” Nicola murmured with a chuckle, amazed at the storm that had swept through them.

“Mmm hmm.” Jack propped himself up on his elbow and looked down at her, his face replete with satisfaction. “Next time, we shall play out
my
fantasy.”

Nicola grinned. “And that would be?”

“It would definitely involve a blindfold.”

I
T WAS SOMETIME LATER WHEN
N
ICOLA’S
horse, tethered in front, whinnied. Nicola scarcely noticed the noise, but Jack’s arm beneath her head tensed at the sound. He pulled it away and rose, striding across the room to peer out the window. Nicola sat up.

“What’s the matter? What is it?”

“Probably nothing. Just wondered why your mare—” He stiffened. “There’s a rider, coming this way.”

“What?” Nicola hurried over to join him. “Oh, my God!”

Jack turned to her. “Who is it?”

“It’s Stone—the Bow Street Runner that Exmoor hired. He must have followed me.” She paled, her stomach constricting with fear. “Oh, no…Deborah was teasing me at the dinner table the other night about being gone so much. I didn’t think anything about it, but it must have made Richard suspicious. Stupid, stupid! I didn’t even think to look to see if anyone was following me!”

“It doesn’t matter.” Jack was already crossing the room, grabbing his jacket as he strode past the sofa. He sat and pulled on his boots. “He won’t find me.”

He stood and cast a long look around the room for any sign of his occupancy, then turned to Nicola. “Can you handle him on your own?”

“Of course. I don’t like the man, but I don’t think he would dare offer me any harm. I
am
his employer’s sister-in-law, however little I like Exmoor. But what about you? How are you going to get away? There isn’t a back door.”

A smile lifted the corners of his mouth, and his eyes sparkled with mischief. It occurred to Nicola with a flash of irritation that he was actually enjoying this. “Ah, but Granny Rose’s house has a secret.” He went to the side of the fireplace and bent down, sliding one of the hearthstones out. Then he reached into the space where the rock had been and twisted a lever. There was a loud click, and Jack reached up and tugged on the rock beside the fireplace. A narrow section of it slid open, revealing a tiny room the size of a narrow cupboard. Jack shoved the rock back into place, concealing the lever.

“I told you that people always thought her ancestors were witches. They knew they might need protection.”

There was a jingle and scrape outside. “Hurry!” Nicola looked out the window. “Hurry! He’s getting off his horse!” She ran to the door and shoved home the lock. What fools they had been to leave it unlocked!

Jack gave her a salute, stepped into the space beside the fireplace, grabbed a handle on the other side of the secret door, and pulled it too. There was nothing, not even a crack to show where the door had been. Nicola went through the room, glancing about to make sure that there was nothing that looked as if two people had been in the house.

The handle turned on the front door, and Stone shoved against the wood. It rattled but did not move. Nicola went into the kitchen and looked around, quickly putting one teacup and plate back into the cupboard.

There was a knock at the door. She started toward it, calling, “Who is it?”

“It’s Stone, Miss Falcourt.”

“Mr. Stone?” Nicola unlocked the door and opened it, putting a puzzled expression on her face. “What are you doing here? Has something happened to Deborah?”

“No, miss.” He took off his hat. “I, uh, came to see if you were all right.”

“All right? Whatever do you mean? Of course I am all right.” She stepped back, allowing him to enter. The sooner he saw that Jack was not here, the sooner he would leave. She didn’t want Jack to have to spend any longer time in the boxlike room than was necessary. “Why wouldn’t I be all right?”

“There is a highwayman roaming the area, miss,” Stone reminded her as he walked past her into the room. His eyes darted around the room as he walked to the kitchen.

Nicola followed him. “Yes, I know. That is why I locked the door. I am quite careful, you see. How did you know where I was?”

He glanced at her, his face impassive. “His lordship told me to follow you, make sure you were all right.”

Nicola doubted that those had been exactly his instructions, but she pretended to believe him. “Richard worries too much about me. As you can see, I am perfectly fine. I do not think the highwayman would stop me again. It is obvious when I am riding horseback that I have no jewels or valuables with me.”

“There are other things a man might want,” he reminded her darkly, striding back through the parlor to the small bedroom. He went to the wardrobe and opened it, peering in.

Nicola saw with horror that Jack’s mask lay upon the floor. Quickly she kicked it under the bed.

“You think he’s hiding in the wardrobe?” Nicola asked, putting a tinge of sarcasm in her voice. “Really, Mr. Stone…”

He lifted his head. “What was that?”

“What?”

“I heard a horse.” He turned toward the blank back wall.

Nicola’s nerves began to jangle.
Jack’s horse!
He always tethered his horse in back, with the innate caution of those who live outside the law. Thank God there was no window in the back, so Stone could not see the horse, but all he had to do was walk around the house. Once he saw it, he would know that someone else was here, and he might search more thoroughly.
Would Granny’s hideaway stand up to a careful search?
She had never noticed it, but then, she had never really looked.

“A horse? Oh, that must be mine.”

“Yours is in front.”

“Well, sometimes I don’t tie it well enough, and it roams around. Fortunately, it is a very docile animal and never wanders far.”

Stone ignored her words and strode quickly through the house and out the front door. Nicola hurried after him, trying desperately to think of some excuse for Jack’s horse being there.
Could she say a friend from the village had come here to visit her? But then where would she be?

Stone glanced over at her horse, which was standing placidly, tail swishing, outside the low fence, where it had been all along. He cast a glance back at her.

Nicola tried to smile. “Ah, there she is. Then you couldn’t have heard her behind the house. It must have been a trick of sound.”

“It was a horse.” Stone started through the garden and around the side of the house. Nicola went after him.

She could admit to secretly meeting a lover here. Perhaps the scandal of the story would distract Stone enough…. No, no one would be fool enough not to question where the man was.

In front of her, Stone came to a halt. “Damn!”

Nicola looked at the small area in front of them, behind the house and the hill. There was no horse. Nicola struggled to keep her face blank.
Where had the animal gone?

“You see? There was no horse. It was a trick of sound. That often happens where there are hills, I’ve noticed. You probably heard my horse—or yours—out front, and it sounded as if it were coming from the back.” She realized as she talked that the hidden cupboard must have had a back way out. Jack had meant to leave the house, and she had assumed he was going to hide in the secret room. She had to bite her lip to keep from grinning.

Stone walked forward a few more feet and squatted down. “There are hoofprints here. There was a horse.”

“Sometimes I tether my horse back here, and, as I told you, she has gotten loose once or twice and wandered around.”

Stone paid no attention to her, walking around until he found a set of tracks leading off. Nicola went with him, making sure to scuff through the horse tracks as she walked. The hoofprints led to a patch of ground a few feet away and disappeared.

“Damn!”

“Really, Mr. Stone!” Nicola exclaimed, putting on a shocked look. “Your language!”

“Sorry, miss.” His stormy face looked anything but sorry. He turned, his eyes drilling into her. “Who was here? I know there was someone here. Are you helping to conceal that highwayman? It is a crime, you know, and—”

“Oh, please, Mr. Stone.” Nicola infused her voice with amused contempt, doing her best to sound like Lady Morrow, a vain, cold Society beauty. “You are becoming infected with Richard’s delusions. He assumes that I am having affairs with every man I meet. I fear he still has not gotten over the fact that I rejected him years ago.” She shrugged elaborately. “However, I can assure you that I would scarcely be dallying with a highwayman. When I take a lover, I stay in my own class.”