The Ravishing One

“IS THIS SOME NEW FORM OF
WITCHERY?” THOMAS DEMANDED
.

“A torment dreamed up in that complicated little mind of yours? Because it is unnecessary. There is nothing you can do to make me want you more and to make that wanting more unbearable.”

“But you are bigger, far stronger than I,” Fia pointed out.

“I am weaker than a day-old kitten where you are concerned, madam. I am undone by you. I could no more force myself on you than I could fly.”

“Even if I tempted you, teased you, brought you within an inch of what you want?”

He shook his head. “Would you have blood, Fia? Blood I would gladly give, if you would but cease these games and leave me in peace.”

“I cannot.”

“Then we are transfixed here, for I cannot leave you.” His smile was infinitely sad.

“What do you want?” she asked softly.

“I want you to bid me to stay,” he commanded. “But bid me to stay knowing that I will have you beneath me on your back.”

He said not a word about affection, but she was a woman, not a maiden. Her marriage bed had had no affection in it. She knew now its presence because she’d known well its absence. He needn’t say the words for them to be true.

“Please,” she managed to say, “stay.”

PRAISE FOR
M
C
C
LAIREN’S
I
SLE
: T
HE
P
ASSIONATE
O
NE

“EXQUISITE ROMANCE … Brockway’s lush, lyrical writing style is a perfect match for her vivid characters, beautifully atmospheric settings, and sensuous love scenes. Readers will be delighted to learn that McClairen’s Isle:
The Passionate One
is the first in a trilogy featuring the Merrick siblings.”

—
Library Journal

“THIS IS A GLORIOUS BOOK, WONDERFUL READING—so rich and full. Brockway doesn’t write anything
but
this type of book, and you can count on her every time to deliver.”

—
Romance Reviews

“RICH, ROMANTIC AND INTENSE, A BEAUTIFULLY PASSIONATE LOVE STORY.”

—Jill Barnett, bestselling author

“THE CHARACTERS ARE DYNAMIC AND COMPELLING, the descriptions vivid, and the sexual tension sizzles.… Connie Brockway writes with passion and power. McClairen’s Isle:
The Passionate One
is terrific!”

—Barbara Dawson Smith, author of
Too Wicked to Love

PRAISE FOR
M
C
C
LAIREN’S
I
SLE
: T
HE
R
ECKLESS
O
NE

“Any one who read the first volume in this masterful trilogy,
The Passionate One
, will devour
The Reckless One
. Complex, fascinating and gripping, this is memorable storytelling. Connie Brockway simply gets better and better as she creates characters and a plot that draw you in like a fly to a spider web. Reading
The Reckless One
is a surefire way to start off the next century as Ms. Brockway raises her standards and our expectations for her next book.”

—
Romantic Times

“Those looking for a little more substance in their plots will relish this one; there’s intrigue, adventure and betrayal all woven into a story with characters you won’t soon forget.”

—
The Oakland Press

“Readers will enjoy the excitement and passion.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“A fine story peopled with interesting characters, a good old rambling, falling-down castle and some really bad, bad guys.”

—
The Dallas Morning News

“Connie Brockway is a phenomenal writer, and the McClairen’s Isle books are beautifully constructed, vividly detailed, and filled with heart-stopping romantic thrills between dynamic heroes and heroines in engaging plots to make these books winners in every way you can imagine. The all-star cast of characters, from ones you love to ones you hate, is magnificent to behold. Ms. Brockway only gets better with each book.”

—
The Belles & Beaux of Romance

Dell Books by Connie Brockway

A DANGEROUS MAN
AS YOU DESIRE
ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT
MY DEAREST ENEMY
MCCLAIREN’S ISLE: THE PASSIONATE ONE
MCCLAIREN’S ISLE: THE RECKLESS ONE
MCCLAIREN’S ISLE: THE RAVISHING ONE
THE BRIDAL SEASON
BRIDAL FAVORS

Published by
Dell Publishing
a division of
Random House, Inc.

This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Insert photo © IT STOCK INT’L / Index Stock Imagery / PNI

Copyright © 2000 by Connie Brockway

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law.

Dell
^®
is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc., and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

eISBN: 978-0-307-76835-3

v3.1

For my wise, witty, savvy father
.
You were my very first hero, Dad,
and you still could give
lessons in “hero.”

Contents

Cover

Other Books by This Author

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

A
fter writing a certain number of books, I find I keep thanking the same people. I am not about to stop now. I’d like to think this is because we’ve formed friendships and relationships that simply improve with age. In fact, as Carr would say, I insist on it. Because I know for a fact that the following people, whose talent, generosity, and encouragement have aided, nurtured, and sometimes, quite frankly, wrenched me from the fire, get better with each passing year.

So thank you Damaris Rowland, my wonderful agent, and Maggie Crawford, my insightful and talented editor. Thank you Susan Kay Law, Geralyn Dawson, and Christina Dodd, a triumvirate of wonderfully gifted writers who are always willing to put their talents at my disposal. Thank you Michelle Miller, for years of primo friendship, and Grace Pedalino, for whatever it is you do. And finally, all my love to you David and Rachel, lights of my life, joy of my existence. You are, all of you, truly the very best.

Prologue

S
ome said Lady Fia Merrick was born bad, others that she’d only been raised to it. Whatever the case, it was generally agreed that she could not end up being anything but bad.

After all, her notorious father, Ronald Merrick, Earl of Carr, had killed her mother, his wife. Not that the little girl had any notion of this. She only knew that one day she had a doting mother and two brothers and then she did not.

No one came to explain. For the next several days her nurse arrived in a distracted, frightened, and silent state and then, one morning, after a tearful and furtive kiss she, too, disappeared.

Oh, people came. Meals appeared, someone aided Fia with dressing and undressing, and a long series of
interchangeable faces arrived daily to mind her. This task usually fell to a maid-of-all-work no more than a decade older than Fia. The exhausted, frightened girls would set her down in whatever corner of the castle they were working and hiss at her not to move or speak while they went about their chores.

So Fia, by nature reticent, became more so. She cautiously followed, and silently watched, becoming a black-haired little shadow following in the footsteps of her servants. When she was noticed at all, it was with surprise and alarm and suspicion. As she was daughter of the Demon Earl, the servants considered Fia’s silence unnatural, never realizing that they themselves had inspired it with their unspoken threats to abandon her should she ever make herself a bother. Because it was Fia’s greatest fear that someday she would wake and find herself utterly alone. The wretched staff was too frightened of her father—and later of her—to adopt her into their circle, the other guests at the castle had no interest in the small doll-like creature, and her brothers were not allowed to see her.

Where other children learned their letters and numbers and were indoctrinated into the ways of their class by instructors, siblings, parents, and friends, Fia was uniquely alone. She knew nothing except that which she gleaned through observation. By six years of age Fia had learned to take her education where she found it. Instead of a classroom with books and paper and ink, her school was the castle-cum-gaming-hell known as Wanton’s Blush.

There had been a time when Wanton’s Blush was a
proud and unassailable island fortress belonging to an equally proud and unassailable line of Scots, the McClairens. For three hundred years the castle had stood as Maiden’s Blush.

Then, one year in the early reign of George II, Ronald Merrick was chased out of England by a pack of creditors and found himself at Maiden’s Blush, the guest of Ian McClairen, a man as honest and open-hearted as Merrick was devious and selfish.

Now, Ronald Merrick may not have had money, but he did have charm aplenty and he used it to hide his true nature from his hosts. Gloriously handsome and urbane, he easily won over the score of Scottish ladies then living at the castle, the most important being Janet McClairen, Ian’s favored young cousin.

Seeing a plum ripe for his plucking, Ronald married the girl. For years after, he lived off the genial munificence of his Scottish hosts, feeding on their hospitality, gaining their confidence, and learning, to their everlasting regret, of their secret Jacobite loyalty.

After the Jacobites were routed at Culloden, Ronald testified against his wife’s family, achieving two goals in doing so: the first being the executions of the McClairen men; the second being Maiden’s Blush and the island on which it stood, a gift of a grateful monarch.

For years Janet refused to believe what she knew in her heart, that her husband had betrayed her people and that their blood had paid the price of turning Maiden’s Blush into a sumptuous, decadent palace, rechristened Wanton’s Blush.