Seducing the Ruthless Rogue (38 page)

“Quit asking questions and go to sleep.”

“No.”
 
Cassie sat up and held the sheet over her breasts.

“You might as well let go of that.
 
I’ve already seen all that you have.”

“You are an arse as well as a bastard,” she taunted.

“I’ve warned you once.”

“What are you going to do, beat me?”

“That’s an excellent idea.”

As he reached for her, Cassie grabbed his arm and twisted until it was behind his back and between his shoulder blades.
 
“Remember, I can take care of myself, even against you.”
 
She let go of his arm, but still found herself across his legs and felt a stinging slap on her bottom.
 
“How dare you!” She scurried to her knees and away from him.

“I warned you.”
 

She watched in stunned silence as he lay back down, his arms behind his head.
 
Cassie quickly moved off the bed and tugged his shirt back over her head.
 
She marched across the room and was only brought up short when she heard his voice.

“Where are you going?”

“I won’t stay in here and be lied to and abused.”

“And what did you do to me just now?”

“I merely defended myself.”
 
She grabbed the coverlet that had slid to the floor and disappeared.

“Dammit, come back here!”

Cassie stiffened her spine and kept walking.
 
She made her way to the study and sat in the chair that he had tied her to all those weeks ago.
 
Here she was, full circle, back in the same chair, only this time her bonds were invisible and for a lifetime.

***

Pinks and grays entered the sky heralding the sun’s arrival.
 
Cassie had not slept at all, and her eyes felt gritty.
 
Her body ached, reminding her of what she and Mack had physically shared, as well as what sitting upright in a chair all night could do to a person.
 
Perhaps that is all their relationship would ever by, a physical lusting of two bodies for one another.
 
How long could that last?
 
She was certain he would tire of her.
 
Would she tire of him?
 
No.
 
He had awakened her body and somehow her emotions.
 
She found she was beginning to care for her taciturn Scotsman.
 
Cassie jumped when she heard a deep, gravelly voice.

“I hate the term ‘bastard’ because I am one.”
 
Mack crossed the room on silent feet and leaned against the window frame.
 

“I know you can be hard at times.”

“No, Cassie, I am in every sense of the word a ‘bastard’.
 
Laird McKenzie is not my true father.”

“What?”

“My father was the fifth Duke of Hawkescliffe, Gabe’s father.”

“How?”

“It’s a long story.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“My mother, Isabel, was the daughter of a nobleman.
 
She and her best friend, Anne, were great friends with James Hawke, had been since children.
 
Anne had been promised to James in marriage since they were born.
 
My mother was a year or two younger than Anne.
 
Anne and James were friends, but that is all there ever was.
 
He loved her as a friend.
 
But he loved my mother, passionately.
 
They wrote each other letters, but both knew what it would do to all three families if they were to run away, and mother could not stand to shame Anne in such a way.
 
So, James and Anne married and mother stood quietly aside and watched.”

“That must have been awful for her.”

“She was godmother to their two sons.
 
Anne became pregnant again.
 
Probably too soon after the youngest, and she did not survive, nor did the babe.
 
Mother stayed on with James to help him with the children.
 
There were plenty of people around to act as chaperones, but one night both were feeling especially maudlin.
 
They missed Anne, but most of all they had missed one another.
 
One thing led to another and they…”

“I see.”

“Mother realized she was pregnant not very long after.
 
James could do nothing because he was in mourning.
 
In fact, mother didn’t tell him.
 
She just said that she had to return home.
 
An emergency had arisen.
 
Her mother wanted to send her off to a nunnery, but her father had gambled a good portion of the estate away and needed money.
 
Laird McKenzie had money, but being a Highlander, he needed ties to England to better his business interests.
 
Grandfather married mother off without McKenzie ever knowing she was pregnant.
 
When I arrived a scant seven months later looking like neither of them, nor very premature, he knew he had been taken for a fool.”

“Mack…”

“Mother protected me as much as she could.
 
When she wasn’t having his babies, he beat her for her one indiscretion.
 
She gave him three sons and two daughters.
 
Then the winter of my thirteenth birthday, she caught a fever.
 
She called me to her side and gave me a letter and a bag of coins with instructions to seek out the Duke of Hawkescliffe.
 
She told me to leave that very night, because she feared for my life.
 
Mother told me how much I looked like my father, and she wished things could have been different.
 
She took her last breath in my arms.”

“What did you do?”

“I left.”

“Did you take anything with you?”

“What was there to take?
 
Laird McKenzie treated me less than a servant.
 
I was not allowed anything of my own.”

“You were thirteen and traveled to London on your own?”

“I was big for my age, and passed for at least fifteen on most occasions.
 
Sometimes older.
 
I made it to London while Parliament was in session and found the Hawkescliffe residence.
 
When I was let into the house, I didn’t understand why the butler looked at me so strangely, as if he were seeing a ghost.
 
Then I saw a boy a year or two younger than me at the top of the stairs, and we looked so much alike, I knew in my gut he was my brother.”

“The current Duke of Hawkescliffe.”

“Yes, Gabe.
 
I never saw my older brothers.
 
I understand they looked more like Anne.
 
James was sent for right away.
 
He came in all blustery, but when he saw me the color drained from his face.”

“I’m to give you this, Your Grace.”
 
The young Mack watched as the older man, that looked very much like him and the other boy, ripped open the envelope.
 
The duke stumbled back until he sat in a chair.
 
“Do you need something to drink, Your Grace?”

“No,” the man waved the question away.
 
“Come here, Son.”

Mack carefully walked to the man.
 
“Your mother?”

“Dead, sir.”

The older man took a deep breath and stared at the ceiling before looking at Mack once again.
 
Mack thought he saw tears shimmering in the man’s eyes.

“Do you know who I am?”

“The Duke of Hawkescliffe, but I suspect you’re my father.”

“If I had only known.
 
Damn Izzy and her stubborn pride.”

“I never knew until now, but I don’t think mother ever loved anyone but you. I know she didn’t love my…Laird McKenzie.”

“Did he hurt you or her?”

“I was nothing to him, but yes, he hurt Mother, but he can’t hurt her anymore.”

“No, he can’t, son.
 
Have you received any schooling?”

“Only what mother was able to teach me.”

“I’m going to send you to Eton.”

“Will they accept bastards?”

“Who called you that?”

“Laird McKenzie.
 
He refused to call me by my name.
 
He even had my brothers and sisters call me ‘Bastard’ instead of my name.”

“Did you know your mother named you after me?
 
She just reversed my names to make yours.”

“I do now.”

“So Stuart James McKenzie, what do you prefer to be called?”

“Mack, it is my own, no one else’s.”

“Mack, it is.
 
And I have enough money that Eton will take you, regardless of your background.
 
You’re my son, and I do not care who knows.
 
I want you to know that I loved your mother very much for many, many years.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Gabriel, come here!” Hawkescliffe called.

“Yes, Father?”

“I want you to meet your brother, Mack.
 
He will be going to Eton with you this term.”

“Hello,” Gabriel said, reluctantly.

“H’lo,” Mack returned, feeling scrutinized.

“Even though you’re younger, you have great influence.
 
I expect you to watch out for him, help him find his way.”

“Yes, sir.”

Cassie could tell that Mack was lost in memories.
 
She dropped the blanket and stood, moving to him.
 
She placed her hand against his cheek.
 
“What happened?”

“He accepted me.
 
Society did not, nor did my brother.
 
I ran off from Eton two years after showing up in London.
 
I had been in my fourth fight that year.
 
A group of boys cornered me and beat me senseless.
 
Out of the corner of my eye I saw my brother watching, smiling as it happened.
 
The one friend I had was too sick and weak to help me.
 
I told Teddy, my friend, after the fight that I could not stay any longer.
 
He was sad to see me leave, but understood.
 
That night I snuck out and made my way to the London docks.
 
I lied about my age and joined the Navy.”

“I think I hate your brother, Duke or not.”

“Don’t.
 
He was a boy and jealous.
 
Father favored me, I think because of Mother.
 
Gabe’s mother is insane and has been removed from society.
 
I really can’t blame him for his actions, and besides that, we have made up and decided to be a family now.
 
If we were to have a repeat performance of that fight, he would be right there beside me getting his arse kicked.”

“From now on, I will be right there beside you,” Cassie said.
 
She placed a hand on either side of his face and placed a gentle kiss against his lips.
 
“Never again will I call you a bastard.
 
I will find other words to describe your wretched behavior, but never that one,” a small smile lifted her lips.
 
The look on his face did something to her.
 
It melted her insides and somehow he went from being the hard man that she had known and married to someone else entirely.
 
“Where is Teddy?
 
I think I would very much like to meet him.”

“He was killed a little over a year ago saving my life from an assassination attempt.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“It was actually an answered prayer.
 
He was dying of consumption, slowly and painfully.
 
At least he went quickly and as a hero.”

“Mack,” she whispered against his lips.

“What, Cassie?”

“Take me upstairs.”

“I don’t think I can make it that far.”

“Then shut the drapes and the lock the door.
 
This room is on the first floor.”

“That, I can do,” he pulled the drape across the window and then pulled Cassie into his arms.

Chapter 21

For two days they cut themselves off from the world.
 
For two days they talked, they laughed, and they learned one another.
 
For two days he did not give orders, and she did not fight him.
 
It was a pleasant interlude they both knew could not last forever.
 
As dawn broke on the third day, it heralded the end of their honeymoon.
 
It was also the end of the world’s madness staying away and leaving them alone.