Shayla Black (9 page)

He needed Maddie to improve his lot, and he was eager to extract a pound of flesh from Maddie, as long as it came with the silken caress of her hand wearing his wedding ring.

Each midnight, I will lie here and wait for you
.

God, why couldn’t he get her voice out of his head?

Shifting uncomfortably to accommodate the front of his expanding breeches, Brock heard a hushed whisper at the parlor’s portal. He stood, hoping his coat hid anything too telling, and faced the door as it inched open.

Instead of Maddie, little Aimee stood there, arm stretched out before her, ending in a fist. The late-day sun’s brilliant rays streamed through the window, brightening the little girl’s golden hair until it looked like a halo.

“
Hello,” she greeted with a smile, dimples showing.

She walked further into the room, arm still outstretched but touching nothing. She smelled faintly of cherries.

“
Hello, Aimee.” He frowned as he watched her walk a circle around the couch. “What are you doing?”

“
Walking my dog. See? I’m holding his leash.”

Brock saw nothing. “What dog?”

“
You can’t see him,” she whispered, as if letting him in on a secret. “He’s invisible except to me.”

A pretend dog? Straining to find the logic in such a game, Brock sat again. “And this dog is your pet?”

“
Frog.” She nodded.

He was really confused now. “Your dog is a frog?”

Aimee rolled her eyes and heaved a dramatic sigh. “No, you ninny. My dog is named Frog.”

The girl’s tone indicated she thought the dog’s name was perfectly obvious and logical. It was neither to him. “Why did you name your dog Frog?”

She shrugged her little shoulders. “He likes to hop.”

Brock frowned, trying to follow. “I’ve never seen a dog hop.”

Aimee cast him a very disparaging glance for a four-year-old. “You’ve never seen Frog.”

She had a point, though a very odd one. Resolved that he may never fully understand the rationale of her young mind, he simply nodded.

“
I’m going to have a baby brother,” she announced.

Shock bounced through Brock faster than he could make money multiply. Maddie was pregnant? By whom?

Staggered, he stared at Aimee. Was that why Maddie wanted to become his mistress, to pin her pregnancy on him and make him...what? Marry her? He had already offered—insisted actually—and she had refused.

Or was this perhaps another of the little girl’s games? He sent Aimee a jaundiced gaze.

“
A baby brother? You must be excited,” he said carefully. “When?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“
What did your mother say?”

After a little shake of her blond head, Aimee whispered, “She doesn’t know yet.”

Relief undulated through him in slow waves, until the illogical nature of Aimee’s words hit him again. “Then how do you know you will have a baby brother?”

“
God told me.”

Brock wanted to ask her how she thought that was possible when her father was dead, but realized that question would be lost on her innocent mind. Clearly, the girl wanted a sibling and was willing to invent a conversation with God to get one.

“
God told you what?” Maddie asked suddenly.

With a glance to the portal, Brock saw her there. The doorway framed her, and he let his eyes feast on her like a man starved. She looked perfect, all creamy and regal, despite her drab work dress. The auburn luxury of her hair was once again bound in a tight chignon he vowed to unwind the minute their vows were spoken. The cut of her coarse brown dress accentuated the juicy curve of her breast. He’d bet she wore just one petticoat. Lust started a slow burn in his belly and ripped through him without mercy.

“
About my baby brother.” Aimee’s soft tone was accompanied by a guilty grimace.

Apparently, Maddie had heard this assertion before and disliked it.

“
I’m sorry, sweeting, but there will be no brothers,” Maddie said gently as she approached her daughter. She knelt to the girl and smoothed blond wisps from her little face. “We’ve talked about this. Remember?”

Glumly, Aimee nodded. “Yes, Mama.”

“
Good girl. Now go play upstairs. Auntie Vema wants to see your drawings.”

“
But Mr. Taylor—”

“
Go on,” Maddie ordered, her face becoming stern.

Aimee’s shoulders sagged visibly as she left the room. Brock found himself smiling at the girl.

“
Goodbye, Aimee,” he called.

“
Bye,” she muttered, punctuating the dejected syllable with a half-hearted wave.

Brock wondered about Maddie’s rapport with the child, but the mixture of guilt, exasperation, and fear on the determined oval of her face told him there was more to the mother-daughter exchange than any man would probably ever understand.

“
She’s really quite imaginative,” Brock offered, somehow reluctant to allow Maddie to be upset with the little scamp.

As if she remembered his presence, she turned to him with a stiff spine. Her unique scent, vanilla and jasmine, rolled over his senses. He was too aware of her, the dewy texture of her skin, and that damned soft mouth he couldn’t forget. A surge of yearning to taste it hit him hard.

“
I’ve waited for you at the cottage,” she murmured.

Desire jolted him, and he stifled it ruthlessly. She had married Sedgewick, born him a child, and warmed his bed for two years. Maddie had, no doubt, buried her memories of her serving-class lover with dirt beneath his fingernails the moment he’d left Ashdown Manor. Now, she wanted to use his desire for her against him, ensuring that he forfeited the railroad that would finally make him one of England’s wealthiest men. Despite his burning to bury his cock deep inside her and obliterate her memory of Sedgewick’s touch, she didn’t stand a bloody chance.

“
I told you my answer, Maddie. No.”

She walked to him, hips swaying with allure, with ripe promise of pleasure so sharp, he nearly shuddered. Though sweat beaded on his brow, Brock swallowed against the temptation.

“
You owe me, Maddie. Think of this visit as a friendly reminder of that fact.”

Her seductive smile slipped. “I’ve no need for friendship.”

“
I think you do. I think you need it very badly.”

Maddie sidled closer. “No, Brock. I need you to be my lover.”

Her words punched him in the gut, challenged him to take her. Now. God help him, he wanted to do just that, claim her in a way so carnal, she could never forget him again.

Get a hold of yourself, man
. She wanted him to lose his head, do something rash. He couldn’t.

“
Today, I came as a friend.”

A flash of anger overtook her face. “If all friends threaten me as you have, God spare me such kindness.”

“
Maddie—”

“
I only want you as a lover, Brock, in the terms we discussed.”

Someday he would be her lover, her husband, the father of her future children, in his time, on his terms. But not today.

“
For argument’s sake, say you considered me a friend. What would you expect me to do for you? Forget what you owe me?”

The implausibility of that suggestion rang in the thick air between them.

She hesitated. “No. I would merely ask for an extension or a compromise, both of which you have refused me so far.”

“
Because, as you say, I am not your friend. I seek a wife, not a mistress, nor a debtor.”

Maddie raised her gaze to him again, her stormy gray eyes locking with his, conveying her anger and some other tempestuous emotion with their darkening color.

“
I made you an offer of repayment,” she reminded in a low voice reminiscent of honey and late-night whispers. It nearly undid him. “Repayment beyond your expectations.”

She knew nothing of his expectations. Nor did he want to know what Sedgewick had taught Maddie about bed sport. He must distance himself from her—or she would drive him to something reckless.

“
I did not ask you to repay me with sex.”

Brock expected her to flinch at his deliberately blunt statement. To his surprise, a smile played at the corners of her succulent mouth instead.

“
And such a suggestion offends your delicate sensibilities?”

“
No, just my financial ones.”

“
Then why are you here?” She scowled.

“
To remind you that you owe me.”

“
You will never let me forget, I’m certain.”

He reached for his hat and placed it on his head once more. “Don’t tarry too long, Maddie. My patience is running thin.”

#

“
I can only threaten Maddie so much,” Brock said to his father with a sigh as he entered the study in his town house.

“
Not bending, is she?” Jack grinned.

Brock scowled as he removed his coat. “Not an inch. I don’t remember that woman being so stubborn. She despises me. Hell, every time I’m in the same room with her daughter, Maddie sends the girl away like she’s afraid I’m going to eat her for a snack.”

Jack chuckled. “You really have made a good impression.”

“
Thank you. I needed your reminder that I’ve bumbled this.” Brock raked a hand through his hair. “I have no idea how to make that woman marry me. My threats are losing their power.”

“
Would you really throw Maddie and her daughter in debtor’s prison?” Jack asked over a glass of port.

“
Of course not.”

“
Maybe she knows your threats are hollow.”

“
I don’t think so. She looks terrified when I mention it.” He sighed. “And she fears me, too. I see it in her eyes.”

Jack rose and poured himself another port. “That’s your problem.”

“
What?” He frowned. “Maddie has to believe I mean business, or I will never persuade her to marry me.”

“
All you’ve done with your threats, son, is put her back to the wall. She’s desperate and defensive. I don’t think it was wise.”

“
Advice on women from the man who never remarried?”

Jack sent him a slow smile. “That hardly means I’ve spent all my time alone.”

“
Spare me the details.” Brock held up his hand to ward off further conversation on that topic. “What would you have done, then? I could hardly kneel at the woman’s feet and ask for her hand. That approach failed once. Five years ago, she thought me beneath her. Her assessment has not changed one whit.”

Bitterness surged like the tide in a storm, and Brock wondered why the hell Maddie’s opinion mattered. She had made herself perfectly clear when she had refused to marry him—twice. This was not about his heart, but his future.

“
What have you accomplished with threats except to reaffirm her bad opinions?” asked Jack rhetorically.

Brock had no answer for that. “So what are you suggesting?”

“
Since you can’t go through her wall of defense, you must go underneath it.”

Sighing, Brock stared at his father. “I’m trying to court her, do the thing properly. She’s not swayed.”

“
Seduce the girl, then. Ply her with wine, kisses, and compliments. Buy her clothes and jewels and nights on the town. Wear down her resistance. She will eventually accept, I’m certain.” Jack smiled. “You’ve never been one to take no for an answer.”

Through the evening, Brock couldn’t get his father’s advice out of his head.

Each midnight, I will lie here and wait for you
.

He lifted a glass of port to his mouth and consumed the contents in one long swallow, hoping to drive the echo of Maddie’s voice from his head.

I need you to be my lover.

Wonderful, a new torment to add to his tortured mind and near-bursting body.

Gritting his teeth, Brock rose and opened the window in his bedroom, taking in huge draughts of the chilly air, the soft scents of grass and impending rain, spring flowers...and Maddie.

Damn, her voice rang inside him, the feel of her mouth beneath his like a drug, addicting him. He could not let her go.

But he needed a new plan.

Drawing in another rush of sharp air, Brock considered Jack’s suggestion. How was he to seduce her without taking her as a mistress?

In the next moment, the answer came. He could do that—and he knew precisely how. Turning from the window, he called for his cloak and his horse, purpose driving an impatient surge inside him.