“But you did…and I am.”
She giggled as his lips trailed along her neck, then down to capture the peak of one already pebbled nipple. But then she gasped as her desire ignited fully, pulled from her with the suction of his mouth. Her hands moved down over his back, loving the feel of him, all of him, everywhere.
“James…James, tell me again.”
“I love you, my darling girl.”
“When?”
“When what?”
“When did you know?”
His mouth came back to hers for a long, deeply stirring kiss before he replied, “I’ve always known m’dear. Why do you think I married you?”
Carefully, hating to mention it at a moment like this, she reminded him, “You were forced to marry me.”
One kiss, one grin, and he said, “I forced your family to force me, George. There is a difference.”
“You did what?”
“Now, love—”
“James Malory—”
“Well, what the bloody hell else could I do?” he asked indignantly. “I’d sworn I’d never get leg-shackled. The whole bloody world knew it. So I couldn’t forswear myself and actually ask you, now could I? But I remembered how that bounder my darling niece calls husband got himself wed, and I figured what’s good enough for him would do me as well.”
“I don’t believe I’m hearing this. All deliberate? They beat you senseless! Had you counted on that?”
“The price one pays to get what he wants.”
Hearing that, the heat went right out of her, the angry heat, that is. The other kind was coming back.
But she shook her head at him. “You amaze me. I always suspected you were a madman.”
“Just a determined man, love. But I was bloody well amazed myself. I don’t know how you did it, but you crawled into my heart and wouldn’t get out. I’m learning to accept your presence there, however.”
“Oh, you are, are you? It’s not too crowded?”
“There’s room for a few offspring to join you there.” He grinned at her.
And that got him a kiss, until she recalled, “So why did you have to confess to being the Hawke? They were already determined that you would marry me.”
“Are you forgetting they’d recognized me?”
“I could have convinced them they were mistaken if you’d kept your mouth shut,” she huffed.
He shrugged. “It seemed only reasonable to get it out of the way, George, rather than let it cause unpleasantness later, after we’d settled into married bliss.”
“Is that what you call this,” she asked softly. “Married bliss?”
“Well, I’m bloody well feeling blissful at the moment.” She gasped when he suddenly entered her. There was a deep chuckle before he added, “What about you?”
“You may…depend upon it.”
When they entered the parlor a while later, it was to find Malorys squared off against Andersons, each on opposite sides of the room, and her poor brothers were most definitely outnumbered, for the entire Malory clan had shown up this time. And it wasn’t hard to guess that James’s family was united in their loyalty to him. There wouldn’t be any overtures made until he let them know the feud was ended, and all he’d told Anthony earlier, when he’d carried her up to their room was to expect unpleasant company for dinner, which of course that rogue understood perfectly to mean her brothers were coming.
But her husband’s frowning countenance as he stared at the five Anderson men didn’t bode well for getting this group together. Georgina was having none of that.
She used the same trick that had worked on Warren that morning to get him to listen to her and jabbed her elbow into her husband’s ribs. “Love me, love my family,” she warned him, sweetly, of course.
He smiled down at her as he tucked her arm more firmly under his so she couldn’t do any more jabbing. “Beg to differ, George. Love you, tolerate your family.” But then he sighed. “Oh, bloody hell,” and began making introductions.
“They’re all eligible, you say?” Regina asked her shortly thereafter. “We’ll have to do something about that.”
Georgina grinned, deciding she wouldn’t warn her brothers that there was a matchmaker in the room, but she did point out, “They’re not going to be here that long, Regan.”
“Bloody hell, would you listen to that?” Anthony remarked in passing to Jason. “She’s picked up his bad habits.”
“What bad habits?” Georgina demanded of James’s brothers, ready to defend her husband.
But they hadn’t stopped, and Regina, with a giggle, told her. “My name. They’ll never agree on what to call me. But it’s not nearly so bad anymore. They used to almost come to blows over it.”
Georgina rolled her eyes and caught James’s long-suffering expression across the room where Thomas and Boyd were speaking to him. She smiled. Not one derogatory word had he said to four of her brothers. Warren, however, he wasn’t getting anywhere near.
Nor was Warren being very sociable with anyone. The others had surprised her though, particularly Clinton, by how well they were getting along with the hated English. And Mac would be stopping by later, she’d been told. She’d have to remember to introduce him to Nettie MacDonald. Regina wasn’t the only one who could play matchmaker.
Still later, Anthony and James stood alone, each watching their respective wives as they spoke. “Shall we betroth them?”
James choked on the sip of brandy he’d just taken, since the subject they’d been discussing was their upcoming fatherhood. “They’re not even born yet, you ass.”
“So?”
“So they could end up the same gender.”
A degree of visible disappointment accompanied a sigh from Anthony. “I suppose.”
“Besides, they’d be first cousins.”
“So?” again.
“That’s not at all the thing these days.”
“Well, how the bloody hell should I know?”
“I agree,” Nicholas said, coming up behind them. “You don’t know much.” And to James, “Nice family you’ve acquired there.”
“You would think so.”
Nicholas smiled. “That chap Warren don’t like you very much. He’s been looking daggers at you all evening.”
James said to Anthony, “Would you like the honors, or do I get the pleasure?”
Nicholas sobered, understanding perfectly that they were talking about trouncing him. “You wouldn’t dare. You’d have both your brothers on your heads, not to mention my wife.”
“I do believe, dear boy, it would be worth it,” James told him, then smiled as Nicholas wisely took himself off again.
Anthony was chuckling. “The lad does like to press his luck, don’t he?”
“I’m learning to tolerate him,” James conceded, then, “Bloody hell, I’m learning to tolerate a lot.”
Anthony laughed at that, following James’s glance to Warren Anderson. “Old Nick was right. That chap really don’t like you a’tall.”
“The feeling is entirely mutual, I do assure you.”
“Think you’ll have trouble with him?”
“Not at all. We’ll have a whole bloody ocean between us very shortly, thank God.”
“The fellow was just protecting his sister, old boy,” Anthony pointed out. “Same as you or I would have done for Melissa.”
“Are you trying to deny me the pleasure of hating him, when he’s so very hatable?”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Anthony said, then waited until James took another sip of his drink before adding, “By the by, James, did I ever tell you I love you?”
Brandy spewed across the carpet. “God, a few drinks and you get maudlin!”
“Well, did I?”
“Don’t believe so.”
“Then consider it said.”
After a long pause, he grumbled, “Then consider it returned.”
Anthony grinned. “Love the elders, too, but I don’t dare tell ’em…the shock, you know
.”
James quirked a brow. “But it’s all right for me to keel over?”
“’Course it is, old man.”
“What is?” Georgina asked, joining them.
“Nothing, love. My dear brother is just being a pain in the arse…as usual.”
“No more than mine is, I imagine.”
James stiffened upon hearing that. “Has he said anything to you?”
“Of course not,” she assured him. “It’s that he’s not saying anything to anyone.” And then she sighed. “It might help, James, if you made the first—”
“Bite your tongue, George,” he said in mock horror, which wasn’t all that feigned. “I’m in the same room with him. That’s more than enough.”
“James—” she started cajolingly.
“George,” he said warningly.
“Please.”
Anthony started laughing. He knew a doomed man when he saw one. His amusement earned him one of James’s darker looks, even as James was allowing his wife to drag him across the room to her most obnoxious brother.
It still took another jab in the ribs to get him to open his mouth, and then it was only a curt “Anderson.”
“Malory” came back at him just as curtly.
At that point James started to laugh, confounding both Anderson siblings. “I suppose I’ll have to give over,” James said, still chuckling. “Since you obviously haven’t learned how to dislike a fellow in a civilized fashion.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Warren demanded.
“You’re supposed to enjoy the discord, dear boy.”
“I’d rather—”
“Warren!” Georgina snapped. “Oh, for God’s sake.”
He glowered at her a moment. Then with a look of disgust he stuck out his hand to James, who accepted that begrudged peace offering, still grinning.
“I know how that pained you, old chap, but be assured you’re leaving your sister in the hands of a man who loves the breath out of her.”
“The breath?” Georgina frowned.
James’s golden brow crooked at her, an affectation she now found more endearing than she could say. “Well, weren’t you gasping for breath in our bed just a little while ago?” he asked in all innocence.
“James!” She gasped now, her cheeks flaming that he’d say that in front of Warren, of all people.
But Warren said, his lips finally lifting just the slightest bit, “All right, Malory, you’ve made your point. Just see that you continue to make her happy, and I won’t have to come back over here to kill you.”
“Much, much better, dear boy,” James replied, chuckling. And to his wife, “He’s learning, George, damned if he ain’t.”
Have you met the Malorys?
A family of dashing rogues and rakehell adventurers. Ladies of uncommon beauty and incomparable spirit.
Their amorous exploits are spoken of in envious whispers from Regency London to America’s shores.
#1 New York Times Bestseller Johanna Lindsey invites you to join the family and lose yourself in the passion and excitement of a family unlike any other…
The Malorys
“If you’re looking for sensuality, you won’t be disappointed in Johanna Lindsey.”
Chicago Sun-Times
“Johanna Lindsey transports us…We have no choice but to respond to the humor and the intensity.”
San Diego Union-Tribune
“First-rate romance.”
New York Daily News
Enjoy the following beautifully repackaged novels.
Love Only Once
The exquisite niece of Lord Edward and Lady Charlotte Malory, Regina Ashton is abducted by Nicholas Eden—an arrogant seducer hardened by a painful secret from his past.
Reggie has vowed to marry the golden-haired rogue who has besmirched her good name—and who arouses her womanly desires to an unendurable level. But her beauty only stirs Nicholas’s passion—giving rise to dangerous misunderstandings…and a love that can live only once in a lifetime.
Tender Rebel
Scottish heiress Roslynn Chadwick needs the safety of marriage to protect her from an unscrupulous cousin—and from the army of fortune-hunting scoundrels who covet her wealth and beauty.
Anthony Malory is everything she has been warned against.
A ruthless, irresistibly handsome English rogue, Anthony’s sensual blue eyes speak of limitless pleasures. Can Roslynn dare to love such a man, whose passionate promises will only lead her into uncertain realms—and to unimagined heights of love?
Gentle Rogue
Heartsick and desperate to return home to America, Georgina Anderson boards the Maiden Anne disguised as a cabin boy—never dreaming she’ll be forced into intimate servitude at the whim of the ship’s irrepressible captain, James Malory.
The black sheep of a proud and tempestuous family, the handsome ex-pirate once swore no woman alive could entice him into matrimony. But on the high seas his resolve will be weakened by an unrestrained passion—and by the high-spirited beauty whose love of freedom and adventure rivals his own.
The Magic of You
As wild and reckless as the most incorrigible of her male cousins, Amy Malory has reached a marriageable age and has set her sights on a most inappropriate mate: the straight-laced American ship captain who once nearly had her Uncle James hung for piracy.
Warren Anderson is shocked by the brazen advances of his despised enemy’s beautiful niece. Though determined to resist her, he burns for the enchanting British minx. And an impassioned heart implores him to surrender to a love that could stoke the smoldering fires of a family feud into a dangerous, all-consuming blaze.
And don’t miss these classic reader favorites:
Say you Love Me
Left penniless after her parents’ death, Kelsey Langton must now take responsibility for the well-being of her younger sister, Jean. But when circumstance and human frailty conspire to leave them homeless as well, Kelsey is forced to resort to drastic measures. Only by allowing herself to be sold at auction can she rescue her sister’s future—and so Kelsey enters the infamous House of Eros, resigned to becoming the plaything of some well-heeled gentleman.
Lord Derek Malory is the highest bidder for Kelsey’s charms—a dashing rakehell from a family of charming London rogues, who draws the sensuous dark-haired maiden into a world of unparalleled pleasures and dangerous rivalries. But Kelsey must scrupulously guard the secret of her highborn past—even as her grace, wit, spirit and beauty entice her new “master” to renounce his scandalous ways…and take a chance on true love, the most perilous and rewarding gamble of all.
The Present
As the entire Malory family gathers at Haverston to celebrate the holiday season, a mysterious present arrives anonymously. The gift is an old journal—a tender and tempestuous account of the love affair between the second Marquis, Christopher Malory, and a dark gypsy beauty named Anastasia, who seeks a love match with a non-gypsy in order to save herself from a prearranged marriage to a brute.
Though the dashing English lord Anastasia sets her sights upon burns for the exquisite, exotic miss, Christopher could never consent to wed such a lowborn lady. But miracles have been known to happen in this season of peace and giving and love, as two extraordinary people separated by circumstance of birth begin a passionate dance of will and wiles. And in the miraculous blossoming of a glorious romance at a long ago Christmastime, there are wise and well-learned lessons that will enrich the hearts of the Malory descendants—and, indeed, of everyone who has ever dreamed.
About the Author
Johanna Lindsey has been hailed as one of the most popular authors of romantic fiction, with more than sixty million copies of her novels sold. World renowned for her novels of “first-rate romance” (New York Daily News), Lindsey is the author of forty-seven previous national bestselling novels, many of which reached the #1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list. Lindsey lives in Maine with her family.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
Praise
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR
“If you’re looking
for sensuality,
you won’t be disappointed
in
JOHANNA LINDSEY.”
Chicago Sun-Times
“One of the most reliable authors around. Her books are well-paced and well-written, filled with strong characters, humor, interesting plots—and, of course, romance.”
Cincinnati Enquirer
“The charm and appeal of her characters are infectious.”
Publishers Weekly
“First-rate romance.”
New York Daily News
“Johanna Lindsey has a sure touch where historical romance is concerned.”
Newport News Daily Press
“Johanna Lindsey transports us…. We have no choice but to respond to the humor and the intensity.”
San Diego Union-Tribune
Other Books by Johanna Lindsey
ALL I NEED IS YOU • ANGEL • BRAVE THE WILD WIND
CAPTIVE BRIDE • DEFY NOT THE HEART
FIRES OF WINTER • A GENTLE FEUDING
GENTLE ROGUE • GLORIOUS ANGEL
HEART OF A WARRIOR • HEART OF THUNDER
A HEART SO WILD • HEARTS AFLAME • THE HEIR
THE HOLIDAY PRESENT • HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS
JOINING • KEEPER OF THE HEART • LOVE ME FOREVER
LOVE ONLY ONCE • THE MAGIC OF YOU
MAN OF MY DREAMS • ONCE A PRINCESS
PARADISE WILD • A PIRATE’S LOVE • THE PRESENT
PRISONER OF MY DESIRE • THE PURSUIT
SAVAGE THUNDER • SAY YOU LOVE ME
SECRET FIRE • SILVER ANGEL
SO SPEAKS THE HEART • SURRENDER MY LOVE