Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 163328 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 817(@200wpm)___ 653(@250wpm)___ 544(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163328 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 817(@200wpm)___ 653(@250wpm)___ 544(@300wpm)
I shot Priest a startled look. He narrowed his eyes.
“I wished I would’ve been here, supporting you.” A spark of regret lit Ashley’s eyes. “Of course, you managed just fine. Extraordinarily so.” His hands slid to my face, framing it. “Your strength of will astounds. Truly an intimidating woman, and God help me, I’ve gone mad without you.”
He cupped the back of my head and drew my mouth toward his. And froze.
I leaned back to find a blade poised across his throat.
“Priest.” I gritted my teeth and met his angry eyes over Ashley’s shoulder. “You’re not going to cut him.”
He bent in, setting his mouth at Ashley’s ear. “Tell her.”
“Tell me what? About your history together? Your relationship with Arabella?” My pulse accelerated as I backed up and lowered into the armchair, glaring at Priest. “Is that how you and Ashley met? Is she the one you…you betrayed me with?”
Ashley sucked in a hard breath, his mouth a grim slash of pain. I’d never asked when she died. I only knew it had happened during childbirth.
“I can smell your shame, my lord. It sickens me.” Priest stepped away and tossed the blade toward the fireplace. “You’ve let it rule you your entire life. I’ve stood by you, honored your wishes, and protected your secrets at the cost of ruining my marriage!” His accent thickened, rising in volume with the force of his rage. Then he pounced, grabbing Ashley by the collar and hurling him to his knees before me. “Do you know that I have not made love to my wife in over two years?” With a hand in Ashley’s hair, he leaned in and snarled, “Tell her now or so help me God, I will break my vow and tell her myself.”
As Priest released him, my mind swam to keep up, creating and rejecting assumptions with the rapid beat of my heart.
“All right.” Ashley bent over my lap and gripped my hips, his muscles hot and coiled with tension. “Christ, I don’t know where to start.”
A flash of sympathy softened Priest’s features. “Tell her who I was with in Nassau two years ago.”
Everything inside me stilled. The room melted away until all that existed was Ashley’s strong, stern, beautiful face as he lifted it to mine and said, “Me. Priest was with me.”
My head jerked back, ice in my veins. “What? No, that’s not—”
“I wrote the letter, Bennett.” Ashley straightened on his knees, forcing his way between my legs. “Priest told me you memorized it. The one you found that morning.”
“Why?” I pressed my back against the chair, seeking distance, not understanding. “That letter confessed intimacy. Love. Passion. Orgasms. Why would you…write…that…?”
My gaze flitted between him and Priest, back and forth, over and over, as I tried to imagine them together. Naked. Fucking.
The concept of two men having relations didn’t shock or offend me. I lived on a ship with a hundred lusty pirates. I witnessed all sorts of bawdy, creative, man-on-man action, especially during long months at sea.
But Priest and Ashley? No. I couldn’t fathom it.
Except only minutes ago, there had been a moment, a seed of suspicion…
Priest lowered into the chair across from me, sprawling like a watchful predatory cat. “Get to the part where I swore on my life to be your dirty, shameful secret.”
“I think she can figure it out.” Agitated, Ashley rose and shrugged out of his coat, tossing it over the couch. “I’m betrothed. I have a career and a family name to protect. Duty, honor, heirs, obligations, expectations—my entire life was put before me the moment I drew my first breath. I didn’t choose this path. I was born into it. Bred to serve and thrive as a peer of the realm.” He flicked a hand at Priest. “If he and I were discovered…”
“You would both be executed,” I said on a dazed whisper.
Priest was a commoner and a criminal. Not only did he lack the required wealth and status, but he was an enemy of England. A relationship between him and Ashley was forbidden for all those reasons. But there was a far greater danger.
Romantic attraction between two men was considered a serious offense. If they were discovered, they would be hanged for sodomy.
“So you ended things with Priest in Nassau two years ago.” My head throbbed, mind blown. “You spent the night with him, wrote him a letter, and left before he woke.”
Priest watched us quietly from beneath dark brooding brows.
“Yes.” Ashley stared at his hands, his sculpted nostrils pulsing. “One of the many reasons Priest wishes to cut out my liver.” He paced to the unlit fireplace and braced his forearms against the mantle, his gaze on the floor. “That night in Nassau, I saw him in the tavern. You weren’t with him.”
“She went back to the ship to check on the crew,” Priest said. “While I waited for her ashore, I had a dram of rum. It was a stroke of luck that you spotted me.”