Nicole Jordan - Ecstasy

She rose and turned to face her nemesis, casting him a glance full of scorn. “You expect me to meekly obey you?”

“Oh, I think you will. Otherwise I will kill anyone who interferes.”

“You won’t get away with this,” Raven declared with scathing bravado. “Kell will stop you.”

Sean’s smile chilled her very blood. “Perhaps. I truly hope he tries. You see, I mean to make my dear brother pay as well, for choosing you over me.”

She had never been so cold in her life, Raven thought as she sat huddled in the chair where Sean had kept her tied for the past hour. After driving through the night in a jolting, swaying coach, they’d arrived at a country estate that Sean said belonged to him. Immediately he had dismissed the caretakers with a brusque command and installed Raven in an unheated bedchamber, without giving her even her cloak for warmth.

At least he hadn’t drugged her this time or rendered her unconscious, but her limbs were so numb, she could barely feel any sensation.

Sean had left her alone only once, to allow her to relieve herself, untying all but her hands and locking the door behind him. One look at the frozen landscape, however, made Raven reconsider attempting an escape, for snow was coming down in swirling gusts. Even if she somehow managed to elude Sean and flee the house, in these near-blizzard conditions she would likely freeze to death before she got half a mile.

And so she didn’t fight him when Sean returned to retie her to the chair. And she kept her counsel as he stood watch at the window, her emotions swinging wildly between blazing fury and despair. When he deigned to give her an occasional glance, she tried not to meet his eyes, fearing that showing her outrage would only earn her more pain.

He would not balk at hurting her further, she had no doubt. Since their arrival, Sean had sunk into an icy calm devoid of any emotion whatever. His passionless detachment frightened her more than any ranting could have done. His eyes seemed soulless, almost dead.

She gave a start when he finally broke the silence. “Kell should not be too much longer,” he murmured tonelessly, gazing out through the snow. “I left a trail even a blind man could follow.”

It was the first time in nearly an hour he had spoken to her.

“What will you do when he arrives?” Raven ventured to ask.

He shot her a cool glance. “That is no concern of yours.”

“You would not really harm him, would you? Your own brother?”

The sharp twist of his mouth sent a fresh chill through her. “How touching-you pretend to care for him. But I know your heart is made of ice.”

“I do care what happens to him. He is my husband.”

When Sean’s eyes narrowed, she realized her mistake. Whatever her feelings for Kell, she shouldn’t declare them for fear of provoking Sean further. “Kell doesn’t care much for me, however,” she murmured. “We have a marriage of convenience, nothing more.”

“You lie.” Crossing the room to her, he calmly struck her across the face with his open palm, making her head snap back.

Raven stifled a cry of pain and clenched her teeth.

“Kell has been panting after you like a dog for a bitch. You seduced him, and he fell for it. He will pay for that.”

His tone was so composed, he might have been remarking on the weather. Her stomach muscles knotted with dread.

She knew she shouldn’t dare challenge Sean again, knew he would be impervious to pleas, but she couldn’t help herself. “Please, Sean, whatever you are planning, Kell doesn’t deserve to be hurt.”

“He stole you from me.”

Raven bit her tongue, recognizing that further argument was futile. Sean was so twisted by his tormented past, so filled with bitterness and hatred, that she truly questioned his sanity. Yet she couldn’t allow Kell to walk blindly into a trap.

“What is it you want? Me? If so, then…” She swallowed hard. “You can have me.”

His wintery smile lifted the hairs on the back of her neck. “Ah, but I no longer want you. Now be silent.”

Sean turned back to the window. Another dozen minutes ticked by before he spoke again. “At last he comes.”

His satisfied pronouncement filled Raven with alarm, and she flinched when Sean turned back to her.

With methodical efficiency, he released her from the chair but left her hands bound. She couldn’t help but cry out when he jerked her savagely to her feet.

“Where…are you taking me?” Raven gasped as he ushered her forcefully to the door.

“You will see soon enough.”

Kell cursed as he struggled through the drifts of snow in the rear of the Lasseter estate. He’d found the house empty but for four servants huddling in the kitchen. They’d been told to keep out of sight, but when asked, they pointed to the back exit, indicating the direction Sean had taken with his hostage.

Following the tracks, Kell bent against the razor-sharp wind, the capes of his greatcoat snapping. He could barely see in the swirling snow, yet he knew where Sean was headed. The gazebo had been chosen with a purpose, for that was where William’s abuse had begun.

A sickening sense of inevitability buffeted Kell as he realized the past had come full circle.

In a few moments he could make out the delicate cupola roof and the lacy railings of the gazebo. The ornamental lake beside it was frozen over, while a stand of elms rose behind like ghostly sentinels, their bare limbs coated with ice crystals.

When he reached the gazebo, Kell felt the same ice freeze his veins. Two figures were seated on a bench, Sean holding a rapier at Raven’s throat.

Kell’s breathing ceased as he forced himself slowly to mount the snow-slicked steps. His heart pounded as if he’d run a great distance, while his gut churned with a tumult of emotions: fear for Raven. Hatred for the bastard who had destroyed his young brother’s innocence. Anguish at what Sean would force him to do.

Sean meant to make him choose between the two of them, Kell knew. His brother and his wife. But he really had no choice.

Not wanting to incite his brother, Kell came to a halt and surveyed his wife. Her lips were blue and her body shook with cold, yet he couldn’t tell if the expression in her eyes was pain or fear or both.

“Sean, let her go. Your quarrel is with me.”

“Aye, it is with you, dear brother. You want to lock me away.”

“You’ve hurt enough innocents. You can’t be allowed to hurt anyone else.”

“What of me? I was innocent when that bastard violated me.”

Kell felt the familiar anguish rise up in him. “I know.”

“You know?” The word was bitter. “You don’t know a bloody thing, Kell. You can’t understand what it was like to bear his touch, to have him pushing inside me… He brought me here, did you know that? He would make me strip for him, and then he would mount me… I puked at first. Once I cast up my guts all over him when he came in my mouth. He struck me so hard, he knocked me senseless. After that I learned to stomach his perversions. To conceal my shame. Even though I wanted to kill him.”

Sean’s mouth twisted in a sad smile. “I did kill him in the end. I made the bastard pay for what he did to me.” His voice lowered, turning troubled. “I killed O’Malley, too, even though I didn’t mean to. I couldn’t stop myself.”

A strangled sound of grief came from Raven’s throat, and Sean jerked her head back, pressing the blade harder against her skin.

Kell gritted his teeth till they ached. It was all he could do to refrain from leaping at his brother.

Sean’s voice dropped even further, to a hoarse whisper. “I thought I wanted you to pay as well, Kell. You were my brother. You should have saved me from him. I hated you for that.”

Kell felt the accusation like a knife thrust. Sean’s resentment had festered all these years, and now, like some pestilent wound, was pouring forth. “Sean, you don’t know how much I hated myself.”

The younger man shook his head. “No, I was wrong. You could not have saved me. Not then,” he whispered brokenly. “But you can now. You have to help me, Kell.”

“Of course I will help you.”

His green eyes turned desolate. “How? By having me thrown in prison?”

“I thought an asylum would be more humane.”

Sean shook his head, his eyes bleak. “I cannot live the rest of my life locked away.”

“I can’t allow you to remain free to kill again.”

“There is only one way to stop me, Kell. You know it.” With his head Sean gestured toward the second rapier lying on the bench. “Do you recognize these? These are Uncle’s dueling foils.”

“You’re asking me to duel with you? You have little skill with a rapier. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You have no choice.” Sean glanced down at his hostage. “If you don’t want me to slit her throat, you will have to fight me, brother.”

Kell hesitated, dread roiling inside him at what Sean was implying. But he couldn’t allow Raven to be hurt any further. “Very well.”

Sean bent down to retrieve the other foil, leaving the slightest opening for Kell to act.

Yet Raven moved before he could. Raising her bound hands, she struck Sean’s shoulder, evidently hoping to throw him off balance. But all it did was earn her a vicious clout. Sean swung his arm and connected with her head, knocking her to the wooden floor.

Kell had started forward, filled with rage and fear, but he halted abruptly when he saw Sean holding the point of his foil at Raven’s nape.

“Pick up your weapon,” he ordered in a hoarse tone.