Chapter Twenty
‘There’s a hole in the rock near the top. A cave of some sort. Large enough to allow a man to pass through, but concealed enough not to be obvious.’ Seb hoisted himself back over the ledge and grinned. None of his men had noticed the opening, hardly surprising when it was so well hidden. ‘They hoist the barrels from the rowing boats into the cave. Once it’s light, my men will have to do some proper recognisance. All we need to do is link it to Penhurst.’ His pleased expression changed to outright confusion when he felt her finger poke him hard in the chest.
‘I was worried sick about you!’
‘Whatever for?’ She resembled a bedraggled rat, her long hair hanging in dripping ropes around her face. Her slim shoulders rising and falling rapidly.
‘You disappeared over the side of the cliff. Over. The.Side!’ The prod turned into a full push. ‘I thought you had fallen! Or been captured!’
For a little thing, she packed a punch, although why she was fuming Seb couldn’t fathom. He’d only been gone five minutes. Fallen? Captured? ‘I was sat on that ledge watching. The view is much better down there.’ He gestured towards the rocky outcrop a few feet below.
‘You have a reckless regard for your own safety!’ The second push was done with both of her hands and he had to take a step back to avoid falling on his behind. ‘You could have died!’ Another push. ‘Was the bullet that almost killed you not enough?’
It was only then that he heard the tremor in her voice. ‘Are you crying?’
‘Of course I’m crying, you stupid man! I thought you were dead!’ The final push coupled with his shock at seeing her so distraught did send him backwards and he landed with a painful thud on the ground. ‘I hope that hurt!’
Before he could stand she was off, fists clenched at her sides as her legs pumped the ground, her delightful bottom wiggling with indignation as she stomped back the way they had come. Seb stumbled to his feet and ran to catch up with her. ‘Gem—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you worry. I thought you were watching.’ She didn’t slow her pace. ‘I wasn’t being reckless. I was perfectly safe at all times.’
That made her stop dead. Even in the pitch black and the storm he could clearly make out her fury. ‘Were the rocks wet and slippery? Was the wind howling? Were the waves smashing onto the beach below?’
‘Well...’ The stinging slap across the face came out of nowhere.
‘I thought I’d lost you!’ The hand she had just smacked him with clutched at her chest and tore at her wet shirt. ‘It broke my heart!’
Like a dam bursting, all her molten anger turned into racking, violent sobs. It wasn’t pretty. Stunned, a little bit shaken by the dramatic turn things had taken, his mind whirring with the staggering possibility that he had the power to break her heart, Seb wrapped his arms around her and tugged her close. He was at a loss as to what else to do. To his greater surprise she coiled hers tightly around his waist and buried her head against his chest, noisily crying into his coat.
I thought I’d lost you.
It broke my heart.
Did those words mean what he hoped they meant?
He found himself kissing the top of her head and rocking her in his arms, oblivious of the rain that lashed his face. ‘I’m sorry. Don’t cry. Please don’t cry.’ The sound of it was tearing him to pieces and making him hope. ‘Slap me again. Push me. Kick me, just please don’t cry.’ Beneath his chin she had started to make a strangled sound which began as a hiccup and ended on a snort, her slim shoulders convulsing with each one.
‘I—I—I th-thought you were d-dead.’
‘I know. I’m sorry.’ Needing to see her face and reassure her of the earnestness of his apology, Seb smoothed the sodden strands of hair out of the way and tilted her chin up gently with his finger. ‘Believe me, if I had known that you were worried...’
‘It doesn’t matter. You’re safe. All that matters is you’re safe.’ Her fingers tangled in the wet linen against his chest and she offered him a cross between a smile and a grimace. It was the most beautiful expression he had ever seen. Of their own accord, his thumbs brushed away the fresh tears on her cheeks and then the raindrops glistening on her cheeks and lips. When her head turned and she kissed his open palm, he simply stared down at her in wonder. This was all so unexpected. Longed for, but never in his wildest dreams did he dare give credence to the idea of her reciprocating the emotions which Seb had suffered from the outset. The desire and need. The wanting.
It was Clarissa who tugged his mouth down to meet hers. It was her lips that hungrily slanted over his, but it was Seb who hauled her against him like a starving man and feasted. Like the first fateful kiss, this one banished all reason and burned, only this time he recognised she was as active a participant as he was. As needy and as consumed with desire as he was. He laughed as he kissed her, overcome with the sheer joy of the impossible becoming glorious reality.
Gem wrestled with the wet linen of his shirt and tugged it out of his breeches, then tunnelled her hands beneath to explore his skin. Boldly, her splayed fingers traced the muscles on his chest and abdomen, her hips pushed against his hardness with wanton abandon as the downpour soaked them both. She wasn’t the only one who needed to feel skin. On a guttural moan Seb tugged at the hem of her shirt, and when it caught on something, she helped him to pull it up and groaned as he filled his hands with her naked breasts. The nipples hard and wet with rain, so sensitive she shuddered at the merest graze from the pads of his thumbs. Gem, too, was eager to explore. Her palms smoothed down his abdomen, feathering the hard length of him over the top of his breeches shyly.
It was ecstasy.
It was agony.
It was utter perfection.
A dazzling burst of lightning brought him back to earth with a bang. They might think they were alone, but they weren’t. His men were out here on the Downs, hidden from view and watching. The hazy cloak of the storm wouldn’t camouflage everything.
On a ragged breath, he pulled her clothing back down and recognised the exact moment she realised they were not alone, too, because she took a hasty step back and pulled her coat around her, giggling. ‘We should get back.’
‘Yes.’ But neither of them moved, instead they stood staring at each other in wonder, trying to make sense of what had spontaneously happened between them. To his delight, Gem was smiling. What started as a tentative curve of her mouth bloomed swiftly into a broad grin that mirrored his.
Because it felt right, Seb took her hand in his. Linked their wet fingers before kissing hers. ‘We need to talk, I think.’
