Free Brazen Temptress by Elizabeth Boyle Page A

back at Almack's, dancing with Julien. His hand cradling her elbow, caressing her like a secret lover. The enticing sound of his voice edging past her sensibilities and calling to her long-unmet needs.
    And if her tortured thoughts couldn't get any worse, she saw herself stroking the breadth of his shoulders encased in his perfectly tailored dark jacket.
    Her wayward imagination carried her from Almack's, far away to the West Indies. She stood on that distant beach, pulling his coat away to reveal the muscles and strength of a man who sailed the seas.
    A body she'd touch and claim and kiss —
    Blast and curse, she thought, tossing the pillow aside and flopping back and forth until she found a somewhat comfortable spot.
    She wondered what the rest of the peevish little misses at Almack's would think if they saw Julien naked, as she had? Would they be as reckless as she had been and throw themselves at him?
    With that disturbing thought, she yanked the counterpane up higher under her chin and studied the water-stained ceiling overhead.
    She had too much to do tomorrow to spend the night memorizing the blemishes in the Johnstons' leaky ceiling. She needed to sleep.
    Tossing once more, she turned to her tried and true method of falling asleep — planning Julien's hanging.
    The images always gave her comfort and usually brought on a restful night's sleep before she could even get to the crack of the rope as it went taut over his jerking body.
    So pushing aside the images of soft Caribbean breezes, whispered words, and gentle caresses, she followed the cart hauling de Ryes to Tyburn. She joined in with the cries and insults slung by the bloodthirsty crowd, jeering with the best of them. She watched him, clothed in tatters, mount the stairs.
    Coming to her favorite part, she reveled as his features whitened and then grayed with an unholy fear as he beheld the rope before him, the instrument of his final reckoning.
    Even as his knees buckled and she watched with delight as the hangman's assistant prodded him none so gently forward, she felt the welcome oblivion of sleep spread over her, the restful respite that always came in knowing that justice would be done.
    But this time in her dreams, she found something entirely different.
    She found memories.

Chapter Nine
    West Indies
1805
     
     
    Maureen lay tucked in the bowsprit of the
Forgotten Lady.
With the ropes cradling her back, she stared up at the clear stars twinkling in the night sky. Anchored close to shore, she could hear the soft hiss of the gentle waves as they lapped against the white sand beach of the palm-studded cay. There was only the barest sliver of a moon, so the stars glittered like diamonds against the inky backdrop.
    She let her thoughts float upward toward the heavens and then let them tumble down like the mercurial path of a falling star.
    "Julien," she whispered to the night sky. "Julien, come to me."
    Since he'd kissed her in the passageway she found herself unable to sleep without succumbing to such wildly erotic fantasies; she wondered if she had been, bewitched by some strange island spell.
    Julien holding her. Julien kissing her. Kissing not just her mouth, but her neck, her shoulders, her breasts.
    Even in the cool air, her cheeks burned hot at the wild notions.
    As she'd done too many times to count in the last few days, she turned her gaze toward the
Destiny.
Like the
Forgotten Lady,
she sat moored without lights. There were too many ships about to risk lighting lamps on such a dark night. Ships possibly hunting for members of the Alliance.
    But even in the shadows Maureen could trace the sleek lines of Julien's ship, until she swore she could make out the window of his cabin.
    She wondered what type of room he kept. Full of pirate splendor, with plump couches, chests of treasures, and velvet pillows awaiting his latest mistress? Or, like the Americans he favored, functional and sparsely furnished?
    Now she wished she had been able to accept his