Southern Seduction (25 page)

"Good news," the gentleman to her left said.
"It’s been a long while since I've seen a good race. I assume you will still support your passengers?"

"Of course," Leathers said with a smile.

"What does that mean?" Brooke asked.

"Most boats take few passengers when they race, but our good captain still makes his regular stops, albeit a little quicker.
And he still wins the race," Travis explained.

“Don’t believe in tossing passengers off just to lighten the boat,” Leathers told him, then tipped his hat and bade then bid them good day.

Playing a card game was a good diversion for Brooke, especially since she found herself winning many of the hands. She also liked the fact that occasionally Travis would have a good hand, but hers would be just a little better. Nothing like good competition. As her winning grew, his scowl became fiercer.

An hour and a half later, after Travis had finally won a respectable hand, he announced to the table, "Gentlemen, I believe that we've had enough for today.
Are you ready to go, my dear?"

Brooke smiled, knowing that Travis’s reasons for quitting had more to do with her winning than his boredom.
"Of course,” she said, gathering her money. “Thank you, gentlemen, for allowing me to play with you," she said graciously, then took her husband’s arm.

Once outside on the promenade, they strolled down the deck.
It was now late in the day, and the Natchez was just docking at Baton Rouge where a horde of people stood on the dock.

Brooke and Travis kept their place by the rail so they could watch as the roustabouts unloaded cargo and new passengers were taken aboard.

"How did you learn to play poker so well?" Travis finally asked. Evidently he’d been thinking about the game since they’d left the salon.

"I told you, I played in England.
When I was in boarding school, we would sneak into a back room and play cards.” She peered around at him. “You're not upset because I took a few hands from you, are you?"

"Of course not," Travis protested.
"But I usually win."

Brooke looked at her husband dressed in a dark blue coat and buff-skinned breeches then searched his ruggedly handsome face trying to see how he really felt.
"You’re sulking," she told him.

"I am not."

Yes, he was, and Brooke knew it. Whenever Travis was around, the air seemed to vibrate with his presence. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "I'm sorry I bested you at cards."

Travis realized he sounded childish.
"Is that your best apology?"

She gave him a surprised look.

"Come now, I'm sure you can do better than that," he teased.

Sh
e couldn’t miss the gleam in his eyes as she stepped into his arms. She slowly slid her hands up the front of his shirt, her fingers sliding into the nape of his hair.

"So you'd like a better apology," she whispered, waiting for his nod of agreement.
"How's this?" she asked, kissing him first on the chin and then moving to his mouth, where she placed another soft kiss.

Travis groaned and tightened his hold on her, parting her lips so he could taste her mouth.
He really didn't give a damn that they were in public. Where this woman was concerned, passion exploded every time he touched her. He moved his mouth urgently over hers.

"Must be love," a woman passenger said as she passed them.

Somewhere a bell rang thrice, reminding Travis what he wanted to do to his wife couldn't be done out here on the deck, so he forced himself to pull away.

"You’re not going to believe this," Brooke said in a husky voice as she laid her head on his shoulder.
"But your kisses are so wonderful that I thought I heard bells."

Travis chuckled.
"What you heard, my love, was Captain Leathers warning the passengers to find their accommodations and for the visitors to go ashore. It's time to shove off. Turn around and watch, and then we'll go to our room," he whispered in her ear.

Brooke turned in his arms, which he kept snuggly around her.
She felt bubbly inside when he held her, and the feeling was addictive. From the moment they had married, Travis had changed so much that Brooke wondered if he might truly feel something for her.

The levee was a crush of waving hats, handkerchiefs, hands and arms waved at the two boats cheering them on.
Someone on shore fired a volley of gunfire, and the
Natchez
and the
Annie
Johnston
sounded their own whistles.

The smokestacks gushed fat, thunder-dark clouds of smoke.
A roustabout on the wharf chopped the mooring line. With a deafening rattle of machinery, the
Natchez
backed away from the wharf. Her paddle wheels swirled and bit into the brown water but the
Annie Johnston
had beaten them away.

"We're behind," Brooke protested.

"Leathers will catch them, my dear."

It was completely dark now, but once they pulled out into the river, there were dozens of bonfires on the levees where crowds had gathered in various places to watch the two boats race.
“Catch her,” they screamed and waved their arms.

"I can't believe people are out in the dark to watch these boats," Brooke commented.

"Racing is a big thing along the Mississippi, and some people wager a great deal of money on the race," Travis explained. "Hopefully, we will have caught the
Annie Johnston
by morning. Are you hungry?"

Brooke turned in his arms and answered him honestly, "I'm hungry for you."
The smoldering flame she saw in his eyes warmed her.

Travis buried his lips in the hollow of her throat, then swept her up in his arms.
"Well, we don't want you hungry," he murmured hotly, capturing her mouth in a quick kiss.

After they had made passionate love, they lay locked together in each other’s arms for a few minutes until their breathing returned to normal.
After a while, Travis moved to the side, but he still held Brooke next to him, her head cradled upon his shoulder.

“How are you enjoying the trip so far?” he asked.

“It has been lovely. Thank you for taking the time to make this trip. I thought we would be married and then go right back to the plantation and work,” Brooke said.

Travis’s laugh was low, throaty.
“That was my original plan. Not sure when I changed my mind.”

Brooke smiled to herself.
Just maybe Travis wasn’t as unaffected by the marriage as he’d planned. “I still find it hard to believe that we are married.” She drew in a leisurely breath. “If someone had told me a month ago that I’d be married to a man I’d yet to meet . . . . Well, I would have wondered how much they’d had to drink.”

“I can see your point.”
Travis laughed too. “It means I’m in bed with the wrong person.” Brooke tilted her head up to see his face and then he continued, “You were second choice.”

“Thank you very much,” Brooke said with a frown.
She jabbed his chest with her finger. “Are you sorry?”

Travis glanced down at her upturned face and gave her a warm smile, a sensual expression playing across his features.

“No, I’m not sorry,” he told her. “As a matter of fact, I’m enjoying myself.” He traced the curve of her jaw with his finger. “I can’t remember the last time I’ve said that.”

She reached up and kissed him, then settled back into her cozy spot.
She knew Travis was kinder than he wanted anyone to know, and she liked that. She also liked his company. When he wasn’t around her, she felt an extraordinary void. She wanted to have more than sex with him. She wanted to know all about him. “Have you always lived in New Orleans?”

“Pretty much.”

He didn’t seem bothered by her question so she pressed on. “Tell me something about your childhood.”

His left brow rose a fraction.
“Now, why would you want to hear something so boring?”

“Because you’re my husband, and I
should
know something about you.”

He eyed her with a calculated expression, but then he surprised her and began to talk.
“My childhood wasn’t pleasant -– no more than yours.” He ran his finger up and down her arm as he spoke. “My mother disgraced her family. As you’ve seen, my family isn’t forgiving. We were always kept on the outside. Since Mother couldn’t support us, my grandfather was obligated to let us live with him, but he did it begrudgingly. Mother was an outcast of Creole society. As she always told me, ‘who wants a woman with a bastard son?’”

Brooke gasped.
“That was an awful thing to tell a child.”

“But it was the truth,” Travis pointed out.
“We lived on an allowance from my grandfather, and I wore hand-me-down clothes from my cousins. Then out of the blue, the duke came back to see me.”

“Is that the first time you saw Jackson?” Brooke asked, but added, “At least, you got the chance to meet your father.
I had never got the chance to meet mine.”

“Yes, it was.
Jackson settled money on my mother so she would allow me to return to England with him. I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want any part of the man, but they both insisted it was best for me. So at thirteen I went to study in England.

“The older I got, the more rebellious I became.”
Travis smiled slightly as he remembered. “By the time I was seventeen, I’d become a problem. I was hitting the cups, gambling away my allowance. Jackson finally washed his hands of me and sent me home. That’s when he gave me Moss Grove, the fallen down plantation, to run. He told me he wasn’t sure I could do the job, but he’d give me a chance to see if I would become a man of my own.”

“And you made a success of the plantation,” she said with a smile.
“You showed him.”

“Jackson never got to see what I’d accomplished,” Travis said, and Brooke could clearly hear the regret in his voice.
“But I did provide Mother with a home. I figured I owed her that much, since I had been the source of her problem over the years. I wanted to get away from my grandfather.”

“Why?” Brooke leaned up and looked at Travis.
“You didn’t ask to be born. Your mother should have taken the blame. She knew Jackson was already married when she met him.”

Travis nodded.
“Still, I felt I always had to prove myself. Because of me, she never had the nice things she could have. I had to prove both to my grandfather and father that I could be successful on my own.”

Brooke placed her hands on the sides of his face.
“You don’t have to prove anything to me, Travis Montgomery. Believe it or not, I like you just the way you are.”

Travis felt his chest tighten.
He’d never felt quite like this before. “Come here, my love,” he whispered as he pulled Brooke up to him.

He brushed his lips against her temple, then he kissed her cheeks before finding her soft mouth, her lips parting easily beneath his.
When his tongue touched hers, a jolt slammed through him. He’d never desired a woman as much as he did this woman, his wife, But then, Travis reminded himself that it was good to lust after your own wife.
His wife
. He still couldn’t believe he’d actually married her. He deepened his kiss, thrusting his tongue into her mouth over and over again.

She moaned with pleasure.
And Travis loved the needy sounds she made while he stroked her hair, and he felt strangely betrayed by his own body. The exquisite feeling of her in his arms, the taste of her lips clinging to his was delicious unbearable.

Slowly he slid his hand, trailing his fingers down her throat to her breast where he fondled one globe, its pink nipple tightening at his touch.

This was so different from the other times, Brooke realized. Travis was being very gentle and considerate, and his tenderness made her even hotter. His mouth slid down her neck then lower to her chest until his lips teased her nipples erect with tantalizing possessiveness. The pleasure was pure and explosive, causing her to gasp in sweet agony.

Travis couldn’t believe the passion this woman had for him, nor how ravenous he was for her.
They had already made love, yet he wanted her again. He couldn’t seem to get enough. Brooke just might be the death of him . . . but what a way to go.

His hand moved down to the soft triangle between her legs where he found the special place that made her moan with pleasure.
His fingers probed between her legs, sliding in and out until she was slick, wet and ready.

“I want you now, Travis,” she whispered running her hands over his back.

His body flamed at her softly spoken words. He eased into her with deliberate slowness, and she whimpered and arched her hips, driving him crazy. No matter what it cost him, he wanted to hold back and give her pleasure. He began to move rhythmically within her, loving the way she felt beneath him, the way she smiled.