The Raider (Montgomery/Taggert 9) - Page 76

As she clung to him, he tried to reason out what he was doing. He couldn’t tell her he was the Raider. Look at how she was snooping into what Pitman considered his private territory. She’d never be content to let Alex continue raiding when he needed to and keep her pretty little nose out of it. Jessica would involve herself in every aspect of whatever the Raider was doing—and she’d get herself in trouble—or worse.

Jess pulled her knee over Alex’s maleness and he reacted instantly. So much for dirty stories and naked dances, he thought.

He didn’t sleep until just before dawn. He held her, looked at her in the darkness, caressed her hair, ran his hand down the length of her until he knew he’d have to stop while he still could. He started thinking of all the most awful things he’d ever seen in his years at sea. He tried anything he could to keep from thinking of the delicious bundle in his arms.

An hour before dawn, exhausted after two sleepless nights, he fell asleep.

At dawn, six of the seven Taggert children jumped onto his stomach. As usual, Samuel’s bottom half was juicily wet.

Jessica rolled out of the line of fire while Alex said a few words meant to discipline sailors.

“Gor…” Philip said, impressed.

Sam laughed and jumped on Alex’s belly.

“Jessica, get him off of me. He’s wet me through to my backbone. Can’t you control these brats?”

Jess had already picked up Sam but at Alex’s last words, she dropped him so that his diaper made a splat sound. But Alex didn’t notice because when Jess leaned over, he could see all the way down her nightgown.

“Ah, here they are,” Eleanor said, opening the door. “Out!” she commanded. “Let them have some privacy. Alex, did you sleep in that wig?”

“Privacy!” Alex grumbled. “No one in this house knows the meaning of the word.”

Eleanor closed the door and while Alex watched in open-mouthed astonishment, Jess stripped off her nightgown and pulled on underwear and her dress. “Alex, you look awful. Have you been sleeping well? Stay there, I’ll bring you some milquetoast. On second thought, you don’t smell so very good. I could bring you a bath. Wash your hair and back for you. And your feet. I don’t guess you can reach your feet over that belly too well.”

“Get out of here, Jessica,” Alex said through clenched teeth.

“Are you always in a bad mood in the morning?”

“Out,” was all he could manage to say.

Jess gathered the ledgers on the floor and left him alone.

By the end of the second day of their marriage, Jessica was ready to call it quits. She was trying her best to be a good wife to Alex, just as she’d promised, but everything she did displeased him. First of all she’d brought him a tray of food, all of it carefully chosen so he didn’t have to chew very much.

But when she’d tried to feed him, he’d pushed her halfway across the room. He said she was not to treat him as an invalid. Jess said she thought he was an invalid. It had been her experience that he couldn’t even walk a few feet that she didn’t have to put her arms around him and support him. She said she had gone into marriage with him with her eyes open and she had known she would have to be a nurse and was willing. He’d growled at her to bring him two pounds of beef or anything that he could chew.

He’d left the house after that and returned when Jess was scrubbing Samuel down in a tub set before the fire in Alex’s room. Sam had decided to play with the new piglets and the sow had chased the terrified boy through several feet of mud and manure until Nick had pulled the boy out by his collar. Nick had comforted a crying Eleanor while Jess dumped buckets of water over Sam before taking him inside and giving him a proper bath.

Alex stood in the doorway and gaped at her for a moment, then turned his back. “Jessica, you are indecent.”

She glanced down at her wet, clinging underwear. “I didn’t want to get my dress wet. Alex, you have to get over your shyness. We did get married, you know. Sam, stand still so I can dry you. Alex, do I remind you of when you were a man?”

He whirled to face her. “I’m a man now. God, Jess, you look—” Sam launched himself into Alex’s arms, his damp arms hugging Alex with all his might. Alex smiled and hugged the nude little boy back, nuzzling his damp neck. “For once, Sam, you smell good. You want me to read to you?”

Sam laughed in answer.

Jess took the boy. “I’ll put him down before he has an accident on your fine coat.”

“Jess, please cover up. There are men about the house.”

“Ah yes. Sorry. I’m not used to a house full of men.”

Minutes later she was back, bending over, cleaning out the tub.

“Jess,” Alex asked. “What would you do if you’d married your Raider?”

She paused in scrubbing. “Help him. I’d know where he was going to be when and I’d be there to cover his back. I’d ride with him.”

Tags: Jude Deveraux Montgomery/Taggert Historical
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