on the high seas. Her purple eyes had become as huge as saucers….
The memory almost made Alexi smile. Within days, they had become friends. However, his smile failed him now. Last night, Elysse had been even more stunning than he recalled. Was it possible that he’d forgotten just how beautiful she was? He’d certainly forgotten how petite she was. When he’d rushed to her side as she’d tripped on the stairs, taking a firm hold of her, he’d been stunned at how tiny and feminine she had felt in his arms.
Of course, he wasn’t the only man to have noticed her striking looks. Ogilvy was smitten—and if he didn’t miss his guess, she had ensnared his pilot, too.
His heart turned over hard. She was damned beautiful—and she knew it. She’d known it since she was a little girl. She’d been a reckless flirt then and she was a reckless flirt now. He’d watched her casual flirtations for years. They’d always amused him. He hadn’t ever really understood how her suitors allowed themselves to be so easily played, as if led around by her on a very short leash.
Had she really thought to flirt with him? Had she thought to put him on her leash? If she batted those lashes at him another time he might call her bluff and kiss her senselessly. She’d be shocked, wouldn’t she?
Except he knew he was deluding himself. He would never treat her that way. He had been acutely aware of her from the moment they had met as children, and that had never changed. There had always been that special bond between them. Others might think her filled with airs, but he knew the truth—that a heart of gold beat within her chest. He also knew how kind she was—no one was as loyal—and she was exceptionally loyal to him. She couldn’t help the fact that her parents spoiled her terribly, or that she had been blessed with so much privilege and such exceptional looks. None of that really mattered. What mattered was how well she understood him; sometimes, he felt that she knew his thoughts, when he wasn’t even speaking. And how often had he known her thoughts—and secrets—without her having to verbalize them?
But that strong bond had been complicated for him from the start. There had always been a vague stirring of attraction for him, from that first moment when they had met as children. As a boy, he’d always assumed that one day, far in the future, when he was a grown man, she was the woman he would take as his wife. There had never been any ifs, ands or buts about it.
But at fifteen, he’d discovered women. Actually, he’d discovered sex. And any such beliefs or assumptions about Elysse had been buried deep.
Well, he had returned home now. He wasn’t a naive eight-year-old boy or a randy sixteen-year-old. He was twenty-one and a very successful merchant sea captain. He was also a bachelor—and he liked it that way. He was not interested in marriage, not any time soon. But that vague stirring of attraction wasn’t vague any longer. It was a heated pounding in his loins. The desire was unmistakable, and no longer easy to ignore. It was powerful and disturbing.
The sooner he left Ireland, the better, he thought firmly. Then he could decide how to manage his feelings for her by the next time he came home.
“Your countryside is beautiful, Mrs. de Warenne.”
Alexi came out of his brooding instantly.
“I am so glad you think so,” Amanda, his stepmother, replied, smiling at William Montgomery from across the dining-room table.
“I thought I would only want to spend a day or two here in the countryside, but I was wrong,” Montgomery said with his thick Southern accent, sipping from a cup of China tea. “I should enjoy riding across the Irish moors many times.”
They were seated at the table with Amanda and Cliff. His sisters remained upstairs. His father was engrossed in the London Times and Alexi had been trying to read the Dublin newspapers, which were a treat, as they were impossible to come by outside of Britain. He especially liked the social columns—he missed the gossip about what everyone was up to—but this morning, he hadn’t been able to concentrate on a single word. Now, he stared at his pilot. Montgomery had saved his life in Lower Canada. He’d risked his own life to do so. They were friends, but he happened to know that the pilot was ruthless when it came to his pursuit of beautiful women.
Montgomery would never try to seduce Elysse, surely. He was, after all, Alexi’s pilot and a guest in his home. Their flirtation last night had been a casual, insignificant one. Yet why would he wish to linger in the countryside? “You’ll be bored by this evening,” Alexi said flatly, suddenly hoping he was right. “I am actually thinking of cutting my stay short.”
Cliff laid down his newspaper, his blue gaze searching. “Why would you do that?”
“I want to get to London and start working on the plans for my new ship,” he said. In London, he and Montgomery could carouse to their heart’s desire.
Amanda smiled at the pilot. “I am so glad you are enjoying Ireland. I remember the first time I came here. I was so swept away by every single thing—the old homes, the green hills, the mist, the people! This is your first time here, is it not?”
“Yes, it is, and I can’t thank you enough for your hospitality. Your home is so lovely, Mrs. de Warenne.” Now, he looked at Alexi, smiling ever so slightly. “I enjoyed meeting the O’Neill family very much last night.”
Alexi tossed the Dublin Times aside, sitting up straighter. He hadn’t lied when he’d told Elysse that the American was a terrible ladies’ man. They had spent ten days in Batavia, drinking, gaming and whoring, while waiting for a shift in the winds before running up the China Sea to Canton. Montgomery was a good-looking man with too much Southern charm and women flocked to him like ducks to water. His gallantry got him into the finer homes in the ports they put into, and he had seduced his share of married women—but he hadn’t ever ruined an innocent daughter, not that Alexi knew of. Up until then, Alexi had considered him a true kindred spirit. Surely he did not wish to linger in Ireland in order to pursue Elysse. Or had she so thoroughly worked her wiles on him, already? When a man wanted a woman, it was often so hard to think clearly!
Cliff surprised them all by saying, “Elysse O’Neill is a very lovely woman.”
“I don’t believe I have ever met a woman as beautiful,” Montgomery said shortly. “Or as charming.”
He was stunned. Was Montgomery being polite—or was he smitten? He sounded very intense. “Be careful, my friend, or she will soon lead you about on her little leash as she does all of her proper suitors.”
“Alexi!” Amanda gasped in disapproval. “That was terribly rude!”
Alexi fingered the saucer of his teacup. “Well, I am just worried about my friend. He hardly needs to have his heart broken. Elysse doesn’t mean to hurt anyone,” he added, knowing that was the truth. “But she is a skilled coquette. I have seen her gather admirers ever since she was twelve or thirteen. She is adept at it. And frankly, she is even more of an impossible flirt today than she was when I left.”
Cliff shook his head. “This conversation is highly impolitic, Alexi.”
“There is no harm in flirting,” Amanda said to him, as reproof.
Montgomery added, “At home, a lady who doesn’t flirt would be considered odd. Flirting is rather an art in Maryland.”
Alexi folded his arms across his chest and refrained from scowling. He wasn’t sure what had possessed him to speak so disparagingly of Elysse, whom he cared for, in front of his friend, who was still an outsider to the family. “I just
