The Raider Read online

  He adjusted the mask on his face, making sure it was tight. There were times when he wanted to grab Jessica, grab her and show her he was a man.

  “Ooohhh.”

  He heard a cry that was half swoon, half plea and instantly realized he’d been so involved in thinking about what he’d to do to Mistress Jessica that he hadn’t been keeping watch.

  He reined his horse in, stood still and listened as someone came thrashing toward him. He drew his sword and waited.

  Mistress Abigail Wentworth, her pretty face flushed from the exertion, came bursting through the trees. She took one look at the Raider atop the black stallion, put her hand to her breast and began to sink to the ground.

  Alex was off his horse in seconds and caught her before she hit the floor of the forest.

  “Will you use that on me?” she gasped, lying in his arms and rolling her eyes toward his sword. “Will you slice the clothing from my body before you have your way with me?”

  “Why no, I…” He wasn’t sure what to answer her but the sight of her heaving bosom so exposed to his view—she’d removed her scarf so a great deal of young, pink flesh was showing—made him think about her offer. “Are you all right?”

  She threw her arms about his neck, pressing her bosom to his chest. “I am your slave, your captive. Do with me what you will.”

  Alex raised his eyebrows, but never a man to question extreme good luck, the next minute he was kissing her. She returned his kiss with such passion that before he knew what he was doing, he was halfway to the ground with her.

  She was eager, warm, willing—and the daughter of one of his father’s oldest friends.

  “Abby,” he said, trying to disentangle himself from her arms. Her hair had come loose and it was soft against his cheek. “Abby.” Her name came out like a groan.

  “I love to hear you say my name. My own Raider. My own true love.” She moved her hips against his, trying to kiss him again, but he pulled away.

  “Go home to your mother,” he said and found his voice a little shaky. Why did he have to be the Raider in his own hometown? Anywhere else and he’d take this eager young filly without a thought. “Go home, Abby. Please go home.”

  She flung herself against a tree, her face flushed, her breasts about to come out of the tight dress. “How noble you are,” she whispered.

  “Or how stupid,” Alex mumbled, looking at her. If he didn’t get out of here soon, he’d lose his resolve. With half of his mind calling him a fool, he jumped into the saddle of his horse. “Goodbye, Mistress Abigail,” he whispered as he urged his horse forward.

  “Damn all women!” he cursed. Jessica thought he wasn’t a man at all and Abigail thought he was more man than a herd of stallions. He shifted in the saddle, feeling like only half the man Abby thought him to be. Now all he had to do was make it to Ghost Island—and he prayed he would encounter no more women.

  * * *

  Jessica looked at the big basket full of blackberries and grimaced. She owned her own ship, had sailed, by herself, as far south as New Sussex, yet today she’d been relegated to picking blackberries like a naughty child.

  And it was all the Raider’s fault!

  When it had been announced that George Greene was to be whipped, everyone had said the Raider was going to save him. They had said the Raider had to save the boy, as if it were a matter of honor.

  As if they knew anything about the Raider’s sense of honor or anything else for that matter, she thought. Everyone in town seemed to have endowed this Raider with magical skills, talents that no human had ever possessed. They expected this masked man to right all wrongs, to single-handedly fight the British laws.

  But not everyone had believed the Raider to be perfectly good. Jess had delivered twenty pounds of haddock to the Montgomery house and had been told Sayer wanted to see her. She hadn’t seen him since the evening the Raider had thrown her in the washwater and she’d cried in his arms. She had been smiling when she entered Sayer’s room but not when she left.

  Sayer had demanded that she stay away from town the next day. It had been on the tip of her tongue to ask him what gave him the right to make such a demand, but she hadn’t said what she thought. The Montgomery family had been good to hers over the years and, besides, she couldn’t very well be disrespectful to an old and crippled man who was only concerned for her well-being. Reluctantly, she had agreed to stay in the forest for the entire day. Sayer hadn’t even wanted her on the wharf or near her own ship.

  So now, here she was, doing children’s work, all because of that man who called himself the Raider.

  Near the blackberry patch, under some trees, was a bed of moss that looked very inviting. It might do Eleanor some good to have her sister come back very late and give her a little something to worry about. Smiling somewhat smugly, she stretched out on the moss and was asleep in minutes. Unfortunately, she began to dream about the masked man who was upsetting her life so badly. She was reliving the time he had humiliated her and the time he had kissed her when she’d been helping him to escape.

  “Jessica! Jessica, are you all right?”

  Jess awoke with difficulty, clutching at the strong arms that held her. “I was dreaming,” she said. “He—” She stopped because the person holding her was the man who was causing all her problems: the Raider.

  “You!” she gasped. “You!” Without another thought, she drew back her fist and hit him on the jaw.

  “Why you little brat!” he seethed at her, grabbing her shoulders and pushing her to the ground. The worn-out fabric of her dress front split open, exposing a thin line of soft, white fabric from neck to waist. The pink of her skin showed beneath the fabric.

  Jessica felt the dress split, then saw the look in the eyes behind the black mask. “If you touch me, I’ll—”

  “Feel rewarded,” he said angrily, keeping her pinned to the ground while his lips came down on hers.

  Jessica felt his lips for the second time and began to fight. She’d die before she let this man force himself on her. She kicked out at him, catching him once on the shins. She felt him suck his stomach in at the pain, but he kept his lips glued to hers.

  He threw his leg over hers to keep it still. Jess tried to wiggle out from under him. She flung her head sharply to one side, away from his torturous kiss.

  The Raider pinned both her hands above her head with one of his, then took her chin in his other hand and forced her mouth back under his. To keep her hips still, he put his full body weight on her.

  For a moment, Jessica was still. There were emotions shooting through her that she’d never felt before. Was this what the newly married women giggled about? Was this the emotion that made engaged girls starry-eyed?

  The Raider pulled away from her lips, but kept his face close to hers. It was evening and the starlight made his face darker, his eyes more brilliant than ever.

  “Jessica,” he said, and there was some wonder in his voice.

  She blinked at him a couple of times, then in one violent motion pushed him off her and stood.

  The Raider, that finely chiseled mouth of his smiling, looked up at her. “Well, Jessica, for all your men’s airs, you are a woman after all.”

  Jess grabbed a handful of blackberries from her basket and prepared to throw them at him.

  Like a big cat, he leapt to his feet and grabbed her hand. He closed his hand over her little one and squeezed until the berries oozed out between her fingers. Looking into her eyes, he began to lick the juice from between her fingers. For some reason, the sight of his tongue made Jessica’s heart beat a little faster.

  He easily pulled her hand behind her back and moved so his body was touching hers. “I believe I missed a few berries,” he whispered, then bent and pressed his face to her chest and began kissing the top of her heaving breast.

  He looked back at her.

  Jessica was staring at him in wide-eyed astonishment, not understanding at all what she was feeling. She couldn’t move but just stood