to be withdrawn.’
Deb stared at him, her attention arrested. ‘You mean that whilst you were ill he…he destroyed your livelihood? How disgraceful!’ She had seldom felt so indignant in her life.
She saw Richard smile at her vehemence. ‘No doubt he thought that he had the right. He had never wanted me to be a sailor. He thought it too dangerous, though he had sons to spare. He argued that I had had my chance when he had offered me a good living and the opportunity to pursue a career in the church.’
Deb shook her head stubbornly. ‘That does not excuse him! To make such an arrangement whilst you were sick and unable to reason with him-’ She broke off. ‘I do not suppose that that would have made any difference.’
‘Very likely not. He was not open to reason. And he had powerful friends.’ Richard sat up. ‘He did not require my permission to change my life.’
‘No, but…’ Deb frowned deeply. ‘That is not the point. He did not respect what you wished to do.’
‘Just as your father did not respect the fact that you had no wish to marry your cousin,’ Richard pointed out. ‘We were both subject to parents who thought that they knew what was best for us.’
‘You sound very calm,’ Deb said, still feeling indignant, ‘but it cannot have been easy nevertheless.’
Richard shifted slightly. ‘It was not. I hated him for what he had done. So I went back to the other life I knew irritated him-that of drinking and gambling and flirting and wasting my time…’
‘How did you get your commission back?’ Deb asked.
Richard grinned. ‘When Justin inherited the title he called me in and told me that I could go to hell if I pleased, but not with his blessing. He threatened to cut me off if I did not go back to doing something useful!’
Deb gasped. ‘What happened?’
‘We had an almighty argument. I was so angry that I would have called him out if I could have done,’ Richard said ruefully, ‘but I soon saw the hard truth in what he said. He gave me back my sense of purpose.’
Deb stared up at the fluffy white cloud that had, for a brief moment, obscured the sun.
‘A sense of purpose…’ she murmured. ‘I have never felt the need for one of those.’
‘No?’ Richard’s voice was soft.
‘No.’ Deb stretched in the warmth as the sun came out again. ‘I live from day to day. It is enough for me to enjoy the peace of Midwinter and a quiet existence.’
‘You do not find it too quiet?’
Deb smiled a little. Nowhere could be too quiet to keep her secret. ‘It used to be a very slow place, but then you came…’
‘And are you sorry?’ Richard’s breath drifted across the soft skin of her throat, making her shiver a little.
‘No…’ Deb turned her head and looked at him. There was an expression in his eyes that made her a little breathless. ‘We grow melancholy with all this confession,’ she said, moving a little away from him and attempting to shake the sand out of her skirts. When she tried to dust it off, it clung stickily to the folds of her riding habit. ‘So that is why ladies are not encouraged to lie in the sand,’ she said with a sigh. ‘I knew that there would be a practical reason.’
Richard laughed. ‘I think it is more to do with the fact that lying down is in itself a rather dangerous occupation,’ he said, ‘particularly when there is a gentleman present as well.’
Deb eyed him cautiously. ‘That also makes a deal of sense, especially if the gentleman in question is a rake.’
Richard was laughing at her. ‘Do you not trust me, then?’
‘Can I?’
‘Of course. I promised that I would never do anything that you did not wish me to.’
‘So you did.’ Deb’s lips curved in a little smile. ‘I do not believe that that sets much of a limit on your actions.’
Richard laughed. ‘You are very honest, Deb.’
‘I cannot see any point in being otherwise,’ Deb admitted, ‘when I was the one who shamelessly propositioned you.’
‘You did not seem so sure last night.’
Deb gave a sigh. ‘Oh, I was sure. I merely had difficulty in admitting it in public.’
The heat of Richard’s gaze scorched her. ‘And now that we are in private?’
Deb’s pulse raced. ‘I am frightened.’
‘So you should be,’ Richard said.
He reached for her; before she had time to react, he had tumbled her into his arms. His lean features had hardened with purpose. This time he did not merely hold her close, but brushed his lips tantalisingly over hers. Deb arched against him and instantly his mouth firmed over hers, exerting pressure against her lips, which parted involuntarily to admit the thrust of his tongue.
Deb was lost. She felt hot and dizzy and adrift. Her breath caught and she instinctively tried to retreat as Richard’s masculinity threatened to overwhelm her. He showed no gentleness now and would not allow her to withdraw. His grip tightened, holding her fast as his mouth ravished hers with slow seduction.
‘I want you to know exactly what it is you have asked for…’ he murmured, when his lips left hers.
Deb made an incoherent little sound as his fingers skimmed her cheek and slid down her neck, gossamer light. Richard bent his head to tease the pulse that beat in the hollow of her throat and Deb’s entire body jerked with response. She felt heavy and languid, every inch of her skin vividly alive to his touch. His hand moved to the high neck of her riding habit, slipping the mother-of-pearl buttons from their loops one by one. His palm brushed the curve of her breast through the material of her gown, and then Deb felt his fingertips within the bodice, stroking lightly over the cotton of her chemise.
She had already been trembling at the unexpected contact but now intense shivers racked her whole body. Richard cupped her breast, taking the soft weight into his palm before continuing the caresses that were driving her to the edge of madness. She had never experienced anything like it. When Neil had touched her, clumsy and selfish in his pursuit of pleasure, she had frozen and felt nothing but revulsion. Under Richard’s gently stroking hands she felt as though she was melting with excitement and desire. And when he brought his lips back to hers, kissing her again with an imperious demand that drew a heated response from her, she forgot everything except the need to satisfy the glorious, painful claims of her own body.
Richard eased away. With his lips a bare inch away from hers he said, ‘As I said once before, anticipation provokes the greatest excitement of all…’
Deb groaned with frustration. She opened her eyes and slowly the blue sky and the puffy white clouds and the shifting leaves came back into focus.
‘Damnation, Richard,’ she said, her temper catching alight, ‘I would like to make you suffer the way that you do me.’
Richard’s smile was wry. ‘I think you will do exactly that, Deborah,’ he said. ‘In fact, you already do. Wanting you and yet not taking you plagues me like nothing I have ever experienced before.’
There was a heated silence.
Deb scrambled to her feet. ‘I can hear the servants coming back to tidy our picnic away,’ she said, her fingers slipping on her buttons in her haste to make her bodice respectable again. ‘I think that I shall walk down to the sea before…’
‘Before?’ Richard asked mockingly.
Deb did not reply. She could not.
The sun was starting to edge lower in the sky although the sand was still hot and threw back a warmth that scorched Deb’s face. She felt shaken and restless and unsatisfied, but beneath that was a still more disturbing and complex emotion. The day, with its confidences and its intimacy, had made her long for much more. She did not want this time together to end.
She was aware of Richard getting to his feet and following her and by the time she reached the water’s edge he was by her side. He took her hand and interlaced his fingers with hers and she could not prevent the little sigh that went through her. Richard felt it and stopped walking. He pulled her around to face him.
‘Deborah? What is the matter?’
Deb looked into his eyes. The sunlight off the sea was blinding and she could not read his expression.
‘I was thinking about you,’ she said honestly. ‘Worrying about you, truth to tell. You said that you joined the Navy because you were bored and it made me think that you must have taken up this spy catching for the same
