Rises the Night

lonely and see no end to it. I am widowed and can see no other future for myself. I could have died two nights ago, and yet I willingly go back for more. Sometimes…' Here her voice broke at last. 'Sometimes it becomes too much, and it turns into anger. And other times… other times, it is the only me I can be. The true Victoria.'

'There are very few of us who know what sacrifices you and the other Venators make. How your lives are not your own, though you might wish them to be. But without you and your kind, how different would the world be.'

Victoria was silent again. The anger she'd exposed roiled, then ebbed away, leading into an excruciating awareness of the scent of cloves mingled with salty sea, and a long-fingered hand clasping the railing next to hers. She became conscious of the night, and the fact that they stood at the corner of the ship's stern, shadowed by mast, sail, and the poop deck, for all intents and purposes, alone. She heard the soft flap of the sails and the distant shout from one of the sailors.

'How odd.' She didn't realize she'd spoken aloud until she felt Sebastian move next to her; not to look down at her, but to adjust the lapel of his jacket.

'What is that?'

'To stand outside in the night, alone with a man, and not to have to fear for my reputation. I could not help but think of all the times during the Season when I was coming out how careful one had to be not to be found alone with a gentleman, even when I was in no danger of having to protect my virtue. And now that I am a widow, it is no longer such a concern.'

'Indeed.' He sounded bemused. 'I'm wondering if I should be distressed at being considered no danger to your virtue.'

'If you were a danger to me, you would have stopped with the gentlemanly repartee regarding compensations. And I would have cut you off at the knees, just as I did some other gentlemen who thought that suggesting a walk outside on a terrace would give them the opportunity to be free with their hands. Among other things. However, I am sure you would not be so foolish, knowing that I am no ordinary chit.'

'I am not. And don't believe for one moment that I will be led, Victoria. You are much smarter than that, and so am I.'

'I am not interested in leading you anywhere.'

He laughed then. Not as though he'd heard something uproarious, but a low, rolling, knowing laugh that made Victoria more than a bit uncomfortable. 'I could play along, ma chère. In fact, I am tempted to do so. Very tempted.'

He moved quickly, smooth as a scarf of silk, and suddenly she was caught between the rail and Sebastian, one of his hands on either side of hers, wrapping around the rail. Long arms settled along her own, keeping her centered between them.

His breath was warm at the back of her neck, where her upswept hair left her skin bare and vulnerable. 'It would be very easy to allow you to provoke me into doing what you are too cowardly to do yourself.' The words prickled there, sending echoes all the way down her back.

'And what, in your warped mind, can you imagine I am too cowardly to do?' She was pleased that her voice remained steady and as easy as the sea breeze when she could feel his height behind her, his proximity, yet, disturbingly, no contact but for the bare touch of his hands alongside hers.

His mouth was at the top of her ear, just brushing the back of it when his lips moved. 'As brave as you might be in facing down vampires and demons, you are too gutless to admit that you fancy finishing what we started in the carriage. You would prefer to provoke me with your arch comments, hoping that I will lose my head and ravage you… whereupon you will be convinced that it wouldn't be so horrible to succumb to your desires.'

She drew in an angry breath, her shoulders shifting back and her breasts lifting, and he moved his hands closer together, tightening his arms around her. 'I—'

But his voice, though lower and more even than her outraged syllable, overrode whatever she would have said. 'And then you would have an excuse for putting aside your suspicions and mistrust of me, your reputation, and your fears. The truth is, Victoria, you want me as much as I want you. You just don't want to have to make the decision.'

He moved, and now she felt him behind her, the unmistakable validation of his words pressing into the small of her back. He pushed her hips against the rail, holding her there from behind, as he placed a gentle kiss on the sensitive skin just behind her earlobe. His mouth opened, warm and sighing with breath, and feathered delicately over that same area, light and sensual, sending great, tickling shivers along the back of her shoulders.

'The truth is, Victoria, you don't have to trust me, or to feel any emotional obligation to this alliance in order to assuage your desires. You need not fear that I will be another Rockley and demand what you cannot or will not give.'

She felt his chest rise and fall behind her as he drew in a deep breath and kissed along the tendon that jutted from the side of her neck; she'd tipped her head to the other side as if he were a vampire who'd caught her in his thrall.

Her knees wanted to buckle, but the railing was there to catch them and save her from that indignity. She'd had no idea—no idea—how much she'd missed this awakening, this enlivening of her body. Even his mention of Phillip did not allay the growing pleasure.

His hands had moved from the railing to her breasts, and they lifted in his palms when she drew in a deep, quavering breath and reached to touch his head behind her. One finger eased down beneath her bodice to find her nipple and brush over it, and then his arms dropped from her, hands moving back to the railing on either side of her.

Victoria tried to move, to turn to face him, but he kept her in position, looking out at the sea, with his hips and another insistent appendage. 'No, you don't, my dear,' he said in a most uneven voice, deep in her ear. 'I told you I would not be provoked, and I won't. And don't think I will allow you the excuse of my earlier demands for recompense. I have decided that you have quite fulfilled any debt you might have to me.'

She realized she was shaking, and damp everywhere, and quite suddenly alone.

Left alone, standing at the rail with the sea breeze brushing over her like the wisp of his mouth.

Damn him.

'I wonder who shall be the first to give way,' Kritanu murmured into Eustacia's ear. He stood behind her, arms wrapped around her waist, and rumbled a chuckle against her back.

They'd been enjoying the sea evening from a high deck near the stern of the ship when Victoria positioned herself at the railing below. When Sebastian joined her moments later, Kritanu and Eustacia could have moved on, but didn't.

Thus they had been privy not so much to the actual verbal exchange betwixt the two young people, but enough of their activity to discern what was occurring.

'I certainly hope Victoria has enough sense not to make an impulsive decision, or one ruled by desires instead of reason,' Eustacia replied. But she had seen the way her niece sighed and leaned into Sebastian, and how she'd drawn deep, shaky breaths after he'd left. When she thought no one would see.

'I'm certain she wouldn't do something so imprudent. Gardella women are certainly not known for their impulsiveness when it comes to matters of the heart.'

Eustacia could not contain a smile. 'What a shrewish strega I've become, vero? Age is getting to me and becoming too heavy a burden. I have forgotten what it is like to be young and tempted by a young, handsome man.'

'A young, handsome man nearly eight years your junior.' He was laughing behind her and pressed a kiss to her ear. 'Oh, how you fought your attraction to me. I was too young, much too young, and I was only a Comitator, a mere trainer, not a Venator, so I was beneath your notice.'

'I was furious when Wayren sent you to me! As if you, at seventeen, knew more about fighting vampires than I, a chosen Venator, who had been vis bullaed for nearly four years, since I was twenty. Of course, I had no idea how much I would learn from a Comitator.' She half turned to look at him, and he adjusted to her side, so they leaned on the railing, looking at each other. They were exactly the same height: his golden, compact body and her slender one that stooped just slightly with age.

'I know it. And I was stunned by your beauty and put off by your rudeness, your cheeky attitude, and your