Chapter Nineteen
Talon blinked and then blinked again. Disbelieving, he brought his hand to his eyes and gave them a vigorous rub. When he looked again, it was still there, a dark smudge on the horizon that could only be land.
“Kate.” His voice was harsh and raspy from lack of sleep. By his calculations, it had been almost three days since they’d abandoned the ship, and he hadn’t slept at all.
He reached out and touched Kate’s shoulder, shaking her awake.
For a long moment, she resisted his efforts, but then she made a small sound of alarm and scrambled to her knees, making the boat rock. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
He couldn’t control a wide grin. Somehow, with nothing more than a compass and sheer will, he’d brought them to dry land. Elation surged through him, chasing away the self-doubt he’d wallowed in for the last few days. “We made it, sweetheart. We’re going to be all right.”
Kate stared up at him, confusion darkening her sleepy green eyes. “We made it?”
He slipped his arm around her shoulder and tipped her chin toward the west with his fingertip. The narrow strip of land was becoming more visible by the moment. “Land. Right there.”
For a moment, she relaxed against him, her warmth and softness a balm to his bruised soul. Then she jerked away. “I told you never to touch me.”
Talon’s momentary elation disappeared. He’d been a fool to think she’d forgiven him just because he’d managed to get her safely to shore. Hell, she still believed they would have been safer on the ship.
He reached for the oars. “You win,” he told her, fighting the renewed pain of her rejection. “If you want me to keep my distance, I will. But don’t turn to me when your hate won’t keep you warm at night.”
She stiffened her shoulders, but not before he saw the tremor that rocked her slim body. “How can you act as though I’m the one at fault? I gave you everything I had to give. My heart, my trust, my body. I loved you.” Her voice broke, and she lifted her gaze to meet his. “How did you expect me to react when I discovered you’d purposely set out to seduce me? That every look, every touch, every word between us was a lie?”
Talon’s hands itched with the need to touch her, so he rowed with every ounce of strength that remained in his battered body. “I never lied to you. I may have kept some truths from you, but I didn’t lie.”
She gave a bitter laugh. “How can you look me in the eyes and say such things? Do you think I’m a fool?”
Frustration coursed through him. “You haven’t given me a chance to explain.”
“You think I should let you explain?” Her voice rang out over the water, incredulous. “What could you possibly say to excuse what your family has done to me?”
Talon felt another little piece of his soul shrivel up and die. She was the one who had lied. If she really loved him, she would hear him out. She would trust him a little.
“I was facing life in prison,” he ground out between clenched teeth. “The earl offered me a way out. Seducing a woman I didn’t even know seemed a small price to pay.”
“And now?” Tears streaked unheeded down her sunburned cheeks. “Does the price of your freedom seem so cheap now?”
He shook his head. “I had to make a decision the other night. There was more at stake than your innocence. There was more at stake than my pride and sense of honor.”
“You have no honor. I know exactly what was at stake. An estate in Carolina. A way for a boy from the streets to better himself.”
Talon sat back, stunned. He’d nearly forgotten about Holyoke. He’d never meant to accept it, had given up his dreams the moment his father had offered it as a tawdry bribe.
But Daniel had left no stone unturned in his missive to Philip Carrington. He could only imagine how damning his brother had made his behavior sound.
“I would never have hurt you this way to gain an estate. If you can think that, you never loved me. You never even knew me.”
Kate flinched and then turned her face back toward shore. The stiffness in her shoulders told him she wouldn’t listen to any more excuses. She wouldn’t believe him if he told her about his men. She’d think they were an invention to gain back her trust.
Well, he was through begging. He’d lived without love his entire life. He’d been a fool to reach for it now.
He forced his exhausted muscles to pull toward the beach. The sooner they reached land, the sooner he could put Kate back on a ship to England.
* * * * *
Kate scrambled out of the skiff before Talon had finished rowing it in to the barren, deserted shore. Her abrupt disembarkment left the small boat rocking wildly, but she didn’t care.
She had to get out. For days, she’d thought they would float forever.
