Page 89 of Rogue of My Heart

Christian jolted as Marie’s hands spread across his shoulders and she leaned closer to him. He could smell the faint scent of flowers and soap wafting from her in a combination he’d never known before. The heat of her body close to his was as delightful as the sun. He was glad he’d positioned himself face-down in the sand, because the effects of the cold water were wearing off fast as blood rushed to his cock.

“Please help me,” Marie called out, slightly quieter as the old woman’s footsteps swished across the sand.

“Oh! Oh, dear! Who is that?” the woman croaked, perhaps a little more alarmed than their impromptu prank should have made her.

“He washed in from the sea,” Marie said, just enough of a note of humor in her voice to hint that she sensed their joke could go too far as well.

“From the sea, you say?” the old woman asked.

“I was riding my bicycle, and I stopped to dip my toes in the water,” Marie told her, one hand still on his back as she twisted, presumably toward the woman. Christian had his eyes closed, so he could only guess what Marie looked like. “I was sitting here on the beach, enjoying my day and watching what I thought was a magnificent seal playing in the surf. Then, all of a sudden, I realized it wasn’t a seal at all. Before I knew it, the tide pushed him in, and he swept up onto the shore like this.”

She ran a hand down his spine, briefly caressing his backside. It was all Christian could do to lie still as his cock jumped and pressed uncomfortably into the sand. Perhaps attempting to out-cheek Lady Marie O’Shea wasn’t such a bright idea after all. He had no idea how he would get out of the predicament he’d found himself in with his dignity intact.

“Heavens above, child,” the old woman gasped. “You must get away from him at once.”

“But I cannot,” Marie protested dramatically. “I feel drawn to him, captivated. Almost as though a spell were at work.”

Christian caught himself hoping that she bloody well did feel captivated by him. That thought threatened to spoil his composure completely. He was supposed to be passed out, after all. He wanted to grin from ear to ear and learn more about Marie. Any woman who could play along with a prank moments after meeting him when he was as naked as the day he was born, was a woman he desperately needed in his life.

“Drawn, you say?” For a moment, the old woman sounded curious. Then she sucked in a hard breath. “Bless us all and saint’s preserve us,” she gasped. “Get away from the creature, woman. He’ll capture you and drag you back into the sea for certain.”

“But he needs my help,” Marie sighed, both hands caressing his back now.

If Christian were a betting man, he would have said Marie was manhandling him with the specific intent of arousing him. Where in the bloody hell had a young lady from an aristocratic family got it in her mind to torture a man like him?

“He’s a selkie, girl,” the old woman scolded Marie.

“A…a what?” Marie asked with false innocence.

“A seal that’s taken human form,” the woman explained. Judging by the way Marie inched suddenly away from him, Christian assumed the old woman had grabbed her arm and attempted to pull her away. “He’ll steal you away into the sea, girl,” the old woman went on. “He’ll seduce you away from all that his good and holy, and that will be the end of you.”

“I’ve never been seduced away from all that is good and holy,” Marie said, almost as though she liked the idea. She was a woman who had named her bicycle Lucifer, after all.

“Hurry, child, hurry,” the old woman urged her. The shuffling of her feet across the sand hinted to Christian that she was trying to get away. “Get away before it’s too late.”

“But he’s so…alluring.” Marie returned to stroking his back. She might as well be stroking his prick for the reaction he had to her touch. Perhaps joking with the old woman had been a bad idea after all. “He’s so warm and magnificent,” Marie went on. She spread one hand across his backside and gave his cheek a squeeze.

Christian jerked and made a strangled noise. “Are you trying to get the two of us in a muddle?” he muttered, sand sticking to his lips as he did.

Marie lowered her voice to a vixen’s purr near his ear. “Are you going to seduce me and drag me back into the sea?”

It was too much. Christian burst into laughter, opening his eyes and peeking up at Marie. He scanned the beach quickly for the old woman. The poor dear was racing away on the road, her back to him and Marie. That was enough to convince him it was safe to get up—which he started to do, but stopped abruptly when he got as far as propping himself on his elbows. Rising any farther would be out of the question. He was already fully risen.

Marie inched back, a wicked grin tugging at the corners of her mouth, and sat with her hand bracing behind her. “I suppose it’s safe for you to go get your clothes now,” she said, nodding to his pile of clothes several yards away.

“Not at the moment,” he said with a sheepish laugh, face heating.

“Why not?” Marie glanced over her shoulder at the old woman’s retreating form. “She isn’t looking back this way, you know.” She faced forward again, staring saucily at him and biting her lip.

Christian laughed. “You’re the daughter of an earl, aren’t you?” he asked.

“I am.” Marie nodded. “Though it would be more accurate these days to say I’m the sister of an earl, since dear Papa passed many years ago.”

“The details are irrelevant,” Christian said, doing his best to appear completely at ease as his erection pressed into the sand. “Aren’t you too well-born and proper to have the sort of knowledge that would prompt you to know why I’m not getting up?”

Marie laughed aloud. “You have been away too long.” She shifted to lean forward, splaying across the sand in a similar pose to the one he was stuck in, her face coming within inches of his. “Don’t you know that the Wicked O’Shea Sisters are the scourge of County Antrim?”

“Yes, well, I had heard you lot were a bit unruly,” Christian said in as off-hand a manner as he could manage.