Page 61 of The Moonstone Governess
“Don’t you think I can tell? I’ve seen enough used women to know the difference. Felicity is a vision from heaven. I am going to expire if she gets out of the water and takes off her shift… Oh, Lord!” he said, suddenly clutching his heart. “She’s stepping out of the water. That shift is peeled to her arse. And look at her long, dark hair. No, don’t look. I vow I will blindyou, if you dare look at her. Felicity is mine and I am not letting her go.”
“Shut up, Jax. Stop thinking with your privates.”
“Actually, I am thinking with my heart for once. That blasted organ has been numb for so long, I was sure it had died out long ago.”
Daire snorted.
“Why the dismissive snort? Aren’t you the thick one? What are you doing all this for if it isn’t to woo Brenna? How long have you been in love with her? Is this why you have been coming back here all these years?”
“I met her less than a week ago. Jax, come back to your senses. You cannot propose to Felicity when you haven’t even spoken to her.”
The ladies had taken off their gowns to keep them from getting wet. Matthew, that lucky six-year-old, had taken off all his clothes and was nakedly cavorting in the water with Felicity, while Brenna, obviously scared of the water, was perched on a flat rock overhanging the pool and calling out for her companions to be careful even as she tried to appear relaxed and cheerful.
Daire could see the magnificent swell of her breasts spilling out and dangerously close to revealing all their creamy splendor. Adding to the wild glory was the erotic tumble of her dark hair cascading down her back and over her shoulders.
He was going to pass out if he did not suck in a breath.
Neither the ladies nor Matthew had noticed them yet.
“Jax, we have to go. They cannot know we saw them.”
“Not yet. Let me die a happy man on this very spot.”
“Felicity and Brenna have seven uncles who are very protective of these girls. We both will die on this very spot if we are found out.”
“Oh, all right. Let’s step back twenty paces, and then you ought to call out to them as though we have just arrived and are trying to find them.”
“What are we, idiot schoolboys?” But Daire grabbed him and dragged him away from the glade. Only then did he recover his breath and manage a quiet laugh. “Bloody hell, Jax. This is not the introduction I had planned.”
Jax grinned. “I cannot tell you how pleased I am to be here. Just punch me if I start to leer at Felicity. Isn’t she spectacular? No wonder your nephew is having the time of his life. Who wouldn’t be in raptures while in the company of those two wood nymphs? My eyeballs are still throbbing in their sockets. Dare I mention what my male parts are doing?”
Daire rubbed a hand across the back of his neck and took several deep breaths to calm himself, for his male parts were also misbehaving at the moment.
He and his friend were standing back, both of them laughing quietly, when Matthew suddenly tore out of the glade with breeches half buttoned and his shirt hanging open. The boy was barefoot and laughing, but his laughter died the moment he spotted Daire.
On instinct, Daire bent on his haunches and held out his arms to the boy. “Matthew, I missed you. This is my friend, Jax. We came up here looking for you.”
To Daire’s disappointment, Matthew’s expression turned to one of fear and he raced back into the glade.
Jax frowned. “He seems terrified of you.”
“Not of me, but I closely resemble my bastard of a brother, who must have beaten that boy mercilessly…just as our bastard of a father did to us. He is so afraid whenever he sees me. I’ve tried to remain in the background and let my mother take charge of him. He doesn’t cower as much around her, but nor does he trust her yet. He fears to say or do anything around us, for one wrong step and he thinks we’ll show our true colors and beat him. The poor lad must have been receiving thrashings from his mother, as well. So he’s learned never to trust family.”
“Dear heaven,” Jax muttered. “My heart goes out to him. My life was hard, but nothing like the ordeal he must have gone through.”
Daire nodded. “We hired governesses from the best agencies to look after him once I found him and took him in, but I think our choices only compounded the problem. These governesses were trained to rule with a firm hand, completely the wrong approach to take with that boy.”
“Well, you’ve finally done something right in hiring Brenna. His joy was genuine.”
“I know.”
Brenna and Felicity emerged from the glade, now clad in their gowns. But they were holding their wet shifts in their hands. Daire tried to keep his imagination from running wild, for they must have been naked and drying themselves off mere minutes ago.
Brenna naked?
He struggled to tamp down the fireworks exploding in his body.
Unaware, Brenna cast him the sweetest smile. “Welcome home, Your Grace. We did not realize you were back.”
