Silver Storm (The Raveneau Novels #1) Read Online Free PDF

to love
Morgan, plan to marry him, yet be so utterly repulsed by his
kisses, his touch? As if that were not bad enough, she had allowed
another man to kiss her the very same day! And Andre Raveneau had
lit a fire in her. All night long her breasts seemed swollen, her
nipples taut against the cotton bedgown she wore. And the hidden
place between her legs ached alarmingly. She wondered if it were
some physical punishment for the terrible thing she had done. Yet
it was not really pain, but more of a throb that seemed to reach
for something. During the long, dark hours she spent restlessly in
bed, Devon wondered if perhaps Raveneau really was an agent
of the devil and had put some curse on her.
    When dawn broke at last, Devon rose, pulled
off her bedgown, and paused to glance furtively at her body, which
was beginning to seem quite foreign. Hesitantly she touched her
breasts and was shocked when they tingled in response. Her hand
moved to the red-gold triangle, toward the source of that pain
which had subsided. When her forefinger brushed the hidden bud of
desire, Devon gasped as the ache returned in a burst of fire.
    Sick at heart, she pulled on her clothes,
anxious to cover herself.
    I must be ill! she thought wildly.
    Deborah slept on in the next room; it would
not be long before she would also awaken. Desperate for some air,
Devon crept downstairs and headed for the shop door. At this hour
it would be possible to run for as long as she pleased and feel
alone in the world. Perhaps the cold chill of dawn would cure her
affliction.
    The sun had barely begun its ascent, and New
London was bathed in an ash-rose light that softened the bright
hues of autumn. Once on the Bank, Devon ran until her throat burned
and her legs buckled. Finally she was forced to stop. She leaned,
panting, against a building.
    She was on the waterfront, directly across
from the privateer with a figurehead of a magnificent black and
silver eagle. There was little activity on the rest of the ships,
but the decks and the masts of the Black Eagle were crowded
with men. Devon remembered that it was leaving today. What am I
doing here? she demanded of her traitorous legs. The sound of a
familiar, French-accented voice brought her up sharply.
    "Damn you, Carson, I told you to secure that
line!"
    Devon spotted Raveneau standing on the
quarterdeck and shouting at one of the men in the rigging. Other
voices drowned his out, but the sight of him was mesmerizing. After
admiring the sheen of his black hair in the sunlight and the broad
chest revealed by his open white shirt, Devon noticed a girl
standing on deck. Although she wore a dark pelisse with the hood
up, Devon could see a few blond curls surrounding a pretty face.
After a few moments the girl walked over and caught Raveneau's
loose white sleeve. They embraced. A sour lump formed in Devon's
throat.
    When it became clear that the girl was
leaving the Black Eagle, Devon stumbled back between the
warehouses and kept on going. Humiliation, guilt, and undefined
jealousy tortured her as she ran back to the Bank. It seemed that
the whole of her simple existence had been turned inside out.
    The Gadwins' home was located on Bank Street,
just around the corner from their drug shop. Morgan had not slept
well that night, either, and he was in the dining room when Devon
went dashing by. By the time he reached the front door and shouted
to her, she was halfway home, but she stopped and waited for him.
Morgan ran to meet her.
    Devon burned with guilt as she watched him
approach, looking so young, his warm brown eyes so earnest.
Remembering the things she had thought and said under the apple
tree, she resolved to make it up to him. Perhaps that would cleanse
her conscience all around.
    "Devon, I am so glad to see you! I've been
wondering when we would be able to talk. There's time yet before
the shops open. Will you come with me?"
    "Of course I'll come with you," she told him
hastily. "I want to apologize for the way I behaved