Kane, Samantha - Brothers In Arms 06 (19 page)

Colby’s removal from the house seemed to cut an invisible cord and both Nat and Alecia found seats and slumped in them.

“Well, it’s over then,” Nat said morosely. He sniffed and turned his head away to stare at the far wall.

Alecia nodded from her chair, and Palu saw her dash a tear away.

“You needn’t worry about your father,” Palu told her. “He was right. I have the means to support you both. You need have no fear on that account.”

Rather than reassure her, his remark made Alecia hiccup as her tears fell faster.

Nat’s reaction was typical Nat, as Palu was beginning to see. He threw himself from the chair and pushed his hands into his hair again, this time fisting them on top of his head and giving a frustrated, wordless cry. Palu was taken aback.

Nat’s arms fell to his side. “Don’t you see?” he asked Palu in a tortured voice. “We can’t let you. Everyone will think we have deceived you for your money. I have no wish to be known as that sort of man.”

It was Palu’s turn to be dumbfounded. “What? What are you saying?”

“I’m saying we can’t be with you anymore,” Nat cried out. He rubbed his hands vigorously over his face and then stood with hands on hips staring at the ceiling for a moment. When he looked back at Palu the anguish written in his face soothed Palu in spite of his words. He didn’t want to Palu to leave. That was obvious. And by God, he wasn’t going anywhere. Not now. Not ever again. Not without these two.

“Don’t be ridiculous.” As soon as the words were out Palu knew he’d spoken rashly.

“Ridiculous? I’m being ridiculous because I don’t want people to call me names behind my back, to question my feelings for you, to believe that I would let myself and my wife whore ourselves for your money?” Nat’s anguish was turning to anger, which was better in Palu’s opinion.

“No, you’re being ridiculous,” Palu told him as he stood and faced him, “to even think that I would let you go now.” He included Alecia in his hard stare. “Or that I would let you push me away.”

Alecia stood as well, her arms wrapped around her stomach. “Palu, you must. Nat is right. People will think the worst of us. If we have nothing else, at least we have our pride.”

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Palu sliced his hand through the air, for once letting his anger show. “Pride be damned! What do you think people will say of me?” He jabbed his finger roughly into his chest. “They will say I am a fool to think that two young lovers such as you could care for me. Me, some half-breed native bastard?” He threw his hands in the air. “And yet I don’t care! Let them talk. They have been talking about me since I first set my feet on this shore. All I care about is what we have, what we could have. Don’t you understand how I feel? Don’t you understand what you mean to me?”

Alecia had covered her mouth with her hand and was shaking her head as her tears fell unheeded. Nat was staring at him with hungry, hopeful eyes. “You are not a fool,”

he said softly.

Palu walked around the sofa and grabbed Nat’s hand and dragged him over to Alecia. Then he wrapped them both in his arms tightly. “You have given me a place,”

he whispered into Alecia’s hair while Nat buried his face against his shoulder. “I have wandered and searched for a place to belong, and I have found it in you two. I’d given up hope, you know. I thought I would always be alone. And now I know that I never will be again. That is worth any price.”

Alecia clung tightly to him. He could feel her fist clutching a handful of shirt at his back. “Palu,” she sobbed. Nat was silent, but Palu felt his trembling.

“Tell me you feel the same,” he begged harshly. “Tell me I am not dreaming. Tell me that wherever you are you will let me be there with you. Here, anywhere. I will give you both the world. Take it. Take me.”

“I don’t want the world,” Alecia cried out. She raised her face to him, cupping his cheek in her palm. “I just want you, us, this. Are you sure?”

Palu nodded, too emotional for words. Alecia rose on tiptoe to kiss him

passionately, and he returned her fervor. But he held tight to Nat as well. He wasn’t letting either of them go. Not for a long while.

He could taste Alecia’s tears, and he swore he never would again unless they were tears of joy. Gradually he became aware of Nat’s silence, and he pulled slowly away from Alecia. The look of desire and adoration on her face was one he would never forget.

He turned to Nat and with a finger under his chin lifted Nat’s head from his shoulder. “Tell me,” he demanded softly. “Tell me.”

Nat nodded. He’d been too overwhelmed to speak—but no longer. “Yes. I’ll take you, Palu. And I will take the world with you.” Palu rested his forehead against Nat’s.

Even that small kiss of skin on skin made Nat’s heart race.

“Where is my laughing Englishman?” Palu whispered. Nat smiled weakly and he grinned. “You will have to do better than that.” He leaned in and whispered in Nat’s ear, “Will you laugh when you are fucking me, pretty Nat? I would like that.”

“Christ, Palu,” Nat choked out, “I’ll be lucky to live through the experience.” He closed his eyes and envisioned Palu’s gorgeous buttocks with their dark designs and he 99

Samantha Kane

shuddered in arousal. “I wanted to fuck that gorgeous arse of yours the first time I saw it.”

Palu laughed that deep, rich laugh that made Nat’s blood run hot in his veins.

“Have you, Natty?” Palu purred. “I have wanted you to just as long.” His voice lowered to a growl. “Ever since you couldn’t keep your mouth off it.”

Alecia laughed and it was relieved and wild and aroused. She broke away from them and collapsed against the back of the sofa, her arms flung over her head in abandon. “And I have wanted to see it just as long,” she cried in delight. She looked at them with glowing, smiling eyes, drying her cheeks with her palms. “Are you going to make me wait much longer?”

Palu pulled away from Nat with another laugh. “One minute you are shy and crying and the next you are demanding that your husband fuck me.” He smiled wolfishly. “I love that you are like this with us.”

Alecia looked affronted. “I am not shy,” she protested.

Nat couldn’t help it, he laughed with Palu. “Lee, my darling, you are shy. You are also intelligent and passionate. But you are indeed shy.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and glared mulishly. “I asked Palu to come home with us the first time, didn’t I?”

“I think that had more to do with Simon taking you by surprise,” Palu observed dryly. “And I might add he took me by surprise as well. I had not told him how much I wanted you.” Palu stalked Alecia, nimbly maneuvering around the table in front of the sofa. Alecia watched him warily. “And when you brought me home, you sat there on that sofa and blushed and had no idea what to say to me, or what to do.”

Alecia blushed. “I knew what I wanted to do. I just didn’t know if you wanted to do it, too.”

Nat burst out laughing. “His hard cock in those tight breeches should have given you some idea, Lee.”

“You mean, like this?” Palu asked, looking down at himself. He was hard, his cock outlined by his buckskins beautifully. It made Nat’s mouth water, and Alecia stopped blushing, her look turning hungry.

“Tell me what you want me to do,” Nat said, purposefully using the same words as he had their first night.

“I want to be naked for you both,” Palu said. “And I want you to fuck me.”

“Ah God, Palu,” Nat groaned. “That’s what I want too.”

“Then stop talking about it,” Alecia told them, exasperated. She stood up and grabbed both their hands, first Palu’s and then Nat’s, and dragged them over to the drawing room doors. She grasped the handles and looked at them over her shoulder with a mischievous grin. “Ready?”

Nat felt as if she were asking so much more with that one word. Were they ready for the challenges they would face? Ready to finally leave England with Palu and find 100

Love in Exile

the life they’d always dreamed of? Ready for love and a family and all that came with those responsibilities?

“Absolutely,” he said, and Alecia threw open the doors and pulled them both through.

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Samantha Kane

“Papa!” The little boy ran across the deck and threw himself into Palu’s arms, only to be raised high and swung around until he laughed uncontrollably.

“Gordon!” Alecia chastised. “You know you are not to run on deck.”

“But Mama,” he argued, “how else was I supposed to jump so high into Papa’s arms?”

Palu laughed and ruffled his dark brown curly hair. He couldn’t believe how much Gordon looked like him. He considered it a blessing, but when they reached England it would be more of a curse, he supposed. They expected to reach London by mid-week, and Palu was getting more and more nervous about it. Nat and Alecia were the calm ones. They simply shrugged and Nat had said philosophically, “What is, is.” Palu had no argument for that.

“You are like two peas in a pod,” Alecia laughed, echoing his thoughts. She saw the look on his face and wrinkled her nose. “Don’t start, Palu. We’ve been through this. We will all be fine.” She turned and frowned out at the horizon. “I’m more concerned about how the Society will react to my paper. It’s very frustrating that I can’t be there to read it myself.”

“Perhaps someday they will allow women, my dear,” Nat said from behind them,

“and then you shall be able to present your own papers.”

Palu turned and had to smile at the picture Nat made with little Grace asleep on his shoulder. Like Gordon, she had Palu’s dark, curly hair, but unlike Gordon she had fair skin and Alecia’s features. Nat doted on her, as did they all. She was only two, but she ruled the family with an iron fist.

Alecia reached out and patted Nat’s arm. “I am sure that you will do a marvelous job reading it for me, Natty,” she told him. “And Sophie is going to have the salon where I will be able to answer any questions later.” She bit her lip nervously. “It’s not the presentation that worries me, but the content. The Royal Society seems to be full of the physical and medical sciences these days. I don’t know how interested they’re going to be in the family structure and home life of different native groups in Polynesia.”

“About as well as they will receive my paper on the reefs of Australia, I suppose,”

Nat said mildly.

“Well, Nat, you could always show them your
tatau
and describe the process,” Palu mused jokingly.

“I thought that was for your and Alecia’s eyes only,” Nat teased.

“But Papa Nat, I’ve seen it,” Gordon interjected with a frown.

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Palu laughed. “Only for family eyes, then, little man,” he said, kissing Gordon’s temple.

Alecia leaned over and kissed Nat’s shoulder gently, careful not to wake Grace.

“Yes, just for the family.”

“Can we show everyone yours instead, Papa?” Gordon asked eagerly. “You have more.”

Palu choked and Nat laughed. “You brought it up,” Nat told him with a raised brow.

Palu looked sternly at Gordon. “Papa was only teasing, Gordon. We don’t show or talk about our
tatau
to outsiders.”

“Not even Mama’s?”

Alecia blushed. “
Especially
not Mama’s,” she said fervently. “Gentlemen do not talk about a woman’s legs at all in public, and most certainly not about any
tatau
they may have on them.”

“Why not?” Gordon asked. “Don’t they know you’ve got them under your skirts?”

Palu couldn’t control his laughter. “Good Lord, do you really think England is ready for this family?”

Alecia smiled beguilingly. “I don’t care. This is my family. England can go hang.”

“Mama!” Gordon clapped in delight and Alecia kissed him on the cheek.

Palu silently agreed with her. He looked down and saw a large school of dolphins swimming alongside the ship. “Nat, look,” he pointed.

“The Americans on board call it a
pod
,” Nat told him, looking over the side, careful to keep Grace away from the rail.

“Do they?” Palu asked with a smile. “Perhaps you will have something to study here after all.”

“Well,” Nat replied, amusement coloring his tone, “we shall see at journey’s end, won’t we?”

Palu reflected on the changes the last five years had wrought in all of them. “Our journey is far from over,” he said quietly. “There is still so much more to discover.”

Nat and Alecia looked at him, and he could see the memories in their eyes, the love and contentment on their faces.

“We are the territory to be explored,” Alecia murmured.

“Let the journey begin,” Nat responded with a smile.

Palu didn’t answer. He simply turned his face to the wind with a smile and let the adventure take him.

The End

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About the Author

Samantha has a Master’s Degree in History, and is a full-time writer and mother.

She lives in North Carolina with her husband and three children.

Samantha welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her
author bio page at
www.ellorascave.com.

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