Forbidden by Julia Keaton Page A

was making him lightheaded. He
needed to sleep before he passed out, but if he slept he’d dream of
her and the process would start all over again.
    If she didn’t get away from him soon
Damon actually feared for his sanity.
    To top everything off was the knowledge
that she’d tried to run away. He would have been proud of her, hell
he would have packed her bags for her and carried them himself had
he not been pulled in two different directions.
    Loyalty to John would see him through
this, but it was his loyalty to himself that had him thinking more
and more seriously of marriage to a nice, pliant woman as he rung
for one of the maids to bring him a bucket of ice and a bottle of
whiskey.

Chapter three

    The blockade will be tricky but I have
a good idea on how you plan on getting around it. On that note: Ava
gets seasick and if you’ve seen how fast food goes into her
mouth…well let’s just say that that’s just as fast as it will come
out of it.

    Ava started retching before they even
boarded the ship.
    “Just watching our luggage swing back
and forth on that pulley….” her voice had faded and she’d gone
green, waving a delicate lace handkerchief before her face. The act
seemed to calm her a bit though Damon couldn’t see what any
practical use it had. He opened his mouth to tell her that he’d had
his housemaid Elaine prepare something to settle her stomach for
their voyage, but just then he’d caught a flash of Jocelyn once
again wearing her black mourning dress and he’d found some excuse
to leave.
    Damon didn’t trust himself around her
so soon after his loss of control the night before, though the
clueless chit seemed more than willing to treat him just the same.
Almost as if he weren’t some manic, slavering, sexually starved
beast bent on devouring her innocence.
    Maybe not to those extremes,
true.
    But still.
    He wouldn’t say that he was avoiding
her so much as being extremely … cautious.
    Nevertheless he managed not to spend
even five minutes in her company before some aspect of their trip
pulled him away. He helped the sailors load the heavier trunks, and
joked with the captain. He walked the decks and right before they
set sail he went to where the horses had been penned to pet Jet as
his Bella would not be traveling with them. He’d asked Jeremy to
drop her off back at the plantation on his way through and the
other man had agreed happily enough. To say that he’d missed her
was an understatement. Bell had been the only thing he’d counted on
besides himself since his family had died. John was different, he
was a friend, a fellow soldier, and a mentor, but he wasn’t a
confident. He wasn’t someone Damon let himself be weak around, he
wasn’t someone he shared his thoughts and his fears
with.
    That he did these things with a horse
should have been embarrassing, but Damon couldn’t have stopped if
he tried. He couldn’t make himself become so attached to another
human being knowing that they could be snatched from him, and
Bella’s absence, though consensual and practical in theory, was
still no less sad.

    * * * *

    Watching as the shores of her home
faded beneath the white mist of the ocean, Jocelyn tried very hard
not to cry. She told herself that she would see it again and soon,
and the words, the determination and stubbornness behind them were
enough to dry the moisture in her eyes before the tears had a
chance to fall. She took advantage of the fact that Ava was now
bedridden to explore the vessel known as the Gentle Marie. She was
worried about her sister but not worried enough to brave the sick
laden air of their shared chambers. Especially after Damon had
given Ava some type of powder that she was to pour in her water and
drink every day. He said that it would make her feel better if not
cure her and while Jocelyn trusted his word, Ava was simply too
sick and miserable to question it.
    So now, guilt free and with a goal in
mind, she went hunting.
    The soldiers liked her.