Tempted By Innocence. Lyn Randal

marrying him, or disappointed that she cannot be yours?”

      Diego studied his hair, rubbed a hand through it and across the coarse stubble of his new beard. He stopped upon hearing the question, his eyes narrowing, and stared at Ricardo’s reflection in the glass. “What sort of question is that?”

      “The sort of question only a friend would dare ask.”

      Diego lowered the looking glass. “I don’t want her to marry Damian. But she certainly couldn’t marry me, now could she?”

      “There are other roads besides marriage, Padre. And sometimes even priests tread them.”

      Diego scowled. “Ricardo, if you weren’t my friend I’d lay you out cold for that, priest or no.”

      “Then you won’t mind if I try to bed the girl?”

      Diego stiffened, unable to control the involuntary reaction even though he was mindful that Ricardo watched him with a relentless stare.

      “I cannot, as your priest, condone such immoral behaviour. And she is to wed my brother.”

      “Aye, she is.” Ricardo sighed. “That’s what’s so tragic, Diego. Such a fair little maiden, never to be loved by a man, never to be pleasured until she loses herself in ecstasy. Merely a container for your brother’s seed. God, what a waste.”

      “I agree. Yet she has chosen the path herself.”

      “One of us should love her. Just once. So she’ll know the joy of true passion.”

      “Ricardo…”

      “I know she’s virtuous, but I doubt not that if it were put to her right she’d lie with one of us.”

      “I should geld you for these things you speak.”

      Ricardo laughed. “Ah, you do well, Padre. You hide your feelings well. They were but the palest glimmer in the dark, dark blue of your eyes.”

      Diego stood, rubbed the tension from the back of his neck, and studied his friend. “You talk foolishness, Ricardo.”

      “Nay, I do not. Were you not bound by your vows, you would have already made love to her.”

      “She is betrothed to my brother.”

      “And yet you have already come to love her.”

      Diego snorted. “Love?” he said, brushing hair from the front of his robe. “Love doesn’t come in a moment. Nor in three days. And that is all the time I’ve known the girl.”

      “Well, desire, then. Hard-driving, gut-wrenching sexual desire. You do already feel that for her.”

      Diego was silent.

      Ricardo laughed again, the sound rankling. “You don’t have to admit it. I know well enough. I’ve seen it in the way you tense when she enters the room, in the way your eyes follow her—and in the way jealousy flitted across your face when I suggested bedding her, even though I did it only to see your reaction. Aye, you want that girl, Diego, priest or no.” His lips twisted as he held up the shears. “Are you sure you don’t want me to complete the job I almost began with these? It’s a long, long voyage to Spain, my friend, and the quarters aboard the vessel far too close and conducive to passion.”

      “There will be others aboard the ship. Celeste will be well chaperoned. Trust me, I’ll not let history repeat itself. If she wishes to wed my brother, then wed him she shall. With her maidenhead intact for him to enjoy.”

      Ricardo looked unconvinced. “Sins of the flesh, sins of the mind. Cuidado, mi amigo. They are not too far apart.”

      Chapter Five

      Diego was avoiding her. That was the only way Celeste could explain it. The ship was no large place; their paths should have crossed by now. But they hadn’t, not since they’d boarded a fortnight past. Did he think her a wanton who’d seduce him without respect to his vows?

      She wandered the deck aimlessly this morning. Here and there a seaman nodded at her, then furrowed his brow when she hardly seemed to notice. Too late, she’d come out of the daze and mumble a greeting, usually to the man’s departing back. It wasn’t like her to be so distracted, gazing out with distant eyes over the shifting horizon and sighing as if she’d lost something inestimably precious.