Rowdy Read online

  An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

  www.ellorascave.com

  Rowdy

  ISBN 9781419920615

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  Rowdy Copyright © 2009 Amarinda Jones

  Edited by Helen Woodall.

  Photography and cover art by Les Byerley.

  Electronic book Publication March 2009

  The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing.

  With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.

  Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/). Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

  ROWDY

  Amarinda Jones

  Dedication

  To every woman who knows in her heart that “the one” exists and will not accept pale imitations.

  And, as always, to the loyal Amarinda Jones readers. As we’d say in Australia, you are beaut.

  Trademarks Acknowledgement

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following word marks mentioned in this work of fiction:

  Charmed: Spelling Television Inc.

  Doc Marten: Dr. Martens International Trading

  Google: Google Inc.

  Mace: Mace Security International

  Olive Oyl: Hearst Holdings

  Qantas: Qantas Airways Limited

  Prologue

  From this day forth, no Cardissan will be able to resist the lure of the Law-giver. Fate will bring them together when the Law-giver is three decades old and only if so chosen will death separate them. In their great need to be one, worlds will collide and the cost of what they do will wreak havoc on many. Bond they must and great hardship and danger will they endure. Their weakness will be their strength and many will suffer because of it. Only through the bonds of matrimony will the fate of many be made right and no curse be brought to bear on the innocent.

  English translation of The Karmic curse circa 1471AD brought down by the witch Hester le Juriste burnt at the stake in the village of Plum, by order of the Fifth Earl of Cardissan.

  * * * * *

  2009 – Just over a week ago.

  When his tongue touched her clit, Augusta threw back her head and screamed. Her long dark brown hair twisted underneath her as she clutched at the broad shoulders of the man who licked and sucked insistently on her soft flesh. Her chocolate brown eyes were focused on him as her fingers threaded though his shoulder-length hair. Augusta squirmed under him. She was on fire with a need so raw that denying it seemed impossible.

  “Oh my,” she panted as she tried hard to keep what was left of her control. “Please…” She shivered at the wild sensations that shot through her body. Augusta knew she should make him stop and yet she could not give the command to do so for it was against every instinct and feeling she had at that moment. “Oh please…”

  He looked at her, his dark eyes full of deep desire.

  “Anything you want I will do.” His hands stroked her outer thighs as he lifted her legs up to lock around his waist.

  Augusta was completely open and exposed to this man and any rational thoughts about what she was allowing him to do to her were but fleeting. The feel of his hard cock on her inner thigh made her want him to thrust inside her deeply and never come out.

  “I want—”

  “What?” He leaned forward, his hands moving from her thighs to her stomach and stopping to caress the mounds of her breasts.

  She sighed at the exquisite feel of his touch. I am made for him only.

  “I want you to love me.” To her own ears, her voice sounded desperate but she needed him to understand how important this moment was to her.

  He smiled softly as if he did.

  “I always have and I always will. You are my true love.”

  True love. Yes, that was what this was. Augusta pushed her body against his wanting more, trying to entice his shaft to fill her as she craved.

  “What if—” Was this too perfect? She looked at him in panic. Nothing in her life had ever been this glorious.

  The man tenderly pushed back the hair from her face and kissed her lingeringly.

  “There are no what ifs between us. You are mine as I am yours.”

  “Make love to me.”

  “I can’t.” There was a tortured sound of regret in his voice. “This is not the time. But soon, very soon…” He pulled her lower body up to meet his mouth as his lips fastened on her clit and he sucked hard.

  Another scream tore through her. Augusta tried to hold her lover to her but he was dissolving in her arms until there was nothing left but her and an empty bed with twisted sheets. She curled into a ball and closed her legs together tightly as if trying to keep in the wondrous feeling that assailed her.

  “Soon,” she murmured as she drifted off to sleep, knowing it was inevitable that their worlds would collide.

  * * * * *

  The next day, Augusta “Rowdy” Lawrence stopped dead in her tracks when she saw him. The man from her dream. The man she had dreaded meeting, up to this point in her life. A dream was one thing but reality another and her reality sucked.

  “Oh crap.” The dread in her voice made everyone look at her in wonder. The Cardissan. It had to be. Not now. I cannot deal with him now. I need more time. She swallowed hard on the nervous hiccup that caught in her throat. It was the one thing that gave away that she was scared. Normally she controlled it well and no one ever knew what she felt. But then Argon Cardissan was not just anyone. He held a power over her life that so few held. Augusta pushed her glasses up her nose and girded her loins for the battle that was to come.

  “Rowdy this is Argon, he is the Grand Poobah of the spellbinders.” Tilly Moor looked quite pleased when the man in question scowled at her words.

  “Yes I know.” Augusta’s voice was tight with barely contained emotion. Every instinct screamed at her to flee yet she knew she had to remain calm. Surely that was a dream last night? He couldn’t have… I wouldn’t have… There was no way. Her thighs started to sweat just thinking about that dream.

  Argon’s eyes were riveted on the dark haired woman as if he could not believe who he saw.

  “Hello, Augusta.”

  “Do you two know each other?” Tilly looked surprised at her friend’s reaction.

  “No.” Augusta was most insistent on that fact. She did not want to explain how or why. That he was suddenly in her life was more than enough to deal with. Augusta again pushed her broken, taped-together specs back up her nose and glared at him as if daring him to disagree with her.

  “No,” agreed Argon with a slight tinge of amusement to his voice.

  “Okay then,” Tilly murmured in confusion. “Argon here wants me to walk into something I know will be dangerous.”

  Rowdy’s eyes never left Argon’s.

  “I would assume Argon would know that forcing people i
nto situations does not work.”

  “Sometimes you have no choice.” Argon’s voice was full of meaning.

  “Everyone has free will,” Rowdy snapped at him. Arrogant sod. I will not submit to you. Curse or no curse.

  “Some don’t.” Argon’s eyes were meaningful on hers “I don’t have time for games.”

  Rowdy looked at him coolly.

  “Then don’t play them.”

  Two others looked on from afar.

  “Those two are destined to be together. They have no choice, Amarantha. You know that.”

  Amarantha Lawrence, of the family of Law-givers, looked at the couple who faced each other warily.

  “Yes but—”

  “It was no different for you or me.” James Cardissan kissed his beloved’s hand, his dark eyes passionate on hers. “We were meant to be together.”

  “That was a very long time ago James and the world was different.” Was I ever that young? Amarantha sighed and slipped her hand into his. The warmth still thrilled her after so many centuries. “Our time was not so hard and uncaring.”

  “Every century has its problems, dear one.”

  That was true and they had seen terrible things happen as each decade passed. She did not doubt that this latest incarnation of Cardissan and Law-giver or Lawrence as they had chosen to be known, would battle what they faced and be stronger for it or perish like the very first of their kin.

  “Hester was too strong for the lord of the manor.”

  “Aye, he was felled by passion. It can do that to a man.”

  “And a woman.” Amarantha knew that only too well. It had worked out for her and James but it was not always that way for the Cardissans and the Lawrences. Not everyone would marry. Not everyone had the strength to face their fate.

  “Augusta is thirty in just over a week. You know what that means. I worry about my kinswoman. It has not been easy for her. They must marry but she will fight it.”

  James nodded in agreement.

  “Yes they must and she will lead him on a merry dance. I can see the Lawrence stubborn streak in her eyes.” He smiled lovingly at the woman beside him. “What do they call her again?”

  “Rowdy.”

  “Ha! Just like her ancestress.” James kissed Amarantha lingeringly.

  She pushed her hands half-heartedly at his chest.

  “Oh, you Cardissan men are all the same.” And she would not change one second of her time with him.

  “Adorable?” James asked with a twinkle in eye.

  “Arrogant,” she responded coolly.

  He pulled her to him and hugged her as if never wanting to let go.

  “Yes, but then immortality does that to a man.”

  Amarantha did not want to see this child suffer the fate of Hester and the other Lawrence women who had died because of love. This one is special. I know she is. When the immortal Cardissan line met the mortal Lawrences the outcome was never certain. Over the years the line had diluted and the strength with it, leaving the weak to die because of their passions. But these two had a strength that would carry them past the passion.

  “Do you think he will give it up his immortality for her?”

  “Yes.” There was no hesitation at all in his voice.

  “You are so certain?”

  “I gave it up for you.” James touched her face gently. “If I hadn’t I would not be with you now. I never thought I’d make it to heaven.”

  “Yes, I was surprised,” Amarantha quipped arching her eyebrow at him. “You Cardissans do err on the side of Hell.”

  “But you love me.”

  “Yes, forever.” She kissed him like it was her first taste of him and she could not get enough.

  “I expect she won’t make it easy on him. You law-givers never do.”

  “We Lawrence women expect the very best and we get it.” The proof of that was the man standing at her side. He was everything that she wanted and never would she regret making the choices she had.

  “Looking at the latest line in Cardissans, he’s got the bluff and the arrogance but he hasn’t got a chance.” James shook his head as if in memory of another time.

  “No, Augusta will bring Argon to his knees.”

  “And he will love every second of it.”

  Chapter One

  Two days later

  “What do you want?” Augusta was neither alarmed nor surprised when Argon Cardissan appeared magically out of the blue in her apartment. She just eyed him coolly through her smudged, taped-together spectacles. Maybe it was the wine she was drinking or the strawberry cheesecake ice cream she was eating straight from the carton that had temporarily shored up her crumbling defenses. Besides it was not like she hadn’t been expecting him. For nearly a week, Argon had been hovering around her as if waiting from something. It was as if he was considering his options, her reactions and the right time to make his move. As far as Augusta was concerned there was no right time. He was just another problem in her life—albeit rapidly becoming her number one problem—she had to worry over. I will be calm. I will not hiccup. I will not fear him. He is just a man. He means nothing to me.

  “You know what I want—what we are fated to do.”

  “Well, you’re not going to get it from me and fate can go screw itself,” Augusta snorted in contempt as she sucked down another spoonful of the pink ice confectionery. Why couldn’t he look ugly or smell? Why did his dark, passionate eyes and wavy black hair, that just kissed his broad shoulders, call to her in such a way that her body heated up just looking at him? She kept her eyes on his face. To allow them to travel down the length of his tall, lean body would be inviting trouble. He was dark in that brooding Heathcliff way. Augusta wondered if their children would look the same. Frig, stop thinking of kids. You had to have sex to do that and she was keeping her legs closed on that one. So far it had worked better than any condom.

  Argon sighed softly in frustration as if he did not want to fight this argument with her again.

  “Augusta we have no choice in this.”

  “Yes, and how bloody romantic that sounds.” She had known this would happen around her thirtieth birthday but that did not mean she liked it or was going along with it. She was not an aggressive person by nature, but she planned to fight this for all it was worth. And I’m not thirty yet. I will not be a victim of fate like the others of my kin. A week could make a world of difference.

  “Do you want romance, Augusta True?” He smiled as if the idea appealed to him.

  “Don’t call me that.” Especially not in that deep, husky tone. It sent a shiver down her spine.

  “You are my true love. Would you prefer I call you ‘Rowdy’ as Tilly does?”

  Augusta balanced the carton of ice cream between her pajama clad knees and poured herself another glass of wine from the bottle at her side. She needed to look calm and not threatened by him. She chugged down a slug of wine. Give me whatever I need to handle this now.

  “That true love crap is all a fable and I plan to take no notice of it.” Just as she went to take another sip of her wine the glass disappeared from her hand. “Hey, mystical-almighty-powerful-pain-in-the-ass being, no party tricks with my wine.”

  “Getting drunk is not going to change things.” Argon waved his hand and also made the bottle disappear.

  “It can’t hurt.” He was right though. The problem, Argon, would still be there tomorrow, whether she was drunk or sober.

  “What are you scared of?”

  “Not you.” They both knew she had said it too quickly to be convincing. “I just don’t want my fate determined by a fairytale from 1471.”

  “I was not pleased myself. Like you I knew this would happen one day. Being immortal does not give me the power to stop fate, Augusta.”

  “Yeah but you’ve had a century to think about this.” Surely he could have come up with a plan to stop it? What was the point of being an immortal spellbinder, ruler of many, if you could not manipulate things your own way?
r />   Argon chuckled at her words.

  “I have been rather busy stopping wars, solving problems and saving nations to have had time to think about what would happen when you turned thirty.”

  “You knew it would be me?” While Augusta had never known exactly who the Cardissan would be who was destined to crash into her life, she knew the moment they had met last week at Tilly’s home that he was the one and it had terrified her down to her toenails.

  “No, only that I would be called to you when the moment was right.”

  “I’m not thirty yet.” Not that it made much difference. Argon was here and she had to deal with him.

  “In a week you are.”

  “I’m not going to marry you.” It was crazy. The thought of having this man in her life forever scared the bejeezus out of her. Stuff the curse. The hiccups she had been holding back let fly in wild torment.

  Argon grinned indulgently.

  “We’ll see.”

  “It’s not even that we like, let alone love, each other.” Hiccup.

  “No, not straight away I didn’t.”

  What did that mean? He loved her now? The man was demented. Love did not come that fast and if it did it was suspicious.

  “You barely know me.” Augusta was not dumb enough to think he was suddenly besotted with her. Argon was immortal. He had probably had hundreds of women falling at his feet begging him to love them and she wasn’t about to fall in a heap for any man, let alone him.

  “Can’t you see that fighting this is just a waste of time, Augusta True?”

  Militantly she refused to believe she could not change her fate. Just because her kinswomen hadn’t been able to didn’t mean she had to follow suit.

  “Anyway…whatever.” It was a half-assed answer but then the man made her nervous and her intelligence seemed to have deserted her momentarily. She watched as he moved toward her where she sat on the sofa. “What are you doing?” Hiccup, hiccup, hiccup. He was getting way too close for comfort.