He dropped her hand with a short laugh. “That’s hardly fair.”
Looking up, she locked gazes. “Wagers seldom are.”
“Very well, I agree.” He thoughtfully stroked his chin as if considering something of great import. When he finally looked back at her, she had an eerie chill of premonition. “Now for your consequences. If I win, you will refuse to marry Justin.”
She frowned at his request and at the underlying tone she caught in his voice. “Why does my engagement to Justin bother you so?”
His face stoic, he answered rather snidely. “It doesn’t bother me at all.”
“Doesn’t it?”
He veiled his gaze. “It’s simply a wager, Lorelei. You asked for something preposterous and I asked for something preposterous in return.”
“If you say so,” she said, but still she had a sense that there was more to it than he let on.
“I do.” And with that he took himself off to his end of the table.
Once he was seated and had his linen napkin folded properly in his lap, he rang a small brass bell and two of his crewmen appeared to serve them. The pirates had attempted to dress themselves up in navy jackets and breeches, but one of them still wore a red bandana about his head and large gold hoops in his ears. The other was a bald man of about twenty with a rugged look to his face and two missing front teeth.
“Would ya be liking some rum sauce for the chicken, Captain?” the bald man asked in a thick Cockney accent.
“It’s duck, Kirk. And yes, thank you, I would like some sauce for it.”
Kirk scraped the ladle across the bottom of the dish, raising the hair on the back of Lorelei’s neck. He dumped the sauce over the captain’s food, then smacked it twice with the ladle for good measure. “Duck, chicken, don’t see much difference meself. It’s all for the gullet in the end. Why, when I was a lad, we was lucky to have cabbage soup, much less anything as fancy as all this here.”
“The captain don’t care to hear your woes,” the other sailor inserted. “Blimey, Kirk, can’t you see the man is trying to impress the lady, and here you go off about cabbage soup and gullets. Where’s your mind, man? Use it for something other than—”
“Tommy,” the captain interrupted. “Kirk, we thank you for your service, but I believe silence might be in your best interest.”
“Ach, now ya done gone and done it,” Kirk muttered as he dumped more sauce over Lorelei’s duck. “We’ll be swabbing the decks tomorrow for sure.”
“Me?” Tommy asked in a huff as he poured the wine in Lorelei’s cup. “I wasn’t the one—”
“That will be enough, men.”
The two sailors glared at each other while they finished their various duties.
Lorelei waited patiently while they were served. The captain appeared as grand and noble as the highest, most well-born dignitary she’d ever seen, and she began to wonder if he’d been honest with her about his background. Surely the types of people one typically found in a bordello hadn’t possessed the refinement of breeding the pirate showed so naturally. Nay, someone had trained him as effectively as she herself had been groomed.
But who?
And why?
With a regal wave of his hand, he dismissed his men.
Knowing the captain wasn’t about to trust her with the knowledge, she cut a small piece of the duck and took a bite. She delighted at the delicate flavor.
Their conversation lagged until Lorelei finally found enough courage to mention to him the matter foremost on her mind. “I met your son today,” she said after taking a sip of wine. “But then you know that, don’t you? You sent him to find out my favorite color.”
He wiped his mouth with his napkin before he answered. “Yes. I wasn’t sure if you’d tell me.”
“Why did you want to know?”
He leaned forward slightly, as if about to impart some great secret to her. “I find you fascinating and I want to know all about you.”
“Ah,” she said in full understanding. “Knowledge is power. The more you know about me, the easier I’ll be to seduce.” Like him, she leaned forward and met his gaze evenly. “And will you allow me such arsenal?”
He sat back slightly. “Perhaps.”
A glimmer of hope appeared. It was certainly a kinder answer than the rude “no” she’d expected. Fortified, she asked the question that had intrigued her most of the day. “Then tell me, who is Kit’s mother?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” she repeated in disbelief. “Sir, ’tis the father who can be in doubt. The mother is surely known, unless you…” Her eyes widened. “You kidnapped the boy?”
“Hardly,” he said, his voice laced with aristocratic disdain. “Kit is my son. That is all anyone ever needs to know about the matter.”
Lorelei watched him in silence. If he hadn’t kidnapped Kit, and Jack was truly his father, then he must have known the boy’s mother…intimately, at some point.
“Was she some passing wench you fancied? Or a lady of short acquaintance, perhaps?”
“She is none of your business and she has nothing to do with me.”
By his tone, she knew the matter was ended. Any further inquiries would only alienate him from her. But oh, how she longed to know the truth. Why was he so secretive about the matter? Had he loved Kit’s mother greatly?
She almost laughed at the thought. Nay, the captain disdained love too much to ever have felt it. Which made the question of Kit’s mother all the more tantalizing.
Changing the direction of her thoughts, she asked him about the next item that intrigued her. “Then tell me why you became a pirate.”
He swirled the wine around in his glass and sighed. “These are all boring questions. I became a pirate to make money.”
“Why not be a privateer, or join the navy?”
“Because I refuse to answer to any man or government. On this ship, my will is supreme.”
And it was. She knew that, had seen it firsthand on deck.
“Now my turn,” he said, returning his glass to the table. “Tell me, other than thinking of Justin, what do you like to do?”
She puzzled over the strangeness of his question. “What do I like to do?”
“Yes. When you’re all alone in your father’s house and there’s no one to disturb you. What gives you pleasure?”
That was harmless enough to answer. He certainly couldn’t use that against her in any way. “Reading.”
His look became one of intrigue. “And what do you like to read?”
“Poetry, mostly. I particularly like Anne Bradstreet.”
He inclined his head to her, then recited one of her most favored poems.
“For riches doth thou long full sore? Behold enough of precious store. Earth hath more silver, pearls, and gold, than eyes can see or hands can hold. Affect’s thou pleasure? Take thy fill, Then let not go, what thou may’st find For things unknown, only in mind.”
Lorelei smiled at the quote, impressed that he knew it. She continued,
“Spirit: Be still thou unregenerate part, Disturb no more my settled heart, For I have vowed (and so will do) Thee as a foe still to pursue. And combat with thee will and must, until I see thee laid in th’dust.”
Then together, “‘Sisters we are, yea, twins we be, Yet deadly feud, ’twixt thee and me.’”
“You’re very well learned,” she said before taking another bite of her food.
“For a pirate?”
“Hmmm.”
“I, too, like to read.”
“And to quote.”
“Exactly.”
Fascinated by his ability to recall quotes so accurately and his great passion for literary classics, she couldn’t understand his view on love. “How is it a man who reads so can also denounce love so vehemently? Most of the greatest works produced are based on love.”
He lightly cleared his throat. “There is an old French proverb that sums my view up nicely. Love makes time pass; time m
akes love pass.”
She took a deep breath and shook her head at him. “You are a true cynic.”
“And you are a romantic dreamer,” he countered. “Tell me, Lorelei. Tell me of your deepest, darkest secret. What passion burns inside such a romantic soul? What is the one wish you hold above all others?”
The answer was a simple one, but not one she was sure she should share with him. It was a dream that had brought her enough grief from her father and Justin, who thought it a great waste of time. Only her grandmother had ever encouraged her, and even she only grudgingly.
Still, it might give her a bit of temperance to add his sneering comments to the others she’d endured. After all, did she truly care what the pirate thought of her? So what if he mocked her as they did? She would be away from him soon enough.
“If I answer, will you do the same?”
He nodded.
Reconciling herself to his inevitable response, she spoke, “My one secret is that I should like to be a great artist.”
“Really?” he asked. “I can just imagine you covered with paint as you get that little look on your face while you try to capture a scene.”
“What look?”
“That little scrunchy thing you do with your face.”
“Scrunchy thing?”
He nodded. “You’re doing it now, in fact. Your brows are slightly creased and your eyes slightly narrowed as you try to delve into something’s source.”
She blinked several times to dispel whatever look he referred to. “I have no idea what you mean.”
“’Tis a pity then, it’s a wonderful look for you.”
In spite of herself, his compliment warmed her.
“And what does Justin think about your desire to be an artist?”
She looked down at her plate, too embarrassed and hurt to answer.
“Come now, Lorelei. Be honest with me.”
Refusing to look up, she pushed the sweetened broccoli around on her plate. “Why should I answer when I know you’ll just mock me?”
“So, he thinks it a foolish endeavor.”
She swallowed the lump of sadness in her throat and rose to Justin’s defense. “He’s actually quite right. Once we marry, I shan’t have time for such trivialities.”
“And why is that?”
“I’ll have to supervise the household and tend our children.”
“While Justin pursues his military career.”
“Yes.”
“’Tis a bit unfair, don’t you think?”
“It’s the way of the world,” she said, even though deep inside she’d always resented that fact. ’Twas the very thing that had driven her grandmother to take to the sea as a young woman. But Lorelei had promised her grandmother years ago that she wouldn’t try and fight the way things were. She would merely accept the world and abide by all its unfair dictates.
Reconciled to it, she looked up at Jack. “Now for you. What is your greatest passion?”
“Killing people.”
Her heart stopped. Was that the truth? She wasn’t sure, and his face and body gave nothing away. “I don’t believe you,” she said in an effort to test her theory.
“Don’t you? I am a pirate, after all.”
“Yes, you are. But you’re not like other pirates.”
“How are you so sure?”
“You travel with your son and you allow your crew to keep their wives with them. Why is that?”
“Because life is too short and we could die at any minute. The last thing I want is for my men to die alone.”
“And what about you?”
“I am alone.”
“Wouldn’t you like to change that?”
“Hardly. I’m quite content with my life.”
“Are you?” she asked quietly.
“Truly ecstatic.”
Sensing his closure, she finished the meal in silence.
Once they had both finished, he stood and pulled her to her feet. Jack led her to the windows that looked out on a quiet, tranquil sea. The music from the deck continued to fill the air with its sultry tone as a gentle breeze rippled around her. “Where does the music come from?” she asked.
“My crew,” he said. “They play every night around sunset.”
Jack leaned back against the support beam next to the window so that he could watch her. Trying to ignore how nice he looked there, Lorelei forced her gaze to remain on the ocean.
“It’s very beautiful, isn’t it?” she asked.
“Very.”
She was aware of every aspect of him. His long legs were stretched out before him, and she admired the way his breeches hugged his lean, muscular thighs and the fact that his coat only emphasized the breadth of his shoulders.
His gaze on her face felt like a tangible touch. Her heart raced. There were so many things about him she liked. And so many more she wished she knew.
The longer the silence stretched, the more nervous she became. She glanced at him and heat stole across her cheeks. She tried to focus her attention on the dark sea, but a few seconds later, she looked back at him to find his gaze had not wavered from her.
“What?” she asked in an effort to dispel her discomfort. “Have I grown a new head?”
He pushed himself away from the window and moved to stand behind her. Still, he said nothing.
Lorelei bit her lip in uncertainty as she felt the heat of his body reach out to her. Something sizzled between them, catching her off guard with its warmth.
“Tell me, Lorelei,” he said at last. “Have you ever had a man kiss you here?” He touched the tender part of her neck just below her ears where she’d pulled her hair up into a cascade of curls.
“That is very forward of you,” she said primly.
His fingers stroked her skin, sending a slow burn through her body. “Yes, it is. Have you?”
From the inside out, she ached for his touch, and yet she knew she should rebuff him. “No.”
“Pity. It’s terribly pleasurable. May I?”
“Never.”
Move away! And yet she couldn’t get her body to obey. All she could do was stand there, feeling his flesh against hers. Feeling the gentle caress of his breath against her neck and wishing for things she knew she had no right to want.
He took a step closer. Even though he touched her with nothing more than one hand, she felt surrounded by him. Consumed by him. “One day you’ll beg me to kiss you there.”
Gathering the tangled, fleeing shreds of her sense, she said, “One day the world shall end and I dare say that day will come long before I ever allow you to kiss me there.”
“And what about your lips?” he asked, touching her there. Her legs turned to jelly as her mind begged for him to kiss her. “Could I kiss those?”
“You already have.”
“And you liked it.”
“I deplored it,” she said, her voice breathless.
“Should we have another go at it to make sure?”
Before she could step back, he kissed her. Her head swam at the contact as her body sang in response to the fulfillment of her longing. She tasted the sweet wine on his lips as he invaded her senses and sent her reeling with desire.
Oh, it would be so easy to give into this man. To let him have his way with her. And yet it would be wrong. Not just because she was promised to Justin, but because she meant nothing to the pirate captain.
To him she was an object of vengeance. A pawn for his own satisfaction, and no matter how good he felt in her arms, or how treacherous her body, she refused to allow him to use her as if she were nothing more than a simple tool to help him complete a task.
She was a human being with feelings and emotions, not a lapdog to fetch at his command. Regaining herself, she pushed him back.
He looked down at her, and she saw the triumph shimmering in the steely depths of his eyes.
“You’re not going to seduce me, Captain Rhys.”
He smiled. “Methinks the lady doth protest too mu
ch.”
“And methinks the pirate doth insist too much.” She forced him to release her. Lorelei straightened her dress and patted the loose tendrils of her hair back into place. “Have you never failed?”
“Never,” he said, as he brushed the sleeve of his jacket.
She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to straighten out her coiffure. Tilting her head, she brushed the curls away from her neck. “You really are incorrigible.”
When she looked back at him, the captain’s eyes held her prisoner. Unbridled lust glowed deep and he stared at her like a starving man before a banquet table.
“You had best leave.”
She frowned.
“Leave, Lorelei, now while I can let you go. If you stay, I won’t be held accountable for what happens.”
Deciding it would be best to heed his warning, Lorelei quickly left the room and dashed back to her cabin.
She locked the door behind her and drew deep breaths to calm her racing heart. What had happened?
He’d been fine while he brushed at his sleeve and then he’d…
Men, they were indeed a strange, unfathomable lot.
But worse than his actions and words was the undeniable fact that she was terribly attracted to him.
There was something about the pirate that called out to her. It lured a primitive part of her body that she couldn’t control, and that frightened her.
How long could she keep him at bay when he assailed her defenses at every turn?
And in truth, she liked battling with him. She found his views intriguing.
And his touch, delightful.
“Think of Justin,” she whispered to herself as she summoned a mental picture of him in his uniform.
He was handsome and strong.
Just not quite as handsome as the pirate.
“Justin is safe.”
But he wasn’t exciting. He had never made her pulse beat like this, nor did he stir her body into flames by merely walking into a room.
“Stop it,” she demanded, covering her eyes to banish the image of the pirate in his dashing black cutaway.
Beware the man who beguiles you, Lori-Angel, she heard her grandmother’s voice in her head. Those are the ones who won’t commit to you. Oh, they’ll show you wonders, to be sure, and they’ll spin your head with their pleasurable ways. But in the end, they always leave you and your broken heart far behind. Believe me, ’tis better to have the simple hound than to follow the fox. Though the fox is fairer to behold, the hound knows where his home is and dutifully he stays, while the handsome fox is ever off to find new game.
Master of Seduction Page 9