A Pirate of her Own
Page 24
Morgan rattled the chair with his fury and effort to break free. The Lord better take a liking to them, because when he got out they would suffer for this betrayal.
Suddenly he heard footsteps coming down the hallway outside.
“It’d better be one of you come back to free me,” he muttered between clenched teeth.
The door handle rattled an instant before the whitewashed door swung open.
“Lorelei, I was…” Serenity’s voice trailed off as she looked up from the watch pin she’d been checking and met his gaze.
Morgan froze, too stunned to even breathe.
Could it be?
Her own face mirrored shock. “What are you doing here?” she gasped.
He held his hands up so that she could see the ropes that held him in place. “I’m sitting in a most uncomfortable chair,” he said, and for the first time in a year, he felt the corners of his mouth lift up into a smile.
Bless Jake’s soul.
But curse his twisted sense of humor.
Serenity arched one brow. “I suppose you think I’m going to free you.”
His smile grew wider. “I would be obliged.”
“And I would be a fool to do such a thing. Good day, Captain Drake.”
To his astonishment, she left the room.
“Wait!” he roared.
But she was gone.
A few seconds later, the door opened again and Jake rushed in. “All right, Morgan, both our hides are in jeopardy.”
Jake slashed the ropes holding him to his chair. “She’s headed for the study downstairs. If you have any decency in you at all, you’ll make her see reason or we’ll both be drunken fools looking for a new place to live.”
“Why didn’t you tell me she was here?”
“Because I promised her and Lorelei I would never, under any circumstances, tell you she came here.”
He hardened his stare. “You’re supposed to be my friend, Jake.”
“If I wasn’t your friend, I wouldn’t have put my neck in the noose by bringing you here today. Now get down there and smooth this over.”
Morgan wasted no more time sprinting downstairs and into the study where Jake had told him Serenity would be waiting.
As soon as he opened the door, Serenity spun around to face him. Her eyes narrowed. “Oh, I swear I hate you, Jacob Dudley,” she said under her breath. “All I want is Lorelei and he keeps sending me to you.”
Morgan frowned at her hostility. “Why are you so angry?” he asked, moving to stand in front of her. “I’ve come back for you and this is how you greet me?”
Her face was a mockery of anger and astonishment. “You’ve come back for me? Oh, how delightful. Shall I put on my best gown or should I just fall down on my knees in gratitude that you finally remembered I exist?”
Morgan couldn’t help it, he laughed. “You never could react the way you were supposed to to anything.” He took her face in his hands. “God, how I’ve missed you.”
She stepped back from him. “This isn’t a game, Morgan. And I find nothing amusing about the fact that—”
“But I’ve been looking for you. Didn’t anyone tell you?”
She turned her head to the side and eyed him skeptically. “Aye, you took your own, slow time getting here. Then you went to my father’s shop, asked him and Douglas if I’d made it safely home. When they told you they didn’t know where I was, you immediately left and set sail. Forgive me if that amount of care for my well-being doesn’t impress me.”
Morgan was aghast. “Lord, woman, I’ve done nothing but look for you since the day you boarded that ship. There was a storm, do you remember it?”
“Aye.”
Hallelujah, mayhap there was hope for her forgiveness after all. “It knocked us off course which delayed me in getting here the first time. When I left your father’s shop, I went to find that Colonial ship, to ask them what had happened to you. When they told me nothing, I came back here as soon as I could and I’ve been here ever since. Didn’t anyone tell you that?”
“I—”
“And just what are you doing here anyway?”
She put her hands on her hips. “I started to go home, Morgan, but on the way back, Jake convinced me to stay here for a while. After my sister’s public disgrace and disappearance, my father agreed that I should stay away from Savannah.”
“But why didn’t they tell me where you were?”
“I didn’t want them to.”
“Then why are you mad at me for not getting here sooner?”
“Because you weren’t supposed to give up so easily. You were supposed—”
“Serenity, I—” Lorelei broke off her words as she entered the study and saw them standing just inches apart. Stopping in place, she stiffened her posture and eyed him coldly. “Good afternoon, Captain Drake.”
Morgan was taken aback by Lorelei’s hostility as she adjusted the small baby in her arms. He’d always considered her a friend, and they’d never once in all these years had a disagreement.
“Hello, Lorelei.”
Smiling, he walked over to her and brushed his hand across the baby’s black hair. “Is it a boy or girl?”
“A boy. Nicholas is his name,” she said, her tone still icy.
“Where did he get all this dark hair from?”
“He takes after his father.”
“Lorelei,” Morgan said with a note of warning. “Jake’s blond.”
“Who said I was his mother?” Her gaze slid past him and focused on Serenity.
His heart stopped as he realized who the mother was, and his brain quickly calculated the baby’s approximate age and how long it’d been since he last saw Serenity.
Serenity stepped forward and took the baby from Lorelei’s arms. “I hope he wasn’t a bother.”
“No,” she assured her. “He’s been wonderful, but I think he may be hungry.”
True to the prediction, the baby let out a loud wail.
Lorelei looked at Morgan and arched an imperious brow. “Goodness, Serenity, I think the shock of baby Nicholas killed Morgan.”
Serenity shrugged. “Well, you know what I say about men and labor and children.”
“He’s mine?” Morgan gasped, still too stunned to say anything more intelligent.
Serenity just glared at him.
This was more than Morgan could deal with.
He’d expected to find Serenity…
To find her…
Well, he didn’t really know what he’d expected to find her doing, but it definitely hadn’t been holding his child!
Suddenly the air seemed too thick, his stock too tight. He needed to breathe. Needed time to think about this.
Unsure and quite frankly terrified, he turned on his heel and left.
Serenity exchanged puzzled looks with Lorelei, a moment before her rage took hold.
“He left?” she said between gritted teeth as she adjusted Nicholas in her arms.
Lorelei shook her head. “Why is it the only thing you can count on with men is that they will always be somewhere else when you need them?”
Serenity’s sight darkened even more. “Well, he’s not walking away until I’ve said my piece.”
She handed Nicholas back to Lorelei. “Would you please watch him a moment longer?”
“My pleasure. You let that man have it!”
Serenity fully intended to.
Morgan walked on, his mind whirling. Why hadn’t Serenity told him? Sent word to him?
You let her face all of it alone!
Guilt sliced through him.
“Morgan Drake.”
He paused at the angry tone he knew so well. Turning around, he saw Serenity headed straight for him with the look on her face that always preceded a lecture.
And deep inside he admitted he loved that look. Had missed it greatly.
“How dare you walk away.” She stopped directly in front of him. “I don’t care if you leave me. I’m a grown woman and that’s fin
e. But how dare you turn your back on your own son. You could have at least held him. Asked about him.”
“I didn’t know what to say,” he said, his own anger rising at her accusations. “I was expecting you, not you and…and a baby!”
He softened his tone and reached out to touch her cheek. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You and I had an understanding.”
Morgan ground his teeth at her obstinacy. “But you went through all this on your own. If you had only told me…”
“I didn’t want you here because you felt obligated, Morgan. I knew if I told you about Nicholas, then your sense of honor would force you to marry me. I told you on Santa Maria that I would never force you to give up your life.”
Morgan pressed his lips together as emotions washed over him. He didn’t deserve her. He knew that. She was so strong and brave.
He’d left her to face a nightmare and now he’d returned like some self-righteous Sir Lancelot trying to make things right.
If he’d possessed half her courage, he would never have allowed her to board that colonial ship in the first place.
He would have seen her grow round with his child.
Been there as she struggled to give Nicholas his life.
“Please don’t send me away, Serenity,” he whispered. “I came back because I need you. I want us…you, me, and Nicholas…to have a life together. To build a house…and…and farm like Jake, or maybe buy a business.”
He took her hand into his. “I no longer care where I live. I just want to be with you, Serenity. With you and with Nicholas forever.” He tightened his grip, afraid she would yet send him away. “Please say yes.”
Serenity took a deep breath and looked up at the sky as if imploring heaven for help. When she gazed back at him, her eyes showed a mixture of deep vexation and mirth. “Of course I’ll say yes, you surly pirate. How could I not?”
Epilogue
“Mother!”
Serenity paused her hand as she heard
Nicholas storm into her study.
“Would you please make Michael return my ship to me?”
“I don’t have his stupid ship,” Michael said, sticking his adorable eight-year-old head in the door. “Barney and Elizabeth have it down at the pond.”
“Well, why didn’t you tell me that?” Nicholas demanded.
“Because you didn’t ask me. You accused me of having it.”
“Boys!” Serenity snapped. “I love you, but I’m trying to get some work done.”
“Sorry,” they said in unison.
“You should have told me,” Nicholas grumbled, shoving Michael out the door.
“You should have asked.”
Smiling, Serenity shook her head. She loved all three of her children, but they were certainly a handful.
Just as she caught up with her thoughts, another knock sounded on her door.
Exasperated, she looked up again. “Yes?”
This time Morgan stuck his head in the door.
Even after ten years of marriage, he looked wonderful. “What do you want?” she asked with a teasing note in her voice.
He came into the room with his hands behind his back. “I have a surprise for you.”
“A surprise?”
“Aye.”
He placed a copy of a book on her desk. Looking down, she gasped. “My story!”
His smile grew wider. “When I was in New York last summer, I met a publisher.”
“You gave him my stories? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I wanted to see the look of surprise on your face. And it’s priceless, truly, truly priceless.”
She laughed at the words that had become their own private joke between them over the years.
“And what can I say?” he asked with a shrug. “I like the idea of being immortalized.”
Laughing, she traced the raised gold letters on the book. The Adventures of the Sea Wolf.
“You even used my name,” she said with a lump in her throat as she saw “S. S. James” on it.
He laughed, then looked down at the desk where she was working. “What are you working on now?”
“Don’t ask.”
He rolled his eyes. “Not more of that social reform rubbish.”
“Rubbish? Why, sir, I’ll have you know that one day—”
He silenced her words with a kiss. “There’s only one place I want my woman,” he whispered against her lips. “And that’s the bedroom. Care to try for a fourth child, Mrs. Drake?”
She bit her lip. “It’s terribly early in the day, Captain.”
“You didn’t seem to mind yesterday.”
And before she could protest, he lifted her in his arms and carried her up the stairs.
About the Author
Bestselling author KINLEY MACGREGOR knows men. She lives outside of Nashville, TN, with her husband and three sons. Raised in the middle of eight boys, and currently outnumbered by the Y chromosome in her home, she realizes the most valuable asset a woman has for coping with men is a sense of humor. Not to mention a large trash bag and a pair of tongs.
Writing as Kinley MacGregor, she is the bestselling author of the Brotherhood of the Sword and the MacAllisters series; as her alter-ego Sherrilyn Kenyon, she is the New York Times bestselling author of the Dark-Hunter, Sex Camp Diaries and BAD series.
www.avonromance.com
www.kinleymacgregor.com
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Praise for USA Today bestselling author
KINLEY MACGREGOR
and
A PIRATE OF HER OWN
“The talented Kinley MacGregor [is at] the top of my ‘must-read’ list.”
Teresa Medeiros
“Kinley MacGregor has written an old-fashioned swashbuckler filled with romance, adventure, bawdy scenes, and enough chills and thrills to keep you burning the midnight oil. An exciting tale, beautifully told.”
Susan Wiggs
“Her admirable flair for the comic is sure to entertain.”
Publishers Weekly
“Kinley MacGregor is a spirited new voice in adventure romance. The delightfully witty repartee between Serenity and Morgan will bring a smile to your lips; their sexual tension and adventures will keep you glued to the page. Keep your eye on Ms. MacGregor.”
Romantic Times
“Humor and passion are the trademarks of any Kinley MacGregor book.”
Christina Dodd
“I love Kinley MacGregor’s books!”
Cathy Maxwell
Also by KINLEY MACGREGOR
BROTHERHOOD OF THE SWORD
TAMING THE SCOTSMAN
BORN IN SIN
CLAIMING THE HIGHLANDER
MASTER OF DESIRE
MASTER OF SEDUCTION
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A PIRATE OF HER OWN. Copyright © 1999 by Kinley MacGregor. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of PerfectBound™.
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