Not until now did she realize that, in her tumble, her night shift had risen to drastic heights and now rode about her thighs. Even more alarming, she was feeling not only the heat of him, but also the hair on his legs rubbing intimately against hers. Her eyes widened, her mind spinning with wayward thoughts no virgin spinster should entertain.
“Oh, dear!” she whispered. “Dear me!” Her gaze locked with his, and she silently vowed that she would die before allowing her roving eyes to travel further than they already had. She did not want to see what the lower half of him looked like—truly she didn’t, despite an errant curiosity that seemed to have sprung up from heaven knew where. It was bad enough to imagine it, and to feel every intriguing inch of him imprinted upon the length of her.
To her utter mortification, the devil seemed to read her mind “Go ahead, Eden. Look at me. Touch me.”
“Captain Kane!”
He shook his head in mocking reproach. “Ah, Eden, how you do tempt me, spread beneath me, all warm and inviting. Most especially since I’ve not been with a woman for some time before my unfortunate disappearance. But I prefer my lovers aquiver with passion, not quaking with shame and pretending righteous scorn. I will let you go, unscathed for now, for the price of hearing you speak my name. ’Tis Devlin. Say it, Eden. Softly. Let me hear my name tremble from your rose-sweet lips.”
She stared up at him warily, not at all sure she could trust him to keep his word, though what she would do if he did not was unthinkable. Screaming would only awaken her mother, who could not come to her aid and would only be more frightened than ever. To fight him could only anger him and earn her more harm than he might now intend. Besides, pitting her puny muscles against his was akin to trying to hold back the tide with a teaspoon. There was no way she would win in a battle of strength.
“You’ll release me, if I but say your name?” she asked doubtfully, her eyes searching his.
“Aye.”
On a quick prayer, she blurted, “Devlin.”
Again he shook his head. “Nay, Eden. I said softly. Sweetly.”
Tears pricked behind her lids. A trembling sigh escaped her lips, and with it his name, like the gentlest sea breeze. “Devlin.”
Unable to help himself, Devlin lowered his lips toward hers, their mouths hovering a whisper apart. “Eden,” he breathed. Then, ever so tenderly, not wanting to frighten her or ruin the fragile beauty of the moment, he kissed her. Just a touching of the lips. A light brush of flesh against flesh. A fleeting caress, no more than the stroke of a butterfly’s wings.
So surprisingly tender, so exquisite was it, that it brought fresh tears springing to Eden’s eyes. Never would she have expected such gentleness from this man. This pirate. For a few precious, stolen seconds, she forgot to be afraid and let herself revel in the giddy joy spiraling through her with this, her very first romantic kiss.
It was over all too soon. Reality came crashing down upon her the minute his mouth left hers. Bright flags of color stained her cheeks as he gazed down at her, his eyes dark and fathomless. Before she had time to react, to question whether to push him away or pull him back for more, Devlin levered himself from her, whisking the sheet over his lower body as he went.
“Go, Eden. Escape while you may,” he told her gruffly. “Before my desires overcome my sense and I break my pledge.”
Stumbling from the bed, still half-dazed, she croaked out. “You already have, Captain Kane. You vowed to let me go upon saying your name, yet demanded a kiss as well.”
As she turned on her heel, he caught hold of the braid hanging halfway down her back, halting her flight. “Nay, my saucy kitten. The kiss was but a reward for uttering my name in such dulcet tones. ’Twas anything but a demand, and not taken by force. If you are at all honest with yourself, you will know I speak truly.”
When she would have left, he held her fast. “Once ’tis given, I stand by my word, Eden. I lie not. And I tell you this just as surely. This kiss was but a hint of what is to follow between us.”
Not daring to turn and look at him, she stood stiffly, held prisoner by the hand still clasping her plait. “Is that a threat, Captain Kane?”
“Nay. ’Tis a promise, my beauty. Fair warning, if you will.”
“And what if I decide otherwise? What if I do not want what you offer? Will you then revert to force, and take what you desire, regardless of my wishes?”
He had the temerity to laugh, low and huskily. “I do not foresee that necessity. Though I have little practice in the art of wooing virginal maids, I’m willing to wager I can win you over without undue force.”
She gasped, insulted and outraged. “Do I appear so pathetic that you believe a few kisses will have me panting after you, weak to your will? Think again, pirate. Hell will be knee-deep in snow before I yield to you.”
“Such will happen sooner than you think, made all the quicker every time you address me as other than Devlin. Unless, of course, you employ a more honeyed term for me, such as ‘sweetheart’ or ‘darling.’ That I would not object to at all. But for every time you call me Captain Kane, there will be a penalty.” He released her hair and she fled to the door.
“You are a conceited beast!” she hissed back at him defiantly.
His soft chuckle chased after her. “Your barbs will have to be sharper than that to wound my thick hide. At least you remembered not to call me Captain Kane.”
To say she was reluctant to face him the next morning was to understate the matter in the extreme. Not that Eden feared him all that much. He’d said he would not harm her, and for some reason she believed him. She was more mortified by her tumble into his bed than truly frightened of him, though if she had a lick of sense she should be scared witless. The man was a pirate, for heaven’s sake! A huge, strong, handsome pirate! And she’d gone as giddy as a goose at his mere kiss! Which only proved how dotty spinsterhood was rendering her these days!
She was still berating herself for her lack of self-control as she entered the kitchen. Dora stood at the stove, turning a steaming batch of hash in a skillet— and at her elbow stood Devlin Kane, blithely leaning against the sideboard and pilfering bits of potato from the frying pan!
“What do you think you’re doing?” Eden exclaimed aloud, forgetting herself in her amazement at his recklessly bold behavior.
Dora spun about, almost upending the skillet in her haste. She gasped, clutching her chest. “Miss Eden! You scared the bloomin’ daylights out o’ me!”
While Dora’s back was turned, Devlin stole another tidbit, grinned at Eden, and popped the morsel into his mouth.
“I ... I’m sorry, Dora,” Eden stammered, still staring at her smug houseguest, who was now calmly licking his fingers clean. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“Well, you almost caused my old heart to stop, let me tell you. And for what? You can see as plain as anything that I’m fixin’ the mornin’ meal, same as I’ve done every day for the last five years.” With only two of the seven years of her agreed term to go, Dora had long since ceased to be timid in the Winters household, considering herself more a friend of the family than an indentured servant.
With a put-upon huff, Dora turned back to her work, shaking her head. “There must be somethin’ in the air, is all I can figure,” she muttered half to herself. “First I can’t find the potatoes left over from last evening’s dinner—and I know good and well I put them in the pantry—and now you’re askin’ fool questions, like you’ve gone moonstruck. And your mama ramblin’ on about pigs in the yard and wantin’ to sleep in, when she’s always pesterin’ me to get her dressed and downstairs before breakfast.”
Devlin swaggered over and gave Eden a swift peck on the cheek. “Tell her to pile your plate high this morning, my beauty,” he whispered, his black eyes gleaming with mischief. “We’ll be sharing a trencher, and I wouldn’t want you to starve.”
“What was that?” Dora questioned, not bothering to turn around.
“Oh, uh, I just asked if
you could give me an extra helping,” Eden fumbled, glaring at Devlin and swatting at the big hand that came up to play at her nape. “I’m feeling more hungry than usual.”
At this, Dora did turn, a smile on her apple-round face. “ ’Tis about time you stopped eatin’ like a bird, Miss Eden. I swear, you worry every bit of nourishment off your bones.”
To Dora’s astonishment, Eden ate three times her normal fare that morning. In addition to the hash, she devoured half a dozen eggs and nearly twice that number of jam-smothered muffins. “My goodness, girl! Those long legs o’ yours must’ve gone hollow in the night!” she marveled, ignoring Eden’s embarrassed blush, made even more rosy by the ribald gaze Devlin cast toward her lower limbs. “You keep puttin’ meals like that under your belt, and I’ll need to make more trips to the market. Not that I’m complainin’, mind you.”
Eden waited just long enough to greet her mother who was still in bed, then hastily made for the door before Devlin could devise any further tomfoolery. “I’ll be at the warehouse, Mama, should you have need of me.”
“I do wish you could bring the accounts home and work on them here,” Jane stated. “Not that I’d be much help, but at least I would have your company.”
Devlin tapped Eden’s shoulder, nodding that the suggestion had merit. “I’ll consider it,” Eden said, in answer to both.
“Oh, and dear,” Jane called after her, “what should I say to Mr. Finster, should he come looking for you again?”
“I doubt that he will,” Eden said with a frown. “At least not today. He stopped by the warehouse yesterday, and I spoke with him there.”
“But if he should?” Jane persisted, knowing that the man was pursuing her daughter, and the reason behind his many visits. To her mind, the man was the worst sort of vermin, made more so because after seeing him Eden was always more troubled than before.
“For all I care, tell him to take a long stroll off the deep end of a very short dock, preferably with a large stone tied about his neck!” Eden grumbled. This surprised a gruff guffaw from Devlin, who could not contain his laughter.
Jane’s brow wrinkled in concern. “Eden, are you coming down with a cough?”
“No, just a bit of something caught in my throat, Mama,” Eden fabricated.
She quickly ushered Devlin out the door and railed at him all the way to the stables. “Drat you and your infernal noises! Because of you, I’ve told more lies in one day than I’ve uttered in my whole lifetime!”
“And just how long is that, my sweet spinster?” he prodded with a wry grin, blatantly unrepentant.
“That, sir, is none of your concern.”
“Don’t be so prickly, Eden. You can’t be that old.” “If you must know, I’m two and twenty.”
“Ah, a fledgling yet, not even dry behind your ears! Why, I’ve five years on you, and I certainly don’t consider myself ready to retire to my rocking chair.”
“You are a man. There is a difference, you know,” she said with a sniff.
“So glad you noticed, sweetling. What else caught your interest last night?”
She stopped short, her eyes raking over him like angry blue-green fire. “Captain Kane, you are loud, brash, ill-bred, and totally irritating. There is not a compelling thing about you,” she fibbed. Except your fine body, and your devil-black eyes, and a wealth of chest hair my fingers still itch to touch, she added silently, despising her own weakness toward him.
One golden brow cocked upward in amusement. “Is there not? Then why is your face as red as a setting sun? You’re a poor liar, Eden.”
Quickly, before she could discern his intent, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her soundly, his mouth commanding hers to respond. When her lips remained closed to him, his tongue swept over them, painting them with moist heat. His strong white teeth nipped gently at the lush curves, until her gasp gained him entry.
Shock held her still; his breath stole her own, making her head spin alarmingly; and the touch of his tongue to hers sent flames sparking through her, making her stomach tighten and her limbs quake. When at last he released her, she stumbled against the buggy, stunned and shaken.
Noting with satisfaction the sheen of her passion-dewed lips and the glaze of desire lingering in her eyes, he drawled, “That, Eden, is the penalty I spoke of last evening. The cost of calling me Captain Kane. Now, should you wish more of the same, pray continue addressing me as such. ’Twill be my pleasure to administer the punishment. And yours to receive it.”
Furious, humiliated beyond bearing, Eden acted before considering the consequences. Spying the buggy whip so near at hand, she yanked it from its mooring and swung it at him with all her might.
In the blink of an eye, he tore it from her grasp, the thong never grazing his flesh. His sin-black eyes promised retribution as his long fingers bent the limber rod nearly in half. For several dreadful seconds, he continued to flex the whip, his searing gaze trapping hers as Eden slowly backed away and he followed step for step. “I should beat your sweet butt until you plead for mercy, you bloodthirsty little wench. Until you learn a few well-deserved lessons in the manners you claim I lack.”
“No!” she squawked, her eyes huge and her throat dry. Her arms came up across her face, anticipating a blow at any moment. “Please! I’m sorry!”
“Sorry you attempted to strike me? Or sorry I now hold your weapon?” he taunted, daring her to lie to him.
“Sorry I lost my temper,” she hedged.
Her answer so deftly sidestepped the trap he’d set for her that Devlin was hard-put not to laugh. With effort, and with high regard for her agility of mind in the face of imminent danger, he left his features stern. “Get into that buggy!” he roared. “Now!”
In a mad flurry of skirts, she scrambled into the seat. There she cowered until he’d hitched the horses and joined her. Without another word, he handed her the reins.
They were some distance from the house when Eden dared to remind him, “You swore not to hurt me.”
His gaze caught on her lower lip, which now protruded in an alluring pout. “I haven’t,” he answered simply.
“You wanted to.”
“But I didn’t.”
“Didn’t do it? Or didn’t want to?”
He laughed aloud, his shaggy blond head thrown back in his delight at being snared in the same net he’d thrown at her. “Let us just say I should have. You would have deserved it.”
“A matter of opinion, Cap—Devlin,” she stated stubbornly.
“Ah, Eden,” he told her on a deep-throated chuckle, “you are priceless! A feisty feline, all teeth and claws when your back is up. Certainly no dainty, simpering maiden to faint at a man’s feet. Yet a lady from the top of your head to the tips of your toes, for all that. You make me wonder why I came to your aid so swiftly, when Finster wouldn’t have lasted a month against your stinging wit. You’d have driven him mad in no time.”
“I would have tried,” she answered simply, a smile playing at her lips.
The way Devlin had phrased some of his comments, she wasn’t entirely sure if he’d meant to compliment her or not. But his tone had indicated admiration. His smile warmed her deep inside, though it baffled her that the dubious praise of an arrogant pirate should affect her so. Still, she sat a little taller in the seat, her posture straighter than usual, her turquoise eyes aglow with unleashed humor—and with renewed pride in her own worth.
Chapter 6
While Eden worked on the account books in the warehouse office, Devlin decided to put his invisibility to good use and have a look around the place. It was turning out to be very advantageous to be able to listen in on private conversations without being seen. Or to snoop through the goods stored there with no one being in the least suspicious.
By the time he’d been there an hour, it was plain to him that Winters Warehouse was not being operated with much efficiency. Merchandise was stored haphazardly, with little or no regard for items which might be spoiled or crushed, and no
obvious measures taken to safeguard against theft. Under different circumstances, Devlin would have been thrilled to learn this. The warehouse and its treasures were ripe pickings for even a novice brigand. Robbing it would be as easy as pie. But the shoe was on the other foot this time, and Devlin had pledged to help Eden, not steal from her. Besides which, his own accumulation of plunder would now be housed on these premises, and he did not want to see it walk off in the middle of the night, his gains in someone else’s pocket. Pilfered or not, it was still his plunder, and he meant to keep it that way.
Other things, too, were readily obvious. The warehouse should have been doing twice the business it appeared to be. Devlin counted at least a dozen workmen standing about doing nothing more strenuous than trading tales with one another and drinking ale. They made no attempt to look busy when John Tilton walked by, merely gave the man a friendly wave and went back to their conversation. It was only when a customer appeared that they wandered off in different directions, to reconvene a few minutes later in another location.
Another ship was berthed at the dock, scheduled to unload before the Gai Mer, and Devlin wandered down to observe the proceedings more closely. Tilton was there, involved in a heated argument with the ship’s captain.
“See here, man!” the captain argued. “The sum you are demanding is far and above what we were told ’twould be.”
Tilton’s narrow gaze never shifted as he spat a stream of tobacco, then spoke around the wad in his cheek. “That was the cost of storing your merchandise. There’s an added fee for docking and unloading. It’ll also cost you extra if my men do the work, but you’re free to have your crew transfer the cargo, if you prefer. Or you can forget the whole deal and go to one of the other warehouses. Take it or leave it.”
“It’ll be another week or more if I contract with another warehouse, and well you know it!” the captain retorted. “Some of the goods could rot by then.”
“Ain’t my problem, Cap’n,” Tilton told him dryly.
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