Curtis ran a rough palm down the bare curve of her thigh until she lifted it just enough to wrap around his leg. She parted her lips hesitantly, innocently against his, letting him teach her with his mouth. He groaned and her insides leapt with pleasure. His fingers clutched her with increasing intensity and Cadence nearly panicked when he raised the tail of the shirt, the only barrier between his hands and her flesh—
“Captain!” a heavy rap upon the door and the voice of Mr. Bowen reinstated the passage of time, dragging them back to reality.
Cadence took a heady step out of his arms pressing both palms to her flushed cheeks. “What?” Curtis barked, shoving abruptly away from her.
“We’ll be needin’ ye on the deck, sir,” the mate replied brusquely.
“On my way,” Curtis returned testily. Turning back to Cadence he spoke quietly, “Do not leave my cabin. I’m not finished with you yet.”
She did not know what to make of his meaning and stood stock still in the middle of the room as he stalked through the door. She hadn’t known it was possible for a man to have so many muscles, to be so hard, or feel so good. No fantasy could have done that man justice. Man? Oh, no, Curtis Langston was a god. Shaking her head to clear it she looked around and instantly realized she had no idea how long she’d been unconscious. Hours? Days? In the wake of the storm the blue sky and November sun reflected brilliantly off the deceptively calm, glossy sea. Attempting to distract herself she walked to the porthole rubbing her arms, thoroughly shaken by the recent turn of events.
What would Curtis do with her now?
He’d been angry enough to breathe fire in one instant, and in the next, kissing her as she’d not known it was possible to be kissed. Quickly scanning the cabin she located her clothes, dried stiffly, but wearable. She dragged them on. Perching tentatively on the bed she debated on whether or not to await Curtis’s return. Electing to comply with his present wishes rather than take the risk of prompting further wrath she paced the room nervously toying with her hair, which for the moment she’d left loose—it felt good to wear it unbound.
What if he tried to kiss her again?
It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy kissing him or even that she didn’t want to kiss him—she did want to kiss him—but she was terrified of where his amorous attentions may ultimately lead. He need only look at her and she lost all sense of time or propriety. Curtis affected her as no other ever had or would. She responded to him with an abandon bordering upon recklessness. If pressed, she had serious doubts as to her ability to keep from yielding all of herself to him. Cadence knew what happened between a man and woman and truth be told in the deepest regions of her soul she wanted for him to do far more than kiss her.
* * *
On deck the bite of salty November air did much to cool Curtis’s flaming ardor. Five weeks at sea fantasizing about a woman and… His thoughts transported him back to the cabin…
She’d landed in his arms and suddenly he hadn’t been cold any longer. He’d been on fire, burning for her. He’d dreamed about Cadence… longed to hold her, make love to her, and then there she was willing and pliant and practically naked in his arms. The feel of her slender body arched against his seemed permanently imprinted on his flesh. If Mr. Bowen had not interrupted at that particular moment Curtis had little doubt he’d have been making love to Cadence in mere moments. Tugging off his knit cap he ran a calloused hand over his face.
What was she doing here? He knew things at home had been bad, but what would prompt her to disguise herself as a boy and stow away aboard a ship? His ship? What would prompt her to forever destroy her reputation? His jaw tensed as the only plausible explanation for her actions flashed bold and painful in his brain.
She wanted to trap him—or more likely his money. Scheming women had tried to trap both of his older brothers in compromising situations; such was the curse of belonging to a rich and powerful family. Why should Curtis believe himself exempt from such underhanded ploys?
It all made perfect sense. Why hadn’t he seen through her motives sooner?
All she had to do was come aboard his ship make her presence known and his bachelor’s life was over, done-for! Well, Curtis Langston was not a man so easily fooled. As much as her shimmering beauty had appealed to him it was obvious what a scheming wench she really was. Angel… Ha! To think he’d believed her all sweetness and light and good. Here was proof that all goodness was tainted. She was no different. This time his escape had been narrow, too narrow, but next time… there wouldn’t be a next time. She may have placed the noose around his neck, but he would be damned before he allowed Cadence Jamison to tighten the knot.
* * *
The vision of a noose flashed before her mind’s eye. Cadence shuddered. For four miserable hours later she paced the captain’s cabin in nervous apprehension. Curtis was still angry. No doubt he was preparing to have her thrown in the brig for transport back to Charleston Harbor this very moment.
What awaited her in Charleston was unbearable.
Just as she was ready to escape Curtis’s quarters and seek refuge in her own bunk the door quietly opened and closed with an ominous click of the latch. Turning slowly her heart grew cold at the sight of him. Standing rigid inside the hatch he exuded the very essence of a wrathful god. Twisting her hands nervously no adequate words of explanation came to her lips, so she waited for him to speak.
“I know what you’re about, Cadence.” His quiet voice was razor sharp as he strode toward her.
He knew? What did he know? What could he have heard before setting sail? What had the other crewman told him?
“I will not be trapped by a conniving, devious little girl who fancies getting rich by snaring a rich husband!”
Relief so profound she nearly laughed aloud descended upon her. He had no knowledge of her plight. But the relief was bittersweet as each word chiseled viciously at her heart. His eyes burned so condemningly that her head sagged in defeat upon her shoulders.
“Look at me!” he growled grabbing her shoulders and giving them a vicious shake.
Unable to raise her eyes she choked on a heartbroken sob. “No,” the word was barely audible. “You’re mistaken, Curtis. I’m not trying to trap you.”
“Like hell!” he scorned.
“No!” she cried out again, tears spilling unchecked over thick dark lashes. “I told you before I just needed to get away from Charleston, away from family, from my life!” His eyes, so unearthly blue, glowed coldly into hers. “Please believe me, Curtis, I want and expect nothing from you. I have no illusions of becoming your wife. Please,” she sobbed the word again, “please believe me. Don’t take me back to Charleston.”
Curtis hesitated, hard exterior wavering. A sliver of hope wiggled into her mind. Perhaps he would heed her plea and assist her after all.
“No one on board this vessel will know who you really are,” Curtis said finally. “As long as you remain aboard my ship you will be ‘Cam’ the cabin boy. In London I will secure you appropriately chaperoned passage back to Charleston and I will deny any claims of your ever having been on my ship. Is that clear?”
Cadence lost all hope. Curtis Langston was no different from any other man. And he was certainly no knight in shining armor. Throughout the whole of her life men had expected, nay, believed the worst of her, seen her as tainted because of the nefarious deeds of her mother and sister. She’d believed Curtis different, believed he’d see her differently. It was cruel indeed to learn this one man who quickened her pulse was cut of the same cloth as her father. Surely the whole of the sex was the same. Though Curtis had never physically struck her, his blows of distrust had proved more painful, and the consequences infinitely more dire.
With new found defiance she stared at his turned back. She would not hang for a crime she’d not committed! She would still escape. One day Curtis Langston, and this suffocating pain in her breast, would be but a distant memory. She was stronger than this. She was stronger than all of them! I don�
�t need him, she screamed silently, bolting for the comfort of her small cabin, I can make a life for myself. With resounding finality she slammed the door sliding the latch home. Collapsing into her bunk, she allowed a heart wrenching sob to tear from her throat, try as she might the endless flow of tears would not be swallowed back.
“Damn you Curtis Langston!”
But the words were false even to her ears. It was not Curtis she was angry with. It was fate.
* * *
“The captain is in a foul temper tonight.” Curtis overheard the night watchman matter-of-factly state to Mr. Bowen. He’d stalked restlessly about the deck for hours, at long last stopping to brood in an inky shadow.
“Aye,” Mr. Bowen agreed. “If we weren’t so long at sea I’d have a mind to think a woman had jilted him.”
If only these men knew.
Eight
Cadence continued to work steadfastly about the ship. Every morning Curtis found his cabin tidied and coffee on his desk at the prescribed times. Cadence knew the routine well and performed with such efficiency that Curtis never saw her.
She was avoiding him.
Just as well. He took great pains to avoid her as well. Of course aboard ship, even a ship as sizeable as The Mistress, it was only a matter of time before hiding spaces were exhausted. It was only a matter of time before their paths were doomed to cross…
Curtis sensed Cadence the moment he stepped from the companionway onto the weathered planks of the deck. The sensation proved so overpowering that he hardly took note of the chill air. It was incredible really, but when Cadence was near he need not see her to know exactly where she was. Unable to help himself, his eyes whisked upward to feast upon her expertly negotiating the rigging, on her way to the crow’s nest no doubt. He knew an intense desire to kick himself for ever believing such a beautiful woman was a boy. Even at this distance the slender curve of her thighs was unmistakable… her thighs… he sighed, how blissful it would be to…
To have missed such a thing he must be getting old.
No, not old, he was entirely too young to be getting old, but he feared losing his edge. Between serving as an army scout and engaging in acts some considered piracy as a blockade runner he’d honed razor sharp senses. But of late his finely tuned instincts had begun to dull. He tried to blame the change on captaining an honest sailing vessel but it didn’t ring true. The changes in him, all parts of him, were because of Cadence. And like it or not, deserving or not, she’d brought to light all the things he’d not allowed himself to hope for. Damn it all, but that girl had him dreaming. Dreaming! And dreaming had him feeling damn tired at the tender age of twenty-four.
The ship rolled heavily to starboard and Candace’s lithe figure, moving ever higher, lost the tenuous footing upon the lines. For a single heart stopping moment it looked as though she would lose the precarious one armed grasp, and topple to the unforgiving deck below. At the last moment she swung a long leg around a single taut line and nimbly hauled herself back into the rigging. His heart leapt clear into his throat.
“Cade, er, Cam!” he barked, rushing forward. “Get the hell down here!” Though too far off to clearly see her expression Curtis was not immune to the irate glare she threw upon him. He could sense it, just as he could sense the defiance emanating from her rigid body. Moments later, her feet hit the deck, and her shoulders squared regally, presenting him a full view of her back. As she took a step toward the companion-way he reached out to snare her roughly by the arm. “Do not walk away from me. What were you doing up there?”
Jerking her arm from his grasp she supplied curtly, “I was going to the crow’s nest the same as I’ve done at least a hundred times since becoming your cabin boy.”
“You could have been hurt!” The helmsman cast a curious glance from his elevated deck, and Curtis instantly lowered the tone of his voice. At this rate he would give up the presence of a woman on board all on his own.
“You never cared about that before.”
He growled low in his throat. “That was different,”
“How?”
“I don’t know.” He felt at a total loss for words. Because now you’re a girl? He knew better than to say that. “It’s just different and I don’t want to see you up there again.” Failing miserably at an attempt for a more officious tone he demanded, “Understood?”
Cadence tilted her head to the side and may have looked serene if not for the roiling undercurrent reflected in her ethereal eyes. “Why, Captain Langston, you couldn’t mean to imply that you were concerned for my safety? Would it not have been far more convenient to let me tumble to the deck? After all, I am only here to trap you for my own ends.”
She may well have slapped him in the face. “Don’t be ridiculous, Cadence,” he snarled. “I would never wish you any harm. You know me better than that.”
“Do I?”
Their eyes locked and instantaneously all fire sucked from the argument. For one blissful moment the world simply… fell away.
He stepped forward, extending an arm, intending to offer an olive branch of sorts. “Cadence, I—”
“Curtis, don’t!” Hastily she turned away from him. “Just ignore the fact that I’m a girl,” she whispered too breathlessly. “I am Cam, Cam! Pretend I’m not here.” Her voice grew hushed. “I was never here. Remember that.”
* * *
Guilt ate holes the size of silver dollars through his conscience for the rest of the afternoon, and, he reasoned, it wasn’t fair! He had absolutely nothing to feel guilty for. She should be the one riddled with guilt. She had knowingly set about to use and deceive him!
Or had she…?
While guilt gnawed his conscience, doubts ate his mind. Nothing seemed as it should. None of his logic seemed the least bit logical and no matter how often he ran the facts of the situation through his mind, nothing ever truly added up. If he was all she wanted then why the elaborate charade? Why not just make her presence known a day or two into the voyage? All she had to do was ensure the entire crew was aware of her and he’d be hauled to the altar with at least one righteous gun to his back. And yet she seemed intent upon keeping herself hidden. Could it be she truly planned to fade into oblivion once they reached Europe? Or was it a scheme more elaborate than he’d initially comprehended?
It was a riddle. He hated riddles.
With a heavy sigh Curtis gaze over the distant sea. The time had come to have a serious talk with Cadence Jamison.
* * *
Cadence stood at the rail gazing at the glittering expanse of nighttime stars. How endlessly they stretched and how small and blissfully insignificant she felt at that moment. Of late she felt the eyes and scrutiny of the world. Once Curtis returned her to Charleston it would be worse. She was reminded of a circus sideshow she’d seen years ago. How that poor twisted boy must have felt to be stared at, laughed at day in and day out, all because his limbs had not grown straight. Cadence had never laughed or pointed or started, but it was not until this moment that she understood, felt a kinship with that boy. Upon arrival in Charleston no one would see her as a person. No one would care what became of her, and she would be nothing more than another circus freak show, standing in the gallows with a noose around her neck.
She could tell Curtis.
Perhaps if she confided in him, told him of the fears she had for her very life he would allow her to fade into the shadows of London. She chewed her bottom lip until it tasted raw. Dare she trust him? He hadn’t given any credence to her words before, hadn’t really offered her a chance to explain.
Telling him was out of the question. He would sooner damn her than put his trust in the one he believed nothing more than a cunning vixen. Turning away from the flat expanse of the sea her knees turned to jelly. Curtis stood directly behind her, hands behind his back, studying her with an expressionless face. Unnerved, she wondered how long he’d been standing there. Watching her.
“You told me once,” he began softly, “that if you’d b
een born a boy you would have gone to sea. Is that true?”
“Yes,” she murmured, finding her protective wall of anger just beyond reach.
He stepped forward, leaning so close his breath brushed seductively against her ear sending prickles of awareness down her spine. She trembled.
“How would you like to see the helm?”
* * *
Curtis stopped short. The breath may well have been sucked from his lungs as Cadence turned that incredible beaming smile upon him. Suddenly, he found himself drowning, yes drowning, in the star-studded shine of her eyes. She smiled as though he were the only man in the world and all he could think was, oh, God please help me. He was wrecked again. The anger was gone. The doubts were gone. And she… well, she was heaven, and he was smiling. Smiling because of her. Almost without cognizance he held out an arm and smiling like a lovesick idiot said, “This way my lovely lady.”
Cadence (Langston Brothers Series) Page 7