Sea of Desire (10 page)

“I’ve a notion you’ve already been paid. And
I wish to know the name.”

“I’ve been paid nothing, and for the last
time there is no—”

“I carried gold when I came ashore. I still
had it when I met with your father.”

“You mean when you killed my father!”
Merideth swung her fist, but never knew the satisfying feel of
flesh against hated flesh. He caught her wrist as easily as if
she’d told him what she intended to do. Her fury—and fear—mounted
as he yanked her up against him. She could see the prisms of fiery
green radiating from the center of his eyes.

“I did not kill your father.”

There it was again. The temptation to believe
him. But what he said was a lie. It had to be. He’d lied about
everything else. Her father. The money. If there had been gold,
they would have found it.

Besides, there had been a trial. The
magistrate had found him guilty. He
was
guilty. He had to
be. There was no one else.

“Now, if we could get on with this.” He
scowled down at her, and Merideth wondered if he could hear her
heart pounding. “Just tell me what you know and I shall be done
with you. I might even manage to put you ashore on this side of the
channel.”

She raised her chin. Her eyes met his. And
she wished—oh, how she wished—that she could tell him something. At
that moment, with him scowling down at her, his hair dark as a
raven’s wing, his expression hostile and untamed, she could readily
believe his earlier claim that the blood of pirates ran through his
veins. But she knew nothing. In the end that’s all she could
say.

Damn her to hell.

She was afraid. It was obvious she tried to
hide it, but the trembling of her full bottom lip gave her away.
She was afraid, yet she still defied him.

He should be in control. He knew he wasn’t.
Not only did she refuse to tell him what he wanted to know, he
could feel the tiny fissures of desire cracking away at his anger.
Nay, more like fueling it.

Jared didn’t want to see her as a woman... to
think of her as one. She was the enemy. A traitor. But the smell of
her was intoxicating. The feel of her soft body stimulating. His
jaw relaxed and his breathing quickened and he knew... knew she
felt it too.

It was like when they were on the cliff, when
his body had covered hers. This same something had drawn them then.
He had fought it then and failed. He didn’t even want to fight it
now.

Besides, there was more than one way to
persuade.

Intimidation.

Seduction.

Jared ruthlessly shoved aside the sting of
guilt as his lips moved toward hers. She was a spy after all. A
traitor. And wasn’t all fair in love and war?

A gasp, a puff of air, escaped Merideth as he
bent toward her. She had feared his touch on the cliff, and ever
since. She jerked, trying to put space between them, and managed
only to press them closer.

Wriggling only rubbed her breasts against his
broad chest. Fighting only made him lean into her, a devilish gleam
in his green eyes.

“You wouldn’t dare,” she began, and knew by
the slight lifting of his brow that he dared this and more. “Let me
go.”

“I think not.”

“I don’t want you to—”

“You make such a practice of lying, ‘tis no
wonder you’re so good at it.”

“I’m not ly—”

But she never had the chance to finish the
word. His mouth crushed down on hers, hot, hard, and hungry. She
tried to fight him. Tried to twist her face away. But fire raced
from him to her and muddled her resolve.

And it sparked an explosive reaction in her.
One that shocked her nearly as much as the feel of his lips on
hers.

With a growl he deepened the kiss, forcing
her mouth open. Merideth’s mind went blank. Tingles of anticipation
raced across her skin and she sagged against him. Too shaken for
rational thought.

Letting loose of her arm and wrist, Jared let
his hands roam over her. His fingers tangled in the depths of her
golden hair, tugging for better purchase. Passion burned in him
like a white-hot fever, fast and furious. Steeling his
determination, Jared strove to control it before he gave in and
drowned in the sensation.

His seduction had a purpose. He must remember
that.

But oh, when she opened to him so easily, so
completely, it was hard to remember. She was sweet and womanly,
wanton and alluring. Everything a man could want.

With a yank Jared opened the front of her
riding habit and shirt, sending buttons flying. Neither of them
seemed to notice. Still covered by the sheer linen of her shift,
her breasts teased and tantalized, soft, pink-tipped, and puckered
in anticipation. Her head fell back when his callused hand covered
her.

He squeezed, and she moaned, the vibrations
humming across his lips as he followed the curve of her exposed
neck with his mouth. He had never tasted skin so erotically
flavored. He had never wanted a woman so desperately. Jared’s mouth
clamped over the straining tip of her breast and her legs spread,
welcoming his hard body. He rubbed his aching tumescence across her
and she trembled.

Her desire matched his. Her surrender was
complete. She responded to him without reservation, without
hesitation. Quickly. So quickly.

Too quickly.

The words echoed through Jared’s
passion-drugged mind, taking hold and forcing him to think. She
professed to hate him, to believe he murdered her father. Yet she
writhed, moaned... seduced.

Tearing his mouth from her soft skin,
disgusted at his reluctance, Jared held her at arm’s length. Her
eyes blinked open, those blue angel eyes. It took a moment for them
to focus, longer still for her breathing to slow.

He had meant to seduce her, to use sex if he
must to learn her secret. But he’d underestimated her. And he’d
very nearly been seduced himself.

“Don’t think I don’t know what you are,” he
said. “Or what you were doing.” With that he turned on his heel and
stormed from the cabin, leaving Merideth to wonder what in heaven’s
name she
was
doing.

The door wasn’t locked.

Merideth had noticed last night, not long
after Captain Blackstone stormed out of his cabin. But she hadn’t
done anything about it... until now.

At first, she was too stunned. Whatever had
happened between them had shocked her completely. Not
his
behavior. She expected no better from him. He was obviously an
uncouth colonial unfamiliar with gentlemanly behavior.

But what of herself? Merideth was honest
enough to admit that beyond the initial contact, she hadn’t been
forced to do anything. Not kiss him back. Or clutch his shoulders.
Or writhe against him wantonly. She also knew in her heart that he
was the one who had stopped. Stopped, leaving her bewildered and
feeling like an abandoned toy.

“That’s just plain foolish,” Merideth mumbled
to herself as she lifted the latch and heard the door squeak open.
“The entire thing is foolish.” And she wasn’t about to let it bog
her down. She would simply put it behind her.

Whatever she’d felt when Captain Blackstone
had held her would be forgotten, thrust from her mind. For she had
far more important things to think about.

Like the cannon fire that still echoed in her
head.

The booming sound had woken her this morn
with a suddenness that slashed away any grogginess caused by a
near-sleepless night. She’d scrambled from the window seat, where
she’d perched when her legs had grown too heavy to continue her
pacing. A quick search out the transom windows had told her nothing
except that whatever they were firing at wasn’t in their wake.

There had been few shots. The battle, if
that’s what it had been, was over almost before it began.

And now Merideth was going to see what was
happening. She peeked into the companionway, found it empty, and
walked toward the hatch. Slowing her pace, she listened to the
noises overhead. Was it too much to hope that an English cruiser
had captured the
Carolina
? Merideth hoped not, for she
wished it with all her heart.

But it was not to be. As she came above deck
for the first time in daylight, Merideth realized it was the
Carolina
who had been victorious. Her crew, not a one of
which appeared wounded, was busy securing an English merchantman to
its side with grappling hooks.

At the sound of the only voice on board she
recognized, Merideth turned, brushing back her hair when it was
caught by the stiff breeze. She found Captain Blackstone on the
quarterdeck yelling orders to some of his men as they scrambled
over the deck railing onto the captured ship.

Tall and imposing, with his dark-blue jacket
flung open by the wind, her captor stood with his legs spread, his
arms clutched behind him. He appeared very much in charge and even
more intimidating with the sun banishing the shadows from his
handsome face.

He’d yet to notice her, and for one cowardly
moment Merideth considered backing down through the hatch and
slipping back into his cabin. But she didn’t. Her chin held high,
her resolve but a tad shaky, Merideth moved through the sailors who
seemed to pay her little heed.

It wasn’t the captain who saw her first, but
the man standing by his side. He was nearly as tall as Jared
Blackstone, with deep-auburn hair, and a pleasant expression. His
blue eyes sparkled and an engaging grin split his face when he
spotted Merideth.

She watched as he nudged the captain, an
elbow in the lean ribs beneath the billowing white shirt. Jared
stopped his study of a chart to follow the other man’s gaze.

Captain Blackstone seemed to find her
presence less than amusing.

A scowl blackened his countenance as he took
a menacing step toward her. “What in the hell are you doing up
here?”

She would not be intimidated. She wouldn’t.
Merideth stood her ground on the gently rolling ship. “I came up to
see what was happening.”

“What does or does not go on upon this ship
is no concern of yours. Besides,” Jared added, annoyed that this
had been his first concern when he saw her, “ ‘tisn’t safe. We’ve
just captured a British vessel.”

“I’d rather hoped it might be the other way
round. And I seriously doubt I’ve good loyal Englishmen to
fear.”

The other man chuckled at her remarks, which
earned him a frown from his captain. “Don’t encourage her, Paddy.
She’s difficult enough as it is. As for you...” He faced Merideth
again, those green eyes that reminded her of the sea near sunset
boring into her. “You are to get below and stay below. Lord only
knows how you managed to escape through a locked door,” he
finished, turning back to his chart.

“Easily enough, since you failed to lock it
when you left last evening.”

At that the man he called Paddy let out a
loud guffaw, and Merideth realized the captain hadn’t truly been
angry before, merely annoyed. Now, however, he was furious. But
before he could reach her, the other man stepped forward.

“We’ve yet to be introduced. I’m Padriac
Delany, at your service. And you must be the lovely Lady Banistar
of whom I’ve heard so much,” he said, his words embossed with a
Gaelic lilt.

He took her hand, and he smiled so charmingly
as he brought it to his lips that Merideth couldn’t help but
respond. Perhaps here was someone she could turn to. Ignoring the
captain, she moved with him to the rail when he suggested she might
have a better view of the proceedings.

“Don’t bother yourself, Jared,” he said.
“I’ll see Lady Merideth back to the cabin when she’s had a
look.”

Expecting a verbal rebuke at the very least,
Merideth slanted a glance under her lashes. But the captain’s only
response was a brief shrug of his broad shoulders before he went
back to work.

And though Padriac Delany seemed very
courteous, he soon had her below deck. And as soon as the door
closed behind her, Merideth heard the unmistakable click of the
lock.