Mystery in the Moonlight (25 page)

He turned away from her to look out to the open sea. His profile was etched sharply against the silvery waters beyond the cove. Was this the way she’d always remember him once he left her on that island, ridding himself of an unnecessary burden?

“I suppose they’d have to find Ned’s body before they’d be willing to take action,” Bryce continued bitterly. “I hope you’ve run out of questions since I don’t know very many answers. That’s why I usually avoid talking about it…with outsiders.”

She was an outsider, Caitlin thought sadly, soon to be left on St. Vincent. Wasn’t there some way she could make him see that she understood, to touch him emotionally?

“If the authorities have no record of a murder, why do you assume that your brother is dead?” she asked, attempting to draw him out with a more hopeful approach.

“Ned’s been gone for more than a month without contacting our family. My younger brother was always a little wild, but he’s never lost contact. And then there’s the fact that an informant told me that one of Moreau’s top men bragged about Ned Winslow being dead. It was some guy named…” He paused, and his features changed. “Some man named Teach.
Teach!
That’s where I heard that name before. Could he have been in on Ned’s murder?” He slammed a fist into the rail. “Damn! Sometimes I wonder if any of my speculations make sense.”

“It must be very frustrating,” said Caitlin seriously, identifying with Bryce’s feelings for his brother, whether he knew she understood or not. She would certainly be angry and sorrowful if Jarvis or Hugh had been murdered.

“The only thing I can do is bring the killers to justice.”

“But even that won’t bring Ned back,” she mused. His pained expression made her instantly regret her words. Reaching out, she placed a hand on his comfortingly. “I’m sorry, Bryce. I shouldn’t have said that.”

He turned toward her, taking her offering graciously, firmly grasping her hand and stroking the back of it with his fingers. “It should be me who’s saying I’m sorry…for dragging you into this mess.”

“It hasn’t been all bad,” she said, smiling warmly up at him, delighting in his touch. “I enjoyed learning how to sail, and I’ve always liked working in the open air.”

“You enjoyed it?” Bryce laughed and shook his head disbelievingly. “How can you stand here and reassure me that you’ve enjoyed being kidnapped? That sounds like something Ned would have gotten a woman to do.”

“Well, I didn’t say I enjoyed
everything,
” she said, protesting emphatically, then focused on his last statement. “Ned kidnapped women?”

“No, he never went that far,” he said, drawing Caitlin’s arm inside his own, bringing her nearer. She took a deep breath. “Up to now the worst thing Ned ever pulled was stealing a neighbor’s sailboat, then conning the man into saying he wanted him to take it. Ned always wheeled and dealed on a small scale…until he got in with Moreau. His desire for excitement got out of control, I guess. And he wasn’t one to worry about the consequences. My brother thought he could talk his way out of anything.”

After remaining thoughtfully silent for a moment he added, “I’ve always suspected that Ned felt compelled to prove something because he saw himself in competition with me. I was older and more responsible in our parents’ eyes.”

“I think I understand,” Caitlin murmured.

Leaning over, Bryce surprised her by brushing a light kiss across her cheek. He spoke softly. “Then you probably understand enough to know why I’m going to take you to St. Vincent.”

The feel of his warm lips against her face had made her heart pound erratically. She waited with bated breath, expecting the kiss to be followed with something more. But he made no move.

“I don’t want to go,” she told him.

“You have to. I can’t endanger you, Caitlin.”

Thinking of the mesmerizing depths of his sea-green eyes, she knew she’d already encountered the greatest danger, the theft of her heart.

“I won’t go,” she declared passionately.

“Yes, you will.”

“No, I won’t.”

“You’re going,” he said firmly, “if I have to pick you up and place you bodily in the launch.”

She jerked herself free and moved away from him. “So I’m to be forced off this ship just like I was forced onto it,” she stated angrily. “Because you can’t wait to be rid of me, Captain Winslow? Have I really been that much of a problem for you?”

“You’re a problem, all right,” he muttered, but she thought his meaning more complex than it sounded.

He stepped closer, looming over her. His back to the moon, she couldn’t read his expression. “I thought you couldn’t wait to get back to land. Why are you objecting so strongly to getting off this ship?”

“I don’t want to leave you,” Caitlin whispered, then tried to amend the statement. “I mean, I’d rather not go until I’ve decided what I want to—”

“You don’t want to leave me, Caitlin?” he murmured huskily, steadily following her retreat until she was stopped by the rail. “Care to elaborate on your statement? What would you like to do with me?”

When he drew her into his arms, she made no protest, only raised her willing mouth and wound her arms tightly around his neck. Kissing him back fiercely, she strove to banish the knowledge that soon they’d have to part. She pressed herself tightly against him, losing conscious awareness of their surroundings until he gently broke the embrace.

“Why don’t we go to my quarters?” Bryce whispered, his face tense with desire.

Following him willingly, Caitlin let him lead her past the men at the gathering and discreetly shield her from view. But the crewmen’s attention was centered on Carlos’s guitar strumming, allowing the two lovers to reach their destination without notice. Bryce took her in his arms again as soon as they entered the cabin. What had once been Caitlin’s prison became a protected haven for their love.

Chapter Twelve

A soft breeze wafted through the open windows of the captain’s quarters, smelling of salt spray and seaweed. Standing on tiptoe as Bryce kissed her, Caitlin gave in to the delicious sensations that coursed through her like swirling, white capped waves. When he moved his lower body against hers rhythmically, she could imagine that they were true creatures of the eternal, elemental sea itself.

“Finally,” he whispered against her mouth. “I thought we’d never get to make love again.”

Because he’d planned to take her to St. Vincent?

Returning Bryce’s deep kisses with fervor, Caitlin sought to captivate, to anchor him to her, sending her tongue to meet his in a seductive, passionate dance. His beard felt delightfully prickly as it rubbed against the softness of her face. Sliding her palms along his powerful shoulders, she locked her arms around his corded neck and arched her back.

“Caitlin.”

Taking a deep breath, he pulled away to slip her dress farther off her shoulders, gently pulling the garment down to her waist. She helped him remove her arms from the sleeves, all the time aware that his attention was drawn to her sweetly exposed breasts, their rosy tips hardened buds aching for his touch.

“Come here, milady,” Bryce demanded, eyes smoky with desire as he guided her to the bunk.

Sitting on the edge, he drew her between his knees to trail tiny kisses along her throat and down to the tender valley between her breasts. Then, first circling each taut nipple with his warm, wet tongue, he suckled gently until Caitlin thought he would draw her very soul from her. She closed her eyes and moaned as deep, throbbing currents rose from her very center, flooding her entire body with warmth.

Untying her belt, he pulled the dress over her slim hips, taking her briefs with it, sliding the two garments down her legs to the floor. She stood completely naked before him, her willowy body as startingly revealed, as she was sure her emotions had been when she’d said she didn’t want to leave him.

One callused hand caressed the side of her hip; the other cupped the fragile curve of a breast. “You’re beautiful, Caitlin.”

“So are you,” she replied, and let him lower her to the bed.

Her hungry eyes feasted on the rugged outline of his nose, the strong planes of his high cheekbones, the classic cut of his chiseled lips. Her gaze moved lower, stopping at the sight of the T-shirt and jeans that hid his body from view. Impatient, she nestled against him as they kissed, slipping her hands up beneath his shirt to explore his muscular chest.

When her fingers inched down inside the waistband of his jeans, he groaned and rolled her onto her back. She forgot all about continuing her caresses as he bent to gently nip her stomach and rain moist kisses across her abdomen.

She gasped as his bold, seeking hand found the secret heart of her passion. Instinctively parting her legs for his skillful fingers, then the intimate touch of his lips and tongue, she arched her hips as intense sensations spiraled through her. How much longer could she bear the delicious torture? Caitlin felt she was drifting helplessly, whirled along by surging, swelling breakers.

She almost moaned aloud in protest when Bryce stopped his ministrations suddenly, kissing her lips before he quickly rose to shed his clothing.

“I don’t think I can wait much longer,” he said, lying down beside her. Turning toward him, she felt his hard arousal graze her inner thigh.

“I don’t want to wait at all.”

Moving over him, she straddled his waist and leaned forward to bite his lower lip and rub her breasts against his chest. Cupping her buttocks, he lifted her up and brought her down again atop him. Her hips undulated in a natural, elemental rhythm as he filled her. Anchoring her with his hands, he thrust forcefully upward again and again.

Now Caitlin was riding the crest of wild waves, long sea-sprite hair swirling and tossing amid kelp and white spray. Opening her eyes for a moment, she saw Bryce watching her, and she centered her vision on the magical, sea-green depths of his gaze.

Their love was mythical, enchanted. He drew her to him like a merman calls his lover to the sea. Intermixed with the splash of waves, couldn’t she hear the tinkling of bewitching bells as the sound carried on the wind? But her focus soon blurred, greens and blues merging and melding, shades blending as the waves crashed inevitably toward land.

Clinging to his solid form, she cried out with rapture and, sinking down against his chest, realized that Bryce had joined her ecstatic release.

Afterward, lying snugly against her lover, Caitlin let her breathing slow and listened to the steady beat of his heart. The natural sound blended with the gentle lapping of the sea and the faint but rhythmic tinkling. Bells? She lifted her head.

Shifting the arm that encircled her shoulders, Bryce brought his hand around to brush a few tangled strands of hair out of her face. His fingers paused to tug at a beaded plait.

“I see you borrowed a few items from Lars’s collection of beads and ribbons,” he said. “Like them as well as his rum?”

“I wasn’t drinking anything but lemonade tonight.” Bryce laughed, the sound rumbling through his chest against her ear. “I heard you tell somebody that you didn’t want any rum punch. Afraid you’d do something provocative again?”

Caitlin gazed into his amused face. “Provocative?”

“You mean you were so tipsy on Lars’s rum, you don’t remember asking me to kiss you, to stay with you in this cabin? You even told me you loved me. Wasn’t that the truth?”

Caitlin gulped. So she hadn’t dreamed it. Lying naked in Bryce’s arms now, it would be ridiculous to claim she’d never wanted to sleep with him. But she wasn’t ready to bare her heart completely. What if he didn’t love her in return?

She tried to feign a sophisticated smile and explained jokingly, “I love anything to do with the ocean—ships, dolphins, chanties, trade winds…sea captains.”

“You’re telling me you’re attracted to my occupation rather than my personality? And after I’ve tried to be so charming?” he remarked as jokingly in return, but she thought there was a definite edge to his voice.

“You’ve been working at being charming? I thought it was natural.” Placing small kisses along the curve of his throat, she felt him relax. He fingered the plait of hair. “And I’m sure such charm comes in handy with all those tourists you’ve been sailing about.”

He stared at her. “Lars told you about my work and the family business? The old devil’s a veritable fount of information.”

“He didn’t say very much,” Caitlin hastened to assure him. “I figured out a lot by myself.” She gestured toward the books on the shelf built into the cabin’s wall. “I saw those guidebooks and found it hard to believe that they’d be the kind to interest a…real pirate.”

“So you guessed I was a
real
sea captain, eh?” he said musingly. “Okay, I admit it. I’m part owner of White Winds, along with my parents and brother. We take vacationers around the Bahamas.”

“Is that the kind of work you’ve always done?” Caitlin asked, distracted by the light tinkling that now seemed to have come closer.

“My family’s owned ships for a long time, but we didn’t seriously start to ply the tourist trade until six or seven years ago. That was when I became a full captain and—”

“Wait. Do you hear a jingling sound?” Caitlin interrupted, sure that the tinkling had grown louder.

“Jingling? Yes, I hear something.”