The Pirate and the Puritan (17 page)

His tone remained light, but his
tentative kisses across her knuckles warned Felicity she had wandered into
territory far more dangerous than mere lust. And she’d thought her betrayal
devastating. She slipped her free hand around the back of his neck and leaned
into him.

“A ship sighted starboard,”
bellowed a voice from the deck above.

They jerked away from each other.
Solomon sounded as if he were in the room with them.

“I wish I’d never got that bloody
speaking-trumpet. It’s supposed to only be used to yell at other ships, not to
terrorize the captain.” Drew’s words didn’t match his tone.

He sounded relieved by the
interruption rather than annoyed. Avoiding Felicity’s gaze, he escaped to a
porthole that had already been cranked open. “Raise their colors and come
about.”

When he returned to the table, he
ignored her completely. Straightening the mess left by Hugh suddenly seemed a
task of life-or-death importance.

She suspected he’d revealed more
of himself than he wanted. If she could force him to face his feelings, then
maybe she could understand her own where he was concerned. “I know what it’s
like to be abandoned.”

“Help me with this.” He opened a
wooden case. Shapes of the various instruments scattered on the table lay
molded in red velvet. “Do you think me a monster? I wouldn’t blame you for it
if you did.”

She matched the tools with their
corresponding places in the case. “For being a pirate or a womanizer?” His
entrance into her life made her unsure of everything she had believed to be
true. At the moment, she couldn’t muster the appropriate indignation for either
offense.

He grinned, and she thought he
might kiss her, but out of gratitude rather than passion. He glanced away
without touching her. When he spoke, she realized he was giving her a much
greater prize than a kiss. He honored her with a small glimpse into his heart.
“I’m not the one my father betrayed. My mother suffered far more. She was merely
a servant to him, but she thought he loved her. She never gave up hope that
he’d somehow do the right thing by her and me. She died of a broken heart as
much as the lung ailment that killed her.”

“So that’s why you have so many
different women? You don’t believe in love?” She wondered how much he would let
her see of his secret self and intended to push as far as he’d let her.

“No.” He answered the question
succinctly and punctuated it by abruptly slamming the case closed. “I don’t
promise things I’m incapable of. The women I become involved with know that.”

She searched his hooded eyes. She
had pushed him too far, but it wasn’t in her nature to stop at the first signs
of resistance. “What about Laura? You must have cared for her to mention her to
Hugh.”

He searched the ceiling with his
gaze. When he glanced back at her, it looked as if he wasn’t going to answer.
“Yes. I loved her. Too much, I guess.”

“Oh.” Her habit of probing in
murky waters often got her into trouble, but she remembered too late to save
her bruised feelings. He might want to avoid engaging his heart, but he wasn’t
invincible. Instead of being comforted by the fact he wasn’t a complete cad,
the tightness in her chest at hearing Drew’s confession of love for another
woman told her how lost she was.

After an agonizing moment, he
came up behind her, encircling her with both arms. He pulled her against him
and brushed her hair aside with his free hand. “All promises have been
officially withdrawn, Miss Kendall,” he whispered. Then he lightly kissed the
back of her neck.

She melted against him. His
disguises, though vastly different from her own, had been created to hide a
broken heart. They both deserved to be healed, even if the effect would be
fleeting. He might not care for her with the intensity he had for Laura, but
for the moment she succeeded in capturing his full attention.

The beat of a metal object
against the side of the ship made her jump. She tried to pull away from Drew’s
embrace, but he held her to him. He urged her closer with gentle yet demanding
pressure until her backside fit into the groove of his hips.

A disjointed voice boomed near
the window. “Ship on our starboard. She’s following our course.”

Seemingly lost in the act of
smelling her hair, Drew ignored the voice. He cupped one of her breasts,
weighing and massaging its heaviness in his palm. Felicity leaned into him lest
she slide to the floor. Her vision from the bath returned to her with
knee-weakening force. She reached her arm behind her to cling to his neck. His
touch burned through cloth. Slick heat pulsed her sex and coiled in her belly.

When he abruptly stopped and set
her away from him with a curse, she would have stumbled if he did not firmly
grip her arms.

He turned her to face him. “I
have to go. We’re being pursued.” He brushed his lips against her cheek as if
he couldn’t bear to stop touching her. “You distract me beyond endurance,
sweeting, but I promise, we will finish this later.”

He returned to the window. “What
flag are they flying?”

“British,” answered Solomon
without the amplification of the speaking-cone.

Drew shook his head. “Solomon’s
probably leaning over the side of the ship, maybe even trying to look in the
porthole. He doesn’t trust me with you any more than I trust myself.”

He turned back to the window.
“Battle stations. I’ll be right there.” The boom of his voice warned Felicity
that whatever frivolous roles he’d played in the past, he found this current
game deadly serious. He strode to a trunk and flipped open the lid.

“Surely you don’t mean to fight a
British ship.” She clasped her arms to keep the fear creeping up her spine at
bay.

Beside the trunk, he stacked what
looked to be flags folded into tight triangles. “Here we go. British.” He held
up the flag, though all she could glimpse of it was a fat red stripe. “We’ll
fly the other ship’s colors and see if she leaves us alone.”

“And if that doesn’t work?”

“That could be a problem.” He
gathered the rest of the flags in his arms and dumped them in the trunk, then
paused to grab a second flag to accompany the British one.

“Do you have a flag for every
country?”

Colors clutched to his side, he
strode to the desk and yanked open the top drawer. “And then some. A pirate
always has to be prepared.”

From the drawer he pulled a
brass-butted flintlock pistol.

She backed toward the far corner
of the cabin. “You really are a pirate.”

He closed the distance between
them. “I think that’s obvious. Felicity Kendall, I’d never expect you to cower
in the face of a little adversity.”

At his taunt, she managed to square
her shoulders. “I never claimed to be courageous. Any intelligent woman would
back away when confronted by an armed pirate.” After flipping the weapon around
so he held the muzzle, he offered it to her. “Have I acted like that much of a
bastard? For your protection, my lady. Do you know how to shoot?”

She eyed the pistol but refused
to take it from him. “No ”

He grabbed her wrist and wrapped
her fingers around the cool brass. “Cock it, then squeeze the trigger. It’s too
difficult to reload, so make your shot count. Or you can club someone over the
head with it. Just do your best. You always do.”

She tried to quell her panic. The
idea of physical violence against herself or anyone else made her queasy. “You
don’t expect me to fight? For all I know, that ship was sent for me by my
father. He’s probably worried beyond reason.”

Drew sprinted toward the door,
grabbing the flags from the desk on his way. “Odds are they’re here for me. Now
stay in the cabin and be a good girl. Shoot anyone who bursts through that door
who isn’t Solomon, Hugh or me. Understand?”

“Don’t go.” She followed him to
the door. Though she’d always prided herself on being a strong woman, she’d
discovered her limit. Being left alone in the midst of a battle terrified her.

He put his hands on each of her
arms and leaned down to kiss the top of her forehead. “Don’t worry. You’ll be
safe.”

To her utter surprise, her eyes
shimmered with moisture. “What about you?”

“What? Be hurt and miss your
probing questions regarding my past? Never.”

“Please be careful, Drew,” she
whispered.

He stared at her mouth, but
dropped his hands from her arms and turned away.

She stopped him with a tug at his
elbow. “Send Hugh down. I’ll look after him.”

He hesitated. She sensed his
struggle. It was the same one she’d been battling since he’d shown her his
other side. At first she thought their mutual attraction mere lust. Now she
understood it to be something infinitely more dangerous. The idea of losing him
before she figured out who he really was, or who she might be with him, sealed
her fate. If he could trust her, she could trust him.

She blinked back the rush of
emotion making her eyes tear. “Do you think I would do anything to harm Hugh?”

“No,” he said without pause. “I
know you wouldn’t do anything to purposely hurt Hugh, but your good intentions
can be dangerous. Look at the disaster that landed you here in the first
place.”

“I’ve made mistakes in the past.
Many mistakes, but can’t you see how you’ve affected me? You’ve changed me in
ways I’ve yet to understand. I swear I won’t do anything to hurt Hugh or
Solomon…or you.” She hadn’t known she had felt this way until the words left
her lips. But there they were, and their plain truth wouldn’t allow them to be
called back.

The fierce angle of his jaw
appeared unmoved by her pledge, but she swore she saw a softening in his eyes.
“I believe you told me in no uncertain terms you were out to harm me.”

“Things have changed.” She glided
her fingertips over his tight jaw and shivered with the pleasure of such a
slight intimacy. “How can you blame me for not trusting you at first? You wear
so many different masks, sometimes I don’t know who I’m speaking with from one
moment to the next. If you wish for me to trust you, you must trust me in
this.”

He stared at her without blinking.
“Don’t trust me, Felicity. I don’t want it.” He gripped her wrist and removed
her hand. “But, I’ll send Hugh down. Promise me you won’t do anything else to
help.”

She nodded in agreement. Despite
his denial, she knew he wanted her to see him for who he really was. He wasn’t
a monster. Just a man, with hurt and need and loneliness. She had to ball her
hand to keep from touching him again.

He shook his head as if to clear
it. “I’m crazy,” he mumbled to himself before heading to the door. He halted,
turning to face her. “Felicity, Laura was my mother. Hugh nags to hear stories
about mothers. I guess he’s a little confused about women.” His crooked smile
made even his uncharacteristic confession disarming. “But so am I.”

Without waiting for her response,
he shut the door behind him and locked it. She had no idea when he’d taken one
of the keys. In fact, she was barely conscious of her held breath. The cold
ache she’d lived with for far too long thawed in a rush of warmth. She gave up
her struggle and let her head follow the path her heart intended to travel.

Avery Sneed dropped the last few
feet from his perch high in the mainmast. “They don’t know what the bloody hell
they’re doing,” he said, and handed Drew the vellum telescope. “If they
continue on their current course, they’ll ram into our side. I say we take down
their mainmast.”

The telescope confirmed Avery’s
assumption about the merchant ship’s crew. The Union Jack billowed proudly in
the wind, while below men scrambled in panic. He couldn’t read the name of the
ship, but it looked naggingly familiar. He swung the scope in the direction of
their standard.

Bloody hell! It was a Barbadian
ship. As a rule, he avoided clashes with any vessels flying British colors and
purposely veered from those also carrying the smaller Barbadian flag. Loyalty
didn’t account for his actions; meeting someone he knew and risking exposure
did. If the other ship provoked an incident, Drew would be forced to fight,
regardless of his preference. With Felicity on board, he wanted to avoid that
possibility at all costs.

“Come about again. We’ll try to
lose them,” he ordered, without taking his gaze from the other ship.

Avery repeated Drew’s command.
Throughout the ship, the crew echoed the orders in deep booming voices.

When Avery left to carry out his
duties, Solomon took his place. “The men are restless. They’ve taken no booty
since Marley’s death and are eager for a fight.”

“Are you questioning my command?”
Drew lowered the telescope and gave Solomon a warning stare. His tone invited
only one answer. His impatience to return to Felicity made him irritable.

Solomon clasped his hands behind
his back, his expression placid. “I question your motives. I wonder how much
Miss Kendall has swayed your judgment.”

Drew tapped the telescope against
the side of his leg. The scowl he directed at Solomon did nothing to dispel his
friend’s patient and unwavering gaze. The man was a muscle bound conscience who
refused to be ignored.

Of course Felicity’s presence on
the ship swayed his judgment. He didn’t want to risk a battle with her aboard,
and it wasn’t just because the slaying of British citizens would horrify her.
He worried for her safety. At the moment, he couldn’t afford to contemplate the
other emotions attached to those concerns.

He avoided Solomon’s question,
choosing an argument he would find reasonable. “Since when are you bent on
blood? Look at the way they sail. This wouldn’t be a fight. It would be a
slaughter.”

Solomon shrugged. “Perhaps, but
to run isn’t our way. Running makes you a target. Have you forgotten the lesson
I was taught on the subject?”