Christmas Wedding Belles: The Pirate's Kiss / A Smuggler's Tale / The Sailor's Bride. Miranda Jarrett

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СКАЧАТЬ turned to go, stumbling over tree roots in her haste, and in the same moment a figure stepped out onto the path before her and a sack, thick and suffocating, was thrown over her head. She struggled, felt her arms pinioned to her sides, and then she was picked up as easily as though she were a sack of flour, thrown over the man’s shoulder, and carried off.

      It was Daniel. Lucinda could tell from the feel and the scent of him, and from the disturbing familiarity of his hands on her body. He held her impersonally, and yet she burned with awareness. It made her angry to be at his mercy. She managed one well-placed and satisfying kick that landed somewhere soft and caused him to swear, and then his arms tightened about her so painfully that she could scarcely breathe, let alone move.

      Being upside down completely disorientated her. There was the sound of voices, she was passed from hand to hand like a parcel, and then, finally, she was placed back on her feet and the sack pulled roughly from her head. She stood there, panting and glaring about her.

      ‘What were you doing spying on my ship?’

      Daniel’s voice, measured and hard, snapped Lucinda’s attention straight back to him. She was standing in a well-appointed cabin that was lit by the rays of the sinking sun. The refection from the water outside made patterns on the wooden panelling and she could hear the gentle slap of the water against the stern of the ship. Daniel was sitting at a fine cherrywood desk and was toying with a quill between his fingers. A book lay open on the top of the desk, and a half-finished letter beside it. It was so peaceful, and so utterly removed from what Lucinda had expected, that for a moment she could not speak. The pristine cleanliness was a far cry from the smelly darkness she had anticipated, with a roaring drunk crew knocking back the rum and dallying with quayside whores.

      ‘Well?’ Daniel sounded slightly bored, as though he found stray women spying on the Defiance every day of the week. Lucinda felt prickles of resentment run along her skin that he should treat her with such disdain.

      ‘I was not spying,’ she retorted. ‘I was walking back from Kestrel Cove and took a wrong turn on the path.’

      Daniel raised one dark, disbelieving brow. ‘You got lost? I see.’

      Lucinda ran a hand over her hair and tried to smooth it down. There were stray pieces of straw—no doubt from the sacking—sticking to her cloak. She smelled faintly agricultural. Catching sight of herself in the small mirror on the bulkhead, she realised that she also looked a complete fright.

      Daniel, in contrast, looked deplorably elegant, and she hated him for it. He had always been able to wear his clothes with careless aplomb, and now, with his dark well-cut jacket and snowy white linen, he looked hard and tough, with no soft edges. He was still watching her with cold impassivity, and she felt colour flood her cheeks as hot and embarrassing as though she had been a young girl. She knew he thought she had gone there deliberately to see him, and that the more she protested the less he would believe her.

      ‘You can believe what you like,’ she said, ‘but I did not seek you out.’

      Daniel shrugged. His face was set in hard lines. ‘So you say.’

      ‘It’s true!’ Pride and embarrassment compounded Lucinda’s anger. ‘What, do you think yourself so dashing, so irresistible—the gallant pirate captain!—that every female in the neighbourhood must want to throw herself at you? Do you think I was so bowled over to meet you again last night that I could not keep away?’

      Daniel’s firm mouth lifted in a slight smile that was not quite reassuring. He stood up. ‘I don’t know, Lucy. Were you?’

      ‘No, I was not. And stop calling me Lucy!’

      ‘I forgot. You are—you always were—Lucy to me.’ He had come to stand before her, and suddenly the spacious cabin seemed very small and very airless. Lucinda caught her breath. She tilted her head to glare up at him.

      ‘And you always were so arrogant! Believing that I came here solely to—’ Lucinda stopped abruptly.

      He was so close to her now, perilously close, his body all but pinning her against the door. She found that she was watching his mouth, that tempting mouth, as he said softly, ‘Yes?’

      Lucinda ran her tongue over her lips. ‘To…um…’

      ‘You are somewhat inarticulate for a governess. I noticed it last night.’

      He put his hands flat against the door on either side of her head and leaned in. Their breath mingled for a moment and then his mouth captured hers. Only their lips touched, but that was more than enough.

      The kiss was ruthless in its intensity. The swift current of desire raced between them, leaving Lucinda breathless and unable to think of anything other than the undeniable pleasure of his embrace. He lingered over her mouth as though he were learning her all over again, and when he stood back she could barely breathe, barely think. Her lips felt soft, and a little bruised, and she pressed one hand to them and saw that she was shaking.

      ‘This is not—’ She stopped, cleared her throat. ‘This is not what I want.’

      ‘No?’ Daniel had turned away, and she could not see his face, but she thought that his voice sounded strained. ‘Well, this isn’t a game, Lucinda. Do not come down to my ship looking for trouble, or you will surely find it.’

      Lucinda’s anger—the anger he could always arouse in her, along with that uncomfortable attraction—jetted up.

      ‘I play no games,’ she said. ‘You are the one who hides out in the wood playing at pirates, abducting people, smuggling, spying for the French, so I hear! You are the one who never grew up!’

      Daniel moved so quickly that she jumped back. But it was too late. He had caught her wrist in a grip that did not hurt, but which she could not break. His expression was grim, but just for a moment, and for the first time in her life, she saw a bleak unhappiness in his dark eyes before his face was impassive once again.

      ‘What do you mean?’ He spoke very quietly, but there was an undertone to his words that made her shiver.

      ‘I met Mr Chance in the woods just now,’ Lucinda said. ‘He told me that the smugglers would be out tonight and he would be hunting them.’ Daniel’s fingers tightened a little and her voice faltered. ‘He said that you are a criminal, Daniel, and a spy and a traitor—’

      Daniel dropped her wrist as though he had been burned. ‘Did he mention me by name?’

      ‘No,’ Lucinda said. She suddenly felt chilled. Could she have made a mistake? ‘But who else could he mean?’ she whispered.

      For a long moment they stared into one another’s eyes, and then Daniel turned away in what felt like a gesture of repudiation.

      ‘Dearest Lucy, always thinking the worst of me!’

      ‘Well, it did not require a great leap of imagination!’ Lucinda said, stung by his accusing tone. ‘After all, you told me yourself that you were a pirate, and I thought…I assumed…’

      ‘You assumed that I was a traitor as well.’ He slammed his fist against the panels of the door. ‘You would have trusted me once. You loved me once.’

      ‘That is all in the past,’ Lucinda said. She felt bitter and sick at what had become of that СКАЧАТЬ