“I am glad I can bring ye that.”
“Me too. I’ve lived in the dark for so long, and the moment ye first raised your eyes to mine a warmth settled inside me. I fear…” He trailed off again, as if his emotions were too strong to discuss and he was revealing to her things he’d probably never told another soul.
Their gazes met and held. Faryn’s heart clenched. Why was he having this effect on her?
A knock at the door interrupted their locked gazes, giving them both a reprieve from whatever was building between them.
Wraith tossed the blankets back on top of her and pulled on his breeches.
“Enter,” he growled.
The door opened to several of the captain’s servants, who brought in trays of food, a jug of wine and serving dishes. With a glare from Wraith, they did not glance toward the bed where she lay nude beneath the blankets and still trembling. Instead, they kept their eyes on their work and then hurried to leave.
“Shall we dine, leannan?” Wraith said, his lips curved in invitation. “Or did ye have your fill on the first course?”
Faryn’s cheeks flamed with embarrassment.
“Nay, Captain, I am still starving.” She flipped back the covers, aware that she was showing him all of her, then placed her feet on the floor. A moment’s questions about how she could be so bold with this man, and how her family would surely die of shame, flashed in her mind before she shoved them away.
She sauntered to the table, her stomach growling, and her body yearning for a man she felt like she’d known forever.
C H A P T E R S E V E N
Storm clouds raged above and the ship rocked back and forth. Winds blew the sails this way and that and waves crashed against the hull.
Faryn was safe and warm in Wraith’s cabin from the tempest that beat the outside of the ship, but inside her mind turmoil brewed. In fact, the week they’d spent aboard ship had torn her apart inside. She was falling deeply for the rakehell pirate captain and wasn’t quite sure what she could do about it. Or how to react to such strong emotions.
What could she do? He would return her to her home. She would have to marry Lord Bréagadóir and suffer for the rest of her days—which would most likely be numbered. He’d made it clear he did not truly wish to marry her but would do so for her parents’ sake and the money they would pay him.
And Wraith would go back to being a dread pirate on the open seas.
A chill swept over her despite being curled up beneath thick blankets. Dear heavens, she’d spent more time in bed in the last week than she had her entire life. Living aboard ship as the guest of Captain Noir certainly had its benefits. He catered to her every need—not only sensually but in everything else as well. And oddly enough, he seemed to gain satisfaction from it. He was genuinely pleased to be in her company, although at times she could see he struggled with something.
She wanted to ask what it was but she was afraid he was only disgusted with himself for treating her so well, so she did not.
Face reality, Faryn, he is only using ye for coin.
She frowned at nothing and climbed from bed, wrapping the thick wool blanket around her shoulders. She made her way to the porthole and gazed outside at the storm. Lightning streaked across the sky and seconds later a loud boom of thunder hit. She had a sudden urge to leave the cabin, one she hadn’t had since boarding, but now she wanted to. She wanted to see the men at work, wanted to feel the rain on her face. Maybe it would help to wash away some of the shame she was beginning to feel at her behavior—at having not noticed before, or refusing to see, that the captain was only using her.
Just thinking about it brought tears to her eyes. What a fool she was! What did she think? That the captain would fall madly in love with her and sail her around the world while they pirated together?
She could not be part of such dealings, and he would never fall in love with her. Hadn’t her parents always told her she was foolish and childish for wishing for love in the first place? Her father had constantly lectured about how a person made their own fate, that emotions had little play in it.
For her father, how true those words were. He’d offered her no comfort when she’d been ill used the previous spring. He’d only paid a man to take her off his hands. Her fiancé was the worst sort of man there could be.
In fact, being abducted now seemed like a blessing…
FIGHTING FOUL WEATHER ON MOTHER NATURE’S OPEN SEAS WAS A WORSE BATTLE THAN IF THEY'D
been boarded by enemy pirates.
Already one crewman was tossed overboard with the force of the winds. The men had tried to throw him a line while at the same time trying to regain control of the ship. They won the ship but lost the man.
Wraith’s head pounded.
He wanted nothing more than to go to his cabin and slip his arms around the beautiful woman who awaited him. To forget the ship, his crew and this hellacious storm.
He ducked suddenly as rigging went flying overhead.
“Churl!” he shouted.
“On it!” his mate hurled back.
The crew scurried around him as the storm picked up wind and took hold of his ship again.
Faryn took root in his mind again, the thought of her curvy hips, round bouncing breasts, taut nipples, wet, hot...
A waved crashed over the side, splashing him.
He frowned. Each time he thought of the woman below, something happened. Spirits ran rampant on the sea. Ghost ships, specters, spirits controlling the waters, the weather. Was the universe trying to tell him something?
A thick rope lashed out from seemingly nowhere and whipped him in the arm.
“Damn!” he hissed in pain, somewhat relieved to see no damage had been done.
Gooseflesh rose along his limbs. Someone was trying to tell him something. Was not the ship’s name The Avenger for a reason? He was letting his whole purpose for saving her, his whole purpose for living, slip away.
Problem was, part of him wanted it to slip away. More than a part of him wanted to live a life with Faryn. Have her to wife. Raise a few bairns he could bounce on his knee.
All rubbish! Nothing would ever come of his foolish fantasies. He had revenge to play out. She was the key.
But dammit if he wasn’t going to continue to enjoy her while the voyage lasted, key or not, foolish dreams or nay.
A SHARP RAP ON THE DOOR PULLED FARYN FROM HER REVERIE AS SHE’D STARED OUT THE PORTHOLE.
Making sure she was covered as much by the blanket as she could reasonably manage and appeared somewhat decent—despite her lack of clothing—she called out, “Enter.”
The door opened and in hobbled several crewmen carrying a copper tub, followed by numerous buckets of warm, steaming water.
“A bath?” she asked.
“Aye, his cap’nship wants a bath fer hisself,” one of the crew stated while pouring a steaming bucket into the tub.
Oh, she hoped he’d allow her to use the tub when he was finished. She looked toward the water bowl and basin she’d been using, filled only with cold water. As soon as the crew left, she would fill the basin with warm water from the captain’s tub. Even if she couldn’t submerge herself in a hot, delicious bath, she would at least have warm water to wash her face and body with.
“Now, dinna ye be usin’ his cap’nship’s bath!” the insolent Churl warned. “He dinna like no second handlins’ of the water.”
She rolled her eyes and turned away in a huff.
The door closed quietly as the last of them left and still she refused to look at the copper tub. As much as she’d decided she would put warm water into her own small water bowl, rebellion rose inside her. He didn’t like to be second to wash. Well then, those nefarious crewmen would have to refill the tub for him, because like it or not, she was getting in!