Page 17 of A Pirate’s Pleasure (Cameron Family #2)

XIV

R oc came back to consciousness very slowly.

Pale light flickered by his eyes.

He smelled like the scurviest of taverns. He moved his hand, and winced, feeling broken glass beneath.

Then he heard a soft chuckle and saw a handsomely buckled shoe with a well-turned masculine calf attached to it. He groaned aloud, allowing his eyes to fall closed once again.

“Come on, my boy, up, up!”

Wincing, he sat, and cast Spotswood an angry glare. “What are you doing in my room? And why is it—sir—that you seemed to have known that you would find me in this state.”

“Truthfully, Petroc, I did not know how I would find you at all, but it was imperative that I see you now, so I came as quickly as I saw your wife leave.”

“Leave!”

He bolted up, shaking his head, desperate to clear it. “Blast that wench! I have chased her over half the seaboard and through forest and glen, and I swear, sir, that I am about to keep the lady in chains. Dammit, where has she gone now?”

“Why, to find the Silver Hawk, of course,” Spotswood said complacently.

“What?”

“I believe that I’ve sent the young lady off to find the Silver Hawk. In fact, I know that I have.”

“Why!” Roc exploded incredulously. “Damn you, sir, but what have you done to me now?”

“Petroc, wait, listen!” Spotswood pleaded vehemently. “We’ve worked at this for years now, and you must know the rationale of what I’ve done. A tremendous favor, and that’s the God’s own truth, sir, and I swear it. Think—”

“Think!” Roc groaned and clutched his head and sank down to the bed. “Think, eh? Sir, it has been bad enough. I returned from my last adventure with the woman who is my wife, afraid to put my hands upon her, afraid to come too near her! Now you think that I must go out and change roles again! Her husband was going for her father! I was going, I would have sailed today with my legal and legitimate crew and a ship that docks safely upon the James—”

“Robert Arrowsmith has the Hawk’s sloop ready and waiting on the river. You need only don your whiskers—”

“Don them! They were real last time.” Roc rubbed his clean-shaven chin, gritting his teeth. He’d had time to grow a fine set when sailing for New Providence and the Tortugas in the hopes of claiming the Silver Messenger and his bride. This time he would have to play with theatrical hair and sticking gums. He didn’t care for the idea, but in one respect, the lieutenant governor was right—it might be far better for the Silver Hawk to set sail against Logan than for Lord Petroc Cameron to do so. No other pirate would come to his assistance if they knew him as Lord Cameron, but if a battle or skirmish came about someplace, he might find assistance as the Silver Hawk. Everyone knew about the “relationship” between the two men, and therefore it was easy enough to play the act before men and women who did not come too close—

Playing an act before one’s wife…one’s mistress, one’s lover…was nearly impossible.

He had envied the Hawk. Until this very evening, he had longed to be his alter ego once again, the man who could freely shed his clothing before Skye and not fear that she’d find some scar upon him that would tell her beyond a doubt that he was, indeed, his own “cousin”—the sea slime, the scourge of the seas, the rogue.

The man to whom she had willingly and so sweetly given her love.

He stood up suddenly, his temper soaring. The wretched little adventuress. She’d seduced him to betray him—him! her lawfully wedded husband—to go off to find a rogue. Perhaps the acting would not be so heinous after all.

“You, sir, sent her after the Hawk?” he inquired darkly of Spotswood.

“It was necessary, Petroc.”

“Alexander, did it occur to you that you might have warned me?”

Spotswood shrugged, a twinkle in his eye. “Petroc, I didn’t think that a mere wisp of a girl could take you by such complete surprise. I was most interested in the results myself. When I remembered how you fought the marriage vows—to that poor cross-eyed lass!—I thought that surely, the man will be strong against this, his despised baggage of responsibility. Then lo and behold, the great Lord Cameron of the Camerons of Tidewater Virginia falls prey to a trick older than time.”

“Hmm.” Roc crossed his arms over his chest and nodded laconically to Alexander’s amusement. Perhaps he did deserve the man’s laughter.

Skye deserved a lot more.

And she was going to get it.

“You’ve put me in a horrible position, you know.”

“Alas, Petroc, this has been in the works these four years now!”

“I should have told her the truth,” Roc murmured.

“You can’t. Not yet. Not until you return safely to these shores. Not until you can make her understand. You promised me to uphold the secret, Petroc. I need you! I need the Silver Hawk. It is my only way of knowing what goes on in the Caribbean, and down in North Carolina, beneath my own nose. You cannot tell her yet.”

“I didn’t intend to tell her—not yet,” Roc murmured. What role was she going to play herself this time? The Silver Hawk was longing to touch her again. Touch her…as she touched and seduced him this night.

Lord Cameron was dying to throttle his beautiful bride, the lady willing to trick and seduce him to seek assistance from another.

“You need to hurry,” Spotswood said. “I let her slip away just as I came. She’ll take some time to question some of the men in the town taverns, then they’ll send her down to the river’s edge, and to the Blackhorse.”

“The Blackhorse? Why, ’tis full of river rats!”

“Umm. And a place where the Silver Hawk has been seen before, and may appear again. I’ll send down. Peter should be below with the Silver Hawk’s apparel.” He paused, looking back. “It really was necessary, Petroc. You do know as well as I that the Silver Hawk will command the respect of the rogues in the area. They will not come together against him, while they might pool all their resources to send Lord Cameron down to the bottom of the sea.”

“Yes, it was necessary.” He touched his temple and winced. “I’m not sure about the headache, though, sir. Perhaps you could have warned me, and she could have just slipped out unnoticed.”

Spotswood lowered his head, a subtle smile playing on his lips. “I don’t know. Maybe the way she left was necessary, too.”

He turned around and left.

Roc crossed his arms over his chest, pensively awaiting Peter’s arrival with the things he would need.

Maybe her departure had not been necessary, but perhaps it had been well worth the price of a headache. She had come to him, and she had given the promise of a sweet tomorrow.…

Right before she had clunked him on the head to leave him.

Maybe it really wasn’t such a bad thing that she was going to see the Silver Hawk again after all. They had a bit of reckoning to do, all three of them: the Silver Hawk, Lord Cameron—and Skye, Lord Cameron’s lady.

***

“He’s going to catch up with you any minute, young woman. Any minute!” Mattie moaned. She looked over her shoulder, past the lamplit main street and toward the palace green. Mattie was absolutely convinced that Skye had dragged her on a fool’s mission. Any minute indeed her young mistress’s husband—enraged husband, now, surely—would come tearing out of that house and down the street, seeking his wayward bride. Mattie did not want to be in the path of his anger, nor did she think that Skye really wanted to meet his fury, either.

“Mattie, that’s why we need to hurry!” Skye said. “Now come along.”

Mattie groaned and hurried along beside her Skye. It had been her choice to come. She wasn’t happy about Lord Cameron lying on the floor in a pool of rum, but she hadn’t been able to endure the idea of Skye running off alone. She had practically raised the girl, and Skye’s years in London hadn’t lessened the affection they shared.

Skye was heading on toward the next tavern on the street. This one wasn’t as reputable as the others where they had gone to seek information, but Mattie still felt as if they were safe. This was Williamsburg. It was Lieutenant Governor Spotswood’s city, and there would surely be some good men about to know that Lady Skye Kinsdale had been married to Lord Petroc Cameron—and that to touch her or cause her harm could well mean death at that man’s able hands.

Mattie hurried along beside Skye against the quiet of the night. As they approached the tavern, a shadow stepped out from the trees by the side of it. Mattie gasped, pulling Skye back against her side. “Lady Cameron!” a voice called softly.

“Sh! Don’t give no stranger in the shadows your name!” Mattie warned her.

“Yes!” Skye said, stepping closer.

The shadow backed away, lifting a hand.

“No closer, milady. No closer.”

“Then what do you want?”

“I hear you’ve been prowling about tonight, asking what ships lie in the James, seeing if any man knows about a pirate. A rogue ship, out in the river.”

“Yes! Do you know about her?” Skye stepped forward again in her excitement. The man blended against a tree. The streets were always lit well by lamps, but the trees afforded such deep secretive shadows that the lamps could help little against the night.

“Stay where you are!” the voice commanded.

“Let’s get out of here!” Mattie urged her in a whisper. “Let’s go home. Please, child! You can be the fine lady wife, kneel down by his side, and pretend it was an accident—”

“An accident!” Skye whispered in turn. “I struck him over the head with a rum bottle—by accident?” She shook her head. “Mattie, no! I must find the Silver Hawk. He can save Father.”

“Hey!” called the man from the shadows. “Are we negotiating here or are we not!”

“We’re talking—” Skye said quickly, coming forward.

“Stand still!”

“I’m standing still,” Skye promised, stopping. Mattie hovered unhappily just behind her. The breeze stirred, sweeping unease along her spine.

“I’ll tell you where to find the Silver Hawk.”

“Where?” Her heart thundered quickly. Perhaps she was on a fool’s errand. She was coming to know Roc Cameron well, and he would not take kindly to her betrayal. Maybe she should run back and throw herself upon her husband’s mercy. Maybe it would be much, much better than leaving the one man behind to seek out a rogue and enter into a world of tempest and temptation. She clenched her jaw, realizing anew that she was coming to love her husband. To love the man that she had betrayed. She had to move forward. Her father was out there, Logan’s prisoner.

She almost screamed aloud with the thought, and she cast her guilt from her shoulders with a shrug. “Where!” she cried out to the man in the shadows.

“Not so fast, milady. You wear an emerald around your neck. I will have it.”

“What?” Skye murmured. Her fingers came to her throat and she realized that she still wore the emerald pendant she had found among her things at Bone Cay. She had worn it the first night that she had been with the Silver Hawk. She had worn it when she had cast aside all else, all clothing, all inhibitions.…

Her fingers closed around the pendant. She carried gold to give to the Silver Hawk. She could afford to give this man the pendant.

She snatched it from her throat and started to cast it forward. “Wait!” the voice cried. “Come forward, and drop the pendant.”

“No!” Mattie called out. She stepped forward, taking the pendant from Skye. “I’ll drop it, and if this man is a reputable liar and thief, then he’ll have his pendant and you’ll have your information, child.”

Skye would have protested casting Mattie into danger, but Mattie gave her no chance to do so. She hurried forward to the tree and cast the pendant down as the shadow slunk back. Mattie sniffed her opinion of the man loudly, and came back to Skye.

A hand reached down and scooped up the emerald.

“The Blackhorse Tavern. It’s south on the river. Speak softly and subtly, and you’ll find the Silver Hawk.” The shadow turned from the tree and went racing toward the rear of the tavern. Skye followed after him and found him leaping atop a sleek bay horse. “Wait! Wait, please! I still don’t where this tavern is! I—I haven’t followed the waterfront that often—”

She stopped, gasping. She recognized Robert Arrowsmith, the Silver Hawk’s first officer aboard his pirate ship. “Robert!”

“Milady!” He doffed his hat to her, then swore. “Come! Come with me now!”

She didn’t have time to agree or disagree. He urged his mount quickly forward and reached down to her, sweeping her up before him on his mount even as the bay pranced and prepared to bolt.

“Skye!” Mattied shrieked, coming after her.

“Tell her it’s all right,” Robert warned her.

“Mattie! It’s fine. He’s a—friend.”

Mattie’s tense and worried features as they rode into the night gave Skye a second seizure of guilt for the evening. Mattie would understand, surely. Mattie loved Theo Kinsdale as much as Skye did. But she would worry. She would worry horribly.

And worse. She would go back to the house and arouse Lord Cameron and then Roc would come riding for her. She swallowed as the wind lashed against her face. It was going to be dark along the road.

She couldn’t fear the darkness, for there were worse dangers in the offering that night. Roc Cameron might well come for her, determined to kill the Silver Hawk. And if he did, it might well be her own fault—because she had told her husband that she was no innocent bride and that the Hawk had behaved in a foul and abusive way and seized her innocence away.…

She couldn’t think about it. Robert would take her to the Hawk, and when she reached him, she would explain that they had to run, and quickly. He was a fool for being in Virginia anyway. Governor Eden of North Carolina might suffer pirates, but Lieutenant Alexander Spotswood of Virginia did not. The Hawk had to flee Virginia, and since he did, he might as well seek out Lord Theo Kinsdale and reap the benefits of the gold that Skye would so gladly pay.

The gold only! she thought with vehemence.

Gold…and nothing of herself.

She shivered, remembering the day not so long ago when she had lain in the pirate’s arms beneath the sun. When she had felt his dark beard brush her naked flesh along with the searing rays of the sun. It was so easy to remember.

Easy to remember the first night, the very first night. He had warned her.…

And she had walked into his arms anyway, of her own free will.

That was before! she vowed to herself. Before she had come to know Petroc Cameron. Before she had discovered that she could love him. Before this very night, even, when she had come to him knowing that she would leave him, and determined to love him first. It was before the soaring splendor of his passion.

She trembled suddenly, and it was not the darkness of the night that brought her fear. Robert rode behind her, and though the lamps of the city were fading behind them, the moon was very high. There was light.

And she was learning not to fear the darkness, to fight the panic of it. Roc Cameron had done that for her, she thought. He had drawn the venom of the past from her soul. She had spoken about it to him, and she wasn’t afraid. Roc had taken the words from her, while the Silver Hawk had taught her that there could always be a beacon against the darkness of the night.

The Silver Hawk…

She loved her husband.

She had fallen in love with the pirate king first, and though his memory had faded away only to combine with that of the man she had legally wed, she was both dreading and anticipating her meeting with the pirate. What would his memories be?

What would his demands be?

Could she sell her soul to come to him again, if that should be his price?

“Are you cold?” Robert whispered behind her.

She shook her head. “No. I am—I am anxious to see the Hawk. Are you certain you know where he is?”

“Yes.”

She hesitated, thinking how kind Robert had always been to her. He was here in Virginia, and she had to be glad. But she dreaded the future for him. “Robert, you shouldn’t be here!”

“The Hawk dares anything.”

“The Hawk is not in Williamsburg.”

Robert chuckled softly. “Sometimes it is necessary to come close to the flame of the fire, lady. Surely, you know that.”

“You came to Williamsburg to spy,” she accused him.

“Aye, milady, I did.”

“If they catch you, they’ll hang you.”

“They’ll never catch the Silver Hawk.”

“But—”

“I am Robert Arrowsmith here, milady, good citizen of His Majesty’s colony of Virginia. I am safe.” He hesitated. “Are you all right? We are almost there, another twenty minutes.”

They no longer galloped, but Robert moved the horse along at a quick trot. The moon beat strongly upon the road, but she was touched. Even Robert considered her fear of the darkness.

“I am fine,” she murmured, twisting to seek out his eyes. “But my husband might come after me. Robert, I would not have him come upon you.…”

“Is his temper so bad then?”

“He would slay a pirate, surely.”

“But you would defend me?”

“I would, for you were always kind.”

“And tell me, milady, what of the Hawk himself? Would your husband seek to slay him, or await a hanging?”

She started to shiver again. She could not imagine the Silver Hawk and Lord Cameron coming together. One of them would die, and she would not be able to endure the outcome of it.

“Hurry, Robert! Race the night, for we must get the Hawk and leave Virginia. We must!”

“We!”

“Yes! My father—”

“I know about your father, milady. But there will be no ‘we.’ I’ll talk to the Hawk with you on your behalf, and I know that he will set sail. But he will not take you. You will go home.”

She would not go home. She could not go home, not now. But she didn’t tell Robert that—it was something she would have to worry about later.

Robert turned his mount eastward toward the river, nudging the animal’s ribs, and sweeping them into a fast lope once again. She liked Robert so much! Skye thought. She felt warm with him, and assured that he would carry her to the Hawk.

Even if he had stolen her emerald!

It was all right. It was all right to race with him through the night, leaning low against the flying mane of his bay horse, feeling the wind and the gentle wash of the glowing moon upon her. It would be all right.…

“There! We’re coming up on the Blackhorse now!” Robert said, reining in. “Stay with me, milady, do you understand?”

Skye nodded. She was glad of his presence, for she did not like the appearance of the tavern.

It stood just off the waterway and the docks, a rickety place with broken windowpanes and faulty steps. Dim, misty light issued from the open doorway and windows, and raucous laughter could be heard.

Robert dismounted from the horse, reaching up to help her down. Skye drew the hood of her navy mantle close over her forehead and slipped her hand through his arm as he led her toward the doorway.

It was not a place for a lady.

It was a complete den of iniquity, she thought, and her heart hammered somewhat as she thought of the Hawk. How dare he come here when she might need him! It was not a place where any decent woman would want to be.

“Milady?” Robert said to her, watching her curiously.

“Shall we?” she murmured.

He helped her up the rickety steps and through the open front doorway, and there they paused.

The main rooms were heavy with smoke and they stank of ale. Even the standing room by the bar was crowded, and all manner of men—and women—were there. The smell of humanity was terrible here. The men were old and young, but all of them had a look of dust and dirt about them; they were neither clean shaven, nor did they seem to have a decent beard among them. One fellow at the bar wore an eye patch and a white queued wig, but his wig was askew and his brawny shoulders seemed about to split the shoulders of his elegant mustard frockcoat. A stolen coat, no doubt, Skye thought.

Nearby at one of the tables a group of seamen in linen shirts and caps frolicked with a single, buxom, dark-haired wench. One fellow slipped his hand straight into her bodice while she kissed another, then laughed uproariously. She bit into the coins handed to her by the both of them, then laughed, and kissed them each, in turn.

Robert cleared his throat.

“The Silver Hawk is here?” she said.

“Aye, milady. He is a pirate, you know.”

She thought that Robert’s eyes were twinkling. “A pirate, a rogue, and he’ll hang!” she agreed. She cried out as one of the men from the rough wood table rose, grinned a drunken grin, and lunged toward her. Robert stepped forward and his fist shot out and the man fell flat to the floor. “She’s come to see the Hawk!” he warned the others. “Make way—she’s here for the Hawk!”

Men and wenches stepped aside and Robert led her through the path of them toward a dark and narrow stairway in the rear. Skye felt eyes boring into her. The men coveted her gold, or her person, Skye thought. The women would have gladly robbed her blindly of her clothing.

But Robert was at her back. And he had announced that she had come for the Hawk. None of them would touch her.

“This is awful!” she muttered.

Robert passed ahead, catching her hand. She saw his eyes, and he flashed her a smile. “As I said, milady, the Hawk is a pirate.”

“Umm. And welcome to his ways.”

“You mustn’t be…jealous, milady.”

“Jealous! I assure you, sir, I am not jealous!”

“Umm, well, begging your pardon, milady, it did seem at the end that you and the Hawk had settled…er…well, certain of your difficulties. But you must remember, and I warn you kindly, that he is a rogue and a fiend.”

“Oh, is he? Thank you for the warning, Robert. I might not have noted that on my own!”

They had come to the top of the stairs. Robert smiled, and with a broad shrug he cast open the door there. He prodded Skye into the murky light of the room, then closed the door behind her.

Slowly, her eyes adjusted to the light in the room. She heard a soft giggle, then she stared with amazement and a slow simmering rage.

Robert had brought her to the Hawk, all right!

“Lady Kinsdale! Why, no, ’tis Lady Cameron, is it not?”

She stood dead still, collecting her wits and control as she stared at the Hawk. He lay bare-chested atop the bed, with a beautiful redheaded wench curled nearly atop him. The girl watched her with amusement; the Hawk watched her with interest. His hand rested lightly atop the redhead’s hair, and he seemed not at all distressed to have been found so by Skye.

“Aye, ’tis Lady Cameron,” she murmured, pushing away from the door. If the sea slime meant to unnerve her, he would be surprised. She would never let him know that her insides were afire, that she had thought that he had come to care for her because he had taken her with such passion and such fire.…

She was not jealous! He was a fiend, a beast, a pirate! Robert had warned her.

But she had spent all that time on the road here wondering what she should do if he demanded her love in payment for service. Demanded her love! The rogue had a string of women in every port.

The sheets were drawn to his waist. He folded his hands over them and cocked his bearded face to the side. “Far be it from me to question a lady, madame, but what are you doing in such a place? Did you miss me so, then? Were you anxious to come back?” He didn’t wait for an answer, but teased the redhead at his side. “If Lady Cameron is anxious, then you must hurry away, Yvette.”

“I’ve come on business!” Skye snapped.

“Oh. Oh!” He pretended that it was a very grave matter, narrowing his eyes. Skye shivered suddenly, fiercely. Now she shivered because his resemblance to her husband was so great. Cousins! They were near to being twins. If she had not seen the both of them at the same time on the day that she sailed away from Bone Cay, she could easily think that they were one.

Well, the Silver Hawk had been bred on the wrong side of the Cameron covers. She had seen the portraits now at Cameron Hall. This Cameron had the eyes, if not the name.

“Sir—” Skye began, but he interrupted her, turning to the redhead.

“Yvette, love, this is business.” He gave her an affectionate pat on the rump, and Yvette arose, dragging one of the covers along with her. She wrinkled her nose Skye’s way.

“That’s business, Hawk? Eh, is she paying you then, love, for the servicing?”

Skye nearly gasped, but determined that Yvette was a whore, and she was a lady. She smiled sweetly instead and strode very calmly for the washbowl. Within a blink of an eye, she had tossed the contents of it over Yvette’s red head. The girl cried out in shock and rage.

“Eh, Hawk—stop her, or I will!”

Yvette lunged across the bed for her. The Hawk reached out for Yvette, capturing her wrists. Sodden, she fell against him and he laughed. “I cannot kiss and tell, Yvette, but if Lady Cameron needs a word with me, then for”—his silver gaze shot to Skye—“then for old times’ sake, I must listen.”

“You’re a very scurvy son-of-a-bitch, sir,” Skye said sweetly. She watched as Yvette arose, looked her way with menace, then smiled to the Hawk.

“See you later, love.”

“You’ll see him on a gibbet, I’m sure,” Skye said pleasantly. Her eyes remained upon him. Yvette slammed the door.

The Hawk smiled deeply and patted the now empty spot on the bed beside him. “Care to join me?”

“Never.”

“Ah, Lady Cameron, but you lie!” he taunted her, his silver gaze wide. “I can make you want me, you know.”

Skye lifted her brows with imperious disdain. “No, you cannot, Captain Hawk. I do not come where refuse has lain.”

“Refuse?”

“Trash, rank trash.”

“Do you refer to the girl—or to me. Wait, wait, don’t answer that. She must be rank trash, since I am merely sea slime.”

Skye carefully ignored him, remaining very straight, her eyes smoldering. “I have come on business—”

“Wait,” he interrupted her sharply, his gaze narrowing upon her. He sat up further, winding his arms around his legs as he watched her. “We have not finished with this first business yet.”

“Aye, sir, but we have finished!” she insisted softly.

“I remember the very day that you left me, madame. The warmth and the woman. Where has she gone? Where is the warmth.”

“Iced over, I’m afraid, Captain. Now if you would just—”

“You would not lie where refuse had been,” he repeated pensively. “So you will not crawl in beside me because another has warmed my bed, is that it?”

“Time is of the essence here!” Skye said irritably. “All right, no, you stupid, stinking, stupid knave, I would not so dirty myself. Are you satisfied? May we get on with it?”

He shook his head, his eyes insistent upon hers. “You didn’t mention your husband, madame. Isn’t marital life bliss? I had thought to hear you cry that you could not betray him—not that you would not play where another lass had tarried.”

She inhaled sharply, hating him with her whole heart. He had thought of words that should have come to her lips, should have been wafted there on wings from her very soul.

She stayed stiff and still and silent, praying that she showed no emotion. “My reasons, Captain Hawk, do not matter. Let’s let it remain sufficient that it shall not come to pass.”

“Skye, Skye,” he continued mildly, casting off his sheets to rise from the bed stark naked. Skye tightened her jaw and turned about, determined not to see him. He was taunting her, he wanted reaction, and so help her, she would not give it to him.

She had to react; she had no choice. He came around behind her, catching the hood from her head and pulling it back to display the length of her hair. “You’re forgetting, Lady—Cameron, that I am a pirate. And we all know what pirate’s do to their women!”

Skye emitted a sharp sound of displeasure, stepping quickly away from him. Fear crept along her spine. She spun around, desperately wondering how to elude him. She moved to the left and he smiled slowly, his hands upon his hips, everything about him bold and brash. Like a cat with prey he stalked and played with her. “Bastard!” she hissed.

“Sea slime!” he corrected.

She turned about again and he followed her. He no longer played. He caught hold of her arm and sent her flying to the bed, then sprawling down upon it. She cried out, flailing at him wildly. He ignored her flying fists and feet, leaping roughly astride her and pinning her there.

His eyes were alive with silver sparks. “Alas, I am a pirate. And you, my love, are in my power once again. And now that I have you here…ah, I retaste every sweet morsel of all that ever lay between us.”

“Quit this and get up!” Skye insisted with bravado.

“I am a pirate, madame! Forceful and brutal. I can wrench you into my arms—”

“You have already done that!”

“I repeat! I can wrench you into my arms and force you beneath me. Brutally, terribly, I can ravage and rape you. Isn’t that what one expects of a pirate?”

Her eyes went very wide as she desperately tried to read his mind and his reason. His naked body was a blaze of fire against her, burning through her cloak and gown, corset and bone and petticoats. She didn’t want to tremble beneath him, but she was afraid. She didn’t think that she had ever seen him this fierce, this taut. This demanding, seeking something of her. She swallowed tightly, looking up at the living steel of his eyes, feeling the force of his muscle and flesh against her, the wrought-iron pressure of his fingers lacing around her wrists.

He did mean to rape her, she thought. He was not the man she had known at all. He meant to have her, and brutally.

Just as she told Roc that it had been…

“Stop it! Please, stop it!” she whispered to him. She trembled from head to toe.

Some of the fever left his eyes. He bent low against her. His lips brushed hers, his beard and mustache teased the softness of her flesh. She would have twisted away but his kiss was so gentle, so light, baby’s breath. Then he stared down at her again.

“You must listen to me, please!” Skye said. She wanted to hate him so thoroughly. She could never let him touch her again, but she despised herself as well. When he came near, there was warmth, there was fire. She felt alive.

She loved her husband! she cried to herself. But her husband was so very like this man.

“Talk.”

He still sat above her, impervious to his lack of dress. Skye sought out his eyes. “I need your help. And my—my husband could be right behind us.”

“Oh?”

“My father is missing. He isn’t missing—I mean, I know where he is. He was anxious to see me, and when the Silver Messenger returned here, he outfitted her with a new captain. It turned out to be Logan. Logan has my father. Please, I need you.”

“I’ve heard about it,” he told her.

“Then…?”

“You say that you think that your husband might well be on his way after you?”

“Yes.”

“Why. Where did you leave him?”

“What does that matter to you? I tell you that time is of the essence.”

“I am curious. If you want my help, answer my questions.”

“You haven’t told me if I will get your help or not!”

“Talk!”

“Oh, you are a fool anyway! Spotswood will hang you if he finds you here.”

“And your husband will slay me.”

“Of course!”

“I might well slay him.” He fell down by her side, rested upon an elbow, staring at her with fascination again. She rose quickly, leaping out of the bed, returning his glare.

“Don’t be so certain, Captain Hawk. I have seen him in action, and he is a bold, brave fighter.”

“Oh?” His brows shot up with surprise. “I thought you were determined to rid yourself of the excess baggage of your betrothed—your husband, that is—the moment you touched shore.”

“None of this is your concern.”

He smiled, enjoying her, enjoying himself. He rolled over, staring up at the ceiling. “So, madame, it was not so awful then. You lay with him and came back to me, furious that I should have another in my bed. Were your expecting my undying devotion. Should I have pined away while you slept with my illustrious cousin?”

Skye snatched up his black breeches from the floor and tossed them along with his boots upon his naked belly. He grunted from the pain and stared up at her, still smiling.

“Your temper, love! Marriage had not improved it.”

“Are you going to help me or not?”

“I don’t know. I’m still thinking about it.”

“I will pay you.”

“Of course, you will pay.”

“I have gold.”

He cast his legs over the side of the bed and slipped into his breeches. Standing, he tied them, then sought about for his hose. His bronze chest glimmered in the candlelight, rippling muscle defined and fascinating.

He sat again in a chair before the mantel and donned his hose and boots and buckled his black knee breeches. Skye watched him in silence all the while. She waited. Then, exasperated, she repeated herself. “I have gold! Are you going to help me or not?”

He stood and found his light linen shirt upon the foot of the bed. He drew it over his head, then looked at her with a slow lazy grin and a long, cunning assessment. “I have a lot of gold already, madame. I am not just a raping, plundering, murdering sea-sliming pirate, but I am a very successful raping, plundering, murdering, sea-sliming pirate. I don’t really need your gold.”

“You have to help me!”

“Why?”

“Because, because…”

“Because you’re a damsel in distress?” he suggested. He came toward her, taking her hands, keeping his eyes upon her as he kissed both sets of her knuckles. “Ah, because I was the first lover you had ever known! Women have soft spots for such things, don’t they?”

She jerked her hands away from him and lashed out at him. He caught her fists and, laughing, drew her against him. He held her tight and met her eyes.

“Let go of me!” she said.

“You came to me.”

She didn’t know if he referred to the night now, or if he talked about that night in a different lifetime in his paradise at Bone Cay. The night when the tropical breezes had swept through the windows.

“Please, let go of me.” She hesitated. “Whether you help me or not, you mustn’t stay around here, don’t you know that? Spotswood—Spotswood knows that you are here.”

“Does he?” The Hawk seemed unalarmed.

“Yes. He’ll hang you.”

“I do not need gold.”

“Please, you must—”

“Ah, yes. I must.”

“And you must hurry. My husband—”

“Why, madame, didn’t you go to your husband with this request? You told me yourself that he was brave and bold and competent.”

“But he is not a pirate!”

The Hawk’s lashes fell over his silver eyes, hiding his thoughts from her. “Not a pirate, you say?”

“No,” she murmured.

His arms tightened around her. “But what if he were?”

“He is not! You can find Logan, I know that you can. Roc could fight him, but he could not negotiate. He could not draw upon support from others in a battle. Please…”

He still held her too tight. She could feel the length of him, hard, determined.

“I do know where Logan is,” he murmured.

“What?”

“I know where he is. I heard of it when I arrived here.”

“Then—oh, my God, please! Help me.”

A slow, cynical smile curved into his lip. “For payment, madame, always for payment.”

“Of course, I told you, I have gold—”

“And I have told you, I do not want your gold.”

“Then—”

“I want you, milady.”

Skye gasped. “But—”

“You, milady. I have named my price. I will have you. Just as I had you upon Bone Cay. Scented softly from the bath, sweet and seductive, your hair a sunset blaze about your naked shoulders, and most of all…your will agreeable to the act, your heart and body not just willing, but eager.”

“I—I can’t!”

He smiled and released her, turning away. “That is my price, and my final offer. Take it or leave it.”

She stamped a foot furiously against the ground. “I cannot pay such a price! I’m—I am married now.”

“Now you think of such a thing!” he said. “You were married at the very time we lay together before.”

“I did not know it then.”

“You knew you were betrothed.”

“What does it matter! I cannot pay this price.”

He shook his head, still smiling, as he picked up his black frockcoat and pulled it around his shoulders. He found his scabbard and buckled it around his waist. He set his hat atop his head and found his pistol to shove into his waist.

He tipped his plumed hat to her.

“Then, adieu, milady. I will take your advice and vacate the premises.” He strode past her toward the door.

“No!” Skye cried out.

He turned around and arched a brow to her slowly.

“I’ll—I’ll pay.”

“You will?” He waited. “And what of your ardent husband?”

“It is none of your concern! I said that I will pay.”

“Perhaps it is every bit my concern.”

“What?”

“Never mind,” he said swiftly. He strode back into the room and took her hand. He turned it over and planted a kiss on it. Then his eyes met hers. “Our bargain is made, milady.”

“Yes.”

“I will collect upon the payment, come what may.”

“Yes.” Silver chills raced along her spine. She had made a bargain in hell, she thought.

What of her ardent husband?

She couldn’t think of him now, couldn’t believe in him or dare to believe in love. Her father’s life was at stake. Was another night spent in the arms of a pirate a small enough price for life?

No…for it was betrayal now.

The Hawk was staring at her, as if his silver eyes read her thoughts, and her very soul. He kissed her forehead, then took her hand.

“Come, lady. Our deal is made, and our bargain sealed. I will deliver.…”

“And then payment will be made.”