She cocked her head.“Do you feel better?”
“Nay.”He smiled.“Yet.”He gazed at the turquoise waters, squinting in the rising sun.“I find relief in your pleasant company.”
The look in his eyes when he faced her again sent an alarm through her, both scary and thrilling.No man had looked at her that way.As if she were a precious gift, a fragile prize to be treasured and protected.
A salt-tinged breeze swept over them, stirring his black hair and fluttering his shirt.Sunlight glinted over the sword at his side.Was she really in this place…in this time…with this pirate, this priest, this man who was moremanthan she’d ever encountered?He radiated intelligence, skill, courage, and confidence borne from experience, not from a book.And yet he possessed the chivalry and manners of a knight…every woman’s dream.
He unsettled her, caused feelings she had not known existed.And she didn’t like it one bit.She prided herself on her independence, on not needing anyone, on being a strong, liberated female.Uncomfortable, she broke the gaze between them and took a step back.“I never get tired of the sea,” she said awkwardly.
“Something we have in common.”He closed the distance between them and eased a strand of hair from her cheek.His roughened palm brushed over her skin with surprising tenderness, sending heat down to her toes.If he invoked such a response from a simple touch, what would his kiss feel like?Against her will, she glanced at his lips.
They curved into a sensual smile.Crud!He knew.He knew!
The chatter of parrots serenaded them from the jungle as the sharp cry of a gull wheeled overhead.Farther inland, cicadas began their shrill chorus, rising and falling in waves that mimicked the soft percussion of the surf.
Her pulse thundered in her veins.She should run, but she could not get her feet to move.Sweat slid down her back, and she fumbled with the silk ties of her stays.“I wish I could take these confining clothes off and dive into the water.”She stared at the gentle waves, longing to plunge deep beneath them where life was quiet and peaceful and everything made sense.She realized her mistake when his grin turned into laughter, and a boyish gleam lit his eyes.
“The man in me would be quite pleased if you did so.However, I fear my Godly scruples must insist, for both our sakes, that you remain fully covered.”
She couldn’t help but chuckle.She’d never met a man who would turn down seeing a woman in her underwear.
He kept staring at her, not with lust, but in a way that made her spirit rise above all that was real.“Enchanting woman,” he said, drawing even closer…closer…until his lips pressed upon hers.
The earth seemed to tremble.His scent of bay rum, leather, and the sea flooded her, bringing every nerve to life.His touch was gentle, caressing, but then he pressed deeper, searching, longing…hungry.
She responded with equal passion, unable to resist, unable to do anything but drink in every press of his lips, every move of his body, every warm puff of his breath on her cheek.Something electric exploded within her as though lightning shot straight from his lips to her heart.She’d kissed men before, but she’d never felt anything like this.It was as if two worlds collided, as if time itself bent.The rhythm of the waves deepened, echoing like a drum from another age.A charge pulsated the air, humming with a power not of this place.
Encasing her in his arms, he pressed her against his chest.He was a barricade of protection and comfort she’d never felt before.Never knew she needed until now.A memory, somewhere outside of time, came crashing in like the mad rush of a tsunami, a memory distant and eternal.An invisible thread pulled her across centuries into a place where time held no sway.
And in that moment, she’d always known him, always loved him.
He pulled away, cupped her face in his hands and leaned his forehead against hers.“Mercy” was all he said.
Moments passed.Desi willed her mind to return, her control.What was she thinking?She could not fall for this man.She had to get home.She had to save her sister!Horrified, she pushed away from him and dashed for the jungle.Tears spilled down her cheeks, blurring her vision.
She barely reached the trees when strong arms came out of the brush.Clamping.Tight.Pain shot through her as the man shoved her back against his chest.And meaty arms locked around her neck.
Chapter 17: Chivalry is Never Dead
The rasp of a strangled scream jarred Caleb from the pleasurable trance Desi’s kiss had placed upon him.Yet more than a trance, something deep…eternal.Shaking it off, he spun and drew his blade, charging up the sand before he even saw the beast who held her.Beast was a good description for the man who stood at least two heads above Desi and whose hairy arm coiling around her throat was as thick as a mast.
Terror streaked across her wide eyes as she clawed the man’s iron grip.
Caleb leveled his blade upon him.“Release her at once!”Rage and terror knotted in his chest.Wasn’t it enough that he’d caused the deaths of so many in this place?He could not allow another innocent to suffer!
The beast chuckled as another man emerged from the foliage, a sinewy copy of the first, save for the toothless grin upon his lips and the cudgel in hand.
“Aw, weren’t that sich a sweet sight, Claude?”The beast addressed toothless.“Hyde and his lady friend enjoying a lovers’ kiss right here in the spot where he murdered me wife.”
“You’ll pay, Hyde!”Claude barked.“My brother bled in your mission.”
“We should kill her first, let him watch and suffer the way we did.”
More terror than Caleb had felt in a long while almost choked him.“Leave her be.She has naught to do with this.”Blade held high, he rushed forward.
Claude leapt in the way and struck Caleb’s sword with his cudgel, nearly tearing it from his grip.Backing up, Caleb leveled his blade at the two men.“Quit hiding behind a skirt and fight me with honor.”
The first beast’s eyes blazed with fierce hatred.“Have it your way.Just so you know, we’ll do away with you first, then we’ll kill the lady.”Releasing Desi, he shoved her to the ground and drew a long knife.She gasped for air but seemed otherwise unharmed.
