“I hate to point this out, you little witch, but those aren’t epithets.”
“They are as far as I’m concerned! My God, and to think I’m going to have your baby.”
“The devil you are! I’m not touching you again!”
She was stomping away from him when he heard, “You won’t have to, you stupid man!” and James felt as if he’d been poleaxed, or kicked in the arse by a berserk mule, which was no more than he figured he deserved at that moment.
But Georgina wasn’t the least bit interested in his reaction. High dudgeon carried her out the door, slammed it for her, and kept her from hearing what began as chuckles, but soon turned into delighted laughter.
He found her a half hour later in the galley, taking her wrath out on Shawn O’Shawn and his helpers in a tirade against men in general, and James Malory in particular. And considering that the word had gone out that their Georgie, back in breeches again, though borrowed this time, was now the captain’s wife, they weren’t inclined to disagree with anything she had to say.
James listened to her for a moment before he interrupted, hearing himself likened to a member of the mule family, a brainless ox, and a brick wall, all in the same breath. Brick wall? Well, there was no accounting for American similes, he supposed.
“I’d like a word with you, George, if you don’t mind.”
“I do mind.”
She didn’t glance at him to say it. In fact, all he’d noted was a slight stiffening of her back when he’d spoken. Politeness was obviously the wrong tack to take.
Georgina would have called James’s smile devilish had she seen it, but as she wasn’t facing him, only the others in the room noted it as he came up behind her and lifted her off the barrel she’d been perched on. “If you’ll excuse us, gentlemen, George has been neglecting her duties of late,” James said as he turned and carried her from the room in a position she was quite familiar with.
“You ought to curb these barbaric tendencies, Captain,” she said in a furious undertone, knowing from experience that there was nothing she could do to get him to put her down until he was ready to do so. “But then breeding speaks for itself, doesn’t it?”
“We’ll get there quicker if you’ll shut up, George.”
She was stunned almost speechless by the humor she detected in his tone. What, for God’s sake, did he find amusing in their present situation, where they both now despised each other? And less than an hour ago he’d been a fire-breathing dragon. But he was an Englishman, so what other explanation was needed?
“Get where quicker?” she demanded. “And what duties have I neglected? Need I remind you that I’m no longer your cabin boy?”
“I’m well aware of what you are now, dear girl. And although I’ve nothing good to say about marriage, it does have one small benefit that even I can’t complain about.”
It took her about five seconds to mull that over before the fireworks went off. “Are you crazy or just senile? I heard you plain and clear when you told meandthe whole ship that you weren’t touching me again! I’ve surely got witnesses!”
“The whole ship?”
“You said it loud enough.”
“So I lied.”
“Just like that? You lied? Well, I’ve got news for you—”
“How you do go on, George. This propensity you have for airing our dirty laundry—”
“I’ll do more than that, you addled ox!” But she was finally aware of the snickers and chuckles following in their wake, and her voice dropped to a whispered hiss, “You just try and…Well, you just try it and see what happens.”
“Good of you to make it more interesting, sweet, but totally unnecessary, I assure you.”
She didn’t mistake his meaning. It suffused her with heat in all the wrong places, wrong just now, since she wanted nothing to do with him.Whywas he doing this? They’d been at sea a whole week and all she’d gotten was dark, brooding looks from him, if he bothered to look her way at all. But he’d started that fight in the cabin, provoked her into giving up her sulk, and now this. If he was trying to drive her crazy with confusion, he was well on the road to success.
He shifted her before he started down the stairs to his cabin, swinging her legs around and up so she ended up cradled in his arms, a position no easier to get out of than the other. She was really starting to resent his strength, and his ability to put his anger aside, while hers just seemed to increase.
“Why, James?” she asked in a tight, resentful little voice. “Just tell me that, if you dare.”
She could look at him now in her new position, and was, but when he briefly glanced down at her, she saw it all in those green eyes. She didn’t have to hear it. He told her anyway.
“Don’t look for hidden meanings, love. My motives are simple and basic. All that passionate anger we were spewing at each other got me a bit…nauseous.”
“Good,” she bit out, closing her eyes in pure self-defense against that potent look of his. “I hope you puke.”
