She remembered his brief moment of guilt and said,“Youcould help me.”
He actually burst out laughing. “Nice try, wench, but not a chance.”
“Your brother-in-law, James, would have,” she pointed out stiffly.
“Then you should have asked him.”
She gritted her teeth. “You could at least leave me my crew.”
“Forget it. I warned you what would happen when you stole my ship. And there’s only one reason you’re not going to jail with the rest of them. I’d keep that in mind because it’s a decision thatcanbe reversed very easily. So I’d drop it if I were you.”
He wasn’t going to give any ground, obviously, and she wasn’t about to plead with him, so she started walking back to her bed. “I’d appreciate it if you’d leave now and let me get some sleep,” she said frostily.
He laughed again, but this time there was too much male satisfaction in it, which was all the warning she needed to know she wouldn’t like what he was going to say next. For once, she wished she was wrong.
“There’s no lock on the door of this cabin, but you’ll be glad to know I’m going to give you the same courtesy you gave me, wench. Shall we?”
He’d stood up and was holding his arm out to indicate the door. She marched stiffly toward it, but stopped when she realized she was wearing only the robe and nothing under it. While it might not make any difference to him, she’d rather not finish the voyage half dressed. Nor was she going to count on his supplying her with a change of clothes, so she went back to the wardrobe and stuffed some of her garments into her carpetbag before she headed to her new prison.
Chapter 34
“SAME COURTESY” REALLY HAD BEEN THE KEY PHRASE.Gabrielle had actually assumed she’d be put in the hold with her crew, but that’s not what she’d done with Drew, and he was giving her back tit for tat exactly, including the same area of his cabin that he’d occupied—and the shackle.
He put the damn thing on her himself and seemed to take an inordinate amount of pleasure in doing so. Unlike Timothy’s chain, Drew’s was still firmly attached to the wall. It had been removed from him normally, the tools that had opened it still lying there on the floor. So it was in good if rusty shape, for her use.
But Drew didn’t need to use the tools. He pulled a padlock out of his pocket that he must have found before he went looking for her, proving that this had been what he intended for her before he even entered her cabin. Had he intended the lovemaking, too, or had that, at least, been spontaneous? She wasn’t going to ask.
She tried to ignore his fingers touching her leg as he fastened the cold metal around her bare ankle, but like everything else that had occured tonight, she had no luck with that either. She watched him, though, with a mixture of rage and bruised feelings. There was a tightness in her chest, but she couldn’t imagine what was causing it. Indigestion, she hoped.
He glanced up to smile at her when he was done. She glared back at him. He chuckled softly and moved over to his bed. He removed only his boots and shirt to sleep, stretched widely with his arms, then almost dove at the soft mattress. It was a wonder the bed didn’t break with that much weight falling on it. Turning over on his back, he crossed his arms behind his head. His sigh of pleasure filled the entire room.
But less than a minute later he said, “Damn, I can smell you on my pillow.”
“So wash it,” she shot back.
He laughed and turned over, facing away from her, and about ten minutes later she heard some quiet snoring. She ought to make some noise to wake him. He’d certainly tried to keep her awake when their positions had been reversed, and with the most outlandish descriptions of how he wanted to pleasure her, too. She was going to have to give that some thought. Tit for tat in that regard? After all, just because he had his ship back didn’t mean she was going to abandon her plan of revenge. Although how she could ever make herself attempt to entice a scoundrel, no, ablackguard,no, adevillike Drew Anderson, she didn’t know. She shook her head and took stock of her surroundings.
He’d left burning the lamp that was bolted to his desk. So she could see to get settled in? No, he probably just forgot to extinguish it, or maybe it was a habit of his, to sleep with a light. But it made it easy to see that the bedding he’d been given was still there for her to use, as well as the chamber pot, which was thankfully empty at the moment, and his empty plate from dinner.
Her eyes went back to the chamber pot and stayed there with a frown. Good heavens, how was she going to manage that now? Would he give her any privacy at all? If he didn’t, she’d make him wish he had. She’d just have to forget the word “embarrassment” for a while.
She started to change her clothes to get more decent to sleep but stopped, deciding she’d rather have the loose comfort of the robe. Actually…
Why not? She took the robe off, too. Let him have an eyeful in the morning if he bothered to look. It might make him wild with desire, which she could then nip in the bud, because she wasn’t about to letthathappen again. The more he wanted her, the closer she’d get to her revenge. But what if he didn’t want her anymore, now that he’d had her? Damn, she hadn’t thought of that. Well, she wouldn’t know the answer to that until another day. For now, she had totryto get some sleep herself.
With a sigh she lay down and wrapped herself in Drew’s blankets—bloody hell, she could smellhim,too. She was going to have to demand fresh bedding. Tomorrow. Pulling her legs up to curl into a ball, she felt that cold iron scrap against her ankle.
She sighed again and sat back up to examine the metal constriction; precisely, she tested how rough the shackle was going to be against her skin. It had abraded his. She’d like to avoid that if she could. It had been much tighter on him, of course. It had been built for a man’s foot, not a woman’s. She moved it to see how much give and take she actually had, then stared incredulously as it slipped right off her foot.
She had to put her hand over her mouth to help conceal her laughter. And she didn’t waste a moment, immediately slipping her robe back on and tiptoeing straight to the door. And she found it locked tight.
She silently swore a blue streak to herself as she returned to the bedding on the floor. She heard Drew mumble. He’d heard her. But he didn’t wake and she glared furiously at his naked back before she got back under the blankets. She even slipped the shackle back over her foot. There would be other opportunities when that door wouldn’t be locked. She smiled and looked forward to tomorrow.
Chapter 35
GABRIELLE WOKE TO FIND HERSELF ALONEin the captain’s cabin. Not much light filtered into the room from the bank of windows. It was morning, but a glance outside showed the sun was covered by dark clouds, which suggested a storm sometime that day.
She dressed quickly in the clothes she’d carried in last night, her ship’s togs. It was the first time she’d ever had the room to herself, without Drew or one of her friends being present. She took advantage of that and went straight to Drew’s desk to rummage through it. She was disappointed to find nothing that she might use as a weapon. A woman’s garter, probably a memento of one of his “sweethearts in every port.” A miniature of Drew’s sister Georgina. Lots of invoices that were all ship or cargo related. No weapons, not even a letter opener.
