“Of a saint!”
“Of a saint. And I warned you time and again, and still you came to me. Vixen, you came to me.”
“You knew about—you knew about the marriage!” she charged him.
“Yes, I knew. Of course, I knew. ’Tis my wife I came to rescue.”
“And ’twas your wife you seduced?” she snapped.
A slight flush of color touched his cheeks. “I didn’t intend to.”
“Oh!” She stamped her foot against the sand and prodded the sword further against him. “You slimy, seafaring bastard! You went running from my house to bed another woman, knowing that I would come after you! Don’t you ever, ever think to touch me—”
“There was no other woman.”
“Liar! We both saw her; her hair was red—”
“I hired her, merely to irritate you.” The words were a mistake. Her hand shook. The steel touched him ever more closely. “Skye, give me back my sword!”
“Never! When I give you this steel, Captain Cameron-Hawk, you are going to feel it beyond a doubt.”
“There was no woman. But you—you, my love, my dear, darling devoted wife—”
“I never claimed to be a devoted wife!” she spat out. “I was forced to be a wife, just as I was forced to be a pirate’s possession!”
“Ah, but the wife didn’t mind going off to make a bargain with a pirate. Promises, my love, remember!”
“You are the most despicable man ever!” she hissed.
He ducked down, seeking to retrieve his sword. She sent it slashing dangerously through the air and he quickly danced back a step, circling her. “Me, milady!Me?”
“You! This double life of yours! Well, I promise you, sir,they will hang you just as high as the Silver Hawk, even knowing that you are Lord Cameron! You were supposedly my father’s friend! And you stole his ship anyway. I should slice you from groin to neck for that alone.”
“Oh, so that’s it, lady! The hurt is sexual indeed! Slice him to pieces and make sure you damage the man!”
“’Tis your heart I’d like on a platter!”
“Is it, milady? I seized your father’s ship from One-Eyed Jack, lady,” he reminded her tensely. “I seized you from him and his band of murdering cutthroats!”
“And you took me to Bone Cay!” Tears were suddenly stinging her eyes, and she didn’t want him to see them. She blinked them back furiously and kept moving, watching him very warily at all times. Sheshouldkill him. She should kill the pirate Silver Hawk right then and there. He would deserve it.
“Give me the sword, Skye!”
“No!”
Suddenly he drew his long knife from the sheath at his calf. He smiled, his eyes glittering silver. “Then slay me,” he told her.
“Stop it!” she commanded as he feinted toward her with the short broad blade. Hers was by far the better weapon, and shedidknow how to use it. “Stop it or I shall have to kill you!”
“Come, come, love! Aye, the temptation is great for me!” He dove toward her. She reeled back, slicing at his blow, and their steel clanged together loudly. She swirled around, ready for the next attack. He was coming at her now with a new vengeance. “I should catch you now and beat you silly, madame, redden your aristocratic and sashaying derriere—”
“It’s been done before!” she reminded him, her teeth gritted.
“Ah, but the pirate had the pleasure, and not Lord Cameron. Not the injured husband.”
“Injured husband!” She was so startled and incensed that she stood still. He lunged, and she was forced to leap back, just barely parrying his blow. “Injured husband indeed!”
“Injured husband. Seduced so sweetly by his angelic and long-suffering wife, just so that she could viciously render him unconscious with a liquor bottle!”
