“I had to—”
“You had to! Ah, yes, render Lord Cameron senseless so that you could run off into the arms of another man. To promise to bed him as happily and givingly as a lark for services rendered!”
“Oh, how dare you!” she shouted, and for the moment, she had the advantage again. She moved across the sand in a flurry, and the air cried out with the force of swords and steel as she backed him far across the beach to palm tree again. “How dare you! Fine! You hired a whore just to lie naked with you in a bed to taunt me!”
“Aye!” he cried. “And you were distressed that the Silver Hawk had lain with another woman—not that he asked you to be theadulteressto come to him!”
“You bastard, you deserved it! I asked you to leave me be as my good and strong and loyal husband—I warned you about the other man and the fact that I could…that I could carry the Hawk’s child. But you! You waited until I slept, and then you seduced me, after all that I had said—”
“Exactly, milady! Those words mattered until you meant to leave me for the Hawk—thenyoucame and seducedme!What of your morals then, eh, Lady Cameron?”
“How dare you—” she began again, but he saw his chance. He had unnerved her, and her grip was slack. He surged forward, catching the tip of his sword with tremendous force. The reverberation of it traveled down the steel and she cried, dropping the blade.
“I dare whatever I please, milady!” he assured her. “You are my wife, remember?”
She stared at him in fury and looked to the sword upon the ground.
They dove for it together.
Skye grappled desperately in the sand to reach the blade. His long bronzed fingers closed over it first, tossing it aside. She tried to reach it. He cast himself against her and they went rolling across the sand. When they came still again, he swiftly straddled her, pinning her beneath him, pinning her to the ground. She writhed and fought against his strength, squirming and kicking, and succeeding only in making the sand fly.Eventually she was gasping for air, and still his prisoner, exhausted and beaten. She stared at him defiantly. “Youwillhang, sir!”
He cocked his head inquiringly. “And will you come to the spectacle, my love? Will you watch, and perhaps shed a tear or two?”
“I’ve nothing to say to you. You’re a rogue.”
“And you’re a cunning, manipulative seductress, so which of the two of us is more at fault?”
“You!”
“Milady, I—”
“You! You knew all the while what was going on! You led me on time and time again, and taunted me on purpose. You knew that my soul was in agony and you—”
“Agony! When were you in agony, my love?”
“Oh, never mind! Just get off of me now, and leave me—”
“Get off of you! Well, love, this is typical. There I lay, sleeping deeply after having saved your life, plucking you from the cruel and icy fingers of the sea! Then you come up with your very tender toes and nearly dislocate the whole of my rib cage. You take a sword to my throat, and nearly slice open my veins. Now I am on top again, and so we should quit the fight. Well, no, milady, it does not work that way. I owe you, remember? I owe you for nearly splitting my skull with that bottle, for leaving me to nearly drown in a pool of rum. For trying to sever from my body various protrusions. It isnotover! You will talk to me, and you will listen—”
“I will not listen!” she snapped. “Ever, ever again! I will be free from you, and so help me, Iwillsee you hang! All of those innocents you have fooled! Lieutenant Governor Spotswood believing in you so deeply! How could you! Lord Cameron! You had everything that you could have wanted! But you had to be a pirate anyway. Robbing, stealing, plundering—”
“Raping?” he suggested nonchalantly.
Skye cried out an oath and tried to fight him again. Tears stung her eyes as she writhed and scrambled beneath him. She had so little of her gown left, it was awful. Her shift and shorn petticoats rose about her and she felt his damp thighs clamped hard against her bare hips. She went still, staring at him. He smiled slowly, a devil’s taunting, promising, sensual grin. Her heart sank. She could not deny his looks, his appeal. She could not deny the rippling, muscled strength of his arms, or the trembling that seized upon her when he stared at her that way, so very aware of her skirt climbing, and of the distress it caused her.
The silver glitter in his eyes was as wicked as the rogue’s curl of his smile. With tension all about him, he leaned toward her. “A pirate’s life, ah, yes, milady! The rogue’s way. I’m fond of it, yes, I am! Take what a man will, love where he desires, have what he wants! It’s a good life, it is! Surely, I will hang for it—and certainly, I will hang, too, for the deceit I played on you!”
She gasped suddenly, staring at him, twisting again with new vigor. “Youarea—a despicable sea slime!Oh!Lord Cameron never doffed his clothes, not even to make love, because you were afraid I would know, that I would find some little mark, that—oh!”
“Yes, it was difficult,” he said nonchalantly. “Most difficult. I couldn’t have you in the dark—not with your fears, love. That’s why the pirate tried so hard not to touch you.”
“The pirate touched me again and again!”
He shrugged. “Yes, well, the part of Lord Cameron inside the pirate’s clothes didn’t want to think that his beloved wife would fall into the arms of another man.”
“I didn’t know that I was anyone’s wife!” she spat out. “Oh, you bastard! You cannot put this on me!”
He leaned low against her, his eyes still wickedly alive, his smile near to a taunting, sensual sneer. “I can do whatever I will, milady. I am a pirate, remember?”
