“Ah, such a quandary, my dear love!” He adjusted his weight, straddling over her firmly. With one hand he pulled her wrists high atop her head, leaving the other free to taunt her. He touched her cheek and she twisted her head, trying to bite him. “Ah, careful, love!” he growled out, his smile fading, tension riding high within his features as he lowered his face close to hers once again. “Careful, careful love!” Then he cupped her breast, the heat of his hand defying the fabric that lay between his hand and her flesh. She spat out an oath and he laughed, taking his leisure, amused as she writhed and thrust against him. “Shall I take it slow, my dear? Tease and taunt and relish every movement you make against me?” His fingers found her nipple and she gasped and swore again, yet felt a rush of color flood her cheeks as she felt the peaks of her breasts grow pebble-hard to his touch. It was not the man, it was not an attraction, it was surely a response just like—
“Stop!” she hissed.
“Howshallit be? There’s fast, there’s brutal. I could thrust you up against the wall and lift your lovely thighs about me and have done with it all in a matter of minutes!”
He no longer stroked her breast. His weight shifted again and he was leaning atop her, his fingers tugging upon the hem of her skirt and bringing it high against her thighs. His touch roamed intimately against her and she cried out, squirming to escape him, yet bringing herself intimately against his touch. Her cry suddenly changed to one of desperation as she felt the total heat and power and strength of the man. His heart was thunder, his pulse ticked mercilessly. She had perhaps asked for rape, and he now seemed obliged to have it all as she had challenged him.
“Please…!”
“Please? Please shall I continue? Shall it be rough and tumble? Or shall we try seduction?”
She closed her eyes, gritting her teeth, and trembled suddenly. “I shall see you hang!” she whispered.
She heard a curious sound. She opened her eyes carefully. He was laughing again, watching her. “You are a challenge, love. A definite challenge.” He leaned close to her. “But I promised you once, lady, that it will not be this way, though I am ever more convinced that the time will come when we will lie together.”
His face was so near, his whisper touched her. His eyes sought out hers with such a startling silver glimmer that she felt her protest die within her throat. She wanted him away, and that was all. For whatever else he might be, the Silver Hawk was an exceptional man. Honed and muscled and bronzed and fine, and able to awaken her from a maiden’s innocence. She could deny it, but it was true.
Even though he had told her that no woman was worth much in silver or gold.
Yet he was going to let her go, she realized. He was not going to rape her. He had never intended to do so. He had merely meant to taunt and torture and tease her and provide himself with vast amusement.
“Oh!” she cried, squirming furiously against him again. “I, sir, will never come to you!” she promised him. His eyes flickered a silver warning and her voice fell to a quiet tone, but still, her words did not falter, and she was glad of it.
He said no more but released her and climbed off the bunk. He walked to his desk and searched through some papers there, speaking to her with his back to her. Skye lay still for a moment, afraid to move. Then she rolled to the edge of the bunk and sat there, smoothing back her hair and keeping a very wary eye upon him.
“I will be gone for some hours, probably late into the night. You will not be alone.” He swung around suddenly. “New Providence is a dangerous place. Keep the drapes closed while we are here. Do not seek the deck, for no man will take you there.”
She did not respond to him. He spoke to her sharply, very sharply.
“Do you understand me?”
Her eyes flashed angrily but she answered him very sweetly. “Why, Captain, your every wish is my command.”
“Lady, trust me, you do not begin to know the depths of my temper, but I promise that you will know my wrath and know it well if you do not heed my warnings.”
“What is there to heed!” she cried, leaping to her feet. “You will lock me in here, and your men will not let me out! Why bother to threaten me!”
He strode the few steps toward her, pulling her back into his arms. His lip curled as she jerked upon her wrists to free herself from his touch. He shook her suddenly, fiercely. “I know you, my love!” he said curtly, his eyes meeting hers as her head fell back and her hair cascaded around them both. “I know you, and I am never quite sure how I should be dealing with you. Warnings are no good—only threats seem to avail.”
She stamped on his foot as hard as she could. For a moment she was vastly pleased, for the taunting smile left his lips and his face paled with the pain. Then she screamed, for he quickly sat down upon the bunk, dragging her along with him—over his knee.
“I’ve thought all along that you really need a good thrashing!” he swore.
“No!” Skye screeched, straining to raise herself from his lap. She bit his thigh. His hand landed harshly upon her posterior section and she cried out, tears stinging her eyes with the humiliation. She twisted around in time to see his hand rise again. “Stop, please!”
“You bit me! You stomped on me, and then you bit me! Apologize!”
“I can’t!”
He was about to pull her skirt up for more intimate contact with her flesh. Crimson, Skye squirmed her way from him so that she fell to the floor at his knees. She stared up at him, dazed. “Please, stop!”
“Apologize!”
“All right! I’m sorry that I bit you!”
She lowered her head, despising herself for having apologized to a pirate. He stood up, and she saw his boots as he walked by her.
“I’m sorry I bit you!” she cried out, adding softly, “I wish that I could have boiled you in oil.”
