She wanted to know if he would still sail without her.
It was a question he couldn’t answer. Not in front of his crew. Not even to himself.
After his men left, August locked the door and leaned against it.
He saw the worry in her eyes. He saw the question form again on her lips.
“Meghan, why do sailors prefer bad weather?”
She shook her head.
“Because in bad weather, they are expected to behave like gentlemen.” Culross curved his lips into a wolfish smile. “Now, stand.” He ran his knuckles along her cheek. “I am going to bathe you.”
Chapter 15
Meghan watched as August moved throughout his quarters with a surety of step and command of the space.
A shrug and he was out of his jacket. A toss, without so much as a glance, and the garment found a hook.
I am going to bathe you…
He had spoken those six words to Meghan before.
The eve before.
And yet the intonation, the dip in his mellifluous baritone, didn’t carry the same quality.
Much like when she had been a mischievous lass and gotten theCome here right now, Meghan McQuoid Smith, all slow and drawn out—the kind that just shouted to keep running because she had found trouble.
But this was a different kind of trouble.
Oh, it stirred the butterflies in her belly.
But these were like thousands of fluttering wings set loose and not the kind ofyour-bothersome-big-brother-knocked-you-from-the-swingkind of tummy shivers.
August used one hand to tug his billowy white lawn shirt from his trousers when he seemed to remember her.
Which was strange—or unfair—because Meghan could not take her eyes off him.
She swallowed a sigh.
Such was to be her fate.
He arched an eyebrow. “That was a long sigh.”
“I did not realize I sighed.”
“They usually are involuntary,” he pointed out.
Meghan considered that a moment. “I disagree.”
Her contrary remark stopped him just as he reached for the other side of his shirt.
Meghan cleared her throat. “One can use a sigh to one’s benefit. I do so when I’m frustrated or trying to make a point. It is very common with the Mc—”
Meghan pressed her lips flat and cursed her tongue.
She cursed that he hated something she could not control.
