Stunned, he’d looked to his older brothers, who’d laughed at his mistake. The bastards had failed to warn him about human customs, and instead had been the first to tell their father of his innocent transgression.
Varice had immediately stepped forward with a dubious smile. “Let me be the one to whip him, Father. ’Tis a lesson I’m sure he’ll never forget.”
A promise his brother had well delivered on.
It was why Kalder didn’t understand Cameron’s kindness toward him now. It was such a foreign concept for him.
While he was used to loose women throwing themselves at him anytime he ventured near one, women of standing tended to stay away because they knew nothing of his social status. All they saw was a dark, mysterious loner who avoided others. An intriguing puzzle they wanted to explore—at least for a few hours, until he’d sated them. As a rule, those women thought him a ruffian of low character and little prospect.
The truth was, his father had been a warlord and king who ruled a vast empire of immense wealth. Had his mother not killed him, he would have stood to inherit the southern borderlands and lived a life of privilege that would make the kings of England, France, and Spain weep with jealousy. Never mind what his brothers had taken.
But Kalder had never cared about such things. Perhaps because he’d been raised with servants fawning over his every frown and seeking to please him, and more wealth than anyone could ever spend. It held no value whatsoever.
Nay, the only things he’d ever craved had been the most elusive and precious of all.
Friendship. Loyalty.
Kind words.
And, most of all, the look on Cameron’s face as she stared up at him right now.
It humbledhim,the son of a king. More so because she had no idea who and what he really was. Where he came from. She knew nothing about his past at all.To her, he was just another sailor. Same as Sallie or Roach or Simon. A commoner no better than the bilge water they pumped from the hold.
Yet she treated them all with the same deference she would show a king or emperor. Total kindness and open friendship and warmth. Never in his life had he met her equal.
In the clothes of a common, poor man, she was a grand lady in every sense of the word. And while she might not know his origins, she knew him better than anyone ever had.
Because she alone actually saw him.
Cameron cleared her throat nervously. “Are you going to say anything, Mr. Dupree? Or just continue to stare at me with that unnerving intensity?”
He softened his gaze and fought against the urge to laugh at her chiding tone. “I can’t seem to help meself, Miss Jack. Your beauty and grace always leave me awestruck.”
She let out an adorable scoff. “You flatter me, sir.”
“Only if the truth be flattery.”
And still doubt shone in the crystal depths of her eyes, toying with him and making him harder than a full-on caress could. He’dnever understand how she could seduce him so easily when she didn’t even try for it. Yet there was no denying the way he craved her every time she came near. It was madness, truly. Recklessness of the highest magnitude. And yet he was helpless before her.
She wrinkled her nose. “You’re the only one who thinks it, Mr. Dupree, I assure you.”
He savored the scent of her hair on the breeze as it stirred him even more. “Then the rest are fools not to see what’s before them. I can’t imagine how any could miss seeing the gem that is uniquely you.”
Cameron bit her lip at words that brought a lump to her chest. More than that was the hot look in his beautiful, pale eyes that made her throat go dry and her heart pick up its pace. Goodness, it was difficult to be near him whenever he teased her so.
But she knew it was just his way and he meant nothing by it.
How could he?
So she sought to make light of it and chase him away. “Do you always charm women like this?”
Kalder leaned down as if to impart a secret to her. “How can I when I seldom speak to any?”
He had a point.
More than that… the warmth of his breath fell against her skin and sent chills over her entire body. The contradictory sensation titillated her, and left her limbs shaking and weak.
Seeking some smidgeon of sanity, she forced herself to any topic other than those delectable lips that hovered far too close to her own. “Why did you rescue me?”
