So, what was he waiting for?
Delaying the inevitable wouldn’t make it any easier when the time came to leave her. Why not steal these few precious days and hours when she still trusted and cared for him? He could turn these days at sea into a memory that would last the rest of his life.
He was tired of spending his days on deck, pacing and driving himself crazy with jealousy. He hated it when Daniel and Kate excluded him.
He wanted to remain in this cabin with Kate and his brother. He wanted to taste this strange friendship and bask in Kate’s golden light. His life had been full of solitude and loneliness. It was stupid to deprive himself of love and companionship when they were being offered so freely.
At last, Kate finished her careful ministrations, and she sat back on her heels to survey her work. “Much better.”
Daniel tossed Kate a book, and she caught it in surprise, raising one eyebrow. “Is this a hint?”
Nodding, Daniel glanced at Talon. “Kate has been reading to me from a volume of Greek mythology. Why don’t you stick around and listen for a bit?”
Talon felt as though his brother had read his mind. Daniel gave a wicked smile when Talon caught his gaze. While Kate was struggling hard against taking him as her lover, Daniel was doing his best to throw them together.
“I’d love to listen to you read,” Talon murmured with no little regret. “But I think I need to lie down for awhile.”
“We’ll come with you. It’s more comfortable in there anyway. You don’t mind, do you, Kate?” Daniel’s smile was guileless.
For the second time that day, Talon was forced to admit his brother was not the self-absorbed simpleton he’d first supposed him to be. A cunning mind lurked behind Daniel’s bland good looks and mincing manner.
Kate gave Talon a tentative glance. “No, I don’t mind, if Talon really wants to listen.” A hopeful plea lit her eyes.
“I do,” he told her, unable to fight them both.
They filed into the cabin Daniel and Talon shared. Talon kicked off his boots and socks and stretched out on the bottom bunk. Daniel took the only chair, so Kate gestured toward the mattress at his feet. “Will it bother you if I sit here?”
He shook his head, hiding a small smile. He’d wanted her in his bed for weeks, but this wasn’t quite what he’d had in mind.
Kate took a deep breath and opened the book. As she began to read, Talon closed his eyes, listening to the sound of her voice while she spoke of Mt. Olympus, the realm of the Gods. Gradually, Kate’s shoulders relaxed and her hip rested against his foot.
For a long time, he lay still, enjoying the warm press of her body against his feet, but after awhile he grew restless. It wasn’t enough. He wanted more.
He moved one foot tentatively, almost groaning aloud at the slight give in her soft, rounded hip. Her voice faltered for a moment then resumed stronger than before. She touched his ankle, closing her hand over his bare skin.
At first, he thought she was warning him. Instead, she rubbed his arch with slow deep caresses that made his already warm blood rise to the boiling point.
He’d never known such sensual decadence, to have a beautiful woman rub his feet in the middle of the afternoon. Every other sexual experience he could recount had been a hurried affair. There was always someone else waiting for a turn, or he had a ship to sail or a score to settle.
All these weeks, he’d been worrying himself sick over how to save his men without seducing her. He could have been lying here in his bunk, regaining his strength and listening to her clear, sweet voice. What a waste.
He’d been a fool to resist this. It was the most beautiful thing he’d ever known.
She moved on to his other foot sometime during the third chapter, reducing him to complete mush. His mind began to wander, and he drifted away, lost in his daydreams of the woman beside him.
In his dreams, she was his wife, not Daniel’s.
