'But I vow, I think your husband simply likes to look at you.'
'Oh, yes,' Maddy began in a scoffing tone, 'he's so attentive he comes by once a day.'
Another woman said, 'No, no. He only approaches you once a day, but we often see him lingering nearby.'
'His expression is so dark'—Owena grinned—'and…hungry.' The women tittered, fluttering their ostrich- feather fans, scandalized.
But why would Ethan come by and not speak to me?Maddy wondered, absently shuffling.Why has he been so distant— ?
Realization hit her. Cards flew among the coterie.Ethan is already falling for me!
Maddy mumbled apologies as she hastily scooped cards from the table and from one woman's bucket hat. Yes, falling in love with her. And that was precisely why he'd been so cold!
'Shall I deal, Madeleine?' Owena asked, amused. 'You look distracted.'
'Oh, yes, please,' Maddy said, her thoughts racing….
Although Maddy's own mother hadn't loved her, Quin hadn't fallen for her, and even Ethan seemed not to like her very much at times, Maddy boldly believed she was a lovable person.
People generally liked her, and she'd always made friends easily. And if she turned on the charm? She was nigh unstoppable. MacCarrick didn't stand a chance, she reasoned, and the poor man probably sensed his heart's impending surrender—which would explain his increasing coolness.
Naturally he would put up a brusque front as a defense! For a bachelor of his advanced years, yielding to marriage was one thing, but yielding one's heart was quite another.
And he'd already betrayed hints of his growing affection. Late into each night they touched and kissed and talked of nothing serious, learning each other's bodies. He taught her how he liked to be caressed and wanted her to reveal what she desired from him.
He'd nuzzle her neck and her breasts so gently, kissing her lips tenderly. He'd compliment her, pleasure her, and then gruffly insist she sleep against him as he held her close.
Whenever they were alone in their cabin, he would walk around naked and unabashed—what male wouldn't, with a physique like that?—and she would lie on her front, chin on her hands, gazing at him in wonder. As she studied his unclothed body moving, she couldn't help recalling some of the scenes she'd witnessed in La Marais. Applying the general ideas to him, her curiosity grew each minute.
Every morning, she'd joined him at the basin to explore him as he struggled to concentrate on shaving. She'd run her fingers over his backside, then to his torso and lower, which always earned her a trip to the bed.
Her attraction to him was getting worse. Every encounter between them made her want two more, and her affection for him wasn't far behind. Especially since he'd begun once again to demonstrate that sense of humor she'd enjoyed. Her heart melted each time he grated teasing words to her with a self-conscious grin.
At breakfast today, he'd looked out from behind his paper and said, 'Have you been cheating when you gamble on board?'
'As if I need to. Winning against the passengers is as challenging as hunting cows.'
'Doona scoff, young lass,' he'd said, making his brogue low and rumbling. 'Cows can be wily beasts.'
She'd batted her eyelashes as she asked, 'Ethan, would you lay down your life to protect me if a cow had me cornered?'
'Aye'—he'd resumed reading—'I'd smite the bovine down.'
Maddy had laughed until he'd folded the paper down, with his brows drawn and his lips curling into that unpracticed grin.
She sighed happily. MacCarrickwould resist her, of course.Ah, but in the end, it will do him no good.
She decided, then and there, in the middle of a hand of blackjack, that she was going to make the Highlander fall in love with her.
The problem with telling Madeleine not to be underfoot was that she'd listened.
Ethan had expected her to make a friend or maybe two—not to gather up a gaggle of women to follow her around and emulate everything she did. They'd even stopped donning jewelry because she wore none.
Though Madeleine had proved to be charming and sociable, Ethan was still surprised at the sheer ease with which she'd made friends. Having never quite managed the feat himself, he'd always believed it difficult.
She played cards and gossiped with them all day, having no trouble staying away from him.
And this meant that if he wanted to see her, he had to pursue her all over the ship. He'd strived to stay away, passing most of the days in the ship's club room. Since the majority of male passengers were gentlemen of leisure and landowners, the reading journals available on board consisted mainly of agricultural periodicals.
Ethan was out of study with the subject. He could man a howitzer and shoot a target between the eyes from half a mile away, and he knew the comprehensive geopolitical conditions of every country in Europe and Asia, but the newest farming techniques for loamy soil proved foreign to him.
He'd decided that since he was traveling to Carillon, one of his working estates, he could examine the operations while he was there. So he'd dived into the journals, intending to learn—and to keep his mind from Madeleine.
But staying away proved challenging, knowing what awaited him. On the few occasions he'd approached her, her face would light up, making it all the more pleasurable to see her. No one in memory had smiled upon seeing him, and he always had to stifle the urge to look behind him.
Today, the longest he'd made it was an hour before he'd found his feet eating the distance to wherever she was. Even merely watching her from afar was agreeable to him.
So he spent the days in a state that he could swear was close to bloody pining, counting down the hours until night when he could have her all to himself.
He, Ethan MacCarrick, craved a woman's attention.
And he felt himself lowering his guard around her. He'd actually caught himself wondering what she would think about Carrickliffe, and about his brothers and their wives—and, ach, that sounded odd.
Madeleine was already friends with Jane. This situation could get tricky if Ethan hurt the girl terribly.
What had Quin predicted? That Ethan wouldn't know up from down anymore?Bully for you, Quin, you've got me pegged. His lips curled.But she chose me over you, you sod.
Things used to be cut-and-dried for Ethan. He used to be detached from others, but now he wasn't so sure. At least with her. Even as he looked hard for things to dislike about her, at every turn he was burdened with additional examples of how well she fit with him.
Each night he and Madeleine indulged their lusts. He'd experienced more pleasure at her hands than he had in a decade before. Hecould get used to that—if he wasn't careful.
Toward dawn, they continued their nightly battles in bed wherein he attempted to get her to sleep against him instead of balled up in that way that made his chest feel uncomfortable.
If someone had told him a week ago that he'd be fighting to make a woman cling to him in sleep, he'd have laughed.
If he could just have her fully one more time, he thought he could beat this constant need. So every time he touched her, he would take more. He kept his fingers inside her longer, wanting her to crave the sensation of being filled, to train her body to hunger for his. If the situation had been reversed, this would have been the way to make him want more. Conditioning.
He knew he was playing for more now, though he didn't understand precisely what he wanted from her.
Yet she remained unfaltering. He was beginning to believe she truly wouldn't sleep with him outside of marriage. If so, once they landed he would only be able to put her off for a few weeks before she demanded matrimony. Or she'd leave.
Now neither of those scenarios was acceptable.
A plan began to form. Other women had enjoyed his coarse treatment. Cold and domineering had served him well in the past, getting him into the skirts of more women than he could count—it could work with her as well.
