“What are you doing, you filthy cur?” she hissed.
“Tut tut, I wouldn’t say too much, my dear—I fear this knife to be very sharp.”
“Let me go.”
“What were you doing outside just now?”
“I went for a walk.”
“Liar!” He tightened his arm around her and held the knife that little bit closer.
A shudder racked her and he had to use all his power not to pull the blade away and offer his apologies. He’d meant to scare her for a moment, not give her an apoplexy.
“All I wanted was to take a walk.”
“I don’t believe you,” he murmured, his mouth close to the lush skin of her neck. He’d bet the sea air would have infused the spot right beneath her lobe.
“If I wasn’t taking a walk, what was I doing?”
He had to keep his head. “Why don’t you tell me? You and McDonald must be quite the chums now.”
She flinched beneath his palm. “He saw me out there and thought I was escaping.”
“So why didn’t he raise the alarm then?”
“Because unlike you, he believed I was truly going for a walk and accompanied me. Please let me go. You’re actually going to hurt me.”
“Why aren’t you afraid of anything?” he asked with frustration. Her voice held no fear at all. “Anything could have happened to you out there. Anyone could have come upon you and you would have been unarmed and at the devil’s mercy.”
“I am at no devil’s mercy.” The half laugh that followed her words did nothing to calm his fury.
“You are at my mercy.”
“You need me, therefore you won’t do anything to harm me.”
He wasn’t sure if it was the boy in him, the man, or the Butcher, who responded to her cocky statement. He dropped his arm to gently stroke the bare skin of her thigh where her dress was still knotted. At first his touch was soft, controlled, as was he. “Invincibility is a trait of the gods, Daniella, not the daughter of a pirate. If I wanted you, I could take you and so could any other man with muscle on his arm.”
“Don’t you dare.” Her whispered words held no conviction whatsoever and he wondered if he was winning this battle or if she only led him to believe he could.
“Oh, I dare.” His fingers tightened around her leg, his thumb inching closer to her undoing with every firm caress.
“You said you wouldn’t do this.”
“When did I say that?”
“You don’t even find me attractive.”
Inching closer and closer, his thumb finally brushed against the edge of the barely there drawers beneath her hiked-up skirts. Only the thin scrap of fabric saved her at this point. “Attraction has nothing to do with this. Someone needs to teach you a lesson.”
In his arms, she groaned, her head falling back onto his shoulder, her breasts arching against the confines of her dress. “A lesson about what?” she asked breathlessly, her body tight and tense as she responded to him rather than cowering from him.
“That a man is a man and he cannot be trusted.” He lifted his hand from her leg and brushed it up and over her stomach to gently squeeze her breast. “That you cannot control every situation you get yourself into.” He squeezed again and almost smiled when she arched into his hand, her backside rubbing over his growing erection. “That you are not invincible.”
He loosened the ties at her neckline and yanked on the fabric, satisfied when it ripped. Reaching in, he cupped her naked skin, rolled her pebbled nipple in his fingertip. Her sharp intake of breath said she still wasn’t scared of him or the situation. The realization pulled him from the haze of the edge and he wondered if this was about teaching her a lesson or finally giving in to the lust he felt when she was near.
He turned her in his arms quickly and pushed her onto the bed. “Are you still feeling invincible?” he asked.
“You’re not going to hurt me.” Her eyes opened and she pulled the edges of her wrecked gown together and started to rise but James jumped onto the bed, straddled her so she couldn’t rise, his hand to her shoulder to push her back down. He wanted to see just a touch of fear in her eyes. He wanted to know there was a shred of self-preservation in there somewhere, something to tell him that she did think about the consequences of her actions at some point and that she wasn’t a danger to herself and to him.
“What the hell are you doing? I get it. I understand the lesson.”
“Not yet.”
“James, let me go now.”
“I don’t want to.” He spun the knife in his hand until the blade pointed up and then slid it beneath the front of the gown and chemise.
“Don’t—”
In less than three seconds, she was bared to him from the waist up, her clumsy attempts to cover herself no use at all.
He trailed the edge of the knife between her breasts right down to her navel. “Shall we continue?”
She lifted her chin, resilience and fury lighting them bright green from within. “So you see me naked? What next? Are you going to stop at humiliation or are you going to rape me too?”
He had gone much further than he should have and she was far stronger, and more stubborn, than he’d thought. Unless it was all an act? A slip of a girl couldn’t keep this up, but a skilled actress could hide her fear, the daughter of a pirate who was used to getting her own way in all things could too. He would have to change tactics.
*
“I don’t have to force you.”
Despite the effort to hold on to her fury, Daniella’s bravado slipped and she gulped. “What do you mean by that?” Despite her voice being level and sure, despite the fact her fingers didn’t tremble and her
