“I do not believe that,” she said dismissively. “I believe you are at heart a gentleman. Therefore if one kiss should be our limit, then I am most sure you would stop with that.”
“Then you credit me with a restraint I fear I do not possess. Under these circumstances, one kiss would be too many and yet not nearly enough,” he said with obvious regret.
Abby refused to give up so easily. She had this vaguely alarming sensation that once before she had known a man who placed honor above passion. In so doing, in refusing to claim her out of some misguided sense of duty, he had relegated her to a life of tepid emotions with another. She would not allow the same thing to happen now.
She had not known then how to fight for the love she wanted, and so she had let him slip away. Looking into Captain Walker’s face, catching the glint of longing in his eyes, she cursed the rare nobility that kept him from taking that first, daring kiss. She thought she could see, too, what the restraint was costing him. His hands were clenched into tight fists at his sides, to keep them from reaching out to her, no doubt. His jaw was set, most likely to prevent a whispered encouragement that would draw her to him. His entire body was tensed, as if under strictest orders to hold back.
She ruined it all, cut through every stern defense by reaching out to caress his rough cheek. A sigh shuddered through him. Heat flared at once in his eyes, making them sparkle like emeralds in sunlight.
“You are tempting fate,” he warned in a low, uneven voice.
“I am,” she agreed, deliberately stepping closer, until she could feel the heat radiating from his body.
“Why?”
“Because I would know you, Captain Walker. I wish to see where the fates have led us.”
With one trembling hand, he touched her hair, fingers tangling in the ebony strands, then freeing it to flow like silk. Roughened fingers traced the curve of her jaw and made her heart leap. With the pad of his thumb he outlined her lower lip in a slow, provocative gesture that made her pulse run wild.
“I fear the fates are leading us into trouble, my lady,” he said, though he did not stop the gentle caresses that were making her knees weak and filling her with an indefinable yearning.
“It is a journey I am willing to take,” she insisted, though her voice shook.
“Once taken,” he reminded her, “there is no turning back.”
Abby knew that, prayed that it would be as true for him as it was for her. She wanted the threads of passion to be woven as tightly around his heart as they were around her own. “I understand that.” She tilted her head and studied him intently. “Do you understand it, as well?”
He looked taken aback by the question. “It is not the same for a man,” he protested.
Her spirits sank, but she pressed on, willing him to see what she saw. “Then we do not speak of the same thing, do we?”
His eyes narrowed. “Meaning?”
“No doubt you are speaking of bedding a woman, while I am talking of love.”
“I have told you before, my lady, the sea is my mistress. There is no room in my life for love.”
He said it with an air of disdain, the protest of a man who liked his life as it was, who dismissed love as an inconvenience, rather than claiming it for the joy it was.
“Just room enough for someone to share your bed,” she said.
“Aye.”
Despite the conviction with which he spoke, Abby did not believe him. Given time, she would prove to him exactly how shortsighted he was. She would find a niche in his heart and take her place there for all eternity. That long-denied kiss would be a start.
Without speaking another word, she stepped closer still, stood on tiptoe and touched her lips to his. The gesture was cool, almost chaste, but it held the promise of fire. She heard his gasp of surprise, felt his muscles tense beneath the hands she had placed on his shoulders. And then his lips parted and his tongue found hers and her entire body turned to liquid heat. The fire raged as brightly as she had imagined.
Somewhere, somehow she found the strength to pull away. Looking into his dazed expression, she smiled. “The deal was one kiss, Captain.”
He reached for her again. “I told you we could never be limited to that.”
Abby backed away. “One kiss,” she insisted, though her own breathing was unsteady and her entire body pleaded with her to capitulate.
Apparently he saw the struggle she had with herself and recognized the strength of will it took her to say no, for he grinned eventually. “I admire a woman who knows her own mind. You will do quite nicely, Lady Abigail.”
Her gaze narrowed. “I will do? What does that mean?”
“It means that I shall enjoy the challenge of seducing you, my lady. It will make our time at sea pass quickly.”
“And then?”
His expression set stubbornly. “And then we will be in port and you will go your way and I will go mine.”
Her heart sank. “If that is your plan, Captain, then we have nothing more to discuss. I find that I am very tired. I would like to be left alone.”
“Sorry,” he said, sprawling across the narrow bed. “If you wish to sleep, my lady, it will have to be with me by your side.”
There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that he meant it, either. “You are no gentleman,” she accused.
He grinned. “At last you have seen the truth of it.” He patted the sliver of space beside him. “Come, my lady. You can use my shoulder to rest your head.”
“I would rather die first,” she said, snatching up mounds of discarded clothes and piling them
