Captured Read Online Free PDF

than sharing the bed of one such as he.
    So, she watched and waited as he walked over to one of the large chests beside the bed and withdrew some folded rugs. He set three of them atop each other, then added a sheet that she prayed was clean. He retrieved a fat pillow from his bed, slid it into a pillow slip from the chest, and laid it atop the makeshift pallet. “Will this do?” he asked, turning to gauge her reaction.
    “Yes. Thank you.”
    Dominic tried to remember if he’d ever been this accommodating to a woman before. Most females he encountered were usually so besotted by his charms that they made a beeline for his bed. Not this one. “Are you certain this is what you desire?”
    Clare was certain that velvet-edged voice had undoubtedly persuaded women to do his bidding from the day he was born, but she held fast. “What I desire is for you to take me to the nearest port so that I may return home. Short of that, I am certain I do not wish to share your bed.”
    He gave her a wry smile and rose to his full height. “Circumstances change.”
    She folded her arms and waited.
    “Besides,” he went on, eyeing her confidently. “When the time comes, you’ll be willing enough.”
    “Before or after pigs fly?” she tossed back easily.
    He bowed his head gallantly, “Believe what you will, but take it from a man who knows women.”
    “You do not know this woman.”
    “The pleasure we could share…”
    “Your pleasure, my displeasure.”
    “Will you be this spirited in bed, I wonder?”
    “Wonder until the seas boil, I’ve no intentions of providing the answer.”
    “I think the answer is yes, petite Clare.”
    The low heat resonating through his response made her senses ripple like a flag in the wind, but again she held fast. “I’m certain there are women who are flattered by your blarney, but I am not one of them, nor do I aspire to be. Why is that so difficult to fathom? Have you never been told, ‘No thank you’?”
    “Look at me. What do you think?”
    She assessed his superior physique and dark handsome face and sighed. “I think this ship is not large enough to hold the inflated value you place upon yourself.”
    He grinned. “We are going to do well, petite.”
    “And I think you’ve had far too much wine.”
    He laughed at that. “I’ll leave you now. Make yourself comfortable.” Reminding himself not to underestimate her, Dominic retrieved his laced pistols and the one he kept hidden in a drawer of his desk. He glanced around his quarters for anything else she might employ as a weapon. Seeing nothing, he picked up the china and cutlery from their meal and exited.
    When Clare heard the scratch of the key indicating he’d locked her in, she sighed with weary relief. The captain had proven to be a gentleman so far, but as she’d noted earlier, she doubted his largesse would last. With that in mind, she gazed around for anything he might have missed that she could use to defend herself. A quick search of the cabin turned up nothing. Beneath his bed, she found a white silk corset designed for someone far more buxom than she, but because it held no defensive value she tossed it back into the shadows and got to her feet, dusting off her hands. There was nothing in his armoire or hidden away in the drawers of the desk, either. Defeated, she focused on the pallet he’d fashioned.
    It appeared adequate enough, but she doubted she’d sleep. She was too anxious. The day had been an awful one, and she wondered if she’d ever see Savannah again. More importantly, would she ever see her children again? In the colonies, Sunday was the only day most captives did not have to work, so with the master’s permission, the Sabbath could be spent visiting family members in other places. For Clare, that family meant her ten-year-old daughter, Sarah, and twelve-year-old son, Benjamin. Eight years ago, they became the property of the Hamptons, loyalist planters in a neighboring county. By foot, the journey