The Captain's Caress Read Online Free PDF Page B

after year for letters that never came, dying a little bit each day, and an implacable light glowed in his eyes.
    “I wouldn’t exactly use that term, but I guess it’ll do as well as any,” he said.
    “What do you mean by that?” Summer asked, distrusting the hardness she detected in his features. “Why else would you keep me here?”
    “There’s a small matter of three ruined lives to be accounted for,” he said bitterly. “You’re small compensation for so much destruction, but I intend to extract a costly vengeance.”
    “What are you talking about?” she cried.
    “Retribution!” he growled with explosive force.
    “But why?” she asked, her voice dry in her throat.
    “For what your husband did to my family and a poor old sailor who tried to help me. I’ve waited for ten long years, and I can’t think of a better way to repay Gowan than through his own wife.” The look of steel was back in his eyes.
    “But why me?” she pleaded. “I’ve done nothing to you.”
    “You don’t matter,” he said roughly. “You’re only a pawn, a means to plunge my knife into Gowan’s belly.” But even as he spoke the words, he knew they were untrue.
    When Smith had told him the Sea Otter carried Gowan’s wife, he had barely restrained a shout of joy. By holding Gowan’s wife for ransom, he could wreak some small measure of vengeance. But when Summer had appeared instead of the middle-aged woman he’d expected, the thought that such a beautiful creature could agree to become Gowan’s wife fanned his rage until he was unaware of the naked desire that swept over him.
    As he looked at her now, her lovely face flushed, her eyes wide with apprehension, and her rapid breath thrusting her ripe, full breasts against the tight bodice of her gown, he became conscious of a longing inside him that had nothing to do with revenge—a deep animal need to satisfy his passion with this girl who excited it. The yearning was so strong it sapped the strength of his hate and turned it to hunger. His fingers itched to caress the soft skin of her cheek, to glide down the planes of her bare shoulders until they encountered the uplifted thrust of the heaving breasts that teased and taunted his senses.
    Conflicting emotions battled within him, so fiercely that they left him feeling Weak. With solemn determination, he averted his eyes from Summer’s tantalizing image and pushed the distracting thoughts aside.
    “I came to tell you we dine in an hour. We brought all your things on board.” He pointed to the trunks and clothes scattered around the room. “But I’m afraid my men don’t know much about packing women’s clothes.” The change of subject seemed to help and he felt some of the tension drain from his aching limbs.
    “They’ve probably ruined everything,” she snapped.
    “You can buy more. No countess would be satisfied with so little clothing.” His anger blossomed anew as he remembered she was Gowan’s wife.
    “Well this is all I have now, and not even you can expect me to appear in gowns that are crushed or torn.”
    “Nonsense,” said Brent. He picked up a chemise that lay on top of one of the piles. “This isn’t torn at all.” The thought of her slim body clad only in the delicate fabric caused his blood to warm and eased his anger.
    “I might wear it if I were the mercenary strumpet you take me to be,” she said snatching the garment from him and blushing to the roots of her hair, “but I’d starve before I’d sit down to dinner in my underwear.” A spontaneous smile raced across Brent’s face and transformed him into a handsome young man with laughing eyes that nearly took her breath away.
    “We’d probably starve as well,” Brent said with a hot glance. “There’s not a man on board who could spare a thought for food with such a sight at the table.” Summer struggled to regain control of her weak limbs. The feelings that had swamped her when she’d first seen Brent threatened to