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Beyond him the two men continued to whisper and chuckle, making lewd remarks about the captain’s intentions.
Why in God’s name had he brought a woman aboard? He hadn’t been thinking straight. He’d been won over by her plea and the promise of a lusty tumble in bed with a lady such as her. It had been too long that he’d been without a woman’s touch, for Roderick Cameron was not used to seeking them out alone. In fact it had been his fellow shipman, Gregor Ramsay, who had been the brazen carouser when they docked at ports near and far. Roderick did not consider himself a man of finesse, especially when it came to women. He was not gifted with charm and the necessary skills of seduction. Since his cohort, Gregor, had taken time away from the ship, Roderick’s sole task was to keep the crew aboard the Libertas safe, no matter what dangerous task they undertook, and to keep his men content. He had dreamed of captaining a ship since he was a lad watching the vessels come and go down at the docks in Dundee, and he wasn’t going to let anything threaten his leadership, least of all a woman.
They were trouble, no good for anything but a quick roll before you were on your way again. If you got a taste for it they could break your bond with the sea and hold you to the land. Brady was in a position to warn them of it, for he was saddled with a woman and bairns, too. Brady’s lot was a warning to them all. He had a family he had to provide for even though he was a man of the sea. It tore the sorry man in two directions.
Roderick had longed for a woman that night, though, and she had appeared. Maisie from Scotland. What red-blooded man could have resisted? Surely it would do no harm to keep her below deck and deposit her in Dundee.
A cold wind whistled in over the water.
He thought of his bed, and the woman who was warming it.
“She’s aboard now,” he said, returning Clyde’s eyeglass to him, “and you’d be wise to get used to the idea, because I intend to put her down on Scottish soil myself.”
“What a gentleman you are,” Brady said. “But you do intend to bed her, don’t you?”
Roderick nodded. “Oh, aye. The men may grumble about her presence, but they would respect me even less if I didn’t bed her.”
Brady grinned. “Now I am reminded why you have their loyalty. You’ve a canny knack of sounding as if you’re talking sense, no matter what fix you’ve got us all in.”
Roderick laughed, but talk of getting them in a fix still niggled at him. There would be no fix, if he didn’t let his curiosity about her circumstances get the better of him.
* * *
Much later that night, Roderick strode across the boards and climbed down the ladder below deck. He made his way along the narrow corridor to his quarters with his plan in mind. He would claim her, then arrange for her to be accommodated elsewhere until they docked in Dundee. He could not afford to be distracted by a woman. Assuring himself that it was possible to bed her and be gone, he opened the door and entered the cabin.
He’d been about to speak when he noticed she was slumbering on the bed. The sight pulled him up short and he stood by the door, staring across at her.
What a picture she made.
He’d been correct in his assumption she was no penny whore, for the gown she wore was now fully revealed, spread out on the bed as she was. It was a fine gown, made for a fine lady. How was it that a man such as he had the task of carrying her to Scotland, let alone bedding her?
Roderick relished the prospect. It would be a pleasure indeed. His cock was already roused, hardening inside his breeches.
His gaze ran her length and he saw a flash of ankle between boot and skirts. Soon enough he would be lifting those skirts and shoving them out of his path. What he could see of her stockings indicated they might be the finest he had ever touched, and he looked forward to stroking them down her lovely legs. The cloak she had worn was folded neatly beneath her head. The fact she had used her own garment as a pillow made him smile. His pillows were clearly unworthy. She was a woman of some wealth, and yet she had no coin to pay for her passage. It made him curious, which was unfortunate, because it distracted him, when his intention was not to be distracted by any woman.
Maisie had settled enough on his bed to fall asleep. She had unlaced her bodice before doing so, and her breasts swelled enticingly from the silk corset beneath. One hand rested at her collarbone, the other was partly folded at her side, clutching her unraveled laces.
A true beauty she was. A princess dozing on his humble bed. Roderick found himself glad that she was asleep while he observed her silently from just inside the door. He wanted to wake her, but he savored the vision before him, and the fact she was there at all.
Easing off his cloak, he set it aside and moved closer to the bedside.
In her sleep, her brow seemed softly troubled. Roderick felt the urge to smooth that frown away, but held back his callused hand from the task. That was a delicate endeavor for which he was not best qualified. Instead, he sat on the edge of the bed and wrapped his fingers around those of hers that held her laces, lowering his head to breathe in her scent. The aroma of her femininity—both floral and fecun
d—intoxicated him. The alabaster skin of her throat and breast had him humbled and yet aroused. The women he had been with in previous trysts had been basic sorts, and now he felt cursed in his blind lust, uncouth and unskilled.
A woman, a beautiful woman at that, had offered herself to him. Desire pumped within him.
How easy it would be to pounce and plunder her. But what Roderick Cameron wanted most of all was to have her welcome him aboard. He rested a kiss on the elegant bump of her collarbone, holding himself back from diving down into her luscious cleavage.
Wake up, my beauty.
She stirred, her head rolling from one side to the other on her makeshift pillow. Roderick could not help but notice her delicate earlobes, and the soft, enticing skin behind them. Instinctively, he ducked his head and kissed her there, behind her right ear. The silken skin enticed him closer. He nuzzled her.
Oh, but you are precious and beautiful.
It was only when she jolted under him that Roderick realized he might have said that aloud, and woken her.
CHAPTER FIVE
