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She saw red.
Ignoring her, he continued to dig himself in deeper. “And who put such ideas into your head?”
“Are you saying that I can’t have my own thoughts?”
At least he had the decency to look a little sheepish. “That’s not what I meant. But let’s face facts, those aren’t the normal ideas. You didn’t come up with this mutiny on your own.”
“Mutiny?”
“Aye, mutiny. You stand before me, hands on hips, and defy every time-held belief. If women were meant to be the equals of men, then why since the very day God gave Eve to Adam, has man ruled woman?”
She inched closer to him, her hands itching to strangle sense into his male brain. “Need I remind you, Captain, that God did not make Eve from Adam’s foot so that he could tread upon her. She was created from his side tobe his equal.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and eyed her. “Then why are women by nature, by God’s own design, the gentler sex? Women faint at the slightest scare.”
Oh, how she wanted to knock the smug look off his face! He was so proud of that argument—well, she had an even better one.
“Slightest scare, Captain? I assure you, sir, that I have seen women suffer for days to bring a child into this world. And I have yet to see a woman faint during the labor of it. I beg you, show me a man who would willingly bear that much pain for that many hours, and not cry out for hismommy! In fact, you want to know why women have a higher tolerance for pain, Captain Drake? I’ll tell you why, it’s so that we women can put up with you men!”
He laughed.
By heaven, the man’s audacity knew no limits. He actually threw his head back and laughed at her!
“I don’t see the humor, Captain.”
“No,” he said, sobering—well, all except the corners of his lips, which continued to turn up in a smile. “I don’t suppose you do.”
Morgan tried to force the smile from his face, but she stood so proud and fierce before him that he just couldn’t. She was a rare treat.
He’d never in his life met a woman who could have phrased her views so eloquently—or so amusingly. In truth, he had known a few men who did just what she said, sailors who’d been wounded and had in fact cried out for their mothers.
“You make a most convincing argument, Miss James, but it doesn’t change anything.”
Serenity folded her arms over her chest in a duplicate of his pose, and looked away from him.
Men! Would they ever see past their own narrow views of the world?
Suddenly Morgan was beside her. He lifted her chin with a knuckle until she had no choice but to meet his eyes. Fire and longing burned in their dark depths.
Morgan brushed the pad of his thumb against the soft underside of her chin. Her skin was so soft, so warm. She had a strength of courage that would indeed rival any man’s. It must be hard for her to face the laughter of people and not give in. He admired that in her.
And he swore that he would never again laugh at her—not even if she told him that one day a woman would be prime minister of England.
“I don’t want to fight with you, Serenity,” he whispered.
“Then what do you want?”
To make love to you.
Morgan clenched his teeth, knowing he could never say that to her. So instead, he switched to a safer topic. One that needed to be spoken before she really did find out the truth of what he’d once been. “I want you to forget about the article you’re writing. Leave my crew alone to attend their duties.”
Anger sparked in her eyes, turning them a vibrant shade of blue. “Why?”
“Because everyone on this ship has a duty, mine is to run it, Barney’s is to keep peace, and yours is to stay out of our way.”
She knocked his hand away from her face. “I didn’t realize I was in anyone’s way.”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “This isn’t a game, Serenity. You need to—”
