AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Just two, but that’s not the point.”
“Then what is the point?”
Morgan bristled at her tone and the way she kept twisting his words around. Making him say things he wanted to say, but didn’t want her to hear. “Where did you get the money to buy passage anyway?”
“I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”
“Everything about you is my business.”
Her mouth dropped and she looked at him incredulously. “How do you figure that?”
“I got you into this and—”
“I believe I am the one who got me into this, and therefore I should be the one to get myself out.”
“Yes, but as a man it is my duty—”
“Oh, please,” she said, throwing her hands up, “must we have this tiff again?”
Torn between the desire on one hand to kiss her, and on the other to strangle her, Morgan chuckled. She was a challenge, most definitely.
But that was one of the things he liked most about her. With a woman like her, a man would never be bored. “Can we ever have a moment when we’re not arguing?”
Serenity smiled and reached out to carefully pluck a yellow rose from a nearby bush. He watched as she gently stroked the delicate petals between her fingers and the moonlight played against her profile. “We do seem to do that a lot, don’t we?” she said.
“Yes, yes we do.” Morgan became quiet while he tried to think of some way to keep her on board his ship. Some way she wouldn’t find arguable.
Then it occurred to him. “You know, if you let me take you home, I’ll teach you how to be a sailor.”
She sighed and sat down on one of the marbled benches. “I no longer wish to be sailor, and I promised you I wouldn’t write any stories about you, Jake, or your crew. All I want is to go home.”
He walked over to where she sat, her arms braced on each side of her.
“But why?” he asked, looking down at her as she dipped her head to study her feet. “Surely you know what waits for you back there. The gossips, the—”
“I know,” she interrupted, her voice filled with pain. “I know firsthand how vicious people can be.” She looked up at him with the moonlight sparkling in her eyes. He saw her soul there. A soul of need, of longing.
And he wondered what he could do to ease the pain that flickered in the center of her cobalt eyes.
“I have to go home sometime,” she whispered. “The longer I’m gone, the harder it will be for me to return.”
He wanted to argue with her, wanted to know what words would make her stay with him, but for his life he couldn’t think of a single one.
Hell, he wasn’t even sure why he did want her to stay. Only that if she left, he knew it would give him more agony than he wanted to experience.
Sitting down next to her, Morgan gently cupped her face in his hands. She was so beautiful in the moonlight with the shadows and light playing across her face. Her light eyes were shining, and he would give anything to stay like this with her.
“Are you going to kiss me, Captain Drake?” she asked in the same forthright manner he’d come to expect from her.
“And if I said yes?”
“I would remind you of your promise.”
“Is that what you want me to do? To walk away?”
Serenity swallowed at his tone, at the longing she saw reflected in his eyes.
Was it there, or was it just her desire for him to want her that she saw?
