Harlequin Historical September 2014 - Bundle 2 of 2: Lord Havelock's List\Saved by the Viking Warrior\The Pirate Hunter (53 page)

Her breathing had quickened and the delicate skin of her cheeks was a little flushed.

‘Mia,' he murmured.

‘We can't,' Mia said quietly.

Will agreed, but he leaned forward anyway.

‘Mia,' he said again. He'd lost the ability to say anything apart from her name.

Gently he brushed his lips against her, testing for any resistance. At first she didn't respond, but just as Will was about to pull away she let out a faint moan and shifted very slightly forward. He reached a hand up and caressed the back of her neck, trailing fingers over her silky soft skin.

Without a thought for the consequences Will hooked his other arm around her waist and pulled her into his lap.

He could feel the heat radiating from her body as she pressed herself into him. He deepened the kiss, flicking his tongue into her mouth and enjoying how she whimpered as he dropped his mouth to her neck. He peppered the smooth skin with tiny kisses before rising up again to kiss her lips.

‘Mia,' he murmured into her neck.

He could feel his hardness pressing into her, straining the lining of his trousers. He wanted to throw her on the bed and ravish her, the consequences be damned.

He raised a hand and trailed it along the edge of her bodice, causing Mia to shiver in anticipation. Slowly he dipped his head to her breasts, kissing the exposed skin, all the time wanting more.

Mia suddenly froze, then pushed his head away.

‘Stop,' she said quietly. ‘We have to stop.'

Will raised his head reluctantly.

‘We have to stop,' Mia said. ‘We can't do this.'

‘I know. But I want to.'

Mia shook her head, not moving her eyes from where her gaze was locked. Will followed the line of her sight and saw what had made her reconsider. She was staring at herself in the small mirror on his cabin wall. As he glanced over he saw how dishevelled she looked. Beautiful but dishevelled. It looked as though he'd ravished her ten times over.

She stumbled up from the bed and headed towards the door, pulling at her dress, trying to straighten herself out.

‘Mia,' Will called after her. ‘Wait.'

She didn't even pause. Instead, she wrenched at the handle and staggered out into the corridor.

He knew he had to leave her alone; going after her now would make things so much worse. He cursed loudly and slammed his fist into the soft mattress.

Will couldn't believe what he'd instigated. Normally he prided himself on his self control. He'd always been able to resist the advances of women if the circumstances didn't suit him and Mia hadn't even made the first move.

He flopped back on to the bed, wondering what to do. He'd ruined everything; they'd been doing so well. Mia had been on to something and now he didn't even know if she'd ever speak to him again.

‘Good work,' he told himself and closed his eyes. Not only had he sabotaged his working relationship with Mia, he felt completely frustrated now, as well.

Chapter Seven

S
he'd lain awake all night and now that the early morning rays were streaming through the tiny window in her cabin Mia knew she had no chance of getting any sleep. The first half of the night she had spent cursing her stupidity and the second half she'd tried to devise ways to avoid seeing Will ever again.

She felt completely confused. There were two things she knew for sure: one, she was undeniably attracted to Will Greenacre, and, two, a romantic involvement with him on any level would be the worst idea she'd ever had.

He was chasing her brother, and when Will caught him he would return to whatever life he had back in England and she'd most likely spend the rest of her days rotting in a cell. There was no future for them.

When she'd seen herself in the mirror in his room it was her mother looking back, in the arms of one of the men paying for the pleasure of her company. Mia refused to give up her integrity no matter how much she wanted him. She wasn't so naive she insisted on marriage before giving up her virtue, but she at least wanted love. She'd promised herself a long time ago she would only ever make love to the one man she fell in love with.

With a groan she got up from her bed and splashed some cold water left over from the night before on to her face. She looked in the grimy mirror above the sink and grimaced. There were faint black circles under her eyes and her skin had lost a little of its colour. She looked a mess. She pinched each cheek for a few seconds, trying to encourage the blood flow, but in the end decided nothing was going to hide the fact she hadn't slept a wink that night.

Mia pulled her dress over her head and got to work fastening the bodice, pulling the laces through herself as she had learned to do in the months she'd been living alone.

She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to tease out the tangles, before pulling it into a loose bun at the nape of her neck.

With one last look in the mirror she left her cabin and made her way up to the deck.

‘Good morning, miss,' Ed Redding said as she emerged into the sunlight. ‘Did you sleep well?'

Mia gave him a small smile. ‘Unfortunately I found the motion quite disconcerting.'

‘Why don't you have a walk about the deck and I'll get one of the men to bring you a cup of tea?'

‘Thank you,' Mia said.

‘Not a problem. It looks like you had a rough night.'

Mia looked at him sharply, wondering whether he was hinting he knew what had gone on in Will's cabin the night before. But he had already moved on, shouting orders to the men around him.

Mia shook her head and told herself to stop second-guessing herself.

She walked across the deck, smiling at the seamen as they went about their work. Mia loved this time in the morning when the sun wasn't yet hot, just a warm caress on the skin. She liked it when the mist hadn't quite lifted, the last few wispy tendrils still lingering in the sky. This was the time of day she felt was the Caribbean at its best, since so often as the afternoons closed in the temperature soared and the clouds rolled in.

Leaning against the wooden rail, Mia closed her eyes and let the sounds of the ship fade into the background. She was strong. She'd always been strong. She had coped with losing her mother and leaving her home and learning her brother was the most notorious pirate in the Caribbean. If she could cope with that, she could cope with the aftermath of kissing Will. She would just have to ignore the butterflies she got every time she caught sight of him and the way her pulse raced when he happened to touch her.

Mia groaned. Who was she kidding? She wouldn't last five minutes trying to ignore him. Maybe it was better to have it out with him. Tell him she was attracted to him, but that she knew they had no future, so no matter how much she wanted it would he please not kiss her again.

‘Mia.'

She spun around. Will was standing a little way away as if uncertain whether to come closer.

‘Will.'

They stood looking at each other for half a minute, neither wanting to be the first to start talking.

‘I'm sorry,' he said eventually, ‘for last night.'

Mia nodded, unsure how to reply.

‘It was unforgivable.'

She nodded again even though she didn't exactly agree. It was awkward and embarrassing, but it wasn't unforgivable. She'd wanted it as much as he had.

He fell silent and took a few steps towards her, pausing when he was an arm's length away.

‘I don't want things to be awkward between us,' he continued.

She agreed. The last thing she wanted was for things to be awkward between them, but she didn't see how they could avoid it. She felt she could barely meet his eye.

‘I'm sorry,' he repeated, seemingly at a loss as to how to proceed.

He stepped up to the rail so he was standing beside her. She watched as he leaned forward and looked out to sea, as if he was searching for the answer on the horizon.

‘I...' Mia started, but found the words wouldn't come out.

Will turned around to look at her, his expression hopeful. She realised he must be thinking he'd taken advantage of her, seduced her to near abandonment. He was feeling guilty and thought she blamed him for their kiss when in reality she blamed herself.

She had shamelessly flopped down on to his bed and had noticed when he'd edged closer. She could have created some distance between them right then, but she hadn't. She'd wanted him to kiss her. She'd been thinking about nothing else for two days and when he'd finally pressed his lips to hers she'd been in heaven.

Part of her wished she could just give in to her desires, but Mia had never been the type of girl who would give herself to anyone. She'd never even kissed a man before Will's delirious attempts on the beach. Mia reminded herself that when she gave herself to someone it would be to the man she intended to spend the rest of her life with. The man she loved.

A thought flitted through her brain and she pushed it away. She most certainly did not love Will Greenacre. She had barely known the man for a few days, certainly not long enough to fall in love. Perhaps if they had met in a different place, a different time with very different circumstances, perhaps then he was a man she could fall in love with. But most certainly not here and not now and not like this.

‘I'm sorry, too,' Mia managed to say.

‘You've got nothing to apologise for.'

‘I have,' Mia pushed on to say. ‘I wanted you to kiss me. I wanted it so much I allowed it to happen even though I knew better. I knew it wasn't a good idea.' The words were tumbling out so fast Mia didn't think she could stop. ‘I knew it wasn't a good idea and I let you kiss me anyway. I'm sorry.'

He looked rather surprised. Mia supposed he'd expected to come out to apologise and for her to act all indignant as if he had forced himself on her and she hadn't enjoyed a single moment. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

‘You wanted me to kiss you?'

Mia wondered if that was all he'd heard from her jumble of words. Slowly she nodded. ‘I wanted you to kiss me even though I knew nothing could happen between us.'

He turned so he was looking out to sea again.

‘So I want to kiss you and you want to kiss me,' he said.

Mia wasn't sure she liked where this was leading.

‘But it would be a very bad idea,' she said.

‘I suppose it would.'

‘It would.'

They stood side by side in silence for a few minutes. Mia desperately wanted to reach out and touch his arm, just make some sort of physical contact, but she knew she mustn't. He might take it the wrong way.

‘Fine,' he said eventually. ‘We can do this.'

Mia looked at him questioningly.

‘You're not the first woman I've been attracted to and I'm sure I'm not the first man you've wanted to kiss.'

Mia didn't bother correcting him. There were certainly men who'd tried to kiss her over the years, mainly drunken sailors or arrogant shipbuilders, but none she'd wanted to kiss back. No one had ever made her feel like she would burst into flames by just looking at her like Will did.

‘So we acknowledge it and we carry on. We both agree it would be disastrous if we allowed our baser instincts to take over.'

Disastrous was maybe a little strong, but she agreed with the general sentiment.

‘We work together and we spend time together, but no more.'

Mia nodded her agreement. It was exactly what she wanted, so she wondered why his words hurt quite so much.

‘Last night,' Will said after a few moments, ‘before we kissed, you'd worked something out.'

Mia nodded.

‘What was it?'

Back to business. Just like that. She swallowed her sadness and her confusion and smiled at him.

‘It'll probably be easier to show you.'

She followed him back across the deck and down the stairs. He hesitated a moment before leading her into his cabin. Mia nearly laughed out loud. He'd made it very clear he wasn't going to lose control again so she wondered if he was worried about her trying to ravish him.

‘Have a seat.' Will pulled out the chair from the desk and waited for her to sit down. He leaned across her to retrieve the map with all of her hair pins still in place. She felt the warmth of his body as he hovered just over her skin and wondered how long it would take before her heart learned not to race when he was near.

She waited until he had sat back on the bed, then turned to face him, holding the map in front of her.

‘Look,' she said, pointing at the pins with the red ends. ‘Concentrate on the attacks on merchant ships. We know this information is accurate. The Captains keep detailed logs so the date and the location are going to be pretty much spot on.'

Will nodded his agreement.

‘If we look at each one in chronological order, the pattern might become a little clearer.'

He leaned forward, eager to know what she had worked out.

‘The first attack and the fourth attack took place close to the island of Antigua. So let's imagine that's our starting point.'

Mia traced her finger over a route she'd worked out the night before, linking in all the assorted attacks in the order they happened. The route went from Antigua to Tortola to St Lucia, back to Tortola and then west towards Jamaica. With the attacks that they knew about, Del Torres had navigated the route three times in the past six months.

‘A couple of the sightings don't fit,' Mia admitted, ‘But I'm guessing if Jorge had information about a well-stocked ship or needed to dock for repairs after a fight he'd have to deviate from the plan.

Will was looking at her with admiration in his eyes.

‘How did you work it out?' he asked.

Mia shrugged. ‘I told you, it's easier when you can visualise it. Plus I knew Jorge would have a basic route, he always used to like having a plan as a child. People don't change all that much.' Mia suddenly thought of the boy who had protected her when they were young and her eyes welled up with tears. ‘Or maybe they do.'

Will looked as though he wanted to reach out and comfort her, but he didn't move. Mia understood, but she would have liked the consolation.

‘So now we just have to work out where he's going to be next on his route,' she said, swallowing her moment of grief for the boy her brother once was.

‘Well, we know he was in Jamaica five days ago. If he's sticking to his normal route,
The Dragon
should be headed towards Tortola now.'

Mia nodded. She was convinced of her theory. Many pirates sailed haphazardly through the waters of the Caribbean, waiting near known trade routes for the merchant ships to pass, but her brother would be different. He'd know the key was to keep moving. And the course he'd chosen took
The Flaming Dragon
backwards and forwards over many of the main trade routes of the Caribbean.

‘Tortola,' Will murmured. ‘Where on Tortola would he be?'

He jumped up from the bed and leaned over her again, this time his excitement making him forget he was trying to keep his distance. His arm brushed the bare skin just above Mia's clavicle. They both froze, then Will pulled away as if he'd been burned.

He took a step back and cleared his throat.

‘Would you be so kind to pass me the map of Tortola?'

Wordlessly Mia rifled through the pieces of paper until she found the detailed map of Tortola. It showed all the inlets and bays and places a ship could anchor around the island.

‘And the merchant ship sailing schedules.'

Mia flicked through the papers again until she found a list of all the major merchant ships in the area and their dates and ports of departure. She watched him as one by one he traced their route on the map.

‘We've got four potential targets,' he said excitedly. ‘If your brother sticks to the same sort of time gap in between attacking the merchant ships, we've got about three days until his next attack. There are four ships sailing close to Tortola in the next week.'

‘So if we're right about Jorge's pattern of sailing, he'll attack one of those.'

Will nodded. ‘The only problem is we've got no idea which he'll go for. We could be waiting for one merchant ship to pass whilst he's off attacking another.'

Mia thought for a moment before speaking, ‘Then we need to narrow down where he will be before the attacks.'

‘Go on.'

‘Well, we know he often shelters in secluded coves and bays and we think he's going to attack a ship off Tortola or one of the neighbouring islands in the next week.'

‘So he's most likely anchored somewhere just off the coast of Tortola, resting his crew before their next attack,' Will finished the thought for her.

They turned back to the map of Tortola.

‘It's only small, and would probably only take us a day to sail around.'