Lord of Devil Isle by Connie Mason Read Free Book Online Page B

which is ofttimes more telling than skill. I was the nearer salver, but I veered off to pick up some souls already in the water. And so Bostock reached the wreck first. That makes it his, fair and square according to the laws of salvage.”
    “Well, if they’d abandoned ship already, Bostock didn’t get much, I’ll warrant.” She ran her thumbs along his inner thighs, teasing close to his groin but not touching. His body roused to her.
    May as well get this over with, he thought, before I stop being able to think with my big head. “They hadn’t called for all hands to abandon ship.”
    Magdalen reared back on her heels and frowned. “Haven’t you always said going into the sea is the last resort? If someone was addlepated enough to leave a ship still afloat, you should have left them there till you made sure of the prize.”
    Nick shook his head. “If I’d done that, they’d be dead now, and I didn’t want their blood on my head.”
    “It wouldn’t have been. You should have let the fools meet their fate.” She rose to her feet and began to pace in frustration. “Oh, Nick, was it a big ship?”
    “A fully loaded brigantine,” he admitted, wishing he hadn’t spent the extra for a second bonnet. This no longer seemed like an argument he cared to win. “It was three women in the water, Magdalen. I couldn’t let them die.”
    “Male or female, it makes no difference. You owed it to me—I mean, your crew, at the very least, to capture that wreck.”
    “None of the men have complained.” For a blink, an image of Eve Upshall demanding he save her friends first flashed through his mind. Magdalen would havegrabbed the lifeline away from them, and devil take the hindermost.
    She sighed. “Men are so impractical sometimes.”
    “I suppose we are.” He’d never much considered what went on in Magdalen’s lovely head. Now that he’d gotten an eye-popping peek, he didn’t find it quite so lovely. He’d suspected she was mercenary, and she certainly loved fine things—her monthly bills at the shops along the St. Georges waterfront proved that. But he hadn’t expected her to be such a coldhearted bitch. “They have no place to stay, so I offered to let them live here.”
    “Here?” Her eyes bulged like a grouper’s. “You’re bringing three strange women into this house? No, Nick, I’ll not have it.”
    “You have nothing to say about it. This is my home, Magdalen.”
    “But I’ve been living here with you for—”
    “For as long as I care for you to, I’m thinking.”
    “Oh, Nicholas, you don’t mean that.” She changed tactics in a heartbeat. She crossed her arms beneath her breasts to better emphasize them and thrust out her lower lip in the pout he used to find fetching.
    He refused to be distracted from his purpose. He’d made up his mind, and there was no point in dillydallying.
    “We’ve had a good run, you and I, but we’ve reached an end. For the sake of what we’ve had, I’ll have Higgs deposit a goodly sum in an account for you at Butterfield’s bank,” he offered. She’d never be able to say he wasn’t generous. “If you should ever be in want, do not hesitate to come to me.”
    “Three women, hmm?” She narrowed her eyes at him. “If you wanted another woman in your bed, you should have told me. I have a friend who would jump atthe chance. She and I have pleasured a man together before and—”
    “Tempting as that sounds, I’ll pass,” he interrupted, regretting she hadn’t suggested it before now. The idea held all sorts of tantalizing possibilities, but unfortunately, he’d lost interest in bedding Magdalen, with or without a second woman under the covers. “You may take everything you’ve acquired while in my household. Send a list to Higgs and he’ll see it delivered to you. You do still have that little house over on Paget’s Island, don’t you?”
    She nodded, mute but dry-eyed. There had never been any question of love between them as far as he