The Pirate Takes A Bride by Shana Galen Read Free Book Online

escape your
oozing
charm for a moment.” She stepped over him and flounced away, only to find her arm tugged back and her body with it. Dam—
dash
it all! She’d forgotten about the rope.
    “Untie me,” she demanded.
    He was still lying on his back, his bound wrist on his chest, and his other hand curling the rope that connected them around and around so she was all but dragged back to the berth. He had a devilish grin on his lips she did not care for.
    “I said—”
    “I heard you.” He continued to drag her to him. “But something just occurred to me.”
    “What’s that?”
    “I haven’t even had the opportunity to kiss my bride.” He grasped her bound hand and held it in his warm one.
    “Do not call me that.”
    “What should I call you? Sweetheart? Darling?
My love
?” His voice was sneering, almost as though he found the whole idea of love amusing. Ashley wished she felt the same. Once she’d thought she was in love with him. What a fool she’d been.
    “Do not call me anything. Do not speak to me, and do please release me!”
    He’d pulled on her arm so she was bent at the waist, her long hair falling around her shoulders and framing his face. “Not even one kiss?” He pulled her a fraction closer, and her gaze focused on his lips. She remembered kissing his lips. She remembered how soft and sweet and inviting they’d been.
    She made herself speak, made herself refuse him. “Not even one.”
    “You are a cold woman, Ashley Brittany.”
    “
I
am cold?” A brief image of Nick holding another woman in his arms in Lord Rundale’s library flashed into her mind. He’d been laughing at her, waiting for her to find him. And he called her cold… “Let me go this instant or I will—” She could not scream. No one would come to her aid. “Or I will employ the defense against unwanted suitors my brothers taught me long ago. I promise a kiss will be the last thing on your mind then.”
    His hand released her quickly, almost as though the touch of her flesh burned him. “No need to be nasty. I’ll leave you to your own devices.” With a few practiced movements, he loosed the knot on his wrist binding her to him. She was free.
    He sat and allowed his long legs to drop over the side of the berth. He had slept in his clothing, as had she, and that was something to be thankful for. How she would have relished a hot bath and clean clothes. It seemed years since she’d had either. A knock sounded on the door, and she jumped out of Nick’s way as he stood and crossed the small cabin to open it. A boy stood there, his arms laden with a jug and clean towels. “Will ye be wanting these now, Cap’n?”
    “Yes, Mr. Fletcher. Set them on the washstand and find my razor. I’m in need of a shave.” He took the hot towels from his cabin boy and pressed them to his face. Ashley watched with envy.
    The boy set the rest of the items on the washstand, as instructed, glancing at Ashley sidelong. She might have smiled, but she noted the steam curling from the jug of water. “Is that hot water?” she asked.
    Nick had opened his wardrobe and was perusing the contents. “Of course. I’m not about to shave with cold.”
    She waited for him to offer her hot water, as a gentleman ought, but he merely pulled out a snowy white shirt with far too many ruffles and shook it. As she watched, he pulled the wrinkled shirt he’d slept in over his head and held out a hand to his cabin boy. The words on Ashley’s tongue, words she’d planned to use to lash out at him for his poor manners, died away. She could hardly catch her breath. His chest was broad and muscled from his shoulders to where it tapered at his waist. He was dark bronze, almost golden really, from exposure to the sun, and his abdomen was flat and lean. She’d run her hands over it, months and months ago—in another lifetime—and she remembered thinking his body felt so different from other men’s bodies. Not that she’d explored many men’s bodies