No Choice but Seduction (31 page)

Boyd sat up. “When did you get to be such a damned doomsayer?”

Tyrus shrugged. “Just pointing out some very real possibilities that could show up later.”

“Well, don’t. She doesn’t know that I was ready to give up the sea, nor does she ever need to know that. She
does
know that I’ve always sailed with my ship. Enough said. I’ve managed to bear with this for nearly half my life. I think I can manage a few more years so she can have her tour of the world.”

Since Boyd hadn’t dashed for the chamber pot with his abrupt movement, Tyrus raised a brow. “The seasickness leaving you a bit early this time?”

It did seem to be gone. “For the moment.”

“Well, she did ask after you yesterday, at both luncheon and dinner. Being evasive in my replies doesn’t sit well with me. You need to come up with a reason for her, for why you aren’t joining us for meals—if you don’t want to confess the real reason.”

“You’re joking, right? What reason could there possibly be to avoid her when she
knows
I want her? Hell, I
want
to spend every minute with her. In fact, what I really need is some time alone with her, without interruptions, where we can get to know each other better and she can’t run off every time I get a little too close to her emotions.”

Tyrus chuckled. “It’s too bad you can’t be shipwrecked together on some deserted island. You can’t get much more alone than that.”

Boyd snorted. “I’m not wrecking my ship just to…”

He didn’t finish. In fact, what just occurred to him was outlandish and more than a little silly, yet it fascinated him, which must have shown in his expression.

Tyrus, guessing his thoughts, exclaimed, “Now just a damn minute! I’m not going down with this ship just so you can court your lady!”

“There aren’t any deserted islands in this area, are there?” Boyd replied thoughtfully.

“Did you hear me? We’re
not
wrecking
The Oceanus
!”

Chapter Thirty-Three

K
ATEY WOKE TO A WARM
, balmy breeze against her cheeks. It caused her to stretch luxuriously before she even opened her eyes, but she cut that short abruptly when she felt her damp nightgown clinging to her skin. Dampness? As if she’d soaked it in a feverish sweat, or put it on before it was completely dry from washing, neither of which…

Confused, she opened her eyes to find Boyd leaning over her, a palm tree behind him, the fronds moving gently in the warm breeze. A dream then? Well, she might as well enjoy it if that’s all it was!

She smiled up at him. He seemed surprised by that, but only for a second. She hoped he was going to kiss her. This wasn’t one of her daydreams where she could control his actions and make him kiss her. She had to take what she could get in a real dream. But he must have seen her wish in her eyes. He started to lean closer to her. Excited anticipation had her stomach already fluttering sensually. His mouth was almost touching hers—

The shrill call of a bird gave her a start. Boyd glanced toward the sound behind her. She twisted her head back to look in the same direction. She didn’t see a bird, but was amazed by so much greenery at the edge of a pristine beach, towering pines mixed with palm trees of varying sizes, and sprinkled here and there, flowering bushes.

It was ironic that she was putting this tropical flavor into her dream. Just a few days ago Boyd had asked her how much she knew about the Mediterranean, and she’d had to admit it was next to nothing.

“My tutor, while quite brilliant, didn’t have a wealth of material to work with,” she’d told him. “At the most he had an old map of the world that wasn’t even up-to-date. He was able to spark my curiosity about the world, but without pictures I wasn’t able to envision any of it, which is why I always wanted to see it for myself.”

And just yesterday Boyd had suggested they take a day off to enjoy a beach on one of the islands in the area—just the two of them. He’d made it sound innocent. And it would have been a fun thing to do! He even told her to think about it, not to answer immediately. But there was nothing to think about and she’d told him no. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust his passions, she was beginning not to trust her own. But she didn’t tell him that!

She fantasized about this man constantly. She had no doubt any longer about how much she wanted him. But there was also no doubt that he’d end her trip if she gave in. And lust, which was what motivated him, wasn’t enough to base a marriage on. It would be a nice benefit to marriage, but love had to be there first.

But the tropical atmosphere of Cartagena, which they had just visited, as well as his suggestion for an outing on a beach, were both still fresh in her mind, and thus it didn’t surprise her at all that her dream was filled with the same tropics.

She looked back at Boyd. He was smiling down at her this time, a warm, intimate smile, as if they had just shared something. The intense, sensual moment when he’d been about to kiss her wasn’t there again—yet. This was a more relaxed moment, just as nice, but not nearly as intense. It allowed other things to intrude, the sound of a crackling fire nearby, the smell of fish…

How rude for that to be in her dream! Wait, smelling things in dreams?

Katey scrambled to her feet so fast she stumbled and backed away even more as she stared wildly around her. She was barefoot, her toes sinking in warm sand. She was in her nightgown and it
was
damp. Her hair was loosely flowing about her, and that was damp, too, as if she’d swum ashore. She was on an empty beach with no ship anchored nearby, no ships at all on the horizon, nothing but endless blue waters as far as she could see.

And Boyd was there lying on his side in the sand beneath several palm trees, wearing just his breeches and a long-sleeved, white shirt opened halfway down his chest. He was leaning on his elbow as he watched her, concern in his expression now. A little campfire was burning near him, a fish roasting on a spit he’d fashioned above it. It was such a peaceful, idyllic setting, and yet the horror that filled her mind turned her cold with dread.

“My God, your ship sank?” she gasped out. “Did anyone else survive? Grace? Oh no, no—!”

He leapt immediately to his feet to grasp her shoulders. “Katey, stop it! The ship is fine. Everyone aboard her is fine!”

She stared at him wide-eyed, wanting to believe him, yet how could she? “Don’t try to tell me I’m dreaming. Dreams aren’t real like this.”

“No, of course not.”

“Then how are we here? And why can’t I recall getting here?”

“Because you slept through it.” Her eyes narrowed at him, but before she could snort her disbelief, he added, “Have you ever sleepwalked before?”

“Done what?”

“Gotten out of bed, walked around in your sleep.”

“Don’t be absurd.”

“Then maybe you were on your way to find me? You were in your nightgown out on the deck, and that
was
my first thought—hope.”

“Don’t start,” she warned him.

He shrugged, but she could tell he was trying not to chuckle, and he wasn’t done coming up with other explanations. “Too much to drink at dinner then? I know I had too much myself, but I noticed you were doing a good job of emptying that bottle of wine next to you on the table as well. I think Tyrus ordered up two extra bottles last night we were emptying them so fast.”

He had been at dinner, for a change. He usually wasn’t. But last night he had been present, and a lively conversation between the captain and him had distracted her enough that she had tipped that bottle to her glass more than she should have. She didn’t recall emptying it though, nor being drunk, though how would she know when she’d never been drunk before!

“I’m not used to wine with dinner,” she admitted. “But wouldn’t there be some sort of aftereffect if I had too much of it? I recall my father groaning horribly one morning after drinking too much the night before.”

“Head not aching?”

“Not at all.”

At least now it wasn’t. But she didn’t add that aloud, since the brief pain she had felt when she shot to her feet a few minutes ago she attributed to just rising too quickly. And it was already gone.

He shrugged. “Perhaps you simply have a high tolerance for alcohol? Some people do. They can drink barrels of the stuff and wake up feeling no different than any other day.”

“Whether I do or don’t, I’m sure I didn’t go to bed drunk.” She tsked at herself for sounding so prim about it.

“You recall getting into bed then?”

“Yes—of course,” she answered, but actually, she didn’t.

Getting ready for bed was a standard nightly practice, done by rote. With nothing out of the ordinary occurring to make it stand out in her mind, how was she supposed to remember? And right now she was having trouble thinking clearly about anything.

“The deck was dark, Katey. I couldn’t actually see you clearly. You could have been hurt, could have been looking for help. I suppose you might even have been in shock. Did you have an accident?”

She shook her limbs briefly. “No, nothing hurts. I feel fine.”

“Then it probably was my second guess, that you were sleepwalking.”

She sighed at him. “I’m telling you, that isn’t something I do.”

“How would you know if you do your walking then get back into bed, all without waking?”

“Someone would have told me, seen me, if it’s something I’m prone to do.”

“Not if you never go far.”

“There has to be a better explanation than this, Boyd,” she said, somewhat exasperated. “To even suggest that I walked ashore is so—”

“Wait.” He chuckled. “I can see now why you’re having trouble believing this. No, that’s not what you did. But you did appear on deck last night. I certainly didn’t imagine that. I was manning the wheel. I do that often, take the night round at the helm. And I did doubt my eyes, I was so amazed to see you walking slowly across the deck in your nightgown. I tied off the wheel, but before I got down to you, you fell over the side! There was no time to call for help. I was terrified you’d drown if I didn’t immediately dive in after you.”

“You saved me?” she gasped, her eyes widening with that realization.

He didn’t answer that directly, but merely replied, “I would have thought hitting the water would have woken you, but incredibly, it didn’t. Actually, if you hit the water hard enough, it could have knocked you out. I’ve seen that happen before. But whichever case it was, my worst fear wasn’t realized.”

“What?”

“That you would sink immediately and I wouldn’t be able to find you in the dark depths. But you didn’t. However, by the time I reached you, the ship was already beyond shouting distance. It was quite disconcerting, watching it sail on without us.”

She could imagine. No, she couldn’t. She was still having a hard time believing any of this.

He led her back toward the little bit of shade under the palms. “Sit down. Relax. It’s early morning. Tyrus will have noticed we’re missing by now. They’ll probably find us before noon today.”

She was still too shaken to take his advice. Relax? Was he joking? Another glance around them pointed out just how alone they were on that strip of beach, without a single thing anywhere indicating habitation. And he was entirely too unconcerned over their situation. For all intents and purposes, they appeared to be shipwrecked!