The Sea Rose (4 page)

She flashed him a look. There would
not be more, but she was tired of fighting off his advances, even
though she had a suspicion he wasn’t even really trying. Not yet
anyway. She would have to stay on guard. Now, if she could ignore
how devastatingly handsome he was.

“
Do all pirates eat this
well?” She helped herself to some from each platter.

“
I find that a well fed
crew is a crew less likely to mutiny.” He popped a grape in his
mouth. “But we were lucky enough to capture a Spanish ship just
last week. There was some minor royalty and other wealthy gentlemen
on board. Apparently they liked to travel in style. Now, my sweet,
you shall enjoy their finer things.”

The pirate reached over the table and
filled her crystal glass with red wine. “I would also like to add,
as I don’t keep concubines, that the dress you are wearing came
from the same ship. There are trunks and trunks of them in the
hold.”

“
Oh. I’m sorry.” She
really did feel bad and tried to sound as contrite as she felt, but
it was hard with a mouthfull of pheasant. “I didn’t mean to insult
you.”

“
Of course you did. It’s a
good thing you are so very lovely that I will be forced to forgive
you.” He graced her with an absolutely devastating
smile.

“
I was truly apologizing.
You don’t need to be mean.”

He stared at her for a moment, as if
he contemplated her sincerity. “I was not jesting, nor was I being
mean. You are a beautiful woman.”

She waved him away with an imperious
flick of her hand and they ate for a moment in silence.

“
That explains the
availability of the food. Who is the chef?” Roselyn didn’t realize
she was so hungry until the food’s aroma hit her. After that first
bite, she realized she was ravenous. She’d already eaten one whole
plate and was eyeing the bird with seconds in mind.

“
I have a cook with
talent. Like I said, a well fed crew rarely mutinies.” He offered
her the platter of poultry and refilled her wine glass. “Shall we
play our game?” He raised his glass in invitation.

Roselyn was feeling much more relaxed
and genial after a filling meal and good wine. “I must warn you
that I am very good at parlor games.”

“
Are you?” The flirting
pirate was back. “It has been quite a while since I spent time in a
respectable parlor. Perhaps I should be given a
handicap?”

“
Perhaps,” she conceded.
“What would you like to play? Charades? Cards? I’m quite good at
chess,” she offered.

“
I was thinking of a card
game,” he began, but when her smile spread in confidence, he added
a twist. “Of course, we’ll have to play by Pirate
Rules.”

She smiled. She was a very good card
player. “I might be sorry I said this, but I’m game.” She was sated
after the meal and a little warm after the wine.

Roselyn was rewarded by
his sexy chuckle.
Oh my, is he a beautiful
man
. She watched her pirate as the cabin
boy cleared the dishes, except for the glasses and brought another
bottle of wine. When he wasn’t obnoxiously trying to seduce her and
was just being himself, Jack was absolutely magnificent. His razor
sharp jaw line emphasized a strong chin and cheekbones. His eyes
weren’t brown. Brown was much to ordinary for Jack. His eyes were
as black as his ebony hair. A well trimmed mustache spread over his
full upper lip – not a bushy one like her father’s – but a well
maintained strip of hair that pulled her eyes to his sensual mouth.
She longed to run a finger over it to see if the hair was as soft
as it looked.

“
Are you ready to hear the
rules, then?” Jack placed a deck of cards on the table between
them. “We will each draw a card, high card wins; low card must
drink and answer a question.”

Chapter Six

“
I get to shuffle,” she
declared. “I don’t trust you not to cheat.”

He handed her the cards with great
ceremony and she mixed them. When she gave the deck back to him he
fanned them out on the table.

“
Ladies first,” he
offered.

Roselyn smiled with confidence and
extended her hand. She pulled out a card with her index finger and
slid it across the table. She flipped it over and her smile faded
when she revealed the six of hearts. Jack reached his hand over the
deck of cards and, with a flourish, withdrew the queen of
spades.

“
Too bad.” He clicked his
tongue. He splashed a good size gulp of wine in her glass and
indicated for her to drink.

Roselyn brought the glass to her mouth
and took a sip but he shook his head. “Oh no, my dear,” Jack told
her, “Pirate Rules require that you drink all of it in one
gulp.”

“
Not very lady like,” she
complained, but she tossed the rest of the wine back.

“
Pirates don’t usually
have a problem with unladylike women. Now for my question.” Jack
tapped the table with his card and eyed her while he contemplated
his first question. “What is your Christian name?”

She exhaled, relieved by the easy
question. “Roselyn Louise Weldon.”

“
Roselyn. Rose,” he
purred. The way he said her name was sinful. She ought to know. Her
parent had drilled her time and time again with what was sinful and
what wasn’t. Her father definitely would not have approved of the
way the words fell from his tongue.

She took a deep breath. “You draw
first this time.”

“
My pleasure.” He pulled
the nine of diamonds.

Hers was the deuce of spades. She
hoped his next question would be as easy.

“
Where were you going on
your merchant ship?”

She audibly exhaled. Another easy one.
She answered after downing the wine he poured her. “I am for New
Providence, to marry my fiancé, Rupert.”

“
And who is Rupert? Why is
he in New Providence?”

“
I’m sorry,” Roselyn shook
her head, “you need to win the next question. After all, these are
your rules.”

“
Right you are, dear Rose.
Your turn.”

This time she triumphantly won the
question. “Your accent is upper class English and you have alluded
to a life in drawing rooms. Is your family of the
aristocracy?”

“
And the lady goes right
for the throat.”
How much to
tell
? “My father is an Earl. I am the
third son. A man of absolutely no worth.”

She blinked at him. He said it so
matter-of-factly he could almost believe it himself, that after all
these years it really did mean nothing to him.

The next three questions went to the
pirate. He learned her fiancé was a missionary, and that her father
had died unexpectedly, leaving her without means. She intended to
join the missionary and be wed ahead of their agreed-upon schedule.
Jack wondered how her fiancé would take to her appearing with no
advance word. New Providence and its hedonistic lifestyle had a way
with even the most stalwart of men.

Roselyn drew the ten of diamonds and
Jack drew the four of clubs. This time she thought for a few
seconds before she asked her question. It was getting harder to
think them all the way through. She’d had two glasses at dinner and
had taken five rapid gulps of wine. That had to count for at least
another glass, and with the way he filled her glass after each
loss, it might have really been more like two more or maybe even
three. She didn’t think she had ever had even three glasses of wine
before and besides, her father had always insisted that her wine be
watered at dinner.

Suddenly she had an inspiration. “Have
you ever been in love?” she asked.

“
I have loved many women,”
Jack answered with a pirate’s bravado.

“
That’s cheating!” she
declared. “You have to answer the question or you’ll ruin the
integrity of the game. Have you ever been in love?”

Handsome Jack thought back to the many
women in his life. There was only one woman he had been in love
with. He, a silly boy of nineteen and she, a lovely child of
eighteen. They had been so young and madly in love. Her father
refused to allow her to marry him as he had no title and a very
small income. Like a naïve, impetuous youth, he ran off to make his
fortune in the Navy, the service the only option available to him
besides taking vows. She had professed her undying love and told
him she’d wait for him…

“
I did love a girl once,
many lifetimes ago. Her name was Melinda and she married an earl. I
hear she’s had three children and grown very fat.” He was surprised
to find himself so candid.

“
I’m so sorry,” Roselyn
said, “about the marrying someone else part, not the growing fat
part.”

He chuckled at her truthfulness. He
was pleased to see the wine had loosened her. The tension around
her mouth and eyes was nearly gone. She lost the next draw and
gulped yet another healthy swig of wine.

“
Have
you
ever been in love?” he asked
her.

“
I’m engaged,” she told
him, like that was a sufficient answer.

“
That doesn’t mean you’re
in love with him.”

“
That is a horrible
question,” she declared indignantly, oblivious to the hypocritical
nature of her protest. “I won’t answer it.”

“
Oh dear,” his tone
mocked. “Pirate Rules state you must face a penalty
then.”

Her eyebrows flew up, but she really
didn’t want to answer the question. “What kind of penalty?” she
asked, with visions of walking planks and other “piratey”
punishments swirling in her head.

Her pirate leaned back in the chair,
and looked at her in contemplation, as if he debated the form of
punishment and its severity. “I think a kiss will do.”

Roselyn blanched, but she didn’t want
him to know that she wasn’t in love with Rupert. Did it really
matter? Women got married because they had no skills, no money of
their own and no way to live without a man. Love had nothing to do
with it. But somehow, she thought the pirate would capitalize on
that knowledge. She was engaged to Rupert because her father told
her she was and, being a dutiful daughter, she had never offered an
argument.

She seriously considered the prospect
of a kiss. The fact that she thought about it at all was surely due
to all the wine she’d consumed. Otherwise, she had no excuse for
such wanton thoughts. But as she mulled over the punishment, her
eyes were drawn to his mouth and his mustache, and her gaze settled
there for a moment.

“
One kiss? That’s all?”
she asked, wanting to clarify the terms of the
punishment.

“
Only one,” he smiled at
her silkily, “unless you refuse to answer another question. Or, of
course, unless you like it so much that you want
another.”

In her haughtiest manner, she told
him, “I am sure one will be sufficient.”

When Jack stood from his chair, she
did the same. He took a step towards her, and she thought he looked
even more wolfish than before. She held her ground though, and he
strode the remaining two steps until he stood directly in front of
her with only inches between them. Roselyn closed her eyes and
puckered her lips.

He chuckled, a deep rumbling Roselyn
felt in her stomach and, in an unexpected development, even
lower.

Jack brought a hand to her face and
she felt him brush a lock of hair from her cheek and tuck it behind
her ear. He circled one finger from her ear along her jaw line
underneath her chin, and then gently nudged her chin so that her
face tilted up.

His thumb strayed to her mouth, and he
gently rubbed the pad of it along her bottom lip. The unexpected
move surprised her and, when she parted her lips in bemusement, he
lowered his head and took her mouth with his. His lips were warm
and soft and the feeling they invoked was gentle and dear. Without
moving his lips from hers, he gently caressed her mouth and stroked
her bottom lip with his tongue. She tensed briefly at the
unexpectedness of the sensation but then slipped back into a
relaxed, languid stance. He intensified the kiss by degrees and
eventually his tongue slipped into her mouth and the caress
deepened. Both hands cradled her face and he deftly altered the
angle of her head to accommodate his preference.

Roselyn’s initial
trepidation soon gave way to interest and then she wasn’t thinking
anymore at all.
So this is a
kiss.

The simple peck on the lips she’d
received from Rupert when they were engaged, and then again when he
left on his mission, shouldn’t even have been called by the same
name as this kiss. She had felt absolutely nothing when her fiancé
kissed her.

Handsome Jack’s kiss was a
revelation.

She tasted of wine and innocence; a
heady mix. He found himself deepening the kiss faster than he
thought she would accept, but it was almost beyond his control. He
had been amused when she’d lifted her face to him with the childish
expression of a kiss: her lips puckered and her eyes squeezed shut.
He’d chuckled, but as soon as their lips met, he no longer found
anything about the kiss amusing.