Mystery in the Moonlight (17 page)

Not wanting to respond to Perry’s praise of his captain, Caitlin merely nodded. Thinking about the way she had previously imagined that the deckhand had been shanghaied, she felt a little silly. It was obvious that he and the rest of the crew had the utmost respect for Bryce. Undoubtedly they’d been lured to a life of crime by their circumstances, but what was their captain’s excuse?

Bryce Winslow seemed intelligent, and if she could judge by the books on the shelves of his cabin, well educated. Surely he could earn an honest living if he wanted to. Hadn’t he admitted he’d recently changed occupations? But he hadn’t told her more. Why had he felt compelled to avoid the subject every time she tried to get him to talk about himself? It was all so puzzling…

Trying to force Bryce out of her thoughts, Caitlin moved around the wheel and stared with interest at the giant compass. “Perry, would you show me how you keep the ship on course?”

Then, as if she’d conjured him from her thoughts, Bryce stepped out of the chart house and approached them. “You get yourself a cup of coffee, Perry,” he ordered the deckhand. “I’ll take over and give milady her lesson in sailing.”

“Yes, sir,” Perry said, stepping away from the wheel.

Was that a conspiratorial grin he gave his captain? Caitlin wondered, inching away from Bryce in the other direction. Had she had the slightest inkling that the captain would interfere, she never would have asked Perry to show her anything. She hadn’t forgotten those mixed signals the man had sent her the day before, nor how confused and vulnerable and angry he’d made her feel.

“I thought you wanted to learn to sail this ship,” Bryce commented. Though he wasn’t even looking her way, his voice seemed rich with amusement. “You can’t do that if you keep skittering away from me.”

Caitlin froze where she was, irritated that he’d noted her careful movements. “How close am I supposed to get to listen to an explanation?”

“You learn faster when all the senses are involved,” Bryce said, a charming grin slashing through his sun-streaked beard. Caitlin stared at his faintly illuminated face suspiciously, wondering if he had something other than sailing and ships in mind until he added, “That’s why I thought I’d let you take over the wheel.”

“Me?” Caitlin asked, wide-eyed, forgetting about everything but the opportunity he was offering her. “You’re actually going to trust me with the
Sea Devil
?”

“Don’t look so surprised, milady. I’m not going to turn over the wheel so you can take her where you will. I’ll be right beside you.”

“That’s not what I meant by trusting me,” Caitlin said, unable to keep her sarcasm from surfacing. Of course, he would interpret her words as he might mean them if their situations were reversed. “I merely thought you might object to a novice steering your boat.”

“Ship,” Bryce automatically corrected. “Handling her will be a lot easier than hoisting her sails. Now get over here if you want to take the helm.”

Not about to wait for him to change his mind, she immediately did as he bade.

As Caitlin latched onto the wheel’s spokes, she felt a thrill of excitement ripple through her, but whether it was caused by the power of guiding the magnificent sea vessel or by the disturbing warmth of the man’s physical nearness, she wasn’t sure. Bryce hadn’t moved away. He was directly behind her, one hand still on the wheel, his muscular chest lightly brushing her back. She tried to negate his power to distract her by fantasizing herself as the Pirate Queen, but the reality of Bryce’s nearness was impossible to ignore.

The Queen mercilessly abandoned Caitlin to her own fates.

Irritated and determined to control her growing discomfort, Caitlin said, “I thought you told me I was tough.”

“So I did.”

“Then why don’t you let go of the wheel and let me handle it by myself? I’m pretty sure I can manage to follow your orders since you’re so good at giving them.”

“That’s because I practice.” Moving to one side, Bryce smiled at her. “I guess practice makes perfect, huh?”

“Ha!” Caitlin retorted, deciding that she had to ignore everything but the task at hand. “Now, how am I supposed to do this?” She only hoped her voice didn’t sound as shaky as her stomach felt. “Do I sight a particular star or what?”

“Actually the helmsman follows the orders of the captain or mate on duty.” Leaning a little closer, Bryce raised an eyebrow. “Are you as good at following orders as I am at giving them?”

Feeling an unwanted thrill shoot through her, she deliberately raised her own brows in return. “I can be when I’m feeling agreeable,” she said, hoping her tone was haughty. “But don’t push me.”

“Well, I hope you wouldn’t be so disagreeable as to run us into a reef.” He checked the compass. “Just hold her steady where you have her, at two hundred and ten degrees south-southwest.”

“Are there really reefs around here?” Caitlin asked anxiously, quickly checking the compass herself to make sure she was on course, then peering out into the dark. How could anyone tell
what
was out there? Suddenly she realized that her hands were sweating and slipping on the wheel. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”

“Don’t worry, we’re safe for the moment. If I have any fears about your dashing us against the reefs or running us aground, I’ll throw you down to the deck and take over the wheel immediately.”

Judging by his overly dramatic tone, Caitlin assumed that he was teasing her, but since he’d pulled back, away from the lighted compass, she couldn’t see Bryce’s expression. “How can you be so sure we’re safe?”

“Anselm is my pilot as well as my mate. He plotted a safe route for this journey using a series of charts. Each chart shows less and less area, but more and more details, along our route.”

“Like taking a picture close-up?”

Bryce nodded. “The charts will indicate landmarks, channel markers, reefs, depth readings.”

“And lighthouses?”

“Of course. They even identify each lighthouse’s characteristics. Whether or not it will flash, how often it will flash, that kind of thing.”

He’d moved in on her again, Caitlin noted nervously. And his sea-green eyes seemed to be devouring her. Curse the scoundrel, why did he have to be so handsome with his gold-streaked hair and beard? Even the tips of his eyelashes seemed to glow by compass light.

And so did the chest hair revealed by the half open shirt he wore. Realizing that she was staring, Caitlin forced her eyes back to his face. Why couldn’t his straight nose have a crook or a lump in it? Or his high forehead a Neanderthal overhang? Considering the way her pulse raced just by looking at the man, maybe she’d have been safer if Bryce had remained behind her.

Well, perhaps not.

Swallowing hard, Caitlin glanced down at the compass and realized that she was decidedly off course. “Oh, no. I’m twenty degrees off! What do I do now?”

“Calm down and turn the wheel counterclockwise.” Caitlin moved the spoke in her right hand to her left. “Nothing’s happening.”

“You have to give her time to compensate, but you also have to turn her.” Bryce slipped, behind Caitlin, and with his large callused hand covering hers, he turned the wheel a full one hundred and eighty degrees. “That should do it.”

Sure enough, the prow of the ship responded after several seconds, and the compass indicated that they were back on course.

“I don’t understand,” Caitlin said shakily, willing the adrenaline that had surged through her at the scare to subside. She gripped the wheel tightly. “I didn’t do anything wrong to make the ship swerve off course. Did I?”

“No, you didn’t, but the current and the wind did, and you didn’t notice immediately.”

Guessing that her eyes were wide with fright and hating the thought, Bryce wanted to reassure Caitlin. He preferred her eyes softly rounded with desire, as they had been for a moment the afternoon before.

“But I don’t want to endanger anyone.”

He tried to soothe her by saying, “It takes time to know just when and how much to adjust. You have to get the feel of the ship.”

Wedged up against Caitlin’s slender back, which trembled slightly, Bryce thought about how much he’d like to get the feel of
the woman
. It was becoming more and more difficult to care whether or not she was Jean Moreau’s mistress and thereby—indirectly though it might be—connected to his brother Ned’s death. Ever since he’d tended to her jellyfish stings, he hadn’t been able to get the feisty young woman out of his thoughts.

In spite of what he knew about her, Bryce kept finding himself wondering what it would be like to make love to Caitlin O’Connor.

As a matter of fact, he’d thought of little else in the past twenty-four hours, to the detriment of his own sleep. And that wouldn’t do, he reminded himself. He held too many lives in his hands to take chances merely because he was too tired to make sound judgments. They were heading straight toward a rising storm center, and they were due to make contact with Ralph Hodges—and hopefully Moreau—sometime the next day.

But even knowing that he should move away, he didn’t. And she didn’t seem any more willing to break the contact than he. Was her trembling due to the fright of thinking that she’d lost control of the ship or to his own nearness? Bryce wondered. Whichever, the light shiver, combined with the movement of the ship, aroused him unbearably.

She cleared her throat, but it came out sounding like a choking noise. So milady was nervous, he thought, purposely reminding himself that she was Moreau’s “little dove.” Maybe now was the time to take advantage of her temporary weakness and get her to tell him everything she knew about the Frenchman.

But the thought faded slightly when she asked shakily, “You don’t use the stars for navigation, huh?”

“Radar’s more accurate.”

“But not nearly as romantic as following the stars.” Caitlin’s voice had become alluringly husky. Was she doing it on purpose to tease him? he wondered as she added, “Just look at that sky!”

Her head tilted back, and her silky hair feathered against his neck and the bare part of his upper chest. Bryce caught his breath at the exquisite sensation, and like a man bewitched, he allowed his gaze to follow hers. The night sky
was
beautiful, deep and mysterious, its waning moon resplendently encircled by starry diamonds of varying intensity.

“There’s the Southern Cross,” Bryce told her, pointing to a spot across the ship’s prow, his arm coming into solid contact with her shoulder as they rolled with the swell. “And the North Star is behind us.”

“We can see the Southern Cross and the North Star in the same sky? Where?” He could feel her excitement as Caitlin turned slightly, straining to see past him. She seemed oblivious to the way her breast brushed against his chest. But that was impossible, wasn’t it? More than a little aware of the softly intimate pressure himself, Bryce was so mesmerized by the pleasurable sensation that her sudden demand—“Where’s the North Star?”—actually startled him.

Reluctantly he pulled away a little to show her. “Uh, look over there. See the cup made by the Big Dipper? Well, if you follow—”

“I found it!”

Excitedly Caitlin turned to face him just as the ship rolled once more, and somehow rolled her right against his chest. Or had she placed herself exactly where she wanted to be? Bryce grabbed onto the wheel behind her, but his interest was centered on the woman trapped between him and it. And judging by her moonlit expression, her interest was equal to his own. Her eyes were focused on his face. He felt his heart beat raggedly when he noted them growing round with desire.

How could he not kiss her mouth when it parted so seductively for him?

Without hesitating, Bryce dipped his head and took what she offered. Her response was instantaneous. At contact she moved into him, pressing her slender body against his own, wrapping her arms around his neck as desperately as if she were drowning. She kissed him with a fervor that set him aflame.

Forgetting everything but the woman, Bryce let go of the wheel and slipped his arms around her waist, lifting her slight weight to better fit her against him. She clung to him, deepened the kiss, bit into his lower

Then, with every nerve aroused and enticed by the passion radiating from her, Bryce felt as if he were the one going under, drowning because he couldn’t resist the sea sprite’s spell. Or was she a sea siren, like the Lorelei, luring him toward the dangerous reefs?

As if by plan, a warning bell rang in the distance, its harsh tone cutting crisply through the silent night. Even so, he tried to ignore it, to concentrate on nothing but the desire running rampant through him. Bryce wanted nothing more than to carry this passionate woman to his cabin where he could finally make love to her.

What a beautiful sound, Caitlin thought, picking out the pure tones of a bell with that minuscule part of her mind uninvolved in the sense-drugging kiss. She’d always known she’d hear bells when kissed by the right man, hadn’t she?

Bells?

Startled, Caitlin freed her lips and stared into Bryce’s beard-shrouded face with something akin to shock. For heaven’s sake, this certainly was a familiar scene!

Then Bryce seemed to be trying to lift her in his arms. She stiffened, the passion drained from her.

What in the world had she been doing? What in the world did he think
he
was doing? Deciding that she’d have to fight him to release her, Caitlin was relieved to hear Thomas’s familiar, if amused, voice.