Free I Kissed an Earl: Pennyroyal Green Series by Julie Anne Long

Captain Flint?” She said it softly. He froze. And something so closed and hard and final passed over his face she felt her teeth jar. As though she’d run headlong into a wall.
    His voice became low and even and much more frightening.
    “You had better have an excellent reason for paying my man to board my ship. Because if you’re here on a whim, I’ll cast you overboard now with no regrets.”
    “Surely you’ll know a twinge or two.”
    Why oh why did she say those sorts of things? What made her do it? Violet was even frightening herself. But flippancy was her only defense in the moment, and she supposed it was what cornered animals did: lash out with whatever defenses remained to them. He sizzled incredulity at her.
    “I cannot protect you every single hour of every day you’re aboard my ship, Miss Redmond, and I cannot afford to charge one of my men with the duty. They are not gentlemen, Miss Redmond.” Good heavens, how ironic he’d made that word sound. “Some of them, in other circumstances, might qualify as rogues and scalawags. In other words, they are sailors and fighters.”
    She knew she was the transgressor. Still, his arrogance made her feel rash.
    “I wouldn’t allow any of them to touch me, my lord. I am not so fragile as you may think. I managed to bribe Rathskill, did I not? And like as not they wouldn’t dare succumb to animal instincts, as you say, if the know what the consequences would be? You’ll simply make it known that you’ll have the flesh stripped from their bones in a gauntlet. Since you are the captain and their loyalty is unquestioned.”
    Hoping she’d astonished him with her knowledge of nautical punishments, she angled her shoulders to leave, since she’d recalled her trunk was in the guest cabin and her twenty pounds were inside, and she could not recall whether it was properly locked. As if in a dream, out of the corner of her eye, she watched as his arm stretched out and his hand closed over her upper arm—completely.
    Shackling it.
    She was just able to register the fact that his grip was impersonally ungentle, and that she’d never been touched like that in her entire life, and that she couldn’t move at all despite a cursory attempt to do so, when he spun her around to face him. Abruptly.
    He held her motionless for a moment. As much with his hands as with the ferocity of his gaze. And then he slowly relinquished her, his fingers dragging along her arm, leaving behind an imprint of heat.
    His point made: he could control her if he chose. And he could touch her if he chose. She was thunderstruck.
    She resisted the urge to rub at her arm. It didn’t hurt, and yet she thought she could feel the brand of his five fingers on her arm. Heat started in her cheeks; she was uncertain whether it was fury or mortification or some combination thereof. Whatever it was robbed her entirely of speech.
    She could only stare at him.
    “Ah, that’s better. I prefer to be looked at when I’m speaking, Miss Redmond, and as captain of this ship, I prefer to do the dismissing when I feel a conversation has run its course. This one has not. And, oh, look at that: I dared to touch you.”
    He waited for her to react.
    She had enough sense this time not to say a single word.
    “Here is what you fail to realize. I can take you whenever—and—however I please. Should I please to do so, and I can’t imagine why I would, as I expect my women to do a little of the work, as it were. And I doubt you’ve done anything resembling making an effort in your entire life.”
    Absurdly, Violet was at first struck by his impeccable grammar. Little elegant hammer blows of words. She was reminded of her former French tutor; it was the same carefully flawless English spoken by those who didn’t come native to it, but learned it as a foreign language. The earl had learned gentility.
    He balanced the trappings of it like a juggler with glittering clubs. Beneath it simmered whatever it was he showed her