Free A Pirate's Wife for Me by Christina Dodd Page B

and stripped off the blankets. "Now!"
    In horror, he tried to cover his morning erection with his hands.
    She snorted derisively and made a gesture that gave him to understand she considered him a lesser man. "Skinny," she muttered. "Freak. Upstart." With too much vigor, she started throwing his belongings into his trunk.
    He didn't chide her. The woman looked rough, like she could knock him out the window onto the piazza below and dust her fingers after a job well done.
    Upstart. Parvenu. Vulgarian.
    Bastard . That was what his noble grandfather had always called him.
    In deference to the spinning room, Maddox rose slowly, groped his way to the cupboard, got out his clothes and went into the dressing room. A man of his stature should have a valet. But a man involved with his kind of commerce trusted no servant. When he appeared, properly attired, the ugly maid said, "You! Leave!"
    He followed her through the empty, echoing rooms and out into that damned bright Italian sunlight. His trunk was attached to the coach. A footman held the door.
    Maddox climbed the steps. When he was balanced with one leg inside, the maid put a hand in his back and pushed. When he fell forward, she shut the door. The driver whipped up the horses. Maddox crawled onto the seat and braced himself as the coach careened around the corners, taking him away from the villa and toward the seacoast.
    Sometimes his departures were precipitous. But no matter how disgruntled the Tuscan count might be, he would not actually harm him, for Maddox held something the count wanted very badly, and that … was Cenorina.
    Maddox coolly smiled and relaxed into the luxury of the velvet seat.
    He was selling Cenorina. Selling it as a base to spy on and attack England, to interrupt established trading routes, to establish a petty régime where any man could be king. Or woman, if she had the money and the ambition. Every despot in Europe vied for the chance to own his own country. The wealthy and the discontented fought for the chance even to bid.
    Maddox flexed his hands. And he held them all by the balls.
    Genius. He was a genius.
    The count's coach stopped at the inn where, three days hence, Maddox would meet with Mrs. Abigail Cabera. The footmen tossed him and his bags on the doorstep, and the coach left before he had even dusted himself off. He obtained the finest chamber in the inn, then concentrated on enjoying the warm afternoons and cool evenings in the tiny town overlooking the sea. He ate well-prepared foods and drank good wines, and was pleasantly surprised when Mrs. Cabera appeared a day early, dressed in an attractive gown and twirling a parasol.
    When she spotted him seated at a table in front of the tiny local ristorante , she startled him by smiling. Hurrying over, she offered her hand. "What a delightful surprise!" she said. "I didn't yet expect you."
    He stood and bowed over her glove. "My mission is completed, and I grow bored with Tuscany," he said. "Please. Take a seat."
    Mrs. Cabera lowered her voice. "My mission is completed, also."
    "So you have something for me in your bag?"
    "I do indeed." She smiled again, and slid her hand along her neckline.
    He blinked. Mrs. Cabera was Spanish, the well-to-do widow of a Cenorina tradesman. When the aristocrats had fled and businesses failed, she had been left destitute. Two years ago, when he had conceived his plan to sell Cenorina and realized he needed an employee to visit potential buyers on the continent, he had approached her to work for him, for like him she spoke Italian, French and English, and she could also make herself understood in German. In addition, she understood bookkeeping and would never allow herself to be cheated by a crafty or bullying patrician.
    A ruthlessly practical woman, she had accepted his offer, and because she was a mature and handsome woman, he assumed he would also have bed privileges. She informed him she would do whatever he required of her in the way of underhanded dealing,