Free Master of Seduction by Kinley MacGregor

footsteps approaching from the right. She tensed, ready to dodge back into her room and slam the door shut against the interloper.
    “Awake, are you?”
    In spite of herself, she found the rich baritone of Jack’s voice welcome music to her ears.
    He sauntered toward her with a masculine swagger that told the world who ruled this domain. His hair was windswept and the dull light of the corridor glinted against the gold of the earring in his left ear. He had a mischievous look about him.
    “Aye, I’m awake and I wish a word with you.”
    His eyes fair glowed as a slow smile spread across his face. He stopped just before her and she had two urges at once. One to take a step toward him, where she could better inhale the sweet masculine scent of him, and another to retreat to the safety of her room.
    As if sensing her conflicted thoughts, he braced his arm on the door frame above her head and leaned down. “Aching to be alone with me, are you?”
    “Hardly.”
    His sweet breath tickled her skin as he spoke. “Admit it, love, you find me irresistible.”
    “I find you irritating,” she said with a frown. “You know, that’s certainly some ego you possess. You must have an incredibly large room to accommodate the two of you.”
    His laughter rang out. “My cabin’s actually large enough to accommodate all three of us.” He reached out and smoothed a piece of hair on her braid. “And when it comes to my bed—”
    “I have no interest in your bed,” she said, cutting him off as an image of what his bed might look like burned through her. “Nor in anything else so personal about you.”
    Instead of being offended, he just shrugged nonchalantly. “More’s the pity then. I’ve been told my bed, among other personal things, is quite exquisite.”
    “Are you trying to shock me?”
    “If I were?”
    “You’ll have to do better. Didn’t your mother ever teach you that crudity is no way to entice a woman?”
    The playfulness vanished from his face. She had gone too far, and now upon seeing the black, grim look on his face, she had no doubt that this man was capable of the horrors attributed to him.
    “You don’t ever want to know what lessons my mother taught me,” he said, his low tone frightening in its frigidity. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have duties to attend.”
    “Wait,” Lorelei said, unwilling to let him go until he had addressed her concerns. “I still have a matter to discuss.”
    Slowly, stiffly, he turned around to face her.
    He had shot from playful to angry so fast that her head fair reeled from it. Never had she seen anything like it.
    And people called her hot-headed.
    “Yes?” he asked coldly.
    Bolstering her confidence, she looked him squarely in the eye. “What is Lord Wallingford to you and why do you hate him so? He is the one you’re after, isn’t he? You took me because you knew Justin would get his father to come for me.”
    No emotions showed at all. It was as if she were addressing a statue. “Before you ask me those questions, little Lorelei, I think you should ask yourself if you want the answers.”
    “Of course I want the answers. Why wouldn’t I?”
    “Why indeed,” he asked in return. “Tell me why you think I hate him.”
    “Because he’s sworn to hang any pirate he finds.”
    He mocked her with his eyes. “How very naive of you.”
    “Then for what reasons?” she demanded, agitated by his superior attitude.
    “Go back to your room, Lorelei,” he said with a sigh. “You’re safe in there.”
    “Safe from what?”
    “From me, from life, from everything.”
    Frustrated, she ground her teeth. “Would you stop playing this game with me and simply answer my questions?”
    Silence hung between them until he finally answered. “Yes, I took you to get Gabriel Wallingford to come for you.”
    “Why do you hate him?”
    “Because it suits me to.”
    “And why is that?”
    “Because it does.”
    Deciding that was probably the best answer she was likely