Free Once a Mistress by Debra Mullins

swinging. Her fist connected with his jaw with such force that his head snapped hard to the side. He stood frozen like that for a moment, as if he could not believe that she had actually struck him. Diana rubbed her stinging knuckles against her thigh as he slowly turned his head back to face her. She dared not move when she saw the look in his eyes.
    The laughter of the watching crew faded to silence as they all waited to see what their captain’s reaction would be.
    “McBride!”
    His voice cracked out like the lash of a whip. She flinched at the sound of it.
    The first mate appeared at his elbow as if from the air itself. “Captain?”
    “Set the course we discussed.” Alex grasped Diana’s wrist. “I’ll be in my cabin.”
    “Very well, captain.”
    Alex turned toward the hatch, intending to haul Diana along with him, but she dug in her heels and refused to be led. With a shrug he reached out and seized her up, tossing her over his shoulder like a sack of grain. Her shriek of outrage incited snickers from the watching crew. Lewd suggestions flew after them as he stalked across the deck.
    “Aye, cap’n! Show the wench who her master is!”
    “Teach the uppity piece her place!”
    “She’ll be walkin’ bowlegged for days when the cap’n’s done with her!”
    The laughter added fuel to Diana’s temper. Bouncing ignominiously on the captain’s shoulder, she began cursing, casting aspersions on his dubious parentage and questionable masculinity. He descended with her into the bowels of the ship like Hades carrying Persephone into the underworld.
    Reaching his cabin, he opened the door and strode into the room to drop her unceremoniously on the bed.
    Diana bounced once on the mattress and came up fighting. Leaping to her feet, she glared at him as he went to shut the door. “How dare you tote me about like a cask of rum? I’ll see you hanged for this humiliation!”
    “Indeed.” With a little smile, Alex turned away, apparently ignoring her threat.
    “Oh!” Furious at his casual dismissal, Diana clenched her fists and whirled away from him, struggling to get her temper under control. She looked around the cabin and saw…the bed.
    The walls of the cabin seemed to shrink as she stared across a sea of red coverlet to the elaborately carved headboard. While logic dictated that the bed could not be as huge as she perceived it, especially given the size of the cabin, nonetheless it seemed to dominate the room. She tried to look away. At the dining table with its carved armchairs. At the desk covered with neatly rolled maps and charts. At the flickering shadows dancing on the walls, cast by the candles that had been left burning.
    Against her will, her gaze slid back to the bed. It seemed even bigger than before, like a dragon lying in wait for its next victim.
    Unnerved by the silence, Diana glanced back at Alex. The expression in his dark eyes shook her to her core. No man had ever looked at her in such a way. So…hungrily. He made her feel as if he could see inside of her, as if he knew everything about her. Flutters of excitement danced in her belly, and she sought to squelch the shameless reaction. She could not possibly feel this way for such a man. He was a rogue. A thief. A pirate. He was the wrong sort of man altogether.
    And she found him dangerously attractive.
    “Put this on.”
    She looked up just in time to catch the robe he tossed at her. The black silk slipped through her hands like water, and she marveled at the exquisitely embroidered flowers that twined along the back. It had obviously come from the Far East. She wondered if he had been there or if the robe had come into his hands by illicit means.
    “You can’t stay in that rag.” With a wave of his hand, he indicated her torn shirt. “Until I find you something to wear, my robe will have to suffice.”
    “You are too kind,” she sneered.
    He glanced at her, taking in her appearance with obvious appreciation. “You should be