Free Loving Sarah by Sandy Raven Page B

look. Too, he could have sworn her lower lip trembled as she thanked him for taking her out in the fresh air.
    In the end, it was the look on her face that made him feel like a blackguard of the first order. He decided to follow her down to the cabin and apologize.

 
    C HAPTER F OUR
     
     
    S arah locked the door, threw the hat and coat onto the bench, and plopped herself onto the bed. She refused to cry even though she felt that familiar knot in her throat that preceded the tears. Hardly knowing him, the man had the ability to make her feel like a foolish six-year-old who’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
    She was no child, but a woman fully grown. A woman who knew her mind and her heart. A woman who longed for adventure and had the confidence to take it when the opportunity arose. She absently toyed with the ribbon holding her braid and tugged, pulling it free. Children wore their hair braided, not women. She walked to the mirror and fingered her too-thick messy curls, beginning to untangle them with her comb, when a knock sounded.
    If the man meant to continue his tirade in the privacy of her room, she would have to make it clear to him that she would take no more.
    Throwing back the bolt, she yanked open the door, prepared to vent her anger at him when he pushed past her. The sound of the latch sliding home and the strange emotion in his gold-flecked hazel eyes were more titillating than fear-inducing.
    “If you’ve come to continue lecturing me, you can save your breath because I will not hear it.” She turned her back to him and continued combing her hair, trying to ignore his proximity in the confines of the small room.
    “I thought to apologize. But….”
    “Apology accepted. Now, please…,” her voice cracked. “Please go.” She didn’t look at him.
    His voice carried growing frustration as he spoke, his tone becoming more aggressive. “This is my ship, and I’ll leave when I damn well choose.”
    Startled, she met his steely gaze in the mirror. Her parched throat closed, and she stood frozen in place, trembling now that she’d forced him to anger.
    “I didn’t have to let you stay in here,” he stated. “I could have had you locked in the lazarette below as a common prisoner.”
    She held his direct, scathing stare in the mirror and refused to cower.
    “With no light and only a blanket and one meal a day. Remember, you stole aboard my vessel of your own volition and that makes you no better than a common criminal. Because of who you are, I felt it my responsibility to care for your well-being. But your attitude at my hospitality could use some adjustment.”
    He came to stand directly behind her, so close she felt the warmth radiating off his body, felt his breath in her tangled curls. She saw in the mirror that his gaze caressed her tumbledown mess of hair. Even in her fear, she wanted to feel his touch. She knew that if he touched her, she would melt before him.
    “So let me clarify something to you, my lady . You are under my protection, and as a friend to Lucky, you will hear what I have to say regarding your imprudent actions, especially as they will likely affect me in some way. His Grace will surely question me thoroughly.”
    She felt the heat of his hands a fraction of an inch away from her body as though he wanted to touch her, to feel her, but would not. Without making contact, they roved over her form, causing her skin beneath her linen shirt and trousers to flame as though he stroked her naked body. Now she knew. He felt it, too. The attraction she felt for him was returned; it wasn’t her imagination.
    “You never should have come here,” his husky voice whispered.
    If she moved at all, even to take a deep breath, his palms would be on her, and if that happened, she didn’t know where they’d go from there.
    The drawings in that book came to mind, and she groaned silently.
    “I am not your brother that you can behave with that haughty demeanor of yours and get