The Captain of All Pleasures (Sutherland Brothers #1)(31)
Author: Kresley Cole

“I’ll have to pass,” he said, mustering no regret in his voice. “I have a rather limited interest in botany.”

“I’m afraid you will insult me,” she said in a mulish tone, her laughter forgotten. “I extend this invitation to view my private home to no man.”

He eyed her, knowing something was wrong with this situation. But he had a lot on his mind and didn’t want to fight with the woman, who looked to be digging in her heels.

“As you wish, madam,” he said with a curt bow. “Just down these steps?” At her nod, he turned to leave, thinking this day grew odd indeed. He entered the garden and found it nice but not the earth-shattering experience Maria thought it was.

Her home consisted of a main house with two wings, separated from the palazzo by the garden as well as a sturdy gate, open now. It was pleasant, but nothing like the grandeur of the bordello. Maria’s behavior from this morning on had been baffling—

His thoughts were interrupted by a conversation between two women drifting out from a cracked-open door in one of the wings.

One woman had a thick British colonial accent, Indian, he’d wager. In a crisp, businesslike tone, she said, “Now, relax, please. And unbutton your shirt further.” Had Maria wanted him to stumble on something here? Curious, he slowed outside the door.

He froze at the woman’s next comment.

“You have to relax, Nicole. Just trust me. When I am through with you, you’ll feel like a new woman. So get your mind off your problems. Chancey will take care of your boat—”

“Ship.”

“Very well, ship. Now, take a deep breath so I can finish with you before you have to leave.”

She couldn’t be talking to his Nicole; it just wasn’t possible. But her dulcet voice, the strangely accented voice he recognized at once, replied, “Sasha, this doesn’t hurt.”

“Of course not, silly.”

His whole body tensed as he moved closer. Was he losing his mind, or was Nicole Lassiter in this Brazilian madam’s personal abode getting undressed for a woman? His hand shot to the doorknob but just as swiftly stilled. He should listen, find out more about her. Like what she was doing in there with a woman.

“I’ve never done this before.”

“You should have,” the woman confided. “It drives men wild.”

“Ah, that tickles!”

“Stop squirming, Nic.”

Derek, his teeth grinding, heard a pause, and then the more sharply commanded, “I mean it!”

“You should have more sympathy. When was the last time you had it done?”

“I do it to myself. I could teach you if we had more time.” Christ, just what were they talking about?

Nicole sounded wistful. “I wish I did. I miss it here,” she added before she began giggling.

“We miss you t—Nic, I can’t continue until you can stop your belly from quivering like that.”

Enough. His blood boiled. Jaw clenched, he yanked open the door and sucked in a breath, loudly exhaling as the scene before him unfolded. A fully, though scantily, clothed Eastern woman bent over a half-clad Nicole. Luckily, the woman snatched her hand away just as Nicole bolted up or, as he now realized, she would have had a streak of red henna going straight up her neck.

A feeling of acute relief washed over him. The woman was decorating Nicole’s body with henna in the traditional Indian mehndi. His lips crooked up in a grin, which wasn’t surprising, considering his intense satisfaction at finding her, and finding her innocently uninvolved. Maria, he thought with an inward laugh, had gathered exactly what he wanted.

“Sutherland! What are you doing here?” Nicole cried out. Could she know what her open shirt and hennaed skin did to him?

“I could ask the same of you. I was certain I’d see you again—I just didn’t expect it to be in the home of a madam,” he replied. Then he hitched in a breath as he got a full glimpse of the braided vine design drawn on her creamy skin. It circled her waist like a bracelet, and then, in a pattern of swirls and buds, crawled up her torso to meet in a point between her br**sts. In an instant, he knew the memory of her wide eyes and wildly decorated body would stay with him his whole life.

She was too astounded to do anything but gape at him, until she saw his heated stare assessing her body. Her hands flew up to grab the sides of her shirt to pull it closed.

“Oh, no, you don’t,” the Indian woman, Sasha, commanded in a stern voice as she swiped at her hands. “The last bit isn’t dry yet.”

She gave the woman an oppressed look and moved to the side of the bed. In a huff, she turned herself from him to button her shirt.

She stopped when she received a cuff to the ear from Sasha. “I’m sorry, Nic. But you won’t do anything to ruin this mehndi.”

The woman turned to Derek, her large flattened earrings chiming as her doe eyes flickered over him. Then she gave a pointed, amazed look to Nicole. “He is Sutherland, the man you spoke of?”

Nicole grimaced at the question, and a furious blush stole across her face. Derek was surprised but extremely pleased that she’d spoken of him to this woman. And obviously to Madam Maria, too.

Nicole glanced down. Evidently, she thought she’d covered everything important, so she whipped around to face Sutherland. But not before flashing Sasha a look that screamed, Are you happy now?

Sasha looked back at Derek and gazed at him in awe, muttering something about powerful magic. As Nicole watched Derek, her expression changed rapidly from wary bemusement to outright exasperation, until she finally jerked her glance to the woman. “What are you talking about?”

“The mehndi is very powerful. It is already working.”

“Already working?” Nicole choked out. “You said it would bring me luck and ward off evil. But on the contrary, Sutherland’s arrival is unlucky and he is not being warded off, so I’d say this stuff”—she looked down her chest—“is definitely not working.”

Sasha arched an eyebrow at her. “No, no, Nicole. Don’t you see the lotus here?” She tugged up Nicole’s shirt and pointed out a finely drawn, lacy flower on her flat belly. “I drew that for fertility and love. And then your mate just happens to walk through the door! It is most definitely working.”

Nicole’s jaw dropped. “Sutherland is not my mate! A-and you can count on the fact that we won’t need any luck with fertility, because there won’t be any—any—”

“Planting?” he added helpfully as he bit back a grin.

“Planting?”

She was angered that he played with her, but he couldn’t help it. He found he enjoyed teasing her.

“Again, what are you doing here?” she demanded.

He’d watched the whole scene between Sasha and Nicole in grinning amusement. But his grin was wiped off his face when the lapel of Nicole’s shirt brushed a hardened, pink nipple just visible under the linen. Fascinated, he hardly trusted himself to speak intelligibly, so in response he smiled down at her, hoping it didn’t look as predatory as he felt, and answered her question with a question. “What do you think I’m doing at a brothel?”