The Captain of All Pleasures (Sutherland Brothers #1)(61)
Author: Kresley Cole

She frowned, and then her mouth made a little O at his sultry expression. In a deep voice, he said, “I like the way you walk, Nicole.”

That night, she enjoyed herself far too much. Derek was attentive and demonstrated a dry wit she appreciated. Deflecting his overtures and steeling herself against him seemed more and more a lost battle. The sooner they parted, the better.

Another worry preyed on her mind. For several days, no other ship from the race had docked. After what had happened to the Bella Nicola and the Southern Cross, she had no cause to doubt other ships had been damaged as well. But Derek could find nothing on Tallywood.

She thought that Derek sensed her uneasiness and was going out of his way to make her happy. This night he’d taken her to a play, a play she didn’t remember the first line of because he’d sat holding her hand, tracing her inner palm, slowly stroking each finger. He hadn’t bothered to hide his hunger.

She believed he wanted them to spend every evening in bed as they had been. She certainly wouldn’t mind, but seeing how proprietary he became with her around other men was also thrilling. In his mind, she belonged to him.

One time tonight, it’d gotten so bad she’d thought Derek was going to haul her back to the ship.

Later, on their way back, she chastised him, “You didn’t have to glare at that old man!”

He lifted his eyebrows and laughed. “He wasn’t much older than I am. And even though he gathered you were with me, he continued to ogle your ripe, young br**sts.”

She blushed, not used to him speaking so frankly to her outside the haven of his bed. “I thought he was harmless.”

“That’s because you don’t know what men like that are thinking, whereas I do. Honestly, if you had any idea, you would have run ” His voice trailed off. “Nicole, what is it? You’ve turned white as a sheet.”

Her body went cold as her breath tripped in and out. She forced herself to continue walking because behind her, not more than ten feet away, came a voice from her nightmares.

“You’re gonna get us lashed for this, you just wait ’n’ see,” Pretty whined. When Clive replied, “Bugger you, Pretty, Cap’n can’t keep us locked aboard ship for our whole stay,” the blood left her face.

“Love, what’s wrong?”

She’d slowed too much. The two would be abreast of them. Without thinking, she turned her back to the street and grabbed Derek by the collar to bring his lips to hers.

“Now, this I like,” he murmured.

“Hush! Just keep me turned this way,” she whispered against his lips.

“I take it you’ve seen someone you’d rather not?” he asked in an amused tone.

When she’d given them enough time to pass, she broke from him. “Those two up ahead, the wide one and the weasely one. They—they are the two men who attacked me back in London.”

It was as if she could see aggression fire through his body.

“I don’t know what they’re doing here,” she said in a shaking voice, “but maybe we should trail them and find out how they got to Syd—”

“Stay here!” he ordered, and charged toward the two men.

She hitched up her skirts to follow and got there just in time to hear Clive’s nose crunch as Derek pounded him to the ground. When Pretty scurried to escape, he lunged after him, yanking the wiry man around into his other awaiting fist.

“Th-they said something about a captain,” she stammered from behind him.

He looked from the barely conscious Clive slumped on the ground to the visibly quaking Pretty.

“Now, which one of you wants to tell me who your captain is?”

The search of Tallywood’s ship took less than an hour. The watchman had arrived just as Derek learned the English earl was their captain. Upon hearing Nicole’s story about her father suspecting Tallywood of being behind the damage to several ships, the Australian authorities called for a search of the Desirade . Word swiftly spread around the small sailing community, and crowds flanked the docks. Derek coerced his way onto the ship, and since he obviously wasn’t letting Nicole out of his sight, she marched aboard as well.

“This is an injustice!” Tallywood cried, the pale, flaccid skin of his face and jowls shaking in outrage as the Australian authorities restrained him. “I’ll have your positions for this, you heathens,” he spat at the men who held him. “I’m a bloody earl! You’re nothing but some convict’s spawn.”

The two officers were a brawny, rough-looking pair, and each time he whined they jostled him enthusiastically.

After picking Tallywood’s safe, an officer uncovered detailed lists and intricate plans for several ships in the race.

When she spied the lists, Nicole rushed forward, dragging Derek along. “Are we in there?” she cried to the marshal. “Did he sabotage our ships?”

“The Southern Cross?”

Derek nodded.

“He had your water tainted before it was even loaded on the ship.” He turned to her. “The Bella Nicola?” At her anxious nod, he said with obvious regret, “Yes, miss. They loosened your rudder and compromised a support in your hold.”

She could feel her lower lip trembling. She didn’t want to appear weak in front of these men, but she had to know why. Turning to Derek, she glanced at Tallywood in question, but Derek looked as though he’d stop her. Before he could say a word, she crossed the deck to where the two men held their prisoner.

“Why’d you do it?”

He ignored her, and she thought he wouldn’t answer. The second she pulled her eyes from him, the coward spoke. “You all laughed at me,” he began in an eerie voice so low that she had to strain to hear him.

“Common sailors and dockside whores openly mocking me. But I won,” he spewed in an increasingly violent tone. “I won the greatest race of the century .” He continued ranting.

Nicole wanted to interrupt, to answer his words. But she didn’t think one could argue with a man like this, a man so full of his own importance that he couldn’t fathom the rest of the world wouldn’t want to bring him down from his lofty position.

One of the two big officers holding Tallywood said, “You can give him something to remember you by, miss, if you like.”

“Stop this, this bloody instant,” Tallywood shrieked in response. He turned to Nicole. “You’re nothing but a commoner. Do you know what will happen if you strike a peer?”

The other officer leaned down to her and said with a wink, “Don’t hurt your hand, little bit.”

It was useless to try to find some wise, reconciling words to convey that he’d won the race but lost everything else. Instead, she hiked up her skirts and planted her boot squarely between his legs.

With great ceremony, the Great Circle Race award had been bestowed on Derek by the mayor of Sydney. Afterward, he and Nicole walked to his ship as though isolated from the revelry around them. His hand reached down to clasp hers.