Her whimper went straight to his groin.
Mary felt the throb ease as Vasco ministered to her wound in this most unusual fashion. Her gaze returned to his, finding him watching her with something in those mesmerising eyes she couldn’t fathom. She didn’t know what it was but she did know she’d seen it there before.
And it was both dangerous and enticing.
Still holding her gaze, Vasco slowly withdrew his lips, his teeth seeking and finding the rough end of the splinter burrowed in at the tip. He nipped at it until he held it firmly, then slowly eased it out, her glistening finger slipping from his mouth altogether. For a moment he held the liberated splinter between his teeth, then turned his head and spat it on the floor.
He smiled as he turned back to face her. ‘That’s better,’ he murmured.
Mary couldn’t move. Her finger or anything else for that matter. She just sat there, hand still in his, finger moist from his ministrations, staring at his mouth. A mouth that had turned her insides to jelly.
‘Th-thank you,’ she stammered, belatedly remembering her manners.
Vasco lowered his head to her finger again, and pressed a gentle lingering kiss to the exit wound.
He grinned. ‘My pleasure.’
Mary felt a sudden urge to call for smelling salts.
After a restless sleep Stella wasn’t in any hurry to look Rick in the eye for the first time since her voyeurism of last night. She’d gone straight to her quarters after her little peeping Tom episode, thus avoiding him altogether.
But she couldn’t stay in her cabin for ever and it wasn’t as if he knew that she’d spied on him. All she had to do was not blush and stammer when she greeted him and pretty soon the awkwardness would pass.
The memory would be emblazoned on her frontal lobe for ever but the awkwardness would pass!
‘Hey,’ she said to Rick as she wandered into the galley fifteen minutes later. He was sitting at the dining table poring over charts. Fully clothed. She looked away as he looked up at her.
Rick forced himself not to smile like a Cheshire cat, but just give a normal everyday hey kind of a smile. Which was kind of difficult when greeted with another pair of brief shorts and some kind of strapless shirt, leaving her shoulders bare and her cleavage...enhanced.
‘Morning,’ he said. You saucy little pervert in barely any clothes. ‘Sleep well?’
He assumed she’d had a pretty fitful sleep if that damn bell jingling was anything to go by.
Stella steeled herself to look at him again and gave a non-committal shrug. ‘Fine,’ she murmured.
Rick stifled a smile as she looked away. Liar. Good, now they were even. Between the damn book, that silly little bell and an array of teeny tiny clothes, sleep had become a rare commodity.
‘You were in bed early last night,’ he mused, because he just couldn’t resist teasing her a little as she had done over their flirting bet last night. ‘Everything okay?’
Stella’s breath hitched as she popped two pieces of bread in the toaster. ‘Fine,’ she replied, her gaze planted firmly on the job at hand.
Rick suppressed a chuckle at her monosyllabic replies. He’d have loved to tease her some more, hell he could have done it all day, but the weather wasn’t the best out there and they should be getting under way.
He picked up his plate and glass and headed towards the galley, squeezing behind her to get to the sink. He felt her stiffen a little as he caught a whiff of browning toast and coconut. Her hair sat in a messy ponytail on top of her head, leaving her neck exposed, and he had the craziest urge to slip his arms around her waist and nuzzle into it.
He stepped away from the temptation—teasing her was one thing, acting as if they’d set up house was another. He placed his plate in the sink and downed the last of his orange juice in one gulp. ‘It’s going to be a bit choppy out there today so I’ll get us under way,’ he said.
‘Fine,’ Stella said again, keeping rigidly still until he’d safely disappeared up the stairs. When the toast popped thirty seconds later she realised she’d been staring out of the porthole thinking about him naked.
Oh, brother! Would she ever be able to act normally around him again?
As it turned out Rick was fully engaged in keeping control of the boat in the worsening swell so there was no time for conversation, awkward or otherwise. The sky was grey and the wind was brisk, keeping him on his toes. It was far from dangerous but it did require his attention.
She sat up front and worked on her laptop for a bit, but trying to type with the horizon undulating drunkenly played havoc with her equilibrium and wasn’t very productive. Even reading through her previous day’s work for editing purposes proved impossible to her constitution.
Stella had always possessed an excellent set of sea legs but they’d obviously become rusty from lack of use as nausea sat like a lead sinker in her stomach.
Which at least wiped away the images of Rick showering in the moonlight.
She gave up on the book, shutting her laptop lid.
‘Do you want to go down and make sure everything’s secured properly below deck?’ Rick called out an hour later as she sat very still, keeping her gaze fixed on the horizon, and concentrated on deep breathing.
Stella stood. Good idea. Something to do to keep her mind off the unsettling up and down of the boat.
It started to rain lightly as she passed him and she shivered as the breeze cooled the water droplets on her skin. He’d taken his shirt off at some stage and his chest was speckled with sea spray.
It reminded her of the way water droplets had clung to his naked skin last night and she wondered if they were cool on his skin too. Whether they tasted of salt or of man.
Or some heady mix of both.
If she hadn’t felt so rough, she might have been tempted to try. ‘Do you want your spray jacket?’ she asked, not quite meeting his eyes.
Rick nodded, examining her face. It had gone from pale to white as the sail billowing above their heads. ‘Thanks. You okay?’ he asked. ‘The bureau says it’ll only last for another couple of hours.’
Stella gripped the leather back of the high captain’s chair where his butt was parked. He looked totally in his element. Calm and confident. Relishing the inclement weather even, as if it were nothing more than a sun shower. Stella nodded. ‘I’m fine.’
He grinned at her, his long hair blowing behind him in true pirate fashion. ‘There are some sea sickness pills in the cupboard above the sink,’ he offered.
‘I’m fine,’ she lied.
Rick laughed. ‘There’s a lot of that going on today.’
Stella was sure if her cheeks weren’t so cool they’d be heating up nicely. ‘I practically grew up on a boat.’
Rick shrugged. ‘Just saying...’
She went below deck and checked every room, securing any items that were lying around. She grabbed her spray jacket and pulled Rick’s off the hook on the back of his door and headed to the galley, finding a couple of cans of soup and emptying them into a saucepan. The boat rolled to the side as she placed it over the element and her stomach lurched.
Damn it.
She reached above the sink and threw back two of the little blue pills, praying they’d work in a hurry.
She stood over the soup as it heated, shifting her weight from leg to leg with the motion of the boat. When it was done she puréed it, poured it into thermal mugs, cut off thick chunks of bread from the loaf they’d bought yesterday and loaded it all