Page 165 of Storm over the Caribbean
“Captain? Captain!”
The both of us froze.
Slowly, very slowly, I turned my face enough to stare at him. Leaning closer, I whispered into Mr Rikkard Ambrose’s ear with an icy voice that even he would have been proud of: “You did lock that door, didn’t you?”
A pause.
“With a fifty percent certainty, Mrs Ambrose.”
“In other words,you have no bloody idea!”
I swallowed.
Any moment now. Any moment now, that door could fly open, and we would be discovered, and, and…
And why the heck does that make me feel hot?
Oh, don’t get me wrong, if anyone actuallydidopen that door, I would scratch their eyes out before throwing them overboard.But the idea that itcouldhappen, that I was having a secret tryst with my pirate captain of a husband that nobody could know about…
A delicious shiver went down my back as I glanced over my shoulder at Mr Rikkard Ambrose. He was staring at the door with a steely look in his eyes. In those dark orbs, I could read the future. If anyone actually dared to open that door, I would not have to do anything. My husband would eviscerate them and pluck out their eyes before I could so much as blink. If it was for me, for his family, he would doanything.
Suddenly, feeling hot didn’t seem so strange anymore. Neither did the excitement racing through my veins and the blood pounding in my ears.
“Leave!” Mr Ambrose barked.
“But, Captain, we’ve almost reached the docks, and—”
“I saidleave! I’ll be out in a minute.”
“A-aye aye, Captain!”
Footsteps hurried away outside the cabin. Cocking an eyebrow at him, I gave my dear husband a questioning look. “In a minute?”
His arms snaking around me to hold me tight, he raked his eyes over my naked form. “…or possibly two.”
A wide grin spread over my face.
***
Roughly twenty-two minutes later, the door to the captain’s cabin creaked open and I waddled out onto the deck.
Hey, don’t look at me like that! The difference between 2 and 22 is only an additional 2, right? It’s not a problem to take an extra two minutes. Definitely not.
Especially not if you’re enjoying yourself, right?
Shut up, inner voice! Shut up!
I was spared my inner voice’s response to that when Mr Ambrose stepped out of the captain’s cabin behind me andeveryone’s attention abruptly snapped to him. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched him step up beside me. He wasn’t wearing his rugged pirate captain outfit anymore. Instead, he was wearing, drumroll…
A white shirt.
A black tailcoat.
A black top hat.
A pair of black trousers.
A black and silver cane.
