Cadence

Seven

Seven

Raising a tentative hand to the tender area at the back of her head Cadence cringed and burrowed more deeply into the cotton sheets enveloping her. Blissfully content and sleepy she inhaled deeply of the masculine cologne wafting through her senses. The ship rocked serenely indicating the storm had gone.

“Good morning, Cadence.”

Her eyes flew instantly open as she shot bolt upright in bed. A searing pain exploded in her skull and she instantly regretted the movement as a wave of dizziness consumed her. Strong arms banded around her, easing the descent as she fell back onto the bed. When the world at last stopped spinning she opened her eyes and found herself mere inches from the handsome visage of Curtis Langston. One storm may well be over, but another was surely brewing right here in this cabin.

She snapped her eyes shut again.

He was seeing her, not Cam,and his eyes glowedwith accusation.

“I thought there was something familiar about you from the beginning.” Curtis tapped a thoughtful finger against his jaw. “Did you think I wouldn’t figure it out?”

Cadence gulped, his words dripped with sarcasm, but reallywhat had she expected?

With guilt laden spirits she met his gaze. “Curtis, I…” What could she say? There was really nothing to say. With a shrug she rose gingerly on an elbow. In that moment it dawned on her that she was not wearing her cabin boy attire. She shot to a sitting position once again. A large shirt with buttons down the front covered her and beneath it she was entirely bereft of clothing.

Her eyes widened in horror as she turned an accusing stare on Curtis. “You!” she squealed, clasping the sheet over her poorly concealed breasts, or rather poorly concealed body. “You undressed me, didn’t you?” No man had ever been allowed, much less taken, such liberties!

Pure mischief twinkled in Curtis’s eyes, toying at the corners of his mouth as he fought back a lopsided grin. His gaze roved leisurely over her breasts, no longer strapped flat by binding cloths, and down to her waist and legs covered by nothing more than his sheet. Cadence flushed beneath his heated stare. She may as well have been naked for all his suggestive leer implied and suddenly she missed her baggy canvas trousers and loose denim shirt.

“Would you have preferred one of the deckhands undressed you?” He raised his hands in casual dismissal of her accusation. “The boys would have bowed and called me god for such a gift.”

A hint of boyish fun rolled across his face so intoxicating Cadence nearly melted.

“But that is beside the point. You were soaking wet, and at the time, I believed you were a young man.” All good humor drained from his blue eyes. “Which brings me back to the situation at hand,” he learned forward clasping his hands together in front of him. “What are you doing on my ship cavorting about as a boy?”