No Choice But Seduction
Page 21

But Boyd needed someone to talk to about his predicament. And none of his brothers were currently in England, so he couldn’t bend their ears about it. Nor was it a subject he could comfortably discuss with his sister. But these two—two of London’s most notorious rakes in their day—well, if anyone would understand, they would. They’d probably bedded more women, and in all varieties, than most men could even dream about.
So Boyd dropped down on the nearest sofa and said, “You can’t imagine how big a hole. She nearly drove me mad with lust on that last voyage with her aboard.”
Anthony had already heard about Boyd’s “rental agreement” with Katey and said drily, “And now you’re putting yourself back on a ship with her? Smart move.”
“Rather impulsive even for a Yank,” James added.
“What choice do I have? I don’t just owe her for that mistake I made in Northampton. I want her.”
“That, dear boy, has been painfully obvious,” said James. “You behave like a bloody fool around her.”
Boyd flinched, his defenses rising. “You think I’m not aware of that? You think I wouldn’t rein it in if I could? That’s why I made such a blunder in the first place. I couldn’t trust my own instincts about her innocence that day, when all I could think about was bedding her.”
“Sounds like a man in love, don’t it?” Anthony said to his brother.
“No, in lust is more like it,” James disagreed.
“Do you love her?” Anthony persisted.
Boyd felt like pulling his hair out. “How the hell would I know? The intense desire I feel for her when I get near her leaves no room to explore any other feelings.”
“Then what exactly are your intentions?” Anthony continued with a slight frown. “I don’t think I’d care to hear about her getting hurt by you, or anyone else for that matter. She’s a remarkable chit.”
“Agreed,” James said. “There’s much about her to admire. There aren’t many who would have done what she did to rescue Judy. Most people, women especially, would have ignored the situation or just gone for help, and then it would have been two adults’ words against a child’s, and you know bloody well the child wouldn’t be believed.”
“And they were mistreating my baby,” Anthony said, getting worked up again about it. “The bastards hadn’t even fed her! But Katey Tyler saw a child tied to the floor and didn’t fob off the rescue to someone else. She got Judy out of there without giving it another thought.”
“I think what my brother is getting at is, don’t let this lust of yours burn the wench. She might be traveling around the world, but she doesn’t strike me as being very worldly, if you catch my drift.”
Boyd sighed. “You’re both off the mark. I’ve been thinking of settling down for a while now, including getting married.”
“Back in Connecticut I hope?” James quickly remarked.
Boyd snorted. “When my entire family spends more time here now? No, I was thinking of running the Skylark office in London on a permanent basis.”
James groaned. Anthony chuckled. Boyd ignored the dramatics and continued, “So I could use some advice on how to win the wench to my favor.”
Anthony glanced behind him, then at James, then exclaimed to Boyd, “You’re asking us?”
James did the chuckling this time and said to his brother, “Come now, dear boy, who better should he ask for advice of this sort? And she’s not one of ours where we’d have grounds to object because we don’t want any more Andersons in the family. He’d probably even make a good husband. Warren did, and who in their right mind would have predicted that?”
Anthony shrugged. “Well, if you’re game for this, old man, I suppose I can chip in.” And to Boyd, he said, “Let’s start with the basics, shall we? Has she ever given you any indication that she even likes you? All I’ve seen is her running in the opposite direction from you.”
“She blushes a lot in my presence,” Boyd answered. “I used to think that was a good indication with a wench, but I’m not so sure anymore.”
Anthony laughed. “That’s no indication a’tall. Could be you just embarrass her with that rampant lust you’ve owned up to.”
“Put a lid on it, puppy, and help the boy out,” James admonished.
“But it’s obvious, ain’t it?” Anthony rejoined. “He’s going to have to resort to seduction.”
“My thoughts exactly,” James agreed.
“That sounds—underhanded,” Boyd remarked.
“Well, you might be accustomed to a straightforward approach with women, but do you really think that would work with this one when you have so many marks against you already?” Anthony said.
“You need to sneak up on her emotions, dear boy. Catch her off guard,” James added.
Anthony hooted at his brother. “That’s how you had to operate, old man. I preferred charm. Worked every time, you know.”
“I don’t believe barbarians possess any of that,” James put in.
“Now who’s not being helpful?” Anthony quipped.
James sighed. “Quite right. Habit, you know.” Then he said to Boyd, “Sorry, Yank.”
Boyd grinned slightly. “I’m used to it.”
“Down to particulars then,” James said. “Once you ascertain that she has some sort of feelings for you other than murderous ones, then you progress to slowly whittling down her barriers, and she’ll likely have a lot of them in your case. So don’t rush it. Remember, subtlety.”
“And eye contact,” Anthony added. “It’s amazing what you can achieve with your eyes. They are your first line of expression, you know. Dozens of things can be said with a sensual look that words might otherwise muck up.”
“But keep your eyes above water, if you know what I mean,” James said next. “A woman doesn’t like catching you staring at her breasts. Insults them for some reason.”
“Never understood that m’self, but he’s quite right,” Anthony put in.
Boyd was beginning to wonder if he should be taking notes about all of this, but then James said, “Let’s see a demonstration, lad.”
“Of?”
“What you’re capable of expressing to a woman with a look. And remember, keep it subtle.”
Boyd felt distinctly uncomfortable with the suggestion, but he gave it a try—and bowled both Malorys over with laughter. Serious laughter that had him feeling as if he were the brunt of a joke. He started to get up to leave before his hot temper kicked in. He’d asked for their help, but he should have known better.
But James wound down first and said, “Show him how it’s done, Tony.”
“He’s not my type,” Anthony replied. But that got him one of his brother’s unbending looks, so he amended, “Oh, very well.”
Anthony took a moment to compose himself, then Boyd was given the full brunt of what the ladies of London used to experience when he’d targeted them. Easy to see how this particular Malory’s tally was legendary in the matter of seductions. Charm didn’t even come close to describing a look like that.
Assured now that they weren’t just pulling his leg, Boyd was quick to grumble, “He’s got remarkable eyes to begin with. It’s no wonder that would work for him.”
“So he does,” James concurred. “But that doesn’t mean the rest of us are a lost cause. Now give it another try yourself, lad, and this time, imagine Miss Tyler is standing in front of you.”
That was easy enough to do when Katey was never far from Boyd’s thoughts. So he brought her image to the forefront of his mind, her beautiful emerald eyes, the dimples that suggested a smile that wasn’t really there, her skin that looked as if it would feel like silk, her plump, luscious lips, the long, black braid he wanted to tuck into his belt instead of hers, her magnificent curves…
“Good God,” James said, breaking the image of Katey in Boyd’s mind. “Forget charming her until after you’ve taken care of that lust. You’ll bloody well sink your ship in flames with looks like that one.”
Anthony chuckled. “What can I say? Some of us have it and some of us don’t.” He was giving James a pointed smirk when he said that, which got a snort out of the golden-haired Malory. But then to Boyd, Anthony suggested, “Just practice, Yank. Use a mirror if you have to. It’s worth getting right. The battle is won if you can get the lady all aflutter before you’ve even touched her.”
“Back to the overall strategy then,” James said thoughtfully. “If you really are thinking about settling down and it’s marriage you want in the end, let her know you aren’t adverse to the idea. But by all means, be subtle about it. Don’t barrage her with your New England frankness. Give her some time to see that there’s more to you than impulsive decisions.”
“She’s a New Englander, too,” Boyd reminded them. “You haven’t noticed how she gets right to the point?”
James chuckled. “Threw you quite a curve, didn’t it, her asking for your ship?”
“Have you ever heard anything so preposterous? I can’t even imagine what would make her think of such a thing as renting a ship. A small boat, yes, of course. But a fully crewed three-masted ship!”
“Actually I find that a logical thought progression m’self,” James said. “You wouldn’t, having lived your whole life in a shipping family. To you, ships are your business, a livelihood, but not everyone sees them that way. Even I owned a ship just for pleasure—”
“And pirating,” Boyd cut in.
James lifted a golden brow. “We aren’t really going to rehash that, are we?”
Boyd flushed a bit. “No. Sorry.”
James let it slide. “The point I was making was, I paid for my crew, for all repairs, for everything that had to do with my ship, out of my own pocket. I didn’t sign on cargoes or passengers to cover the costs. And here you have a young woman who has the means and desire to travel the world. She’s already accustomed to renting vehicles and has progressed to the next step of wanting her own coach instead. I wouldn’t be surprised if she thought about buying a ship as well; she just doesn’t have the patience to wait for one to be built. And they aren’t a common commodity. It’s rare to find a seasoned vessel up for sale when you want it. There are plenty available when you aren’t shopping, but when you actually want one, well, you know what I mean.”
“Her lack of patience is rather notable,” Anthony added. “Or she wouldn’t have come asking to rent your ship because of a mere eight days’ wait. It’s not as if she has anywhere to be anytime soon.”
“That was eight more days on top of the wait she’d already experienced, for the ship she missed this morning,” Boyd reminded them.
“Quite right. Forgot about that,” Anthony said. “But still, what’s her hurry? Did she say?”
“I wasn’t going to ask,” Boyd said.
“You know,” James began, “come to think of it, I could sell her the ship I recently purchased. I only bought it on a whim for the next time George gets it in her mind to visit your old hometown, and that isn’t likely to happen again until next summer. It came in handy to chase after your brother and aid in getting his new father-in-law out of that pirate prison in the Caribbean, but I’ve got all winter now to have another ship commissioned for when I might need one again.”
“Don’t do that,” Boyd protested. “Don’t even mention it to Katey. This is the only means I have of getting rid of this guilt. For a woman I do not want to see the last of, I couldn’t have asked for a better boon than to sail around the world with her.”
“Unless she continues to hold it against you.”
Boyd slumped down in the sofa. “The Oceanus is my peace offering. She implied—”
“Never go by what a woman merely implies, Yank,” Anthony said, then snickered, “Especially one you’ve recently enraged.”
“That isn’t even remotely funny,” Boyd grumbled with a glare.
“Well, it was to the point,” Anthony replied with a shrug. “But if I were you, I’d get it spelled out in no uncertain terms before you cast off that putting your ship at her disposal squares it between you two. No point in even trying seduction on the chit if she hates your guts.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
FOUR DAYS AT SEA and Katey hadn’t seen Boyd even once since the morning they sailed down the Thames into the English Channel. And their conversation that morning before they cast off had been brief. They had merely discussed their immediate destination, after he’d told her he had to send that information to his Skylark office before they sailed.
“I would suggest the Caribbean,” he told her. “It’s an area I’m very familiar with, since it’s always been one of Skylark’s trading routes. The waters are warm, the weather always balmy, the beaches pristine. At most any time of the year it will feel like summer.”
She hadn’t intended to be disagreeable just to be disagreeable, though that would certainly be the case now after the man had ignored her for four days. She hadn’t really expected that, nor how quickly it had aggravated her. Possibly because she had intended to ignore him and he wasn’t around to notice!
But that morning she’d said, “I don’t want to spend long weeks again at sea, at least not this soon. I would also prefer to stay on this side of the world since we’re already here. So let’s just sail south, shall we?”