“His request has nothing to do with the admiralty. It is your father who requests I abandon the fight against the French and search for Fredrick alone.”
She swallowed. Her father had asked him to abandon his duty. It was shocking to her that he would. “And will you?”
“No. I serve our country, not your father’s personal agenda. He has only a vague notion of where Freddie might have found port. For all I know, the ship might have been taken by the French or been blown quite a distance off course. I have faith that Freddie will find his own way back to English shores, and so does your grandfather.”
She faced him. “What does my grandfather have to do with what you do?”
“Everything.” He studied her in return, his expression set in determination.
She took a step toward him. “How did you keep your command six years ago when our engagement ended?”
“Rutherford cleared my way.” He took a chair. “Sally, I have wanted to captain a ship since I was a lad, well before I joined the navy. I never hid my ambition from you. Asking you to marry me was not planned, it was not a scheme, but of course it did speed up my promotion. The admiral could not bear to have his eldest daughter married to a mere lieutenant no matter how much she professed to care for him at the time, so he took steps to arrange my advancement when a ship suddenly became available.”
Sally had loved Felix. She had begged her father to approve the match, and he had been furious with her for breaking the engagement. “And what of your arrangement with my grandfather? My mother has a theory that my grandfather extorted a share of your prize bounty in return for keeping the promotion. Is she close to the mark?”
“Yes.” He pulled her into his lap and held her. “We made an agreement that Rutherford would take half my portion after I became captain, and he will continue to do so as long as I remain captain of the Selfridge. Nothing your father schemes now can change that arrangement.”
Her breath caught as Hastings nibbled her neck, and she could not hold on to her anger. “It all seems so reasonable now, but I felt betrayed.”
“I desired you then, Sally,” he whispered. “I desire you still. I am hopelessly, completely smitten. I am the same man.”
She turned into his arms and kissed him fiercely to stop him sounding so sensible.
He held her close, tight against his body, and explored the contours of her back with his big hands. Sally shuddered as he gripped her bottom, and she threaded her fingers through his hair as they made love with their mouths and tongue.
When they drew back, he was smiling. “Dear God, I missed being able to do that.” He lifted his attention to her hair and unwound the ribbon around it.
“Surely there
were other women,” she whispered
He dropped the ribbon to the tabletop. “No one else. The first night I met you, you wore a coronet of stars in your hair. Since that day, I have only had to look up to feel you near me. To see the path ahead was not always easy, but I never forgot that the place I called home was you.”
She could not believe it. “You waited.”
“Of course I waited. There never could be anyone else for me but you.”
The last of the moorings gave way, and her hair tumbled down her back. “Now you are the way I remember you.” He brushed his thumb over her bottom lip. “Red lips, slightly mussed hair.”
She blushed, recalling what came after. Their fight and heartbreak was etched in her soul. “And then I asked you a question.”
“That I answered honestly.” He pushed her hair aside and popped the first button of her gown.
“And I ended our engagement.”
“You ended our engagement.” He kissed her shoulder, softly at first, and then peppered more toward the base of her ear. “My wonderful, darling Sally. Still salty too.”
She laughed and gave him a little shove. “You suggest I dared exert myself to run to your room tonight.”
“Well, if you have not yet, then you certainly will before tonight is through.” He grinned widely. “I plan to have you any way you will let me.”
Her breath left her in a rush. “Felix!”
“I might have been faithful, Sally, but I never stopped conjuring up new ways to make you mine.”
Sally touched his face. “I thought of you; every day I worried where you were. I dreamed of you in my bed again. When you never came back, I found pleasure elsewhere.”
His eyes widened.