The Pleasure of Your Kiss by Teresa Medeiros

like the sketch that was in the Snitch a few months ago!” She shot Clarinda a confused glance. “I thought you said he had a long, hooked nose, a pair of spindly bowlegs, and teeth like a beaver’s?”
    Clarinda stiffened as Ash arched a bemused eyebrow in her direction. “You must have misheard me, dear,” she said. “Or perhaps I mistook him for someone else of my acquaintance.”
    “Oh, no, I’m absolutely positive I heard you correctly,” Poppy insisted earnestly. “I have a terrible head for sums but a frightfully good memory for conversation. I distinctly remember our exchange because it came just minutes before those nasty pirates attacked our ship. You also said men like Captain Burke cloak themselves in rumor and innuendo because there is nothing of real substance to hide. That they spread tall tales themselves simply to compensate for their own short—”
    Clarinda clapped a hand over Poppy’s mouth, wishing she had done so the moment Poppy came barreling into the courtyard. Luca snorted and Farouk’s dark eyes sparkled with poorly concealed amusement.
    Afraid to look at Ash, Clarinda gingerly removed her hand from Poppy’s mouth. “I don’t recall any such conversation. Perhaps your memory was simply addled by the distress of the attack.”
    Poppy gave Clarinda good reason to regret removing her hand when she blurted out, “Why are you here, Captain Burke? Have you come to rescue us just as you rescued that beautiful Hindustani princess?”
    “Don’t be ridiculous, Poppy.” Clarinda laughed to hide her swelling alarm. “Rescue us from what? The lap of luxury? Being pampered like a pair of Princess Adelaide’s cherished lapdogs? You know as well as I do that it was the sultan who rescued us from the horrors of the slave market. We owe him our gratitude and our loyalty … as well as our lives.” She punctuated that declaration by returning to the protective circle of Farouk’s arms and giving his chest a fond pat.
    He slipped an arm around her waist and smiled down at her, his white teeth gleaming against his swarthy skin. “My little English buttercup chooses her words wisely.” Although his smile lost none of its radiance, his eyes narrowed as he shifted his gaze to Ash’s face. “I doubt a man of Captain Burke’s reputation has survived this long by seeking to steal a woman who belongs to another man.”
    Even if she had first belonged to him .
    The thought dawned in Clarinda’s heart with shuddering clarity. For a timeless moment she was back in that misty meadow, wrapped once more in the irresistible heat of Ash’s arms as they sank into the folds of her cloak.
    Almost as if he could divine her wayward thoughts, Farouk tightened his possessive grip on her. “Seeking to steal a woman under such circumstances might very well cost a man not only his heart but his head.” Despite his jovial tone, there was no mistaking the sharp edge of warning in his words.
    Just as there was no mistaking the mocking grace in Ash’s answering bow. “Then it is fortunate for the both of us that I have yet to lay eyes on the woman for whom I would be willing to sacrifice my heart—or my head.”

Chapter Five

    I sn’t it a most extraordinary turn of events?” Poppy remarked as she followed Clarinda down the dimly lit corridor that led to the doors of the harem. “Captain Burke showing up here at the sultan’s palace purely by happenstance? Why, when we were discussing his exploits back on the ship before those barbarians abducted us, who would have believed such an amazing coincidence was possible?”
    “No one, Poppy,” Clarinda replied, then muttered under her breath, “At least no one but you.”
    Forced to trot to keep up with Clarinda’s brisk steps, Poppy continued chattering on and on about the vagaries of fortune and the whims of fate until the toe of her slipper came down firmly on the hem of Clarinda’s skirts.
    Clarinda was yanked to an awkward halt. Her dwindling reserves of