The Wicked Ways of Alexander Kidd (The MacGregors: Highland Heirs) by Paula Quinn Page A

wanting her face there, ripping the hair from her flesh. Trina fumbled for her dagger, hidden beneath her skirts. Suddenly, his hold on her loosened and then he released her. His knife quickly followed and he raised his hands in defense of the arm coiled tightly around his throat.
    Trina fell back, freed and relieved. She watched the captain hold fast while his mate struggled and then collapsed at his feet.
    “Are ya injured?” His face appeared above her own, his brow knotted with concern, touching some deep cavern of her heart. She had to guard against him and his maddening allure. More now than ever, since she would be sharing a bed with him. She broke their gaze and looked around him at the seaman.
    “Not enough to warrant his death.”
    “He isn’t dead, just subdued,” the captain assured with a smile in his voice. Trina wanted to look at him and see it. Finally, she did. His gaze on her softened as he reached out his hand to touch her.
    “Yar head…” His pitch dipped and he glared over his shoulder at his fallen mate.
    “My cousin.” She bounded to her feet, winced at the scorching hot pain in her head, then hurried off. “I must find him.”
    “Mr. Bonnet!” The captain’s booming command made her whirl around, holding her ears.
    “Aye, Cap’n?” came a slightly muted reply from down the narrow hall.
    The captain’s mouth crooked into a barely visible half-grin that made Trina’s belly flip. He motioned her forward and followed her to a door behind which men’s voices and laughter could be heard.
    Trina put her hand to the wood, but the captain covered her fingers with his rough palm, stopping her from pushing the door open.
    Her heart accelerated and then stopped altogether when he leaned down behind her and said close to her ear, “Ya don’t want to be molested again, do ya?”
    His warm breath stirred tendrils of hair over her neck. His body brushed ever so briefly against her rump. “Nae,” her voice quavered. “Of course not.”
    “Let me enter. I’ll see that ya’re satisfied.”
    Trina closed her eyes, unable to slow her shallow breath. What did he mean? It had to be the thick, sensual timbre of his voice that conjured such perverse images to fill her head. Mayhap it was his close proximity behind her… and his promise, laced with double meaning.
    “The men aren’t accustomed to havin’ a woman aboard,” he explained, moving away from her. “Most of them will follow the rules, but there are some…” He left her with the memory of her attacker. “I’ll bring yar cousin to ya.”
    She nodded, too afraid to open her mouth and say something that might mortify her, like,
I’m in yer debt ferever. Just tell me how to repay ye.
    She watched him open the door and step inside. He erred in not closing it behind him. Peering inside, Trina spotted Kyle slumped in a chair, blood trickling down his neck. She could wait no longer and plunged into the quarters,oblivious to the gaping stares of the men she passed, and to the captain, who raked his eyes over each of them.
    “Kyle!” she rushed to him. This was all her fault. If he was dead… “Saints have mercy, what have they done to ye?”
    “We pierced his ear is all.” A one-eyed man she’d seen before stepped forward and scowled at her. “What do ya think we did to him?”
    “Trina, I’m fine.”
    No one paid any attention to Kyle’s assurance. Trina was too busy glaring at the patched pirate. “Why on earth would ye pierce him? And what in God’s name did ye pierce him with? A harpoon?”
    “Hell, I didn’t know he came with a nursemaid,” the rude one-eyed man said. The others around him agreed. “No wonder he has such a weak constitution.”
    Kyle stood to his feet, a full head taller than most of the men there, save the captain. “Mr. Bonnet, if ye would care to have someone meet me above, I’ll be happy to prove how determined my constitution is.”
    Mr. Bonnet threw back his head and laughed. “I don’t need