Chapter 11: Treating the Patients
One sandy brown brow traveled upward, seeming to pull the corner of his mouth into an amused grin, and his arms came around her. " Right into home port," he said.
She gasped and then stiffened as his meaning become clear to her, that in his embrace was where she belonged. She pushed away from him, her fingers seared from touching, once again, the warmth of that solidly muscled chest. she longed to wipe the smirk out of his face with a slap, but she dared not. She reminded herself that she was his prisoner, and though he was smiling now and as a gentleman, she had no way of knowing what mercurial moods this overboard pirate was prone to. A haughty glare was the most she dared and she had no illusions that it was her look that caused him to step aside gallantly. Even so, there was little room in the cabin and was once again forced to brush her shoulder close to him in order to to her next patient.
A Dutch crewman lay insensible, a huge purple swelling in his head. She lifted his eyelids, noting the unequal dilation of his pupils, then probed the wound gently. " It seems to be a concussion," she pronounced. "Rest is the only cure."
It did not take her long to sew up a shallow saber gash across a pirates ribs and to bandage a knife wound in a Dutchman arm. The last injury was a clean bullet wound in a pirate's shoulder. The ball had passed completely through so there was little to do but to clean and bandage the hole.
Straightening from this final task, she found Captain Fortune waiting with a basin of clean water in his hands and a fresh towel over his arm. She signed thankfully and dipped her bloody hands into the water and would have smiled gratefully at him if had not been leering at her boldly. Now that the needles and sutures were no longer in her fingers, the familiar ground was cut from beneath her and she felt the bonds of her captivity tighten once again. She did not like to think of what might come next. Certainly she need not encourage the lust in his eyes with a smile that would be free to interpret in any way he chose.
Seeking to delay the possibilities her mind conjured up, she pushed a stool beside Van Doorn cot and seated herself firmly. " They will have to be watched carefully for a while."
She nodded her head as if to dismiss him, but he did not take hint. Learning over her, he braced braced his hands against the wall behind her, effectively trapping her between two steel muscle arm. His sun browned face bent near, a lock of his tawny hair nearly touching her midnight black curls. The smells of sick bay, blood, wine, and the acrid taint of vomit, assailed her nostrils.
But it was his presence, she told herself, that suddenly made her feel slightly giddy, that made her heart beat and unsteady rhythm. One lean hand reached to cup her chin and she knew that it was fear that quickened her breathing and started a wave of warmth within her.
" Come," he said, and the heat within her seemed to grow, fueled by the warmth she saw in his eyes. " You have done enough for them. Rodney will watch over the patient and call you if your presence is needed.
The wiry crewman nodded to her reassuringly. You rest yourself now, miss. I will look out for them. I put a tray for you in the cabin.
Two strong hands captured her shoulders, drawing her to her feet, and once more she felt that strange quickening of her heart when his flesh met hers. She had shared the company of rough men most of her life, one one battlefield or another, and she thought she had grown accustomed to their ways. But, she reminded herself, she had never before been so completely in someone else's power. She had never been at anyone mercy before in her entire life. Someone she had every reason to believe had no scruples about doing with her whatever he pleased and who had no fear of the laws that governed decent men.
Guilding her before him, they left the sick bay. All the way back up steps she could feel his eyes upon her and she would have been more fearful had she guessed how deeply her trim figure and gently swaying hips aroused him. Her own thoughts were far from calm as they neared his cabin. She felt as though she were being herded into the lions den with a blue eyed, tawny maned lion close at her heels!
He leaned around her to open the cabin door and set his hand at her waist to guide her inside. Her heart beat a rapid staccato as if trying to escape her breast, which was as impossible as it would be for her to escape from his cabin. She heard the door close, sealing her faith, and stiffened as his hand caressed her briefly before it was withdrawn from her waist. She could feel the warmth of his body so close behind her and suddenly she felt almost giddy. She noted the tray left for her on the table by the crewman. It must be hunger and fatigue, she thought, putting one hand to her cheek.
Instantly, she felt his hand return to her waist as he guided her forward and pulled out a chair for her. He splashed something into a mug from a decanter on the tray and pushed it into her hand.
" Drink this," he ordered.
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