Wicked Seduction Read Free Page B

water, while he had second by miserable second become an animal to survive, Michael had bargained and dithered.
    “Do you know what I did as a slave?” he asked, his words flowing without conscious decision. “Do you know what it means to fight for every breath, every morsel, and to not know if the next moment will be your last?”
    Michael’s brows lifted at Kit’s tone. “Well, I’m sure it was all very terrible, but that’s hardly reason to give in to the heathens.”
    Kit gaped at his cousin. He felt his hands clench in fury, and yet his mind felt strangely apart. Good God, he thought, the man was an idiot! A bloody moron! How had he not realized that years ago?
    He forced himself to take a deep breath, to slow his erratic heartbeat, and to find that place of calm that had served him so well. The past was gone. Kit had survived. He had long ago come to terms with his capture. And now he was a captain with a boat in the harbor and a crew loyal to him alone. So Michael’s stupidity was unimportant. Certainly the man was an arrogant ass, but that was Michael. Only a fool would expect anything different. And in this way, Kit wrestled his emotions under control.
    But he had forgotten Alex. The boy had trailed along behind him, no doubt as lured by the women as he had been. But whereas Kit had had years to recover from being a slave, Alex’s trauma was fresh, the wounds barely healed. And worse, the boy was smart, brilliant even. It took him less than a second to understand Michael’s crimes, and just like that, the boy found a target for all of his pain.
    With a growl of fury, the boy launched himself at Michael, who went down like the soft dough he was. While Kit was just starting to reach forward, Alex began a rain of blows that sounded like a man pounding a sack of flour. Thud, thud, thudthud. But there was bone underneath, and within a second, Kit heard the telltale sound of ribs snapping like twigs.
     
     
    Madeline Wilson winced at her cousin’s scream. Lady Rose screamed as only a twenty-year-old girl can, and she wasn’t the only one. Every other woman at the countess’s tea party had gasped, squealed, screamed, or pretended to faint. Really, from the excitement of the reaction, you would think they had never seen men roll around in the dirt before, even if one was an earl and the other a pirate.
    “Calm yourself,” she said to Rose, as she gently pushed her cousin out of the way of the men. “It will be over in a moment.” The footmen were already rushing forward, ready to pull the pirates away. Personally, she thought the boy had ample reason to pummel the earl, though it was hardly a fair fight. The older man obviously was not up to defending himself. It wasn’t the gout or the man’s age, it was that he clearly didn’t know what to do when someone was straddling him and raining down blows to his face and torso.
    The older pirate was trying to help. He had one arm wrapped around the boy’s shoulder and was hauling him off. He’d have the boy under control in a moment if only the footmen would let him. But men could not resist a brawl, and three idiots were scrambling forward, obviously getting in the way.
    “Oh, for heaven’s sake!” she snapped. She could see the problem well enough. The two seamen’s bags were blocking the path. If they could be pulled backward, then the man would have enough room to haul the boy off the earl, and everything would be set to rights. With a grimace of disgust, Maddy stepped forward to pull the bag out of the way.
    Sadly, it turned out that there was a reason the others had hesitated to do this. The moment she grabbed hold of the sturdy canvas, both pirates—boy and man—whirled around to glare at her, teeth bared like dogs. She froze right as she was: half bent over with two hands gripping the bags. The pirates didn’t say anything. Neither even moved. Whereas a moment ago everything had been flying fists and blood, now all was completely still and