The Wicked Ways of Alexander Kidd (The MacGregors: Highland Heirs) (22 page)

“He loves her.”

Sam turned and looked down into Anjali’s soft coal eyes. “What?”

“Dee captain. He loves Miss Blue Eyes.” She looked after Kyle. “I understand why.”

Sam sighed and Anjali looped her arm through his on the way back to the village. “So my little spitfire has been done in by a pair of eyes?”

“Now, Sam, have ya seen dee man’s eyes?”

He shook his head at her and hoped MacGregor’s eyes found his cousin safe and sound. If Kyle tried to kill Alex, Sam would have to kill him. And then, besides the Royal Navy coming down on Alex, thanks to Sam’s work, the captain would have to fight off Kyle’s clan, because of him, as well.

He looked out over the sea and prayed that David had received the letter he’d sent off in Portugal with Senhor Moreno. He hoped his brother found them before Captain Harris or the others did, and mostly, he prayed David would grant him his request. David was Sam’s only hope. Even though Miss Grant could help tremendously, her kin could just as quickly jeopardize everything. Sam was going to have to watch the two of them more closely.

A
lex hadn’t expected that practicing with Kyle would be so taxing. He blocked a slice to his throat with a jarring crash of metal that shook his arms. He fought, for the time, on the defense, letting Kyle’s speed and strength push him back. The lad fought with impressive speed and power. Alex’s experience in actual combat proved Kyle’s undoing though, when an opportunity presented itself and Alex slashed with his blade, turning his position to offense and taking the weary combatant down almost instantly.

“I didn’t see that coming,” Kyle confessed, rising to his feet with the aid of Alex’s hand.

“That’s the point.” Alex smiled at him.

“Show it to me again.”

Alex’s smiled faded. He may have experience over the lad, but he had about seven or eight years on him as well. He wanted to rest, go find Caitrina, and steal a few kisses from her, perhaps a bit more. Practicing always made him more passionate. And now, at least, he was practicing with someone who would keep him in shape.

“One more time,” he agreed, then raised his cutlass to Kyle’s.

Metal clashed over their heads and Alex thought about what happened when Kyle had found him in his hut the morning Sam had come upon him and Caitrina. Alex had told him the truth. Since that morning, he had told no one else, even putting it out of his own head, or he tried to. He loved her. It wouldn’t go away despite his determination to ignore it. He didn’t want to think overlong about what it meant. What loving her could do to him. Kyle seemed to forgive him after Alex confessed to him, and to him alone.

“My faither was once the most infamous spy in the three kingdoms.”

Alex blocked the strike to his neck and struck back, rattling Kyle’s bones.

“His blood flows through me.”

“Are ya tellin’ me ya’re a spy then, Kyle?” Alex retreated a step, holding him back.

“Nae.” Kyle smashed his blade against Alex’s, sparking the metal. “But I know how to read people, Captain. Remember the privateers disguised as merchants and know I speak the truth.”

Alex remembered and nodded. He parried two more massive blows and waited for the third.

“Someone on this ship works against ye.”

Alex saw Kyle’s predictable opening and turned this fight into a victory. “I’ve known him fer eight years,” Alex growled, holding the edge of his cutlass against Kyle’s throat. “If ya mean to make charges against him, ya better have proof.”

Kyle swallowed, then, seeming to gather his courage around him like a cloak, he stared at Alex straight on. “I believe I know his brother. He is a friend of my brother.”

Alex shook his head and backed away, removing the blade. “So? I don’t see—”

“The man’s name is Captain David Pierce of the Royal Army. He is—”

“Kyle, I’ll hear no more of this.” He sheathed his sword and yanked off his gloves.

“Trust me, Captain, please. Something doesna’ sit well.”

“Trust ya?” Alex couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t know ya. Him, I know. Do ya understand that?”

Kyle nodded, looking repentant. Why the hell did they keep trying to bring it up? Caitrina had tried talking to him about it last night around the village fire. He didn’t know what they had against Sam, and Alex hadn’t had the chance to ask Caitrina, since no one in the entire village had left them alone for a moment.

“Don’t bring it up again,” Alex said, turning away from him. He didn’t want his crewmen, especially possible future relatives, hating his best friend.

“Aye, aye, Captain.”

Alex thought Kyle had left the small meadow and sighed when he heard Kyle’s voice again. “May I ask just one thing, Captain?”

“What is it?”

“What did he do fer ya to make ya trust his loyalty so fiercely?”

Alex thought about it. Hell, there was a lot. “He has me back in any fight. He has never failed to be where I needed him to be. He brought me back from a heartbreak I wallowed in fer almost a month.”

“Madalena?”

Alex turned finally and looked him over. “Are ya studyin’ me, lad?”

“Why would I?”

Extraordinary, Alex thought. Kyle didn’t bat an eyelash while lying straight to his face.

Could Sam do it too? Was that why he didn’t tell Sam about his feelings for Caitrina? No! They were making him doubt the only man he’d ever trusted besides his father.

“Ya give me no reason to trust ya.”

Kyle lowered his gaze and then exhaled. “Aye,” he admitted. “I study everyone. I canna’ help it. It doesn’t make me untrustworthy though.”

“Nay, it doesn’t,” Alex agreed. “But lyin’ does.”

He turned again and began to walk away from Caitrina’s cousin.

“How many years ago did yer faither take the
Quedagh Merchant
?”

According to what Alex had heard in New York, it happened shortly after he left his father’s ship. “About eight years ago.”

“And when did ye meet Mr. Pierce?”

Alex laughed over his shoulder at the lad following him. Was Kyle trying to tell him that Sam had been duping him for close to a decade? He had to laugh. To give credit, even the tiniest morsel, to Caitrina’s or her cousin’s mad accusations would have to mean that the only man he trusted in his life,
with
his life, was betraying him. And he was too dense to know it.

“Ya think me a fool.” He tried to sound flippant but he heard the dip in his cadence, and if Kyle was as good as he suggested at reading people, he heard it too.

“Nae, Captain,” Kyle answered, meeting Alex’s steady gaze when he turned to face him. “He’s difficult to read. I think ’tis because he genuinely cares fer ye. I have yet
to hear him utter a negative thing aboot ye. Nor does he allow the faintest whisper of complaint against ye. I don’t know what he’s up to, but he considers ye his valued friend.”

“Then why would he want me map?” Alex put to him earnestly. “Yar own words bear the truth.” He turned again and walked away. “Let this go with Samuel,” he warned over his shoulder, “before I take offense.”

“Fine,” Kyle called out. “If ye’re going off to see my cousin, ye might consider picking her some flowers.”

Alex stopped and pivoted around, doubting his ears. “Pick her flowers?” What the hell kind of men picked flowers? If the crew happened to see there’d be mutiny for sure.

“All the men in Camlochlin do it, Captain. From lads to warriors, young and old. I’m told my grandsire started it by picking flowers for my grandmere, but the Grants insist it began with Jamie, who mended the tattered heart of a young Maggie MacGregor by showering her with flowers.”

“What the hell kind of people am I entangling meself with?” he muttered to himself.

“What kind should I pick?” he called out a moment later. After he lost his mind.

Her cousin shrugged, deciding suddenly to be no longer helpful. “Whatever ye think she would like.”

How was he supposed to know what she’d like? Why was he even entertaining the idea of picking her flowers? Wild orchids immediately came to mind. He thought of Caitrina on the way back to the village. It had been two nights since he’d touched her, kissed her. They sat around the bonfires with the others and pretended that their bodies weren’t aching for each other’s embrace.
They smiled respectfully when they met on a path, hooding their eyes from the temptation of glancing upon desire and coming away unscathed. But their need for each other was palpable. Alex knew the others could feel it. It made the balmy air thicker, hotter. The nights, longer and lonelier.

He’d never kept himself from a woman before. He’d never had to control his desires until now. He did it out of respect for her cousin, her kin. Hell, what was he going to do about her kin? If they didn’t come for him, he’d have to bring Caitrina back to Skye after he found his treasure. He hoped her father was a reasonable man and didn’t mind a pirate courting his daughter. He was going mad. He was sure of it. Only madness would have him pondering talking to a gel’s father, risking a claymore in his gut. But the treasure he’d found, the one he’d attained, was well worth the risk.

He wanted Caitrina. He wanted to feel her quivering body in his hands again. But more than that, he wanted to win her heart, her affections. He didn’t care why. He would do whatever he needed to do.

He smiled, looking over the thick bushes of pink and yellow jasmine swaying in the slight breeze. He moved toward the flowers, their fragrance reminding him of her. Releasing a dagger from his sash, he snipped a dozen of each color and held the bunch out before him like a torch.

He realized what he looked like when he saw Anjali and her dearest friend, Hester, staring at him from three huts away. He put down his arm as he passed them, but it was too late.

“I not be knowin’ how I feel about dee tradition of killin’ flowers to show regard.”

Alex glanced down at the wilting bouquet and agreed
with her. “Terrifyingly, ’tis more than regard,” he told her, hoping his admission would earn him forgiveness.

It did.

She granted him a wide smile that hadn’t changed since she was two. “I knew eet!” she boasted. “I saw how ya look at her. She’s out wit Samuel and Charlie by dee water.”

“Thank ya, Anj, I’ll leave ya somethin’ pretty before I go.”

“Not flowers!” she called out over her shoulder as she and Hester continued on their way. “Don’t kill any more of doze!”

Alex’s smile faded when he passed the last hut and the seashore came into view. His eyes searched the coastline until he found them walking this way. What did he know of courting? It was too late to leave. And he wouldn’t have gone anyway. He’d killed the damned jasmine and he was going to make sure he gave it to her. He returned her smile while he picked up his steps to meet them.

“Are ye visiting a grave nearby?” Caitrina asked him when they met in the sand.

He raised his brow, not understanding her question right away. When she glanced at his bouquet, he shoved it toward her.

“Aye,” he told her. “Mine.”

“Alex?” Charlie, Anjali’s brother, stepped forward, eyeing the bouquet. “Is she yars?”

Caitrina wasn’t any man’s possession, and to call her his before he wed her would dishonor her, according to Kyle. But that didn’t make it any easier for Alex to deny her. He dropped his hand when she accepted his offering, then looked at Charlie when he spoke. “Nay. She’s not.”

“Nevertheless.” Her voice stopped him when he turned to leave. “I would speak to ye alone.”

He nodded, offering his hand to her and trying to ignore the flood of pathetic joy he felt that she liked his offering.

Hell. He loved her. She left him breathless, mindless, helpless. It scared the hell out of him.

“Thank ye fer the flowers,” she said, turning up her chin so she could shine her radiant smile and set those large blue eyes on him. “They’re verra’ bonny.”

He nodded, not really knowing what to say. When she dipped her face into the jasmine and inhaled, he watched like one stricken. He didn’t like it. He felt weak, a bit queasy in the belly, a little soft in the knees. It was repulsive and needed to be stopped.

But not now. Now, he wanted to kiss her. Now, he didn’t give a rat’s arse about who might take issue with his feelings for her. Let her kin come. Let his crew mumble. Let Kyle disapprove of their passion.

“I’ve missed ya, lass.”

She moved in closer, tilting her face up to meet his. “Prove it, Captain,” she whispered.

He smiled, intending to do just that.

T
rina gazed at Alex poised above her. She smiled at him while he moved his hips to a rhythm as spellbinding as the sounds around her; water falling and crashing below her, the dulcet cries of many birds, the rustle of leaves all around her. His body filled her, slowly, deeply, each thrust a dance that led her to the edge of reason.

She wanted more. Like some succubus of fable, she hungered for every part of him. She would be mortified later, but now she curled her calves around his waist and lifted herself to him, accepting him, drawing him deeper. He was hard enough to wedge himself into the tightest crevice, and big enough to hurt going in, despite the days she’d had to recover from their first encounter. She groaned with the pain and with the pleasure of taking him from head to hilt.

She scored her fingers down his sides, his hips, finally stopping on his muscled thighs. He dipped his face to hers, his eyes closed, his jaw clenched. Ecstasy. Aye, she felt it too, drenching her, threatening to overtake her.

She didn’t want it to be over, and neither did he. She
looked at him, loving the sight of him above her, his hair falling about his handsome face, his playful mouth transformed into a dark, sensual smile that quickened her pulse.

She was in love with him. Whatever else she wanted in her life faded in importance. She was losing her heart to a pirate. No, it was already lost. She didn’t care. Not now, when his arm caught her up behind her back and he hefted her up off the grass. She tightened her thighs around him and arched her spine while he laved his tongue down her neck to her breast. Her tight nipple ached in his mouth as he sucked and teased her with his teeth.

Wrapping her arms around him, she clung to his neck while he sat up on his haunches. She wanted to tell him how she felt, but by his own admission, Alex Kidd had had many women. She was likely just another one. He didn’t love her. He loved sailing, and the sea, and rutting tavern wenches.

She closed her eyes and rolled them up at the titillating size of him driving her ever higher. When he arched her back and drank more from her breasts, she thought she might burst in colors of gold and red. She wanted to cry out, to scream with pleasure. She could do so and no one would hear them but the birds.

Squeezing her rump in his hands, he guided her over the length of his long, sleek cock, back down and then up again, until he took her to the brink of utter surrender.

But he wasn’t willing to end it just yet.

Lifting her off him as though she weighed nothing, he turned her around and then set her backward on his steel lance. For some reason, she remembered how he felt in her mouth. She grew wetter and his movements grew slicker. With her back pressed to his chest, he carried her
on his thighs over waves of pleasure. She knew it wouldn’t take much more to surrender, and when he cupped her breast in one hand and her opening with the other, she looped her arms high over her head and let him take her to oblivion.

Behind her, he swept her hair away from her nape and bit her neck while he filled her to overflowing.

When it was over, she lay in his arms beneath swaying palms and a cloudless sky. She was certain, as the breeze brought with it the scent of wild orchids and tropical dew, that no matter how many men she met in her life, none would compare to him. No matter what other lands she visited after this, nothing would ever compare to the Islands.

“Was it difficult to leave this place, Alex?” she asked against him.

“Aye. I didn’t want to go, but me father had come fer me. I had no choice.”

“Did ye return then as soon as ye were able?”

“I returned a few times, with Sam and some of the others, but after a while I stopped comin’ back.”

“Why?” She closed her eyes against his chest and listened to his heartbeat.

“Because I wasn’t the lad who left.”

She kissed his skin and sat up to scan the lush, green landscape below, the waterfall to her right. He’d set them high upon a cliff where no one would happen upon them. She could scream his name until her lungs burst, and no one would hear. “This is paradise, Alex. Did it break yer heart to leave?”

He didn’t answer right away, and she looked down into his sable eyes. He smiled as if he couldn’t help it.

“’Twas hard. If ya stay, ’twill be hard fer ya. Ya will
miss home so bad that at times ya’ll think ya’re goin’ mad. If ya develop a love fer the sea like I did, yar choice, though it be hard, will be simple. Ya’ll choose this life over them.”

He’d warned of this before. Was she willing to not return home? Mayhap never return? How bad would she get out here? What might she do that was so bad she wouldn’t be able to face her kin after doing it? She was raised in the faith. She didn’t think she would sacrifice her soul fer any lifestyle. If she ever felt she might be close to crossing any line, she would return to her mountains. Other than that, she came from a line of men who’d done things they would have preferred not to have done. She’d suffer no disapproval upon her return to Camlochlin.

Still, she thought she should know what soul-snatching demons lurked on the sea.

“What have ye done, Alex?” she asked him softly, turning to look at him rather than the glorious tropical scenery around her.
He
made her heart throb. He and nothing else. “What have ye done that has kept ye away from yer home?”

He looked deep into her eyes and lifted his fingers to her cheek. He stroked her with the backs of his knuckles, poring over her as though she were a map to some priceless treasure. Did he love her? He looked at her as if he did.

“Ya and Kyle speak of honor, but out at sea, there’s no place fer it. Ya have to find ways to survive, to live. I became a rogue. A dishonest, thievin’ rogue. I’ve killed more men than I can number, stole their ships, their goods. I’m afraid I won’t find equal measure against yar moral code.”

Would she hold him to the codes by which she was
raised? Could she steal, kill for coin? Could she truly ever be a pirate?

She opened her mouth to tell him when she spotted a huge green lizard basking on a sunlit branch. “What in heavens is that thing?”

Alex looked up. “An iguana. ’Twill not harm ya.”

She would never get close enough to find out.

When someone’s shout boomed through the air behind the reptile, she nearly leaped out of Alex’s arms.

“Dey’ve landed, Alex!” Charlie rushed out of the trees behind the cliff. The iguana raced away, its long tail swishing as it ran. “Dey are lookin’ fer ya, brudda.”

Who was “they”? Trina thought as she scrambled for her clothes to cover herself. Her kin? Had they found her already? Her heart raced until she felt faint. Would her father try to harm Alex?

“What ship do they sail?” Alex asked while he yanked his breeches over his legs.

“Dee warship
Excellence
,” Charlie answered, his coal eyes flicking to Trina, then off her just as quickly.

“Captain Harris,” Alex identified, relieving her of the fear that her kin had arrived. He helped her to her feet once she was dressed and tugged her along, down the back of the cliff and back to the village.

When they arrived, everyone was scurrying to and fro like frightened children.

“Alan, I found him!” Charlie called out to another islander, who barked an order at two of the men running.

“Ya should be on yar way to distributin’ pistols. Move!”

Trina watched them fly away on bare feet. They weren’t running in fear, but to prepare.

Prepare for what? If she understood Charlie correctly,
the Royal Navy had arrived. How were these peaceful islanders going to help Alex? Were they foolish enough to try to fight the queen’s navy?

“Alex,” Alan called out to him. “Yar crew is at dee ready.”

“What are we going to do?” she asked, turning to Alex.

“Not us, lass. Ya will be remainin’ with Charlie. I’ll come fer ya when ’tis over.”

“Nae!” she commanded. “Are ye mad to deny me to fight at yer side? My own brothers wouldna’ ask me to wait with the children.”

“Yar brothers don’t want to spend every day with ya until their last. They don’t see their brats in yar eyes and they haven’t considered givin’ up everything they ever thought made them happy fer ya.”

What? Did he mean it or was he just trying to get her to obey him? Either way, how could she argue when he made such claims? He brought a smile to her face while bringing tears to her eyes and palpitations to her heart.

After a brief kiss, so brief, in fact, that she had no time to recover from his declaration, he left her standing there with Charlie. Just Charlie. Everyone else was gone.

“Ye dinna’ truly mean to guard me, do ye, Charlie?” she asked with a playful smirk curling her lips and making her dimples flash.

He returned her smile with a curious one of his own. “Ya don’t truly mean to disobey him after ya agreed?”

“I agreed to nothing and ye know it.”

His downcast eyes proved her correct, but his gaze didn’t remain lowered for long. “It don’t matter if ya agreed or not. Ya’re stayin’ here wit me like he said.”

In the end, Charlie proved a worthy opponent. He sang while she threatened him and laughed when she flirted. It took actual tears…
tears
… to make him cave.

She wasn’t a fool. She didn’t rush to the shore, ready to die for Alex. She clung close to the trees and hid.

The crew was there, including Kyle, standing at the ready behind Alex. “Didn’t think I’d see ya again so soon, Captain Harris,” she heard Alex call out. She kept her eye on him while he sauntered closer to the naval captain. She moved in, readying her arrow, until she stood at Kyle’s side. “What do ya want this time?”

Captain Harris was a tall man, with long limbs and a pointy nose that twitched like a rat at the scents around him. His dark gray eyes flicked beneath his hat to Alan and a group of island men holding their tar-dipped arrows close to a small fire in the sand. “I’m here,” he finally said, returning his gaze to Alex, “to collect the map to where your father hid the
Quedagh Merchant
.”

“What makes ya think I have such a map?”

Indeed, Trina wondered the same thing. He’d gotten the map only after going to Camlochlin. Who else knew her kin had the map? Alex and his crew had arrived in Skye with that Mr. Andersen who claimed to be a friend. But Alex had left him behind in Camlochlin. Did Mr. Andersen know where the ship was hidden? If so, why hadn’t he simply gone to the navy and told them himself? It didn’t make any sense. She looked around at the men surrounding Alex on the beach. They were loyal to him, weren’t they? Her eyes searched for Mr. Pierce. Why wasn’t he here at Alex’s side? He knew about the map. He knew where they were headed and could have corresponded their destination to the navy while they were in Portugal. But how could he do it if he loved Alex the way she genuinely believed he did?

“There is a spy among your men, Captain Kidd.” Harris told him smugly.

“Aye,” Alex admitted with a casual shrug. “So I’ve been told.” He turned to the men behind him and found her instead. Trina saw his skin go pale. He masked it well an instant later when he returned his attention, seemingly unshaken, to Harris. “Ya’re not a man of any values. Why don’t ya tell me the spy’s name?”

Harris laughed and then scrambled for his hat when the wind blew it off his head. “You will discover it soon enough. Surrender the map and I’ll let you live. You have my word.”

Alex grinned and spread his arms at his sides. “Ya’ll have to kill me to get it.”

“I’ll sink your ship,” Harris warned.

Alex shook his head. “Ya still won’t get it.”

When the English captain raked his gaze over the islanders, casting an unspoken threat, Alex moved toward him.

Weapons went up on both sides.

“Ya have an hour to leave this island,” Alex told him ignoring the naval soldiers before him. “If ya’re still here after that time, I will slaughter yar entire crew. I will leave
ya
alive to go back and bear witness to yar superiors of yar failure. Savvy, Captain Harris?”

Surprisingly, Harris nodded and turned back for his ship. Alex watched them go and then turned to her.

Trina knew he was angry with her for disobeying him again. Well, worse, she’d lied right to his face, promising to stay with Charlie. She thought she could speak with him about it later, but his eyes on her glinted with raw anger.

“Miss Grant, will ya continue to defy me at every turn?”

“That depends,” she answered him. “Will ye continue to treat me like a helpless child? Ye know how well I can shoot an arrow. Ye need my arm.”

He looked like he wanted to throttle her. She’d seen
the same look on her father’s face many times when her mother frustrated him.

“When I need yar arm,” he said, reaching down to lift her off her feet and over his shoulder, “I’ll let ya know. Right now though, I want ya off this beach and ya will obey yar captain, savvy?”

She sighed against his back. Would he always be this pigheaded? “Savvy, Captain.”