"Thank you."
Sarcasm again, and she felt shamed. His action had been both brave and generous and deserved a generous response. She lifted her gaze and met his directly. "All right. There's a possibility I might not have been able to get the ropes onto Kapu. You helped me and you have my thanks."
He was a silent a moment and then said, "No thanks are necessary. I acted on impulse. I saw a fine horse in danger and did what had to be done." He smiled crookedly. "So you needn't dilute your hatred with gratitude."
"I don't hate you." The words had tumbled out, but she suddenly realized they were true. Her emotions toward Danemount were confused, but hatred was not among them. "Not yet. But if you hurt my father, I'll hate you. I'll hate you and I'll hurt you."
"Only an eye for an eye? I'm surprised you're being so magnanimous."
"You believe you're doing what's right. Lani taught me that I had to try to see both sides of an argument. She even made excuses for Clara."
His expression hardened. "I don't need excuses made for me."
"Because you've always lived a perfect and righteous life?" she flared. "It must be splendid to be able to cast the first stone."
"I wasn't the one who cast the first stone. It was your father."
"You can't be sure. You have no proof." She drew a deep, ragged breath. "I will talk no more about this with you. It does no good."
"On the contrary, it completely purged you of that annoying flash of gratitude. You must be much more comfortable now. You can be as-" He broke off when the ship suddenly dipped and swayed. Kapu neighed and half reared! "On your feet and out of that stall! We're putting about."
Cassie scrambled to her feet but inched closer to Kapu instead of leaving the stall. "Shh, it's all right. It's going to be fine." She put her arms around his neck. "You'll get used to it."
"Keep talking to him." Jared stepped into the stall with them. "But stay away from those hooves." He began to stroke Kapu's head and talk in the same low, soothing tone as Cassie.
The stallion was quieting, Cassie realized in relief. He was responding to Jared in the same magical fashion as he had that night on the beach. Strangely, unlike that night, she felt no resentment-only gratitude. Together they were calming Kapu, making him safer. She was aware of that same bond with Jared that she had felt in the water when they were trying to get the pulley ropes fastened.
It was over a quarter of an hour before Kapu was calm enough for Jared to step away from the stallion. "I don't suppose you'll feel safe enough tonight to leave him and go to your cabin?"
She shook her head. "I'll stay here. The straw is soft. When I first got him, I slept in the stable for more than a month."
"May I point out that you hadn't fallen down a mountain or been dashed against a ship?" He shrugged when she didn't answer. "I didn't think so." He sat down on the straw in the far corner of the stall.
"What are you doing?"
"I'll stay awhile." He grimaced. "Not a month. I'm not that much of a Spartan. Only a few hours to make sure the progress we've made isn't ruined by any rough weather. Sit down." When she didn't move, he added impatiently, "For God's sake, sit down before you fall. I'm not in the least tempted to ravish you at the moment."
"I know that." She settled herself in the corner farthest from him. "You'd have to be extremely lacking in taste to desire a woman who looks like a bit of stringy seaweed."
"Maybe I like seaweed." He leaned back against the wall. "I've been known to have more perverted appetites."
"Really?" she asked curiously. "What?" Then, as she saw him smile, she added quickly, "Lihua says most foreigners are perverted and that they should realize the direct way is best."
"Indeed?" His brows lifted. "I don't recall Lihua ever complaining of my perversions. She must have realized how brutal I'd be if she angered me."
"You know she thought you-" She stopped when his smile widened.
"A God?"
"Lihua has little judgment."
He clutched his chest with a mock groan. "What a sharp thrust." His smile faded. "Though I tend to agree. She should certainly have used better judgment in discussing such subjects with you."
"Because you think what you do is sinful? It's all right to perform such acts but not to subject them to the light of day?"
"Oh, I enjoy subjecting them to the light of day. Morning is a particularly felicitous time to-"
"You know what I mean," she cut into his sentence. "You think Lihua and the other islanders are sinful, but you take advantage of that sinfulness."
"You've made that accusation before." He asked quietly, "You're calling me a hypocrite?"
"What else is there to call you?"
"I don't know. Perhaps you're right," he said wearily. "I admire the islanders, and I envy their honesty and openness, but everyone is raised to think his own way best. It could be that some part of me does condemn them for being different from me. But that part is not my mind or my will."
When she had made the accusation, she had been seeking to put up barriers between them and had not wanted him to answer with such simple honesty. First gratitude, and then the bond of shared danger, and now she was beginning to understand him. Dangerous. She searched desperately for a way to distance herself. She said tartly, "Well, it's certainly not your lower parts that condemn their difference."
The gravity vanished from his face as he threw back his head and laughed. "No, by God, that part of me is totally mindless. I accept everything with no prejudice whatever." He met her gaze. "As you will learn to do."
She felt a tightness in her chest and that curious sensation of breathlessness. She said unevenly, "But you'll not be the one to teach me. You don't really want me. You only want to punish my father."
"The hell I don't want you. Deville has nothing to do with this."
She was shaken by the violence in his voice. "Of course he does. Otherwise it makes no sense."
"Carnal pleasures seldom do. Passion can strike out of nowhere. You should know that since you must have seen it every day on your island."
She had seen it, but it had always happened to Lihua and the others, not to her. She shook her head in disbelief. "It's not true. I'm not beautiful like Lihua or Lani. I'm not the kind of woman for whom a man conceives such a passion."
"Shall I convince you?" He leaned forward, his eyes blazing recklessly in the dimness. "I lied, you know. You're right, you look like a scrap of flotsam. You're dirty and tired. You have straw clinging to your hair and body and salt coating you from head to toe. You should have no appeal at all for me. Do you know what I'd like to do to you right now?"
She moistened her lips. "No."
"I want to take off that chemise and lick the salt from your breasts." His eyes fastened on the damp cotton veiling the swell of her breasts. "I want to taste you. I want to pull at your nipples with my teeth. I want to make a feast of you." His gaze never left her body. "And I think you want me to do that, too."
Blood was pounding through her veins. She felt on fire, her skin tingling. "No," she whispered.
"Look down at yourself."
She didn't have to look down, she could feel her breasts swelling beneath his eyes, her nipples hardening and pushing against the soft cotton barrier. "It doesn't mean anything. It's just… I'm startled."
"You're ready," he corrected softly. "Beautifully ready."
"I couldn't be." She swallowed to ease the tightness of her throat. "Not with you."
"Because you regard me as your enemy? It doesn't make any difference. Not in this."
"Of course it makes a difference," she said fiercely. "I'm not an animal. I have control of my body. I wouldn't let myself-" She broke off and then said, "Go away. I don't want you here."
"Unfortunate." He leaned back against the wall. "But I'm not leaving until I'm sure the stallion is settled. After all, nothing has changed. I told you I have no intention of ravishing you tonight. You've had a bad time, and I find myself deplorably brimming with the milk of human kindness. Most unusual."