“Maybe I can bring up just a bit of it, and tell him I have to go back down the next day for the rest. Or we’ll convince him to wait another day so that I can bring up the submersible. If he’s after money, it’s worth a bit. And we’ll take our chances in the boat tomorrow night.”
Her chest tightened. “How far do you think we are from shore?”
Thom was quiet for a long moment. Then he said, “I think we have a better chance in a boat than we do here.”
A long distance, then. She nodded, and despite her best effort to stop them, her eyes suddenly spilled over with tears. Then Thom had her in his arms, holding her in his lap while she sobbed against his neck.
“Georgie, Georgie.” His fingers stroked through her hair, her name a broken murmur in her ear. “I’d kill him again if I could.”
And he knew. He knew how wrong this all was. Everything wrong, except being in his arms. Her breath shuddered against his throat. “I was so angry. So angry. I’d have ripped it off if it hadn’t risked you.”
“You should have, anyway.”
“Would you have? If it was me needing that air, would you?”
His livid silence gave Georgiana the answer. He wouldn’t have risked her, either—and just thinking of it infuriated him.
It did her, too. “And not just because he made me feel so disgusting. Not just because he took something that should be a gift. But that he would dare use your life against me like that. And his reason was that he hadn’t been paid enough. But Southampton’s just the same. He feels that he’s owed something, and he’ll use our lives to get it—and he degrades you just as much while he’s at it.”
Not in the same mean way that Blade had, but Southampton degraded Thom in his own manner, by treating him as less than a man. He was just more subtle about it. Georgiana didn’t even know if Southampton recognized what he was doing.
Thom shook his head. “It’s the same in some ways, Georgie. But not anything like what Blade did. I can ignore what Southampton says and he doesn’t hurt us for it, as long as I dive. Blade didn’t give you the choice to ignore what he’d done.”
That was true. But both men were wrong, either way. She sat back in Thom’s lap, met his eyes. “Do you want to kill him?”
“Yes.” No hesitation. His gaze flattened, and the same terrifying anger hardened his expression. “If I knew of any way to do it without risking harm to you, I would. But I’ll warn you, Georgie. Right now he’s just full of threats. The moment I think he intends to hurt you, I’ll rip him in half. I won’t stop myself, no matter the danger. If you see that happen, you get to one of the boats, because I’m going to tear this ship apart and bring everyone else down with it. But for now, I’ll leave him alive if that’s what it takes to get you away.”
“And get you away, too.”
He shrugged.
Georgiana frowned. “That’s not something to be dismissed, Thom.”
Though he didn’t argue, she saw the response in the bleakness of his eyes. As long as she got away, Thom didn’t think it mattered if he did.
Or maybe he didn’t think that was a possibility anymore.
But he was wrong on both counts. He would escape with her. And she would fight for him to stay with her.
Maybe that wouldn’t be their future, though. It hurt so much to think it might not be. But whether he stayed or not, she needed him to know he did matter.
More than anything.
“Thom.” Gently, she cupped his face in her hands. “I know you felt that you’ve never brought me anything worth having. But you did. You brought yourself back—and you’re worth more to me than a hundred thousand chests full of gold.”
And for the first time, he didn’t quietly shake his head or insist he should have done more or apologize for not supporting her. His throat worked, but his only response was a rough whisper. “Georgie.”
“Thom.” Smiling, she softly pressed her lips to his, then the corner of his mouth, and the silky beard over his jaw. “Today, you were the only light I knew. While you were gone, I only felt fear and rage. But then you came back to me, and there was hope and joy again.”
His eyes closed. “That’s all there is when I see you. And fear when I think you might be hurt. I’d risk anything to stop it.”
“As I would for you.” She lightly kissed his mouth again. “And I was terrified when I discovered that you were diving four hundred feet. You didn’t have to lie to me, Thom.”
He looked at her again, his arms tightening around her. “I didn’t want you to be afraid.”
“But I was, anyway.”
“I wanted to protect you from that.”
“And you don’t have to.” Sliding her hands around the back of his head, she pushed her fingers into his thick hair, still rumpled from his long sleep. “I suspect there is much in you that you don’t let me see or know, because you think I’ll be frightened or you need to protect me. Please don’t hide it anymore, Thom. Don’t hold it back. I have no right to ask this of you. But I want to be with the man that you are, rather than the man you think you should be.”
His body stiffened against hers. “No holding back?”
“Not with me. With others, do as you please.” She didn’t want to share him, anyway.
He stared up at her, his blue eyes slowly beginning to burn. Georgiana’s gaze fell to his mouth, and she suddenly felt every inch of her dress twisted around her legs and stretched across her breasts.
“All right.” Abruptly, Thom lifted her against his chest, carried her to the bed.
And left her there.
Uncertain, Georgiana watched him move to the wardrobe. Reaching behind his neck, he dragged his shirt over his head.
Without looking at her, he said gruffly, “You’d best get that dress off.”
Oh. With heat in her cheeks, she quickly unfastened the buttons at her throat. Her gaze followed Thom to the vanity. Oh, but he was a fine man—his back muscular and broad, his wide shoulders a smooth meld of flesh and steel.
Water splashed into a bowl. Thom’s eyes met hers in the oval mirror hanging above the vanity, then he looked down and began lathering his beard.
Shaving.
Her breath stilled. Thom had done this every time he’d come to her bed, but she’d never watched him before. His soapy fingers moved in sure, even strokes. With his trousers hanging low on his hips, he braced his left hand against the edge of the vanity and leaned in closer to the mirror. His weight shifted to his right foot, left leg slightly bent, and his back was not just a beautiful sculpture now but the most arousing thing she’d ever seen, the muscles bunching over his left shoulder and smoothing along his ribs, and the groove of his spine the perfect width for her fingertips.
The razor scraped over his jaw, the rasp of it like a slow abrasion over her skin. Her heart thudded, as if her blood suddenly ran thick. With trembling fingers, she finished unfastening her dress and stripped it off, leaving her clad only in a chemise.
Hands lifting to her nape, she began unpinning her hair. At the vanity, the razor clinked against the bowl before swirling through water. Tipping his jaw back, Thom scraped beneath his chin. Soapy water ran in thin rivulets past the hollow of his throat, down the center of his thickly muscled chest. Her lips parting in envy, Georgiana followed the soapy path in the mirror, until the lather slipped past the bottom of the oval frame.
When she glanced back up, Thom was watching her in the reflection. Tilting his head slightly, he scraped another swath up his throat.
“You’ll have me again, Georgiana?”
Have him. She clenched her thighs, trying to ease the sudden ache. “Yes.”
“I promised myself I wouldn’t.” He glanced down. The razor clinked and swirled. “After the last time, I promised I wouldn’t risk hurting you again.”