The Seduction of Phaeton Black Read Online Free Page B

am to you? A supper?”
    He lowered his chin. “A banquet, my tempting dark dove.” Hooded ebony eyes crinkled at the sides. He enjoyed taunting her.
    Captivated for a moment, she mentally slapped herself. “I would love to stay and chat, really I would, but I must be on my way.” She flashed the faintest of smiles. “Now that we are introduced, certainly you can release me from bondage?”
    “One more thing, Miss Jones. If you would kindly explain about the pirates?” He tilted his head. “Your eyes are most extraordinary. Almost feline.”
    What an exasperating man! While he swigged from the bottle, she tugged again on her bindings. “Why do you insist on torturing me?”
    She pressed her lips together and chewed the inside of her bottom lip. A force of habit when vexed beyond endurance. Well, she supposed two could play this silly, annoying interrogation game. “Are your parents still living, Mr. Black?”
    He sat up and blinked. “Mother died of a virulent meningitis years ago. My father teaches advanced mathematics at Trinity College.” He ran a hand through thick waves of dark brown hair. “He might as well be dead. We don’t get on.”
    “I could not tell you if my mother is alive or dead. I’ve not been home to Louisiana in many years. Buried my father four short months ago. Charles Gardiner Jones.” She leaned forward purposefully. “A decent and honest merchant trader. Acquaintances said he couldn’t face his business failure—that he died of drink. People who knew him well told a very different story. My father’s heart was broken by his lying, scheming business partner.”
    When her eyes threatened to tear, she lifted her chin. “After his funeral I vowed to bring Yanky Willem to justice.”
    “And how goes this pursuit?”
    She frowned. “Not as well as I’d hoped. Last night Willem caught me rifling through a year’s worth of cargo manifests.”
    He arched a brow. “Searching for—?”
    “Proof of piracy, Mr. Black.”
    He smiled that maddening grin of his. “I knew if I was patient, we might actually get round to the original subject of my query—the filthy pirates.”
    “Chased me from the Docklands all the way down the Strand.” She laid her head back against the padded chair and absently counted the cracks in the ceiling. “When you stepped into the sharp edge of my blade, I was clean out of bullets.”
    “Bullets? And where, pray tell, is your pistol?”
    Now it was her turn to grin. “Untie me, and—”
    “I think not, Miss Jones.” From behind protective rungs, Mr. Black stepped over the seat of his chair and ventured closer.
    “Shall we search together?” In a blur of movement he threw her skirt up over her knees and wedged himself tightly in-between her spread legs. The man moved like a panther.
    “Sorry, no chance to knee me in the groin.” He moved his hands under her skirt and over her legs. Even as she fumed, her stomach fluttered.
    He slowly worked his way higher. “Did you reach your satisfaction last night?”
    She gasped for a breath. “What satisfaction, sir?”
    His fingers slipped underneath satin garters, skimming the tops of her hose. “Ah, a dainty derringer, very ladylike.” He placed the weapon in the lap of her gathered skirt and cocked his head to one side. “When we coupled, brief as it was, did you experience arousal, Miss Jones?”
    “Surely not from that large wanker of yours routing me out.” She avoided eye contact. “Perhaps, there was some pleasure. Briefly.”
    A hand remained under her skirt and stroked the inside of her thigh. “I’m curious. Have you ever been satisfied from intercourse? Since there have been one or two before me—”
    “One.” She bit out. “And I don’t find any of it very pleasurable. Satisfied, Mr. Black?”
    “What if I told you that I could make it very pleasurable for you?” The man’s free hand undid a few more of her blouse buttons. And he purposely swept a finger along the lace edge of