Read Online The Wayward One (The De Montforte Brothers Book 5) by Danelle Harmon - Free Book Online

bothered him fierce, it did. He might have been an absent son and brother. He might be a rogue and an ex-smuggler and yes, even a murderer. But he would never, not as long as God’s sweet air filled his lungs, ever force himself upon a woman.
    The morning sun was cracking through massed clouds above as he moved to the weather side of the quarterdeck.
    “Wind’s come ’round to the east, sir,” said Morgan, who greeted him with a salute.
    “Grand. We’ll stay on this tack for another hour, then.”
    “The lady, sir. Has she recovered?”
    “Aye.”
    “What is the plan?”
    Improvise as we go . “We’ll stay near the French coast in case we need to duck in, and hope the lady’s worth enough to her family that they’ll give us the explosive and its formula in exchange for her.”
    “Don’t like how the wind’s blowing, sir. It’ll make it hard to beat back to safety if the Royal Navy comes after us.”
    “The Royal Navy isn’t goin’ to come after us. Have faith, Mr. Morgan.”
    “So what next?”
    Ruaidri buttoned his coat as the sun went back behind the clouds once more, bringing a chill to the air. “We wait for a response to our ransom note.”
    Or I go back to London. Continue to play the fool so my little sister’s heart won’t be broken when she finds out what I’ve done. Far better to let her go on thinking I’m tending the cottage back in Connemara. And far safer to let her husband think it, too. Not one I want to tangle with in a sea fight ever again if he comes looking for us.
    “Sounds rather dangerous, sir. These waters are crawling with Royal Navy ships.”
    Ruaidri make a sound that was half scorn, half laughter. “Well then, instead of exercising the guns with no real target as we’ve been doing every day for the last month, maybe we’ll find something to actually shoot at—”
    He halted in mid-sentence as a sudden tension fell over the ship. The entire company had turned their attention aft. Not toward him. But beyond him.
    He followed their gazes and the breath caught in his throat.
    It was her, of course. He’d known it would be, the moment every man in his crew had stopped what he was doing and turned. She looked strangely out of place here on a naval ship full of rough tars, her fine clothes and proud bearing reminding him that he had plucked her from a world he had never known, would never know, a world that was as different from anything he had ever inhabited—even when he was the Irish Pirate and celebrated, feted and entertained by some of the most influential leaders of patriot Boston—as ice was from flame.
    She was English quality. High-born and haughty, her father and now her brother, only one step down from a prince.
    Whereas he was just a poor Irishman trying to make a fresh start in a new and emerging country.
    She was, in short, unreachable.
    Untouchable.
    Unobtainable.
    No matter how heavily she invaded his thoughts, no matter how much he enjoyed needling her, no matter how hard his damned cock pushed against his breeches at the very sight of her.
    Unreachable.
    The memory of another blonde beauty rose up in his mind, buxom, common, bawdy and warm…his kind of lass, chalk and cheese from this aloof and elegant aristocrat whose veins ran with ice water.
    Someone coughed, bringing him back to the present and his duties as a sea officer. He went up to her, bowed, and made as gallant a leg as he knew how to execute.
    “Lady Nerissa,” he said, replacing his hat.
    She looked flatly at him, one pale brow raised in slight disdain, cool and composed despite the fact that every officer and seaman on the deck had stopped what he was doing to stare at her.
    “Get back to yer duties, ye pack of laggards,” Ruaidri snapped.
    The men didn’t argue. One or two cast a last longing glance at the vision in their midst, then returned to their work.
    “So,” she said, for his ears alone. “Is this the garb of your so-called Continental Navy?” Her haughty gaze swept the