The Devil and the Deep - By Amy Andrews Page 0,30

sky Rick was halfway to crazy. The boat was travelling along at a steady clip, which left him nothing else to do other than stare at Stella. Even metres away from him in her low chair, doing nothing but writing, she destroyed his concentration. She was almost directly in his line of sight, her legs supporting her laptop, her shirt riding up her spine to reveal a good portion of skin, including the dimples at the small of her back.

With conversation non-existent, he was left with a lot of time to think. A lot of time for his mind to wander.

Standing at the helm, the wheel in his hand, the ocean at his command, it was a little hard not to think of himself as the all-conquering pirate Vasco Ramirez.

The Vasco who decided to turn his treasure hunt into a pleasure hunt. Who actively seduced Lady Mary after the bath scene and whose slow, deliberate dance with her was both clever and cunning.

Rick’s mind wandered to those scenes of calculated seduction. Vasco washing Mary’s hair on deck. Vasco removing a splinter from her finger with his teeth. Vasco cutting into the juicy flesh of a dripping pear with his jewelled dagger and feeding her slice after slice.

And the sexiest scene of all where Vasco had tied her spreadeagled in her under-things to his bed until Mary had admitted her desire for him.

That one had got Rick hotter than a summer day on the equator.

In fact just thinking about it now was getting him pretty damn hot. Not helped by the fact that she had abandoned her seated position and was doing a sexy little stretch, bending over and touching her toes, then arching her back as she linked her hands above her head and twisted from side to side.

Oh, Lord, kill me now.

She turned then and walked towards him and he was pleased, as her breasts jiggled enticingly, for the secure placement of his very dark sunglasses.

‘You fancy a cold beer and a bite to eat?’ Stella asked as she approached.

‘Sounds great,’ he said.

Stella patted him absently on the arm. ‘Be right back,’ she said.

Rick stayed very still as the fleeting touch seemed to reach deep down inside and stroke something that it just shouldn’t have. Since when had a perfunctory touch from her had such an effect? But he suddenly understood Ramirez’s puzzlement over the sensations that Lady Mary had created when she’d clung to his sleeve briefly during some choppy weather.

Rick shook his head at the direction of his errant thoughts. Bloody hell, had he been emasculated overnight?

When Stella rejoined him ten minutes later with some ham and salad rolls and two beers, he’d found his testicles and got over himself.

‘Put it on autopilot,’ Stella said, pressing the beer into his hand. ‘Come and sit with me.’

Yeh, that was just what he needed.

But he did it anyway.

‘So, how’s the book going?’ he asked, nodding at the shut laptop as he took a man-sized swallow of beer to dilute the absolute unmanly curiosity over her current romance novel.

Stella nodded. ‘Coming along very nicely. I’m just about finished with the first chapter. I’ve emailed Diana—she’s ecstatic. I think Joy had threatened her with editing non-fic if I didn’t deliver.’ Stella grinned.

Rick smiled too. She seemed relaxed and willing to chat about the book. Maybe, instead of wondering whether Lady Mary was her, which was, quite frankly, driving him nuts, he could just come out and ask. Or at least start a conversation where he could work his way round to it.

‘So, what’s the book about?’ he asked as he took a bite out of his bread roll.

Stella looked up at him from under the brim of her hat. ‘You really want to know?’

Rick stopped chewing. ‘Of course, why wouldn’t I?’

Stella blinked. For as long as she’d known him Rick’s tastes had run to non-fiction books on anything to do with the salvage industry and shipwrecks. And Phantom comics.

‘It’s not really your thing.’

Oh, if only she knew how suddenly it was exactly his thing. He looked at her. ‘It’s yours. I’m interested.’

Stella stared at him for a moment, taken aback by his sincerity. ‘Good answer.’ She smiled.

He smiled back. She looked so damn sweet, how could she have such a dirty mind? ‘So?’ He quirked an eyebrow.

She didn’t know where to start. She wasn’t used to sharing this sort of information with anyone. Only Diana had known about Pleasure Hunt and even then Stella had been reticent to share any of