The Devil and the Deep - By Amy Andrews Page 0,32

away completely.

Hah! There. She wasn’t Lady Mary.

Phew.

‘Lady Mary’s from the first book?’ he asked innocently.

Stella nodded as her embarrassment slipped away. It was actually quite good thinking this sort of stuff out loud. Knowing the differences could only help with her writing process.

Maybe Rick was a good sounding board?

‘Lucinda has a strength of character that Lady Mary didn’t. She’s not waiting around to be rescued—in fact, she’s going to rescue the hero, who’s being held in chains.’

Rick tried not to think about how that scene would pan out. ‘And Lady Mary is weak?’

Because he’d thought, in her own way, Mary had a startling resilience.

Stella shook her head. ‘No, she’s not weak, she’s just more passive. But that’s really just a product of the times and her upper-class background.’

Rick thought of the scene where Mary had finally succumbed to Vasco’s seduction. There had been nothing passive about her then. And nothing passive about the way she’d totally turned the emotional tables on him.

‘Definitely not you, then,’ he smiled, relieved.

Stella smiled back. If only he knew. Beneath Lady Mary’s petticoats and pantaloons lay Stella’s every secret desire. She drained her beer, then checked her watch. ‘Right, enough time skiving off. Lucinda is whispering sweet nothings in my head.’

Rick frowned. ‘They talk to you?’

‘Oh, yes.’ Stella nodded. ‘Most insistently usually.’

He swallowed. ‘The heroes as well as the heroines?’

‘Yep.’

Rick’s mind boggled. ‘What do they say?’

Stella shrugged. ‘Their thoughts, dreams, desires.’

Good God—had Lady Mary whispered those things to Stella? Had she told Stella she wanted to see Vasco naked in the bath, that she wanted him to suck her finger into his mouth and she wanted to be tied to his bed?

Or had it been Vasco telling Stella what he wanted to do to Mary? Describing it in all the erotic detail that it had appeared in the book?

Had Stella been hearing him in her head?

* * *

Rick had never been so happy to see terra firma in all his life when they spotted the Papua New Guinea mainland mid-afternoon. His attempt to dissipate the heat of his thoughts hadn’t exactly gone to plan and he was pleased to be getting off the boat and distracting himself for a while.

They motored into Port Moresby harbour and docked at the Royal Papua Yacht Club. After seeing to all the official formalities they headed for the club.

‘Remember,’ Stella said as Rick smiled at a beautiful dark-skinned woman who openly ogled him as she passed by, ‘you’re on a dare.’

Rick almost groaned out loud. If he had to share quarters with a woman who wrote sexy literature for a living and dressed in next to nothing, then it was vital to put his flirt somewhere!

The fact that he was now bound to a ridiculous dare was just the really rotten icing on a really sucky cake. What was the world coming to when he couldn’t negate some totally inappropriate sexual urges with some harmless flirting?

He smiled at her. ‘Piece of cake.’

Stella grinned as she fell in beside him. She was so going to enjoy this!

He tried to ditch her first thing in the cool, modern surrounds of the yacht club, but there was no way she was letting him walk around unaccompanied, flirting with no redress. She stuck to him like glue as he organised refuelling and restocking of their fresh food supplies and some onwards paperwork for their visit to Micronesia.

They found a nearby craft market and she watched him get crankier as they moved through the stalls thronging with colour and spice and wall-to-wall gorgeous local women. She asked him his opinion about earrings, bikinis and having her hair plaited. None of which he had a strong opinion on other than exasperation.

She bought a sarong and an anklet that had a tiny shell and a little bell on a piece of rope. It was nautical and she was thrilled with her purchase.

He was plain annoyed.

By the time they’d returned to the boat after an evening meal at the club, he was withdrawn and every inch the brooding pirate.

Due to cloud cover and lack of interest there was no star gazing tonight. Just a strictly professional conversation about their onward leg and a discussion revolving around the weather, which wasn’t looking good for the next couple of days, but the long-range forecast remained excellent considering they were in the monsoon season.

‘You okay?’ she asked innocently as she picked up their empty coffee mugs and padded barefoot towards the galley. ‘You seem kind of tense?’

Honestly, the man didn’t