Her touch was tentative at first, but she took a deep breath and began pressing firmly on his good side. She could feel herself becoming flushed. She was supposed to remain objective, detached from her patient, but she was anything but. Rather than pick her hands up to move them to the other side, she wanted to drag her hands across his hard muscled belly. She wanted to know every plane, every scar—so many scars.
She frowned. How had acquired so many scars?
“I’m afraid this is going to be unpleasant,” she said as she pulled her hands away and moved them to his injury.
“Just get it over with,” he ground out.
She palpated the area quickly with the flats of her fingers. “I just wanted to apologize for what happened earlier,” she said trying to distract him.
“Earlier?”
“On deck when you kissed me and I tried to kiss you the second time. I am so embarrassed that I did that after everything you’ve done for me. Thank you for not letting me humiliate myself.”
He wasn’t really sure what she meant and was in too much pain to think about it. “Forget about it. I already have.”
She had been hoping he’d say he wanted to kiss her again as well, but when you’re fishing, sometimes you just catch sea weed.
“We’re finished. I don’t feel anything except normal swelling.”
Daniel folded his arms across his chest when Jaxon appeared on deck with his shirt opened. It had been at least ten minutes since he left them alone, plenty of time to finish what Jaxon had started after the memorial service.
“Do you not care one iota about that maiden’s reputation?” Daniel asked, his hostility apparent.
“What reputation is that?” Jaxon asked coolly as he buttoned his shirt. “Do you think she’s some innocent school girl who needs rescuing?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I think.”
“Stop being naïve. She’s an adult woman, whom, by her own admission, has lived on that ship nearly her whole life. Are you telling me you think she has never had a romance, not even once?” Irritation prickled Jaxon as he thought of Charlie in another man’s arms. It didn’t make sense. He didn’t know her. He’d only kissed her once, but he’d be damned if he stood by and let someone else steal her out from under his nose before he had a chance to get to know her.
“I will give her the benefit of the doubt until she shows me otherwise, brother. You and I should be sharing your cabin and she can have mine.”
Daniel was one of the few people who truly understood Jaxon’s plight so he should understand why Jaxon would pursue a woman who was not repulsed by him. He knew his brother was right. Charlie should be alone in Daniel’s cabin and Daniel could sleep in the forecastle for all he cared, but he couldn’t let her go. Someone else might win her, even his handsome, dimpled cheeked brother.
“You would like that, wouldn’t you?” Jaxon yelled. “You’d always be making excuses to get one thing or another so you could visit her.”
“Is that what this is about? You’re jealous! I already told you, I don’t want her. Honestly, I give you my blessings—but only if you treat her the way you would treat a woman back home and right now, you are not being respectful.” Daniel grabbed his brother’s arm. “I am going to hold you accountable for your actions. So, if I were you, I’d tread very carefully.”
Jaxon pulled his arm away and looked out over the railing. “No doubt this is why her ship abandoned her. The crew probably fought these battles daily,” Jaxon said his voice strangely calm. The thought of other men fighting over her soured his mood further. “I don’t know why you’re so worried, Daniel. With a face like mine, willing women are few and far between and I would not bed an unwilling one.”
11
Charlie was sound asleep in the hammock when Jaxon returned. She left the lantern on the desk burning, but had extinguished the other lamps. The soft dim light made her skin glow with a subtle radiance. Dark lashes rested against her cheek. She was beautiful. In his mind, he could not fathom how she could have ever passed for a man. He shook his head and wished there was some way to accept what Daniel believed about her, but he just couldn’t. She was one hundred percent female, how could any red-blooded tar be fooled for long?
Jaxon returned to his work. He needed to update his logs with the events of the day and it had been a long, eventful day. He also needed to write a letter to Aunt Pru. He would tell her in person, but sometimes the family wanted a letter to pass on through the generations. The letter would probably remain unopened placed inside the family Bible until the details of his death became less painful. Only then would someone open it.