Wild And Willing. Joanne Rock
still six hours away, even with the festival getting off to a late start this year due to a thunderstorm.
“Don’t worry,” Seth shot back, trying—and failing—to keep his eyes from straying to Carmen. “I’ll have her here in plenty of time.”
Patrick frowned. “The point is to show the lady a good time.” The old man waggled bushy eyebrows. “If you bring her back too early, we’ll think you didn’t do your pirately duty by her.”
Seth nodded, unconcerned. He had a vested interest in making sure his captive waxed enthusiastic about her day for the cameras. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
A buzz of excitement passed through the festival attendees as the final knots were tied to secure the Jose Gaspar. Seth shifted his position onboard to put him closest to his maiden of choice. And the siren alongside her.
He didn’t wait for the lowering of the gangplank. Pirates seldom did, right?
Fully committed to the role he’d taken on, Seth vaulted off the low boat and into the waiting crowd a few feet below. The excited buzz swelled into a roar of approval from the bustling throng. Other pirates swung out over the crowd, the invasion well underway.
He landed farther from his target than he’d intended, but that didn’t stop him from going after the woman he wanted. A Nordic-looking blonde planted herself in his path, and shot him a sleepy-lidded invitation steamy enough to sizzle the shorts off a man.
She was impressive, but she didn’t come close to Carmen. Seth set her aside with a wink and a nod, determined to run away with the green-robed granny and a big headline in tomorrow’s papers.
Too bad he sorely underestimated Carmen’s appeal. No sooner had he turned away the blonde than she was there. The brunette who had been shadowing granny—the one who’d caught his eye before his sea legs even hit dry land.
The crowd surged behind him, pushing him toward her even though his whole body had stopped dead a foot away from her. All at once, she was plastered against him, a slender but curvy-in-all-the-right-places body molded to his for one sensory overloading second before she stepped back an inch.
Heat simmered through his veins, nerve endings he hadn’t been aware of leapt to life, greedy for another round with the devastatingly feminine physique of the woman standing in front of him.
Who was not the woman he was supposed to grab, some annoyingly logical part of his brain insisted on reminding him.
Damn.
His mouth was so dry he didn’t stand a chance of eking out a “pardon me.” Not when her green cat eyes probed over him with slow thoroughness. Bad enough she licked her lips as her gaze wandered over his bare chest. But then she took her perusal a bit lower, and her full, pink lips curved into a smile.
God was not playing fair today. This was surely more temptation than one well-meaning man could possibly endure, wasn’t it?
Seth could carry her off on his boat for a few hours and lose all his cares in the warmth of her blatant invitation. He reached for her, effectively shutting off the practical side of his brain for two seconds.
Until the rolling base of a television camera ran over his foot at the same time a microphone appeared in between them.
Shit.
Cold reason returned, barely nudging out the heat pulsing through him. But he was on a mission, damn it, and he’d always prided himself on putting his company first. Every member of his family had money tied up in Chandler Enterprises and Gulf Coast Bank because they trusted Seth to think with his brain and not his…well, they trusted him.
Swallowing his regrets, Seth spun on his heel and reached for the green terry cloth beside Carmen. He would abduct granny because he was here on business. His wayward attraction to the bold brunette would only get him into trouble today.
Seth braced his feet to hoist the white-haired older woman into his arms, but instead of reeling in green terry cloth, Seth found himself with a red hibiscus tickling his nose.
Carmen had somehow twirled her way into his arms and glued herself to his chest.
Cold reason made a feeble attempt at resistance. His logical brain assured him this was not going according to his well-laid plans.
But before he could do anything about it the television cameras zoomed in on Carmen.
Right about the moment she started screaming.
2
MIA PREPARED TO belt out another round of mock terror for the big camera marked Channel 10, but the pirate stud beside her finally took the hint.
She’d been worried that, despite her best efforts, the bare-chested buccaneer would choose someone else to play “ravish the maiden” with. But engaging the media cameras and screaming her lungs out seemed to convince him she would be more fun than the hot-to-trot grandma in green.
Her brown-eyed Captain Kidd scooped her off her feet and into his arms, cradling her high against his chest.
Mia’s artfully tied sarong fell away from her legs to drape over his arm, exposing her thigh to unadulterated contact with one steely bicep.
Mmm.
Playing to the camera—or maybe just playing for the pleasure of it—Mia threw her arms about the pirate’s neck. Her silk-covered breasts grazed against his bare chest, the closest contact she’d had with any man for much, much too long. Heat prickled over her skin, anticipation curled low in her belly. Her adventure had officially begun.
And it felt wickedly delicious.
She winked and waved at the camera before she realized what she was doing. No doubt, someone in Twin Palms would be watching the five o’clock news on Channel 10. And with the way gossip traveled in a small town, her grandparents would think she was on her way to a life of dissolution by 5:05.
She turned her head into the crook of her captor’s neck and whispered into the warmth of his soap-scented skin. “Let’s get out of here.”
He flexed his fingers, squeezing his hold on her just a little tighter. “You stage your own abduction and now you’re in charge of the getaway, too?”
His smooth baritone held a note of amused censure, but he put his feet in motion before all the words left his mouth.
Deftly, he turned their bodies sideways for better aerodynamics to slice through the crowd of onlookers.
“I’d rather not be on the evening news,” she informed him, surprised that her weight didn’t seem to slow him down a bit. He navigated a path to the water’s edge as easily as if he walked alone.
She tried not to notice the interesting ripple of his abs as he moved. The play of muscle along her hip sorely distracted her.
“Could have fooled me. That performance of yours looked tailor-made for TV.” He glanced over his shoulder in the direction of the cameras they’d left behind.
“No. That performance was tailor-made for you.” She’d promised herself she’d be bold today, and she wouldn’t back down from her goal, even if the half-naked man she’d set her sights on was a bit more intimidating than the sailor in a striped shirt she’d originally envisioned for this scenario.
She forced herself to recall he wasn’t really a pirate. No eighteenth-century man would have access to aftershave that smelled as sexy as this man’s.
“All that screaming and jumping into my arms was for my benefit?” He slowed his stride as they neared a docking area about a hundred yards north of the convention center. “Does that mean you know me, Carmen? Because I sure as hell would remember if I knew you.”
“Carmen?” Had she missed something? Maybe all those masculine pheromones were distorting her ability to remember her own name.
“You know, the aria-singing gypsy girl.” He nodded toward