The Hidden Heart by Laura Kinsale

Author:Laura Kinsale [Kinsale, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance, Adult, Historical
ISBN: 9780062091987
Google: fvstCjqa4C0C
Amazon: B004MMEICI
Goodreads: 802153
Publisher: Avon Books
Published: 1986-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The island was at first no more than a cluster of clouds rising out of the sea, a deeper blue on the azure horizon. As the ship neared, the shadow below the clouds took on substance: olive and moss, hills and valleys, a tangible reality beneath the drifting bank of white. They were finally approaching Tahiti. Gryf stood at the helm and blessed the sight with heartfelt fervor.

Tess was on the quarterdeck, leaning over the rail beside Sydney as the ship rounded Point Venus and stood in toward the entrance to the harbor at Papeete. The day was fair, a crystal hue, and the light wind carried snatches of her voice to Gryf as she pointed excitedly to familiar landmarks. She had abandoned petticoats after they had entered the warm Pacific; her skirt billowed and swung in the breeze, now plastered against her, outlining the curve of her hips, now floating away in a tantalizing puff that threatened to reveal much more. She was barefoot, and his heated imagination made him certain that along with the petticoats she had discarded every other undergarment, leaving nothing on but the thin blue poplin skirt and light cotton blouse.

The idea made his hands sweat. He took a firmer grip on the helm, tried to take one on himself, too, before he ran aground with fourteen miles of sea room between Tahiti and Moorea. For five months he had been like this, having lost his illusions and become, as Grady had once predicted, a rutting goat: lusting after another man’s wife until he had given up all hope of ever feeling stable or sane again. He moved in a kind of mad suspension, dreaming every moment of taking her, of feeling that soft warmth beneath him, of her mouth, her hair . . . while his body went through the rote motions of work and command. Years of practice made functioning possible, though he was certain that every man of his old crew knew that the captain was half out of his mind. It was in the way they looked at him, and the way they carefully did not look at Tess.

If he could just get away from her, he had thought—but no, one hundred sixty feet of waterline might as well have been a ten by ten prison cell, for all he could try to avoid her. And then, after that night in her cabin at the equator, she had begun to seek him out, feeling safe to do so, he supposed, because he had promised not to send her back.

There was no sign of mistreatment about her. She seemed the same on the surface: a little quieter, a little older than the shy, saucy beauty she had been. If anything, in his eyes she had grown more lovely, because in mat bleak time after Grady’s death Gryf had managed to convince himself that her face and figure had faults, that she was not special or unique, and in seeing her again all those hopeful disparagements had been shamed into pale extinction by reality.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.