Black Raven's Lady: Highland Lairds Trilogy by Kathleen Harrington

forehead down her dainty nose to her soft mouth. To brush his finger over her full bottom lip, across the edge of her teeth, and touch the tip of her pink tongue.
    He knew, without a doubt, how shocked and repulsed she’d be by such familiarity—and her feeling of utter betrayal by someone who was supposed to be a trusted family friend. A friend she had known from childhood.
    “Did you know that the constellations were named by the Greeks?” he asked, fighting his way through the fog of lust that enveloped him. “And each one has its own mythological tale.”
    During Raine’s lesson with Keir, Abid al-Rahman, the ship’s Moorish navigator, gave instructions in the use of the astrolabe on the forecastle deck. His two students, Ethan and Robbie Gibson, had been fostered to Keir the previous spring. The boys’ father was a MacNeil kinsman who’d entrusted their training to Keir and his uncle to prepare them for a life on the sea.
    Suddenly the two ship’s boys were standing at Raine’s elbow, looking up at the stars with them. “Ask the captain to tell you the story of the Great Bear,” Robbie suggested. The ten-year-old had a thatch of bright red hair above a round face, liberally sprinkled with freckles.
    “Pray tell me, Captain MacNeil,” Raine said with a laugh of bell-like purity. “What is the story of the Great Bear?”
    Al-Rahman had followed the Gibson brothers from the forecastle, ready to pull them back at a signal from Keir. The starboard side of the quarterdeck was the sole domain of the ship’s captain.
    “Forgive us for the interruption, sir,” the Moor said. “I’d released the young gentlemen to their quarters. They must have been drawn by the presence of the lovely lady.”
    Keir was well aware of the audience scrutinizing his every move. ’Twas no accident the entire night watch had managed to creep within hearing distance. Two look-outs hung in the rigging above Keir and Raine, perilously close over their heads.
    Stifling a grin, Keir resumed his lesson. “Ursa Major is associated with the huntress, Callisto, a favorite of Artemis, the goddess of hunting,” he told Raine. “One day Zeus assumed the guise of Artemis and lay with Callisto.”
    “Zeus is the strongest of the gods,” Ethan interjected in an attempt to be helpful. Two years older than his brother, he had dark auburn hair and a faint splash of freckles on his nose. “Zeus can tell all the others what to do.”
    “Like our captain,” Robbie added proudly.
    “Oh, I see,” Raine said, nodding to show she understood. She glanced at Keir, her eyes sparkling with laughter.
    Despite her hilarity, Keir returned to the lesson. “Callisto bore Zeus’ son, Arcas. But Hera, the wife of Zeus, became jealous and turned Callisto into a bear.”
    “Two women fighting over Zeus,” Robbie pointed out, “just like—”
    “Shh,” Ethan hissed, as he clamped his hand over his younger brother’s mouth.
    Keir frowned at the two and prayed the remark went over Raine’s innocent head. “Then Zeus placed Callisto in the heavens as the Great Bear to prevent her from being accidentally killed by a hunter.” He turned to his navigator. “And now, Mr. al-Rahman, if you’ve finished the evening’s lessons, you can release the midshipmen to their quarters.”
    The three immediately withdrew, retreating down the steps to the main deck and disappearing into a companionway.
    Her dark eyes flashing in the moonlight, Raine met Keir’s gaze. “Whenever did you learn about Greek mythology?” she asked. “Not in your days as a privateer, I should think.”
    Keir grinned at her open astonishment. “Contrary to court gossip, Lady Raine, I didn’t spend all my time at the university in Paris drinking and gambling. Just a great deal of it.”
    “When will you teach me how to use the astrolabe?” she persisted.
    Assuming the mien of a disapproving professor, he frowned at her. “You’ll need to recognize more than one constellation,