Forbidden by Julia Keaton Page B

Liked her
curiosity and her bright eyed attention as they explained things to
her. That first day alone she learned to tie a sailor’s knot, sing
dirty sea shanties, and most importantly, where each and every nook
and cranny on the boat was hidden. Every now and then she thought
she saw Damon out of the corner of her eye, but when she turned to
find him he would be gone. It was frustrating and a little
strange.
    If she didn’t know any better she’d say
he was avoiding her.
    If she didn’t know any better, she’d
say she missed him.
    But she did know better and ruled his
absence from her presence as necessary after what had happened that
night. It had felt strange, it had felt good, it had felt … so very
different from the dreams that periodically woke her out of a sound
sleep, sweating and writhing with helpless yearning.
    Even if her dreams had acted as some
sort of prep though, she still couldn’t believe she’d let herself
sink into him as she had.
    She’d completely lost her head, her
senses had reeled, and her focus had narrowed to a point where
sight and sound made no difference, only the drugging onslaught of
touch.
    A strumpet had more control over
herself.
    But then again, whispered Jocelyn’s
common sense, not even allowing her the comfort of groundless self
pity, a strumpet had more experience with being a
strumpet.
    Someone who’d just been introduced to a
strumpet’s way couldn’t help but to float adrift in the
sensations.
    Or so she told herself, and felt better
for it.
    Because the Gentle Marie wasn’t used
for passengers but for cargo, as she was a merchant ship and headed
towards Barbados on business anyway, Jocelyn, Damon, and Ava, who
was feeling a bit better after a day of rest and simply refused to
miss a chance to flirt with an unattached man, ate dinner with the
captain and two of his midshipmen in his quarters.
    She stuck with her black mourning gown,
but even so the drab color seemed not to deter the men’s attention
at all. They were polite and complimentary but not overtly so. Ava,
in high spirits, preened under the attention, giggling and brushing
her hand over one shoulder even as she looked into yet another’s
eyes. The company seemed to be doing more for her sickness than the
medicine she’d drunk, even if Jocelyn knew that she’d pay for it
later that night by retching up every single thing she stuffed into
her mouth.
    The midshipmen were enough distraction
for Ava that the Captain was able to pull away from her attentions
long enough to turn to Jocelyn.
    He smiled and Jocelyn thought what a
handsome man he was. Not as devastating as Damon but rugged with
his sandy hair, blue eyes, and neatly bearded face.
    So when he smiled at her she smiled
back and didn’t have to force herself to pretend as if it were a
pleasure.
    “How are you enjoying the Marie so far,
Miss Holbrooke?”
    Jocelyn reached for and snagged a
strawberry that sat on the platter in front of her.
    “It’s lovely.” She said truthfully.
Remembering the boisterous sailors and the smooth clean lines of a
vessel whose individual parts she didn’t completely understand but
nonetheless admired.
    The captain beamed now, smile moving
from polite to personal when he heard the sincerity in her
voice.
    “She’s a good girl. Weathered with me
through the worst storms in my carreer and never failed
me.”
    And because she was never one to turn
down a good story, she leaned toward him with bright eyes and
popped the strawberry into her mouth.
    “Do tell.”

    * * * *

    She sensed his absence before she noted
it.
    It was an emptiness at her side, a
sense of coldness along her spine where the heat of his gaze should
have been.
    But she waited.
    She listened to the captain and enjoyed
him, but always in the back of her mind she wondered
‘where?’
    When a chance presented itself, she
smiled an apology to the captain in particular and the table in
general and begged to be excused.
    “It’s been a trying day and