Gentle Pirate (22 page)

"From a Marine." She could see one dark eyebrow lift in further inquiry. "My father," she added by way of explanation.

He nodded briskly. "Then since you know what you're doing, you can watch them both while I get something to secure them with."

A few minutes later, Simon completed his task, hesitating over Hagood long enough to strip off the man's jacket. Rising, he moved over to Kirsten and pulled the garment close around her shoulders. Grateful for the warmth at last, Kirsten glanced at Hagood where he lay bound in more of the same rope he had previously used on her. The man did not look as if he were interested in her thanks for the coat, however, she thought with a small smile, and withheld her remark.

"I'll take that now," Simon commented, removing the weapon from her hand and spinning her around by the shoulders to face him. For the first time Kirsten realized he was angry. Blazingly so.

"If you think," he began in an unnaturally even tone, "that you can manage to follow orders this time, take my car and drive to the nearest phone. Call the police and then go straight on home. Is that understood? Get into a hot shower and have a cup of something warm. I'll be there as soon as I can. And I'd better find you waiting up for me when I get there! Don't imagine for one minute that you're going to get off lightly for the damn fool stunt you pulled here tonight!"

"Simon?" Kirsten asked hesitantly, a small shiver going through her that wasn't generated by the cold. He was furious!

"Don't say another word, Kirsten. Do as you're told. Here." He tossed her a bunch of keys taken from Hagood's car. "Drive their car back to where mine is parked. Your feet must be torn to ribbons by now. Move, woman!" he snapped as Kirsten still hesitated, clutching the coat at her throat.

She moved. It was as she drove past the grim little scene of Simon and his prisoners that she saw him scoop up the corded metallic object that she had noticed beside a stunned Hagood. A weapon of some sort? But where would Simon have gotten something odd like that? And then she forgot the problem as she settled down to the task of driving a car without her contact lenses.

The shower recommended, or rather ordered, by Simon did wonders for Kirsten's sense of physical well-being. She stood beneath the full blast of the hot water and let it work the lingering cold out of her bones. From now on, she promised herself, she would stick to heated pools when she wished to swim! Blissfully she pivoted beneath the spray and wondered if the police now had everything in hand. Simon should be home soon, she thought, and abruptly remembered again that terrible moment when she had heard the first shot fired by Hagood's partner; the one she thought had killed Simon. Never, ever did she want to live through that kind of fear again! Now she knew what real fear was, Kirsten reflected grimly. It was a crushing, hopeless feeling that you were powerless to help the one you loved. Her fears of Talbot's brutality and Simon's size didn't begin to measure up to the real thing, she decided.

Putting that recollection aside, Kirsten stepped, dripping, out of the shower stall and reached for a yellow towel. Strange, she reflected, how she had never doubted from the beginning that Simon would rescue her from the kidnappers. Viewed in the harsh light of reality, it had been an illogical assumption. The statistics on kidnap victims were hardly encouraging to read! But the conviction that Simon would come to her rescue had kept terror at bay during the long cold time on the boat. Her chief reaction to Hagood and his partner's threats were anger and irritation. The knowledge that Simon would take care of everything had crystallized even more firmly in her mind when he had asked her on the phone if she trusted him. Of course she did! How could she ever have doubted it?

"And why, my girl, were you so sure of Simon's ability to get you out of that particular mess?" she demanded of herself in front of the mirror. Because she belonged to Simon, her foggy image smiled back as if she was displaying an uncharacteristic lack of intelligence. It was as simple and as profound as that. Simon Kendrick would always take care of his own.

Now, when she examined her heart with honesty, she knew the knowledge that she could give herself completely into Simon's large hand had been slowly growing from the first. She could not imagine having allowed any other man to force his presence on her for an entire night as Simon had that evening when she had returned home to find the apartment ransacked. Kirsten shook her head ruefully as she slipped into a long-sleeved nightgown and matching robe. She should have asked herself a few pertinent questions then! It might have saved a deal of trouble.

Beginning to hum softly, Kirsten found her yellow fluffy scuffs under the bed and then walked down the hall to the living room. Simon's instructions had included having a hot drink. It was too late at night for coffee and she really felt the need for something more warming. She owed it to herself. There was nothing else in the apartment except a carton of milk and her collection of wine. What she really needed, Kirsten decided, was some of Simon's fiery brandy. Yes, that would be just the thing. Had her pirate left in such a hurry tonight that he might have forgotten to lock his door?

A few minutes later she was trotting briskly down the sidewalk in her robe and slippers to Simon's apartment. The door handle turned easily in her grasp and she let herself inside with a distinct feeling of pleasure. She would wait for Simon in his own apartment. The brandy was soon located along with a balloon glass and Kirsten curled up in a corner of the huge couch to drink it.

The effects of the potent drink were more soothing than reviving, however, and, setting the glass down carefully on an end table, Kirsten allowed her eyes to close for a few minutes. She had no idea how long the few minutes lasted because the next thing of which she was aware was the slamming of the front door.

Blinking sleepily and looking somewhat like a yellow kitten that has just been rudely awakened, she glanced up to find a very angry Simon standing with his back to the door, glaring at her from across the room. In the instant before he started toward her, Kirsten could have sworn there was another emotion underlying the fury. Fear? Why should he be afraid? she thought wonderingly.

Whatever had been reflected in the hazel gaze was fast disappearing as the dominant emotion of anger pushed out anything softer. Kirsten found herself unable to move as he strode purposefully across the room. One part of her still-sleepy mind absorbed the fact that he was wearing the work shirt and damp jeans. She wanted to tell him to follow his own instructions and take a hot shower, but the forbidding cast of his features did not invite such remarks.

"I thought," he began very carefully, coming to a halt directly in front of her, "that I told you to go home and wait for me. I assumed you would head for your own apartment! Do you have any idea what I went through just now when I couldn't find you there?"

Kirsten said nothing, wary of the smoldering look in the furious gaze that was pinning her to the couch. Mutely she shook her head very slightly, her hands beginning to clench together tightly in her lap. She wished she had the courage to untuck her legs, which she very much feared had gone to sleep in their curled position.

"When I didn't find you where I had expected to find you, it looked as if you might have been afraid to face me. As if you had flown the coop. All in all," he concluded with an unpleasant softness in his rough tone, "it proved to be the last straw in an otherwise disastrous evening." He watched her for a long moment, right hand braced on his hip.

Kirsten sat very still, afraid to provoke him further and convinced that nothing was going to swerve him from his present course. She had better prepare herself for a nasty few minutes, she thought with resignation. Wide-eyed, she waited, gray gaze fixed on his thunderous face.

"I think," Simon went on righteously, "that I have been extremely patient with you." Kirsten kept her own counsel on that subject. "I also think that the time has come to take steps to preserve my future peace of mind. I want you to understand, sweetheart, that what I am about to do is not simply for your own good, nor is it merely a means of letting you know who will be the ranking
partner
in our marriage. With any luck, it will serve those purposes. But that's not nearly as important as the immense personal satisfaction I will take from it!"

"Simon!" Kirsten got out at last, reading his intention now. "What are you going to do?" Stupid question.

"I am going to whale the living daylights out of you!" With that his right hand moved, lifting her off the couch before she could dodge. Just as quickly he had switched places with her and then she was across his knee, gazing at the pattern of the rug. But before she could come to any aesthetic appreciation of the gold and brown design, Simon's hand was being applied to her backside in a series of sharp, heartfelt slaps.

Kirsten caught her breath and yelped with pain and surprise. She struggled, but to no avail as his left arm firmly anchored her in position.

The whole thing was as embarrassing as it was painful and it was only the thought of the close proximity of neighbors that kept Kirsten from yelling blue murder. When the punishment ceased at last she was allowed to slide to a kneeling position between his knees. Simon still held her firmly with his right hand around the nape of her neck. He regarded her shocked, pained gaze without any sympathy whatsoever, totally ignoring the dampness of tears that threatened briefly. Kirsten hastily got them under control, knowing they were caused as much by her own emotions as by the spanking. And the emotions were those of joy generated by this new confirmation of Simon's character. Even in a fury, he had never lost his self-control. Just as, deep down, she had known he would not.

"Another thing, my future wife, don't think for one minute that I'll ever again let you trade on the fact that I love you to distraction! I was a fool to let you go back to your apartment alone tonight! I knew I should have kept you in my bed where you belong! Nothing would have happened if I hadn't given in to your pleading! My God! What I went through until I had you out of that boat! Then you had to go and disobey me! Disrupt a situation which I had completely in hand!" With an exclamation of profound annoyance, Simon let go of Kirsten's neck and reached for the half-full brandy snifter. He downed the remaining contents in one satisfied swallow and returned to his lecture, apparently renewed. He opened his mouth to further admonish his victim and abruptly shut it again, a look of surprise and dawning wonder replacing the outrage in his eyes. Kirsten continued to regard him warily from her position on the floor. There was a long silence while he stared at her and then Simon spoke very softly.

"I don't suppose it has yet occurred to you that I just finished administering a rather sound beating?" he said a little thickly.

"I don't see how I could fail to be aware of it," Kirsten replied with great feeling, one hand going automatically to the portion of her anatomy that had suffered most severely.

"You don't look," he observed slowly, "as if you intend to run away at the first opportunity." His hand reached out to touch the tendrils of hair that had loosened from the knot at the back of her head.

"Now, why would I do that when I love you more than anything else in this world?" she inquired, knowing her damp eyes must be reflecting the warmth and love she was experiencing for him. "Could you go over the part about loving me to distraction, please? I want to make sure I got everything I should out of the lecture. A woman who loves and trusts a man completely, as I do you, doesn't like to miss a thing he has to say!"

"Kirsten! Are you quite, quite certain? You're sure now about your feelings?" Simon's rich voice was laced with a kind of desperate concern.

She grinned mischievously. "I told you earlier this evening all I needed was some time alone to work out my answer!"

The pirate grin suddenly appeared as Simon reached down to pull her onto his lap. "I imagine I shall have to be grateful for the results and just ignore the fact that the time you took must have aged me by about ten years! I knew I would lose my temper with you someday, but I had hoped it would be long after I knew for certain you wouldn't leave me when it happened. But when I walked in tonight to see you sitting there on my couch all soft and yellow and looking for all the world as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, I couldn't help myself. I don't think I've ever been so angry with anyone in my life as I was with you when you came racing over that hill, straight into Jensen's line of fire! Here I had been thinking you were safely out of the action, on your way home! I was terrified you would get hurt and I promised myself that if we got out of the situation alive, I would first pound your rear until you'd think twice about disobeying orders in the future and then make love to you until you begged for mercy! I managed to cool down somewhat while waiting for the police, but when one of them finally dropped me off and I went straight to your apartment only to find you gone, I came unglued all over again! Kirsten, why didn't you do as I told you after we climbed out of that damned river?"

"I couldn't bring myself to drive off not knowing what would happen to you. When I heard that shot I was certain that man had killed you! For a moment then nothing else in the world mattered!" Kirsten lifted a finger to trace the hard line of his jaw. "If you were dead, I didn't care much about living, myself."

"Sweetheart, I love you very, very much. Do you know that?" Simon smiled gently, holding her close against his warm chest. Kirsten slipped her hands under the loosely hanging shirt and sighed happily.

"Simon, do you think I saw you at your angriest tonight?" she asked curiously, concentrating on the button that was in her line of sight as she lay cradled against him.

"Believe me, honey, nothing you could do would infuriate me more than what happened tonight!" he confirmed positively.

"Not even if I were to make eyes at another man?" she pressed impishly.