“May I escort you topside, Miss Green? Perhaps you would like to dance?”“Just a turn about the deck, if you would be so kind,” she said. “It’s been a long day.”

There. A peace offering of sorts. Had she been truly mad at him, she would have excused herself immediately, but she hadn’t.

Kit rose and offered his arm. Tonight was still and the crew on duty hunted the breeze to keep the Calliopemoving towards their destination. He and Sophia made a leisurely pace to the ship’s bow. Her head tilted towards the moon suspended above them. Her eyes were closed and dark, fan-shaped lashes rested on her cheeks. Then her eyes opened, those dark, fathomless eyes.

“I wanted to thank you for not saying anything to my cousin or Professor Fenton about my absence,” she said.

Kit rested his hip on the railing and shrugged. “By the time I was aware of the circumstances, it was a moot point. It would have been a different matter had I known. Searching for you would put my men at risk and cost us a full day if we missed the tide.”

Sophia swallowed and nodded her head, keeping her face from him.

“Then you’ve placed me further in your debt,” she whispered.

He kept his voice to the same level as hers. “And that’s not a place you like to be, is it?”

Sophia shook her head and coal-black strands flew loose from the chignon.

“’Neither a borrower nor a lender be’, Captain Hardacre.”

“Kit,” he insisted. “With so much in common, surely we’re friends now.”

She gave him a closed-mouth smile, and her eyes closed, too, shuttering the windows of her soul. She was right to do so. He was little more than a pirate and a thief. He would steal what was behind those lids if he could.

“Kit.” His name on her breath was so faint he was lucky to catch it. “I don’t wish to be in your debt.”

He was unprepared for the surge of emotion when those rich brown eyes opened and looked up at him. Kit’s lips lowered to hers and he tasted surprise on them. He shifted his feet to hold her against him more firmly. Desire pumped through his veins as he felt her respond. The soft sigh as their lips parted sent a maelstrom of emotions crashing over him.

He lifted his head far enough to see her clearly. Her eyes were open and bright, perhaps with shock. Even in the pale moonlight, he could see her lips were full with color. Caused by him. He did that to her and it had only been a kiss – a bare touching of flesh.

Never before had he been so quick to arousal. The caress of professionals had never achieved that end so quickly.

Possibly, it had been a one-off, a fluke He’d better make sure. Sophia was quicker and turned her head away.

“Don’t… please… I’m in love with someone else”