“Are you so formal with all of your prisoners, Captain?”
He gripped his hands into fists. “I don’t usually speak to the prisoners.”
“I daresay they are in the brig and not in your quarters.”
He cleared his throat. “Do you require anything?”
She shook her head and gave him a dazzling smile that set his insides on fire. “No, you have been more than kind to me. Giving me your quarters, providing my meals, and taking me home. . . . It almost makes me forget that I am a captive until I try to turn the knob on the door. I am locked in, like an exotic bird in a cage.”
“Do you have magical powers like the queen?” he blurted out before he could stop himself.
The princess laughed at him and rose from his bed. “We do not consider our gifts to be magical but rather blessings from our goddess Màthair. And no, I do not have my cousin’s strength. If I did, I wouldn’t be your prisoner and our ship would not have been captured.”
“Then, you have no powers—gifts?”
“Only a small one,” she said, looking down demurely at her hands. “I can read your thoughts. The deepest emotions of your soul—you are racked with guilt, but you will do your duty, no matter the consequences for others. Or yourself. You are unmoored. Like a ship without a berth. There is nowhere that you call home, and despite being a child of the king, you have no family to call your own.”
He cleared his throat (and his head), hoping she hadn’t also perceived his unwanted attraction to her. Her words were too accurate to be guesses—she must truly have a gift. “Uh—the first mate says that we will arrive in Urka the day after tomorrow. Then it should only take a few hours to sail to the capital city. We should be in Bhailmore by evening at the latest.”
The princess stepped closer to him until he could feel her warm breath on his scruffy cheeks. “I would prefer that you let me go at some coastal town and not the capital.”
“Why?”
“One of the powerful lairds has seized control of the government,” she said, her voice liltingly lovely. “I would go from your prisoner to his.”
Guilt surged through his veins like blood. “I am returning you home, Princess. You are not our prisoner but our guest.”
She placed her soft hand against his scratchy cheek, and he inhaled sharply. “You have not shaved, Captain.”
It was hard to breathe or think with her hand on his face. “Someone is in my room where my shaving kit is.”
The princess caressed his cheek before letting her hand drop to her side. “The person must be a great pest.”
“She’s actually a princess.”
“Believe me, princesses are the greatest pests of all,” she said with a smile that set his blood racing throughout his body.
Gerard wanted to lean in only a handful of inches and feel his lips on hers. She was no longer touching him, but she hadn’t stepped away. He looked into her green eyes, greener than any emerald, and realized that he was herdupe.She had sensed his attraction for her and was plucking his strings like a harp. And he’d allowed her to.
Stepping back, he cleared his throat again. “Argylly is the farthest southwestern port of Urka. I could drop you off there.”
“Thank you,” she said, but she was no longer looking at him with her beautiful emerald eyes, so full of secrets.
“We will not be able to dock because of the conflict between our two countries,” Gerard said, “but I will have my crew row you to shore.”
“Willyourow me to shore, Captain?”
Gerard rubbed his sore neck and exhaled. Captains didn’t row cockboats, but he could not resist even a minute more in her company. Even if she was manipulating him. Her pull was too strong. “You may call me Gerard, Princess. And I would be honored to row you to shore.”
The princess came back to him and rose on her toes to brush her lips against his cheek. “You are a good man, Gerard. Please call me Elea.”
He couldn’t think or speak. He nodded stupidly. He exited the cabin and locked the door behind him.
Calling out orders, he tried to focus on anything but the beautiful princess on board. He shouldn’t allow himself to have feelings for her, to be attracted to her exotic beauty. Even if she returned his regard, a match between them was impossible. He was the captain of a ship. She was a princess.
He was unworthy of her in every way.
The child of her enemy.