Nick groaned again. Damn it, Zach was right about him being inept.
He knew how to pleasure a woman, of course, but if she wasn’t asking for his attention, he was uncertain.
He hated being uncertain.
Harriet was certainly enjoying what he was doing with her hair, though. Her eyes were closed and she swayed slightly with his movements. All the knots were out now. He was holding sections of her hair up, brushing it dry, letting the silky strands fall into place. He could see the tender skin of her neck, the silver chain caressing her nape. It would be so easy to lean forward, press his lips to that skin. More than once he’d made a woman shatter in pleasure by kissing and gently biting just below her ear if his hand beneath her skirt wasn’t quite enough to push her over the edge.
Oh hell. Harriet wasn’t in bliss. She was asleep on her feet.
Nick groaned. So did the gent next door.
He set the brush on the mantel and patted her shoulders, wanting to run his hands down her arms, to caress her. “All done.”
She brought her head up and blinked at him as she turned. She looked disoriented for a moment, then gave him a slow smile as she touched her hair. “Thank you.”
He grunted an acknowledgment and made a show of taking off his boots and neckcloth, settled the blanket over himself, and tried to get comfortable slouching in one armchair, his feet propped on the seat cushion of the other.
She draped the damp towel over the chair blocking the door, blew out the lamp, and climbed into bed.
As many nights as she’d slept in his bunk, he’d never actually seen her get into bed. There was the time he’d carried her there, after she fell asleep at the table perusing navigation charts. He’d wanted to climb in beside her and hold her all night. He’d settled for touching his lips to her forehead in a chaste kiss. His duties as captain and navigator had called him away.
Now, however, there were no distractions. He threw another piece of wood on the fire and tugged the blanket up to his chin.
Within moments he heard the soft sounds of Harriet’s deep breathing. Fast asleep.
The couple next door, however, were still having fun. Whatever the gent was doing had her exclaiming her pleasure.
Nick groaned.
* * *
He woke suddenly, aware of movement in the room.
The fire had burned down a little and the sky outside was still black.
He strained his eyes, trying to see in the dark. A muffled “Ow!” and he was able to pick out Harriet standing beside the bed. He threw more fuel on the fire.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you,” she whispered.
“Anything amiss?”
“Stubbed my toe on the bed post is all.”
“But why were you out of bed?” If she’d used the chamber pot, it was directly across from the bed, clear of any furniture.
“Cold. There’s a draft from the window. Just adding my coat to the blanket.”
But her coat was short. Either her legs and feet or her chest and shoulders would still be cold.
Oh, he couldn’t. What he was thinking went far beyond the pale to be thinking about doing with an unmarried miss. He wouldn’t.
He did. “It’s a big bed. What if I added my blanket on top of yours and we shared?” The chair was lumpy. And the side of him next to the fire was toasty but the other side was chilled.
Was that muffled squeak from her? Or the couple he could still hear moving around next door?
“Um. Neither of us is wet.”
She was thinking of the time they’d shared a blanket to warm up after their dunking in the Channel. “True. But you are chilled.”
