He aimed a smile at her. “Believe me, I am tempted, sweetheart.” He nuzzled her breast again then circled the peak with his tongue.
She sighed, dissolving into the bedding when she should be on guard. But it was too difficult when he touched her like this.
He released her nipple and winked. His tousled hair lent him roguish appeal. “I could stay, but you promised to marry me. Delaying our nuptials any longer than necessary is disagreeable to me, so I plan to see to Gracie’s passage from Ireland and purchase a special license. Then when you return, we will marry.”
She giggled, sounding more like a girl than a woman, but it seemed fitting since the last time she recalled being this happy was when her mother was alive. Her fears slipped away. “Sebastian, you are marvelous.”
“And I don’t want you to forget it while we are apart.” He returned his attention to her breast and caressed between her legs.
“I cannot forget,” she murmured. “Ever.”
“Good girl.”
Twenty-six
To say the London docks were chaotic was an understatement. At least to an outsider like Sebastian upon first glance. Wagons with creaky wheels and weighed down with barrels and crates arrived simultaneously. They passed within inches of each other as they clattered over the wooden walkways. Shouts echoed on the air, some orders, others curses. Men hustled to and fro, parting to allow the wagons to pass. Miraculously, no one was run down in the process.
The ships were oddly still, like slumbering giants, while seamen swarmed the decks outfitting them for the next adventure. A group of rough-looking men had formed a queue outside the shipping office, a sprawling wooden structure that was neither fancy nor impressive. Sebastian would call it solid, serviceable. And it reinforced how he should approach the man inside.
Captain Daniel Hillary was honest. Some said appallingly so. He didn’t put on airs and had embraced his grandfather’s bourgeois origins with no care for what Society thought. This made him the only man Sebastian would trust with the truth about Helena.
When he had left Helena yesterday morning, she informed him that she would remain behind only one more day without him. Secretly he had been pleased by her assertion. He never wanted to come between her and her sisters, but it meant a lot that she was eager to reunite with him.
Sebastian shouldered through the group gathered outside the shipping office door and entered a large room that spanned the entire width of the building. A prim little man sitting at a table in the corner looked up from a pile of papers on the surface. “How may I be of assistance, sir?”
The seaman standing at the table swung around to gawk. Apparently, Sebastian was out of place.
“I am seeking an audience with Captain Hillary. His manservant on Curzon Street said I could find him here. I am Lord Thorne.”
Placing the quill aside, the man stood and came forward. “I will see if the captain has time to speak with you.” He disappeared behind a door, his voice muffled as he announced Sebastian’s unexpected arrival.
A hearty laugh carried from the other room. “By all means, show in Lord Thorne.”
The door swung open and Sebastian was gestured to come inside. When he entered the sparse office, Captain Hillary was on his feet. “If it isn’t the man who humiliated Ben. Well done, Thorne.”
Sebastian’s brows shot up. He hadn’t expected such an enthusiastic welcome. “Humiliation wasn’t my original intention, but sisters have a way of interfering at times.”
The captain’s crooked grin grew wider. “I have a sister. I well know the trouble they can cause. Fortunately, Lana is her husband’s problem now.” Despite his words, his eyes lit with merriment when he spoke of his sister. Perhaps Sebastian and Captain Hillary weren’t so different from one another. “What can I do for you, Thorne?”
Sebastian took the seat offered to him and spotted a boy for the first time. He was sitting at a smaller desk in the corner, quiet as a ghost and engrossed in a drawing. He looked no older than Gracie.
Hillary’s gaze followed Sebastian’s. “This is Rafe, my wife’s brother. He is learning to become a seaman. I expect he’ll have his own ship by next summer.”