Heart of Steel - Meljean Brook [97]
“Fire the engines!” Guillouet called out, and stepped forward. “Mr. Fox. You will keep your wife in her place and her mouth closed or I will do it for you.”
Yasmeen felt Archimedes’ nod.
“She’s to be confined to your cabin. She is not to speak to any man aboard this ship. When her meals are brought to her, she will face away from the door so that my men do not even look upon her.”
“I’ll beat her, too,” Archimedes said.
Guillouet was not amused. “Frankly, Mr. Fox, it would not be amiss.”
“A war machine, Captain!” The shout sent a hail of responding cries through the crew, panic as sails were drawn in, orders yelled down brass tubes. “They’ve lit it up! One of the tentacle machines that rip airships from the sky!”
The captain gave a final look to Yasmeen. “Get her below.”
Then he was off, and over the starboard side Yasmeen caught a glimpse of the gigantic machine, body rising like a cone as high as the citadel, illuminated by the tall acetylene lamps that lit the outpost walls.
“Should we tell them that there aren’t any soldiers to man it?” Archimedes said against her ear, and without waiting for her to answer, “No, I don’t think so, either.”
Still holding in her fury, Yasmeen shook her head—and walked quietly to the ladder while the crew panicked around them.
Keep your wife in her place.
It echoed in Yasmeen’s head until she couldn’t shake the rage. Not at Archimedes—she knew it wasn’t at him. But as soon as they entered their cabin, she couldn’t keep herself from rounding on him with a snarl. “You stopped me!”
His eyes were suddenly bright, hard emerald. “And you let me! I couldn’t have held you back if you hadn’t allowed it—and that couldn’t have ended until one of you was dead.”
“It would have been him!”
“I know.”
Her teeth clenched. That wasn’t enough. She screamed, whipped toward the bunk. The upper mattress shredded to pieces under her claws. It still wasn’t enough. She whirled back to Archimedes, who watched her with lifted brows.
“Now we both have to sleep on yours.”
Yes. That would be enough.
“Come on,” she said, chest heaving. “Now. No more nonsense about kissing. I want to be fucked.”
His gaze flattened at nonsense. “Not like this, Yasmeen.”
“This is how I want it. Angry, hard, rough. If you can’t do it, I’ll find someone else. On a ship full of men, it’ll be no problem.”
His jaw hardened. “You will not.”
“Why? Will it hurt you? Oh, tenderhearted Archimedes Fox.” Mouth curling into a sneer, she put her face to his. “You say you want to feel everything. Do you want to feel what it’s like to watch me fuck someone else?”
“Do it, then,” he said through clenched teeth. “Do it.”
Idiot. Did he think he was calling her bluff? She didn’t want anyone else, but she’d fucked without caring about the man she was with before. Did he truly think she couldn’t do it again? Just bodies fucking, it didn’t matter.
And she could end all of this now, she realized. This nonsense about falling in love with her, about longing and waiting to break his heart. She could do it now, and no matter what else Archimedes was, no matter what foolish ideas he had about feeling everything, she knew he wouldn’t keep on this path after she went to someone else. Hell, she wouldn’t even have to fuck anyone to do it. She could leave, wait, make him think she had. She’d break his heart, and that would be the end of it. He wouldn’t try to win her love or even a kiss after that.
Two steps carried her to the cabin door. She opened it.
And like a fool, looked back.
Archimedes wasn’t angry anymore. His face had whitened, skin taut with shock and hurt, eyes bleak as if he were already watching her with another man. Pain slashed across her chest. She’d done that. She’d deliberately done that to him, hacking away at the bond that had formed between them. And if she stepped out of the cabin, she’d break it. Maybe she already had.
That wasn’t what she wanted. That was not what she needed. Bodies fucking didn’t matter . . . and Archimedes Fox did.
Yasmeen closed the door. “I can’t,” she said. “I’m confined.”
She smiled, and his