Come on, Gray," another sailor called. "Just one toast." Miss Turner raised her...

Come on, Gray," another sailor called. "Just one toast."
Miss Turner raised her eyebrows and leaned into him. "Come on, Mr. Grayson. Just one little toast," she taunted, in the breathy, seductive voice of a harlot. It was a voice his body knew well, and vital parts of him were quickly forming a response.
"Very well." He lifted his mug and his voice, all the while staring into her wide, glassy eyes. "To the most beautiful lady in the world, and the only woman in my life."
The little minx caught her breath. Gray relished the tense silence, allowing a broad grin to spread across his face. "To my sister, Isabel."
Her eyes narrowed to slits. The men groaned.
"You're no fun anymore, Gray," O'Shea grumbled.
"No, I'm not. I've gone respectable." He tugged on Miss Turner's elbow. "And good little governesses need to be in bed."
"Not so fast, if you please." She jerked away from him and turned to face the assembled crew. "I haven't made my toast yet. We ladies have our sweethearts too, you know."
Bawdy murmurs chased one another until a ripple of laughter caught them up. Gray stepped back, lifting his own mug to his lips. If the girl was determined to humiliate herself, who was he to stop her? Who was he, indeed?
Swaying a little in her boots, she raised her tankard. "To Gervais. My only sweetheart, Gray sputtered into his rum. What a fanciful imagination the chit had.
"My French painting master," she continued, slurring her words, "and my tutor in the art of passion."
The men whooped and whistled. Gray plunked his mug on the crate and strode to her side. "All right, Miss Turner. Very amusing. That's enough joking for one evening."
"Who's joking?" she asked, lowering her mug to her lips and eyeing him saucily over the rim. "He loved me. Desperately."
"The French do everything desperately," he muttered, beginning to feel a bit desperate himself. He knew she was spinning naïve schoolgirl tales, but the others didn't. The mood of the whole group had altered, from one of good-natured merriment to one of lust-tinged anticipation. These were sailors, after all. Lonely, rummed-up, woman-starved, desperate men. And to an innocent girl, they could prove more dangerous than sharks.
"He couldn't have loved you too much, could he?" Gray grabbed her arm again. "He seems to have let you go."
"I suppose he did." She sniffed, then flashed a coquettish smile at the men. "I suppose that means I need a new sweetheart."
That was it. This little scene was at its end.
Gray crouched, grasping his wayward governess around the thighs, and then straightened his legs, tossing her over one shoulder. She let out a shriek, and he felt the dregs of her rum spill down the back of his coat.
"Put me down, you brute!" She squirmed and pounded his back with her fists.
Gray bound her legs to his chest with one arm and gave her a pat on that well-padded rump with the other.
"Well, then," he announced to the group, forcing a roguish grin, "we'll be off to bed."
Cheers and coarse laughter followed them as Gray toted his wriggling quarry down the companionway stairs and into the ladies' cabin.
With another light smack to her bum that she probably couldn't even feel through all those skirts and petticoats, Gray slid her from his shoulder and dropped her on her feet. She wobbled backward, and he caught her arm, reversing her momentum. Now she tripped toward him, flinging her arms around his neck and sagging against his chest. Gray just stood there, arms dangling at his sides.
Oh, bloody hell.