“I’ve never done this before.”

 “You should have,” the woman confided. “It drives men wild.”

 “Ah, that tickles!”

 “Stop squirming, Nic.”

 Derek, his teeth grinding, heard a pause, and then the more sharply commanded, “I mean it!”

 “You should have more sympathy. When was the last time you had it done?”

 “I do it to myself. I could teach you if we had more time.” Christ, just what were they talking about?

 Nicole sounded wistful. “I wish I did. I miss it here,” she added before she began giggling.

 “We miss you t—Nic, I can’t continue until you can stop your belly from quivering like that.”

 Enough. His blood boiled. Jaw clenched, he yanked open the door and sucked in a breath, loudly exhaling as the scene before him unfolded. A fully, though scantily, clothed Eastern woman bent over a half-clad Nicole. Luckily, the woman snatched her hand away just as Nicole bolted up or, as he now realized, she would have had a streak of red henna going straight up her neck.

 A feeling of acute relief washed over him. The woman was decorating Nicole’s body with henna in the traditional Indian mehndi. His lips crooked up in a grin, which wasn’t surprising, considering his intense satisfaction at finding her, and finding her innocently uninvolved. Maria, he thought with an inward laugh, had gathered exactly what he wanted.

 “Sutherland! What are you doing here?” Nicole cried out. Could she know what her open shirt and hennaed skin did to him?

 “I could ask the same of you. I was certain I’d see you again—I just didn’t expect it to be in the home of a madam,” he replied. Then he hitched in a breath as he got a full glimpse of the braided vine design drawn on her creamy skin. It circled her waist like a bracelet, and then, in a pattern of swirls and buds, crawled up her torso to meet in a point between her breasts. In an instant, he knew the memory of her wide eyes and wildly decorated body would stay with him his whole life.

 She was too astounded to do anything but gape at him, until she saw his heated stare assessing her body. Her hands flew up to grab the sides of her shirt to pull it closed.

 “Oh, no, you don’t,” the Indian woman, Sasha, commanded in a stern voice as she swiped at her hands. “The last bit isn’t dry yet.”

 She gave the woman an oppressed look and moved to the side of the bed. In a huff, she turned herself from him to button her shirt.

 She stopped when she received a cuff to the ear from Sasha. “I’m sorry, Nic. But you won’t do anything to ruin this mehndi.”

 The woman turned to Derek, her large flattened earrings chiming as her doe eyes flickered over him. Then she gave a pointed, amazed look to Nicole. “He is Sutherland, the man you spoke of?”

 Nicole grimaced at the question, and a furious blush stole across her face. Derek was surprised but extremely pleased that she’d spoken of him to this woman. And obviously to Madam Maria, too.

 Nicole glanced down. Evidently, she thought she’d covered everything important, so she whipped around to face Sutherland. But not before flashing Sasha a look that screamed, Are you happy now?

 Sasha looked back at Derek and gazed at him in awe, muttering something about powerful magic. As Nicole watched Derek, her expression changed rapidly from wary bemusement to outright exasperation, until she finally jerked her glance to the woman. “What are you talking about?”

 “The mehndi is very powerful. It is already working.”

 “Already working?” Nicole choked out. “You said it would bring me luck and ward off evil. But on the contrary, Sutherland’s arrival is unlucky and he is not being warded off, so I’d say this stuff”—she looked down her chest—“is definitely not working.”

 Sasha arched an eyebrow at her. “No, no, Nicole. Don’t you see the lotus here?” She tugged up Nicole’s shirt and pointed out a finely drawn, lacy flower on her flat belly. “I drew that for fertility and love. And then your mate just happens to walk through the door! It is most definitely working.”

 Nicole’s jaw dropped. “Sutherland is not my mate! A-and you can count on the fact that we won’t need any luck with fertility, because there won’t be any—any—”

 “Planting?” he added helpfully as he bit back a grin.

 “Planting?”

 She was angered that he played with her, but he couldn’t help it. He found he enjoyed teasing her.

 “Again, what are you doing here?” she demanded.

 He’d watched the whole scene between Sasha and Nicole in grinning amusement. But his grin was wiped off his face when the lapel of Nicole’s shirt brushed a hardened, pink nipple just visible under the linen. Fascinated, he hardly trusted himself to speak intelligibly, so in response he smiled down at her, hoping it didn’t look as predatory as he felt, and answered her question with a question. “What do you think I’m doing at a brothel?”

 “Oooh, get out!” She threw a silken pillow that he easily dodged and didn’t notice when her shirt gaped open even wider. “You have no right to be in here. This is private! If you came here to cart me away, you’ll soon realize that won’t be happening.”

 He might not have come here expressly for that purpose, but carrying her away was exactly what he’d been thinking of. For her to presume so…His half-smile was replaced by a sneer. “Don’t flatter yourself, princess—I did not come here for you.”

 She blinked up at him, and he could swear he read a look of regret in her eyes before she turned to the bewildered woman. “Sasha, please go get Berto and see that this man is dragged out of here. Violently!”

 “I’m afraid we can’t do that,” Maria said as she swept past Derek into the room, her silks and exotic scent trailing delicately behind her. At a nod from her, Sasha quitted the room, and Maria continued to them, “We’ll have to come to some kind of agreement until he decides to leave. You are my little bella, but he is a good customer,” she said as she pinned Derek with a pointed look.

 He nearly flushed. To change the subject, he said, “Maria, I would like an explanation as to why Jason Lassiter’s daughter is in this place. Now.”

 “This place? You make it sound awful. Though you certainly never complained before.”

 It riled him to see Nicole trying not to smile at Maria’s set-down.

 “An answer!”

 Maria replied in a casually conversational tone, “She is a daughter to me.”

 Maria looked at Sutherland’s dropped jaw and bit back a laugh. This was going to be too much fun.

 “Daughter to you?” he managed.

 “Yes, I have known her for fifteen years.” She paused before she asked, “How long have you known her?”

 Sutherland gave her a tight, impatient look. “How do you know her?”

 Maria looked to Nicole in question. Nicole responded, “I don’t care.”

 Still Maria hesitated. It was only partly her story to tell. Plus, she doubted she could conceal her feelings for Jason if she spoke of him. But what did it matter? Nicole knew. It seemed as if everyone knew. Except Jason.

 And Maria sensed Nicole wouldn’t mind Sutherland learning more about her. Reluctantly, she began, “I was reading here one night when a messenger brought me an urgent request. An American captain was losing his wife in childbirth.”

 She paused and swallowed. “No one, not even the one doctor here, would help them because a couple of cases of yellow fever had come in on an American ship the week before. I was afraid as well, but the thought of some poor woman…Well, I had no nursing skills, but in my business I’ve certainly helped birth a number of children. It was what the American thought when he sent for me.”

 Maria encountered the familiar sadness as she continued, “When I arrived at the ship, the screams echoed along what would have been silent docks. I hurried on, but when I saw the woman, I knew it was too late. She’d lost far too much blood. Jason Lassiter, of course, was the captain. I’d never seen a human being who was so beside himself in misery.” Her voice had lowered to a whisper.

 Moving to Nicole’s side, she looked down at the girl she had come to love as a daughter and smoothed a curl behind her ear. In a stronger voice, she resumed, “He didn’t care that I was a madam. All he cared about was his young wife. We struggled all night, and finally a baby girl was born. But they were too weak and within the hour both had passed away.”

 She paused when she saw Nicole’s watering eyes. Sutherland saw, too, but he looked surprised, as though grasping how little he understood about Nicole and possibly Jason. Dragging his eyes back to Maria, he commanded, “Continue.” She only raised her eyebrows at him until he reluctantly added, “Please.”

 “Jason became…inconsolable.” She recalled that fateful night so well, it was as if she could still hear him yelling, weeping, smashing anything within reach. “None of his crew could restrain him.”

 She absently stroked Nicole’s shining hair. “My heart hurt for them, the little mother so brave and the husband so in love. I began making arrangements for her and her baby’s burial. Just when I was about to leave, Nicole, such a beautiful child, ran after me. She was terrified and crying, and when I picked her up and quieted her, she clung to me as if she’d never let go. I told a crewman I was taking her and bullied him until he let us go. She fell asleep in my arms that night, and I have loved her since.”

 Sutherland paused, seeming to digest all she’d told him, but then a muscle pulsed in his jaw. “This visit’s over,” he said abruptly as he strode over to Nicole and grabbed her arm. “You’re coming with me back to the ship.”