The Captain of All Pleasures (Sutherland Brothers Series #1) Book

---SPOILER ALERT---
I just love Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark, and being deprived of her Scottish Lykae, and stunning Valkyrie I decided to tackle her historicals.
This is the first of 2 books about the Sutherland Brothers. Derek Sutherland is a shipping captain who has basically lost any and all hope. He's an earl, and a captain-guess which one he actually cares about?
Nicole is the daughter of a sea-captain and the granddaughter of a marchioness. When her mother dies when Nicole is only 5, her father makes promises to her grandmother (on her mother's side) that at age 12 he'll send Nicole back to England to be schooled properly and then introduced among the ton. yeah, Nicole wrapped her daddy around her little finger and she didn't go to finishing school til she was 18 (he he)
But the story is about a race round the world-London to Sydney. And Nicole's father needs to win that race! His shipping line/reputation depend on it, but someone is sabotoging the competition. Nicole hears noises on deck and when she investigates, the saboteurs want to have a little fun.
When Derek first sees Nicole, he sees her dressed as a boy, but she 's in a brothel (looking for her father), so he sees through her boy clothes and sees the hottie she is...too bad he thinks she's a whore! After she leaves with his arch rival Lassiter (her dad), he can't get her out of his head. So when she runs straight into his arms later that night, looking incredibly frightened, he decides he'll save her, but she's coming back to his ship.
This is where a lot of the misunderstandings start. He doesn't know who she is, and she doesn't correct him. He doesn't know that she's titled, she never tells him, and the woman (Lydia) who shows up demanding money isn't spoken of either. After spending the night with each other (not that way! get your minds out of the gutter!) Nicole is discovered by her father's men and Lassiter and Derek fight it out, with derek shouting all kinds of obsenities about Nicole (he believes she's a whore still) and provoking Lassiter even more. But then after both are jailed, Nicole realizes her father will never be released in time for the big race-so she sails the ship herself.
There are lots of chance encounters on the way to Sydney but Nicole's ship was sabotaged and during a big storm it starts to sink. Obviously Derek saves her and her crew, but he thinks the sabotage on his ship was Nicole's fault. So he's pissed and treats her like crap. then they like each other again, and he asks her to be his mistress. She tells him where he can go :) But what he doesn't tell her is why he won't marry her-he's already married. So he leaves her and she meets up with her crew and they go back to London where she is not only broken-hearted, but willing to let her grandmother play matchmaker. when she sees Grant (Derek's brother) she is so stunned that her expression causes Grant to come over and introduce himself. But Lydia steps in and announces that she is his sister-in-law, and ruins everything by telling of her marriage to Derek (which got annulled), and poor Nicole fainted.
Derek meanwhile realized he's an ass and has been searching for her, especially now that he is single. When he sees her on the arm of someone else, he storms over, yanks her outside tells her they are getting married, and she runs off.
The next day he sneaks in and drags her out of the house to marry her in Gretna Green. that was one of my favorite parts. In fact this line cracked me up.
Derek to Nicole's grandmother:
"I am Derek Andrew Sutherland, sixth earl of Stanhope and I am taking your granddaughter to Gretna Green to marry her."
"If you must..."

The only reason I didnt' give this a higher rating is that there were too many "misunderstandings." Even after they were married, Nicole didn't clear up a misunderstanding. It drove me nuts, plus, I think that Lydia could have had a bigger part as the evil bitch wife (she tricked the Sutherland family into forcing Derek to marry her). But at the same time, hello? it's Kresley Cole! we know it'll be a good book.