by Lexi Ostrow
She nodded and looked at the floor as he gently wiped at the blood on her face. His heart pounded in his chest, and his head spun with the smallest scent of blackberries, leftover from their lunch.
“When did you realize?” she asked as he finished wiping at the blood on her face.
“Truthfully?”
She nodded and chewed her lower lip. A flame of lust sparked to life as she did, and he knew that bringing her there, with how he’d been growing to feel for her, was a mistake.
“Moments ago. You gave me a look, almost identical to the one that first night we touched when I drunkenly tried to take advantage of the beautiful girl who took care of me.”
He wasn’t certain, but in the eerie green glow, it looked as if she flushed before she spoke.
“What look was that?”
“The one where your fear battled against your desire.” He paused and slid his hands into her hair. “The one where desire triumphed last time.”
He brought his lips to her then, a slow and gentle motion, and she sighed against the kiss. He took that as consent and carefully pulled her, so their bodies were flush together. His mouth moved gently against hers, not in any rush because he knew nothing was stopping them this time. No spirits hazing their minds or titles, they were equals on the ship, and they could be lovers.
She ran her hands through his hair and slid them down to his back. He trembled under her touch and felt a rush of blood to his prick. He dropped his hands from her face and ran them up and down her shoulders, trying to heat her up and loving the way she pressed into him when he did so.
They explored one another, a flick of the tongue here, a slide of a hand there. The intense desire to take her only intensified with every touch. Not breaking the kiss, he pulled at the infuriating buttons on her black blouse and pushed it off her shoulders when the last button feel open. Jacob’s hand moved to McKenna’s breasts, and he groaned into the kiss, finding not even the bandage covering them this time.
He pulled back from the kiss, his eyes hardly open from his own lust, and looked down at her. “You’re stunning,” he said as he cupped her breast in one hand and skimmed his index finger over the dark nipple.
Her nipple peaked at the small touch, and she gasped, her eyes averting quickly to the floor. She tried to raise her hand and remove his from her chest, but Jacob caught her wrist with his other hand. Slowly, he squeezed and kneaded her wonderful breast, and then released it to do the same to the other.
She never looked up at him, but she wasn’t trying to remove his hand anymore, so he released her wrists. Her eyes fluttered open and closed as he kneaded both breasts at once. She bit her lip to stop from moaning, and another slam of lust hit him so hard, he thought he would come from the slightest touch from her.
“McKenna, you can look at me. I know who you are. I don’t want you to hide from me.”
“It’s not that, Jacob,” she whispered.
He wanted her to embellish, but her hands finally came unwound from his back, and she skillfully ran them over his fully erect shaft in his trousers. He felt every muscle in his neck tighten at the sensation.
“Dear God, then what?”
She wasn’t listening to him, or at least he didn’t think she was, as she undid the silver belt buckle and jerkily pulled it open. Her hand slipped inside, and he saw stars as pleasure shot through him from the unencumbered touch. Her hands were slick with sweat, and he knew she was nervous.
“McKenna, stop, no don’t, ugh.” He grunted low, and his hips bucks as she wrapped her hand around him.
“I never had any clue how this would feel,” she whispered. “I had wondered, and I’ve certainly brushed upon members of the opposite sex, but to touch you, to touch you here…” her voice trailed off, and she gave his prick a squeeze. “It’s silky steel, it’s intriguing.”
Jacob tried to process her words around the sensual, tight movements of her hand over his shaft. Untouched. The word flashed through his mind as he bucked his hips towards her.
“McKenna, are you, are you a virgin?” his voice was strained, and passion filled as he forced himself to focus around the pleasure.
“Yes.”
Suddenly, all the sensations shut out around him. There was a stunning female, almost naked before him, and McKenna was going to be all his. “Why?”
She continued to stroke and run her fingers up his length, and he wondered how the hell she was so practiced, how she knew just what his body craved.
“You ruined me for other men, Jacob. Two kisses and my body never found interest in another touching mine. I’ve kissed, not oft, but I have. But I’ve never wanted more. I suppose I always thought I’d find someone like you.”
A low growl slipped past his lips at the thought that he had possibly ruined her without even bedding her. He reached betwixt them and held her wrist still, his prick immediately bobbed when the motion stopped.
“You’re going to have to look at me, McKenna. After a statement like that, I need to see your eyes.” She lifted them, and he saw her lust and fear. “Bloody hell, this is not the time to ask this, not with your hand so tantalizingly wrapped around me.” He sucked in a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “Do you want this? You’ll be tainted, McKenna.”
She nodded her head. “In my station, impurity is not unexpected. If anyone is going to touch me for the first time, I should like it to be the man that gave me my first kiss.”
He held her gaze, their eyes locked together, both radiating a fair amount of need. “I can’t promise you anything beyond this mission. My father, bastard that I might be, I have to do as he pleases, as the country pleases,” his voice shook as he spoke.
“Then ruin me, Jacob.” Her tongue slipped out and flicked over her lips.
Eleven
His head spun, and he released her wrist, just as she let go of his shaft and pressed her lips to his again. He jerked his unbuckled bottoms off so quickly, he thanked God he didn’t trip and crush her when he stepped out of them. Naked before her, he let her eyes take him in. She played with her lower lip betwixt her teeth, and he wanted nothing more than for her mouth to play with him.
“You are perfect, Jacob. My heavens, you’re just so perfect.”
McKenna dragged a hand over the muscles of his abdomen and down around his inner thigh, painfully skipping his shaft. He preened at her compliment but refrained from telling her the same. He didn’t want to seem shallow. Jacob might not be able to give her anything but that one mission, but she didn’t deserve to think anything about the moment was not completely genuine.
He’d been watching her for months, desiring her for months. When he’d thought she was free with her body, he’d been damned upset that she’d fought off every advance. Now he knew the truth, and nothing would stop him from making every touch sheer bliss for her. He owed her that for daring to touch her both years before and over the past year.
His body shook as his desire grew stronger than anything he’d ever had in the past. Carefully, he slipped his hands into her breeches and pushed them down, along with a pair of frightfully frilly brown panties.
She was utterly bare, and he took the opportunity to pull his kiss from her lips and begin a slow trail down her body. From the long column of her neck to the swell of her breast, he kissed every patch of skin he could. His prick was pulsing with a life of its own, begging for her touch again, but, if this were her first sexual liaison, this would be for her.
His tongue snaked out and licked a circle around her puckered nipple, and he nipped gently at it. McKenna gasped, and he did it again before caressing her other breast. His hands trailed over her chest when his mouth continued its path down her torso. Slowly, he went to his knees, best to kiss every part of her. She shuddered as his nose skimmed over the flat surface of her stomach, and he stopped at the blonde curls betwixt her legs.
He reached out with his hand and drew a finger over her folds. His hips jerked of their own accord as he learned how wet she truly w
as. Slowly, he stroked her with his fingertip. She was so slick with need, he didn’t know how much longer he could force himself to wait to take her. Placing his hands around her, he leaned forward slightly and forced her to walk backwards, his fingers still playing over her core and drawing pants of pleasure from her.
“Lay down, McKenna. I don’t want to push you by mistake.” The sound of his voice shocked him, it was deep and almost gasping for breath as he forced the words out.
She did as he asked, and he moved to close the small space that separated them, still kneeling on the floor. “I want this to be about you, McKenna. You’ve waited for me, and now I’m here. I need to see to it that I was worth your loyalty. Worth never knowing a man’s touch whilst you thought of a man you never thought to see again.”
“Jacob, I have always wanted you. I would have waited forever if it meant one day we would touch again.”
A gasp punctuated her last few words as he slipped his finger inside of her. She was hot, wet and so fucking tight, he almost blacked out from the idea of her being wrapped around him. His heart was hammering in his chest, and his erection weeping at the tip to be touched. He wouldn’t, not until he knew her body was slick and ready for him.
In and out, he moved, slowly at first, and then faster as her hips began to rock on his digit. Her eyes had closed, and her body thrashed as she pushed down on his finger. She was a sight, spread out on the bed and lost in the ecstasy he was bringing her.
He forced out a breath and tried to focus around the haze of lust that was descending on him with every mewl and cry of pleasure he was drawing from McKenna. There was nothing but the two of them. The foul stench and sounds outside the door were gone, the rocking of the boat did nothing to deter him as he used his fingers to gently spread her folds and lick a path over her core, suckling her tiny nub.
“Jacob!” McKenna screamed, louder than she should have.
He smirked against her core and thrust his tongue inside her folds. She was sweet, as all women were to him, but there was something about knowing he was the only man to touch her that way that made it sweeter. McKenna’s hands dug into his scalp as she latched onto his hair and tugged his head. He didn’t need the encouragement as he moved his hands up her body and his tongue moved in an alternating set of thrusts and circles inside her. She trembled under his tongue, and Jacob growled against her mouth.
McKenna came in his mouth with all the pent strength of a stallion, and as her legs shook and her breathing steadied, he pulled away from her body. With a quick press of his lips to hers, he covered her, hovering just high enough off the bed to prevent touch.
“I’m sorry McKenna. This might hurt a little.” He placed a kiss on her forehand and grabbed his throbbing shaft in his hand.
She nodded and gave a small smile.
McKenna’s body was on fire. There was no other word for the sensations that had just exploded through her. Jacob had awakened every meter of her body with his kiss, and where he had kissed her last, she’d never even heard of that.
She nodded up at him, at his warning. In truth, she did not care how much it hurt, only that he take her soon. She had been waiting for years, even if she had not truly known it until now. No other man would have been able to bring her the depths of pleasure that Jacob had because, no matter how he’d infuriated her the past year, she’d never stopped finding him attractive.
“Oh.” She gulped as she felt the head of Jacob’s thick cock drift lazily over her core.
He smiled down at her and captured her mouth in a fierce kiss. She sighed into it and felt one of his hands move under her and down to her arse before lifting it slightly off the bed. Jacob nipped her lower lip, and the sting of it almost blocked out the sharp stab of pain as he pushed his prick inside her body.
McKenna’s breath came out in rapid puffs as she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to force the pain to subside. She’d heard stories of the pain in lovemaking, though she could never have prepared herself for the tearing sensation that rippled through her as he sank in deeply. A whimpered moan sounded betwixt them, and she felt him stop their kiss as a tear slid down her cheek.
Jacob slowly pulled out and sunk back in. He kissed her cheek, right where she was wet with tears, and she let out a breath.
“I’m sorry, so sorry.” He kissed her lips again and slowly moved his hips in a circular pattern.
The pain lingered for a few more seconds, and the same sensation she’d felt moments prior began to build again. “Oh, Jacob. I think, oh heavens,” she said and wrapped her hands in the scratchy wool blanket on the bed.
He suckled her breast as his hips gyrated in a slow and sensual motion. The pleasure was building up like a coil inside of her, and she locked her ankles around his arse, digging them in just a little. No words needed to pass betwixt him, the action was telling enough, and as his hips began to move quicker, her body took up the maddening rhythm.
Nothing had ever felt like the burning need coursing through her body with every stroke, and it was as if a dam of passion had overflowed within her. McKenna raked her nails down his muscular back as her body arced and pumped off the small bed in tandem with his strokes. She felt every motion, every pull out, and sink in. It was delicious but driving her mad. She nipped at his neck, and Jacob let out a small growl before slamming his mouth over hers.
Their kiss was different, aggressive this time, and their hips rocked and bucked together. Nothing had ever been as sensual as the sounds of their pants and moans as they both took pleasure in each other. The slap of flesh on flesh mingled with sounds of bliss, and her body went momentarily still as the coil of passion within her grew so tightly wound, it had nowhere to go but to spring open.
“Jacob,” she screamed into their kiss as her whole body shook and the most incredible pleasure slammed through her.
He had the nerve to chuckle against mouth, and she nipped his lower lip. He didn’t let up, his shaft continued to push and pull from her body. The action drew some waves of ecstasy over her, even after the initial release was done.
Languidly, she ran her fingertips up and down his back, over his shoulders and back round again. The muscles in his body were tense as his strokes picked up pace. She could feel a band of desire beginning to ebb within her once more as he raced towards his own release. Jacob laved her tongue with his before tearing his mouth away and nipping at her left nipple. Her body jerked at the sensation and came undone once more in a slightly less mind-blowing release. In the same instant, Jacob’s release tore through him. His thrusts stopped altogether, and he gently lowered himself on top of her body.
Her mind reeled with the implications of what they had done, but when Jacob placed a demure kiss to her lips, she wasn’t worried about any of them. She nuzzled her head into the crook of his neck and breathed in the scent of sexual sin around them.
“McKenna,” Jacob whispered her name as he slid his prick out of her body, a sensation that was almost as delicious as the sex itself.
“Mmm? Don’t say anything, Jacob. Please don’t ruin this moment.”
He laughed and kissed her again before standing up completely. “I was going to ask you how you fared? I could sense your initial pain, and based on the intensity of your shout, I know you enjoyed yourself. But, I want to be certain.”
She sat up, suddenly acutely aware of how naked she was before him. A flush crept over her cheeks as she thought about his question and drank him in. His skin was dewy with sweat from their lovemaking, and his blonde hair was tasseled thanks to her hands, but to her, he still looked wonderfully perfect. He arched a brow, and she shrank down into the bed just a small bit.
“I am quite well. I did not know it would be like that. So,” McKenna paused, struggling for the proper word, “all-consuming.”
He turned away and retrieved a cloth from his trunk at the foot of the bed. When he faced her again, there was a playful smile on his lips. “I must admit, I’ve never experienced something quite as heated as that. I’
ve not lain with a virgin before, and your gift was precious to me.”
He moved the cloth betwixt her legs and gently stroked at her inner thighs. The action was intimate and embarrassing all at once, as she realized what he was doing. She lay as still as she could and tried not to focus on the way his knuckles grazed her body with each wipe.
“There now, no one will ever know of our impropriety. I promise you, I will do whatever I can to keep your reputation intact, McKenna.”
The world seemed to tip upside down with his comment. Not because it was a reminder that she had given away her purity, but because it appeared he was well and truly going to brush the encounter under the table.
Tears threatened to spill over and give way her internal thoughts. She had known it would be nothing more, and yet, wrapped in his arms with their bodies sliding together, she had dared to dream he would want her. Shaking her head, she cleared her throat and stood off the bed. Her legs trembled at first, and she felt foolish as Jacob leaned forward to help her stand.
“I am fine. Let me dress, and I will be gone,” her words were cold.
Jacob flinched backward as if he had been slapped. “Let me help—”
“I’m fine. Tis nothing.” She hated that her vocabulary sunk into a less formal pattern, it only showed their differences more clearly.
Hastily, she grabbed her black blouse off the floor and tugged it over her head. Her eyes watered as she tried to tug her breeches on, and Jacob did reach out to steady her as the boat rocked. Once dressed, she looked at him and sighed. She’d known better, but it hadn’t stopped the sensation that her heart was being struck with a hammer, only to shatter.
She nodded at him and stepped past him. Her hand rested on the brass knob, and she tried to ignore the swirl of need that she felt when he touched her shoulder. McKenna rolled her shoulders, causing his hand to fall off.
“Thank you for your concern and help cleaning my wounds. I will not speak of this, and I will not expect a repeat,” McKenna’s voice cracked as she pushed the door open and walked out, shame rolling off her in waves.