Before she could blink, he was standing before her. He took her hands, grasped them when she tried to yank them back. If he thought he could spew a few trite words that would calm her, he was in for a nasty surprise!
“Stop fighting me, woman, and let me speak. You’re beautiful. I thought so from the first time I saw you.”
“You hated me, Blake. It was written plain on your face. Just like now it’s pity.” She shoved at him with her shoulder. “Let me go. I need some air.”
Keeping their hands together, Blake took two steps and backed her into the wall, pressed his weight against her. “You’ll get some air later. For now, let me talk.”
Because her cheeks already burned with mortification, Alicia kept her tongue. The sooner he said his piece, the sooner she could escape this debacle. Nodding at her when she said nothing, Blake continued.
“You tempt me, Alicia, more than you know,” he muttered. “But I don’t want to take your innocence and hate myself for it in the morning.”
“Your sacrifice is duly noted,” she growled. “Now let me go.”
He sighed. “You’ll thank me for this later.” He released her, took a step back.
Alicia saw red. With both hands she came at him and shoved hard.
“What the hell was—”
“You don’t know anything about anyone but Blake Merritt, do you? You think I’ll thank you tomorrow for taking the moral road? Well, I won’t. And don’t you dare,” she rumbled, “look at me with compassion.”
He scowled. “Well, how the hell would you have me—”
“Stop being selfish! Your father didn’t see eye to eye with you so you walked away for eight years? Now you turn your back on me because you think it’s what’s best for me? I’m surprised you haven’t run on deck yet. Why, surely Nate and Vincent are going to run the ship to ground without you there to guide them.”
“You’d better stop now,” Blake warned.
“Or what?” In fine fighting form, she stood before him, chin raised. “Shall I find you a bottle to throw?”
Blake prided himself on his fairness. He’d never treated a crewman unjustly and always tried to take a quarry with the least amount of violence. But dammit, standing there, her golden hair in tumbled disarray, her face flushed, and her breasts heaving, she was pushing him beyond his boundaries.
“I’m not throwing anything, I’m leaving.” And the sooner the better. Shoving his desires aside, Blake nearly choked on regret. He headed for the stairs.
“Fine, Mr. Privateer,” she yelled at his back. “Tuck your tail and run away. You’re good at that.”
Her words hit him like a bullet and he froze. He’d been fighting his desire for days, and he wouldn’t have thought anything could be stronger than that, but now his anger came to the forefront. He spun around.
“You yell at me for not knowing anything, but you’re no different, are you? You think I walked away from my father easily? You think I didn’t think about him and my mother every damn day? You think I didn’t bleed when I heard she’d died?” He walked, she retreated, until she was once again being pressed into the wall by his weight.
Through the swirl of anger, Blake felt her softness against him and he went hard.
“You think I don’t want this?” he questioned, his hands tangling in her hair. “You have no idea how much I goddamn want this.”
He shoved with his hips, telling her just how much he did. Her eyes widened and she gasped. Blake swept in and plundered.
Need flashed through his body like lightning. He kissed her until his lungs burned and his hands shook. Her whimpering drove him on. He couldn’t get to her skin fast enough. Why did women wear so many blasted layers? He buried his face in her neck, acknowledged the scent of oranges through the lust that pounded in his veins while his hands fumbled with the buttons on her bodice. He didn’t know how many attempts it took—he was distracted several times—when Alicia’s clever hands slid underneath his shirt and dug into his chest.
Finally the buttons gave way, and with all the finesse of a staggering drunk, he managed to push the bodice and sleeves to her waist. The thin cotton underneath was amazingly sensual. Through it, Blake saw the shape of her breasts and the nipples that crested the generous swells. His mouth watered.
“You don’t know how much I’ve wanted this,” he said, then he bent to worship. His hands took in their fullness, molded them to his palms. Beneath them her heart hammered. Perfect, Blake thought, before he drew the cotton aside and tasted.
“Oh,” she gasped, and her whole body shuddered against him. Blake held her waist with his hands so she couldn’t move. He suckled and teased, his teeth toying with her nipples until she moaned and her head rolled back against the wall. Her hands clenched in his hair when he tugged, then blew to ease the slight pain.
“Blake,” she murmured.
Hearing her voice, thick with desire, speak his name was the best sound he’d ever heard. Coming back to her, he tasted her mouth as completely as he had her breasts. She held him tightly, slid her tongue around his. Then she was ripping at his shirt, and before he knew how it happened, she’d gotten rid of it and her hand slid down his stomach. His belly clenched.
“Mother of God,” he groaned as her fingers brushed his arousal. “No, don’t!” he ordered when she pulled back. With his hand, he guided hers back, showed her how to please him. Only when his eyes began to cross did he ease away from her and drop to his knees, where he finished undressing her.
When she was gloriously naked, he dragged his palms from her delicate ankles up the length of her legs to where he most wanted to taste her.
“You can’t mean to—” she stammered, pressing her thighs together and pushing at his shoulders.
“Trust me, I can.”
And he did. He kissed her knees, nibbled his way up her thighs. Beneath his mouth her muscles quivered and her hands fell to her sides. Slipping a hand between her legs, he eased them apart. With his thumbs, he parted her, then with a slow pass of his tongue, he tasted her. Her moans poured over him, slowed him when he ached to find his own release. He tormented her with his hands and mouth until she gasped his name, clutched his shoulders, and her legs collapsed.
He held her until she was strong enough to support herself, then he stood up. Lord, she was a vision with her half-lidded eyes and lips swollen from his kisses. Her breasts had small abrasions from his beard. He’d done that.
He wanted to do it again. Throbbing, Blake threw off his clothes, watched her eyes widen when she took in his desire.
“It’s your first time, Alicia. It may hurt a little, but I promise you, it’ll be worth it.” He teased her breasts again until her eyes fluttered. “Let me have you,” he pleaded.
She nodded and Blake lost the last of his rational thoughts when she opened her arms to him. That she wanted him in that moment as badly as he wanted her was all that mattered. She melted in his arms, her curves fitting against him in all the right places. Her nipples pressed into his chest, her hands fisted in his hair when he slanted his mouth over hers. With his finger, he played with her until she was wet and her hips rocked against his hand.
“Wrap your legs around me,” he instructed and nearly sobbed when she did. She was ready.
With all his blood between his legs, he was hard as stone. Taking her mouth in his, he thrust his tongue against hers and pushed inside her.
Alicia gasped and the haze of desire vanished in a flash of discomfort. Blake was pressed deeply inside her, stretching her uncomfortably. She hadn’t thought of how her body would accommodate him and it seemed it couldn’t. She suddenly wanted nothing more than to get dressed and pretend she hadn’t thrown herself at him.
With his hands on her buttocks, he pushed a little more and Alicia winced.
“Blake, I think it’s best if—”
“This will only hurt for a moment,” he said and thrust until Alicia felt a sharp stab of pain.
Alicia froze, then pushed at his shoulde
rs. “Let me down.”
“Trust me,” he promised and slid a hand between them.
While Blake murmured loving words in her ear, his fingers touched her until she once again felt the desire warming in her blood. The pain was easing and her body, it seemed, could take him after all. Soon his fingers were teasing her until she felt the slickness where their bodies joined and an urgency that demanded she concentrate on nothing else but what her body was feeling.
Blake had never felt anything as wonderful as Alicia taking him into her body. She was wrapped around him and his own desire was raging. He slid inside her one long stroke after another until his teeth ached from the effort of going slow. When they were both wet with sweat, he began to pump until his vision blurred.
Capturing her mouth, he kissed her as he increased his rhythm. He felt her legs tighten around him, heard her breath catch.
“Alicia,” he moaned.
Cupping a breast, he plucked at her nipple.
“Oh, God. Blake.”
She snapped like a bow and liquid heat spilled over him. Squeezing her buttocks, he pulled her hard against him. Then, with her muscles milking him, he poured himself into her.
Alicia was sprawled on the floor of Blake’s cabin, naked as the day she was born. Blake was beside her, eyes closed, his breathing not quite back to normal yet. There was still enough light in the cabin to see without candles. She should have been mortified and reaching for something to cover herself with. She should, she imagined, feel ashamed.
She’d never felt better.
“Is it always like that?” she asked, turning onto her side to see the man she’d given herself to. She smiled, looking at him. She’d given herself to a very handsome man.
He opened his eyes, looked at her. His hand came to caress her cheek and his voice was as soft as his touch. “It’s never like that, sunshine.”
She slid over, curled around him, and placed a hand on his warm chest, her fingers toying with the dark curls. He placed a hand over hers, stilled the motion. He balanced on one arm, looked down at her with eyes that brimmed with concern. “Did I hurt you?”
“No. It was beautiful.”
“I wasn’t very gentle.”
She grinned. “I don’t remember asking you to be. You gave me everything I wanted and more.”
He shook his head. “You deserve better than to be taken up against a wall.”
“No, I don’t. I didn’t know there could be that kind of passion. We couldn’t get to each other fast enough, you needed me so much that you couldn’t wait to get me in a bed.” She rose up, touched her lips to his. “That’s the best thing you could have done, Blake.”
His lips twitched. “You sure know how to make a man feel good.”
She laughed, fell back with arms stretched over her head.
“And you’re stunning,” he said as his eyes took a leisurely stroll over her.
“I feel it,” she whispered. “With you.”
She held out her arms, but this time Blake shook his head.
“We should talk.”
“We just did.”
“No, I mean really talk. We’ll be in St. Kitts the day after tomorrow.”
Alicia sat up, her heart diving. She’d just found something special and she wasn’t prepared to let it go.
“Blake, we have tonight.” The cabin was darkening quickly now. Night was settling in. “Vincent has the ship. Can you stay with me? For tonight, will you lie with me? I promise we can talk in the morning.”
He’d never imagined a woman would ever be on board his ship, and gazing at Alicia now, naked on his floor with her heart in her eyes, he knew he never wanted there to be another.
Standing, he held his hand out to her. She slid hers into his, and Blake felt the way he had when he’d bought the Blue Rose. Like a piece of himself had come home. When she was in his arms, he did what he felt she deserved. He kissed her gently, coaxed a reaction rather than demand one. Her hands sliding into his hair, she pressed her body against his arousal.
“Hmm,” she murmured against him.
“That’s just the beginning,” he whispered. Then he swept her off her feet and lay her on the bed.
Where before he’d been acting on a fierce need to possess, this time he was swept by an equally strong need to cherish. His fingers did all the things they’d done before, but at a much slower pace. He took his time to rub her delicate feet, to kiss the amazingly sensitive skin behind her knee. Her softness captivated him and his hands explored all of it.
“You taste as sweet as you look,” he murmured as he nuzzled her neck.
Alicia arched, lost in the sensations of being desired. She hadn’t really given lovemaking much thought in the past. Yes, she’d wanted someone to find her pretty, but she hadn’t imagined what the actual act would entail. She was certain, however, that had she imagined it, it would have paled in comparison to making love with Blake. In her innocence she’d believed it was more about the man seeking pleasure, that it was what was asked of a woman. Never would she have believed it to be so pleasurable for her.
Nor would she have believed that she could want it again so soon afterward. Or that he’d be ready to so quickly as well. He was lying half over her, just enough for her to feel the pressure of his weight and the evidence of his need.
Blake continued to kiss around her neck, lower to the base of her throat. Her heart kicked and her breasts became full and heavy. Everywhere he touched, she tingled. She knew now how soft his hair was, and her fingers kept coming back to tangle in it.
He was thorough, not leaving any part of her unclaimed. She smiled, closed her eyes, and tightened her grip on his head when he suckled her. Her legs opened, inviting him to join her again.
“Not yet, sunshine,” he said, though he did press a hand to where she throbbed.
Alicia’s hips jolted off the bed. She wanted him with a fierceness she couldn’t explain. It wasn’t only that he was the first man to find her desirable; indeed, she couldn’t imagine ever letting another touch her the way she allowed Blake. It went beyond the lust of the flesh, she thought, though his flesh did feel fine. She trusted Blake. He made her smile, made her feel beautiful. He was headstrong but then so was she, and she knew she’d never be able to settle for someone who wasn’t. His strength was part of what appealed to her.
Aware he’d stopped touching, Alicia opened her eyes, found him staring. There was tenderness in his gaze, there was affection. He shifted fully onto her, moved between her legs.
“Alicia,” he whispered. Then, cupping her cheek, he kissed her with such care it brought tears to her eyes.
And as simply as that Alicia knew she loved him. Privateer or pirate, it didn’t matter.
He entered her slowly, twined his hands in hers as he did. She rocked with him, her heart bursting with emotion. Using her whole body, she told him without words just how much she loved him.
Alicia awoke in the arms of her lover. A lover, she realized smiling, that was snoring lightly in her ear. She didn’t dare move because she wasn’t ready for him to awaken, but could see by the pale light outside the window that morning had come. She hoped to lie tangled in memories and sensations before life interrupted them.
Blake would want to talk about what had happened. She bit her lip. There was no doubt in her mind she loved him, but was he ready to hear it? The last thing she wanted was for him to feel obligated to say the same, and yet she knew she’d be devastated if he didn’t return her feelings.
Before she could think on it any further, the hatch opened, and noise spilled into the cabin. Blake was instantly awake and bolted upright.
“What is it?” he demanded, pulling the blanket to Alicia’s chin to keep her covered.
“It’s me,” Nate called. He remained on deck and only his shadow stepped into the cabin. “Ship on the horizon, Captain.”
“Colors?” Blake asked, sliding out of bed.
“Red and gold.”
“Prepare the crew.
I’ll be up in a minute.”
Nate shut the hatch and Blake had his pants on before he turned to Alicia.
“It’s a Spanish ship and we’re commissioned to go after them. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to stay below. It’s safer that way.”
“I know how to shoot a pistol, Blake. In fact, I brought my own.”
“Is that so?” he asked. He smiled as he drew on his shirt. “You’ve been armed this whole time?”
“Yes.”
He peered at her from under his brows. “Ever thought about using it?”
“Many times,” she admitted, then laughed when he looked surprised. “But I’m very glad now I didn’t.”
His fingers stopping on the top button, he slowly lowered his hands. She held out her palm. The blanket slipped and nearly exposed her breasts before she caught it in her other fist. Blake’s eyes lingered on her flesh and she heard his breath catch. He raised his gaze after a moment and placed his hand in hers. His heat swept into her.
“I can’t tarry, Alicia. I’m needed on deck.”
“I know. And I’ll give you my promise that I’ll stay here.”
“Thank you. Sometimes taking a ship can be fast and easy and other times they put up a struggle. It can be very dangerous. If you hear the guns, hide under the bed. Stay low. I’ll come down as soon as it’s safe.”
Alicia let the blanket fall. She wrapped her arms around Blake and opened her mouth over his. His hands spread over her naked back, and he sighed into her mouth as his lips mated with hers.
“Be careful,” she whispered when they pulled apart.
“I will,” he said, his eyes as hot as the hands on her back, “as I have a very good reason to come back.”
Keeping his eyes on hers, he pulled the blanket up around her shoulders, brushed her breast with the back of his hand.
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