by A. W. Exley
"I love you, princess, been trying to figure out how to tell you for over a week now. Then the bloody pirate upset everything before I managed to get the words out."
Her teeth began to chatter, but she still managed a smile. "Take me home, please."
He picked her up and she curled into him. Holding her close, they headed down the stairs.
The barman stood below, staring at his missing upper floor. The drunks still stared at their drinks and missed the whole thing.
"Told you it weren't good to side with Hunter."
The Hellcat waited outside. He jumped aboard and didn't let go of Amy all the way back to the cottage.
He carried the trembling bundle up the stairs to the bedroom. With quick movements, he stripped the damp clothes from her body and tucked her under the blankets in the large bed. Then he removed his own clothing and climbed in next to her. He drew Amy into his arms, pressing her chilled flesh to his to share his warmth.
Over several long minutes the rattling in her teeth stopped and her breathing returned to normal. She warmed in his arms, which created a secondary problem. The warmer she got, the hotter he got.
Chapter Twelve
Amy lay wrapped in his arms. Warm. Safe. Protected. He'd come for her.
"Well this is a bit of a pickle," she muttered as she further evaluated her current situation. There was a very large, and very naked, man behind her equally bare flesh. Lord he feels delicious. Languid waves washed through her limbs. She wriggled her bottom, trying to get closer to the source of her pleasure. Being kidnapped was worth it, if this was the end result.
Jack groaned behind her. "That's not a pickle."
She stilled as something quite large nudged between her buttocks before sliding into the juncture of her thighs. Tingles ran over her skin, spiralling out from her core like ripples on a pond. As an experiment, she squeezed her thighs together and he moaned. The flash of heat up her body left her unable to mutter anything for several long heartbeats.
"Do you want to talk about it?" His lips skated over her neck.
"About the pickle?" It was certainly the main thing on her mind.
"Stop callin' it that," he growled, and rolled her over.
A parade of vegetables flashed through her mind. Courgette? Cucumber?
He hovered above her and dispelled the gardening thoughts as he slid his hips over hers, trapping her beneath him. She laid her palms on his chest. She’d studied anatomy in books, but this was a living, breathing man who sent the equivalent of one hundred proof alcohol coursing through her veins and straight to her brain. She became drunk off the sight, smell, and feel of him. She ran an exploratory hand over one pectoral muscle, his body like stone under skin, with a dusting of tight curls tapering to an enticing path. He even had scars and tattoos. Her fingertips danced over his chest and down his side, tracing a sinuous pattern of ink. She longed to explore every inch of him and marvel in their differences.
He took her hand and pressed her nails into his chest. "Harder, princess. I promise I won't break."
She dug her nails into his skin and scraped along his side. His head tipped back as he groaned, and heat shot through her body with the exhilaration of wielding her own sort of power. The sight of his pleasure edged hers higher.
She gave a gasp as their bodies came together. "Well, I certainly can't return to London now."
"Good," he said, kissing his way up the back of her neck. "Cause you're staying here with me, I ain't letting you go." By using small hip movements, he caressed her intimately.
She bit back another groan. How could he feel so good? She hoped he never stopped. What where they talking about? Vegetables? Oh yes. "Well you will have to let me go at times. I intend to petition the medical schools until one admits me as a student. Unless you couldn't love a woman doctor?"
He stilled and met her gaze. "I love you just the way you are."
Just the way you are. She sighed and revelled in the moment of hearing those words from his lips. Then she gave a mischievous grin. "Ruined?"
"Naked. Haven't got to the ruinin' bit yet." His lips trailed over her collar bone and down to her breasts while his hands caressed her skin.
"Could you move things along in that direction, now that you've started?" she asked. Her body thrummed and the ache built within her as she tried to arch into his touch.
"Only if you say it." He tortured her, his fingers ran around her breast but didn't satisfy the escalating need.
"Say what?" If he kept stroking her like that she wouldn't be able to say anything except blither or more likely oh dear God. The press of him against her centre drove her quite mad. So close, and yet her body wanted him closer. She wiggled trying to move her hips, wanting, needing him deep inside.
A frown crossed his face. "That I'm good enough for you. That you forgive me for starting this as a bet with the friggin' pirate."
"Oh, Jack." She raised a hand to his face. "I thought you didn't want me. Silly man." A smile teased over her lips; to say the words in her heart or not?
The devilish crooked grin touched his mouth and he brushed his thumb over her peak.
She moaned. "I love you," she managed to whisper before he bent his head and claimed her mouth in a bruising kiss.
He pulled back, a frown on his face. "I don't want to hurt you."
"You couldn't, you protect what's yours," she said. "Love me, Jack."
He thrust into her and she lost herself in him. He possessed her and became the centre of a spinning vortex. She clung to him, holding him close as her world exploded.
Afterwards she lay in his arms, her muscles like jelly, but with a deep satisfaction in her bones. He rained kisses over the back of her neck. "You will marry me, won't you?"
"One day," she replied.
"What does that mean?" He stilled behind her.
"It means having well and truly left the polite society girl behind, I find I want to take a leaf out of Cara's book." She wiggled back against him. This really was fast becoming her most favourite place to be.
He growled against her neck and nipped her skin with his teeth. "This better be good and not involve me gettin' shot."
"I intend to be scandalous. I shall horrify all of society with my magnificent lover and my intention to pursue a medical career. But I will marry you; just not yet."
"All right. But only because you called me magnificent." He rolled her over for another kiss.
"Do you believe in unicorns?" she asked when Jack slipped the bracelet back on her wrist.
"I do now." He grinned. "Them and man-sized chickens."
"Man-sized chickens?" She really wasn't following this conversation at all. What had the delicious man done to her?
"Oh yes. We're gonna have fun giving flyboy feathers. Once I let you out of this bed."
About A. W. Exley
Books and writing have always been an enormous part of Anita's life. She survived school by hiding out in the library, with several thousand fictional characters for company. At university, she overcame the boredom of studying accountancy by squeezing in Egyptology papers and learning to read hieroglyphics.
Today, Anita writes historical novels with a steampunk twist. She lives in rural New Zealand surrounded by an assortment of weird and wonderful equines, felines, canine and homicidal chickens.
Web http://www.awexley.com/
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Twitter @AWExley
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If you enjoyed The Unicorn's Tail you may also like my main Artifact Hunters series about Amy's friend, Cara…
Artifact Hunters 1: Nefertiti's Heart
Cara Devon has always suffered curiosity and impetuousness, but tangling with a serial killer might cure that. Permanently.
London, 1861. Impoverished noble Cara has a simple mission after the strange death of her father - sell off his damned collection of priceless artifacts. Her plan goes a
wry when aristocratic beauties start dying of broken hearts, an eight inch long brass key hammered through their chests. A killer hunts amongst the nobility, searching for a regal beauty and an ancient Egyptian relic rumored to hold the key to immortality.
Her Majesty's Enforcers are in pursuit of the murderer and they see a connection between the gruesome deaths and Cara. So does she, somewhere in London her father hid Nefertiti's Heart, a fist sized diamond with strange mechanical workings. Adding further complication to her life, notorious crime lord, Viscount Nathaniel Lyons is relentless in his desire to lay his hands on Cara and the priceless artifact. If only she could figure out his motive.
Self-preservation fuels Cara's search for the gem. In a society where everyone wears a mask to hide their true intent, she needs to figure out who to trust, before she makes a fatal mistake.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BFTMRBA
Artifact Hunters 2: Hatshepsut's Collar
An ancient Egyptian artifact is driving Queen Victoria insane, and that's not top of Cara Devon's growing list of problems.
Viscount Nathaniel Lyons is a man of numerous secrets, but there is one in particular that threatens his fledgling relationship with Cara. Stunned by Nate's revelation, and before she can absorb the ramifications of his actions, he is arrested, charged with treason and imprisoned in the grim Tower of London. He stole something the mad queen wants, and only has days to deliver, before his date with the executioner.
Although sorely tempted, Cara can't let him die on Tower Green, not when their connection means she would share his fate.
Only together can Cara and Nate figure out how to wrestle Hatshepsut's Collar from around the queen's neck, before she plunges Britain into a world war. The search for answers sends Cara to the opulent Winter Palace of St Petersburg and the frozen depths of Siberia, with every step shadowed by an enemy with his own dark plans.
http://www.amazon.com/Hatshepsuts-Collar-Artifact-Hunters-Book-ebook/dp/B00GMX4AG4/