Splendor

by Catherine Hart

  “ ’Tis paradise,” she breathed, twirling slowly around, trying to take in everything at once, letting the essence of the place surround and swamp her senses. “A marvelous, hidden haven.”

  Sweeping her into his arms, Devlin grinned down into her rapt face. “A veritable Garden of Eden,” he agreed with droll humor. He wagged his brows at her in his best imitation of a villain about to pounce upon a sweet young innocent. “The perfect place in which to sin, don’t you think?”

  She giggled joyously. “Silly man. We’re married. If ’twas sinning you wanted, you should not have wed me, but kept me as your mistress.”

  He shook his head, serious now. “Nay, Eden, my love. Though you may have been a delightful mistress, ’tis not the role for you. You were made to be a wife—my wife.”

  “I’m glad, Devlin.” She sighed. “Ever so glad.”

  “So am I.” Then his previous mischievous mood returned. “However, marriage does not preclude sinning. Does the church not list lust as a sin? And greed? And gluttony? Madam Kane, before our time here is o’er, I intend to satisfy my immense hunger for you, to avail myself of your charms until I am too weak to stand, and to ravish you as no man ever has before or ever shall after. And you, my sweet, wanton bride, are going to love every moment of it. This I swear to you.”

  In the hours that followed, he made good his promise. He made love to her in ways Eden had never imagined possible. When they both lay limp, weary, and replete, they slept entwined in one another’s arms.

  Several hours later, Eden roused to find the sun low on the horizon, setting over the sea in a blaze of color. “Come,” Devlin told her, pulling her onto wobbly legs. “While you have been napping, I have been seeing to our housing.”

  Eden gave him a look which clearly said he’d had too much sun atop his golden head. “What housing?” she asked, looking about the beach with a confused frown. “I see naught but trees and bushes and sand. Did you build a cottage of sand somewhere?”

  “Nay, wench. If you will but follow me, I shall show you a much better cottage than one built of sand. ’Twill make a castle dim in comparison.”

  He led her away from the beach, forging a trail through the brush. At length, they came upon a little glade in the midst of which lay a tiny pond of fresh water. On the far side of the clearing, a pile of earth and rocks had formed a small grotto, and it was there that Devlin had set up their supplies and started a fire. Several rugs and pillows cushioned the dirt floor of the minuscule cave. Into the cracks of the stony walls he had wedged hooks, and from these hooks now hung a single hammock.

  This last, Eden eyed askance. “Devlin, there is but one hammock,” she said, wondering if he was already tiring of her now that his lust had been blunted.

  “Aye.” He nodded. “Why would we have need of two when we’ll be using only the one?”

  Eden caught at the word “we,” her pulse racing away with itself. Still, she could not believe the two of them could sleep in that contraption, large as it was, without one of them tumbling out of it. “Devlin, ’tis not possible for both of us to sleep there, is it?”

  He sent her a rakish wink. “’Tis possible to do much more than sleep in it, Eden. After we’ve eaten, ’twill be my pleasure to enlighten you.”

  Despite all they had shared mere hours before, Eden still felt her cheeks heat up at the look he gave her, the devilish glow in those black eyes which locked her gaze to his. Release came only when her stomach gave a loud growl, startling them both.

  “Come, wench, feed me,” he ordered playfully, leading her toward the fire and their small cache of foodstuffs. “Let us see if my new wife knows her way about the kitchen.”

  “Kitchen?” Eden chortled. “For a caveman and his woman, mayhap.”

  He waved a hand about them. “Behold, madam. Your cave. Your fire. Your hungry mate.”

  They dined on fish Devlin had purchased fresh from the market just prior to sailing, and on rice Eden found among their stores. They quenched their thirst on coconut milk. Then Devlin poured a dram of rum into the half shells, and they savored the liquor-flavored meat of the fruit one heady bite at a time.

  Between sips and sweet kisses, Devlin admitted he had not chosen this island by chance. He and his crew had been here before. “Which is how I knew ’twas not inhabited, and of the existence of this hidden glade, and the supply of fresh water. Without it, this paradise would be little more than a pile of sand. Certainly no place to be stranded, even with a beautiful lady for company.”

  His fingers brushed her cheek and clung to her skin—not through any lingering effort on his behalf, but because they were sticky with rum and coconut. He stared in amusement. “Wife, we are in sad need of washing, lest we find ourselves permanently stuck to one another.” He rose, helping her up after him. “Come, milady. Your private bath awaits.”

  He pulled her toward the pond, its calm surface illuminated by the flickering flames of their fire and the full moon now rising overhead. Stars winked in the velvet-black sky. Even in darkness, the night was beautiful, ripe with the intoxicating perfume of tropical flowers.

  While Devlin divested himself of his breeches, the only clothing he’d seen fit to don since their lovemaking on the beach, Eden hesitated. She eyed the pool with trepidation. When Devlin turned to find her still wearing her dress over her otherwise nude body, he held out a hand to her. “What is wrong, love? Having trouble with your hooks? I’ll be more than willing to help you with them.”

  She stood staring at the pond, as if she expected a monster to arise from its depths. “Devlin, what sort of creatures lurk in there?” she asked in a small voice. “It could be most unwise to disturb them.”

  “There are but a few harmless fish, Eden. Nothing dreadful, I assure you. This pool is fed by a spring and does not connect with the sea.”

  “Surely there are snakes and such,” she persisted. “Snakes in paradise?” he scoffed. “Not possible.” “There was a snake even in Eden.”

  “Nay. That was Satan in disguise. The only devil here is the one before you, and you have him well tamed.”

  She grinned. “Do I? I think not. I rather hope not, for I find him extraordinarily appealing when he’s being wicked.”

  “Then wicked I shall remain, simply to please you. Come now, Eden. Shed the dress and I’ll teach you how to play mermaid and sea dragon.” His lascivious look was exaggerated in the extreme.

  Though she laughed, she shook her head. “You forget, Devlin. I cannot swim.”

  “Is that your worry? Fair maiden, I would never allow you to drown. Moreover, the pool is very shallow, little more than waist-deep.”

  Further assurances were necessary, as Devlin eased the dress from her and urged her gently into the water with him. Her trembling fingers gripped his like tentacles, her eyes huge with uncertainty, her teeth clamped over her lower lip as she inched cautiously into the water. Only her trust in him kept her moving, until both of them stood in the center of the pond, the water lapping just beneath Eden’s breasts.

  Once she realized that her feet were planted firmly on the sandy bottom, and the water nowhere near covered her head, Eden’s tension began to ease. The water was soothing, the temperature sun-warmed to nearly that of a tepid bath. With Devlin’s arms still securely about her, she relaxed into him, her bare flesh sliding sinuously against his.

  She released a pent-up sigh. “This feels heavenly. Just don’t let loose of me.”

  “Never,” he promised, his breath tickling her ear. If anything, his hold tightened, only to loosen slightly as he began to stroke her silken curves, his touch smooth and sensual as he bathed her breasts and belly with warm, wet hands. In the cool night air, her dampened nipples dimpled instantly, calling up an echoing response deep within her belly. His hands wandered lower, beneath the dark surface of the pool, gliding over her hips and buttocks, slipping between her thighs to a place even warmer and wetter than the water surrounding them. Eden moaned, and tried to turn more fully int
o his arms.

  “Not yet,” he murmured. “We’ve all the time in the world. Enjoy the feel of the water caressing your body. Flow with it. Become one with it.”

  Eden would rather have become one with Devlin at that juncture, for his hands were performing marvelous magic upon her slick skin. Stroking. Arousing. In counterpoint to the soothing lap of the water. His sharp white teeth nipped playfully along her flesh, creating gooseflesh in their wake. His lips praised her with a thousand kisses. Slowly, surely, he built her passions to the very edge of desire as she quivered in his embrace.

  Just as her emotions threatened to boil over, he lifted her, wound her silken legs about his waist, and swiftly impaled her on his swollen staff. Rapture burst upon them, within them, like a white-hot comet streaking through their trembling souls to meld them evermore.

  Eden lay limp in his arms, her legs now dangling in the water, her eyelids drooping with slaked passion. To save her life, she could not call up an ounce of energy.

  Or so she thought.

  Just then, something brushed against her calf. Her eyes popped wide. “Devlin?” she whispered anxiously. “Did you just graze your leg against mine?” She hadn’t thought he’d budged.

  “Sweetling, I’m much too sated to move a muscle at this moment”

  Again, something swept swiftly past her ankle. With a shriek of alarm that brought several birds flying from their roosts, Eden clamped her arms about Devlin’s neck, dug her toes into his thighs, and began climbing up his long, wet frame. Before Devlin knew what hit him, his wife had scrambled up his chest and draped herself around his shoulders, her bare bottom poking skyward. Her fingers scraped his scalp, threatening to yank him bald, and her arms were wound about his face. She was shaking violently and whimpering like a child.”

  “It touched me! It tried to bite me!”

  “It was probably no more than a tiny fish, which you most likely frightened into an early death with your screaming,” he told her calmly, trying to pry her arms from his eyes and nose. “Climb down from there.”

  “No! It will eat me! Get me out of here!”

  “I would if I could see where I was stepping,” he said with a long-suffering sigh. As one of her clawing fingers poked into his eye, he yowled. “Ouch! Damn, woman! Don’t blind me altogether!”

  He lurched toward the shore and somehow managed to reach it without tumbling both of them beneath the water. Once there, he had to peel Eden from her perch atop his shoulders. Gently, he cradled her in his arms, torn between laughter, pity, and annoyance as he carried her toward the grotto. “In the morning, when you can see for yourself how small and innocent those fish are, you’re going to feel like a silly twit.”

  In an effort to calm her, Devlin snuggled the two of them into the molding confines of the hammock. There, he held her and crooned to her in the gently swinging bed. By the time he’d deftly demonstrated that coupling could be achieved while swaddled in its net folds—and with exceptional results and remarkable maneuverability—Eden had long since forgotten her fright.

  Chapter 27

  They spent part of the next day, and the two that followed, exploring the tiny, sun-kissed island. They strolled the beach, collecting shells and scampering about in the surf. They lunched on bananas and coconuts. They reveled in the beauty surrounding them, treasuring this precious time alone, and each other.

  Upon returning to their secluded glade that first morning, they found a flock of flamingos feeding in the pond. Still determined to catch one, no longer intimidated by the pool’s depth or its finned inhabitants, Eden crept slowly into the water. When she turned back to locate Devlin, she found him lounging on the bank, a blade of grass stuck between his teeth, watching her in amusement.

  “Come help me,” she hissed, gesturing at him to join her.

  He shook his head in mute refusal and waved her on, a wide grin splitting his face.

  Muttering silently to herself about lazy husbands, Eden inched along, trying not to disturb the water with her furtive movements. All in all, she did better than Devlin expected, coming to within a body’s length of the skittish birds before they became alarmed and took flight. Eden sprang after the nearest one. Her fingers grazed its bright plumage, plucking a single bright feather from its wing before the flamingo made good its escape.

  Eden’s leap landed her off-balance. Suddenly her feet slipped out from beneath her, and she fell with an awkward plop. Her posterior smacked the sandy bottom of the pond, bouncing her sideways. Thrashing about, she came up on her hands and knees, her head still under water. She opened her eyes, frantic to find the surface—and came face-to-face with Devlin.

  In that instant, with his cheeks puffed with air, his hair floating about his head in a golden nimbus, and the added distortion of the water making his eyes seem to bulge, he looked like some strange sea bass. Eden burst out laughing. Devlin did likewise. They rose from the water in a foam of bubbles, both of them sputtering and cackling and clinging to one another.

  When they’d at last gained some control again, Eden waved the dripping feather before Devlin’s nose. “See?” she exclaimed triumphantly. “I almost caught him.”

  “That you did,” he agreed on a chuckle, giving her a great hug. “Too bad you didn’t have some salt to sprinkle upon his tail.”

  She smiled. “There is always tomorrow to try again. If not, I still have my feather as a memento.”

  The flamingos did not return the following day. Eden and Devlin had the pool to themselves. Between sensual bouts of passion, he taught her to float on her back, and even to take a few strokes. It was a start at least, and if they hadn’t kept reverting to more amorous pursuits, she might have learned more. Eden was well satisfied with what she did learn, however—particularly those lessons conducted in Devlin’s arms, with his body locked to hers and ecstasy a few short moments away.

  On their final morning, they awoke to bright sunlight and a peculiar sense that they were no longer alone on the island. It was more an odd intuition than anything truly tangible, at least at the start. Then, above the slight rustling of palm leaves, they heard voices, carried to them on the ocean breeze. Another fact immediately came clear. All the chattering birds were now silent, further announcing invasion of their remote domain.

  Eden turned wide eyes toward Devlin. “Nate?” she whispered doubtfully.

  “I don’t know, but I don’t think so.” Devlin slid from the hammock, lifting her free of it after him. “Get dressed. Quickly,” he murmured into her ear. “And be very quiet about it.”

  “What about you?” she asked softly. For this short, private trip Devlin had not brought his invisible clothing along. At this moment, it was freshly laundered and hanging on a drying line in his cabin aboard the Mirage. The only undetectable items he’d kept with him were his sword and longknife.

  “I’m at a better advantage as I am,” he replied, glancing down at his nude body. “’Tis you they’ll see, if they spot either of us. I think it wiser if you hide with our goods while I go investigate.”

  Hurriedly, he helped her gather their meager furnishings and their sacks of supplies and stash them in the bushes. He stationed her behind a big palm tree several paces from the path. “Don’t make a sound, no matter what you hear or see. Stay out of sight and wait for me.” He planted a swift kiss on her soft, trembling mouth, and hastened away as silently as the specter he half-seemed to be.

  The voices were coming from the beach, near the spot where Devlin had pulled the longboat ashore and concealed it beneath a stand of palms. As he drew closer, he was relieved to note that his and Eden’s footprints from the previous days’ excursions had been wiped clean by the wind and tide. He hoped their unexpected intruders would never realize the island was already occupied.

  Just beyond the edge of the trees, where the beach began, Devlin spied two men. No ordinary men these, but pirates. And not just any cutthroats. To his astonishment, there stood none other than Blackbeard himself, and one of his crew. At
their feet was a huge sea chest, the weight of it making a sizable indentation in the sand.

  So, Devlin thought to himself with a grin. The sly fox is about to bury some of his famed treasure, right here before my very eyes! What a stroke of fortune!

  That thought was still forming in his mind when Blackbeard and his mate hefted the chest between them and lugged it to the base of a large palm tree. While Blackbeard and Devlin watched, the other fellow began to dig. A short time later, Blackbeard deemed the hole deep enough, and together they lifted the chest into it.

  The second man then proceeded to shovel the sand back into place. He was bent forward to the task when Blackbeard raised his sword and speared him through the back. Without a sound, the crewman fell into the hole which was to become his grave as well as the hiding spot for Blackbeard’s treasure.

  Devlin winced. It went against his principles to kill a man when his back was turned. Even the worst scoundrel deserved a fighting chance to defend himself. Of course, not all pirates adhered to that rule. A dead man told no tales.

  Blackbeard was known for jealously guarding his secret caches of stolen wealth. It was said not even his wife knew their whereabouts. That being so, Devlin could not understand why the crewman had foolishly accompanied Blackbeard to this island. Surely he’d suspected something of this sort would happen. The only answer was that greed had blinded the poor looby, hastening his own demise.

  Blackbeard had now finished smoothing the shovel over the sand to remove any evidence that it had been disturbed. Within the hour, the sea breeze would complete the job. This spot on the beach would soon look no different from any other.

  With his hands on his hips, Blackbeard threw back his head and let loose a chilling roar of laughter. “Rest in peace, Stimmons,” he said, snickering nastily. “Guard my prize well, you stupid sea dog.”