The fork stilled, and he met her gaze.
“The doctors don’t know when, if ever, I’ll regain my full sight. Or my balance. So I’ll have to learn to compensate in my swing. Or find another way to make a living.”
“Can you do it? Compensate, I mean?”
“I don’t know.”
There wasn’t a trace of self-pity or desperation in his quiet reply, but Cari’s throat ached. Then he slanted her a glinting look that was all Josh.
“Actually, I had just made up my mind to find out what I could and couldn’t do the night of the charity ball. Then I got distracted by a gorgeous woman in a…What did you call that contraption? A farthingale?”
And by an unscheduled wedding, Cari thought. He’d had the accident to deal with, and then he’d put his life on hold once again while he took care of the little matter of their divorce. Yet he refused to wallow in his problems. He wasn’t that kind of man. In keeping with his swashbuckling image, he smiled and joked and turned the subject away from himself and his uncertain future. But Cari knew now that her pirate’s buckle didn’t swash quite as much as he wanted everyone to believe.
“A farthingale,” she confirmed, her throat still tight.
“Hmm…I wonder what Saint Ursula would have thought of Queen Juana’s invention?”
His teasing question flowed into a lively debate on the possibility of eleven thousand virgins.
Cari followed his lead, acknowledging the inescapable fact that Josh’s easy banter and playboy facade disguised a complex, intelligent man with old-fashioned values. He didn’t air his personal concerns in public. He didn’t ask for help with them. And, she admitted with an inner sigh, he didn’t seduce women.
He hadn’t seduced her, anyway.
For all his teasing about getting naked and getting bad, he hadn’t made any attempt to take advantage of their awkward situation. He hadn’t even followed up on her kiss this morning. Funny, she’d thought that kiss would be enough for her to hold in her heart after the cruise. She knew now it wasn’t. Not anywhere near enough.
She wanted more. The feel of his skin slick against hers. The whisper of his laughter in her ear. The scent of his lovemaking on her body. She wanted Josh.
They were married, her heart argued fiercely. For a few more days, at least, they were husband and wife. Why shouldn’t they enjoy the privileges that came with marriage before they divorced? Why shouldn’t they bring the attraction sizzling between them to a flashpoint?
Cari slanted the man across the table from her a slow, assessing look. Darn it, why wouldn’t Josh live up to his bad-boy image, just this once?
Obviously, if there was going to be any ravishing done, she’d have to do it herself.
Nine
Cari tugged the hem of her sleep shirt down over her hips. As nightgowns went, the T-shirt was designed more for comfort than for seduction. Since she hadn’t brought anything more alluring with her, however, it would have to do. Giving her freshly brushed hair and scrubbed face a final glance in the bathroom mirror, she opened the door and stepped into the master suite.
Josh glanced up, his fingers working the buttons of his blue shirt. “Done?”
Cari drew in a deep breath. “Not quite. Before you go into the bathroom and we settle into our separate beds for the night, there’s something I think you should know.”
“What? You used up all the toothpaste?”
“I want to play games with you, Josh. Bride and groom. Pirate and lady. Anything but golf.”
His fingers stilled on the buttons as he stared at Cari in astonishment. “You want to do what?”
She drifted toward him, her bare feet digging into the pale carpet. She’d thought about her approach all the way back to the ship. She wasn’t a world-class expert in this seduction business, by any means, but she was woman enough to recognize her strengths—and her weaknesses. Josh definitely fit into the latter category. Just looking at him now made her toes curl into the carpet.
She’d classify her ability to face things head-on as a decided strength, though. So she’d decided to sail in with all guns blazing, like the pirates of old. She stopped in front of him, and her heart was pounding as she fired her next salvo.
“I want to get naked with you,” she said softly. “I want to get bad. Very bad. Or was it good?” She bit her lip. “Whatever.”
“Whatever?” He stared down at her, still stunned.
“I want to love you,” she whispered, her fingers brushing his aside as she reached for the shirt butons. “Tonight. Tomorrow. Until we reach Cancún.”
His hands closed over hers. “Cari…”
“I know, I know,” she said fiercely, interrupting him. “This isn’t smart. Any smarter than the kiss this afternoon. But we’re…we’re on our honeymoon, Josh. For the next few days, at least, we’re on our honeymoon. We’re not supposed to think about the future. We’re not supposed to think about anything but right here and right now.”
Despite her determination to carry on as boldly and bawdily as any of her beloved Tudors, she might have lost her nerve right then, if she hadn’t caught the tiny tic in one side of Josh’s jaw. And felt the jackhammer of his heartbeat under her fingertips. Emboldened, she tugged her hands free of his and unbuttoned the last button. Sliding her palms inside his shirt, she spread it open.
“Don’t worry about tomorrow or the day after,” she murmured. “They’ll take care of themselves. Just think about the fact that I want to kiss you. Right now. And right here.”
Leaning forward, she planted her mouth on the warm, taut skin of his chest. To her absolute delight, a muscle jumped under her lips, and his pulse accelerated from fast to furious. Glancing up a few breathless moments later, she caught a soft, warning glint in his eye.
“You’re playing a dangerous game here, sweetheart. Sure you know the rules?”
“I’m making them up as I go.”
“Well, I just might have a few of my own.”
He reached for her, but she slipped his shirt off his shoulders and drew it down his arms. It hooked at his elbows, trapping his arms at his sides.
“You had your chance to have your way with me, Keegan,” she teased in a low, husky voice. “Several times, in fact. Now it’s my turn.”
“Is that so?”
“That’s so. You’re my prisoner, big guy. I intend to do all kinds of evil things to you.” She nipped at his chest to emphasize her point, then licked the small spot.
“Christ, Cari!”
His muscles had tensed to solid steel. All of them, she noted with a fierce, singing satisfaction as she pressed herself against him. Josh might be too much of a gentleman to seduce her and complicate their already absurd situation, but he wasn’t exactly adverse to being seduced. He wanted her. As much as she wanted him. For tonight. For tomorrow.
That was enough, she told herself fiercely. That was all she was asking for.
Urgent need swept through Cari, more urgent than any she’d ever felt. She didn’t want to waste a moment of their time together. Her hands slid up his arms, memorizing the slope of smooth muscle, the curve of corded skin. Her fingers locked behind his neck.
She took her time with the kiss. And her pleasure. Her mouth moved over his in slow, sensual exploration. As he had this morning, Josh held himself still, letting her test the silky skin of his inner lip. The sharp edge of his teeth. She pulled his head down, slanting hers to gain greater access. He gave her only what she demanded, but his skin rippled with the effort of holding back.
So he intended to play along with her little game. Pretend he was her prisoner. Let her have her way with him. Shivery excitement pulsed through Cari at the thought of shedding the restraints of her own shyness and doing everything she wanted to—and with—Josh.
Burying her hands in his hair, Cari raised up on tiptoe and put her overflowing need into her kiss. Her hands roamed his chest, his shoulders. His hips rocked into hers. When she leaned back, her pulse raced at the answering raw n
eed she saw in his face.
“At this point,” she murmured between ragged breaths, “I think I’m supposed to sweep you off your feet and carry you to bed. Do you suppose we could skip the carrying part and go straight to bed?”
“Not a chance,” he replied, with a slow, wicked grin that made Cari’s already erratic pulse skip a half-dozen beats. “We’ll just reverse roles a bit.”
In an instant, he had snaked a hand free of the confining shirtsleeves and wrapped an arm around her waist. His other hand delved beneath her cotton tunic to find the elastic of her panties. The feel of his fingers on her bare skin shocked Cari into even more heightened awareness.
“Josh!”
“It’s too late for protests, sweetheart. Way too late.”
He proceeded to strip her with a speed and an unerring skill that made Cari squeak and squirm. With some chagrin, she revised her earlier assessment about Josh’s bad-boy image. It wasn’t, she decided, such a facade after all. She was naked and laughing and blushing furiously from head to toe when he swooped her up in his arms.
“Now, my lusty little Elizabethan, prepare to meet your fate.”
He strode to the bed, his prize in his arms. Somewhere between the middle of the room and the huge bed, however, Cari lost the urge to laugh and Josh lost the urge to play any more games.
When he lowered her to the satin coverlet a few seconds later, he was ready, more than ready, to get bad. Or good. Or whatever. When she held out her arms to him, it took all Josh had not to follow her down to the bed.
“Wait, Cari. Wait a moment.”
She lay still, her heart slamming against her ribs. He was back a moment later, a foil packet in his hand and a stark hunger on his face that made her womb clench. When he sheathed himself and turned to her, Cari opened her arms and her heart.
With the grace and beauty and solid strength of a natural athlete, Josh fit himself into them. Gasping, she arched her hips while he settled his solid weight between her legs. His teeth and tongue played with her turgid nipples. His hand explored her slick, hot core.
Fierce, male satisfaction flowed through Josh at the feel of her wet heat. Suckling and nipping, he feasted on the breasts he’d fantasized about since the moment he’d first spotted them about to pop out of her gown, until she was writhing and groaning under him.
Frantic to return the exquisite pleasure that streaked through her body, Cari slid her palms down his ribs, his waist, his hips. Her fingers closed around his rigid shaft. Her last thought, while she could still think at all, was that Josh definitely didn’t need any padding to fill out his doublet and tights.
Moments, or maybe hours, later, he thrust into her. She forgot about sixteenth-century costuming. She forgot about their twentieth-century dilemma. She forgot to think, to touch, to breathe. She could only lift her hips in instinctive response, and follow where he led. With each stroke of his hips against her, Cari soared higher. And tighter. And longer.
With every spasm of her muscles around him, Josh felt his control slip a little more. His muscles rigid, his blood on fire, he took her mouth once more. Then she took him. To a fiery, spiraling plane of red heat and white light.
Arching under him, she gave a raw groan and climaxed. Long, splintering moments later, Josh did, too.
They lay entwined, panting, sweating. Then he rolled over and fit her into the curve of his body. Quiet, lazy moments followed. Cari breathed in the scent of her body mingled with his, and then discovered an entirely new aspect to lovemaking.
“Kind of sad, isn’t it?” he murmured, nuzzling her hair.
Startled, she drew back to peer up at him. “Sad?”
She could think of a hundred, a thousand, different adjectives to describe what had just happened between them. Sad wasn’t one of them.
He planted a kiss on her nose. “About those eleven thousand virgins. Just look what they missed.”
Sputtering with laughter, she burrowed into his warmth and made a surprising discovery. This cuddling and teasing after sexual release were more erotic, more intimate, than the physical act itself. Still, a deep, feminine part of her thrilled when he hardened against her once again. Boldly she rolled him over and straddled his hips.
Her store of boldness wore out long before Josh’s energy did. Boneless and exhausted, she made no protest when he dragged her sleep shirt over her head and tucked her firmly into the curve of his body. She fell asleep with her head on his shoulder and a single thought drifting through her dazed mind. This was what a honeymoon was all about, this laughter and passion and joy.
* * *
The slam of a solid object against his chest yanked Josh awake some hours later. He gave a startled grunt and jerked upright, his sluggish senses trying to identify the source of the attack. Wide-eyed and staring, he searched the cabin, still dimly lit by the lights they’d left on earlier.
“Eleven thousand!” Cari muttered fiercely, flinging out an arm.
This time, she caught him squarely in the stomach. He grunted again, then his attacker flopped over and buried her face in her pillow.
Rubbing his stomach, Josh grinned ruefully and laid back down. A heavy leg over hers kept them from scissoring. More or less. His arm reached around her waist to pin her body against his. Her small, rounded breast shaped itself to his palm. His fingers played with her tender flesh under its covering of soft cotton.
She grumbled in her sleep and pushed her bottom into his groin in an unconscious effort to free herself.
“Oh, no, my lady,” he murmured, his breath stirring the fine, fair hair tangled around her face. “You’re not getting away from me again. Ever.”
As soon as the whispered words were out, Josh knew he meant them. To his surprise, the tension he’d carried deep within him for the past few months loosened. Just a little. One small twist of the wire-tight coil. But loosen it did.
He tucked Cari closer against his body.
All these weeks, he’d worried about whether he’d be able to play pro golf again. In the past few hours, he’d come to accept that there were more important things in life than striding into the winner’s circle at Augusta to slip on the green Master’s jacket. Like playing silly sex games with Cari. And watching her face light up when history came alive in front of her eyes. And holding her breast in his hand while she muttered and wiggled in her sleep.
For the first time, Josh faced the fact that he might not ever play his sport again with something less than quiet desperation. The idea of hawking golf shoes for a living or hosting a string of functions as celebrity spokesman for the physically challenged still caused a tight knot in his stomach, but the prospect didn’t dismay him as much as it had before…Before Cari.
He shifted a little, glancing down at her face. She frowned at his movement and mumbled irritably in her sleep. At her annoyed pout, Josh felt the coiled tension loosen another twist.
Funny, he’d never thought of love this way. This slow easing of doubts and uncertainties. This growing conviction that he wanted to share the rest of his nights with a grumpy bed partner in perpetual motion.
Lost in his thoughts, Josh didn’t realize for some time that not all the movement in the cabin came from Cari. Some of the bed’s quivering was caused by the yacht’s engines. He lifted his head a few inches, listening to the muted sounds of the anchor winching up. A moment later, he felt a slow up-and-down rocking motion as the Nautilus III nosed around and got under way.
Josh eased back down, stilling Cari’s annoyed twitch with a tight hold and a soft kiss. Paxton hadn’t wasted much time getting the replacement radar up and operational, he mused. When Enrique picked them up at the pier tonight, he’d confirmed that the captain had tracked down a radar dish at one of Charlotte Amalie’s many boatyards. An older model, the steward had informed Josh and Cari with a shrug, but reliable.
Evidently the new radar wasn’t as reliable as Enrique had indicated, Josh decided some hours later. Always a light sleeper, he came awake again at the muted s
ound of a man’s shout, followed immediately by sudden silence as the engines shut down. In the stillness, Josh thought he caught Paxton’s gruff curse.
A quick glance at the dark outline behind the curtains showed that it was early, not yet dawn. Not wanting Cari exposed to another dose of the captain’s temper, Josh decided to go topside and defuse the situation as best he could.
When he slid his shoulder from under her cheek, she twitched and muttered and scrunched her body into a tight ball, but didn’t wake. Smiling, Josh pulled on his gray sweats and a pair of canvas deck shoes. A few moments later, he let himself out of the cabin.
He made his way noiselessly along the narrow walkway toward the stairs leading to the sun deck, steadying himself with a hand on the rail. The polished wood deck lifted and fell beneath his feet. The sea was choppy just before dawn, Josh realized. Either that, or they were in for some weather.
He took the stairs to the sun deck and headed for the starboard side walkway to the bridge, only to stop abruptly. Eye narrowed, he took in the scene illuminated by dimmed ship lights.
Josh’s first thought was that the trawler tied amidships to the Nautilus III by thick lines bow and stern belonged to Paxton’s shady supplier. A second, closer look revealed that the smaller craft wasn’t supplying the yacht with bootlegged diesel fuel.
Josh’s jaw tightened when he spotted the netted, unmarked crates being winched aboard the Nautilus. He was willing to bet those wooden boxes contained another form of contraband entirely, one that would explain a lot of things. Like the ridiculously low cost of this cruise, even when offered as a prize. The fact that the captain was as anxious as Josh to avoid a flotilla of paparazzi trailing his ship. His nervousness and spurt of temper when he’d thought he’d missed his contact off Saint John.
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