The ship rose and fell as it creaked and popped against the battering of the sea. A drop into a deep wave nearly tossed her from his bed.
Her eyes opened and she frowned. “Where?”
“You’re fine. You fainted.”
She sighed, shook her head, and smiled. “Dreaming….” Her eyes closed again.
“Alice, this isn’t a dream.”
“It is.” She stroked his chest. “You’ll see. I’ll want you to kiss me, but I’ll wake up just before your lips reach mine.” She lifted her hand to his cheek and opened her eyes once more. “Why are you wet?”
“Because in your dream, and I’ve just saved you from a storm.”
Another roll of the ship caused her to grab hold of his shoulder. “Wait. The storm…this is real.” Wide eyes met his.
“So is this.” He lowered his mouth to hers.
Alice tightened her grip on his shirt and gasped into the kiss. She arched beneath him and he slipped an arm about her, pulling her closer, locking her to him, and steadying them against the pitch of the ship. Alice trembled in his arms. Her hold upon his shoulder released as he savored the softness of her lips. Teasing. Tasting.
Slipping her arm about his neck, Alice pressed into his embrace. When the heat of their bodies joined the dampness of their clothes, his resolve turned to steam.
Then she breathed his name. “Gavin….”
He pulled back, looking down into her beautiful face. The ship rode wildly around them, but everything seemed to slow in that fraction of time. Alice looked up at him with those emerald eyes. Her chest fusing into his with each breath.
She shook her head. Was she saying no? Gavin’s heart dropped along with the Scarlet Night into a deep trough. A wave slammed the side of the ship. He looked away, sure she could see deep into his soul. He’d fallen again. Lost hold of his control.
“Gavin....” She still clung to him. He looked back into the smolder of those green eyes. “Don’t… Don’t push me away.” His gaze fell to her mouth. “Please don’t stop. I want you—”
His mouth crushed out any more words. Desire flashed white hot behind his eyes. He ravished her mouth. Sweeping his tongue between her lips, she moaned with pleasure and returned the deepening passion of the kiss.
Alice reached for his hand and placed it boldly upon her breast. He kissed down the side of her neck as she pressed into his hand, filling it with the round firmness of her. The tight peak of her nipple strained against the damp linen. She tugged at the ties of her blouse, but the wet material and her impatience tangled the lacings. Her groan of frustration turned into a cry of pleasure as he suckled at her breast through the fabric.
Soon the desire to run his hands over her bare skin, see her, taste her, turned desperate. He pulled the belt from her hips and tossed it to the floor. The ship rocked, and the heavy buckle raked across the floor.
Alice tugged at his hems. He struggled out of the clinging garment and let it drop. She touched him then. Stroked feather-light fingers over the planes of his chest. Brushed the flat of his nipples before rising up and laying a kiss over his heart.
Her shirt soon joined his. Followed by her single stocking and trousers. The lantern swung its light in wild swaths across her body. With her hair in disarray drying around her, the dark tresses allowed a seductive view of her breasts peeking between. She was the most beguiling creature he’d ever seen. He left her only as long as it took to remove the rest of his clothes.
The ship tipped. Alice’s belt scraped across the floor to the other side of the room. When he lifted his gaze to hers, her bemused expression beguiled him. Riding the sway of the ship, he slipped in next to her and kissed the delicacy of her collarbone. “What has you so amused?”
“You.” She trailed her fingers into his hair and sighed as he kissed a path along her neck. “You’re different than I imagined.”
“You’ve thought of me like this?” Gavin nipped at her earlobe as he cupped her breast in his hand.
“Yes. No. I’m afraid I underestimated the size…of…of your shoulders.”
“Did you?”
Her gaze dipped lower before Alice ran a hand up his arm. “Yes, I didn’t give your shoulders their proper justice at all.”
He eased her onto her back. Taking his time to memorize each view as the lantern made its sweep. “And here you are as lovely as I thought you’d be.”
“You’ve thought of me?”
He kissed her before answering. “Daily.”
“In your bed?” she sighed.
“Nightly,” he whispered as he traced a path along the soft valley between her breasts.
Her breath caught as he skimmed her belly. “Imagined what you’d do with me?”
“Hourly,” he growled. His hand slid over her hip and down the length of her smoothing the roundness of her behind and urging her to raise one knee to rest high along his waist. He watched her face. Pleasure closed her eyes as she arched into his touches. “I imagined this.” He lowered his head and pulled her taut nipple into his mouth as his hand continue to play over the ridges of her ribs and splay across the flat of her stomach. He kissed his way to lavish equal attention to Alice’s other breast.
He rose to kiss once more at the pulse point of her throat and just below her ear as his hand slipped lower. “And this….”
The hardness of his cock played havoc with his patience. It pulsed against her hip. Wet heat bathed his fingers as he slid them between the slick folds of her sex. Beneath him, Alice gasped with pleasure and clutched at his arms, her nails raked his back.
Never had a woman responded to him quite like her. She whimpered her eagerness and cried out to him once more not to stop. She opened her thighs wider and raised her hips to meet his touch as he teased and stroked the satined flesh.
The storm that raged around them was nothing compared to the storm raging within him. Blind desire drove him. He needed to be in her. Feel the heat of her surrounding him. Bury himself within her and end this torture. Find his release before he exploded.
Gavin moved between her thighs. He could wait no longer and pushed into her with one strong thrust, tearing through the thin barrier of her maidenhead before he even realized what the slight resistance could be. The tightness of her and her sharp cry of pain brought the shattering truth to his passion-fogged mind. Virgin? Alice was a virgin.
He froze within her, afraid to move and cause her more pain. His body screamed, fit to burst. Her nails bit into his arms.
“Oh dear God. I didn’t know.” Panting, he struggled to make sense of it. He peered into her anguished face. Tears ran into her hair. What had he done?
Shaken, he began to pull away, but she clung to him. “No. It’s all right. I’m…all right. Please.” She pulled him to her and kissed him, held his face in her hands. “I want this. I wanted it to be you.” She kissed his neck and slipped her arms about him holding tight. “Please.”
Alice began to move beneath him. She gave a small lift to her hips. Gavin groaned as his still-hard cock ached for his release. He pressed back into her. Gently. He kept the rhythm slow, rocking with the sway of the ship. His strokes grew stronger, deeper, faster.
Alice cried out again. This time it was one of surrender, one of passion. She tightened around him as his own body spiraled out of control. The years of denying his needs rose and crashed like the waves upon the hull. His last thrusts sank as deep as her body would allow before he found his release.
When it was over, he pulled out of her and left the bed. He found his pants in the shifting light and donned them before his breathing had returned to normal. Anger followed so quickly, he had doubts his breathing would ever be normal again. The ship still fought through rough seas, but experience told him the storm outside was beginning to ebb—the one within him, however, was far from finished. He secured the last button on his breeches and turned on her.
She sat in the middle of his bed looking every bit a ravish
ed woman. Hair loose and mussed, lips swollen and pink, a rosy blush across her skin. She clutched a blanket to her chest. One perfect breast escaping cover.
“Where are you going?”
“Why? Why didn’t you tell me you were a virgin?” He shoved his feet into his boots.
“I didn’t think it mattered—”
“It mattered to me.” Gavin stood with his hands on his hips. Blood still pulsed through his limbs. His cock. God help him, he couldn’t look at her without wanting her again. What was wrong with him? How could he be incensed and drawn to her in the same breath? Because it did matter to him. She mattered to him.
He’d been selfish. His body had been in control tonight, and he’d carelessly taken her virtue. If this insanity continued, it would only be a matter of time before he planted a bastard in her if he hadn’t already. A fine new life he’d condemn her to. He’d done enough damage. This had to stop. Now. It had already gone too far. He hung his head and watched as the heavy buckle of her belt made another slide across the room.
Gavin stepped on the belt’s tail, bent, and gathered her sodden clothes. “Get dressed and get out.” He threw them on the bed before grabbing his shirt and coat. “I want you gone before I get back.”
Chapter 12
The door slammed behind Gavin. What happened? One minute he was kissing her throat and positioning himself between her thighs, and the next he was hurling her clothes at her and ordering her out. Out of the room. Out of his bed.
Confusion had Alice staring at the back of the door. He couldn’t have left like that. He’d get two paces down the galley way and realize he’d made a mistake and he’d be back.
As the seconds ticked by, the sting of his rejection burned deeper. Alice covered her face with her hands. She could still sense him, touching her breasts, stroking her, filling her. Her body pulsed with the pleasured ache of knowing a man. So this is what all the fuss was about.
Part of her was grateful. Gavin, being more experienced, obviously knew how to please a woman. Alice sighed. The way her body reacted to a swirl here, a kiss there. With each caress, tiny sparks of light danced upon her skin. When his hand slipped lower and his fingers moved upon the sensitive flesh between her thighs, she never imagined anything could feel like that.
The pain of his first thrust didn’t surprise her. She’d heard from enough women to know what to expect, but what happened after the initial pain lost its burn had been stunning. The power of him. His strength. The smell of his skin. His…shoulders.
But now, throwing her clothing at her. He’d changed her feelings of pleasure to ones of guilt. She felt shamed, used, dirty.
Alice moved off the tangled bed and started to dress. Her clothes were cold and damp as if they held Gavin’s icy rejection in the weave of the fabric. She shivered into them, sliding the trousers over the new tenderness of her body. Where were her boots? She clutched one sock in her hand. The other had to be in this room, but searching was to no avail.
She had them when she marched past Jessup. Alice dropped back onto the side of the bed remembering the terrifying event. She’d climbed the bloody mast. It must be her night to soar to new heights only to fall hard to the deck when it was over. Alice gave a bitter laugh and swallowed the sudden lump in her throat. Scanning the room again, it still didn’t answer the question of her boots.
Well, she wasn’t going to sit here any longer. At the door, she gave a final look about. The room was as it had always been. Neat, tidy. Except for Gavin’s bed.
Alice eased her way into the hall. The storm had quieted, and she didn’t want to announce to anyone below decks where she had spent her time. The latch closed with a soft click, and she paused and dropped her forehead to the rough boards of the door. Why did this cut so deep. How could she let herself care so much? Stand up and gather your self- respect if not your damn boots, Alice Louise Tupper. It was nothing to him. Damn it. Move. Do not cry.
She sucked in a deep breath and pushed away from the door. Turning in the direction of her bunk, she saw him. Jessup. His dark eyes narrowed at her before doing a slow appraisal of her. A smile curled one side of his mouth as he looked from her to Gavin’s door and back.
Could this night get anymore humiliating? Notching her chin, she put one bare foot in front of the other and moved to pass him.
He muttered low as she made her way past, “Whore.”
Alice forced herself not to break stride. Never stumbled. Behind her Jessup laughed. The grating of it echoed in her ears until she reached her quarters and locked the door behind her.
Jessup? Why couldn’t it have been anyone else? By morning, the entire crew would have heard how she rode out the storm in Gavin’s bed. Or would he keep his mouth shut for fear of Gavin’s retaliation? Jessup couldn’t know Gavin tossed her out. How long before he figured out his captain’s whore wasn’t even that? Swimming to Virginia might yet be an option.
Lighting her lantern, Alice choked back a sob. Her boots, tall, polished, and proud, stood next to her cot. They’d been shined and buffed to a soft glow. Her lost sock, neatly folded, hung over the top of one. Had her heart not been carved into neat slices, she could almost laugh at the bitter truth. He cared more for her footwear. “Damn you, Gavin Quinn. I’ll never be able to put on another stocking without thinking of you, you b-bastard.”
It was then she caught sight of Bump curled up under her cot. Alice crouched down and laid a hand on his arm. Wide, dark eyes met hers. “What are you doing under there?” As he crawled out from under the bed, Alice saw the gash under his eyebrow. Dried blood crusted on his cheek and stained his clothes. She reached out to him. “Oh, Bump.”
Setting him on the cot, she soaked the washing cloth with the last of her water and began washing away the blood. “It doesn’t look too bad.” She knelt and laid the cool cloth on the lump. “How long have you been hiding here?” Lifting the cloth, Alice surveyed the damage. “Don’t think you’ll need to have the surgeon stitch you up.” She wiped his face and gave him a reassuring smile. “You’ll live.”
Bump slid off the edge of the cot and laid his head on her shoulder. Pulling the child into her arms, he jerked as she tightened her embrace and scrambled away. Alice’s already bruised heart ached for him. “I promise I would never hurt you.”
Alice shifted to sit upon the floor and held her arms wide. He eyed her warily but after a long moment of hesitation, he curled into her lap and rested against her. She didn’t try to hold him, but began to stroke his back. “My poor babe.” Setting her chin on the top of his head, she sighed. The gentle magic of the child’s weight leaning against her began to heal her heart. “Whatever you do, sweet one, don’t tell Captain Quinn we coddled.”
She closed her eyes and began to hum.
* * * *
Alice reported early for duty in the magazine. Damage from the storm was minimal due to their hasty precautions. MacTavish marched in and stared her down.
He crossed burly arms over his barrel of a chest. “I know what ye done last night.”
Alice went still and swallowed hard. How could he know? Did it show? An old cook back in Weatherington used to say she could see the look in her maid’s eyes when they’d been lifting their skirts to the grooms in the barn. Said it was like they wore a flag of their sins across their face. Now that she thought about it, the old cook did look a bit like MacTavish. Chin whiskers and all. “What are you talking about?”
“In that cocka of a storm.” He shook a thick finger at her. “Don’t be playin’ coy wit me. I ken all about it.”
She turned her back on him. “I don’t know what you’re going on about. Can we please work?” Maybe she could distract him. “Tell me how you make red smoke.”
“Nice try, Lassie.”
Alice shot a glance over her shoulder. Fine. If MacTavish knew about her night with Gavin, then the whole crew had been told. She might as well face it. “Damn, Jessup,” she mumbled.
“If’
n it be any comfort, Jessup’ll be getting his.”
She knitted her brows. “Not from me, he won’t.”
“He did ye wrong. Makin’ ye climb the riggin’. Crew’s not takin’ that light.”
Relief washed over her. “Oh, that.”
“Yer daft as a hatter, but I got te be handin’ it to ya. Took some stones, it did, gettin’ up there in those seas.” He tipped his head and narrowed his gaze. “Was there some other foolishness happen in the storm?”
Heat flared in her cheeks. “Of course not.”
MacTavish raised a shrewd eyebrow. Alice looked away. “I’d prefer to forget last night ever happened.”
“Ye keep actin’ like this, ye’re gonna make a name fer yerself.”
“Oh, I know the name,” she mumbled remembering Jessup’s parting word.
“Might just earn the right te learn me secrets, ye keep it up.”
Alice smirked. Jessup was most likely spreading her secret all over the ship. “It was a one-time thing. A mistake I won’t be foolish enough to repeat.”
Neo ducked into the armory. “Tupper, on deck.”
“Why?”
“Capt’n’s order.”
As Alice followed the wide back of Neo topside, she worked on keeping her emotions in check. She didn’t want to see Gavin and couldn’t let him see how much he’d hurt her.
Ahead, a group gathered at the base of the main mast. Gavin’s bright hair was a beacon in the sunlight. Alice looked away. Beside him, stood Jessup. His hands were bound, but he spat on the deck boards as she approached.
“Tupper,” Gavin began. Alice studied the stock about his neck. If she looked into his eyes… He continued. “It’s been decided amongst the crew. A great wrong was committed against you last night.” Around him, several men muttered their agreement. “It falls to you as an honorary member of this crew to levy the punishment against the guilty man.”
Within a Captain's Treasure Page 9