One big hand came up to cradle the back of her head and Shamon expertly angled his head to allow their kiss to deepen. That quickly he took control, plundering the depths of her mouth and leaving his taste flooding her.
Fire flared suddenly inside her, filling her with a wild wanting.
“Cripes, I am such a slut,” she mumbled into his mouth, right before she plundered him deeply in return.
She didn’t know how it happened, but one second she was kneeling on the floor kissing the heck out of the man, the next he’d surged to his feet, his arms around her bringing her up effortlessly with him.
Lifting her head, she looked him directly in the eye. “Oh, you’re not taking me back to the cabin to sleep, are you? I told you, I’m fine. I—”
Hoo boy. That look in his eyes wasn’t concern. It was totally hedonistic.
“Too late for that now,” he replied, and his words had a carnal bite to them. His mouth lifted at one corner. “We’re going upstairs to the solitary cabin where no one can hear you scream when I make you come.”
Whoa. That just fanned the flames hotter. “There’s no bed there.” Holding tight to him, she nuzzled his neck and laughed when she heard his breath catch.
“Trust me, lass, we don’t need a bed.”
He held her against him so easily, as though she weighed less than a child. She felt the strength in his body as he strode along, the flexing of his muscles. The brush of his pants against her legs.
Well, that answered that question. He wasn’t naked from the waist down.
She was. She smothered a giggle in his hair.
There was a lurch and she looked up to find that they were on the platform lift. It shuddered, gave a groan and ascended.
No sooner had she lifted her head from his shoulder than Shamon had her pressed up against the wall, the strength of his big body and arms holding her pinned in place as he ravished her mouth thoroughly. She felt like she was drowning in him, his taste, his touch, his scent.
By the time the platform clattered to a halt and Shamon carried her off it, Gabie could hardly think straight. All she knew was that she wanted him, his skin against hers, and his body in hers. She didn’t think she’d breathed it aloud until she heard his groan. Oops. She grinned. Ah well.
Shamon moved swiftly down the corridor, turning into the solitary cabin and striding across directly to the lone chair that sat in the middle of it. It was the only furniture in the cabin. A huge space shield took up most of the opposite wall, and outside sparkled stars. It was empty as far as the eye could see.
Gabie didn’t care much about the view except to be grateful that the security ship was ahead of the trade ship. Some things she’d be happy to do with Shamon. Shagging him senseless in full view of watchers wasn’t one of them. She might have recently discovered how besotted with him she was, but her inner slut drew a line at putting on a display for others.
However, she had Shamon to herself, so she was totally uninhibited.
Not that she’d have had time to be inhibited anyway. One second she was cradled against him, the next second he’d stood her on the chair.
“This is different,” she managed to say, her heart trying to keep up with the fire in her blood.
“I just need to get rid of something,” Shamon replied, his eyes hot and his hands fast as he shucked his pants and kicked them aside.
Cripes. The man had a raging erection already. Gabie was impressed. More than impressed. Oh, all right, downright hungry.
“Oh yeah,” she breathed. “Do me, Shamon.” She reached for him.
He caught her as she almost threw herself off the chair at him, laughter and voracity combined in his eyes. “I’d thought to go slow, but Gabs, you make me run too hot.”
“Good,” she said, zeroing in on the pulse beating frantically in his neck and giving it a rapacious lick. “Because I don’t exactly feel like slow right now. Let’s go for it.”
His laughter filled the room, but it was tempered with pure eroticism. He swung her around in a dizzying half circle and dropped back onto the big chair, bring her with him so that she was kneeing astride him, her knees each side of his thighs.
His manhood throbbed against his belly, almost rock hard, and Gabie closed her hand around it as she leaned forward and kissed Shamon almost desperately.
She didn’t know why, couldn’t even begin to imagine why she was so frantic to have him inside her. Close to her. As close as he could possibly be, but it was as though he could read her mind.
Big hands tugged her nightgown off and tossed it aside, bearing her to his heated explorations. His palms were calloused, rough against her skin, but boy, did she love it.
When one big palm cupped her breast, she slid her hand firmly up his shaft and felt him buck beneath her.
“God... Gabs...” His voice was almost pained.
She drew back a little to see his expression. The man had an expression of such hunger on his face that it bordered on rapacity. For her. That made her even bolder, as though she wasn’t bold enough already.
Experimentally she thumbed the top of his staff, slicking the bead of seed across the slit in the tip, using a firm pressure to rub it around the tip.
He liked it all right. His groan was hoarse, his hand tightening almost convulsively on her breast. And when she kissed him using hot little presses of her lips across his mouth, he actually cursed.
Fire burned through her veins, need washed through her like a wave of molten lava, but she wanted to give him pleasure. At the same time she wanted him in her.
Typically, she was caught between two choices. Story of her life.
Shamon fixed it by the simple process of lifting her up onto her knees, using one hand to position his turgid staff and, while keeping her gaze locked with his, guided her down.
The thick length penetrated her openness, invading her slick body, pushing through the tight fit of her sheath and making her moan his name as he slid fully home.
He shuddered beneath her, the muscles in his chest expanding with his breath, brushing her sensitized nipples.
His hands clutched her bottom, supporting her as she rose up instinctively. God, the sensation of his thick, veined staff sliding through her heat was erotic in itself. The sight of his eyes glowing with such concupiscence made her libido surge almost out of control, and she pushed down, flexing her hips, clenching her inner muscles.
Shamon cried out, his voice hoarse and deep, and his grip changed, clamping onto her hips and taking over.
The man had control issues, she thought vaguely. But she didn’t care, not then, not when he was urging her on, controlling the ride, guiding them both higher and higher.
Everything blurred, became heat and fire and screaming nerve endings. Her nipples against his chest, his hard body under her, against her, in her. His hair tumbling over her breasts as he leaned forward while simultaneously drawing her against him. Then that hot mouth was on her throat, his tongue flicked once, twice, against her skin, and then he started to draw on her.
She almost shattered at the sensation of his staff driving deep inside her and his mouth marking her. Marked inside and outside as his seed started to leak hotly, coating her sheath, slipping deeper inside with every thrust.
Gabie couldn’t think. Her fingers entwined in his hair, she inhaled, smelling him. His scent in her nose, his essence in her, his mark on her, and then he kissed her long and hard, not coming up for air, and now she had his breath in her lungs
She had everything of him.
Shamon pushed her higher, their sweat mingling, his powerful thighs surging under her, his hands controlling her movements. Everything around her went dim and all she could do was stare into his eyes.
Those eyes, usually so merry, so happy, so full of laughter, now burned with prurience. Pure male rut, pure heat, and no mercy.
“You’re mine,” he rasped suddenly. “No one else’s.” He thrust hard beneath her while holding her down, slamming home deep inside,
and he stopped.
Just like that.
Cripes!
“Oh God, no, don’t stop,” she pleaded, trying to shift on top of him.
He was merciless, all right. Inhuman. He had to be to stop like that when their hearts were racing, their libidos going overtime and that pinnacle of mind shattering pleasure was just a little further up.
“Mine,” he grated again. “Say it.”
“What? Now?” She could have cried with frustration.
“Aye. Now and forever.”
Geez, she’d do whatever it took to make him start again. “Yes. Yes, yes, yes! Yours! Let’s go!”
In one smooth move he yanked her hard against him, her breasts crushed against his chest, and he looked deep into her eyes. “’Tis no going back for you, Gabs.”
Something had just happened between them. Something important. Gabie blinked, but before she could even think to say anything Shamon captured her mouth, his tongue plundering the depths, sweeping away all partially constructed thoughts.
Powerful thighs moved under her and that glorious pumping started inside her again. Fire flared, passion seared and she was quickly lost to the mind-numbing pleasure that built and built inside her, pushing her higher, the sensations low in her sheath and rippling through her belly consuming her, burning her up, and as she felt the first swell of climax, she also felt the hot spurt of seed deep inside her.
Shamon stiffened beneath her, his grip on her hips holding her still as he strained inside her, and when he thrust suddenly, Gabie was tipped over the edge.
She arched back, her world shaking and shattering, that hot, wet heat filling her even as her senses were flung away to spin into oblivion.
She didn’t feel the hard body straining under her, the staff pumping hot seed into her. She didn’t feel the hands gripping her hips, fingers biting deep as the man, in the depths of passion and love, gripped her tightly and sought to bury himself so deep in her that she’d never be free of him.
But she was more than aware that even as she whirled out in glorious, splendorous space of nerve-shattering ecstasy, Shamon held her safely grounded.
She was free to fly in complete safety, and she gave herself over to the glory of it uninhibited.
Fifteen
When his heart finally stopped pounding, Shamon angled his head to look down at the wench snuggled against him. The long line of her back and the swells of her voluptuous buttocks called to him, and with a sigh of contentment he ran his palm up and down those sweet curves.
“I could start purring” Gabie mumbled against his throat, “But I’m too deliciously tired right now.”
“I’ll just imagine it.” He pressed his cheek against the top of her head where it rested against his shoulder.
“You’re desperate.”
“Not as much as I was when you seduced me.”
She laughed.
“You’re mine.” He brushed his lips across her hair.
She stilled. She remembered. Had she meant it? Had it only been said in the heat of the moment?
Slowly she straightened up, her hands on his shoulders, her legs still astride his thighs. Those green eyes searched his, her gaze probing.
It was a moment suspended in time.
“’Tis no going back for you, Gabs.” Bringing one hand around, he traced her cheek to her chin with one fingertip. And watched her.
She took a deep breath. “Shamon...”
He refused to help, looking at her intently.
“The hell with it.” Gabie flung her hair over one shoulder with an arrogant toss of her head and stated bluntly, “I have no idea what I feel for you, all right? I know you make my senses whirl, you make me lose any common sense I may have—and Misha says that’s not much to start with anyway—you make me laugh, and I know if anything happened to you I’d just die.” She arched one brow. “What do you say to that?”
Joy spread through Shamon like a warm tide. “You love me, ’tis what I say. What I know.”
“I’m glad one of us knows.” An uncertain look spread across her gamine face. “You reckon I love you?”
He started to laugh. He couldn’t help it. She was so adorable, a bit of a scatterbrain, outrageous, wholly disrespectful and soft-hearted. Cuddling her close, he said, “Aye. I know so.”
“Are you laughing at me?”
“Of course. I’m allowed to.” He nipped her ear, delighting in her squirm on his lap.
Stars, he was still buried deep inside her. The squirming caused some really interesting sensations.
She must have thought so too, because she suddenly went all languid in his arms and kissed his neck.
“Why are you allowed to?” she murmured.
“Because I’m your soon-to-be husband.”
That got her attention. She shot upright on his lap, her eyes big. “What?”
“Aye,” he said with supreme satisfaction. “My wife. You belong to me, we’re getting married.”
“Since when?”
“Since I found out we loved each other. Of course,” he tapped her nose, “I knew long before you did.”
She stared at him for several seconds and he could just about see her busy little mind ticking. That could be both interesting and amusing.
Finally she said, “That’s very brave of you, considering I come with company.”
“Oh?” He could just bet he knew where this was heading.
“I have family.”
“Oh?”
“Paz. Misha. Olin. I won’t desert them.”
“No problems,” he replied easily. “They can live in my other house.”
“Other house?”
“Aye. I’ll just buy the closest one to us.”
“Closest to us?” Her eyes narrowed a little. “Exactly where are you intending for us to live?”
“On Daamen.”
“And exactly what am I supposed to do while you’re away trading?” Her arms were folded now, which pushed her breasts up most impressively.
He had a hard time keeping his mind on the subject but managed it with admirable single-mindedness. “You can stay home or get a job, ’tis up to you. You’d do well in the trade business. Legal trade business,” he added.
“You have it all worked out, don’t you?” she accused.
“Aye. You can choose to either stay home or work, Misha can get a job, Olin can sleep his days away and Paz can go to school with the other Daamen youths.”
“Is that right?”
“They’re all free to come and go.” He sobered. “Seriously, Gabie. They’re your family and I’d not expect you to leave them behind. They are welcome to stay on Daamen if they wish, and if they choose to stay I’ll look after them until they settle in. Paz is welcome to live with us if you and he want, or he can stay with Misha and Olin. I’ll provide a home for them close to us.”
“They don’t need to be provided for. We all have plenty of dinnos of our own to retire on in comfort. But what if they don’t want to stay?”
Shamon studied her quietly. “Can you let them go?”
She bit her lip and looked away. “We’ve all been together for so long...”
“Would they wish you to go with them, leave behind one you love? Could you do it?”
She was silent for so long that he started to worry. God, what if she couldn’t? What if she really did mean to go with them, to keep them together? If—
“No.” She spoke softly, then turned back to face him. A tear glistened in her eye, making the green depths sparkle. “No, I couldn’t leave you.”
And then she hugged him, burying her face in his neck. He felt the shiver go through her and he cradled her against his chest.
“Nothing is ever simple,” she said, her words muffled in his hair.
“But it all works out in the end, lass,” he replied soothingly. “Family always works it out.”
~ * ~
It troubled her. Not that fact that she might—might—love Shamon, but what to do with her
friends if—if—she agreed to wed him—wed? sheesh!—and stay on Daamen.
Sitting up in the solitary cabin the following morning, she munched on a chunk of chocolate and stared morosely out at the stars.
“Geez, you have the same expression as Paz wears.” Misha entered the cabin.
“Yeah, well his is make-believe and mine is real.”
“Why? We’re safe, your hunk of handsomeness is on the same ship, you had nooky last night and everything looks rosy. What could possibly be wrong?” Turning her back to the space shield, Misha folded her arms and leaned back against it.
“What makes you think I had, as you so nicely put it, nooky last night?”
“It was a good guess, but your blushing is a dead giveaway.”
“You are such a cow.”
“Why, thank you.” Misha’s grin faded and she looked seriously at her friend. “So what’s wrong?”
Gabie held out the chocolate and Misha took it from her, careful to keep her fingers on the wrapper at the bottom. Taking a bite, she chewed and watched Gabie.
“I don’t know where to start,” Gabie mumbled. “Life used to be simple.”
“Still is.”
“You think?” Gabie took the chocolate block and bit off another piece.
“Sure. We’re alive. What’s simpler than that?”
Gabie looked up at her. “Am I in love?’
“Sure,” Misha replied without batting an eyelid.
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“How come you know and I’m not sure?”
“I was always the brains of this outfit.”
Gabie sighed.
“Come on, Gabie, anyone can see that big lug is besotted with you, and your face just lights up when he just enters the room.”
“It does not!” Gabie reconsidered. “It does?”
“It does.” Taking the block of chocolate back, Misha took a bite. “Yummy chocolate, by the way.”
“Shamon gave it to me from a stash in the cargo hold. Said it’s expensive but I was... worth... it.”
Misha cocked a brow and grinned hugely.
Heart of a Smuggler Page 36