by Bold, Diana
“May I come in?” He smiled and entered her cabin before she could answer, shutting the door behind him. “Close your mouth, Kate. You’ve seen me in a dinner jacket before.”
She swallowed and took the rose he offered, bringing it to her nose and inhaling deeply. Her heart pounded, and she couldn’t give voice to the questions stuck in her throat. She was afraid she already knew the answers. Where would she find the strength to deny him anything he might ask?
“You shouldn’t be here. I think you should leave before we both do something we regret.”
Talon lifted one dark brow, his eyes glowing with inner fire. “Would you really regret making love to me?”
There. He’d said it. The words hung between them. Shocking.
Potent. Laced with promise and dark secrets. Dear Lord, she wanted what he was offering. She’d wanted it ever since she’d first laid eyes upon him.
“Of course, I would regret it.” She turned away, unable to look at him while she denied what was in her heart. “I would regret it for the rest of my days.”
“Is it because of what Daniel told you yesterday?” He moved to stand behind her, his heat permeating the thin layers of cloth that separated his skin from hers. “Are you sorry you let me touch you with my filthy pirate hands?” As he spoke, he cupped her breasts, his breath rasping in her ear and sending a delicious shiver down her spine.
“Are you a pirate?” she whispered, her voice shaking. “I told him I didn’t believe it. You’re too good, too fine to make your living that way.”
He shuddered and hugged her, stealing her breath with the power of his embrace. “I went to prison,” he admitted harshly. “I guess you don’t know me as well as you thought.”
She covered his hands with hers, trying halfheartedly to remove them. “Please, Talon, don’t do this. Not this way.”
“What way then?” He moved his hips against hers, and his scent enveloped her. He smelled sinfully good, a mixture of soap and sea. “Would you have me beg? Because I would.”
She shook her head, past coherent speech. His lips moved against her neck, his long, elegant fingers working their tender magic on her breasts.
“Daniel doesn’t care. You know it as well as I do. He doesn’t want you. He doesn’t need you.”
“And do you need me? Will you ever give a thought to me once this passion between us has been spent?” She was crying, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“I need you like I need air to breathe.” He turned her in his arms and tenderly kissed her tears away. “You’re a fire in my blood. I could never get enough of you. Never.”
It wasn’t quite the answer she’d hoped for, but it no longer seemed important. She wound her arms around his neck and kissed him back, straining to get closer, offering herself to him without guile or hesitation. It was wrong and she would probably burn in hell for her weakness, but she didn’t care.
In a blinding flash, she realized how much she loved this man. Loved him with all her heart and all her soul. She was running out of time, and she wanted this one night for her own. One night of passion and love to sustain her through all the long, lonely years to come.
She didn’t want to spend the rest of her life wondering what she’d missed.
“Make love to me,” she whispered. “I need you, too.
Chapter Fifteen
Talon swept Kate into his arms and carried her to the narrow bunk, humbled by her acquiescence. He was trembling with need and something else. Something stronger than desire.
If only this was the beginning of their relationship instead of the end. She would hate him so much when she found out the truth.
“Just let me kiss you for awhile.” He lowered her to the mattress and stretched out beside her, noticing for the first time the light sprinkle of freckles across her dainty nose. “We don’t have to do anything else. Not tonight. Not until you’re ready.”
It was a lie, of course. Another filthy lie, because he knew he’d come too far to turn back now.
She nodded, her teeth worrying her bottom lip in a gesture he found unbearably erotic. “I trust you.”
He bent and cupped her face, lowering his lips to hers and sipping from them with a gentleness he hadn’t known he possessed. She trusted him. God, she broke his heart.
He’d never made love to a virgin before, and he was terrified he’d lose control and hurt her. He wanted to take his time and show her every measure of a woman’s pleasure, but it had been so long, too damned long, since he’d had a release of his own.
She smelled of roses and feminine musk. Everything soft and sweet that had been missing in his life. She was the stuff his yearning midnight dreams were made of, a lady with a core of fire and passion. And in the midst of it all was the poignant knowledge that he did not deserve this. He was a pirate, after all, taking what belonged by law to another and trying to justify it as right.
There was only the slightest hesitation in Kate’s kiss, a bit of charming awkwardness as he taught her how to seduce him with her lips and tongue, and she more than made up for it in exuberance. She was a slim, burning flame in his arms, and the soft sounds of burgeoning passion he coaxed from the back of her throat nearly undid him.
Kissing her was nice, but there were far more wonderful delights ahead. At length, he trailed his lips from her mouth to her throat, whispering sweet words as his nimble fingers attacked the tiny white buttons that lined the front of her nightdress. Then the barrier was gone and her beautiful breasts were bare to him, their tight, dark nipples glistening in the soft light, begging him to touch and taste.
“You are so beautiful, Kate. So soft.” He molded her shape with his hands, watching her green eyes flare with passion. He bent his head, tracing one rigid crest with his tongue before taking it fully into his mouth.
Sweet. He’d never known such sweetness. She gasped his name and threaded her hands in his hair while he sampled the other lush mound and then back again like a starving man at a banquet.
“I want to touch you, too.”
Her voice seemed to come from far away. He felt drugged with arousal, drunk on her, but her words wrenched him out of his reverie.
“Aye,” he breathed, sitting up and shrugging impatiently out of his jacket, vest and shirt. Holding her gaze, he let his hands fall to the ties of his breeches. When she didn’t protest, he loosened them, freeing his aching cock and kicking away the confining fabric.
Naked, he stretched out beside her, trying like hell to restrain himself, to walk when he so badly wanted to run. She lifted up on one elbow and used her other hand to trace the contours of his chest.
“I’ve dreamed of this. Of touching all this beautiful, sun-bronzed skin.” As she spoke, she circled his nipple with her thumbnail, making him suck in an agonized breath.
“I’ve dreamt of you, too. Every night.” He rolled on top of her, their bare chests pressed together, the soft mounds of her unbound breasts searing his skin. He kissed her long and deep, trembling with need.
She traced his back with her fingertips, exploring. Tentative at first, then moving daringly low, grazing the swell of his buttocks. He smiled into the kiss, enraptured. His Kate was a quick learner.
Unable to bear it any longer, he broke a little apart from her, running his hand over her flat stomach then lower. He threaded his fingertips through her dark, damp curls, touching her where she needed it most.
She flinched at first, shying away and trying to close her legs against the intrusion. He persisted, whispering words of encouragement while he coaxed the sweet honey of excitement from her body.
He found the exact spot that drove her wild and then took shameless advantage of the knowledge, pleasuring her until she was writhing and panting beneath him. She sobbed his name, and he caught the beautiful sound with his mouth.
Rising above her, he settled between her thighs. “I can’t wait, sweetheart. I’ve wanted this for so long.” His voice was harsh and broken, his entire body trembling. He slid against h
er wet heat, and sweat broke out across his forehead.
Her eyelids fluttered closed at the sensation then she opened them, staring at him with emerald intensity. “I don’t want you to wait. I love you, Talon. I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you.”
Her words pierced him. Such a priceless gift, the only one of worth he’d ever been given. He was shamed to the depths of his soul by what he was about to do, yet he couldn’t turn away from her now.
It wasn’t about his men any more. He wanted her for himself, just for tonight. He was a miserable, betraying bastard, and this only proved it. “Don’t love me, Kate. I’m not worth it.”
“You’re worth it to me.” She moved beneath him, reaching for what he could give her. She tilted her hips just enough to allow him to breach the virginal tightness of her body with his.
“Are you sure?” he whispered. “Are you absolutely sure this is what you want?”
She nodded, her gaze full of love and trust. “I’m sure. I want you. I have since the first time I saw you.”
Riding the euphoria of her declaration, he thrust deeply, crying out with pleasure as he buried himself to the hilt. She gasped and stiffened beneath him, shoving at his chest as he braced himself above her, his arms trembling with the effort of holding back.
He dipped his head and kissed away her tears. “I’m sorry,” he whispered over and over. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s all right,” she murmured, relaxing as she adjusted to his invasion. “I just didn’t realize it would be like this. You fill me so completely.”
He took one of her hands and placed it over his thundering heart. “You fill me, too. Here.” The words weren’t nearly enough. What he felt for her was too new, too immense to name, but she bit her lip and more tears welled in her eyes, and he knew she understood.
It was impossible to hold back any longer. He drew his hips back in a long, slow slide and then drove home again. Kate winced a bit, but nodded, encouraging him.
“Let go. Take me, Kate. Take all of me.” “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes.”
Her acceptance pushed him beyond coherent thought. He closed his eyes and filled her again and again, losing himself in the wonder of it, the rightness of making love to this woman. She was everything he’d ever wanted, and for this brief, shining moment, she was his.
All his plans to ensure her pleasure evaporated because his own came too quickly, ripping through him with the force of a hurricane. He shuddered and moaned her name, spilling his seed deep within her, holding her tightly against his chest as tremors of completion racked his body.
* * * * *
Kate lay in Talon’s arms, listening to the steady beat of his heart.
The lean strength of his big, warm body pressed along her back and one of his elegant hands fanned her bare hip.
She felt the strangest urge to laugh. Here she was, a proper, pampered lady all her life, lying in her lover’s arms in glorious abandon while her husband slept unknowingly in the room next door.
There was none of the guilt she’d expected to feel. For the first time in her life, she’d followed her heart instead of her head. She’d thrown consequence to the wind and lived for the moment.
Strange as it seemed, she thought Daniel would approve.
She’d been made for this, made to love a man like Talon. It wasn’t fair that fate had stuck her in a loveless, passionless marriage with a man like Daniel, someone who would never show her the physical side of love.
She forced the pointless thoughts away and concentrated instead on absorbing every nuance of this moment for later reference. She wanted to remember the feel of Talon’s breath on her skin, the hair-roughened tangle of his legs with hers. Who knew if she’d ever have an opportunity like this again?
They’d reach America in another few days, and she had no idea of Talon’s plans once he’d seen them to Holyoke. There had been no talk of the future, and he hadn’t claimed to love her, although she thought perhaps he did.
Another thought occurred out of the blue, striking icy fear into her heart. What if the night she’d passed with Talon resulted in a child?
The panic dissipated as quickly as it had come. Lord, what if it did?
If she had a child, they could return to England. Daniel would probably be ecstatic. She wouldn’t even have to feel guilty about her son inheriting the earldom, because he would still be of Sutcliffe’s blood.
A baby at last. After all these lonely months of heartache and disappointment, the thought of it was enough to bring pure joy to her heart. She wanted Talon’s baby. She could shower the child with all the love she wanted to give to Talon, all the love he’d never allow himself to know.
“Good morning.” Talon hugged her and pressed a tender kiss behind her ear. “Having second thoughts?”
She closed her eyes and tried to control her racing heart. She couldn’t let him know what she was thinking. He would assume she’d used him to get her pregnant and escape the fate Sutcliffe had planned for her.
To distract them both, she turned to face him. “I’m past second thoughts. I’ve already moved on to third and fourth ones.”
He chuckled and kissed her, long and sweet. “It’s nice to wake up with you. I’ve never known the luxury of spending the night in a lady’s bed. My life has never been this soft, this sweet.”
She ran her fingertips over his poor, bruised cheekbone. “Tell me what your life has been like. I want to know everything about you.” Reality would intrude soon enough. She’d already committed the sin; it couldn’t hurt to wring every moment of pleasure she could from the experience.
He sighed and stretched, the muscles of his big, lean body rippling against her. “You don’t want to know. It’s an ugly tale.”
She tried to contain her disappointment. It wasn’t as though he’d made her any promises, after all. She had no right to expect him to give her his heart or his trust. He’d offered nothing but his body.
Her attention was caught by a soft sound in the adjoining cabin. Her husband was awake. She bit her lip. “Do you think Daniel knows?”
Talon nodded. He hugged her tighter for a moment and then released her. “Yes, he knows.” There was a strange, angry note in his voice she was hesitant to identify. “Don’t worry about it, sweetheart. I’ll take care of Daniel.”
Sweetheart. Kate’s foolish heart clenched at the careless endearment. “Daniel and I were just beginning to become friends.” The enormity of her betrayal was sinking in, the guilt no less powerful for having been delayed.
“You can still be friends. He’ll be happy for you.” He kissed her again, this time on the bridge of her nose.
“I should get out of here.” He sat up and swung his long, bare legs over the side of the narrow bunk. Naked, he strode to the pile of clothing he’d discarded last night.
The dim, dawn light poured in through the round porthole and gilded his powerful body. Her gaze was drawn to the muscled perfection of his thighs and backside as he bent and grabbed his pants.
He turned toward her and pulled them on. She stared, transfixed by the part of him she’d never gotten a clear look at last night. He was still huge and thick with need, and when she thought about how he’d filled her, how he’d moved within her, her face grew warm with embarrassment.
He hesitated, pausing without fastening his pants. “I still want you.” His voice was low and intense. “No matter what happens in the future, I want you to know these past few hours have been the most beautiful moments in my life.”
“Mine, too.” Her dwindling hopes were refueled by his passionate words.
Then he was in her arms again, kissing her with overwhelming urgency and hunger. For a moment, she was too stunned by his passion to react, but then she responded with the same sense of desperation. She brushed his hands away, shoving his trousers down his thighs.
She touched him, learning every inch of his powerful frame, daring to run her hands over the smooth, beautiful curves of his backside, cuppin
g him closer while he suckled her breasts.
He groaned and laid her down on the bed, kneeling above her, his erection jutting from its nest of dense, dark curls. “Touch me,” he breathed, his blue eyes burning. “I want to feel your hands on me.”
She knew what he wanted and was shocked at herself for wanting to give it to him. Tentatively, she lifted her hand and traced the tip of him, gasping at the heat, the unexpected silky texture.
“Yes.” His voice was rough and broken. “God. Just like that.” He closed his hand over hers, showing her how to please him, his beautiful face drawn with passion.
She stared at her pale hand, dwarfed by his large, callused one, amazed by what she was doing and even more so by how wonderful it felt. She liked having him at her mercy, liked knowing she had the ability to bring this fierce, gentle man to his knees.
“I love you, Talon. I love you so much.” She couldn’t control the words, couldn’t hold them back. She wanted to chant it over and over for the rest of her days.
“Kate. Oh God, Kate.” He moaned and thrust her hand away, moving over her, covering her with his powerful body, pressing her into the mattress. She clutched his back and wrapped her legs around his lean hips as he thrust deep inside her.
This time there was no pain; there was nothing but pleasure. Waves and waves of it building in intensity as she reached for something just beyond her grasp.
“Come with me,” Talon breathed, reaching between them, rubbing his thumb against a tiny bud of sensation as he thrust harder and faster.
Her entire body tensed then shattered in a mind-numbing, brilliant explosion.
Talon whispered her name, his hips jerking, his mouth hot and damp against her throat as he, too, found release. She held him, drifting in the aftermath, her eyes brimming with tears as she faced an unavoidable truth.
Someday very soon, this man was going to break her heart.
Chapter Sixteen
Talon spent the entire morning with Kate, returning to his cabin early that afternoon. He’d found it nearly impossible to leave her side and had postponed the inevitable as long as he could.