Page 50 of The Pirate Takes A Bride

“Then don’t say it politely.”

“Lick me. Suck me. Put your tongue inside me.”

He couldn’t have resisted even if she asked, not after that command. He did as she ordered, his tongue lashing her into a frenzy. Her fingers plucked at her nipples and her hips moved in rhythm to his ministrations. Finally, she shuddered and cried out. He scraped across her one last time and felt her climax against his tongue. He almost came himself, but by sheer force of will, he rose and pinned her hands above her head, pushing her hard against the tree. “Since we are no longer being polite...” He held her hands with one of his, lifted her bottom with the other, and drove into her.

She screamed in pleasure, and he felt the last convulsions from her orgasm clenching around him. “Put your legs around my waist.”

She did so, and he filled her to the hilt, driving himself into her, feeling her tighten around him. She felt so good, so wet and tight, and he could feel her clenching again, ready to come a second time.

If he hadn’t felt that climax on his tongue, if she hadn’t fit him so well, he would have controlled himself, pulled her down, and made her ride him until she came a third time. But he could not hold his own pleasure off, and he came when he felt her tighten around him, spilling himself into her with a groan.

Chapter Fourteen

Nick finally released her, and she would have crumpled to the ground if he hadn’t held her. Slowly, they sank to the soft sandy beach together. Nick immediately turned her. She complied, though she didn’t understand what he was doing, at first.

“Your back,” he said. “God, I’m an arse.”

Her back did feel slightly tender. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s scraped. I was too rough and hurt you.” He moved to stand, and she grabbed his hand.

“I’m not so polite, remember? Perhaps I like being taken against a tree.” She saw the apology in his eyes, and it was enough to ease any discomfort a few scratches on her back produced. “Let’s wash off. Next time we’ll find a rock or a wall.”

“Next time I have other ideas for what I’ll do to you—and how.”

It was a lie, she knew. Not a malicious lie, but a carefully woven illusion. He would leave her before there could be a next time. At least, he would try. She led him into the water, where they spent another quarter hour floating and talking. And when he kissed her again, when he pulled her against him, taking her slowly and gently this time, she wanted to cry when she came. He’d been so gentle, so loving. She almost felt as though he loved her.

“How do you feel?” he asked as he held her afterward, the water lapping around them. She knew he asked because he was concerned he’d hurt her, and she intended to tell him she felt fine. She could do it again. She meant to say, I loved it. Instead, she said, “I love you.”

Instantly, he stiffened and pulled back from her. She saw a look of panic cross his face before he carefully controlled the expression. How completely pathetic she felt. She didn’t even know why she had made such a ridiculous statement.

“Ashley, I...” he began, clearly choosing his words carefully.

“Oh, do not bother,” she said, pushing out of his arms and trudging out of the water. She pulled her shift down from the tree branch, tugged it over her nakedness, and walked to where her damp blouse and skirt hung. They were almost dry. Another hour perhaps. From the corner of her eye, she saw he’d followed her out of the water. She could not stop her gaze from tracking him. He was so beautiful. So perfect, with his long lean legs, his slim hips, his broad shoulders. His wet hair flowed down his shoulders and rivulets of water cascaded down his chest. She wanted to lick one of those little drops of water.

Either that or smack him hard in the center of the forehead. She held up a hand to stop his progress. “Do not apologize to me. Do not explain. No trite words are necessary. I don’t even know why I said...what I said. I didn’t mean it. I must have been overcome with feminine emotion.”

She could see in the way he quirked his lips that he didn’t believe her. She hardly believed herself. Because when he had kissed her ruined flesh, when he had touched her leg and told her she was beautiful, she had felt something very much like love.

But now she hated him all over again. Why hadn’t he just kissed her or laughed when she’d said it? Why did he have to panic as though she were some debutante trying to snare him? She’d already snared him—they’d snared each other! And now they were stuck. She knew he didn’t love her. She knew what he loved—his ship and his damned revenge. So let him have it.

“Ashley...” he began again. She turned away.

“Don’t you have preparations to make? Aren’t you sailing away soon? The hour grows late.” She made a shooing motion with her hand. “You had better run along.”

She waited until he’d dressed and walked back the way he’d come before she sat on the log and put her face in her hands. She didn’t cry, though. She wanted to cry when she thought of him as that little boy who’d lost his mother. She wanted to weep with sorrow for him because he was still that little boy, still trying to save them all by playing the shining knight. He could better save them by putting down his sword and shield for good.

Rissa found her still sitting near the pond a half hour later. Ashley had dressed in her now dry clothing and was attempting to free the snarls from her hair with a borrowed comb. It was late afternoon and rather warm and sticky. The monkeys had been hooting and screeching all afternoon, and she was sick of hearing them. She was almost glad for Rissa’s appearance as the little girl would chatter so much it would drown out the apes. Rissa’s cheeks were rosy pink from running in the heat.

“They are leaving on the tide in the morning,” she stated without even a hello.

Ashley nodded. She had suspected as much. “Then we have to figure out a way to get on the ship before morning. They’ll be ferrying supplies back and forth all night. We sneak on one of the longboats, hide under a canvas, and then—”

Rissa was shaking her head. “They will find us.”

Ashley gave her a skeptical look, and Rissa explained, “I tried that when I was four.”

Ashley frowned. So the girl thought her idea only worthy of a four-year-old. But it was all she had. “I don’t have any other ideas,” Ashley admitted.

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