Page 54 of Unearthing the Smuggler's Heart
Hearing that word had at least done the job of pulling her from her anxiety over what was to come. It had slammed into her like a treacherous stormy wave at mid-sea. Love!
He might have meant nothing at all by it, but to Jade, it had laid bare a thing hiding in her heart that she had refused to examine, to even look at until this moment.
She eased down onto a red cushion against the wall of the hold and gazed at him settling in beside her over the rim of her wine glass and knew the truth of the matter down to her very bones.
She was in love with Mathias Dempierre.
Utterly and hopelessly in love.
"There, now," he said happily, clicking his glass against hers. "Salut."
"Cheers," she responded softly, and welcomed the cool reassurance of the wine on her tongue. She gave him a self-conscious little shrug as she swallowed, the warmth of the wine spreading into her belly. "I don't know what's the matter with me. I was so excited before, and there's no reason not to be now."
"You are nervous. Anyone would be, but you especially are not what I would call fond of the unexpected." He sighed, positioning his body so that it faced her, his legs crossed beneath him. "You must miss your mother. At least you know what to expect when you see her again."
Jade gave a hollow sort of laugh, dropping a hand on his knee and setting her glass aside. "I haveno ideawhat to expect. I carefully managed my mother's fragile grasp on reality for all of my life, in a place that was the same every day and completely within my control. I haveno ideahow she has fared in a new place, with people who last knew her when she was at her prime. I fear she will be just as much a stranger to me as my father. And we don't even know how long I'll have to... to..."
She trailed off, looking away from him to hide the tear that had just escaped down her cheek.
"Jade," he said, a helplessness in his voice. "If I knew, I... You know that I would tell you. What if we talked to Isabelle first?"
"No," she said quickly, pushing the tear off her face with the heel of her hand and turning back to him, her face arranged in its best approximation of a reassuring smile. "No. We mustn't put that sort of pressure on her, especially at such a delicate time. Oh, Mathias, I wish I could just switch off my thoughts for a while. Just a small reprieve would make all the difference."
"Well, as to that," he said, reaching out to brush the remainder of the tear away with his thumb, cupping his hand against her face, "I am happy to provide a distraction, if the lady so wishes."
She blinked at him for a moment, unsure at her interpretation of that statement. It had, she would realize later, effectively distracted her from thoughts outside of the present moment.
"Mathias!" she whispered, scandalized.
"Jade!" he returned with a mimic of her tone, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "No one will bother us back here. You should know that by now."
"Yes, but it's so...soopen," she said thinly, gesturing around. "And it is the middle of the day!"
"There is no rule about the presence of the sun," he told her, snaking an arm around her waist to hoist her off her cushion and into his lap. "There aren't many rules at all, truth be told."
"Oh!" She squeaked in surprise, bracing herself against his shoulders, giving him a stern little glare. "There most certainlyarerules!"
"Is that so?" He flicked her hair over her shoulder, leaning forward to nip at the lobe of her ear, to press a kiss into the side of her neck, making her shiver. "How many have we already broken?"
"At least three," she answered, though she made no move to stop him. "Likely more."
"Hmm." He had made his way down her throat and to her clavicle, sliding the sleeve of her dress down over her shoulder. "If I recall correctly, Miss Ferris, it wasyouwho broke the biggest rule first."
"Nonsense." She drew a finger along his jaw, drawing his face up to where she might drop a kiss on his lips. "You did, here in this hold, when you bade me answer your questions."
"Happily," he added against her lips, his hands pressing the fabric of her skirt up around her thighs, "to answer them happily."
Her eyes fluttered shut, her lashes brushing against his cheeks as she allowed the kiss to overtake her, to flood her body with warmth and light. His hands were strong, secure against the flesh of her thighs, hot and intoxicating on the bare flesh he revealed inch by inch as her skirts fell prey to his desires. It had never failed to astound her, how quickly she fell under this spell, how urgent and immediate her primal needs became as he drew ever closer to her, skin to skin.
She slid her hands down the planes of his chest, lifting her weight onto her knees so that she could free him from his trousers. He sank his hands into her hair, keeping her lips at his mercy, tasting her deeply with a little growl of pleasure as she freed him and stroked her fingers along the length of his arousal.
It was true, she realized, with just a flicker on the edge of her mind. Just now, her thoughts were a brilliantly white muddle, a slate that might as well have been clean. In this moment, all she wanted was more of him, and for him to want just as much of her. There was no way to be close enough to him, no way to have everything she needed until they were joined, and sharing their very bodies with one another.
When she sank herself back down, sating the desire that flared at her very core, the last of her thoughts splintered and dissolved into that lovely nothingness, replaced only with sensation and joy and...love. Yes, so much love.
She held tightly to him, allowing herself to fall, to spiral helplessly into the oblivion he offered. And when the moment of her pleasure arrived, she trusted herself to fall, knowing down to the very threads that made up her soul that he would catch her.
CHAPTER24
