Page 76 of Company of Thieves
SIXTEEN
“Eleven minutes,” Isaid, glancing at the clock when Alan entered the captain’s cabin.
“It would have been sooner, but one of the boilers had a sticky valve. What have you struck off the list? Is it something I’m going to regret greatly, or was it more moderate pleasures, like you staring at me while I stand naked?” Alan asked, stopping in the middle of the cabin, slowly removing his weapons before pulling off his clothes and laying them neatly folded on top of a chest that sat at the foot of the bed.
I’d been reclined against the headboard, holding his pillow and enjoying the scent of Alan that clung to it, but now I sat up, the better to watch him perform what was an amazing striptease.
“A couple of them involved looking at you, but there was one erotic massage, and two uses of my knuckles on your sensitive spots.”
He looked thoughtful. “Damn. I do like your two-knuckle move.”
“Evidently there’s another way to stimulate the same area, but I’ve never been able to bring
myself—”
“No,” he said quickly, giving me what I was coming to think of as the Akbar Scowl. “I would not care for that.”
“Good, because it’s not really something I’m interested in, either. I’m fine with just molesting those bits of you that are handy. Speaking of which, I have several other items on my list that didn’t get scratched off. Ones involving much application of my flesh to your flesh. Oh, yes, please turn around. Hoochiwawa, Alan. Your behind has gotten even more fabulous in the week we were parted.” Alan flexed his butt muscles, sending a ripple of pure heat from my chest upward. “I just want to make sure you’re OK before we dive fully into wedding-night fun.”
He paused in the act of splashing some water on his face and chest, looking over his shoulder to me. “You wish to make sure I’m all right? In what sense? In that I want you with a passion that makes it difficult to walk? Or that I want to touch and taste you, plunging into your depths until you writhe beneath me with my name on your lips?”
“Yes, please, to all of that,” I said, watching his ass flex as he moved. “I meant I wanted to make sure that you’re OK with William forcing you to go after your dad. That has to be a hard idea to swallow.”
“It’s not what I would have chosen to do with my time,” he said, giving himself a quick wash at the basin, no doubt to rid himself of the residue of the fight with William’s men. I toyed with the suggestion that we have a bath together, but baths in this world take time to set up and fill, and the desire that prickled along my flesh wasn’t going to wait for any of that. “But I can see that it’s inevitable. My father’s plans have gone well beyond what they once were, to the point of threatening all the citizens of Europe. He will not balk at killing anyone who stands in his way, and since I am loath to have my inactivity responsible for genocide, I must do what I can to stop him before he can do more damage.”
“I’m just sad it’s come to this. I want you to know that I will help you however I can. And also, that I will be here when you want to vent about your dad, and being the only one who can make him stop, and when you just need to be held because the world can be a big pain in the butt sometimes.”
“Your help, and support, and particularly you holding me, is much appreciated,” he said.
“While I’m on the subject of butts, can I add that I really want to take your behind in my hands again, Alan. I want to touch the thick muscles of it that curve so delightfully. I even want to bite it, and I’ve never wanted to bite a man’s behind before.”
He froze for a few seconds, then flung down the towel he had been using to wipe his face and chest, and was suddenly there on the bed, flipping me over onto my belly, his hands hot on my back and thighs as he bent over me. “You may say that, but I will go first.”
“Hey! No fair! I’m the one who came up with the idea ... oh, lord, Alan! You’re biting me!”
His tongue made a warm swirl on the spot on my left butt cheek that he’d bitten, taking the sting from it, and sending streaks of heat pooling deep into my hidden depths. “It was just too much for me to resist. Are you up to a wedding night, my dove? I don’t wish to tire you if you would rather—”
I bucked and twisted until I got to my knees, and pushed him over backward, his head narrowly missing hitting the chest at the end of the bed. “Don’t you even think about denying me a wedding night, new husband. I said I had a list, and I fully intend to work through at least a half dozen of the items on it.”
“I might have my own list,” he said, his hands warm on my breasts, his fingers working their usual magic in making my flesh feel hot and heavy and so very needy. I let my breasts have a little time with his hands, but moved back when he tried to pull me over his mouth.
“Oh, no you don’t. I’ve decided that I get to do all the things I want to do to you before you make me go mindless with pleasure. It’s only fair. I’m a bride. Brides get to do things to their new husbands, and I decree that you can’t touch me until I say you can.”
“That doesn’t sound very fun,” he said, his hands sliding down the curve of my hip before he pulled me forward, his mouth capturing one nipple for a second, making me moan with pleasure.
“No!” I said sternly, and with an effort pulled myself back from the delightful heat of his mouth. “I am the master of my breasts, buster! They do not get to dictate to me when they want to be in your mouth and hands, and pressed up against your body, rubbing their little hussy selves against your chest hair in that way that makes me feel like my whole front is on fire, smooshing themselves against all the hard muscle you have there. ...” I stopped, my brain overflowing with need for a few minutes.
