Page 65 of Sands of Sirocco
Making love in her family’s home seemed horribly risky.That knowledge both frightened and roused her.“We can be quiet,” Noah murmured against the curve of her neck.
She gave a shattered tremble as his fingers dipped lower.Her medical kit was still open on the bed beside them, her books all over the mattress.He paused, then turned her around so that her back was to his chest, his arm wrapped against her hips.His trousers were thin, his need for her pushing hard against her.
“Noah!”She kept her voice to a low hiss as he tossed her onto the bed with a heave.Her back and head hit books, and she grunted.“Ouch!”
“Did I hurt you?”Noah’s eyes held a lust-filled gleam as he stalked her onto the bed.
She pulled the books out and shoved them to the side.“No, but the books did.”As he pushed them all away, she shuddered at the thuds they made on the rug below the bed.She gave him a gaping look.“That’s quiet?”
“Call it my enthusiasm to be at your side.”Noah’s hands resumed their roving, but he gave her a frustrated look.“How is it you still have so many articles of clothing on?Wasn’t there a dressing gown in the clothing I had sent here?”
He’d sent the clothing?“You?I thought—”
“You thought what?”His dark brows furrowed.
She clamped her lips shut, then gave him a pretty smile.“Nothing at all.I meant to thank you for it.”
Noah gave her an impatient look.“You thought that buffoonish cousin of yours gave them to you, didn’t you?He’s certainly been eager to return the Whitman women to their former lifestyles.”
She gave him a sheepish look.“I had no idea you’d spend that amount of money on me—”
Now he laughed, coming closer until he deftly unbuttoned her blouse.“What you mean to say is that you didn’t think I had the money to buy my wife clothing.”He gave her a crooked drunken smile, then quickly finished the job of disrobing her.His gaze swept her admiringly.“God, you’re beautiful.Each time I see you like this, it’s a shock to my senses.”
Then he swept her onto her back, grasping her.The veil of mosquito netting over the open canopy of the bed gave the ceiling a gauzy look.She blinked at him dazedly, aware of the gooseflesh that had broken out across her skin and the hardening of her nipples.As the strength of his arms pressed around her, his weight nearly crushed her for the briefest moment, then she gasped as he joined their bodies together intimately.
He tasted of alcohol, and the brine of his sweat lingered on her lips as he moaned softly, “God,rohi.I love you.”
And maybe because Lucy had called her a bore, but also because she loved him, she lay back and enjoyed the moment, Noah’s drunken murmurs of her beauty and his lack of restraint in telling her—exactly—what he thought.
ChapterTwenty-Two
Ginger hadn’t expected to feel so much guilt for spending the night with Noah after they were married—but her guilt had little to do with their behavior.Or with how much she’d enjoyed the previous night.Noah had slept in her arms for a few hours, then woken her to make love again before he’d left under the cloak of darkness.
He’d likely wanted to drown out his thoughts when the alcohol had worn off.
But standing in front of Captain Harold Young at the operating table in the hospital, she understood Noah’s behavior better.Dr.Radford had pulled her into the surgery as soon as Ginger had arrived that morning.She hadn’t even had the opportunity to do her daily debrief with Peter Osborne.She hoped he wouldn’t be annoyed at having to wait.
Ginger felt sick.Captain Young’s face was disfigured, his jaw and nose broken in several places.Dr.Radford had commented that he’d been lucky his attacker hadn’t blinded him.His face, swollen and hideously puffy, didn’t reflect the story that Noah had relayed to her—that he’d tried to save Young from being killed.And no one knew Noah had taken him to the hospital either.How on earth could Noah be exonerated from participating in this?
One of Young’s arms had also been broken, and he’d suffered several cracked ribs.They’d reset the bone in his broken arm, and Dr.Radford was examining her work when he stirred from the anesthesia.
Ginger wiped the spittle from his torn lips, not wanting to see his broken teeth.How could Noah do this?
How could Noah do this and then spend the night in her arms?
She felt the taint of his crime on her skin.
This couldn’t be legal, no matter what Lord Helton had authorized him to do to find Victoria.She’d seen Noah kill before.And her brain had rationalized it because they’d been enemy soldiers, men who would kill her or him.Who were trying to kill them.
This felt different.
And yet Noah had claimed the nationalists would have killed him if he hadn’t.
Captain Young’s eyes were too swollen to open, but his lips moved.
Dr.Radford looked up sharply.“What’s that?”
Both women leaned closer to Captain Young.His words were a raspy gurgle.“Bennn … sonnn …”
