Page 24 of The Pirate Lord
That thought frightened the hell out of him. She wasn’t for him. Let one of his men take the little witch into his bed and suffer her temper and her lofty expectations.
Yet that didn’t appeal to him either.
He should push away from her now, but he couldn’t. Not until he’d seen a little more. In a trance, he removed her hair pins until her hair tumbled down in a twisted rope about her shoulders. He raked his fingers through the thick mass until the strands scattered over his fingers like threads of silk. Soft, so soft. How long had it been since he’d touched a woman’s hair like this? How long since he’d even been this close to a woman?
He twirled one coppery lock around his finger, and that seemed to rouse her from her stunned silence.
“Stop that,” she whispered, a troubled expression crossing her face.
“Why?” He smoothed her hair down over one shoulder, thinking that she had the creamiest skin he’d ever seen, skin just begging to be touched.
When he stroked one finger up along the curved contours of her neck, she gasped. “It’s not … proper.”
That made him smile. “Proper? We crossed the line from proper to improper right after you left theChastity. You’re on a pirate ship. You’re alone in a cabin with a notorious pirate captain. You’ve lost your proper little cap. And I’m about to kiss you.”
As soon as he’d said the words, he knew they were a mistake, and not because of the outrage that filled her face. Kissing her was dangerous. She wasn’t the woman for him.
But he had to taste her once. Just a little taste.
So before a protest could leave her lips, he brought his mouth down on hers.
Chapter Seven
Then shun, oh! shun that wretched state
And all the fawning flatterers hate:
Value yourselves, and men despise
You must be proud if you’ll be wise.
— MARY, LADY CHUDLEIGH, ENGLISH POET, “TO THE LADIES”
Sara was stunned into immobility. His lips, far too soft for a pirate’s, moved over hers with gentle persuasion. His breath mingled with hers, surprisingly sweet. Then he ran his tongue over the seam of her lips, and she jerked back in shock. The scoundrel had actually had the audacity to kiss her!
“What’s wrong, Lady Sara?” His voice was husky, his eyes dark and knowing. Lifting his hand to cup her cheek, he touched the pad of his thumb to her lower lip. “Haven’t you ever been kissed before?”
A traitorous shiver rippled through her as he stroked her lip with his thumb. She tried to concentrate on being appalled by his actions, but it was hard to think when he was touching her. “Of course I’ve been kissed before.”
He raised one eyebrow as if he didn’t believe her. “Whoever he was, he failed to convince you of your desirability.” His callused thumb traced her upper lip. “Who was it? Some knock-kneed suitor barely out of the schoolroom? A foppish lordling?”
He was laughing at her, the wretch! She shot him a withering glance. “It was an English cavalry officer, if you must know.” She brought her hand up between them to shove him away.
But he caught it and carried it to the back of his neck, holding it there as he looked down at her with gleaming eyes. “No fop perhaps, but not man enough to keep you in England. And not adept at kissing, unless I miss my guess. Though perhaps you need more of a basis for comparison.”
Before she could stop him, his mouth came down on hers once more, forceful, possessive, unyielding. This time, there was no trace of gentleness in the lips that ravaged hers. He took her mouth as if it was his right, the way a pirate should. She grasped his hair, meaning to pull his head away from her, but at that moment the ship rolled, throwing him hard against her, plastering his taut thighs and lean belly against her so intimately she gasped.
In that instant when her lips were parted, he thrust his tongue into her mouth. And to her immense horror, she found it … rather thrilling. Shockingly thrilling. She froze, letting him explore her mouth, and when he drove his tongue in and out in a strangely compelling rhythm, she forgot where she was, who she was. Instead of pulling his hair, she curled her fingers into the springy strands to clutch his head closer. Her eyelids drifted shut as he slanted his mouth over hers more firmly, taking possession of it the way he’d taken possession of theChastity.
Colonel Taylor’s kisses had been cautious, hesitant, as if he hadn’t wanted to frighten his prey. Heaven help her, but she liked Captain Horn’s boldness. The heated strokes of his tongue… his fingers splayed in the small of her back, drawing her closer … closer … Oh, what was he doing to her?
The kiss went on forever, growing rougher and more demanding the longer it continued. Then his hands began to roam, down her hips and up her ribs in widening strokes until his thumb brushed the underside of her breast.
Wrenching her mouth from his, she said, “You mustn’t touch me like that.”
His breath came in ragged gasps as he stared down at her. “Why mustn’t I?”
“Because it isn’t proper!”
