Page 49 of The Pirate Lord
“It’s all right, sweetheart,” Gideon said over and over as he cradled her in his arms. “The snake’s dead. It can’t hurt you now.”
“B-but it could have,” she stammered. “It was so close … it was just there!” It wasn’t like her to panic, but she’d never even seen a poisonous snake, much less been menaced by one. Coming on top of everything else, it was just too much. “If it … if it had bitten me?—”
“But it didn’t.” Cupping her face firmly, he lifted it until she was staring at him. “It’s fine, I promise. I wouldn’t have let it hurt you.”
She couldn’t seem to get enough breath. She sucked in air in great gasps, and still the panic closed her throat. “What … if you hadn’t … been here,” she choked out. “What if?—”
“But Iwashere.” Her panic now seemed mirrored in his eyes. He clutched her close, stroking her back with soothing hands. “I’ll always be here. I’ll never let anything hurt you. I promise.”
“Are you sure it’s dead?” It was a stupid question, yet she had to ask.
“It’s dead.” He moved aside and gestured to the ground. “See? It’s not moving.”
She peered over his shoulder to where the scaly black rope lay limp across a blanket of leaves. A shudder rocked her body. “Is it very poisonous?”
“It doesn’t matter now.”
“Curse you, Gideon, tell me the truth! Could it have killed me?”
A muscle flexed in his jaw. “Let’s just say I’ve never heard of anybody surviving the bite of a black mamba.”
The irony of it hit her all at once. “I should have known there’d be snakes here,” she said woefully as she clung to him. “What would the Garden of Eden be without the serpent?”
He ventured a smile. “I don’t know. Boring?”
Boring?She stared at him incredulously. Had he just said— After what had nearly happened— But then, this was Gideon.
She beat her fists against his chest, taking him by surprise. “This is all a game to you, isn’t it? You don’t even care you’ve dragged us from our homes to this wretched place where there are deadly snakes and God knows what other monstrous beasts! You wanted something, so you took it, and you don’t care what it does to us!”
She collapsed into sobs, her brush with death still too fresh. Everything that had happened over the past few days hit her with a sudden fierceness. Since he’d taken the ship, she’d scarcely had time to mourn the fact that she’d never see England or Jordan again.
But now reality struck her with a vengeance as she stood in the strange clearing with its unfamiliar plants and its dead snake. Suddenly, the tears wouldn’t stop. They bubbled out of her like an overflowing soup pot. She couldn’t contain them, and at the moment didn’t even want to try.
Looking worried, Gideon held her close. At first she fought him, her anger warring with the need to be comforted, but he wouldn’t release her. He just kept muttering, “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I’m so sorry.”
Finally she went limp in his embrace, letting the tears come out of her in great gasping sobs. After the first storm passed, she even leaned into him, craving his strength. There was no one else to give her comfort. Although he was her adversary, he was also strong, and she needed his strength just now. She needed it very badly.
She didn’t know exactly when his comforting became something else. Perhaps it was after her sobs had died off into the occasional hiccup. Or perhaps it was when she saw how shaken he looked, “I-I’m all right now, truly I am,” she said as she brushed tears from her eyes.
Suddenly his mouth was on hers, gentle, soft, as if begging forgiveness. To her shame, she kissed him back, seeking the reassurance only he could provide. Their kisses were tender, full of mutual comfort.
He shifted her closer, his hand curving into the small of her back to flatten her against his lean, hard body as he showered repentant kisses over her lips and cheeks, her closed eyelids, her tangled hair.
“I should’ve left you on theChastity,”he whispered against her mouth. “Atlantis is all right for the others, but not for you.”
“That’s not true. It’s not right—”For any of us, she would have said if his mouth hadn’t covered hers again.
Only this time his kiss offered more than comfort. It offered pure, hot passion, a hungry desire that quickly swept her up until she found herself responding with an eagerness that matched his own.
She couldn’t help it. Despite everything, she needed him to get her through this, to make her forget the snake. As ifhe understood exactly what she wanted, he shifted her in his embrace so he could touch her, caress her, stroke her. His hand covered her breast, kneading it with a restless energy that sparked fires in her loins. Her breast ached for his touch, had ached for it ever since yesterday. And that fact sparked fresh tears.
He kissed them away with slow tenderness, his breath hot on her cheeks. “Don’t cry anymore, Sara, my Sara. Please don’t cry. I don’t want to hurt you.” He backed her to a nearby tree, then pressed her against it, leaving his hands free to roam her waist and her hips. The next thing she knew, he was inching her skirt up her legs. “I only want to give you pleasure. That’s all.”
Try as she might, she couldn’t deny him. She didn’t want to. It felt right to have his hands touch her, his fingers bare her thighs, questing upward to find the part of her that craved him so intensely it frightened her. The forest itself seemed to hold its breath as he kissed her again and again with fierce need, thrusting his tongue more deeply into her mouth with each stroke.
His fingers found the aching place between her legs, and his thumb rubbed the little nub nestled in her silky folds of skin, making her respond instinctively by arching against his hand with a little mew of pleasure.
“That’s it, sweetheart,” he whispered against her mouth. “Let me give you pleasure. Only pleasure.”
