In Deep (9 page)

And that’s when her reason whispered something she hadn’t been able to grasp before.

This was his true nature. He reveled in this. His lust grew with her succumbing to him. The pain he inflicted upon her and that she could absorb and change into pleasure was what gave him pure pleasure. It was a constant giving and taking, an abyss of passion she’d thought she’d never desire.

It was so simple. Like the answer had always been there–just out of her reach. Until he’d helped her open her eyes. Like he’d promised he would.

With that epiphany, she gladly leapt over the lip of the crater of this new kind of sexual bliss, longing for the next slap and dreading its force at the same time.

He didn’t use his thumb anymore to stimulate her. He didn’t have to. The next slap had her wince, then groan, then writhe with white-hot ribbons of lust slithering through her body.

The skin on her right backside must have already been an angry red, but she didn’t care. She yearned for that next slap–and when it came, she felt her sex clench and flutter in pre-orgasmic shudders.

He stopped and Jaidyn was torn between relief and frustration. With a tight grip on her waist, Connor bent forward, whispering another husky command. “Hold tight, Jaidyn. And don’t let go.”

Blindly groping for whatever was handy, she wrapped one hand around the bedpost until her knuckles turned white. Her other hand found the head of the bed, which she held on to for dear life.

The next moment he thrust into her, rough and deliciously ruthless, and Jaidyn whimpered in delight. He didn’t wait for her delicate flesh to accommodate his thick member. Instead, he instantly pumped in and out of her, each thrust accentuated by another hard slap on her cheek. Each retreat felt as if it would suck all the air out of her lungs.

Sweat covered her from the heat he brought. Thrusting back, she ground her hips against him. She moaned and groaned and even cried a few times.

Their coupling was furious and wild. Hard thrusts, even harder slaps–and Jaidyn wanted it to never end. All her consciousness, every fiber of her body longed for and centered on those recklessly fierce strokes of his thick member together with those biting, pricking, painfully delicious slaps he delivered.

She couldn’t get enough of it, of the friction, the heat. The pleasure was threatening to drown her.

And then she hit the burning lava. It splashed, cascaded around her, and spat her out again in a climax so violent, so blinding, so soul-shattering that she shouted his name against the ceiling as she came in nearly never-ending ripples.

_____________________________

C
onnor dug his fingers into the soft flesh of her hips, fighting for breath, struggling to control the erotic ecstasy simmering beneath his skin. Her secret muscles convulsed in so many spasms that their hard grip felt like she was strangling him.

When he heard her crying his name as she came, it sent him over the edge with her. He drove his cock in even deeper, wanting to fill her with his seed, to mark her as his. With the last shreds of his conscience, he pushed her hips away from him. He couldn’t muster the strength to pull out.

He spat his seed on the coverlet, shivering so hard he groaned. Scorching sparks lit every cell of his body, drowning him in a contented peacefulness he’d never experienced–until he’d met her.

His breath came in hard and heavy gasps. He sank down on her, his torso resting on her back. Their mingled scent and the musk of wild lovemaking caused a blissful sigh. With trembling hands, Connor caressed her sides, fingers splayed to feel more of her. Too weak to move much, he kissed every inch he could easily reach.

“Jaidyn … What have you done to me?”

Right then, in the murky depths in his soul, he already knew. All those foreign thoughts running through his head, why he craved her touch so much, why he never wanted to leave her again … It all suddenly connected, made sense.

He felt her body quiver and thought he heard a sound, something akin to a soft sob. She was moving and Connor gave her enough room to maneuver out from underneath him.

Contented, he lay on his side, propping himself up on one elbow. He watched her absolutely delicious backside as she slowly scrambled from him on wobbly limbs–and he knew what he had to do.

That proposal was just a formality, yet he had to do the honorable thing and ask. Of course, there was no doubt she’d jump at the offer. A woman in her position …

“Stay. I–”

“No.”

Connor frowned. She wasn’t still angry at him, was she?

He rolled his eyes. Well, if she wanted it like that, after such a good fuck he had more than enough patience. “Why not?”

“Because I don’t want to. That’s why.” Sitting on the edge of the bed, she straightened her back.

“I want to ask you something.” Reaching for her, he let the tips of his fingers tickle down the small of her back to her cleft. What he could see of her right buttock was furiously red. A stirring sight. It clashed with her copper hair. Connor had to fight the temptation to fondle, kiss, nibble, and lick away those angry marks on her skin.

He made a mental note to exclusively use her left cheek next time. And the time after that he’d … or he’d just knead her buttocks, spread them so wide he could see her tight entrance where he’d–

She turned a little to speak over her shoulder, her back even more unbending. “Do you expect an answer also?”

Her open hostility was rather trying. In the face of such willfulness, Connor couldn’t lie there any longer. Sitting up, he scrambled off the bed, walking toward where his breeches had fallen in his haste. “You’re as stubborn as a mule!”

“Really?” She gave him that haughty eyebrow again, wrapping the bedspread around her. “I believe it takes one to know one.”

With that she leaned back against the headboard, pretending to be completely mesmerized by her fingernails.

Connor took a calming breath. Why did she have to be so … headstrong! His fingers dove into his hair and he inhaled slowly once more until he was sure he was composed enough.

“Look, Jaidyn. I … I care for you.”

“Oh?” She slapped her thigh. “You do have a rather peculiar way of showing your affection. I didn’t know I was supposed to grow fonder–
fond
of you in your absence.”

Abruptly, Connor brought his hands down. “I had to leave! I had an appointment to keep.”

Jaidyn flicked a dismissive wrist, staring out the window. “I’m sure it’s none of my business.”

“Damn right, it isn’t!”

“My thoughts exactly.”

Somehow he had pictured this moment entirely differently, not her antagonizing him every chance she got. Well, he’d be damned if he let her provoke him into doing or saying something he might regret later.

Bracing himself against whatever was next to him, he tamped down his ire. What was that anyway? A statue?

“Careful,” she mumbled. “The paint isn’t dry yet.”

Connor jerked his hand away from the papier-mâché, leaving a dent. Damned if it didn’t look like Venus holding a blasted apple. Well, it wasn’t Venus any longer, maybe Hippolyta or another Amazon queen with just one breast left.

His palm was full of white paint. Cursing under his breath,

Connor stalked toward the washing bowl, trying to rub it off while the water furiously splashed.

What the hell was a freshly painted papier-mâché statue doing here? And there was a table that almost groaned with the weight of fresh fruit displayed. Actually taking in the room for the first time, he noticed that behind Jaidyn over the bed was a canvas, a nude couple decadently coupling.

Oh, that picture was inspiring. He might try just that with Jaidyn later. Delicate chains lay in an earthenware bowl next to him. They might be quite helpful with that too. And a riding crop next to that bowl …

Where the hell was he? A travesty of Ancient Rome?

“You were saying?” Jaidyn inquired.

“Can we call a truce?” Reaching for a towel, he caught her haughty stare. If she didn’t lower that arrogant eyebrow right now, Connor would have to kiss it down. “I mean … I want to ask …”

Dammit
. Connor hastily threw the towel to the floor. He was acting like a stupid, lovesick lad. “I want to try to see where this leads.”

Frowning, she shook her head slowly. “Where what leads?”

Connor already had a feeling she’d act a little dim-witted about it. “The two of us.”

Her mouth stood agape. “There’s no such thing as ‘the two of us.’”

“But there could be.” Was she being obtuse on purpose?

He took a step closer to her, explaining with his palms up. “I want to take care of you, Jaidyn. I could provide for you, buy a house here on Grenada. A house you could live in, with a huge garden. An estate with more than enough room for … knowing your fondness for horses, my brother’s neighbor breeds horses. Finest horseflesh far and wide, believe me. We could go north and you could choose one, or two, or if you like even–”

Adamantly shaking her head, she cut him off. “I don’t need a horse. I have my own.” Suddenly her eyes widened and she gasped. “Now, wait a moment–”

Clearly he must have heard her wrong. “What do you mean, you
have your own
–”

“Are you asking me to become your mistress?”

“Your own
horse
?”

Connor had never seen Jaidyn’s eyes as wide as they were right now. She clapped her mouth shut and blinked once. “Yes.”

Now it was his turn to be confused. “Yes, what? Horse or mistress?”

Rolling her eyes, she took a deep breath and spoke slowly, as if he were a brainless dolt. “Yes to the former, no to the latter.”

Was she serious? Did she think she’d get a better offer than that? “Why?”

He wanted her with him. What was wrong with that?

“Why what? Horse or mistress?” Jaidyn seemed as confused as he was a moment ago.

“I’d appreciate it if we kept to one of the two only.” He saw her nod. “How did you suddenly get a horse?”

“Well, Winston–”

With a roar, Connor started pacing the room, stretching his fingers until his knuckles cracked. Then he balled his hands into fists, waving them in front of him. “I knew it. You beguiled him … I’ll kill that bastard!”

“Pah!” Jaidyn sputtered. “I did no such thing. He’s a … friend.”

Halting in mid-step, Connor let his hands sink. “And this just keeps getting better.”

“Oh,” Jaidyn gasped, flicking her wrist as if chasing a gnat away. “Think what you will!” Crossing her arms, she scowled out the window.

“It’s not that I have a choice because
you
won’t tell me!”

Smacking the mattress right and left of her thighs, she glared at him, frothing fury bubbling in her wonderful emerald eyes. “I would if you stopped being so pigheaded!”

“Pigheaded?” Connor blurted, his stance wide, his hands braced on his hips. “Give me some credit and at least call me bullheaded.”

Jaidyn snorted deprecatingly.

“Well?” Connor was making an effort not to growl.

“If you truly want to know … Winston saved me. I was on a ship due north, but we were attacked by pirates. They took me prisoner, but Winston managed to smuggle me out in the dead of night and brought me here. Madame Poivre promised she’d take good care of me.”

Connor couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. “By selling you the first chance she got?”

“No.”

No?
Connor resumed pacing. As far as he knew, she was a doxy the first time they’d met.

“She was strictly against it. I insisted, telling her I needed the money and I needed it fast–and that I was willing to do whatever it took. You know the rest.”

That stopped him. Connor turned around to face her. “Do I?”

“Yes.” She nodded quickly.

“How many men have you had before me?”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

She sucked in her breath and pursed her lips before she answered him. “I don’t see what difference it makes.”

Shrugging with a casualness he didn’t feel, Connor attempted a smile that probably showed too much teeth. “Then tell me.”

“Why do you care?”

“How. Many,” he pressed out from between clenched jaws.

“One!” Jaidyn was back to hissing at him, leaning forward, her hands balling into fists. “Just one.”

Something in Connor’s chest suddenly expanded until it burst with a deafening pang, leaving a strange kind of queasiness in its wake.

“Did you love him?” Was that why she didn’t want to be with him?

“At the time I thought I did. But it all happened so fast I didn’t really have a say in the matter.”

There it was. So it was true after all.
Technically
, he had been her first. Knowing that had his heart beat heavy in his chest, although Connor didn’t really know why. Something rolled around in his mind, something he couldn’t grasp, and that almost made him miss the rest of what she revealed.

“… turned out he was a very dishonorable man despite his sweet countenance. So I had to leave. However, instead of starting a new life in the New World …”

“Your ship was attacked and now you’re stranded here,” Connor murmured as he paced the room like a wild horse trapped in a small paddock. The room was filled to the brim with his alluring natural scent. The nightly sea breeze whispering shyly toward Jaidyn through the open window did nothing to alleviate the emotional whirl in her.

Jaidyn wished she could do the same, pace agitatedly to free her roiling thoughts, but she forced herself to appear calm and detached. Like the businesswoman she needed to be now.

A savvy businesswoman wouldn’t feel as confused as she was with Connor–Captain O’Driscoll. She had to stop making those slips. Jaidyn needed to keep reminding herself not to call him by his given name, not even in her mind. For the sake of her heart she had no choice but to uphold a professional distance and focus on her real mission. She had to get to the Colonies.

Becoming Captain O’Driscoll’s mistress wasn’t an option. Any hope of that was as fragile as a soap bubble. No, it had to be this way. They’d keep things strictly business and she’d make him see they both benefited from that freedom. Before long she’d be gone. Just looking at him made it perfectly clear he wasn’t made for commitments–as small as they might be. Taking her on as mistress meant just that, and they both certainly needed no attachments.