Missionary Position (22 page)

Or Kai.

We had another month together before the “now what” conversation. He’d hinted at returning or extending his stay. Each time, I nodded and responded positively, but vaguely. Eventually we’d find ourselves on the opposite sides of the planet.

“Why the sad face?” Ama asked me.

“Nothing. Birthdays always make me feel a little maudlin.” Her question triggered other emotions, and I wiped away the sting of gathering tears from the corners of my eyes.

Kai’s arm tightened around my shoulder. “I was kidding about the age thing,” he said softly, his dimple deepening with his smile.

“It’s not the growing older part. It’s silly, really. I’ve always disliked my birthdays, and the markings of passing time—another semester, another year, another decade.”

“It goes by fast,” Nathan agreed.

“Too fast,” Ursula added.

“There’s never enough.” Nadine shook her head.

Ama raised her glass and said, “To making the most of the time we have now.”

I met Kai’s beautiful, fathomless blue eyes and repeated the words. He clinked his glass with mine, and softly kissed my lips.

“What are you planning to do with your final month?” Nathan asked Kai.

I wrapped my hand around his hand where it rested on my shoulder.

“I’ll be wrapping up the Volta project. After, I hope to take Selah north to visit the elephants.”

I turned to him in surprise. We’d joked about seeing the elephants, but had never made set plans.

“When?”

“Early November. I’ll finish my project in October, and then we can take a week, do a mini-safari. For your birthday present,” he said, smiling at me.

I sat up straighter and twisted to face him. “Really?” I grinned at him.

He grinned back. “Really. We’ll fly to Tamale, then drive to Mole from there. Unless you’re jonesing for the two day drive and stop in Kumasi.”

“Maybe on the way home?”

“Anything you wish.” He kissed my palm.

Ama and Ursula sighed loudly.

“Damn, you two make me want to take a lover,” Ursula said, fanning herself.

“Me too.” Ama lifted her glass to her forehead and rolled its damp surface across her skin.

“Stop.” I laughed.

“I was serious. Kai, do you have a brother?” Ursula asked. “Or a divorced father?”

Kai snorted. “Sorry on both accounts. Although, you could do better than Gerhard. My mother is a saint.”

“Darn it. I’ll just have to amuse myself with one of Selah’s books. I mean, Suzette’s.”

I choked a little on my water. Kai rubbed my shoulder while I stared across the table at Ursula.

“Who’s Suzette?” he asked.

The table stilled, conversation ceased and gestures froze, identical to a game of Freeze Tag. Ama opened her mouth to speak, but I raised my hand first.

“I am.”

“Wait, your name isn’t Selah?” Kai crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. “After all of the trouble you gave me over my name?”

I scrunched up my face and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “Yes, my name is Selah. Suzette’s my pen name.”

“Pen name?”

“She’s Suzette Marquis!” Nadine exclaimed, evidently unable to contain herself.

Kai looked at her blankly. “Am I supposed to know who that is?”

“Not unless you read romance books, especially the steamy ones,” Ursula said.

“Is that something you do?” Nathan asked. “Read steamy bodice rippers?” His voice held a level of disdain most men had for the genre, not realizing how vastly improved their sex lives were because of their wives reading habits.

“No.” Kai studied me. “You write smutty books?” His eyes twinkled with amusement.

I nodded. “It’s one of the things I do—besides being a tenured professor and respected researcher.”

“Not only are they smut, but they’re about pirates!”

I shot Nadine a look. “Since when are you my biggest fan and promoter?” I asked her.

“I downloaded them to my Kindle.” She smiled happily at me.

“Them?” Kai laughed. “How many pirate smut books have you written?”

“First, they’re romance, maybe erotica. Second, four are currently published.”

“How many aren’t published?”

“More.” I sipped my beer.

“Nadine, can I borrow your Kindle?” Kai asked.

“Of course.”

I rolled my eyes.

Kai leaned over and brushed his lips against my ear. “I can’t wait to get you alone, my little secret keeper.”

A frisson of excitement sped down my spine, igniting a lust centered between my legs. Damn him and his ways of turning me on with a look or a couple of words.

I whispered, “Bring it. I need to do some research for my new book.”

His eyes widened, and he gave me his slow, one-sided smile, which brought out his dimple.

I hadn’t written more than chapter notes since he arrived in Accra, the longest dry spell since I began writing novels. He’d been distracting. However, that didn’t mean I hadn’t stored away little moments and gestures as research for my next project. My little notebook had become half travel journal, half Nordic pirate smut—a delightful combination.

ONCE WE RETURNED to his house, Kai told me to wait in the living room. Muffled sounds of rummaging and cursing like he’d stubbed his toe filtered out through the closed bedroom door,

“Everything okay in there?” I called from where I perched on the arm of the sofa.

“Fine!” he replied, followed by a heavy thud, which could have been either a drawer hitting the floor or a man falling down.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes!” His voice strained to sound cheerful.

What the hell was the crazy Dutchman doing?

After what I perceived to be hours, but according to the wall clock in the kitchen was less than twenty minutes, all noises and cursing ceased.

“Hello?” I worried he’d knocked himself out with whatever he was doing. Standing, I moved to walk down the hall if he didn’t respond.

“Are you sitting down?”

I sat down heavily in the nearest chair. “Yes.”

“Close your eyes.”

“I hate surprises,” I shouted. “Unless you brought me a Mona monkey!” Honestly, I’d kill him if he bought me a monkey, but the idea sounded cute in the moment.

“No monkey. Damn it!”

“Then stay in there.”

“Did you close your eyes?”

I hadn’t. “Yes.”

“Close your eyes and put your hands over them.”

Huffing, I closed them and covered my face with my palms. Secretly, I loved it when he became bossy. “Ready.”

The bedroom door creaked opened and the sound of feet on tile echoed down the hall. Even with my hands over my eyes, I peeked, trying to discover his surprise. I caught a glimpse of bare feet standing in front of me. His hands touched my hair when he wound the silk of one of my scarves around my head, over my hands.

“Keep your eyes closed and move your hands.”

“You’re blindfolding me?” I settled my hands in my lap.

“Of course. Otherwise you’ll try to peek.”

The scarf blocked out the light. However, if I tipped my face backward, I could peer underneath it. My narrow view held only bare feet and rolled up khakis. Kai gently pressed down on my head. “Stop peeking.”

I sighed. “This is the big surprise? You’re blindfolding me?”

“It’s the beginning. Now stand up and follow me into the bedroom.” His hand pulled me up and held mine as he led me down the dark hall. The lights must have been off, because despite my best efforts, I saw nothing through the scarf. He let go of my hand and rested his on my shoulders. “What’s the worst thing you can be on a pirate ship?”

Pirate ship? What the …

“Answer me.” He tilted my chin up with his fingers.

“Um … a thief?” I guessed.

“Close, but no.”

“A spy?”

“And what do spies do?”

Ah …

“Lead double lives,” I whispered.

“They do. They lie and keep secrets, too.”

I nodded.

“And should be punished.”

Aha.
I licked the corner of my upper lip. “How should they be punished?”

“You tell me, since you’re the expert on pirates, Suzette.” He stood closer; his heat radiated off him.

“Well …” I paused to inhale his scent. “They could be flogged. Or forced to walk the plank.”

“Seems reasonable to me.”

“Do you have a plank inside the bedroom?” I asked.

“No, no plank.”

Beneath the scarf, my eyes opened and widened. My breath hitched. I reached out my hands to touch his chest, wondering if he was shirtless.

Before I could make contact, Kai chuckled and grabbed my hands, holding both by the wrist with one of his. “No touching.”

I stuck out my bottom lip. “Yes, sir.”

“Sir?”

“Captain?”

“Better.”

He led me over to the bed and gently pushed me down on the mattress. “Now keep your eyes closed until I tell you.”

“Or you’ll punish me?” My voice dripped with lust.

His hand slapped my hip. “No talking.”

He adjusted me on the bed until my head nestled in the pillows and my arms stretched out to the bedposts where he bound them with scarves. He’d evidently raided my stash.

Once he bound me, he slowly removed the scarf from my eyes.

“Open,” he commanded.

I blinked in the low light of the room, slowly focusing on the candles on the dresser and nightstand while my vision adjusted. With one foot resting on the end of the bed in a pose befitting Fabio, my Nordic pirate come to life stood, staring at me. Without a belt his pants hung low on his hips, revealing the V and his treasure trail. As I suspected, he was shirtless. What I didn’t expect was the scarf around his hair. Or the eyeliner.

Holy swashbuckler come to life.

I noted every detail about my Nordic pirate, then tossed back my head and laughed, cackled really.

With my hands bound, I couldn’t wipe the tears that streamed from my eyes and dampened my hairline. I laughed until my sides hurt. Unable to breathe, the sound of a slowly dying whistle of a tea kettle escaped my lips. When I finally quieted I observed Kai, who kept his pose but laughed along with me.

“Arrgh.” He crawled up the bed and over me. “You’re the worst pirate wench ever.”

I grinned at him. “Are you wearing eyeliner?”

He closed his eyes, revealing his handiwork. “I am.”

“Nice scarf.”

He removed it with an elegant flourish. “Thank you. I didn’t have a lot of time.”

“If you had more preparation, what would you’ve done?”

“Found a parrot at least. Maybe a hook.”

My laughter bubbled up again, but stilled in my throat. With the eyeliner darkening his eyes, he looked less like a pirate and more like every Goth and punk rock boy who broke my heart in high school.

“Wow, we’ve come a long way from the Gerhard I met in Amsterdam.” I opened my legs to accommodate his hips, encouraging him to lean into me.

He complied and settled himself, gently rocking into me. The hint of friction made me squirm.

“We have, Suzette.”

I rolled my eyes in an attempt to look innocent. “Right. That.”

He moved the collar of my dress and nuzzled into my hairline. “That.” He nipped the tender skin where shoulder met neck.

“Not something you bring up in regular company, really.”

“No, not in polite company.” He scraped his teeth along my collarbone, causing me to tighten my legs around his hips.

“It never came up.”

“Pirates rarely do.” His hand moved to cup my breast, seeking and pinching my nipple. “There was one conversation when we discussed role play.”

I moaned when his hand skimmed down my side, and his fingers pressed into my hip, driving me insane.

“Right,” I whispered while he undid the top button of my dress. “Well, that conversation was …”

His warm breath caressed the skin of my exposed breast.

“… about Robin Hood.”

He rolled to his side to allow his hand room to wander under my skirt. “And?”

I panted and squirmed. “Two very unrelated subjects.”

“Are they?” he asked, biting down on the peak of my nipple.

I closed my eyes. “They are.”

The last buttons of my dress popped off when he pulled it open. “Oops.”

I opened one eye.

“You’re not sorry.”

“Not at all.” His gaze centered on my lace panties. “These we’ll save.” He tugged them down and off.

“There’s something you forgot.”

He sat on his knees. “Have I? Pray tell what would that be?”

“You haven’t kissed me yet.”

His mouth curled up into smirk. “Impatient?”

“Just stating a fact. Pirate books have a lot of kissing.”

“Do they?” He supported his weight on his hands in a plank over me, but far enough above, even stretching my neck I couldn’t kiss him.

I nodded. “And pillaging.”

“Mmm.” He skimmed his nose along my jaw, the scruff on his cheek scraping after it. “Pillaging is my favorite part.”

“Will there be pillaging now?”

“Maybe,” he whispered, and nipped my earlobe.

“Soon?”

A low chuckle rumbled his chest. “I’m having too much fun torturing my prisoner.”

I sighed when he lowered his pelvis briefly to mine, only to groan when he pushed off the bed and stood up.