The Patriot Bride (11 page)

“I thought you weren’t going to go after the woman who scorned you. What happened?” Gabriel needled with the ease of long time friendship.

Wolf hated to admit it, but he really didn’t know quite what had spurred his interest in this young woman. Perhaps it was the idea that she would just up and run from him, without even having the grace to meet him. Perhaps his ego was bruised. Whatever the reason, it didn’t really matter. They had been well and truly married by proxy and she was stuck with him, like it or not. That was reason enough for him to decide to collect her. And he wasn’t going to have her looking to Gabriel for comfort, who he knew would be all to happy to offer aid and comfort to his fledgling wife, and for some reason, that idea absolutely incensed him.

Normally, he would have hung around and enjoyed a leisurely smoke with his friend, but this time, he found his mind constantly returning to the small bundle under the covers in their room, besides the fact that he didn’t fancy trying to explain himself to Gabe, who would be all too happy to hear him stumble over his words.

Instead, he wandered back from whence he’d come. Hannah was still fast asleep, and he was hoping that she’d sleep all night. He hunkered down in the relatively uncomfortable wing backed chair he’d taken up residence in while she’d been sick, and settled into a book on ship design. With the money that was flowing into the family coffers from his lovely wife’s dowry, he had thought he might diversify the family’s investments into shipbuilding.

When Hannah awoke, several hours later, he was still in the same position, reading. She rose sleepily and went behind the dressing screen to use the chamber pot, which, even half asleep, still made her feel incredibly embarrassed to do while there was a man in the room – especially a man like him.

Seconds later, she rose and came to stand in front of him, her face a blazing red, teeth worrying a rosy lip. “I – I need - ”

He put the book down. She never asked him for anything, and he realized with a start that if she asked him for the moon at this moment, he’d find a way to get it for her. At the same time, he couldn’t think of what she might want – he still brought her food and drink. There wasn’t anything to buy in the middle of Atlantic Ocean.

A single tear leaked down her cheek, even though he could see that she was doing the best she could to stifle them. “I need - ” her voice was hoarse and so low he could barely make out the words. “ – rags.”

His face reflected his confusion. “Rags?” he repeated, watching her go another three shades of red darker. “Rags.” Wolf thought hard, and then it finally struck him. “Oh! Rags! I’ll be right back.”

She’d finally gotten her monthly, and if she lived through the mortification, he’d be able to consummate their relationship in a much more satisfactory manner for the both of them within the next week or so.

Or so he thought.

***

Wolf was extremely solicitous, cheerful, and downright happy for the next several days, so much so that Hannah seemed to be becoming somewhat suspicious of him. He danced attendance on her, almost as much as he had when she had been ill.

Since she’d been feeling better, she’d been getting out more – with his company, of course. Since they were at sea and she couldn’t really go very far, he didn’t out and out say that she couldn’t leave the cabin without him, but he tried to impress on her the fact that she wasn’t safe being alone around the crew. Gabe ran a tight one, but that was nowhere near tight enough for him. He knew how crazy men could get aboard ship with no one but each other for company. Any sight of a female could drive them into a frenzy, and he intended that she never be alone while outside.

But one afternoon, nearly a week after she’d come to him all embarrassed about her needs, he stood in front of their cabin just as he reached for the doorknob and heard her high, tinkling laugh, as well as a much lower one that was all too familiar to him. He fairly burst into the cabin, as if he was going to catch them in flagrant, but they were sitting mildly across from each other, presenting a cozy picture of innocent enjoyment, the cards spread out in front of them, obviously having a game.

She looked so happy, so carefree – the way she’d never looked with him, and it put his back up. Gabe certainly had other, more important things to do than to sit there all afternoon, charming his apparently very susceptible wife. She looked radiant, and was smiling back at him as if she hadn’t a care in the world.

The way she’d never smiled at him.

“I think my wife needs to rest, Gabriel,” he said, practically ordering the other man out of the room. It was a lie – she hadn’t napped in the afternoon in several days, and they all knew it. But he held out his hand to his wife imperiously, and she sighed, but put her hand into his. He felt a thrill right then and there. It was about the only thing she’d ever done that acknowledged that they were married.

And the sight of her with his good friend, who he knew could be disgustingly charming, drove him completely over the edge. Once he’d gotten Hannah situated comfortably on the bed, he hustled Gabe out the door as quickly as he could – ignoring the man’s distinct look of self satisfaction, and turning to lean on the door he’d just locked, and stare at the extremely pleasing form of his wife stretched out on their bed.

He shrugged out of his jacket, and hung it on one of the chairs at the small table. He thought he had been more than patient. He hadn’t bodily kicked Gabriel out of the room, and he’d seen to Hannah’s comfort first. He hadn’t let his baser urges get the best of him with his wife, either. He’d waited, as he knew he’d needed to, for her monthly flow, so that he would know that any child he conceived on her would be his own and no one else’s.

But his patience was rapidly coming to an end. She must be near the end of her period – it had been nearly a week, and even if she wasn’t, he wasn’t in the mood to wait another minute longer. When he approached the bed again, he was nude, and he intended that she would be, too, in a manner of a few minutes.

He climbed onto the bed, having very carefully positioned her closer to the wall and rolled her off of her side, towards him.

She was asleep.

A thoughtful husband, a caring husband, a husband who was courteous and kind and generally the milquetoast kind, would kiss her gently on the forehead and leave her alone to her much needed slumber.

Wolf knew, as soon as he saw those sooty lashes lying just barely above her soft white cheek, that he was not now, would he ever be, that type of husband. She was his wife, and he wanted her. He would wake her up as gently as he could, but she was going to yield herself to him this afternoon, or he was going to die in the attempt.

He began at her head, burying his face in that glorious pile of hair. Even nearly a month at sea, she still somehow managed to smell – all over - as if she’d just stepped out of a field full of wildflowers. He frowned, remembering how she managed to do it with no fresh water available: she’d charmed every man she’d seen on board, from Gabe to the lowliest swabby, and they all clamored to do things for her. When she’d murmured on deck once after she’d been sick how she longed for a hot bath, and every man on board had contributed his own meager collection of rainwater. The cook had heated the water for her personally, and off duty seamen had delivered it in an impromptu bucket brigade to their cabin. He’d been banished while she was indulging herself, grumbling loudly to Gabe about being put out of his own room.

Wolf squelched the knot that had formed in his stomach at that thought, concentrating on exploring that lovely, soft face with his lips. She awoke just in time for him to kiss her, melding his lips firmly with hers, and gently probing into her mouth with his tongue, while his hands worked their way beneath her and began to undo the buttons down the back of her dress.

Hannah started out enjoying the kiss, as much as she didn’t want to. His mouth on hers felt annoyingly pleasant, and she would have been very happy to have continued kissing him for much, much longer. But as soon as she realized what he was doing with his hands, she began to twist and squirm, which actually made it easier for him to peel the dress over her shoulders and away from her.

He had her naked to the waist in mere seconds and stopped there for a moment, using the dress to keep her arms trapped at her sides so that he could occupy his hands in much more pleasant pursuits. His palms itched to hold her breasts and he could no more deny them than he could stop the sun from setting.

“Let me go!” she hissed at him when she realized that all of the maneuvering she was doing was just wobbling them around in front of him in what looked – even to her – as if she was trying to entice him.

Wolf merely issued a low chuckle, bending slowly to capture one of those rigid pink tips and suck on it hard, making her squeal, half in pleasure he knew.

But it wasn’t the pleasure she was concentrating on. It was the slight pain all of that unrelenting suction caused that she dwelt on, hoping it would keep the pleasure at bay. But she wasn’t very successful.

At her slight yip, his tongue came out to bathe the offended spot gently, dragging it over the very end of her nipple over and over, making those alarmingly familiar feelings begin again in that area between her legs that only he seemed to know about. Worse than that, he had maneuvered himself between her legs, and was reaching down to tug on the hem of her dress slowly up towards her waist, and there was nothing she could do to stop him. Before she knew it, her drawers had been taken all the way down and off, and he had repositioned himself to lie against her naked privates, her legs naturally spread wide to accommodate his bulk.

Hannah thought she was going to die of the mortification of it all. It was broad daylight! Anyone could – and would – knock on their door at this time of day, and yet here there were, their naked lower bodies pressed together. She could feel something long and hard lying against her natural crease, as if seeking some sort of shelter there, somehow.

Wolf wanted to go slow. He truly wanted to. But from the moment he lay himself against the heat and heart of her, he knew he wasn’t going to be able to bring her along on this ride. He knew he should – this was his wife, and he wanted to pleasure her as he had before – but she was too close. He could feel and see and smell the sweet heat of her sex, and it was too much for him. He reached down between them, taking hold of his length and presenting the head to her opening, noting with no small amount of satisfaction that he was immediately drenched in her juices.

Hannah was doing her best to struggle against him, but she wasn’t getting very far. He had her pinned, and her arms were useless. Whatever he was going to do to her, there was little she could do about it. She hated being so weak and helpless against him. She hated that she dreaded doing something that might earn her a spanking.

But she did.

He used his hands to trap her face so that she had to look at him as he entered her the first time. He thought this might imprint him on her somehow, so that she would forget the other men she’d been with and cleave only to him, somehow. Although there would be other ways he could ensure her fidelity.

He rocked himself a bit forward, nudging himself more firmly against her entrance, and then just the slightest touch into her, but for some reason he found he could go no further. He had imagined simply sliding into her, but that wasn’t working. Wolf planted a hand on either side of her and tried again, still gently, but more firmly, and still found himself denied access to her body.

Finally, he rolled just slightly to the side and brought his hand down there.

Hannah was appalled when she realized what he intended. “Don’t touch me there! You can’t!”

Beyond a soft “shhhhhh”, he ignored her completely, separating her legs to an obscene extent, and deliberately placing his hand over the place she least wanted him to touch.

Chapter Eight

Hannah tried to close her free leg a little too late, but she settled for wrapping it around him and squeezing as hard as she could, which at least stopped him from moving his hand much, which she somehow figured had to be a good thing.

Wolf was rapidly losing patience with the impediments he was constantly encountering. He could have ordered her to move her leg, but he knew that would take too long. So he solved that problem easily by pressing her knee back and reaching behind her with his other hand to catch it into place, up and back, as if it was a the pinned wing of a butterfly, leaving her wide open for his fingers to explore and probe to his heart’s content.

“No! No! You can’t do this!” she wailed with more anger than fear.

His smile was of pure pleasure and pure evil. “Of course I can,” he breathed, crossing his middle finger over his index finger, and presenting the thick column of the two to the same place his cock had been turned away from seconds ago, pushing them into her and encountering the same barrier as before.

When he realized what it was, his eyes went wide, and he swallowed hard as his genitals nearly burst with the need to bury themselves inside her, and this discovery didn’t tamp those feelings down in the least. She was a virgin. All of this time, he’d just assumed that she had been unfaithful to him, considering she hadn’t known they were married, and he’d believed that she had fled to the colonies with a man or found one there to take care of her, rather than trying to make it all alone.

But she had.

She’d done it alone. She’d never been touched, except by him.

He wished that thought would mitigate his desire some, but it didn’t. He removed his fingers, but only to replace them with his own thickness, which he brought into direct contact with that small, fleshy barrier. Wolf leaned down and grabbed an errant nipple, suckling gently, hoping to defer some of the pain he knew was going to be a direct result of the surge of his hips seconds later.

Her cry of pain pierced his heart, and he lay still for a long while, completely lodged within her, feeling her pulsing and contracting around him, as if she was automatically trying to expel him, and driving him crazy with the attempts.