The Pirate and the Puritan (21 page)

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“I trust you, Drew.” The
opportunity she had asked for came, and she surprised herself by having the
courage to grasp it. Unfortunately, it was her father’s life at risk instead of
her immortal soul. If not for Drew’s deception, her father wouldn’t be in
prison at all; but her father had made a habit of trusting scoundrels, and at
least Drew intended to right his wrong. Common sense dictated that she keep up
her guard against him, but common sense had never assured her with the same
determination she saw in Drew’s eyes. She slid her hand under his hair to cup
the back of his neck. “I trust you,” she repeated with more conviction.

At her breathless declaration,
Drew tensed and balled his hands into fists at his sides. She knew what he
thought. Saw his battle in every hard line of his body. If she wanted him to
stop, if she had lost her nerve, she should say so now.

She forced her conscience to
contemplate the question, though her heart already knew the answer. No, she
didn’t want him to stop. If she let this opportunity pass, she might never have
another. The entirety of her adult life had been filled with regret. She had no
intention of adding more. She wanted him to incinerate the barrier between the
woman she forced herself to be and the woman she really was.

Before either of them came to
their senses, she stood on her tiptoes and kissed him full on the mouth.

Instantly, he pulled her against
him in an almost painful grip. His kiss mirrored her sense of urgency. There
was no teasing build-up to the penetrating thrust of his tongue or the hard
press of his lips. With shaking hands, she explored the contours of his tight,
muscled chest. She dragged her fingertips through a patch of burnished hair,
then slid to the smooth skin covering his ribs. Freely touching him was an
intoxicant in and of itself. Though she dearly wanted to, she lost her nerve
before she dared to go lower, and slipped her arms tentatively around his
waist.

He wrenched his mouth from hers.
His breath singed her when he spoke. “I won’t play cat-and-mouse with you
anymore, Felicity. I told you we would finish this, and finish it we will if I
stay in this cabin a moment longer.”

She traced wet kisses across his
collarbone. The taste of his skin shattered any choice she had in the matter.
“Stay,” she said, then bit him lightly.

He swept her up in his arms and
carried her to the bed. He dropped her roughly and was on her before she had a
chance to protest or even catch her breath. She wondered if she should tell him
she wasn’t a virgin—then he was kissing her, and nothing else seemed to matter.
The dreaded discovery of her tainted past had hinged on condemnation by a godly
man. Drew’s plundering kisses proved he wasn’t that, if she’d ever had any
doubt.

He alternately licked and kissed
his way across her jaw, then followed the curve of her neck. Without ceasing
his trek, he yanked down her bodice and continued his wet path over the swell
of her breast. She gasped, both eager and mortified. She didn’t know a grown
man would want to do such a thing. Her eyes squeezed shut against the lush
sensation. He drew her nipple into his mouth, sending a rush of liquid heat
straight to her sex. She pushed against his unyielding shoulders, shocked by
his boldness as well as her own reaction. But the drugging pleasure swept away
her objections along with all rational thought.

She forced her eyes open to keep
herself from being completely carried away by her dark desires. Late afternoon
sunlight flickered through the oval windows lining the cabin, illuminating the
slick trail where Drew’s kisses had branded her. His dark hair fanned against
her pale skin and his free hand possessively gripped her other breast, rubbing
his thumb distractedly over the strained pink nipple. His closed eyelids
fluttered with ecstasy.

When she realized he was enjoying
this as much as she was, she had to remind herself to breathe. Without warning
he pinched the nipple he toyed with, sending shards of erotic pleasure
splintering down to her toes. Her sex tightened unbearably. She arched her back
off the bed. Her fingers entwined in his tangled hair as she held him to her.
“Please.”

“Please what, sweeting?” he said,
his voice husky.

She wasn’t exactly sure if she
was begging him to stop or to continue. Her heartbeat roared in her ears. She
let her head fall back and struggled to find the right words. In an attempt to
show him, she rotated her hips, brazenly rubbing against the leg he had
positioned between her knees. It was her undoing.

“I want to feel you inside me.”
An urge desperate and primal drove her past any inhibitions she’d ever had.

He jerked up his head and stared
into her eyes. To her surprise, his obvious shock didn’t shame her. Not when
his eyes dilated with hunger.

“As you wish,” he said, with a
roughness she hadn’t heard in his voice before. The sound alone was a new kind
of seduction.

Slowly, he moved over her. Their
coupling would be a closeness she could understand. He would share her hunger
instead of making her the feast. Not that she didn’t like it, or her breasts
didn’t ache at his sudden retreat, but she needed him to be as swept away as
she.

He grabbed the hem of her dress
and pushed it, along with her underskirts, up to her hips. All the last minute
tugs of conscience were forgotten when he touched the back of her knee and
nudged her legs farther apart. She moaned when he dragged his fingers up the
inside of her thigh. In equal proportions, she feared he’d touch the center of
her desire and that he wouldn’t. No one had ever told her men and woman did
things like this, touching and kissing in secret places.

When he reached the apex of her
thighs, he ran his fingers through her curls, then circled her with his index
finger. She rocked her hips and called out his name on a desperate breath. She
soon learned his grazing caress wasn’t enough. It was only just another step in
her descent into sweet madness. For a moment, she wondered if he was purposely
torturing her for all the trouble she’d caused him.

“Easy, sweeting. The longer I
take, the better you’ll like it.” He slipped a single finger inside her.

A flood of liquid warmth dampened
her thighs at his touch. He cursed, then quickly withdrew his finger. Her
cheeks and breasts burned with embarrassment over her uncontrollable response.

He must have noticed her
discomfort because he nuzzled her ear and whispered, “You feel too good. I
don’t want to prove myself inadequate in this. Though I fear you might outmatch
me once again.”

He kissed her hard on the mouth
and reentered her. The fullness of two fingers had her convulsively clutching
him, each grip sending out stronger spasms of pleasure. He moved in and out,
simulating a rhythm she longed for him to duplicate with his body. Her world
narrowed to the feel of his tongue in her mouth and the fingers he slid inside
her. Without a will of her own, she matched his rhythm with her hips. She
grasped his shoulders, urging him deeper inside.

When he pulled away, she
struggled to her elbows, not caring that her legs spread and her sex pulsed in
his full view. He sat on his knees, his gaze fixed upon her bare breasts,
before dropping lower.

Blindly he yanked at the strings
of his breeches. His stare touched her physically. She didn’t move to cover
herself, but watched his muscles flex while he tugged at the lacing. His
breathing came heavy, and for the first time in their acquaintance he appeared
completely unmasked. Raw with need and want.

When he finally managed to undo
the ties on each side of his waistband, a triangular flap fell forward,
exposing him. Her slight intake of breath probably warned him he’d made a
tactical error. She raised her heavy gaze up to his face, then back down to the
violent jut of his sex. She’d never seen a man’s privates before. With Erik, it
had been dark and they were both fully dressed. There’d been no coaxing
touches, and little kissing. He took her before she had a chance to change her
mind. And she certainly would have if she had seen this.

Drew lifted her chin back to his
face. “Lay back and let me love you. All will be fine. I promise.”

He placed his hands on her
shoulders and tried to gently persuade her to lie flat on her back. The
softness of his words eased some of her fears, but not completely. Her slight
anxiety added an element of danger to her already heightened arousal. There was
no turning back now. Her body craved him despite her fear. Before he could
lower her to the bed, she wrapped her fingers around his rigid flesh, testing
to see if he was as unyielding as he appeared. He jerked at her touch.

“Did I hurt you?” He was as hot
as a flame, but the way the muscles in his stomach tightened and his breathing
quickened told her she hadn’t. Her touch was as torturing to him as his slow
exploration had been to her. She slid her hand up his length and was rewarded
by his soft groan.

Abruptly, he grabbed her wrist.
“Let go or this will be over before we start.”

She smiled and allowed him to
guide her down to the bed. Her anxiety faded to a demanding anticipation.

He kissed her deeply, then pulled
away to position himself between her legs. On braced arms, he slid across her
swollen flesh without entering her.

She pushed his breeches down to
his thighs and kneaded his taut flanks. Her fingers dug into him, pulling him
to her as she pushed up with her hips. She had been waiting for this too long
to draw it out any longer. For most of her adult life, she’d held herself in a
prison of her own making and the moment he took her, she’d be free.

He shifted his weight to his
knees so he could grab both of her wrists and stretch her arms above her head.
“You are making it awfully hard to give you a pleasurable experience.”

“Make love to me,” she demanded.
“I’m ready.”

“I don’t want to hurt you,
Felicity. The slower we go, the easier it will be.”

She met his gaze. “I’m not a
virgin.”

He blinked. “What?”

She closed her eyes to block out
his startled expression. She hadn’t meant to say it, but she could tell he held
back, and she refused to have less than his uncontrolled lust.

Drew had made her want him from
the moment he’d first held her gaze in his powerful grip and she deserved all
that his penetrating stares had promised. She needed him to be as weak in his
hunger as she was in hers.

He released her wrists and moved
away from her, forcing her to open her eyes. He sat on his heels and studied
her. His chest rose and fell with each breath. She dropped her gaze lower. Her
confession hadn’t cooled his desire in the least. In fact, he seemed to swell
under her direct gaze. A drop of moisture clung to his tip, assuring her that
she wasn’t the only one who revealed need so openly.

A glimpse of his face found him
watching her with such single-minded intensity, his breath quickening through
his parted lips. She suspected her gawking had aroused him as much as her
touch. The madness that had gotten them this far surged within Felicity. As if
he could somehow control her by his stare, she rotated her hips. His stare
dropped to her sex and his release of breath was audible.

He crawled between her thighs,
his face close to hers. “Ah…Would you care to elaborate? Quickly?”

She let her hands glide across
his tensed flanks to the tight muscles in the backs of his thighs. In her
coaxing exploration, her fingers accidentally brushed him, and he sucked in his
breath. His gaze shuttered and he no longer appeared capable of simple speech,
much less having a lengthy discussion about her past.

“Please. No questions. Just make
love to me.”

He remained poised above her. The
muscles in his arms strained with tension. She had the unsettling realization
that this might well be the last time she was ever this close to another human
being. Surely he wouldn’t deny her this because she had slipped and revealed
her worst secret. She turned her head and kissed the inside of his elbow with
her open mouth. “I need you.”

“You’re full of surprises,
Felicity Kendall. And I have to say this is one of the better ones.” He dropped
his head and watched as he rubbed the length of his erection against her wet
passage. She arched against him and he gritted his teeth, “I need you, too.”

He braced his weight on his
hands. “Guide me,” he said, in a tone that didn’t reflect his teasing of mere
seconds before.

She reached between them and
gripped him. His eyes were closed, but he moved to her slight pressure as if
she controlled his body as easily as her own. The first blunt touch against her
sensitized opening sent waves of ecstasy to wash away her fears. But then he
pushed forward, taking control and stretching her with a sharp jolt. As if
sensing her discomfort, he paused until the invading pressure was eased by
pleasure and her body pulsed in invitation. She gripped his forearms, urging
him to continue. This was nothing like her first time. If Drew didn’t slide
deeper, she’d be digging her nails into his skin. Instead of surging into her,
he withdrew slightly and pushed forward again, stretching her slowly to
accommodate him. She rocked her hips, wishing he’d hurry, but he retreated
again.

“This will be better if you let
me lead.” He leaned down and licked a path from the hollow under her jaw to her
ear. “Surrender to me, Felicity,” he whispered.

With great effort, she forced
herself to relax and breathe while she waited for him to fill her. Each small
thrust of his hips was torture. It must have been for him as well, because a
fine sheen shone on his shoulders and beaded his upper lip. She gripped the
sheets to keep from grinding her hips into his.

When she knew she couldn’t stand
another second of his slow, shallow strokes, he surged to fill her completely,
then stilled. But his sweet torture wasn’t over. While he stayed snug against
her, he moved in a way that pressed a sensitized knot deep inside her. She
gasped and rolled her hips against the new assault.