A sound whispered in the air and cut through the amalgamation of noise. Stepping from the bath, he plucked a thick, white towel from the hanging peg, dried most of the water from his body, and wrapped another towel around his waist before padding toward the room, oddly uneager to meet the ladies his lover had chosen to join them in the bed play.
Daniel suspected Johanna had felt his boredom of late and deduced a more sensual pursuit would perhaps relieve him of his current dissonance. He frowned, for the odd feeling upon him was deeper than boredom… It felt like there was a hole inside of him that was unknown to his senses and waiting to be filled with something…anything. Earlier surrounded by the lavish thrills of the party on deck, he had felt alone, uninspired by the glitter and decadence, unable to see the bright lights and colors when everything felt obscured in shadows. He couldn’t quite place his finger on when or why they had become less exciting and less satisfying to him. Daniel had silently chuckled at the notion, truly wondering if he suffered fromennui.
Perhaps Johanna had the right of it and a night of sensual debauchery and fucking was what he needed. As Daniel ventured farther into the room, he faltered at the sight of a lady balancing a tray of canapés, roasted duck topped with cranberry sauce, and the spice rum cake his guests seemed to love. She placed the tray on the rosewood table near the small stove that heated his quarters before glancing around the lush decor of the cabin.
It is her.
The lady from earlier who had watched those on the deck with an acute stare of longing. It was quite astonishing, the way she captured his regard. A soft tendril of sweat-soaked hair clung to her forehead and flushed cheeks. Her high-necked, dark blue dress was not the most fashionable, but she moved gracefully, like a lady. Her voluptuous figure enthralled him, but now that he could see her face more clearly, he realized her skin was flawless, despite being slightly flushed with her exertion. Her hair, which had been restrained into a plain chignon, was auburn with redder streaks where it had been bleached by the sun. She boldly wore no mask, and her prettiness struck his heart with surprising force. There was a strength of character in her face that was…incredibly pretty if not rousingly beautiful.
“Which are you…Delilah or Bonnie?”
She whirled to face him fully, her hand fluttering to her throat. “You!”
She recognized him. Her eyes were the finest golden brown, very much like the whiskey she held before her in the crystal decanter.
“You are naked!” she gasped, setting down the decanter on the table.
Those eyes, which held a feline slant, widened, slowly caressing over his naked chest, lingering at the knot tied low at his belly. Something about that stare that seemed so innocently fascinated roused his cock with alarming swiftness.
A strangled yelp emitted from her throat at the evidence of his cock stand. He chuckled, the sound low and rough with his increasing desire. She snapped her gaze up from his waist, and her lips parted, but nothing seemed to emerge. Her skin flushed a gentle pink, and her eyes glittered with arousing awareness.
Ah… you like what you see, too.
Daniel found her evident attraction to his body appealing. He prowled over, amused when she retreated a couple of steps until her back was flush against the cabin wall. Her cheeks pinkened even further as she watched his approach.
“Do you like being chased?” he murmured, curious at the type of bed play she liked to indulge in.
God, he hoped it was the wicked, debauched type. A sweet, lush body like hers was made for carnal pleasure, and those pouting lips provoked wanton images of them stretched around his cock.
“Chased?” she croaked, licking her lips.
That swipe had not been a beguiling tease, yet his cock throbbed in a way that felt…new. Daniel ruthlessly buried all traces of arousal, slowly calming the racing of his heart to its normal rhythm.
Who are you?
He braced one of his hands over her head and lightly and gently encircled her throat with his other hand, feathering his thumb over her racing pulse. Daniel tipped her chin upward so he could stare into her eyes. “Yes. What kind of bed sport do you like? Do you like being chased…hunted …tossed over my shoulders, then dropped on the bed and tupped hard? Or do you like it tender and deep…a slow, seductive game of cat and mouse? Your pleasure is mine to satiate tonight, so tell me what you want, and I promise it will be yours.”
Chapter Three
Her heart was beating so fiercely, it took Georgianna several moments to gather her composure, and equanimity still eluded her.Chased? Hunted? Slow and deep?Good heavens!For the first time in her three and twenty years, she felt faint. Her sister would laugh, considering Georgianna had bragged about her stern fortitude against handsome rakes upon departing Crandell.
Worse, the sensual promise that whatever she wanted tonight would be given hit her low inside her belly, stirring bewildering heat. Her pulse skittered alarmingly as peculiar sensations crashed over her senses. Georgianna needed to step away from his maddening closeness. Perhaps then she could slow her heartbeat and suppress the powerful attraction to his handsomeness.
At her silence, his eyebrows raised inquiringly.
“I only need for you to…” she started to say, then the hand provocatively clasping her throat moved, urging her closer even as his head dipped, and he caught her mouth with his.
Georgianna gripped his shoulders and moaned, the sound muffled against his ravishing mouth. His tongue flicked teasingly against her lips, and she curled her toes into her shoes, alarmed at the throb of heat spearing directly between her thighs to her sex. The sensation made her want to squirm and tighten her legs against it.
His hand slid beneath her hair, cupped the side of her neck, and held her in the most tender yet sensual clasp she had ever known as his lips moved over hers with ruthless persuasion. The delightful shock of his embrace made her gasp, and when a whimper of surrender left her mouth, his groan of approval vibrated from him to her.
Mr. Johnson, a local gentleman in Crandell who made some effort to woo her last year, had stolen a kiss before…perhaps even two. Georgianna knew what a kiss was…and this, with this stranger, was not it. He…he sucked her down into feelings that she had never imagined could be found in an illicit embrace. His tongue glided against hers, and the hand braced above her head had somehow reached around her waist and tugged her against his chest.
He was all but lifting her against his body with a strength that was wonderfully rousing. His height and breadth made her feel entirely too feminine and achy. Georgianna gasped when his hips thrust forward, the thick proof of his reaction almost alarming.
He nipped at her lower lip. For a wild moment, she was rendered breathless, then she started to kiss him back, swept away by the curious heat whispering over her flesh to burrow deep beneath her skin.
She wrapped her hands around his neck, holding him to her as he seduced her mouth with devastating thoroughness. He gripped her hips, lifted her weight with easy grace, and padded over to the bed, where he dropped her onto the mattress, his weight coming down on her. Holding her hips, he molded her curves to the powerful contours of his body.
