Iain made certain he was not in the shadows as he tugged the laces then eased the waistband down past his hips. At first the head of his erection held them in place, so he reached inside the breeches and freed himself. Her eyes grew wider and his randy laddie basked in appreciation. He grasped it in his hand, stroking once, twice and then thrice, encouraging him to his full length and girth. Stepping out of his breeches, he climbed onto the bed. Clare dropped her legs, all the while her hungry gaze remained on his flesh.
“Bed me.” He could not help the smile when he realized she was giving him orders.
Easing her open wider, he knelt between her legs. Iain slid his hands beneath her and he tilted her hips to better accept him. Grasping himself in his fist, he rubbed the thick knob along her cleft, sliding along the wetness from her arousal and orgasm and positioned himself at her opening.
Her tight opening.
He leaned down on his elbows, placing his arms next to her on the bed. “Tell me,” he whispered against her lips. “Say it as I would.”
“I cannot.” She blushed anew and a glance down showed it beginning in the mounds of her breasts, up her neck and into her cheeks.
“Say it.” He laughed against her mouth. “Just to me.”
From the pause, he thought she mightn’t be able to bring herself to utter the foul word, but when she smiled and kissed him hard and quick, he thought she truly might.
“Prende moi.”
She’d fooled him, substituting French for gutter words. He laughed at how softly she spoke, as though there was anyone else nearby who could hear her. When he did not move at her command, she thrust her hips up, pushing him inside. “Prende moi maintenant, Iain,” she demanded now. He did not need to speak the language to understand what she wanted.
“As you command, my lady.”
And he did.
The night wasall he could have wanted and more.
In between bouts of love play, he taught her more words that sailors used and she taught him more of the very naughtiest French words. They learned more than words through that night.
Sensitive places in curves and along muscles. In deeper places and with hands and mouths.
He pleasured her until she screamed, and she touched him until he begged. Over and over, in the dark and quiet of the night as the gentle movements of the ship soothed their restless bodies and souls.
He took her slowly once more that night before she ordered hard and fast. His hunger for her increased each time until he realized the very dangerous truth—he would want her for the rest of his life.
Her lightness for his dark.
Her smile to test his frown.
Her softness to cushion his hardness.
Now, lying next to her as the first rays of the sun broke the horizon, Iain knew he must bring the night, their shared and soul-shattering passion, and any possibility of it happening again, to a clear and definitive end.
He was losing the sharp edge of his strategy of getting her lands and he needed it back. He needed that relentless pursuit that drove him and fulfilled his ambitions and plans.
They must go back to a business relationship or to just doing business if she would relent and sell him the lands. It was the only way forward.
“I can hear you thinking.” Clare shifted at his side, rubbing her cheek against his chest. “Will you tell me?”
Would he tell her? Of his dilemma? Of the first time in his life that he would regret something? Nay.
“I was thinking of how very stupidly arrogant I was to believe I could climb the sails and not suffer for it,” he said.
Sliding his arm out from under her, he dropped his legs off the bed and then stood. His shoulders were on fire, the burn moving through them with every movement. When he bent down to pick up his breeches, he groaned as more of his body protested his bravado yesterday. “I think I should have limited myself to a short time.”
He noticed the silence and turned back to find her staring at his morning randy lad. Which was as it always was in the morning. Ready. Moreso with her in his bed.
“Some parts of you seem to be working without difficulty.”
“Our conversations in the dark of night seemed to have emboldened you in the light of day, my lady.” Iain cursed himself for engaging so with her. He must stop now. “But, I fear that the day is upon us and the crew will return, as we must, to Leith.” He turned away for a moment and pulled his breeches on. When he looked at her over his shoulder.
