“Yes?” she prompted when he fell silent. She sat up a little, supporting herself on bent elbows.
“Pei Ling is fiercely loyal to you with good reason,” Nathan explained. “Samuel says it’s because you saved her life.”
“You must have heard it wrong.”
“No, I don’t think so. At the very least you saved Pei Ling fromalife, that much I know. She was being offered up to sailors as they bounded off their ships in San Francisco Harbor. She was tied to the man at her side as if she was his pet, and he was selling the right to take her leash for two bits. You must not have been standing very far away, waiting with your friend James Early to take a shipment for delivery at his warehouse. Right in front of your eyes, a sailor bought Pei Ling, leading her behind a stack of crates in the nearest waterfront alley. Apparently you rushed to her rescue, paying the sailor twenty dollars in gold to give her up and fifty more to the man who was selling her.”
“I can’t imagine it.”
“I can.” Nathan could just see Lydia marching up to a sailor probably twice her size and demanding the release of his whore. All along he thought she had the sense of a jackaroo. He had come to realize she also had the spirit of a lioness.
“My,” she said softly, trying to see it in her own mind. “I suppose I acted that way because James was there.”
Nathan was not going to let that pass. “I believe you acted entirely on your own, though your father did mention that once James realized you were not leaving the wharf without Pei Ling, he helped you come up with the money. James was not as eager to enter the fray as you.”
“Perhaps he was not so impulsive.”
“Probably not,” Nathan said. “But neither was he so courageous. Then or now. It happened three years ago, Lydia. You were only seventeen, Pei Ling even younger than that.” He did not mention that she had saved Pei Ling from the cribs only to have Samuel eventually choose the girl for his own bed. The marriage problems of Samuel and Madeline were something that Lydia would have to learn about entirely on her own. He had no intention of explaining what he barely understood himself. “James Early was never a proper match for you.”
She smiled, liking the proprietary tone he used. “And you are?” she asked, giving him a look that was both sly and mischievous.
He didn’t want to think about her question too deeply. Nathan answered as he knew she expected him to. He pounced on her, pinning her to the mattress with her arms above her head. His face was just inches above her and his light-gray predator eyes captured her attention. “You know I am,” he said with husky menace. “Say it.”
Lydia shook her head and dropped the gauntlet. “Make me.”
He kissed her first. Not on her mouth as she expected, but on her shoulder. His lips were warm, her skin warmer. His teeth caught the wide strap of her chemise and tugged, easing it over her shoulder. Taking advantage of her bare flesh, Nathan feasted. Starting with her collarbone, his mouth placed tiny, tasting kisses along its length. The curve of her neck and the hollow of her throat held the fragrance of the lei she had worn on their trek from the falls. His lips tickled her skin, making her shiver and shift a little restlessly as he moved closer.
Nathan’s knee nudged the hem of her chemise. It traveled upward, over her calves, her knees, and came to rest just at the top of her thighs. Nathan bent once and kissed the silly, insignificant scar on her knee with such reverence that in that moment Lydia knew she was absolutely adored. He stripped off his shirt, his trousers, and drawers. It was not often that he was entirely naked when she was still clothed. It was exciting in a way. She kept thinking the next thing he would do would be to remove her shift. It never was. The anticipation was deliciously maddening.
He kissed her breasts through the thin cotton shift. His tongue made a wet circle on the cloth and the extra abrasion of the material made her nipples stand up hard and stiff. He took his time arousing her, pressing his mouth to her breasts again and again, drawing the fabric through his lips, then her nipple, worrying both with his teeth. When he heard her whimper, he stopped.
Lydia’s fingers dug into his thick dark hair and tried to force him back to her breast. He smiled. The dimples that melted her heart appeared briefly. He was also shaking his head, refusing to budge.
“Say it,” he said.
Though Nathan’s methods were especially persuasive, Lydia wasn’t ready to give in just yet. It was a matter of pride—and pleasure. “You’ll have to do better than this,” she said. But her voice was very,veryhusky.
Nathan reacted swiftly, turning Lydia over on her stomach and straddling her thighs. “I can do much better,” he assured her. His voice was momentarily near her ear. His breath was hot on her flushed cheek.
She tried to raise her head and see him, but she couldn’t. He was already leaning back, his hands reaching behind him to stroke her calves. The backs of her knees were incredibly sensitive to the light caress of his fingertips. She bit the underside of her lip to keep from crying out this time and swallowed the other sounds of her desire.
Pushing the hem of Lydia’s shift upward to the small of her back, Nathan cupped her buttocks in his palms and gently kneaded, gradually working lower to the tops of her thighs. There were two small indentations at the base of her spine. He touched a knuckle to each in turn, then kissed them both, flicking his tongue in the tiny depressions.
His hands slipped under her shift, up her back. His thumbs traced the ridged length of her spine, then across her shoulder blades and along her folded arms, stopping where her wrists cradled her head. His hands caressed the tender and sensitive inside of her arms, then slid under her and held her breasts in the heart of his palms.
Lydia said his name softly, pleadingly. Nathan bent close to her mouth and she said it again, breathlessly this time.
“Is that all?” he asked softly. “Just my name?”
She nodded quickly, squeezing her eyes shut before she changed her mind and said the words he wanted to hear.
Nathan moved off her thighs. At first Lydia was bereft by the loss of him, but then he was lifting her so that they were both kneeling on the bed, her back flush to his chest. He supported her with one arm beneath her breasts; the other cut diagonally across the flat of her abdomen. From behind her he pushed her thighs apart with his knee. She was open to him now, vulnerable in her wanting.
She turned her head slightly, wanting to give him her mouth. Instead it was her neck she inadvertently offered up to him. His mouth did not sip her skin now. Like the rest of him, his kisses were hard and hot. The hand on her hip moved to the inside of her thigh, stroking, caressing. His fingers slipped into the downy tuft of hair between her thighs at the same time his tongue speared her mouth. Lydia cried out this time. Nathan smothered the sound.
She felt the strength of his arousal against the cleft of her buttocks. She rested her weight against him and felt him suck in his breath, taking the air from her lungs. He broke the kiss. She gasped. Nathan made his husky demand. “Say it.”
“You’re…you’re a proper match.”
