“And you won’t be,” he assured her. His hand clasped hers and he pressed it close. “Now tell me what you thought you were facing when you came back.”
Alexis told him everything that had happened since she’d found herself back aboard theDark Lady.She conveyed Landis’s suspicions and his crew’s help in Cloud’s escape. She hesitated a moment near the end of the story, then plunged in, explaining how Farthington had stumbled upon their scheme and almost upset everything. When she finished his mouth covered hers, hard at first, then more softly, tenderly. She made no protest when he lifted her in his arms and placed her in the bunk.
He did not join her immediately. He searched her room for a lamp. Finding one, he lit it. A soft, golden light filled the cabin and flickered over Alexis’s body. Cloud stepped closer to the bunk and admired the tawny flesh that seemed to quiver as if it were being stroked and fondled by the glow. He reached out to touch one of the patches of diffused light falling on her cheek. She held his hand in place, her eyes caressing his face, silently conveying the words she had never said aloud.
“Come,” she said quietly. “Lie beside me.”
He obeyed and fitted himself comfortably along the contours of her body. Her fingers curled around the thick copper hair at the nape of his neck and brushed against his temple and the lean, tight skin of his face.
“My men? Did they hurt you very badly?” she asked.
“My pride.” He gripped her wrists, reliving that moment when she had exposed herself to so much danger because of him. He released her suddenly and laughed. “I guess I deserved it. Your cabin boy warned me all along that you were in charge.”
“Peach told me you were stubborn.”
“A trait you apparently planned for,” he commented dryly.
She kissed his lips tenderly. “I tried to prepare for everything.”
“Even for what happened in this room?”
“Even for that.” She was silent for a while before she said, “Tell me what they were after, Cloud. Were your crew’s suspicions justified?”
“Completely.” He paused then, thinking back to all Howe had told him. Alexis waited patiently, giving him time to sort through the experience. When he finally spoke his voice was edged with the same bitterness she remembered hearing when he spoke of his impressment. The muscles and tendons in his chest and arms tensed beneath her embrace. His arms tightened around her as he explained Howe’s plan to turn her over to the British in return for considerations when a treaty was signed. When he told her the senator’s intention was to execute him in the morning her tears fell silently on his skin, scalding him with the white hot intensity of her passion.
“How could they want to do those things to you? What kind of men are they that would not respect the decision of their peers and would fight against their country when she needs them most?” She wanted to say more but her voice shook while her body shuddered against his. She fell silent, knowing he understood all she could not say.
He kissed her tears, her closed eyes, and trembling lips. He drew out her despair and anger with his mouth as a poultice would draw poison.
“Howe can’t touch us now,” he whispered. “You’ve seen to that.” She started to argue but it came to nothing as his fingers pushed against her lips. “We’ll discuss what to do about stopping him in the morning. I don’t want his name between us now.”
“You’re right,” she murmured. She turned sleepily in his arms.
“Tired?” He was grinning.
“Exhausted,” she replied, suddenly realizing how true that statement was. She glanced up at his face and saw his green eyes were smiling at her. The smile was a translucent cover for the hunger and longing behind it. She felt powerless and impotent beneath his steady gaze, as if she had no will of her own. Then she realized she did have a will and the want serving as its impetus was her desire for him. She stammered. “Not if…that is not if you want…I mean if you want…”
“If I want to make love to you?”
“Yes,” she answered weakly.
“Oh, I do. I do. But I want you to sleep now.” He laughed, running his fingers through her hair. “Who knows? Maybe you’ll be able to speak in complete sentences later.”
She pinched his arm and nestled beside him, her lips curved in a contented smile. Slowly her eyes closed and her lashes fanned slivers of shadow across her face.
“I love you,” said Cloud. He noticed the slight curve of her mouth.
When Alexis awoke she threw off the covers Cloud had placed over them. Outside it was still dark but the lamp had never been extinguished and she lifted her head, letting her gaze wander over his lean, well-muscled features. He was a composite, she thought. A composite of valuable metals and precious stones: brilliant emerald eyes; rich copper hair; bronzed flesh hinting of golden undertones where the sun had not touched it; sinewy muscles having the tensile strength of steel. A human alloy cast from the materials men had prized from almost the beginning of time.
He was lying on his back, one arm flung around his head as it rested in the curve of his elbow. The other arm lay at his side, palm up, and Alexis traced the lines of his life with her fingertip. His breathing was even, his chest rising and falling in a slow, easy motion, comforting her with its steady rhythm. His long legs were intertwined with hers and she could feel the pulse beat in his thigh against her own. His face showed no sign of past tension or any indication the future would not be exactly as he wanted it. There were no troubled lines marring the perfection of his classic features.
A small, deep sigh escaped his parted lips. Alexis smiled, understanding what it was Cloud had wanted to capture when he heard her sigh. She felt the same desire to embrace the sound, its origins, and its creator so it would be repeated again and again.
“Cloud?” She whispered his name softly as she nibbled at his ear and rubbed her leg against his. She liked the feel of their flesh touching.
“Hmm?” he answered, not bothering to open his eyes.
“When we were away from each other for so long…when I first escaped you until you returned for me…were there other women for you?”
