His focus shifted, his gaze sliding down to my mouth. My lips parted, an invitation I couldn’t hold back. My heart pounded, hard enough to drown out the sounds of the ship, the wind slapping the sails, and the sea splashing against the hull.
And when he kissed me, the world ceased to exist.
His mouth found mine, slow and with purpose, as if he wassavoring each touch. As if he wanted to ensure I was completely aware of every sensation he generated inside me. His lips were soft but hungry, their pressure insistent. He gave, then took, searing me with need. I shattered beneath the weight of his claim.
I hadn’t expected his mouth to taste of warmth, strength, and a heady promise. It was intoxicating, as rich as the finest wine I couldn’t stop drinking. His tongue traced the seam of my lips before slipping inside, teasing past the barrier with slow, deliberate strokes, leaving me breathless.
I responded without thought, my mouth demanding against his, feeding the blaze building between us. My tongue found his, and the moment they touched, it was like striking flint to steel. Sparks ignited, making every nerve in my body curl tight. He drew me deeper into the inferno I suspected I'd only ever find in his arms. The way his tongue stroked mine, sure and confident, made my knees tremble, my resolve flickering before it disappeared.
His hand moved from my waist, sliding up my side in a slow burn, his fingers grazing across my ribs before they found the curve of my breast. He cupped it gently, but I arched my body into his touch, gasping into his mouth at the shocking ache he dragged from deep inside me. The feel of his hand sent shivers ripping through me, my chest tightening in response as everything began centering around the spot where his palm pressed.
I moaned into his mouth; a sound I wished I could bury but couldn’t hold back.
Merrick’s grip tightened, his fingertip tracing across my breast to my nipple. It hardened and heat swirled through me,diving between my legs to make me throb. Stars exploded behind my eyelids as his fingers brushed the peak, over and over before he grasped it and rolled. I crested the brink of something too wild to contain. My muscles tensed with the effort to keep the torrent of emotions from breaking me.
His kiss deepened, the strokes of his tongue more commanding, drawing out every bit of pleasure left in me as the world spun. While he tugged and rolled my nipple, his other hand moved up to cradle the back of my neck. He angled my head, and his mouth grew more demanding, his kiss fiercer. It wasn’t a simple kiss anymore. It was a storm, a tempest of want and need colliding, with no hope of calming.
I was lost in it. Thrilled by it.
Every breath I took, I took for him. His touch set something free inside me that I thought had died—perhaps before it had ever lived. Kinart had known the softer me, the part of me that dared to dream of forever, but Merrick? He spoke to the wildness I’d buried deep. Whatever he'd released inside me threatened to sweep me into the depths of oblivion.
I ached to be devoured by it.
I clung to his tunic, desperate for stability as the world tilted. He grounded and unraveled me all at once. Each stroke of his tongue, each lingering graze of his lips pulled me under. His mouth commanded mine with a skill unlike anything I'd experienced before. I'd only been with Kinart, and we learned together, grew together.
We'd barely scratched the surface.
Whimpering, I arched against Merrick, the hardness of his arousal nudging my belly. My pulse quickened even more, andinstinctively, I bowed my back, pressing into him, needing to be closer. Naked and writhing beneath him.
Merrick didn’t just ask for my body; he commanded that I hand it over. He pulled at the very core of me, shoving aside my grief and showing me there was something more, something burning beneath the surface of this marriage I'd never expected to find.
My hands slid up his chest, and I relished the hard planes of muscle beneath his tunic. I needed to memorize the feel of him. My thoughts fought to fuse together but scattered again as his hand slid across my belly and between my legs. He cupped me, his palm rubbing. Fuck but it felt too good.
Then he lifted his head, and his hand stilled between my thighs.
I sucked in a breath and pressed myself against his palm, begging for him to finish what he'd started.
He watched my face, his unguarded for only a second before he removed his hand, placing it behind his back. His mouth curved into a wry smile. “You really are tempting, aren't you, my pretty little bride?”
I wanted him to call me that instead of fawn each time we touched. But I sensed that later, when I was alone in my room and could think rationally, I'd rail at myself for opening up this easily, this willingly, to a man I barely knew.
I wanted Merrick like I hadn’t wanted anything in a very long time, if ever. And it terrified me. Because Merrick had the power to tear me down to my very bones, to destroy everything I was.
And I would gladly let him do it if it meant feeling like this all the time.
A whisper of something darker, something dangerous lurked beneath this heat. That flame drew me to him now, but it could consume us both or it could burn bright and fierce until there was nothing left of me but ash.
I couldn’t pull back. I didn’t want to.
Deep down, I knew I’d never be the same after this.
He released me and after stroking his knuckles across my cheek and down my neck to the swell of my breasts above my gown, he turned and strode toward his suite. He waited, not facing me, until I’d entered my own cabin.
I peeked through the crack in the door, watching him step inside his own room. The lock rang out.
Shutting my door, I pivoted to lean against the panel. I pressed my back against the hard wood, still breathless and reeling. Blood pounded in my ears, making it impossible to think. My traitorous heart hammered against my ribcage, demanding I let it out.
I couldn’t believe how quickly I’d let myself get caught up by Merrick’s charms.
