Chapter Fifteen
Talon swept Kate into his arms and carried her to the narrow bunk, humbled by her acquiescence. He was trembling with need and something else. Something stronger than desire.
If only this was the beginning of their relationship instead of the end. She would hate him so much when she found out the truth.
“Just let me kiss you for awhile.” He lowered her to the mattress and stretched out beside her, noticing for the first time the light sprinkle of freckles across her dainty nose. “We don’t have to do anything else. Not tonight. Not until you’re ready.”
It was a lie, of course. Another filthy lie, because he knew he’d come too far to turn back now.
She nodded, her teeth worrying her bottom lip in a gesture he found unbearably erotic. “I trust you.”
He bent and cupped her face, lowering his lips to hers and sipping from them with a gentleness he hadn’t known he possessed. She trusted him. God, she broke his heart.
He’d never made love to a virgin before, and he was terrified he’d lose control and hurt her. He wanted to take his time and show her every measure of a woman’s pleasure, but it had been so long,too damned long, since he’d had a release of his own.
She smelled of roses and feminine musk. Everything soft and sweet that had been missing in his life. She was the stuff his yearning midnight dreams were made of, a lady with a core of fire and passion. And in the midst of it all was the poignant knowledge that he did not deserve this. He was a pirate, after all, taking what belonged by law to another and trying to justify it as right.
There was only the slightest hesitation in Kate’s kiss, a bit of charming awkwardness as he taught her how to seduce him with her lips and tongue, and she more than made up for it in exuberance. She was a slim, burning flame in his arms, and the soft sounds of burgeoning passion he coaxed from the back of her throat nearly undid him.
Kissing her was nice, but there were far more wonderful delights ahead. At length, he trailed his lips from her mouth to her throat, whispering sweet words as his nimble fingers attacked the tiny white buttons that lined the front of her nightdress. Then the barrier was gone and her beautiful breasts were bare to him, their tight, dark nipples glistening in the soft light, begging him to touch and taste.
“You are so beautiful, Kate. So soft.” He molded her shape with his hands, watching her green eyes flare with passion. He bent his head, tracing one rigid crest with his tongue before taking it fully into his mouth.
Sweet. He’d never known such sweetness. She gasped his name and threaded her hands in his hair while he sampled the other lush mound and then back again like a starving man at a banquet.
“I want to touch you, too.”
Her voice seemed to come from far away. He felt drugged with arousal, drunk on her, but her words wrenched him out of his reverie.
“Aye,” he breathed, sitting up and shrugging impatiently out of his jacket, vest and shirt. Holding her gaze, he let his hands fall to the ties of his breeches. When she didn’t protest, he loosened them, freeing his aching cock and kicking away the confining fabric.
Naked, he stretched out beside her, trying like hell to restrain himself, to walk when he so badly wanted to run. She lifted up on one elbow and used her other hand to trace the contours of his chest.
“I’ve dreamed of this. Of touching all this beautiful, sun-bronzed skin.” As she spoke, she circled his nipple with her thumbnail, making him suck in an agonized breath.
“I’ve dreamt of you, too. Every night.” He rolled on top of her, their bare chests pressed together, the soft mounds of her unbound breasts searing his skin. He kissed her long and deep, trembling with need.
She traced his back with her fingertips, exploring. Tentative at first, then moving daringly low, grazing the swell of his buttocks. He smiled into the kiss, enraptured. His Kate was a quick learner.
Unable to bear it any longer, he broke a little apart from her, running his hand over her flat stomach then lower. He threaded his fingertips through her dark, damp curls, touching her where she needed it most.
She flinched at first, shying away and trying to close her legs against the intrusion. He persisted, whispering words of encouragement while he coaxed the sweet honey of excitement from her body.
He found the exact spot that drove her wild and then took shameless advantage of the knowledge, pleasuring her until she was writhing and panting beneath him. She sobbed his name, and he caught the beautiful sound with his mouth.
Rising above her, he settled between her thighs. “I can’t wait, sweetheart. I’ve wanted this for so long.” His voice was harsh and broken, his entire body trembling. He slid against her wet heat, and sweat broke out across his forehead.
Her eyelids fluttered closed at the sensation then she opened them, staring at him with emerald intensity. “I don’t want you to wait. I love you, Talon. I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you.”
Her words pierced him. Such a priceless gift, the only one of worth he’d ever been given. He was shamed to the depths of his soul by what he was about to do, yet he couldn’t turn away from her now.
It wasn’t about his men any more. He wanted her for himself, just for tonight. He was a miserable, betraying bastard, and this only proved it. “Don’t love me, Kate. I’m not worth it.”
“You’re worth it to me.” She moved beneath him, reaching for what he could give her. She tilted her hips just enough to allow him to breach the virginal tightness of her body with his.
“Are you sure?” he whispered. “Are you absolutely sure this is what you want?”
She nodded, her gaze full of love and trust. “I’m sure. I want you. I have since the first time I saw you.”
