April Moon (4 page)

Men had always pursued
her.
They’d whispered outrageous compliments into her ear. Held her closer than they should have in the waltz. Tried to steal a kiss on a darkened balcony. She was far more skilled at laughing and turning aside her more persistent admirers’ advances than in initiating them.

Impatiently, she shook her head. She’d been married for three years, after all. Her infrequent beddings with Ceddie had been rather clumsy affairs at best, but she was no silly, untried virgin. She knew well enough what brought a man to passion.

Shutting her mind to everything but the pistol lying just out of reach, she stepped forward, slid her palms up the lapels of the American’s uniform and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Still he stood impassive, unbending.

Slowly, the sick feeling in Sarah’s stomach gave way to a simmering indignation. She was prepared to endure his kisses, to remain stoic while he undressed her. She was
not
prepared for him to stand like a lump of oven-baked clay while she seduced him.

“You’ll have to bend your head if you wish me to kiss you,” she ground out. “Unless, of course, you prefer to dispense with such boring preliminaries.”

Richard couldn’t help himself. He’d intended to play the game out, to discover what scheme the lady had hatched with Sir James, but the farce proved too much for him. Laughter rumbling in his chest, he wrapped an arm around her waist and tugged her hard against him.

“Oh, no, lass. Such preliminaries never bore me. You may kiss away.”

Eyes dancing, he grinned down at her. He fully expected her to vent the temper that flared hot and quick in her eyes. He thought for sure she’d try to clout him on the side of the head or kick back a foot to whack him in the shins. To his intense disappointment, she attempted neither.

“This may be a matter of levity to you,” she said, her voice quivering with fury. “It is not to me.”

His grin took a crooked bent. “No, I can see it
is not. Rest easy, sweeting. I’m not about to let you sacrifice your honor for a fouled oyster like Sir James.”

The high color in her cheeks leached away. “You swore…You promised…”

“I promised I wouldn’t harm anyone aboard this ship. The thing is,” he said apologetically, “I never intended to. Not if I could help it, leastways. Why do you think I had my men break into the surgeon’s stores and drug the crew of the
Linx
if not to minimize the chance of injury to all aboard?”

“But—but…” She sputtered, almost incoherent. “You threatened to hang James from the yardarm!”

“Yes, well, my blood was up. A man tends to let loose with a bit of bombast after boarding an enemy ship.”

Her mouth opened, closed, opened again. “That’s all the threat was?” she got out after a stunned moment. “A bit of bombast?”

“That’s all it was.”

The rueful admission left Sarah breathless with astonishment, with indignation, with fury. At that moment, she would have snatched up the man’s pistol and put a bullet through his heart without the least qualm.

In the space of an hour or two, he’d sent her whirling through a maelstrom of emotion. First by scaring her near witless. Then by forcing James
to reveal his true nature and Sarah to recognize her own.

Now…

Now he dared to keep her body pinned against his! To smile down at her like some big, besotted dolt! To make her wish, despite her anger, despite her despair, that they could finish what they’d begun here.

It took her some moments to realize he felt the same biting regret. Slowly, his grin faded. The roguish laughter left his eyes.

“It must be the full moon,” he said on a rueful note. “It makes wild dogs howl and even the most civilized men suspend rational thought. But I’ve never fallen so completely under its spell until tonight.”

She wanted to weep with the irony of it. Of all the men and all the times to feel this wild, furious racing of her blood! Swallowing the lump in her throat, she admitted the humiliating truth.

“Nor have I.”

“One kiss, lass. One kiss and we’ll call this bargain done.”

“One kiss,” she agreed in a moment of breathless insanity.

O
NE KISS
. That’s all Richard intended to take. All he
would
have taken if the damned moon hadn’t cast such a spell over him.

Or was it the delectable Lady Sarah?

She bedazzled him. Bewitched him. Stirred a fierce, unrelenting need with just the slow, soft glide of her lips over his. Hunger leaped inside him, instant and greedy, and he deepened the kiss.

Tongue met tongue. A searing heat danced along his skin. Hers, as well. Richard could feel it under the hand he curled around her nape. The smooth skin fired to his touch. With an inarticulate growl, he widened his stance, roped an arm around her waist and dragged her up against him.

Sarah had never felt the slightest patience with the fainting, die-away airs displayed by the more delicate of her sex. Yet the crush of Blake’s body against hers made her senses reel. She felt breathless, dizzy, as though she tumbled head for heels, swept toward some distant shore on a rushing, crashing wave.

She knew she could end the kiss. For all his bone-squeezing hold, Blake wouldn’t force her to give more than they’d agreed upon. She’d taken enough of his measure by now to know she could jerk her head back, push out of his arms and call the matter done.

She should do just that. A tenuous thread of common sense told her clinging to him like this was dangerous. Yet everything that was female in her gloried in the feel of him, the hardness of him.

His heart pounded beneath her palm. His muscles corded as taut as an anchor cable. His shaft rose to strain against her hip, thick and round and stiff as a ship’s mast behind the flap of his trousers. In response, a liquid heat swirled low in Sarah’s belly. She ached to let the fires burn out of control once, just this once.

And why should she not?

The question speared through the swirling mists and lanced into her heart. James had sent her to seduce this man. Why not take what pleasure she could, whilst she could? Why not give substance to the reputation she’d woven for herself over the years with her reckless daring and disdain for the conventions?

Why not taste passion, just this once?

Blake must have sensed something of her tumultuous thought. Slowly, inexorably, he did what
Sarah could not bring herself to. Raising his head, he broke the spell.

Or so she thought, until she looked into his eyes. They blazed down at her, lit with the same hunger that gripped her. In that one reckless moment, she committed herself to the flames.

“Don’t speak,” she whispered. “Please! Just…Just take what I offer.”

Pinpoints of blue sparked in his eyes as anger crowded aside desire. “I’ve already told you,” he snapped. “You aren’t required to sacrifice yourself for Sir James.”

It took every ounce of courage she possessed to admit the truth. “This would not be for James. It…It would be for me.”

The whispered admission stunned Richard. Had Carpenter’s Mate Jenkins spoken the truth? Were the shipboard rumors true? Was the lady indeed no better than a waterfront whore?

His instincts said no, that there were forces at work he didn’t understand. Yet here she was, offering herself to him like a two-penny slut. Damned if he wouldn’t show her how close he was to taking what she offered. Tightening his arm, he canted her hips and pressed her belly hard against his.

“You can feel how much I want you. If we start again, know that I won’t stop at a kiss.”

“Nor will I.”

The husky promise dragged hard on the sea an
chor Richard had tried to throw out. The naked need in her face snapped its cable right in half.

He didn’t begin to understand the dark currents swirling between this glorious creature and Lowell. At this point, he didn’t
want
to understand them. All he knew, all he cared about, was that the lady burned as hot for him as he did for her.

More than willing to accommodate her, Richard swooped down and captured her mouth with his once more. She arched against him, supple as a swan and every bit as sleek. Arms twined around his neck, body straining against his, she made no attempt to hide the hunger that mounted with every breath, every slide of breast against chest, belly against hip.

They were both panting when he dragged down her arms and turned her around. His body screamed at him to lift her skirts, unbutton his trousers and give them both the release they craved. They had not much time.

Still, he couldn’t bring himself to simply bend her over the table and rut with her. Despite the doubts Jenkins had planted, despite the fact Richard was already sweating with the effort of holding back, he would take her with some attempt at finesse.

A few quick fumbles freed her hair from its pins. It spilled over her shoulders and down her back, a river of gold-tipped red. Brushing aside the silky
mane, he bent to nuzzle the warm skin of her nape. All the while his busy fingers worked the buttons on the back of her dress.

Straining against his breeches, he dropped kisses on her bare shoulder. Her skin was as warm and sweet as a sun-ripe peach. He savored the taste of her as he finished with the last button and peeled the emerald silk down her arms. One glimpse of the lush, perfect breasts plumped up by her corset and covered only by the thin lawn of her shift was like a cannonball straight to his gut. He might have been some untried, pimple-faced midshipman, Richard thought in disgust, almost doubled over with the lust that gripped him.

The corset strings tangled under his clumsy fingers. The resulting knots would defeat the most patient sailor, and Richard didn’t lay claim to that particular virtue at the best of times. With a muttered curse, he reached for the dirk strapped to his calf just below his boot top.

She glanced over her shoulder. Her eyes went wide when she caught sight of the gleaming blade.

“What are you doing?”

“Freeing you. Be still.”

He dug the tip of the dirk under the first lace. A quick upward tug and the stiffened fabric fell away.

Sarah gulped at his ruthless efficiency. With one slice, the American had freed her from the same
laces Maude had been struggling with when his ship had first swept across the stern of the
Linx.

If only he could free her from the master of the
Linx
as easily.

No! She wouldn’t think of James now. Nor of her father or her brother or even Maude. This moment was hers. Hers alone. To savor. To smile privately over at some distant date, in some distant place.

A dank prison cell, most likely.

So be it! Whatever came, she would have the memory of his calloused hands raising shivers on her skin as they nudged down the straps of her shift. Of those same hands cupping her bared breasts. Kneading the tender flesh. Teasing her nipples into stiff, aching points. With a low moan, Sarah let her head drop back against his shoulder. He pushed her shift down until it puddled around her waist. The straps caught at her elbows, harnessing them.

Blake had no such restraints to impede his movement. His hands continued their torment. One caressed her breast. The other dipped lower, skimming her belly, tugging up the hem of her shift, parting her legs to find the slit in her drawers. All the while he put his lips and teeth and tongue to wicked use.

She was wet and gushing into his palm when he let go of her long enough to yank off his uniform jacket and toss it to the floor. Freed of its constric
tion, he swept her into his arms and carried her across the cabin. The bed was little more than a cupboard cut into the bulkhead. Sarah could barely stretch out in the cramped space. She couldn’t imagine how a man as tall and well-muscled as Blake would fit in with her.

He made no attempt to do so. Instead, he dropped into a sitting position on the bed and settled her so she straddled his lap. Her knees folded back on the edge of the bunk, allowing her just enough leverage to lift up when he went to free himself from his trousers.

She expected him to flex his thighs and drive into her. To plant his hands on her hips and hold her so she would take his thrust. What she didn’t expect—almost couldn’t
bear
—was the gruff tenderness in his voice when she tensed at the first probe.

“Easy, lass. We’ll take this slow and easy. I’ll not hurt you.”

The taut angles of his cheeks and chin told Sarah what it cost him to make that promise. Grateful for his restraint and embarrassed that he would sense her inexperience in such matters, she linked her arms around his neck and forced her muscles to relax.

He pushed in gently, letting her get the feel of him, the size of him. The first moves were slow, as he’d promised, easy. Then deeper. Surer. Faster.

Sarah caught the rhythm, almost lost it again
when he dipped his head and fastened his mouth over hers. He pushed his a hand through her hair, held her steady, and pleasure curled low and tight in her belly.

Moments later, he slid his other hand between their bellies and added the unbearable pressure of his thumb. Sarah felt a fleeting dart of wonder that she could experience such exquisite sensations. Another dart, this one of disgust. How could she have established such a scandalous reputation and never,
ever
dreamed such wild delight could come with it.

Suddenly, she froze. Her eyes widened in startled surprise. A moment later her head went back, a groan ripped from her throat and her entire body convulsed.

The small corner of Richard’s brain still capable of rational thought took note of that look of utter astonishment. No whore, highborn or low, could have feigned such stunned surprise. Or the shudders that wracked her body as her pleasure took hold.

Gritting his teeth, he let her ride the waves to their crest before he flexed his thighs and drove up into her hot, slick depths.

D
AZED
, S
ARAH EMERGED
from what felt like a near stupor to find herself cradled against a broad chest. One of her legs was still folded under her. The other lay hooked over the American’s thighs. Stiff and awkward and more than a little embarrassed now
at the wantonness of her behavior, she struggled to right herself.

He lifted her easily, allowing her to straighten her bent leg. She scrambled off his lap and dragged up the straps of her shift. For some absurd reason, Sarah couldn’t bear to face this man until she’d covered herself again. Even then, she had to summon all her courage to turn and meet his gaze.

It was lazy. Smiling. The look of a man well satisfied with the night’s work.

As he should be, she thought. The
Linx
had surrendered to him without so much as a token resistance. So had the Notorious Lady S.

And in doing so, she’d been awakened to a pleasure she’d often heard alluded to when married women gathered in gossipy little circles, but had never before experienced. How odd! How very, very odd. And so exceedingly ironic. After three years of marriage and several more playing the role of merry widow, at last she understood the magic that was supposed to take place in the bedchamber.

Forcing her limp limbs to move, she went to gather her gown. Blake rolled to his feet, righted his clothing and followed.

“Turn around and I’ll do the buttons.”

Dragging her tangled hair over one shoulder, Sarah dipped her head to allow him access to the loops and cloth-covered buttons. The brush of his
fingers against her back raised tiny tremors, just as before.

What
was
it about this man’s touch that stirred her so?

The knowledge she would never feel it again raised another shiver, this one of despair. Her brief interlude of insanity was over. This moment out of time had ended. Sarah could no longer ignore her past or the future that awaited her when she and the American left this cabin.

Blake finished with the last button and rested his hands on her shoulders. “Are you all right?”

The concern in his voice was too close to pity for her pride to bear. Her back stiffened. Her chin came up. She’d made her bed, in the most literal sense of the word. She would now have to lie in it. Drawing in a deep breath, she turned to face him.

“Yes,” she answered coolly. “I’m fine.”

He searched her face, his own troubled. “What happened in this cabin is known only to us. No one else need be privy to it. You can tell Lowell—”

“Tell him what?” she interjected scornfully. “That I employed all my wiles and failed to seduce you?”

“Well, you see, lass, it’s like this. The truth of the matter is you
didn’t
seduce me. That implies a certain measure of gullibility on my part. I knew exactly what I was doing…and what I wanted.”

“It doesn’t matter how we dress the matter, or
whether we dress it at all. James will believe what he wishes to. He thinks me a whore, you see. As I have just proved myself to be.”

“If you’ve proved anything,” Blake said sharply, “it’s that you’re much a woman. With far more heart to you than Lowell deserves.”

That this man should hold her in more esteem than the one who wanted to wed her almost proved Sarah’s undoing. Tears stinging her eyes, she turned away.

“If you’re quite finished with me,” she said through tight lips, “I should like you to send Maude to me. I worry for her safety.”

“She’s in good hands with Jenkins. He’ll see she takes no hurt.”

Richard wished he could offer the same assurances to the woman standing with her back to him. He suspected she’d not fare well at Lowell’s hands come the dawn. The thought of leaving the lady to her fate stuck in his craw like a sharp-ended fishbone.

He took a step toward her, only to stop short at the rap of knuckles on the cabin door. Frowning, he strode to the louvered panel and yanked it open.

“Yes?”

His third lieutenant stood in the passageway. McDougal raised a brow at finding his captain out of uniform. His glance darted past Richard to the
other occupant of the cabin, swept quickly back again.

“You wanted to know when the rest of the
Linx
’s crew came ’round, sir. All but one or two are awake.”

“Thank you, Mr. McDougal. Line them up mid-ship. I’ll be above deck shortly.”