Darkest Dreams (34 page)

My eyes drifted shut, and I eventually found myself carried away on a ship, sailing swiftly across a turquoise sea with the hot sun kissing my naked body and a sensual wind caressing me everywhere—the pirate Alex filling me completely.

I moaned, arching my back to the hot pleasure licking my breasts.

“Wake up, lass. This isn't a dream but a real man a'wanting you like no other.”

I slit my eyes open to find Alex kneeling before me. My dress and chemise were unbuttoned completely, and his hands were cupping my breasts, tweaking my nipples to hard points.

“Alex. Good heavens!” I tried to close the edges of my dress. “Somebody could walk in at any moment.”

“I've locked the door and for the next little while you are all mine.” He leaned forward and kissed me, expertly opening my mouth for the sweeping pleasure of his tongue. My heart leapt in pace with the hot rush of desire filling me. “Please,” he whispered against my lips. “I need you. I must hold you and feel you. When I think about what almost happened today to you and to me, I…”

He shuddered and I clearly read his thoughts. He couldn't face the idea of losing me. Realizing how deeply he did care for me, though he'd never said so, wrenched my insides. I needed to tell him the truth about who I was, but not yet. “Shh,” I said, then kissed him. “I understand, and I need you too.”

Taking my hand, he stood and tugged me up from the chair. His naked body shook, and I knew it wasn't as much from his need of me but that he was still recovering from being injured. He started to press my dress from my shoulders, and I stayed his hands.

“Lie down and let me.” I urged him to the bed, and he fell back on the pillows with a sigh big enough to make me hesitate. “Are you sure you're strong enough for this?”

He gave me an impish grin. “We'll see. I sure as hell know I'm not strong enough to go without being with you.”

I wasn't looking for declarations of love and most likely would have rejected any, not until he knew the whole of who I was, but that came as close to one as any heart could desire. Shedding my clothes and climbing into bed with him felt as natural as turning my face to the heat of the sun.

He pulled me down for a kiss. Teasing me with light brushes of his lips, then dipping to soul-searching duels with my tongue, he brought my burgeoning want of him to a feverish level as he ran his fingers through my hair and down my back.

“Sit up for me,” he whispered in my ear. “I want to come inside you, and I want to see the pleasure on your face as you make love to me.”

I angled up, bending my knees on each side of him, and felt the brush of his hard, hot sex against my bottom and lower back. Slipping something from beneath his pillows, he reached behind me.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Readying myself to come inside of you.”

“Can I help?”

“Next time. I've almost finished. But you can do something else for me.”

I lifted a questioning brow, and Alex reached back beneath the pillow again. This time he handed me a tiny silver snuffbox with a polished shelled top. “You want snuff now?” I asked.

“Open it,” he said softly. “But be careful it doesn't spill. We only want it to go on some very special places.”

“What is it?”

“Dragon's oil.”

“What's that?”

“A very potent aphrodisiac. Originally made exclusively for Chinese Emperors. It is very expensive to obtain due to its rarity.”

“How expensive?” I popped open the box, which had a unique cork lining about the lid, sealing it like a bottle of wine. There was a mercurial-looking liquid inside that smelled faintly of ginger.

“The small bottle I have at home cost two thousand pounds.

I almost dropped the box.

“Easy.” He steadied my hand and dipped a finger into the oil.

My mind boggled as I watched him paint each of my nipples with the oil.

“Raise up on your knees a moment.” When I did, he slipped two fingers in the oil and liberally covered my sex. The oil felt cool and pleasant, but other than the excitement of having him touch me, I didn't experience any other sensations. He took more of the oil and covered his sex.

I frowned. “Did the apothecary in Penzance sell this to you as well? If so, I think you may have traded a fortune away on a pleasantry. I don't feel anything different. Should I?”

“You must have patience. This was a gift from the Emperor of China himself in exchange for a Friesian horse.” Taking the silver box from me, he dabbed a bit of the oil on his tongue and lips, then shut the lid, sealing it carefully.

“Why on earth would you spend so much money on this?”

“Because your ultimate pleasure is worth any price, Andromeda.” He gripped my hips, and angling me back just a little, he surged himself inside of me. Sliding so smoothly into me, he took me by surprise.

“Oh.”

He leaned up and kissed me hard, spreading the pleasant-tasting oil through my mouth. I expected him to start touching me and rocking himself deeper into me, but he didn't. He leaned back and set his hands on my knees and looked at me.

“Now what do I do?”

“Nothing for the moment. Just sit there and enjoy the feeling of me inside you. I'm going to relax and absorb the pleasure of being there. Then when the time is right the Dragon will move you. Just follow the path of his fire.”

I giggled and rolled my eyes. “This is lot of blarney, Alexander Killdaren.”

“Ah, lass, are you not believing me when I tell you that there is no price on your pleasure?”

“Yes, but this whole Dragon's oil malarkey goes over the top.”

“What do you have to lose? Trust me, the Dragon will move.”

Just then I felt him inside of me. He hadn't shifted his hips, but he'd done something that stroked me deep inside. My stomach clenched in response, and a sharp pleasure rippled through me. “Oh my.” My eyes widened and he smiled.

He moved again, and this time an arrow of burning heat went straight to my breasts, and I arched my back, needing more.

“Do you feel the dragon's fire, Andrie?”

“Yes,” I gasped as he made another magical stroke. My breasts ached for him.

“Follow the path of the fire. Where do you burn?”

“My breasts. Touch me, Alex, please. Make me yours.”

“Mine,” he whispered just as he covered my breasts with his hot hands. He grasped my nipples between his thumbs and forefingers and rubbed back and forth, just little, tiny, squeezing strokes that sent my hips jerking hard against his. He didn't stop until I cried out with my need for more.

“Where do you burn?” he said.

“Here!” I grabbed his hand from my breast and shoved it down to my sex. I was so hot that I knew at any minute I would erupt in flames. Every part of me thrust to him, and my whole being rose to a pinnacle of pleasure so excruciating that I thought I would explode if he didn't assuage me.

The moment he slid his thumb over my most sensitive spot he surged his hips up from the bed, driving deep inside of me, and I came apart in a shuddering explosion of intense pleasure that overtook every part of me, filling me with heaven. He groaned, his body spasming intensely against mine before he fell back to the bed. I collapsed against his chest, gasping for air as badly as I had when he'd thrust me to the surface of the sea.

For a long time neither of us moved. We held each other with only the sound of our thudding hearts and the rasps of our breaths filling the room like the lulling waves of the sea, rocking us both to sleep.

A piercing scream woke me, and I knew it was Gemini. I rolled off Alex and the bed, landing unsteadily on my feet.

He grunted in pain as he sat up and grabbed his head. “Bloody hell, what's happened?”

“It's Gemini. Oh God, I have to get to her. Where are my clothes?”

“On the chair.”

I grabbed my chemise, shrugged it on and fumbled with the buttons, managing to get two in place. Then I slid on my dress, belting the skirt to my waist. Patting my fingers through my hair, I rushdc to the door.

“Andrie, wait!' Alex hissed.

I turned look at him and he held up my drawers.

“I don't have time. You hide them.” Grappling with the lock, I peeked into the hallway in time to see Bridget and Prudence run into Gemini's room. I opened the bedroom door, and glancing toward the stairwell to make sure no one was coming down the corridor that way, I dashed across to Gemini's room and ran immediately into a hard wall of male flesh.

I didn't have but a second to read Sean's thoughts before he set me quickly back. But that second was devastating enough. It was fear. I gasped in shock. Sean didn't even look my way. His gaze was centered on the room I'd just left. “Cassie needs you,” he said curtly.

Tears stinging my eyes, I dashed into the room. He'd lied, my mind cried. He did fear me. The fear in him had been extreme, much as I imagined that of an unreasoning mob would be. I shoved the rejection from my mind and focused on what was happening across the room.

Gemini was no longer in bed. She cowered in a far corner of the room, keening softly. She held a poker in her hand and had it threateningly held aloft as to hit anyone who came close.

“Good God, what's wrong?” Stunned, I couldn't move.

“Don't make any sudden movements. She woke up screaming and then when she saw Sean, heard Sean, she went wild and ran for a weapon.”

“Gemini, it's Andrie and Cassie. What's wrong?”

My sister didn't act as if she even heard me. She continued to cry inconsolably.

“I need to touch her. I need to know what she's thinking.”

“How? What do you want to do?”

“Trying to approach her might make it worse,” said Prudence.

“What do you mean?” asked Cassie.

“She's threatened and confused and obviously doesn't recognize either you or Andrie, people she should know. With Rebecca there was a time we had to leave her alone and let her cry herself into exhaustion before we could help her.”

“I wish Mother and Father were here. Maybe Mother's voice would get through to her,” I said.

“Cassie,” Sean called softly from the corridor. “Stuart is going to come into the room. There's something I have to know.”

“Whatever is the matter with you, Sean?” Cassie asked, backing slowly to the door.

“I have to know if it's my face that has Gemini frightened or if it is just the sight of a man in general,” Sean said.

“Why don't you just tell them the bloody truth,” came Alex's harsh whisper from the corridor. “You think I've done something to harm the woman. You don't trust me.”

“What the hell am I supposed to think when a woman goes mad the second she looks at me and I know she has no reason to fear me? She must have mistaken us, and be afraid of you.”

“If it were me in your shoes, I'd look for a different explanation. And if you were any other man I'd challenge you for the insult.”

“Consider it done,” Sean said sharply.

Alex didn't reply. Then he spoke to me. “Andrie, I want everyone to back away from your sister. Then I want to try something.”

I looked at Cassie; tears fell from her eyes. I didn't have to touch her to know she felt that everything we'd done to dispel the Dragon's Curse had, with a few words, been undone.

“All right, Alex. You can come in,” I said. He didn't at first, but he started chanting in a very low voice that was so melodious and soothing it washed over me like a benediction from heaven. Nobody moved; everyone was entranced by his voice. After a few minutes, he slipped into the room. He didn't look at Gemini or move toward her, he went to the corner farthest from her, still chanting softly. Then after a short time, he increased the volume of his voice.

Gemini held the poker higher, and Alex lowered his voice until she seemed to ease a bit, or grew tired of holding the poker so high. Then he chanted louder. This time she didn't brandish the poker higher, and her crying decreased. Next, Alex moved to the middle of the room and did the same thing. He kept working his way closer and closer to her, never looking her way or advancing directly at her, but crisscrossing the room side to side with his deep voice soothing over her continuously. She stopped crying, but remained huddled.

I watched, too stunned, too mesmerized to feel the least discomfort at having stood for what had been much longer than an hour. This was what he'd done in the training ring with Iris. The beauty and the gentle strength of him filled the room. Alex eventually reached Gemini, but he didn't take the poker away. He kept moving side to side, never facing her, but now he let the sleeve of his shirt brush against the hand that held the poker. She watched him, moving her gaze back and forth to follow him. On the next pass, he slid his fingers over her hand, then her arm, then her face. Then he took the fisted hand she had clutched against her mouth in his and urged her to stand. He moved back a step at a time, bringing her forward until he reached the divan where he eased her to sit down. Only then did he touch the poker, easing it from her grasp and slipping it behind him. Still chanting, he motioned me to move toward him. When I reached his side, he motioned for Cassie.

“Sing softly to her something she knows,” he chanted, using English for the first time. “And keep singing quietly as I back from the room. Prudence and Bridget, back out with me. I'll stay outside the door until we see what she does. She's slightly hypnotized at the moment, but when she slowly comes to, she should be calmer than before.”

As he backed away, I didn't touch Gemini but continued to sing with Cassie the lullabies we'd sung many times, years ago. Alex's voice got lower and lower until I no longer heard it.

Gemini's eyes began to droop, and she wavered on the divan. I caught her shoulder and eased her back, reading her thoughts as I did. Amazingly, she was thinking about the time there'd been an awful thunderstorm and the three of us had huddled under a blanket until the morning sun had risen. I told Cassie.