Taken by You (22 page)

His hand left her throat and slowly, deliberately moved downward until his palm cupped her breast. Luca released her breath in a harsh sigh, unaware that she had been holding it.

“Did you think I would kill you?”

“It had crossed my mind.”

He gently explored the shape of her breast, flicking the nipple with his thumb. “I’ve never killed a woman in my life and I don’t intend to start now.”

“Damn you for your inflexible attitude!” Luca pulled away from him, her eyes flashing with anger. “You believed what Diego wanted you to believe. Why is it so difficult for you to believe me?”

“I truly want to trust you, Luca, but at the moment it doesn’t happen to matter. I want you.” He pulled her against the hard ridge of his need, letting her feel how much he wanted her. “Are you going to help me remove your doming or must I do it myself?”

His long fingers trembled as he pulled roughly, impatiently, at the ties, laces, and buttons fastening her clothes. Luca searched his face a moment before pushing his fingers away and finishing the job herself. ‘This is the only dress I have, I don’t want it ruined.” He helped her tug the dress over her hips then turned his attention to her petticoats and corset. He touched her bare thigh, and thick desire pounded through him.

Within moments she was gloriously nude, a tempting feast spread out before him, and suddenly he wanted to taste every luscious inch of her. His sword fell to the deck with a clatter. His clothing followed. Luca stared at him. Tall, broad-shouldered and muscular, he radiated a sense of Ewer, strength, and masculine vigor. His features d been molded with boldness and originality. There was no subtlety and only a hint of refinement. He looked like a pirate, one who took what he wanted and hang the consequences.

He was her husband. Luca convulsed with longing. She feared that if he couldn’t overcome his hatred for Spaniards there would be nothing more than this between them. Lust. She might love him desperately, but she realized it would never be enough to overcome his hatred for her and her countrymen. But she could try.
Dios,
she could try.

She took his face between her hands and kissed him with a wild, sweet passion that swelled him with pounding desire. She could feel his sex, thick, heavy, fully erect, throbbing against her thigh, and reveled in the power, no matter how fleeting, she had over him. He groaned and grasped the lush curve of her buttocks, grinding himself against her in a frenzy of need.

His mouth found hers again, licking, tasting, as if he couldn’t get enough of her honeyed essence. His tongue searched out all the tender places inside her mouth, scattering her wits. Leaving her mouth, his lips traveled down her body, closing around a dusky nipple. He nipped gently. Luca cried out, clinging to his shoulders and arching against him. He lifted her breast more fully into his mouth, suckling her vigorously as she shuddered and trembled beneath him.

“Morgan… I want you inside me.”

“I’m going to taste you, Luca. Every single inch of your delectable flesh. I’ll give you what you want, but not until I’m ready.”

His mouth slid downward, searing a path of fire over her breasts and stomach. He paused on his sensual journey to explore the sweet indentation of her waist the rise of her hips, licking and kissing the satiny insides of her thighs. His fingers sifted through the dark triangle of hair at the juncture of her legs, coming close but deliberately avoiding that place where she ached for his touch. She felt herself swelling with need as his tongue moved desperately near, then abruptly withdrew. She smelled the acrid scent of her own desire and felt the gathering wetness between her legs.

Shocked by the journey his lips were taking, Luca cried out in protest. “Morgan! What are you doing? You can’t… you don’t mean to… oh,
Dios,
it’s sinful.”

He tugged her legs apart and touched her gently with his fingertips. She was slick and wet and hot. Her hands clawed gently at his shoulders. He entered her with his finger; she tightened around him, her heat scorching him. He lowered his head, parting her with his tongue. He found what he was looking for as his lips closed around the sensitive, dewy pearl nestled between her legs. Luca screamed and nearly bucked him off of her.

“Morgan!
Dios!”

“Relax, little nun,” he crooned against her flesh. “Nothing is sinful between husband and wife.”

His tongue touched her again, that sensitive place between her thighs, and she nearly shattered. He tasted her boldly, his tongue and mouth working its magic upon her flesh as his fingers continued to torment her.

“I can’t stand it!”

He lifted his head. “I know. Don’t hold back. You’re hot and wet and ready. Submit to me now.”

Then he was tormenting her again, his hands, his mouth, his tongue, all working in unison to drive her insane. He showed no mercy, demanding her response, her body, her very soul. Luca could feel it building inside her; a great pressure demanding release. Intense pleasure radiated through her, and suddenly she was there, soaring to a shattering climax. A strangled cry slipped past her lips as her body jerked and vibrated in tempo to Morgan’s thrusting tongue. A kind of splendor few people were privileged to experience rippled through her, and she seemed to the a little.

Morgan was brittle with urgent need. His hunger was profound, he was desperate to thrust himself into the woman writhing in ecstasy beneath him, to stroke himself to completion He slid upward along her slick body, panting as if he’d just run a great distance as he positioned his thick manhood at the moist opening of her body. The heady scent of her desire teased him, lured him, held him spellbound.

“Luca, look at me.”

Luca came to her senses slowly, still drugged from the powerful response Morgan had wrung from her. She heard him calling to her as if from a great distance and opened her eyes.

“I’m coming into you now and I want you to know who is making love to you. Concentrate, Luca. I want you to come with me.”

He grasped her hips, lifting her off the bed and sliding the hard knob of his sex into her. He flexed his hips and pushed forward, filling her with his incredible strength.

“Move with me,” he urged hoarsely as his shaft drove in and out of her tight sheath. The accelerated tempo of his thrusting and withdrawing sent renewed fire spilling through her veins, and she rotated her hips to match his rhythm.

“Good, so good,” Morgan groaned, forgetting everything but the way his body was reacting to the woman beneath him. For a brief moment in time it no longer mattered that Luca was Spanish, that she may or may not have slept with Diego del Fugo, that she hated him enough to wish for his death.

Luca was rushing toward another explosive climax. No, not rushing, hurtling. Hurtling so fast she couldn’t catch her breath. She gazed up at Morgan, noting that he was as caught up in passion as she, and at that moment she couldn’t have loved him more.

“Morgan, I feel…
Dios,
I
feel!”

Her words sent Morgan plunging over the edge. He shattered explosively, violently, stiffening and crying out her name as he spilled his seed into her. Luca held him tightly, soaring with him to paradise … and beyond.

When Luca came to her senses, she found that Morgan’s comforting weight had shifted and he now lay beside her. She felt the heat of his gaze and turned to look at him. His expression was unreadable; his eyes glittered like shiny silver coins.

“I almost believe …” His sentence fell off, fearing to bare too much of his soul.

“What do you believe, Morgan?”

He hesitated a moment then said, “That you really do feel something for me. No one could make love like that and not mean it.”

Hope soared in Luca’s breast. But Morgan’s next words sent them plummeting. “You’re a damn good actress, Luca. You know exactly what to do and say to make me want you. I intended to punish you but ended up making love to you. I’m aware that you have many reasons to hate me, but I had hoped… you truly beguiled me on Andros. Now I see you clearly for what you are.”

“What am
I,
Morgan?”

“A Spanish sorceress who had no knowledge of your own sexuality until I showed you. Once I relieved you of your virginity you couldn’t get enough You…”

Red dots of rage exploded in Luca’s brain. She had heard enough of Morgan’s insults. Drawing back her hand, she slapped him viciously. Morgan’s head snapped sideways with the force of her blow. When she would have slapped him again, he reared up and pinned her hands to the bed above her head. He glared down at her, his face a mask of fury.

“Don’t ever do that again!”

“You know I was an innocent until I met you,” Luca charged. “You taught me to enjoy sinful things that I would never have learned in a convent. I know you still believe I bedded Diego, but you’re wrong, dead wrong.”

She flung herself from bed and crossed to the desk, pulling out drawer after drawer until she found what she was looking for. She turned back to Morgan, her face flaming from the injustice of his insults. Morgan watched her carefully, ready to react forcibly should the need arise. He relaxed when he saw what she held in her hands. It was a Bible. It had belonged to his mother, and he had made a habit of taking it with him wherever he went. It occurred to him that Luca had occupied the cabin long enough to become acquainted with every object within it.

Gloriously naked and rosy from Morgan’s loving, Luca walked back to the bunk and fell to her knees. She held the Bible beneath his nose, placing her right hand on it. “Heed me well, Morgan Scott. I swear on the good book that everything I told you in Havana was a lie.”

Morgan sent her an amused look, took the Bible from her hands, and tossed it aside. Then he picked her up and settled her atop him. “You’ve lied to me so many times in the past I don’t know what to believe. You addle my brains and tempt me to perdition. Regrettably I don’t have it in me to punish you, for I always end up making love to you, and your punishment becomes my pleasure.”

He stroked her buttocks, lifted her slightly, and thrust up into her.

“it’s frustrating to know that I could want a Spanish sorceress who beguiles and seduces me.” He shoved all the way inside her, pushing her down onto him at the same time. “Bloody Hell!”

She pulsed around him hot and wet, and Morgan knew that the only way he could keep a clear head and not succumb to the wiles of the Spanish witch he had married against his will was to remain unemotionally involved. He thrust upward again, wringing a moan from her throat. Aye, that’s what he’d do, pretend indifference. But later, not now. Oh, God, not now.

He lifted his head and took her breast into his mouth, his moan of pleasure eclipsing hers. He sucked vigorously, moving his loins into the cradle of her thighs.
Don’t fool yourself into falling under her spell,
his brain repeated while his body reacted violently to the woman straining above him.
Don’t let yourself become dependent upon the pleasure you derive from her body. Any woman would do,
he told himself. He thrust into her again, swifter, harder, wildly, his mouth urgent against her nipples. He felt himself approaching climax and moaned against her breast. Then he shoved all the way inside and lost the will to think.

Luca felt the initial spurt of his seed and surrendered to the magic of Morgan’s loving. She came in a rush, throwing her head back and crying out. Morgan damped his jaw and raced after her. When it was over he carefully set her aside and rolled away. So much for his resolve, he thought ruefully.

“Did you mean what you said, Morgan?” Luca asked hesitantly when she saw he wasn’t going to initiate conversation.

“What did I say? Men say many things they don’t mean while caught up in their pleasure.”

“You said you’d rather love me than punish me. You said my punishment became your pleasure.”

“So I did.”

“it’s my pleasure, too.”

Morgan turned abruptly to confront her. “Then we shouldn’t let it happen again, should we?”

“Why not? I’m your wife.”

“Aye, my
Spanish
wife.”

“Will you abandon me? It would take little effort to declare our marriage invalid, since it was forced upon us.”

“We spoke our vows before a priest. it’s legal, little nun. Don’t get any ideas that it’s not.”

Luca sent him a puzzled look. It sounded as if he was glad they were married. “Can’t we live like a normal married couple? We could be happy on Andros.”

“There is nothing normal about our relationship. You’re my enemy.” That rather disturbing statement gave him a moment’s pause. One did not enjoy making love to one’s enemy, did one? He pushed that confusing thought aside and continued. “Do you have any idea how my friends in England will react to you? The queen will be furious with me for marrying without her permission. I’ve always enjoyed the queen’s good graces and don’t intend to lose them now.”

Luca heard nothing beyond England. “If you’re thinking about taking me to England, I won’t go! I’d prefer to live on Andros.”

“Andros is out of the question at this time.”

He rolled out of bed, gathering his scattered clothes from the floor, where he had thrown them in his haste to make love to his wife. He dressed quickly, securing his sword firmly in place.

“I think it would be best if we avoided one another in the future. I’ll provide adequate support, but we won’t be sharing a bed. I’ve hated the Spanish far too long to change for your sake.” What he didn’t say was that he feared what she did to his sanity.