The Highwayman (Rakes and Rogues of the Restoration Book 3) (31 page)

“Is there aught amiss?” he asked after a few moments silence.

“I am not finished ogling,” she said, admiring his taut belly before dabbing at the wound with a napkin dipped in whisky.

“Damnation! That stings worse than the cut,” he hissed.

“I am almost done.”

After wrapping a strip of linen tightly around the wound, Arabella smoothed it in place, her fingertips grazing his waist. Catching her hand, Jack brought it to his mouth, his breath warming her knuckles with a lingering kiss. Releasing her fingers, he guided them to his lips, drawing them gently back and forth across his mouth. She watched, spellbound. A thrill of pleasure took her breath when he parted his lips and tickled her fingertips with the tip of his tongue. He nibbled them a moment, his gaze holding hers, before kissing them and drawing away. “Thank you, Bella.”

She smiled and touched his face, her heart hammering almost as hard as it had done on the roof. Her thumb lingered over the slight indentation on the bridge of his nose. “How did you get this?”

He leaned into her. “It’s hard to say. I was a quarrelsome youth. Does it make me an ugly fellow?”

“Hideous! I’m afraid you will have a scar from this night’s adventure too.”

“Good.” His breath was warm on the back of her neck. “I have quite a collection. Each of them tells a story. This one will be about a fierce virgin princess I danced across the sky on a moonlit night.”

“I have some, too,” Arabella said. Jack watched, mesmerized, as she drew her skirt up slowly, revealing a small crescent-shaped scar on her knee. “This is from when I jumped out of a coach, trying to save myself from being kidnapped, just days before I met the notorious highwayman, Gentleman Jack.” She spoke in a dramatic voice, like he had, enjoying the game.

“Good Christ, Bella! You never told me about that. You might have been trampled.”

“I might have,” she said, nodding solemnly. “But if you’re going to make a fuss I won’t show you anymore.”

She began to lower her skirt back over her knee and his hand shot out to stop her. “When I first saw you, you were shrouded from head to toe. I wanted to peel back the layers one by one to see what lay beneath. Might I say…you have a most exquisite knee. I don’t think I have ever seen one finer.” He curled a hand around her upper calf, his fingers stroking the back of her knee, as the other gently pried her hem from her hand and slid it slowly, partway up her thigh. Then he bent and kissed her scar.

Arabella gasped, her heart fluttering.

His eyes gleamed in the firelight and when he spoke his voice was husky, almost a whisper. “I have more…would you like to see?”

She nodded slowly, her heart thumping hard against her chest. He tugged at his shirt, pulling it back off his shoulder, turning so she could see a jagged scar that ran from shoulder to elbow. “An escapade with pirates off the coast of Tangier. The fellow who did this had a gem encrusted scimitar and mouth full of gold. It dazzled me for an instant and he caught me off guard.”

Arabella slowly trailed her fingers over his shoulder and along his arm. “Such strength and power! I marveled at it when you held me as we escaped from the tower. I could feel it in your hold of me––and when I braced against your shoulders. I could feel your muscles as they stretched and moved. I wondered what it would be like to feel you smooth and…hard against my palms.”

His big body quivered at her delicate touch. Emboldened by his reaction––excited, and yet a little nervous to be playing such a dangerous game––she hiked her skirt halfway up the calf of her other leg, to show an angry looking scar on her ankle.

“This was from an adventure in a great cavern called Pooles Hole. They say it was named for a highwayman who lived there and it made me think of you. One had to crawl to gain entry, and it continued very narrow for good way, but once past that it rose as lofty as a great cathedral, and candlelight reflected off the walls and ceilings just like stars. There were many wonders inside. Arches like bridges, a lion with a crown, and an organ with pipes and keyboard, all of it formed by stone. The way was tricky and made slippery by dripping water and I had to clamber over rock and loose stone. I caught my ankle on a jagged rock, and had to stop, but I felt as though I had traveled to another world.”

“I would like to see that,” Jack said, carefully taking her foot and placing it in his lap. Arabella’s breath caught in her throat as his fingers encircled her ankle, gently stroking. He stirred, swollen and heavy against her arch, and when she started breathing again her heart thundered in her ears.

“I….Ahh….Perhaps we might go together sometime.” Her voice sounded ragged even to herself.

“I should like that
very
much,” he said with a slow smile. His gaze held hers as he slowly raised her leg. Her skirt slid down to pool between her thighs, leaving her barelegged. “Oh, Bella….” His voice was hushed, reverent. His eyes roamed her length. She was leaning back on her elbows, her hair, burnished to shades of copper and gold, tumbled about her shoulders. Her legs were long and shapely, toned from hours of riding, and her lush breasts seemed to strain against the buttons of her riding jacket, begging for release.

He looked into beautiful brilliant green eyes filled with fear, anticipation and excitement, and then he kissed her ankle.

Arabella was utterly lost. Nothing in her life had prepared her for someone like Jack. Every sensible fiber of her being warned her that if she didn’t stop now, she would be embarked on a journey from which there was no turning back. She had no idea of the destination. She had no map. Did she trust this man to guide her? To lead her safely to some unknown shore? Did it matter, when with a touch, a kiss, a whisper, she was lost in the moment and in the man?

Sensing her hesitation, Jack trailed his fingers regretfully down her calf, and then lowered her foot gently to the floor.

“It’s all right, love.” His voice offered comfort. “We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. Sometimes, when one has faced grave danger or cheated death, it stirs the blood and reminds us of our mortality. It makes us want to reach for life, and lose ourselves in something warm—”

She put her fingers against his lips to stop him. “But I do want this, Jack. I wanted you the first time you kissed me though I didn’t know what to call it, or what it was. I wanted you the night you came to visit after Shooters Hill, but I lacked the courage to say so. I wanted you in York, but you had stayed away so long I....Jack...I wanted you then and I want you now.”

Her words unlocked a lonely place long closed inside his heart. A tender place, carefully guarded, buried beneath a hundred faces and shielded by a quick wit and dark sense of humor.

A log snapped in the fire and the wind kept up a low moan as a steady rain drummed against the windows. The cozy room seemed a haven from all that blustered and threatened outside. Their own small world, where nothing mattered but each other. Jack’s eyes swept her body like a warm caress, and when he held out his hand, she took it.

“Lovely, courageous, curious Bella…. For all my
travels,
you
are by far the most wondrous thing I’ve encountered.” He drew her close and brushed her lips with a tender kiss, and then he knelt behind her. He stroked her hair, gathering it and lifting it back off her neck, exposing the sensitive skin between shoulder and ear.

Arabella shuddered when he placed a hot kiss just beneath her lobe, and another in the hollow of her neck and shoulder. She tilted her head back with a soft sigh. He massaged her shoulders, then reached around to cup her breasts. She took a deep breath, arching against him, her breasts thrust forward. She could feel him pressed hard against her, even through her clothing, and her aching breasts seemed to swell, filling his hands, fretting against the material that constrained them. He brushed her rigid nipples with his thumbs and when he pinched them gently she bit back a moan at an exquisite bolt of pleasure that traveled in an aching pulse, welling between her thighs and curling her toes.

“I want to know everything about you. I want to touch every part of you. I want to feel every beat of your heart.” He nipped at her throat, his teeth grazing her skin, setting her heart thrumming, and when his nimble fingers played over the bodice of her riding jacket, plucking and tugging at her buttons, she closed her eyes and took a deep shuddering breath.

Jack loosed her straining breasts, freeing them from their confinement with an expert touch, groaning with pleasure as they bounced beneath the loose fabric of her chemise. He gathered them in his hands, hefting them slightly, enjoying the feel of her nipples, hard against his palm. He had wanted this and fought it, dreamed of it and longed for it since the first night he met her, but he had never truly believed it would happen until she had turned to him on the rooftop and asked him to stay. It was too late to protect her now, the die was cast, and he hadn’t the strength to turn away.

Pushing all scruples aside, he slid his palms over her shoulders, pausing to finger her chemise as he continued to tease her with slow steamy kisses along her throat and the back of her neck. His fingers lifted, brushed, and tugged, and the filmy cloth slid off her shoulders and down her back with a soft sigh, to pool at her waist. “God have mercy.”

Arabella’s body turned a bright rosy hue. Embarrassed to be so exposed she folded her arms to cover her naked breasts.

“Don’t be shy,” he murmured. “You are so beautiful.”

As he talked, he stroked her arms, his knuckles brushing her outer curves.

She quivered beneath his touch. Her breasts felt so tender and aching that a slight draft from the window seemed to touch them like a light caress.

“Raise your arms,” he whispered into her hair, “and place them around my neck.”

She did as he asked, lacing her fingers through his hair, wanting to please him though it made her feel slightly uncomfortable to display herself this brazenly. The movement thrust her breasts up and out, and brought his hungry mouth to feast upon her shoulder. His fingers brushed the undersides of her arms with a delicate touch, sending delicious frissons throughout her body, making her sigh and squirm, aroused despite her somewhat fragile nerves.

“Sweet sweet, Bella,” he whispered in a husky voice. “How kind you are to me. Ever since you stepped from the well, so innocent, so delectable, soaking wet in just your shift, I’ve been longing to touch you this way. To take these lush peaks between my lips and warm them with my mouth and tongue. My desire nearly drove me mad. And then, to see you in that dress. To see it hold and caress your curves as I wished I might do. It almost brought me to my knees. But this….” He caught her nipples between his palms and fingers, squeezing them gently and she arched back against him with a low moan. “When I take my leap into the dark, I will remember this night, and see myself to heaven by thinking of you.”

Still shy, Arabella turned her head toward his shoulder. He unclasped her hands from around the back of his neck, holding them in his as he enfolded her in a warm embrace. “I’m sorry sweetheart. I must remember that this is yet new to you.”

“You think I am a prude,” she said, feeling awkward and ungainly.

“I think you are perfect. Prudes don’t ride with highwayman or kiss them in the dark. But I suspect you are uncomfortable being the only one half-clothed.” He lay her down on the soft wool rug and lifted his arms, pulling off his shirt.

Arabella’s faced burned hotter than it had before. She had only looked briefly when he had stripped on the commons before catching his knowing gaze and turning, red-faced, away. Now curiosity overcame bashfulness and she let her eyes wander over his chest and arms, admiring his athletic frame as he had admired her. From broad shoulders to flat belly and lean waist, he was lithe and corded with muscle. Those arms had caught her easily as she was hurtling to the ground. That powerful chest had broken her fall. His skin glowed ruddy in the firelight, patterned here and there with faint silvery scars. It looked smooth, inviting, and warm. She wanted to reach out and stroke it, to feel it beneath her fingers, as though it were velvet or silk.

As if he could read her mind, he stretched out alongside her, his head resting on his bent arm. “Why is it that when you blush, ’tis my heart that feels tender? It swells in my chest with an ache that lingers.” He caught her wrist and pulled gently, placing her hand on his chest, over his heart. “Can you feel it racing, Bella?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “I can feel it. My heart is always racing when you’re near.” What did he mean when he said his heart felt tender? And why, when she was always so outspoken was she tongue-tied now?

“Are you curious, love? Would you like to explore? I know you well enough to know you would. Touch me…. There is no one to discover us now.”

His voice was tender, his tone seductive, and his words offered both invitation and challenge. Arabella was feeling braver now, and she
was
curious. He had given her the same invitation in York, but she had been emboldened by mulled wine and ale, and the knowledge that he would only go so far.
I am a bold adventuress lying half-naked by the fire with a sinfully handsome highwayman at my beck and call. Twice he has saved my life…. I swear I loved him at our first meeting.

She spread her hand wide, flat against his chest, and he leaned back on his elbows to accommodate her. She gave him a quick glance, blushing as she met his grin, and then let her palm slide up and over his shoulders. His skin was hot and velvety smooth, stretched taut over hard muscle. She closed her eyes and let her fingers roam over the strong lines of his collarbone, the hard planes and corded sinew of his chest. It felt as though he had been sculpted, and in a way, she supposed he had, but his body pulsed with warmth and life, and beneath her touch it quivered.

She could feel his breathing change as she continued her exploration. He flexed his muscles, making them jump and she drew her hand back with a startled giggle.