The Pirate's Jewel (28 page)

Jewel’s back hit something solid, and she found herself
pinned in the narrow space between the bunk and the curve of the hull. Nolan
braced his forearms on either side of her, trapping her, and then bent his head
to whisper in her ear, “I haven’t forgotten anything.” His breath was the only
thing that touched her. “I haven’t forgotten the way you looked at me when I
walked into the tavern that second time. You were a woman then. A woman hungry
for adventure…and for a man.”

Jewel turned her face away from his; she couldn’t look
into his eyes and lie. “That’s not true.” She sneaked a quick peek at him. His
expression betrayed nothing beyond desire. “Well, only a part of it’s true. I wanted
to escape Charles Town—see the world, the way my father promised.”

Nolan smiled. “And you wanted me, too. Maybe you didn’t
understand it. But you did want me.” He touched his tongue to the vulnerable
side of her neck, which she had foolishly exposed to him. “Say you did.”

She turned her head abruptly, sending hair across the spot
he’d been teasing, and glared at him. “I won’t say it. I wasn’t looking for a
husband. That was my mother’s idea.”

He pressed his hips against hers. His body was fully ready
to carry out the promise in his smoldering gaze. “I don’t want you to say you
wanted any man. I want you to say you wanted me.” He smelled her hair. “You belong
to me, and I to you. I fought it, but I won’t anymore.”

Jewel forced herself to stare into his gaze and not lean
into the hard planes of his body. If his words were spoken with even a hint of
tenderness, she might toss aside her doubt and give in to the tension that had
begun to gnaw at her belly. He left no question that he wanted her in this
moment, but what came after that still frightened her. She was afraid to even
suspect that his feelings might go deeper than he’d ever admitted. Words were easily
given, but actions were truth. “Yet you’d risk losing me for the sake of that
map.”

Nolan slipped his hands around her waist, pulling her snugly
against the hard proof of his determination to bed her. “Never.” He kissed her
neck and then her earlobe. “It was the only way. They would have taken you for sure
once they had what they wanted. And I would have thrown that knife myself, but
my hands shook too badly.”

He rubbed himself in slow, lazy circles around the apex of
her thighs. Jewel leaned her head back and closed her eyes. She had missed him
so. “I want to believe you, but...”

Nolan took her hand and guided it between their bodies.
Heat radiated through his clothing. Jewel closed her fingers around his
straining erection before she could stop herself. Her heartbeat quickened with
the pulse beneath her fingertips.

Nolan’s breath came out a husky sigh. “Then, believe this:
I haven’t forgotten what it feels like to be inside you. Believe what there is
between us, because it is real. I’m your husband, Jewel. This is right.”

Jewel pulled her hand away, bringing it to his chest to
push him off. “It’s not that simple.”

He gripped her wrists. “Yes, it is,” he ground out between
his teeth. He put her arms around his neck, and then pulled her to him roughly.
“I don’t expect you to forgive me for what happened. I know you can’t. But I
still want you as my wife.”

She stared at his face, trying to understand the change in
him. He moved his hands up from her waist to massage her back. He kept up the
subtle pressure, forcing her against him. Of their own will, her fingers
wrapped themselves in his hair.

“I know what I am now. I took you, and I’m keeping you.
You’re my wife.” His hands cupped her face. “Accept that and accept me.”

He held her still while he lowered his mouth to hers. No
part of her mind or body had any strength to resist. His lips were soft and
coaxing, even gentle. The kiss displayed nothing of the hunger he had shown
when he entered the room. She leaned into him, returned his kiss. He forcefully
slid his tongue into her mouth. She clung to him, hungrily accepting his
invasion.

His hands drifted to her bottom. He cupped her and pulled
her to him. Liquid heat dampened her thighs at the contact, forcing her to arch
against him, the urge to be rid of the layers of their clothing unbearable. A
low growl in the back of his throat set off another wave of lust that sent
pulses straight to her sex.

He didn’t press his advantage, but seemed to linger with
the slow, torturous kisses he trailed to the hollow beneath her chin. “That’s
it. Melt for me, sweetheart. I’m going to make everything up to you the only
way I know how.”

He reached for the lacings of her gown. He peeled away her
clothes, kissing each section of exposed skin as it was revealed. He got to his
knees to untie the waistband of her skirt. She stiffened and stilled his hands
by placing her own over them. He gazed up at her, his eyelids heavy and his
gaze glazed. “Let me undress you. I want to see you. All of you.”

She blushed but nodded, the intensity of his request too
powerful to refuse. It felt strange to have him on his knees before her,
worshipping her. She touched his hair. Strange, but intoxicatingly wonderful.
With a sudden realization, she knew she would let this man do anything he
wanted to her body, just so she could be close to him.

He placed a feather-light kiss on her navel. “I want to
see your smooth belly swell with my seed. Then there’ll be no chance of you
leaving me.”

She brushed back his hair and tried to relax while he slid
her skirts over her hips. “Oh, Nolan—I won’t leave you. I never even thought of
it.” She almost told him again that she loved him but swallowed the words
before they were out. Their union was still too precarious. She wasn’t ready
for any more illusions to be shattered if he didn’t respond favorably to her
confession.

He swirled his tongue inside her belly button. “Prove it
to me. Let me be your husband. Let me consummate our marriage.”

She laughed. “Do I have a choice?”

He lightly nipped the sensitive skin covering her hipbone.
“Absolutely. You have to want it, too. As much as I do.”

He kissed the curls at the apex of her thighs and she
tried to pull away. His hands cupping her bottom held her firmly in place. He
gave her another quick kiss and lifted his head. “Don’t pull away from me.”

His palms roamed over the curve of her bottom, and then dipped
into the vee at the top of her thighs. Despite her commitment to retain an
ounce of modesty, he coaxed her thighs slightly apart. A draw of his tongue across
the overly sensitized flesh he managed to expose forced a gasp from Jewel that
sounded deceptively like a breathless moan.

“Your scent tells me you like this. Spread your legs for
me. Let us both have what we want.”

The sight of him kneeling before her, his face so close to
her most private part, flooded her with a heady mix of anticipation and shock.
“Shouldn’t we get in bed?”

He slid his palms around her thighs, gently nudging them
wider. “Why?”

She was forced to move or fall. “I thought you wanted my
consent.”

He dipped his head and licked her. Heat rushed to the points
his tongue touched. He chuckled, deep in his throat. “You’re so wet, you’re
screaming ‘yes,’ sweetheart.”

Jewel tried to pull back, but he held her thighs firmly.
“Then stop.”

“We want you wet.” He lifted his head only long enough to
say those words. When he touched her again, he used his mouth and his tongue,
devouring her in an openmouthed kiss that threatened to buckle her knees. He
dipped his tongue inside her, and she cried out.

“Nolan,” she pleaded, in serious danger of collapsing.

To her relief, he slid his hands and mouth up her body.
But with his withdrawal, her body throbbed in protest. She felt as if she had
swallowed her heart and it beat thickly between her parted legs. She tried to
find the courage to beg him to kiss her there again. He stopped at her breast.
She forced herself to breathe evenly, to get hold of her racing desire, but it
was impossible as he forged ahead undaunted. He suckled one nipple and then the
other, so thoroughly she thought her knees did buckle. When she wavered, he
steadied her with a firm arm wrapped around the small of her back. He guided
her to the bunk. “Tell me what you want me to do now, Jewel.”

She felt too weak to even put up a token struggle. She was
wet, warm, and aching for him. All her sensations centered between her legs. If
he didn’t hurry, she would be begging him.

He stood over the bed, the cocky grin on his face warning
her that her want showed too plainly. “Tell me. Say it.”

Her eyelids were heavy, and she had no desire to argue over
his confident expression. He had her right where he wanted her and they both
knew it. She let her gaze slide down to his erection. He had shucked off his
pants and boots. She swore he visibly swelled while she gazed at him. She
glanced back up at his face and saw he had lost his satisfied smirk. She smiled
and stretched, arching back off the bed. The look on his face gave her all the
courage she needed.

She touched her wet center, shocked by the heat radiating
from her body. “Kiss me here again.”

She lifted her knees and he rewarded her cooperation by
kissing the inside of her thigh. His hot breath was as heady as his kiss. He
maneuvered himself so he lay half on the bunk while he knelt on the deck.

“Do you want me to make you come?” He yanked her to him a bit
roughly. He spread her thighs, and she closed her eyes, readying herself for
the wash of sensation that would make thinking impossible. He traced her
opening with a single teasing finger. “Do you?”

She squirmed, but he held her still. His gaze questioned
her.

“No. Not yet.” She laid her head back and relaxed, giving
in to the attention her body craved. “When did you get so…difficult?”

He kissed the inside of her thigh again. His thumb found
the center of her pleasure and she bit her lip to keep from moaning. “Since I
stopped trying to deny what I want.” He used his tongue to lick closer to where
his hand caressed her, and a tremble raced through her limbs, tightening her
already hard nipples. Her knees dropped to the sides of their own accord.

He chuckled, probably at her wanton abandon, and straightened
her leg with his free hand. He lifted his head and nuzzled the back of her
knee. All the while, he kept a finger moving inside her and his thumb circling the
center of her desire. “I love the taste of you. The feel. I want to be inside
you.”

His husky voice played on her nerves as thoroughly as his
hand and his mouth. The muscles in her thigh started to contract, and she knew
she was spiraling quickly to a place where she would have no control. The way
he touched her, the way he leaned between her spread legs left her so
vulnerable. She feared she would crumble before he ever got inside her.
“Please, Nolan.”

“Please what?”

Her hips bucked to the rhythm of his finger. Her gaze fell
back behind her eyelids. “Make love to me.”

He continued his assault while nuzzling up and down the
inside of her thigh. “I am.”

“No. You know what I want.”

“Tell me.” He shifted his weight.

The hard tip of his cock nudged against her opening and she
came apart. Her body convulsed against the thumb he still pressed and circled
against the center of her pleasure. He nipped at her leg and held her while she
writhed. When her contractions slowed, he withdrew his hand.

She could barely catch her breath to protest when he nudged
his shoulder under her other leg. He pulled her down and entered her in a hard,
deep thrust. “Is this what you want?”

She felt the tension build again before it was fully released.
His urgency flooded her with another wave of desire. His hands gripped her waist,
pulling her down with each of his thrusts. She felt herself tumble toward ecstasy
again when he suddenly stopped. He held himself buried deep inside her. She
could feel his involuntary pulses. She opened her eyes, seeing a line of sweat trail
down his taut neck, and the firm set of his jaw. He teetered on the brink of
release.

He moved to kiss her mouth, covering her completely with
his body. The kiss was a gentle peck, nothing like the driving urgency to which
he had just put an untimely halt. She closed her eyes and undulated her hips.

He held her firmly to him, stilling her movements. “Look
at me.”

She opened her eyes. His blue gaze devoured her with its
intensity. “You belong to me now—under the law of man and God, you belong to
me. Say it.”

She licked her lips. “I belong to you.” She reached up and
touched his cheek. Her finger drifted to trace his lips. His tongue touched the
tip of her finger, urging it into his mouth. He sucked the digit, sending
shivers all the way down to the point where they connected.

He closed his eyes and moved again, slow and deep. Her
passion built swiftly and, after a few thorough strokes, her body clenched
around him. She clung to his shoulders to keep from being sucked under by the
pleasure wracking her.

He thrust deeply once more and stiffened. He buried his
head in her shoulder and moaned something unintelligible into her neck. She
held him as he tensed in her arms. After he had exhausted himself, he collapsed
against her. He must have kept some of his weight on his arms, because the
pressure felt more comfortable than crushing. She snuggled closer to him,
wrapping her arms around him.

He rolled over to his side, taking her with him. He
returned her embrace, hugging her tightly. At that moment, she felt closer to
him than when their bodies had been linked together. He gradually eased his
grip, but they clung to each other.

Nolan kissed her ear and smoothed her hair. “Now, you’re
truly my wife and no one can ever tear us apart.”

***

Jewel watched Nolan from across the deck. Nothing had been
resolved between them, but everything had changed. Even his appearance. He
always wore his hair loose now, and he no longer bothered with his stern blue jacket.
He fit every image of the lustful adventurer she had dreamed of as a girl—all
the way down to his black knee-length boots and the gold hoop catching the
light at his ear. His one concession to civilization was his clean-shaven face,
and that only because his beard left her cheeks and less visible parts of her
anatomy raw.