The Stolen Heart (18 page)

 

He led her over to the chair by the bunk, then fluffed up the
pillows, and remade the whole bed with clean sheets. He helped her
up and then tucked her in.

 

 

“If you don’t mind, as long as there’s still some hot water, I’m
going to have a bath. Who knows, rounding the Horn could take days,
weeks. I might as well wash up while I can.”

 

 

“I don’t mind. It’s your cabin.”

 

 

“Good. I just don’t want you to be shocked.”

 

 

Al gave him an impish grin. “A bit late for that now, isn’t it?”

 

 

He smiled back ruefully. “For both of us.”

 

 

He stripped off and got into the tub, acutely aware of the fact that
she was watching him with unabashed awe. He tried to think of cool
thoughts, snow, sleet, hail, to prevent his flesh from answering her
steady and ardent regard.

 

 

He nearly jumped out of his skin when she got out of bed and
approached the tub, and began to lather his back with her small
delicate hands.

 

 

“Oh my, that’s wonderful. No one has done that for me in, well, a
long time.”

 

 

“You don’t have to spare my feelings. I have no right to question
you about your past.”

 

 

“I’m offering the information. I was thinking of my mother, when I
was about five. There’s never been anyone important in my life, not
like this.”

 

 

“Nor for me.”

 

 

His cheeks flamed. He wanted to believe her, but she was so
desirable… It was hard to imagine that in nineteen years, no one had
noticed this delicate blossom. Her silky hair, her wide blue
eyes….How he had never thought her a boy, he had no idea.

 

 

She continued soaping him, down his back, across his broad
shoulders, and down his chest. He let out a satisfied groan and
moved his arm so she could not see the towering erection she had
evoked.

 

 

The ship continued to rock from side to side, almost like a large
cradle. With her soft hands upon him, her presence beside him, he
felt as though he had never before known such utter peace.

 

 

But the water was growing cold. He could not stay there forever,
much as he longed to. He clenched his teeth in concentration. He had
to subdue his roiling desires before he did something he and Al
would both regret.

 

 

“Can you hand me a towel, please?”

 

 

She held it out, and he clasped it to his groin immediately as he
stood up and began to cautiously dry himself off. His erection was
almost painful as he touched the rough fabric to it, and he turned
his back so Almira would not see how much he desired her.

 

 

He pulled the plug in the tub and stepped out.

 

 

Al hovered solicitously, gathering his dirty clothes to put in the
wash pile with her own clothes and the sheets. Now she tried to step
past him to get to the dresser, and that proved their undoing.

 

 

The ship heaved under their feet mightily, propelling Al straight
into Jared’s arms, slamming him with his back up against the wall.
He caught her around the waist and held on to her to keep her from
falling, but he was the one who collapsed.

 

 

All of his rock-hard self-control crumbled in an instant as her pert
breasts bored into him through the fabric of her shirt, and her bare
thighs came into contact with his aching loins.

 

 

She was so beautiful, so desirable.
Why had he never seen it
before?

 

 

But he had. Many, many times, ever since he had first discovered she
was a woman. Even before, when her soul had spoken to his.
Why
keep denying himself?

 

 

The fury of the storm, the danger to the ship, was as nothing
compared to the overwhelming need burning a hot fiery trail though
his every nerve and vein.

 

 

“Al. Almira,” he whispered.

 

 

“Jared, please.”

 

 

He was about to let her go, mistaking her words for a refusal, when
she whispered urgently, “Please, please kiss me, love me.”

 

 

“I will. I do,” he gasped, before running his fingers through her
hair to cup her head.

 

 

His lips came crashing down upon hers in a cataclysmic kiss which
opened the floodgates of their passion. One of his hands slid down
to lift her against his pulsating hardness, and he staggered across
his cabin as the ship rocked crazily.

 

 

He managed to find the bed despite his palsied trembling, and once
there, began to strip her shirt off with frenzied fingers. She began
to caress his massive chest and shoulders as if she would pull him
right though her.

 

 

Then, emboldened by his groan of desire, she dragged the towel off
his lean hips and feasted her eyes on his hard maleness.

 

 

Her shirt sailed half way across the room as his questing hands
stripped her completely. He moved toward the head of the bed with
her, and pressed his back against the half-wall to stop himself from
tumbling across the room. The bed was bucking like a lively bronco,
and the floor was running with damp.

 

 

It had to be the bed, then, but he needed to get some control over
his reeling world.

 

 

He crouched down and began to stroke her reverently, from her
breasts to her knees. Her legs were hanging over the side of the
bed, and he rocked back on his heels and then stroked forward up her
legs to her thighs with both hands.

 

 

Almira writhed and twisted, arching her hips. Jared could feel the
heat rolling off her in waves as she called his name, the urgency of
the tone increasing with every upward stroke.

 

 

He moved one hand up into her soft feminine curls, and stroked the
tender flesh with his thumb. He felt a huge surge of pride as he
felt how moist with longing she was.

 

 

And how incredibly tight, he noted, as he moved his other hand to
insert one finger gently inside her. She whimpered and pressed down,
and he teased her for a moment, before pressing a second finger
deeply inside her.

 

 

Her muscles clenched fiercely, and he rose up from his knees to lean
over her and grab one of her shoulders to anchor himself as he began
to kiss and suckle his way down to her smooth, soft stomach, while
his fingers continued to move within her.

 

 

He kissed and licked her navel, and suckled his way even lower,
until his mouth fastened upon her most tender little bud of flesh.
At the same time, he pressed one more huge finger inside her. She
clutched at his hair and shoulder convulsively, and cried out,
arching against his mouth and only heightening the sensation.

 

 

Jared’s erection felt as though it would explode, and he raised
himself back up and pulled her hips to the very edge of the bed.
Then he removed his fingers and replaced them with the engorged tip
of his surging manhood, pressing in further and further as she
raised her hips to him.

 

 

Her eyes flew open for an alarmed moment as the pressure grew
unbearable, but the roll of the ship eased it for a moment, before
sending him further in past her virginal barrier.

 

 

“Oh, Jared, what’s happening to me?” she gasped as he surged ever
deeper.

 

 

He gritted his teeth, struggling for control with her tight sheath,
the ship’s movement urging him on to release himself inside her with
a pounding rhythm.

 

 

But he managed to hold back and told her, “It’s all right. The pain
will be gone in a minute. Do you trust me?”

 

 

She stroked his cheek. “Oh yes, with my life.”

 

 

He placed one hand around her waist, and one under her bottom. He
pushed down with one, and up with the other, while he undulated his
hips and thrust hard.

 

 

“Jared, oh Jared.” It was a gasping half-scream, and he hated
hurting her. It was over in an instant, and she clutched him to her
fiercely.

 

 

Then he was fully inside her, and it was as though he were the
virgin, she the experienced one, as she grasped both his buttocks
and set up a powerful tempo of her own which felt as though it would
suck the very soul from his body.

 

 

“Almira, my dearest.”

 

 

The thunder crashed, the lighting flashed, but Jared and Al never
even noticed as they lost themselves in each other.

 

 

 

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

 

 

Much later, when he had lost count of how many times they had
pleasured each other, and finally felt able to move, Jared lifted
his head, and heard the steady patter of rain.

 

 

A sound tinkled off in the distance. Eight bells. Four o’clock. Time
for the ship’s day to begin. And he had whiled away the storm
dallying with Al in his bed.

 

 

“O Lord, they’re going to wonder what on earth happened to me.”

 

 

He jumped up and looked around for his clothes, and tugged them on
as he ran for the door to the companionway. He was relieved to see
he had had the good sense to lock it.

 

 

He flung the door open and took the stairs two at a time, and
charged onto the deck.

 

 

“The ship! The storm?” he asked, looking around at the golden dawn,
and a full head of sail.

 

 

The breeze cooled his heated flesh and he sighed in relief.

 

 

Perkins waved at him happily. “We have the winds with us, Captain.
If this keeps up, we’ll be safely around in no time.”

 

 

He nodded, overjoyed at the steady progress they were making. The
rain he had heard was a mere sun shower passing overhead. The
wonderful fresh rainwater smell was like a balm to his soul, as was
the sensation of Almira pressed against his heart, which still clung
to him as he stood on deck.

 

 

He looked over the helm, and ordered, “Maintain this heading, and
watch for any lightning, or any sudden gusts.”

 

 

Perkins nodded, and said, “Why don’t you go back to sleep. You look
like Al kept you up all night. Is he better?”

 

 

“Oh, er, yes, much better.”

 

 

“Glad you got some sleep, sir."

 

 

"Thanks, Perkins, So am I."

 

 

"Listen, sir, I'm sorry about Mate. But it happens.”

 

 

“Aye, that it does. We’ll make no mention of the previous incidents
aboard, so he can keep his rank and his family can have a decent
pension."

 

 

"That's very good of you, sir."

 

 

"And we shall have his auction at noon.”

 

 

“Aye, Captain. All his things are still packed up and in the focsle.
I'll take care of it.”

 

 

"Thanks, Perkins. I knew I could rely on you. Once we're fully round
the Horn, I'd better see you reporting for navigation lessons
again."

 

 

"Aye, sir."

 

 

Jared sighed once more in sheer relief. It was remarkable what a
difference a day and night could make in one's life. How one simple
action could have such far reaching consequences…

 

 

Jared took a turn around the deck to reassure himself that all was
well, and found everything ship-shape.

 

 

He went below out of the freshening wind, and steeled himself as he
entered the cabin. He wanted to be strong, to resist the enormous
temptation Al represented for him now.

 

 

Almira. A beautiful name, for an incredibly passionate and gorgeous
woman. One he wanted to spend a lifetime getting to know. But on a
whaler? Here with him at work day after day, distracting him from
his duties?

 

 

But the ship was fine, making excellent progress. Where was the harm
in going back to bed for a little while longer?

 

 

As he looked at the blood-flecked sheets, he also had to admit there
was something else he had not remembered to consider carefully
enough before he had flung her into the bed and had his way with
her. Or the consequences of his amorous actions.

 

 

Jared groaned at his own stupidity. He had acted no better than a
callow youth in the throes of his own rising sap of adolescence.

 

 

At his groan, Al’s lambent eyes opened, and she smiled. She looked
anything but horrified by what had transpired between them.

 

 

In fact, she was staring at him so intently with her remarkable blue
eyes, that he could feel himself harden in an instant.

 

 

She held out her hand to him, and unthinkingly he took it. Now he
knew how Ulysses must have felt upon encountering the Sirens, for he
would do anything to be with her again, even if it meant sending his
ship onto the rocks.

 

 

He cast his trousers and shirt aside, and pulled the covers down.
His golden gaze blazed into hers as he feasted his eyes on her naked
perfection in the sunlight that came from the porthole, giving her
skin a lustrous sheen.

 

 

He watched the effect of his kisses and caresses upon her, running
his hands down her silky soft skin with reverence. Her nipples
peaked into delicate pink buds, and her eyes grew as moist as her
lips, kissing and tasting him with her lively little tongue.

 

 

He wanted to pound into her fiercely, possess her over and over,
stamp his seal upon her. But the less primitive, more rational side
of him warned him that she had already been through a great deal.