Lady Pirate (29 page)

Valoree gritted her teeth. She would not ask him to stop again. It seemed this was part of his torture. Though only he and the good Lord knew what he intended to torture her for.

“Tell me that you
want
me,” he whispered by her ear suddenly, and Valoree turned to gape at him in amazement.

She could not believe that he would threaten to torture her, then expect her to say something like that. What the devil was wrong with the man? Well, the answer to that was obvious. He was mad. If she had known a bit sooner, she might have let him swing.

Her thoughts were distracted when he suddenly lifted himself up and leaned close to her breast. She thought at first that he meant to lick or suckle her there as he had done in the past, but instead he paused, his mouth mere inches from the nipple. His breath rippled against it as his eyes turned toward her face. “Shall I lick you? Kiss you? Shall I suckle your breast?”

Her nipple already reacting as if he had done so, tantalized by the fanning of his breath, Valoree pressed her mouth firmly closed and turned her head. Hearing a rustle as Daniel moved away, she released her breath in a sigh. One of relief, of course, she told herself firmly, only to stiffen as he returned. She refused to look at him, staring grimly toward the water and wondering if he would leave her tied up until the men came back, and just how exactly he intended to torture her, and to what purpose. Then a splash of cool wetness
on her chest made her gasp and glance around sharply to see him smiling as he tipped a glass of wine onto first one breast, then the other. The golden liquid immediately ran down them, a small puddle forming between and slightly below her breasts.

“What are you doing now?” she asked sharply, and he smiled at her again.

“Torturing you,” was his husky reply. Then he bent to lick at the shallow pool of wine before following the trail to the breast nearest him. He cleaned the liquid from her with long, slow strokes of his tongue.

“T-this is your torture?” she asked shakily, watching his tongue slide out to graze the tip of one painfully erect nipple.

“Aye,” he breathed against her damp skin, sending shudders through her. “How do you like it so far?”

Valoree sagged back onto the cloth-covered sand with a sigh that turned into a nervous giggle. She sensed rather than saw his eyes seeking hers out, and met his gaze silently as he frowned.

“You did not think I meant
torture
torture, did you?” he asked, the beginnings of a scowl tugging at his mouth. Valoree hesitated.

Had she? Had she really thought he had meant
torture?
she asked herself. She suspected the answer was no. Valoree knew herself well enough to realize that she would have done quite a bit more cussing and struggling, rather than lying there tensely to see what was to come about, if she had truly believed he meant to harm her. Still, she didn't know what he was up to.

“Nay,” she whispered at last, and he relaxed.

“Good.” He turned his attention to her other breast now, laving it as he had the first. Valoree swallowed, her fingers closing into fists as she silently watched. She was a touch uncomfortable lying there, helpless, as he kissed and licked her. She wanted to touch him, too—wanted to run her hands through his hair,
over his chest, down his back. Which, of course, he had claimed he wished to do, too, when he had been tied up.

His hand replaced his mouth at her breast, and his lips moved upward, kissing a trail to her mouth before covering it with his own. He kissed her discomfort away, his hand squeezing and massaging her breast as he did, his finger plucking and rolling her nipple.

Valoree moaned into his kiss, her body arching off the silky material between herself and the sand, her fingernails digging into the flesh of her palms. Then she was gasping for air as he released her mouth, his attentions moving to explore other vistas. His lips grazed her cheeks, her chin, her ear, her neck, until they returned to her breasts. But this time he gave them only cursory attention before his tongue led him down her stomach, pausing to dip into her belly button, before he continued on to her hip, licking the hollow there.

Valoree was writhing—shifting, arching, and moaning mindlessly beneath his attentions. Daniel shifted to kneel between her legs, and she opened eyes she hadn't even realized she had squeezed closed to see him quickly untying her feet. She thought he would enter her then, and she wanted him to. Dear God, that was what she wanted most in the world at that moment, to feel his flesh fill hers. But he didn't. Instead, he grasped one ankle and lifted it in his hands until he could press a kiss to her instep.

Valoree jolted as if he had bitten her, her body responding with amazing sensitivity to the touch. It seemed he could do anything to her, touch her anywhere, and it would be erotic. She pressed herself back into the sand, twisting her head and moaning aloud as his lips moved up the inside of her leg, pausing to nibble behind her knee. He shifted to lie between her legs so that his mouth could meander up her thigh.

She continued to thrash beneath his touch, uttering a continuous, mindless moan until she felt his breath between her legs. Then she went as stiff as wood, her nerve endings screaming, her eyes shooting open to stare blindly at the trees overhead. She cried out and arched upward off the ground, sending the birds winging from the trees above as he pleasured her in a way she had heretofore only ever heard her men talk of a woman doing to them. He did things with his mouth that brought tears to her eyes and sobs bursting from her lips. She raced toward something wondrous. Then he stopped.

The trees slowly came back into focus before her swimming eyes, and Valoree found herself lying panting on a scrap of silk in the sand, her body clamoring in protest. Raising her head slightly, she peered blankly down the length of her body and saw that he was watching her, waiting.

“Tell me you want me.”

Valoree felt those words breathed against the trembling flesh of her womanhood all the way up to the roots of her hair. Her entire body was screaming with the desire he would have her speak aloud. Could he not see that?

“Say it,” he instructed. “Say, ‘I married you because I want you. Not to save you from hanging.'”

Suddenly recognizing the vulnerability in him, Valoree felt some part of her heart crumble with the understanding. “I married you because I wanted to, and
I want you
. I want you inside me. Right now.”

A slow smile twisting his lips, he glanced down to the damp flesh he had been devouring and blew on it softly, sending tremors through her body. Then he leaned down for a lick, and another, his teeth grazing her swollen skin and making her close her eyes and sob in need. With that, his touch changed slightly, and she peered back at him to see that he was caressing
her with his fingers, continuing to urge her passion back to the blaze it had been. He shifted to his knees and moved further up between her legs. There, ceasing his manipulations, he slipped his hands beneath her bottom. Lifting her slightly, he nudged her legs farther apart to make room for him between them, then guided himself slowly into her.

A moan erupting from deep in her throat, Valoree tugged mindlessly on her bindings, yearning to hold him. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and draw him close, a need that only increased as he withdrew himself from her with agonizing slowness, watching her expression the whole time.

“More.” She groaned in agony, and Daniel smiled a slow, sexy smile.

“More?”

She nodded desperately, bucking upward in an effort to urge him on, but he caught her thighs, restraining her, then grasped her ankles and bent her knees to maintain complete control. He slowly slid himself back into her.

“Greedy,” he chided with a grin when she struggled with him, trying to force him to her will, but his control was slipping, and he apparently decided to give her what they both wanted. Releasing her ankles, he dropped forward, his hands landing on either side of her body, his mouth dropping to nip at one breast as he drove himself completely inside.

Gasping encouragement, Valoree wrapped her legs around his hips and met his thrusts eagerly. Some few moments later, he took them both to where that wondrous something waited and showed her just what it was again and again until he joined her in it.

“What are you doing?”

Working at the laces of her gown, Valoree turned back to smile down at Daniel warmly. He was nude and still sleepy-eyed, his hair disheveled as he leaned up on one arm to peer at her. Good Lord, the man was sexy. “I am getting dressed, my lord.”

“Nay,” he protested on a yawn, leaning forward to grab at her skirt. “Come back to bed.”

“Bed?” Valoree laughed, dancing away to avoid being caught.

Smiling wryly, he glanced down at the now crinkled and sand-dusted cloth she had laid out for Bull to place him on the day before.

It had been well used and it showed. The man was insatiable. He had not let her sleep more than a few minutes since his first awakening after their arrival. Not that she was complaining. She had enjoyed herself immensely.

Shrugging away the question of a bed, Daniel peered back at her, the hungry look she was beginning to recognize taking the place of his sleepy expression. His voice, when he spoke, was husky and seductive. “Come back here. I am not done with you yet.”

Valoree felt a flutter in her lower belly at his words, and would have loved to shed the gown she had just donned and slip back into his arms, but she shook her head regretfully instead. “Nay. The men w—” Her gaze sliding toward the beach, she stopped as she saw the
Valor
sailing slowly around the point and into
view. Right on time, of course. She had said dusk, and here they were.

“Very well. And here I thought that you wished to get with child.”

Valoree glanced around at that to see that he was now rooting through the remains of the supplies she had had brought over. “What do you mean?”

Shrugging, he smiled at her innocently. “Just what I said. We will never produce an heir this way. Especially when we only have—what is it now?—little better than seven months to produce one?”

“Well, surely we can manage the task in that time.” She raised an eyebrow at his pursed lips. “What?”

“I was just thinking that it took my parents three years ere they begat me, and according to my mother they were quite dutiful in their nightly attempts. How many years were there between you and Jeremy?”

Valoree's eyes narrowed. “Eight, almost nine—but there were two stillborn babes between us.”

“Hmmmmm.” Giving up his search, he straightened and caught his hands behind his back, then began to pace naked before her, his head tilted upward, eyes to the sky as he began to figure aloud. “Now, let us see. Three years on my side, and…Well, let us just say three between each child with your parents, too. Now, there are three hundred sixty-five days in a year. In three years that would be one thousand and ninety-five attempts they made to create a child before one was produced. Of course, that is only if your parents were as dutiful as mine in attempting it every night. Do you think they were?” Pausing before her, he ignored her gaping expression and raised his eyebrows in polite inquiry.

“Are you saying you think it will take a thousand and ninety-five couplings for us to produce the heir we need to inherit?” she asked with amazement.

“It would seem so.” He smiled innocently, then
tilted his head to calculate again. “And we have just over seven months. But, of course, you should be a couple months along else no one will know. Therefore, let us say we have five months to accomplish the deed. That means we have…Well, roughly we have to make the attempt at least nine times a day to inherit.” He lowered his gaze to her again. “How many times have we attempted it today?”

“Husband?”

“Aye?”

“Shut up and kiss me,” Valoree muttered, slipping her hands up to catch his face and draw it down to her own. She hadn't fallen for his line. She wasn't that naive, but he was just so darn cute.

Their passion was quick to reignite. His mouth shifted, and he sucked at hers as his tongue thrust out aggressively. He backed her against the tree that had shaded them these last two days, quickly beginning to undo the laces she had just done up. Finishing with them, he pushed her gown off her shoulders, shifting her chemise out of the way at the same time. Covering her breasts with his hands, he slid one naked thigh between hers and raised it slightly to rub her through her gown. When he bent suddenly, his face dropping toward her breasts, she thought he was going to suckle her, and her nipples puckered even harder, but he straightened again almost at once, his hands brushing up along her legs under her skirt.

Squirming against the tree, Valoree gasped, her eyes opening and landing right on the small dinghy that was being lowered over the side of the
Valor
. She had forgotten all about them.

“Damn,” she said under her breath, stiffening at once, her hands going down to catch his as they slid between her legs.

“What is it?” Daniel glanced over his shoulder and hesitated briefly, then turned back and kissed her
again, sliding a finger into her moist heat to caress the nub that hid there.

“Nay.” Valoree groaned, pulling her lips away and gasping as he began to drive her wild with a combination of kisses along her chin, ear, and neck, and the friction he was causing between her legs. “The men.”

“Ignore them. They will go away,” Daniel assured her. Catching one of her hands with his free one, he drew it down to press it against his swollen flesh. Valoree released a breathless laugh that ended on a moan as he thrust one finger inside her.

“Daniel,” she cried pleadingly, caressing his arousal and pushing at his shoulders at the same time.

“It will take them a minute to get here. We have time.” Reaching down to catch one of her legs beneath the knee, he hooked it around his hip, then clasped her bottom and lifted her slightly. Releasing his manhood, she reached up to clasp his shoulders as he drove himself into her, her teeth biting the flesh of his shoulder, her fingernails digging into his back as he began a rhythm that was fast and exciting, pounding into her like waves on a beach until they both shattered with the pressure.

Valoree went slack against him for a moment, then opened her eyes to see that the dinghy was only halfway between the
Valor
and the beach. Grinning impishly, she straightened slightly, waiting until he lifted his head from her shoulder and met her gaze before announcing, “They are only halfway here. We have time to do it again, my lord.”

Dropping his head to her shoulder, Daniel released a half groan, half laugh as she whispered silkily into his ear, “By my counting, we have to do so at least four more times today. To reach the number you estimated.”

She felt him begin to grow hard within her again, and chuckled breathlessly as she wriggled against him,
her muscles tightening around him encouragingly.

“Aye,” he murmured suddenly. “Four more times. Let us see if we cannot make it three.”

Valoree laughed happily, her heart soaring as she leaned forward to kiss him. She felt at that moment as if she had found heaven, and that mayhap marriage would not be so bad after all.

 

Marriage was hell.

It was two months since those incredible two days and one night in the isolated cove in the Caribbean. They were only a warm memory now. Married life wasn't anything like that time had been. In fact, marriage was very much as she had feared it would be, with Daniel taking over her life as if she were a child. Oh, it had not started out that way. It had been a gradual turn.

They had returned to the ship with One-Eye and Skully, then sailed back to Port Royale to load up on goods and such, then had ended up staying there two weeks. Valoree had decided the men should have some shore leave ere they set out on another protracted ocean voyage. Meg had spent that time visiting old friends on the island, so Valoree and Daniel had spent the two weeks almost exclusively in each other's arms. Oh, they had left the ship several times, to play on the beach, to go for picnics. But always they had ended up in each other's arms. It had been almost as blissful as the two days in the cove, except that now there were occasional interruptions by Henry or one of the other men. Valoree had begun to notice the difference then.

The first time Henry had come to her with a question, he had hesitated, his gaze going from her to Daniel and back again, as if he wasn't sure who to ask. In the end, he had addressed it to the room at large. Valoree had frowned at that, but answered, giving orders as always. But the trend had continued. So long as
Daniel was present, the men all seemed at a loss as to whom to address. The matter had bothered her so much that when they had finally set sail for London, she had been careful to go on deck to give her orders only when Daniel was sleeping. The rest of the time had been spent naked in her cabin, working hard at making the heir required by her father's and his grandmother's wills. Very hard. Extremely hard.

Between Daniel's determination to learn every inch of her body, and her need to check on her men, their location, and to give out orders while he slept, Valoree had hardly gotten any sleep at all that first week of the journey. Ah, but it had been worth it—until she had come down with a summer cold, probably from her lack of sleep and being worn out.

Daniel had coddled her then, bundling her in blankets and fetching her hot spiced rum. Valoree had slept nearly around the clock for over a week. By the time she had recovered and made her way on deck again, it was to find that he had taken her place. Oh, the men still called her captain, but it was to him they now turned with questions, and when she gave an order it was only to see the men glance toward Daniel before carrying it out.

Valoree's first instinct had been to go into a rage and demand the respect due her as captain. But then she had thought better of it. The men
were
traditional, and she knew they would believe it was a man's place to rule. It was one thing for her to be captain when they had thought her a man—and even mayhap once they had known she was a woman, so long as she was seeking the husband they needed to retire. But now that she was married and had a husband, by law he was her ruler, and therefore theirs. Thus, she had bitten her tongue and returned to the cabin, determined to wait it out. Daniel was an intelligent man. He even had natural leadership qualities. But he had not spent the
last thirteen years aboard ship with these men. He would slip up, and she would be there to show him—and the men—that being a lord did not make him a captain.

Valoree had spent the rest of the journey back to England in the cabin, claiming she was still feeling under the weather and desired the rest. In truth, she had been pacing the floor and waiting—something she had never done well.

Sighing, she shifted in her chair and tried to concentrate on the chapbook she had sat down to read. Chapbooks were what she had filled her time with since arriving at the Thurborne estate two weeks ago—tales of banditry, terror on the high seas, and adventure. One-Eye had sneaked them to her. There were romances in the stack, too, but she avoided them. Valoree had had enough romance to last a lifetime, and it wasn't all that it was chalked up to be. She had found that it lost some of its appeal quickly when the rest of one's life was empty. Actually, she was beginning to resent Daniel and the effect he had had on her life. Time had seemed to fly by when her life had had purpose; now it dragged like an anchor along the bottom of life's ocean. It didn't stop her from enjoying his touch and caresses, but somehow they had lost some of their luster.

A sudden great clatter and crashing from below made its way up to the sunroom where Valoree sat, and she sighed. Petey and the Thurbornes' cook, Eleni were going at it again, no doubt. Those two were having a battle over who ran the kitchen. Eleni had been head cook here for several years and was determined to keep it that way. Petey had always been “the captain's” cook and was determined to keep that position. The two had been throwing pots around and having shouting matches since the
Valor
had laid anchor two weeks ago.

Instead of going to London, they had sailed the
Valor
to the Thurborne estate, anchoring off the point that the castle itself stood on and reaching shore by dinghy. That had been Daniel's decision. He claimed he had things to tend here, but she suspected he was keeping her away from society so she wouldn't embarrass him. He had since insisted on hiring instructors to teach her “what she needed to know to get by.” She supposed she couldn't blame him. After all, she had been rather a flop during her coming-out. Added to that was the fact that she just wasn't like other women. She supposed he would rather keep her here, out of the way of the ton. Mayhap he was even beginning to regret marrying her.

Daniel had wanted the men all to wait on the
Valor
, but they had had one of their votes and decided that the same men who had accompanied them in London would come to the Thurborne estate with them. So, Henry, Meg, One-Eye, Skully, Bull, and Pete were all hanging about the castle somewhere. Meg usually spent her time helping Henry in Thurborne's gardens, where the old tar spent his time driving Daniel's gardener crazy with questions and opinions. Skully, One-Eye, and Bull divided their time between riding into the village to try to romance the local girls and hanging out around the stables. The three men appeared to have developed a passion for good horseflesh.

It all left Valoree alone, feeling like a fish out of water in this fancy castle with self-effacing servants, and with a husband who was forever busy running his estate. Valoree had spent most of the last two weeks cuddled up with chapbooks in the chair she now sat in. She had not even really looked around much. She had discovered this room and stayed put. It was the room with the least number of breakables in it. There had not been a lot of fancy little delicate things in Valoree's life. At least not since living on the
Valor
.
Fancy breakables had no place on a ship that dipped and rolled on the high seas, and the Beecham town house had been furnished, but with just the essentials such as furnishings and cooking pots. There had been no easily destructible things there. Here at Thurborne, Valoree was almost afraid to walk around, lest she knock over and smash one of the fancy and delicate items her husband seemed to have everywhere.