Time for Love (15 page)

“I think we can begin with a few stretches, but we may want to move up on deck before I try to show you anything more. We don’t really have enough room in here.” She looked back at Nicholas who still stood next to the door.

“And good afternoon to you, as well,” he said sarcastically as he shut the door, a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth.

“Oh. Sorry,” she mumbled, embarrassed already.

The scowl on his face relaxed into a rueful grin. “You needn’t worry; I don’t bite.” He gestured to the chairs situated in the center of the room and moved to the one on the far left, closest to the bed. “Please, be seated.”

She walked to the chair furthest from him, wondering why he didn’t sit. She repressed a grin when the reason became clear. To hide her amusement, she looked down. He may be pretending she was a man, but apparently, certain social niceties were so ingrained he couldn’t sit while a woman remained standing. As soon as she was ensconced in her comfy armchair, he lowered himself to his.

“Tell me how you learned to fight.”

Her tension eased a little. She had worried over nothing. He didn’t act as if he remembered their kiss. “I started when I was a gir—a child. When a dojo opened up nearby, the director at our orphanage arranged lessons for us. She thought the exercise and discipline would do us some good.”

“What is a dojo?”

“It means ‘sacred hall of learning.’ It’s a school to teach karate.”

“They have schools in America for this?” he asked.

His tone of voice warned her she might be straying into the dangerous territory of historical accuracy, but it was too late to take it back, so she plunged ahead. “It was a small place, closed up a few years later.” She rushed on, “But it got me started, and I found new instructors once I was on my own and had enough money for lessons.”

He made no remark, so she continued, “I’m not going to get into all the history and the proper words for everything. We don’t have enough time left, and I’m not qualified. I’ll just try to teach you some of the basic moves. It takes years to learn, and we don’t have that kind of time.”

He seemed a bit disgruntled by this last, and she wondered if he had thought she could teach him everything in only a few lessons. Of course, maybe he wasn’t interested in learning at all, and this was just an excuse to spend time with her. The thought gave her a brief rush of pleasure.

“If nothing else, I can show you a few of the more basic moves. It’s great exercise and a good way to relieve stress.”

“Show me,” he demanded.

She stood and began to move. Her movements were a bit stiff at first, but as she focused on her form, she relaxed and devoted her attention to perfecting each movement as she’d been taught. As she lost herself in the movements and her body flowed gracefully from one position to the next, she forgot to worry about enticing Nicholas. Without looking, she asked him to stand next to her and follow her movements.

She went through some of the first positions she had ever learned with exaggerated slowness, aware of his attempts to imitate. His coordination was extraordinary. It had taken her years to do as well as he did right off the bat. He would learn quickly.

“Good. Stop now and get into the starting position.” She demonstrated one more time. “Not bad, just a minor shift here…” She placed her hands on his hips to shift him slightly. His swiftly indrawn breath brought her attention to his face, and before she was aware of him moving, he had her locked in a heated embrace.

Mind-blowing sensation quickly followed a brief moment of shock. Her arms seemed to move of their own accord to wrap around his waist, and her head tilted slightly to encourage him to deepen the kiss.

With a groan, he pulled her tighter to him with one hand and cradled her head with the other. The feel of his hard body pressed so closely to hers brought a rush of heat to her core, and her stomach clenched in anticipation. Anticipation of what, she wasn’t quite sure, and her anxiety came swiftly back to the surface. She tore her mouth away from his and leaned against him, her head resting on his chest as she tried to steady her shaking limbs. She breathed deeply, and his scent filled her awareness.

He rested his chin on top of her head, cleared his throat and whispered huskily, “That was unplanned. I hope I did not frighten you. Are you all right?”

“What did you plan?”

“I’m not exactly sure,” he said, laughing roughly at himself. “But I just couldn’t seem to help myself. And now…”

She stiffened in his arms. She was sure he was going to tell her he regretted it because she was such a bad kisser.

“…that I have you in my arms, I don’t think I can possibly let you go.”

She looked up at him in surprise. “You’re not disappointed?”

“Disappointed?” His eyebrows twitched upward, and he leaned back to look her in the eye.

She blushed and tried to pull out of his arms. “Nothing,” she mumbled.

He wouldn’t let her go but cupped her face with his hands, forcing her to look at him. “Why would you think I would be disappointed?”

She closed her eyes and tried to keep the tears she could feel building up from falling and humiliating herself further. “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it. I should go.”

“I don’t think so.” He gathered her close and pulled her onto his lap as he sat in the nearest chair. He gently brought her head to rest on his chest and said simply, “Tell me.”

She wiped a tear surreptitiously from the corner of her eye and said, “I’m not very good at this.”

“Good at what?”

“You’re not going to make this easy by just letting me go and forgetting about this, are you?”

“Certainly not.”

“Fine,” she retorted. “This.” She waved her hand back and forth between them. “You and me. Kissing. Making love. All of it. Are you happy now? I’m not good at the whole intimacy thing. You should just forget about me because you’ll only be disappointed.” She struggled to get up but stopped when she realized he was shaking with laughter. She was so astonished she sat still and watched him until he quieted down. “I’m serious, and I don’t think it’s funny.”

“I know you are and I’m sorry, but that is the most ridiculous statement I have ever heard.” He shook his head, a wide smile lighting his face. The grin slipped as he ran a gentle finger along her jaw, wiping away the tear that had slipped down her cheek. “Where did you ever get such an insane idea?”

“I thought I was in love once. I would have done anything for him,” she said quietly and shrugged. “He wanted to, so I said yes. It was not good. He tired of me real quick after that. A few weeks later, he told me how bad I was, and then walked out of my life.”

“How old were you?” He frowned.

She couldn’t look at him and wondered what he was thinking. The warmth had left his voice, and it occurred to her that virginity was a much more valuable commodity in these times than it was in the future. “We were fifteen.”

“Fifteen! You weren’t even out yet. Who was this boy that your guardians would allow you to be alone together?”

She looked at him in surprise. “It’s not like that where I’m from. Girls weren’t kept separate from boys. We never had a problem finding places to be alone.”

“Where exactly are you from that they have such strange ideas?”

“It’s not important.” She brushed his question aside. This conversation had been bad enough. She certainly wasn’t going there. “Will you let me up now?” She tried to push up using the arms of the chair.

“No.” He held her until she stopped struggling. Then he took hold of her chin and forced her to look into his eyes. “I think this boy was a bloody idiot, and so were you for believing such nonsense.”

“I’m not an idiot just because I can accept that I’m not a passionate person and don’t enjoy making love,” she grumbled.

He looked deep into her eyes and lowered his lips to hers. His mouth teased hers until she relaxed in his arms and gave herself up to the intoxication of his kiss. With one arm trapped between them, her free hand stole up to his head and tangled in the hair at the base of his neck. Her clothing chafed against her suddenly sensitive skin, and the thin barrier of his shirt seemed a cruel device meant to torture her as she longed to feel his naked skin next to hers.

He released her mouth with a gasp and leaned his forehead against hers as she let out a small moan of protest. “Not passionate? Bloody hell. Any more passionate and
The Reliant
would go up in flames. I think someone needs to explain the meaning of the word to you.” A wicked grin spread across his face. “And I think I’m the man to do it.”

The next few hours were devoted to her education.

Chapter Thirteen

April 23 (36 Days Remaining)

Nicholas lay awake watching Alex sleep beside him. An odd impulse, and one he had never before experienced. He wondered at it.

He never lingered after making love to a woman once their needs were met. There was no reason to stay. Not that he was a selfish lover. No. He always made sure he left his women as satisfied as he was. He found it deeply gratifying to be able to please a woman in bed and took great pride in doing so. He was just never under the illusion their brief liaisons were anything more than a mutual fulfillment of desire. He took great pains not to get involved with any women who could possibly expect, or want, more. Since the war—since his scars—none had.

The feeling was new to him, this desire to memorize the curve of her shoulder and the color of her lips. Was it her inexperience that moved him? He had never been with a woman of so little experience before. She wasn’t a virgin, but she had learned nothing but pain and humiliation from the loss of her innocence. She had been completely unaware of the pleasure to be found in the act of making love. Her response had been extraordinarily special.

Perhaps he should have taken a slower approach in introducing her to the pleasures of the flesh. Her tentative, yet passionate, response to his kiss had been his undoing. He’d barely maintained enough control to bring about her release before succumbing to his own. Their first time together should have been a much more leisurely affair, but his body had had other ideas.

He had been selfish in not resisting the lure she held over him. It amazed him to find he could not seem to get enough of her. He had come to her repeatedly during the day and into the night. Her poor body was not accustomed to such use, and yet she had continued to respond with marvelous ardor until she at last fell into an exhausted slumber near dawn. Even now, he felt his flesh rising at the thought of the pleasure she had brought him.

She rolled over in her sleep, and the covers fell aside to reveal her firm backside. He admired the womanly curves of her body. The padding she had worn had disguised these traits extremely well.

As he watched her sleep, Nicholas wondered why he hadn’t realized the truth immediately. She appealed to him in a way that made perfect sense now he knew the truth. He must have known on some level. But for whatever reason, his mind had been unable to accept what his body recognized.

Her hand fell open on the pillow beside her head.

That should have been a dead giveaway. He reached out and stroked a finger along a small scar on the back of her right hand, causing her fingers to twitch slightly. Though roughened by hard work and exposure to the sea air, the bones were delicately shaped and elegant, more suited to painting landscapes than hauling cargo and scrubbing floors.

He turned her hand over gently and examined her palm. Calluses indicated she was used to working with her hands. If she had been unused to manual labor, her palms would have been blistered and red but still soft underneath, not tough like they were. He suspected life to this point had not been easy for her.

A sudden fierce rush of protectiveness made him wish to erase all the unpleasantness she had ever faced. He knew what it was like to make his own way in the world. That kind of life was hard enough for a man. He couldn’t imagine how rough it must be on a woman.

I can do nothing to erase the past, but I can certainly provide for a more pleasant future. I know just where to start.

****

Alex woke slowly to the sound of voices. She pulled the cover over herself in alarm but quickly realized the open screen hid the bed from view of the rest of the cabin. She waited for the men to leave and listened for the sound of the door closing before cautiously peeking out into the room. What she saw took a moment to register, but when it did, “Oh my!”

Nicholas looked at her with a pleased smile on his face. “Impressed?”

She got up and hurried to stand next to him. In her excitement, she forgot she was completely naked. Heat warmed her cheeks when his grin widened and she realized the cause, but made no move to cover herself. After last night, modesty seemed a bit absurd, even if some habits were hard to break. Besides, she wouldn’t need clothes for what he obviously had in mind.

The glow in his eye as he ran his gaze up and down her body reassured her she had nothing to worry about, and she pushed away her lingering modesty. Right now, she had eyes for one thing only.

“For me?”

At his nod, she grasped his hand. She sighed with bliss as he helped lower her until she lay immersed in a glorious hot bath.

“Oh.” She groaned. “This is heaven. I haven’t been properly clean in ages!” She leaned back and closed her eyes, giving his hand a grateful squeeze before letting go and dropping that hand into the water, too.

She submerged and scrubbed at her hair, letting the strands flow around her face. Dim noises filtered through the water, and she surfaced. Swiping water from her eyes, she peered around the cabin and found him at her side, hands behind his back and a wide grin on his face. She smiled back and raised her eyebrows, trying to sneak a peek at whatever he held.

He brought his hands around, and she clapped in delight at the sight of soap and a washcloth. Better than gold.

“Ooh, thank you.” She reached out to take them.

He shook his head and said, “Let me,” as he knelt by her side.

He rolled his sleeves past his elbows then dipped his hands in the water to lather the washcloth. As he ran the soft cloth over her weary body, she sighed in contentment. “Life doesn’t get much better than this.”