Within a Captain's Treasure (11 page)

Moving closer, he saw Jessup in the crowd below. How many men did it take to bring in one sail? The others should be at their stations or secure below.

At last, the line had been freed and sail secured. The ship still rolled and pitched, but the release of that sail would give them a better seat through the storm. Quinn strained to see who’d been sent up. The man had balls; he’d give him that. Not too many would risk a climb in these conditions. He watched as the seaman reached and began to descend the ladder.

Good Lord.
Damn it all, that was no seaman; that was Alice!

An angry burst of wind and wave knocked her off the last few feet of rigging and she hit the deck. Hard. Quinn wasn’t the only one to rush toward her, but Alice picked herself up, notched that damn chin of hers, and leveled a look of cold defiance at Jessup. She picked up her boots and the remnants of her now shapeless hat and marched past the small assembly. Summer and Finch slapped her on her back and praised her nerve. She acknowledged no one.

Quinn watched her walk away. He shot a glare back at Jessup. The man had gone too far. He’d pay for his part in this. Shouting orders for the deck to be cleared, Quinn spun on his heel to go after Alice. He had a few choice words for her as well. What was she thinking? She could have been killed. The woman’s nerve needed to consult with her sense once in a while.

He closed the space between them with long practiced strides but slowed as he realized Alice was in trouble. Navigating a rolling deck, her steps faltered. She was close to the ladder way. Could she have climbed the main mast and risked her life only to fall down the steps to the deck below and break her neck?

She struggled to keep upright and reached out to grasp the knotted rope line at the top of the ladder. Gavin did not break stride as he came up behind her and caught her. Wrapping a steadying arm around her waist, he lifted her against his chest, and carried her down the stairs.

From this angle, the rest of the crew would never know their fierce, brave Tupper had fainted.

The ship bucked and rolled within the storm as Gavin carried Alice back to his quarters. He had an awkward hold on her, but he didn’t stop until they were within his cabin and away from prying eyes.

Entering the dark space, he lowered his sodden burden upon the bed before lighting a single lantern. The light swayed and pitched in its brass mooring, throwing odd shapes and shadows across the room.

Gavin rode the rock of the ship with his feet splayed and hands upon his hips. He fought to control his breathing as well as his emotions as they swept from anger, to fear, to relief, and back to fury. She could have been killed in a dozen horrifying ways. Fallen to the deck. Swept out to sea. Hung in the ropes. He could have lost her. The thought punched the air from his lungs.

He knelt next to the bed. The wind had torn her hair from its braid, and it obscured the view of her lovely face. He brushed the wet strands aside. She’d lost her boots and one stocking on her trip from the deck, and her clothing was soaked through. The linen of her shirt left no imaginings as to the shape and curve of her breasts.

Gavin stroked her cheek. “Alice, open your eyes.” Those beautiful eyes that could be the cold green of deep ocean water or spark like those emeralds in a certain light. “Open them and glare at me. Curse me. Insult me. Dammit, save me. Save me from myself.” Good God, he loved her. Like the towering waves of the storm, that thought hit him harder than the last.

The ship rose and fell as it creaked and popped against the battering of the sea. A drop into a deep wave nearly tossed her from his bed.

Her eyes opened and she frowned. “Where?”

“You’re fine. You fainted.”

She sighed, shook her head, and smiled. “Dreaming….” Her eyes closed again.

“Alice, this isn’t a dream.”

“It is.” She stroked his chest. “You’ll see. I’ll want you to kiss me, but I’ll wake up just before your lips reach mine.” She lifted her hand to his cheek and opened her eyes once more. “Why are you wet?”

“Because in your dream, and I’ve just saved you from a storm.”

Another roll of the ship caused her to grab hold of his shoulder. “Wait. The storm…this is real.” Wide eyes met his.

“So is this.” He lowered his mouth to hers.

Alice tightened her grip on his shirt and gasped into the kiss. She arched beneath him and he slipped an arm about her, pulling her closer, locking her to him, and steadying them against the pitch of the ship. Alice trembled in his arms. Her hold upon his shoulder released as he savored the softness of her lips. Teasing. Tasting.

Slipping her arm about his neck, Alice pressed into his embrace. When the heat of their bodies joined the dampness of their clothes, his resolve turned to steam.

Then she breathed his name. “Gavin….”

He pulled back, looking down into her beautiful face. The ship rode wildly around them, but everything seemed to slow in that fraction of time. Alice looked up at him with those emerald eyes. Her chest fusing into his with each breath.

She shook her head. Was she saying no? Gavin’s heart dropped along with the
Scarlet Night
into a deep trough. A wave slammed the side of the ship. He looked away, sure she could see deep into his soul. He’d fallen again. Lost hold of his control.

“Gavin....” She still clung to him. He looked back into the smolder of those green eyes. “Don’t… Don’t push me away.” His gaze fell to her mouth. “Please don’t stop. I want you—”

His mouth crushed out any more words. Desire flashed white hot behind his eyes. He ravished her mouth. Sweeping his tongue between her lips, she moaned with pleasure and returned the deepening passion of the kiss.

Alice reached for his hand and placed it boldly upon her breast. He kissed down the side of her neck as she pressed into his hand, filling it with the round firmness of her. The tight peak of her nipple strained against the damp linen. She tugged at the ties of her blouse, but the wet material and her impatience tangled the lacings. Her groan of frustration turned into a cry of pleasure as he suckled at her breast through the fabric.

Soon the desire to run his hands over her bare skin, see her, taste her, turned desperate. He pulled the belt from her hips and tossed it to the floor. The ship rocked, and the heavy buckle raked across the floor.

Alice tugged at his hems. He struggled out of the clinging garment and let it drop. She touched him then. Stroked feather-light fingers over the planes of his chest. Brushed the flat of his nipples before rising up and laying a kiss over his heart.

Her shirt soon joined his. Followed by her single stocking and trousers. The lantern swung its light in wild swaths across her body. With her hair in disarray drying around her, the dark tresses allowed a seductive view of her breasts peeking between. She was the most beguiling creature he’d ever seen. He left her only as long as it took to remove the rest of his clothes.

The ship tipped. Alice’s belt scraped across the floor to the other side of the room. When he lifted his gaze to hers, her bemused expression beguiled him. Riding the sway of the ship, he slipped in next to her and kissed the delicacy of her collarbone. “What has you so amused?”

“You.” She trailed her fingers into his hair and sighed as he kissed a path along her neck. “You’re different than I imagined.”

“You’ve thought of me like this?” Gavin nipped at her earlobe as he cupped her breast in his hand.

“Yes. No. I’m afraid I underestimated the size…of…of your shoulders.”

“Did you?”

Her gaze dipped lower before Alice ran a hand up his arm. “Yes, I didn’t give your
shoulders
their proper justice at all.”

He eased her onto her back. Taking his time to memorize each view as the lantern made its sweep. “And here you are as lovely as I thought you’d be.”

“You’ve thought of me?”

He kissed her before answering. “Daily.”

“In your bed?” she sighed.

“Nightly,” he whispered as he traced a path along the soft valley between her breasts.

Her breath caught as he skimmed her belly. “Imagined what you’d do with me?”

“Hourly,” he growled. His hand slid over her hip and down the length of her smoothing the roundness of her behind and urging her to raise one knee to rest high along his waist. He watched her face. Pleasure closed her eyes as she arched into his touches. “I imagined this.” He lowered his head and pulled her taut nipple into his mouth as his hand continue to play over the ridges of her ribs and splay across the flat of her stomach. He kissed his way to lavish equal attention to Alice’s other breast.

He rose to kiss once more at the pulse point of her throat and just below her ear as his hand slipped lower. “And this….”

The hardness of his cock played havoc with his patience. It pulsed against her hip. Wet heat bathed his fingers as he slid them between the slick folds of her sex. Beneath him, Alice gasped with pleasure and clutched at his arms, her nails raked his back.

Never had a woman responded to him quite like her. She whimpered her eagerness and cried out to him once more not to stop. She opened her thighs wider and raised her hips to meet his touch as he teased and stroked the satined flesh.

The storm that raged around them was nothing compared to the storm raging within him. Blind desire drove him. He needed to be in her. Feel the heat of her surrounding him. Bury himself within her and end this torture. Find his release before he exploded.

Gavin moved between her thighs. He could wait no longer and pushed into her with one strong thrust, tearing through the thin barrier of her maidenhead before he even realized what the slight resistance could be. The tightness of her and her sharp cry of pain brought the shattering truth to his passion-fogged mind.
Virgin? Alice was a virgin.

He froze within her, afraid to move and cause her more pain. His body screamed, fit to burst. Her nails bit into his arms.

“Oh dear God. I didn’t know.” Panting, he struggled to make sense of it. He peered into her anguished face. Tears ran into her hair. What had he done?

Shaken, he began to pull away, but she clung to him. “No. It’s all right. I’m…all right. Please.” She pulled him to her and kissed him, held his face in her hands. “I want this. I wanted it to be you.” She kissed his neck and slipped her arms about him holding tight. “Please.”

Alice began to move beneath him. She gave a small lift to her hips. Gavin groaned as his still-hard cock ached for his release. He pressed back into her. Gently. He kept the rhythm slow, rocking with the sway of the ship. His strokes grew stronger, deeper, faster.

Alice cried out again. This time it was one of surrender, one of passion. She tightened around him as his own body spiraled out of control. The years of denying his needs rose and crashed like the waves upon the hull. His last thrusts sank as deep as her body would allow before he found his release.

When it was over, he pulled out of her and left the bed. He found his pants in the shifting light and donned them before his breathing had returned to normal. Anger followed so quickly, he had doubts his breathing would ever be normal again. The ship still fought through rough seas, but experience told him the storm outside was beginning to ebb—the one within him, however, was far from finished. He secured the last button on his breeches and turned on her.

She sat in the middle of his bed looking every bit a ravished woman. Hair loose and mussed, lips swollen and pink, a rosy blush across her skin. She clutched a blanket to her chest. One perfect breast escaping cover.

“Where are you going?”

“Why? Why didn’t you tell me you were a virgin?” He shoved his feet into his boots.

“I didn’t think it mattered—”

“It mattered to me.” Gavin stood with his hands on his hips. Blood still pulsed through his limbs. His cock. God help him, he couldn’t look at her without wanting her again. What was wrong with him? How could he be incensed and drawn to her in the same breath? Because it did matter to him.
She
mattered to him.

He’d been selfish. His body had been in control tonight, and he’d carelessly taken her virtue. If this insanity continued, it would only be a matter of time before he planted a bastard in her if he hadn’t already. A fine new life he’d condemn her to. He’d done enough damage. This had to stop. Now. It had already gone too far. He hung his head and watched as the heavy buckle of her belt made another slide across the room.

Gavin stepped on the belt’s tail, bent, and gathered her sodden clothes. “Get dressed and get out.” He threw them on the bed before grabbing his shirt and coat. “I want you gone before I get back.”

The door slammed behind Gavin. What happened? One minute he was kissing her throat and positioning himself between her thighs, and the next he was hurling her clothes at her and ordering her out. Out of the room. Out of his bed.

Confusion had Alice staring at the back of the door. He couldn’t have left like that. He’d get two paces down the galley way and realize he’d made a mistake and he’d be back.

As the seconds ticked by, the sting of his rejection burned deeper. Alice covered her face with her hands. She could still sense him, touching her breasts, stroking her, filling her. Her body pulsed with the pleasured ache of knowing a man. So this is what all the fuss was about.

Part of her was grateful. Gavin, being more experienced, obviously knew how to please a woman. Alice sighed. The way her body reacted to a swirl here, a kiss there. With each caress, tiny sparks of light danced upon her skin. When his hand slipped lower and his fingers moved upon the sensitive flesh between her thighs, she never imagined anything could feel like that.

The pain of his first thrust didn’t surprise her. She’d heard from enough women to know what to expect, but what happened after the initial pain lost its burn had been stunning. The power of him. His strength. The smell of his skin. His…
shoulders.

But now, throwing her clothing at her. He’d changed her feelings of pleasure to ones of guilt. She felt shamed, used, dirty.