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She inhaled deeply, thinking how shocking it must’ve been, the sea so clean and wide open compared with the oppressive life of an indentured slave. “It must’ve been so different for you, after you escaped. Did you not simply want to stay on the water, sailing forever?”
“I had to sail back to find you. ” He’d said it playfully, but the words hung in the air, charged.
She knew in that moment how deeply she loved him.
She’d sensed it before, but this was a revelation that sheared her through, a bone-deep knowledge striking her like a thunderclap. Not only did she love Aidan, she could have no other man but him. She’d be incomplete without him. Unrealized without him.
His hand on her leg burned. She wanted it to move higher, wanted him to move closer. Her body ached with the wanting.
She wanted him to kiss her again, and more than kiss her, she wanted him to take her. She sensed she’d never fully be a woman until he did. She’d be trapped in some eternal limbo between girl and woman until she felt his body over her, in her.
She’d thought him handsome and strong. Dangerous for all but her. But Aidan was so much more than that. He was the other, unrealized part of herself.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
She knew he meant to ask only if she were ready to descend. But when she spoke, she answered quite a different question. “Yes, Aidan,” she said steadily. “I’m ready. ”
Chapter 27
When they’d first met, Aidan thought Elspeth a skittish sort of girl, sheltered and easily frightened. How wrong he’d been. She was simply shy, and he was quickly finding out how large was the gulf that lay between fearful and bashful.
“Before we climb down, you must kiss me,” she said, as brazen as any wanton. She leaned down, tangling her fingers in his hair. They were cool, her touch gentle, but rather than soothe him, she inflamed him.
No, she didn’t have a scared bone in her body.
He was shocked, and he was grateful. Grateful to be in this woman’s life, grateful she found him worthy. And grateful too for all the damned books that’d put the thought into this innocent maiden’s head that she might climb a ship’s rigging and kiss its captain, despite his being in possession of a soul cursed by the devil.
“I’ll kiss you,” he said, his words sounding rougher than he’d intended, and he took control, pulling her down to him, seizing her in a kiss he’d been saving for years. His lips met hers, and he gave her the kiss he’d dreamed of, a kiss worthy of taming such a fanciful woman. Their tongues twined, and he gave her a kiss to show the world that he would take what he wanted, that he’d possess as any other man possessed.
But rather than tame her, his rough taking of her mouth had only inflamed Elspeth, and she writhed at his touch, pulling away to gasp for air only to come back down to him, her hands tangling in his shirt, her legs wrapping about his body.
The ship hit a wave and jounced. His hand slipped farther up her thigh, and he realized how close his fingers were to the thatch of hair between her legs that he so longed to touch.
The muscles of his legs, normally so strong, flinched with the effort of balancing so precariously high in the rigging. As much as he wanted to find a way to take Elspeth then and there, he summoned his resolve. “We mustn’t do this. We need to go back down on deck. ”
She pulled from him, and she was a glorious sight, her cheeks red from the wind, her eyes bright with lust. “Why?”
Joy crackled through his chest at the feel of her in his hands. She had no idea the danger he posed to her innocence. “You want that I should steal your maidenhead, here in the crow’s nest?”
“No,” she said seriously. “We can go back to your cabin and you can take it there. ”
A loud laugh burst from him. “Come, Beth. We’ll discuss this on deck, where I’m not in danger of being unmanned whilst balancing sixty feet in the air. ”
They made their way back down the ladder, and the sight of her rump cradled between his arms, nestled just in front of his face, did nothing for his hardened cock, now standing at merry attention as though it were a bizarre extension of the rigging.
Reaching the bottom, she leaped into his arms, and he stumbled back a step as he caught her. She was a spitfire in his arms, with unschooled but eager kisses. If she didn’t watch herself, he’d take her virginity there on the varnished cedar of his ship’s deck.
He kissed her, but fought to keep his head. Elspeth deserved much in this world, and though he could dream of a hundred different things he’d do to her body, taking her virginity before she wed was not one of them.
She pulled away, those beautiful lips parted and gently panting. “Aidan? Is aught the matter? Do you not want me?”
Reminding himself of his resolve, he set her apart to stand before him on the deck. “How could you doubt it?”
She had no idea of the battle that waged inside him. But he’d not take Elspeth’s virginity like an unruly ship’s hand.
She smoothed her skirts, explaining in a tone a politician might use to present a bill before Parliament, “I don’t see the trouble. I want you. Very much. Right now, in fact. There’s no better opportunity. And you know what folk say: ‘Fools look to tomorrow, wise men use tonight. ’ ”
He laughed. “I don’t think that was their intent. ” Some might call Elspeth quirky or strange, but he’d never tire of the unexpected delight that found purchase in his heart whenever she was near. “I can’t take your innocence, not like this. ”
