The Captain's Lady Page 36

  “Cloud?” She said his name hesitantly, almost fearfully.

  “Shut up.” His voice was not abrasive or cruel. The words were not pronounced angrily or menacingly. They reached her senses as a caress—holding her, enveloping her. Cloud placed his palms flat against the door on either side of her head.

  His hands moved to her throat and Alexis’s breath constricted as if his fingers were pressing tightly against her flesh when actually he was doing no more than unclasping the frog of her cape. She leaned forward a fraction, letting the cloak slip from her shoulders and fall to the floor. He gently pushed her back against the door as if he realized she needed it for support. His fingers found the circle of silver at her neck. Then his hands moved lower, cupping her breasts, and slowly, expertly, he began to unfasten the buttons of her dress. He slid the material down her arms, over the curve of her hips, and allowed it to join the cape at her feet. He knelt in front of her and removed her shoes. His hands recoiled as they reached to touch the warm flesh of her calves and came in contact with the cold metal of her dagger. She heard his low chuckle as he unstrapped the weapon, then she felt the tip of the blade sliding upward along the length of her leg, lifting her slip as Cloud slowly began to rise.

  “Raise your arms.”

  Alexis responded, not to the edge of steel against her waist, but to his steel edged voice. He tossed the dagger aside and lifted the material over her breasts, over her head, and finally past her slender wrists and trembling fingers. Her arms started to fall, but he caught them in one hand and held them above her while his other hand removed the pins from her hair, freeing the golden mass to his inquiring fingers.

  “I like your hair like this.”

  It fell across her shoulders and breasts and he caught a section of it between his fingers. He fondled it lightly, rediscovering the texture, the thick richness of the gold he held. His eyes never left her face as he laid the ringlets against her skin and stroked the warm, yielding softness of her breasts.

  Alexis heard a soft moan pass her parted lips as the naked flesh beneath his palm quivered and her nipples hardened and thrust forward to meet his caress. His hand dropped lower. The tips of his fingers brushed against the curve of her waist, across the flat plane of her stomach, and rested gently on the warm skin of her inner thigh.

  He could see her amber eyes imploring him, begging him, to take her. Her eyes, with golden flecks of fire, spoke eloquently in place of the voice she did not have the strength to use. He pressed against her more tightly, forcing her back to the door, one hand still holding her wrists, the other at the junction of her legs, and now he added the pressure of his mouth on hers to push her head back. He sensed her momentary struggle, not to be free of him, but to be free to hold him, then her gradual acceptance when she realized he would not allow her this, and finally her willing response to his kiss.

  Abruptly he removed his hands and his mouth and stepped back out of her reach. With the loss of support her arms fell limply to her sides and she thought it was only a matter of seconds before she collapsed entirely at his feet.

  “Come here. I want you to come to me.”

  Somehow she found her voice. “I don’t think I can,” she whispered.

  “You can.”

  And she did. When she reached him she collapsed in his arms, regaining her strength from the contact of his body close to hers. Her arms circled his neck. As her mouth sought his he lowered her to the deck. His kiss was hard. His hands were no longer tender in their stroking but fierce and demanding. Alexis accepted it all, knowing this was his way of regaining ownership over something he had almost lost this evening.

  He tore his mouth away and released himself from the circle of her embrace. Standing, he took off his clothes. She watched, her breathing becoming more irregular with each article that drifted to the floor. She stroked his bare, muscular calf, and as he knelt beside her, her hand moved along the tight skin of his thigh. He pushed her hand aside and placed his hands beneath her shoulder blades, lifting her toward him, her head tilted back, and kissed the hollow of her throat.

  His lips moved from her throat to her breasts, burning her skin, bruising her flesh. Her fingers held his head, caressed his temples, and lightly drew down the column of his neck.

  Her nails raked across his back as his mouth fell on hers once more and his demands increased. He pressed her to the deck and moved between her parted thighs.

  “You could have been killed tonight.” He thrust into her.

  “Yes.” They both knew she was responding to his statement as well as his thrust.

  “I could have lost you.” He moved powerfully again.

  “Yes.” Her legs wrapped around him, holding him tightly, assuring him in his anguished pleasure he could not lose her now.

  “And you’ll still go after Travers!” His stroking continued.

  “I will. Yes!” She arched her back and matched his thrusts, answering him with her voice and her body.

  Alexis felt herself being lifted higher and higher, supported by nothing but the rising wave of pleasure he was creating. She clung to him, unwilling to reach the crest without him or make the descent alone. She cried out at his final thrust as one explosion after another rocked her body.

  A moan, a cry of helplessness, muffled against the warm skin of his shoulder, reached his ears as her mouth pressed its outline on his perspiring flesh. He fell beside her, her fingers gripping his arms tightly in a last effort to hold him to her. When the last of her strength was finally exhausted, her fingers opened, unfolding like the petals of a delicate flower, and slipped from his arms. She remained motionless except for the occasional tremors that spoke of the pleasure which had just passed between them.

  His arm circled her waist and drew her close. He felt warm, uneven breathing against his chest, more intimate in its contact than the closeness of their bodies. When she quieted he made a move to pull away from her, wanting to carry her to bed.

  “No. Don’t move,” she whispered. “I want to stay here…with you…just like this.” She heard his low, throaty laughter and sensed his smile as he settled beside her. A little later she said, “I was afraid, Cloud. For both of us.”

  His arm tightened around her. “You shouldn’t have come.”

  She shook her head. “Don’t say that. You released me. It was my choice to use my liberty as I did.”

  “But you didn’t even know what you were facing.”

  “I knew some of it. I knew I would lose you if I didn’t return.” She placed her hand on his chest, caressing it lightly. He felt the trembling of her voice through the trembling of the five slim fingertips that touched him. “I don’t want to be apart from you.”

  “And you won’t be,” he assured her. His hand clasped hers and he pressed it close. “Now tell me what you thought you were facing when you came back.”

  Alexis told him everything that had happened since she’d found herself back aboard the Dark Lady. She conveyed Landis’s suspicions and his crew’s help in Cloud’s escape. She hesitated a moment near the end of the story, then plunged in, explaining how Farthington had stumbled upon their scheme and almost upset everything. When she finished his mouth covered hers, hard at first, then more softly, tenderly. She made no protest when he lifted her in his arms and placed her in the bunk.

  He did not join her immediately. He searched her room for a lamp. Finding one, he lit it. A soft, golden light filled the cabin and flickered over Alexis’s body. Cloud stepped closer to the bunk and admired the tawny flesh that seemed to quiver as if it were being stroked and fondled by the glow. He reached out to touch one of the patches of diffused light falling on her cheek. She held his hand in place, her eyes caressing his face, silently conveying the words she had never said aloud.

  “Come,” she said quietly. “Lie beside me.”

  He obeyed and fitted himself comfortably along the contours of her body. Her fingers curled around the thick copper hair at the nape of his neck and brushed against hi
s temple and the lean, tight skin of his face.

  “My men? Did they hurt you very badly?” she asked.

  “My pride.” He gripped her wrists, reliving that moment when she had exposed herself to so much danger because of him. He released her suddenly and laughed. “I guess I deserved it. Your cabin boy warned me all along that you were in charge.”

  “Peach told me you were stubborn.”

  “A trait you apparently planned for,” he commented dryly.

  She kissed his lips tenderly. “I tried to prepare for everything.”

  “Even for what happened in this room?”

  “Even for that.” She was silent for a while before she said, “Tell me what they were after, Cloud. Were your crew’s suspicions justified?”

  “Completely.” He paused then, thinking back to all Howe had told him. Alexis waited patiently, giving him time to sort through the experience. When he finally spoke his voice was edged with the same bitterness she remembered hearing when he spoke of his impressment. The muscles and tendons in his chest and arms tensed beneath her embrace. His arms tightened around her as he explained Howe’s plan to turn her over to the British in return for considerations when a treaty was signed. When he told her the senator’s intention was to execute him in the morning her tears fell silently on his skin, scalding him with the white hot intensity of her passion.

  “How could they want to do those things to you? What kind of men are they that would not respect the decision of their peers and would fight against their country when she needs them most?” She wanted to say more but her voice shook while her body shuddered against his. She fell silent, knowing he understood all she could not say.

  He kissed her tears, her closed eyes, and trembling lips. He drew out her despair and anger with his mouth as a poultice would draw poison.

  “Howe can’t touch us now,” he whispered. “You’ve seen to that.” She started to argue but it came to nothing as his fingers pushed against her lips. “We’ll discuss what to do about stopping him in the morning. I don’t want his name between us now.”

  “You’re right,” she murmured. She turned sleepily in his arms.

  “Tired?” He was grinning.

  “Exhausted,” she replied, suddenly realizing how true that statement was. She glanced up at his face and saw his green eyes were smiling at her. The smile was a translucent cover for the hunger and longing behind it. She felt powerless and impotent beneath his steady gaze, as if she had no will of her own. Then she realized she did have a will and the want serving as its impetus was her desire for him. She stammered. “Not if…that is not if you want…I mean if you want…”

  “If I want to make love to you?”

  “Yes,” she answered weakly.

  “Oh, I do. I do. But I want you to sleep now.” He laughed, running his fingers through her hair. “Who knows? Maybe you’ll be able to speak in complete sentences later.”

  She pinched his arm and nestled beside him, her lips curved in a contented smile. Slowly her eyes closed and her lashes fanned slivers of shadow across her face.

  “I love you,” said Cloud. He noticed the slight curve of her mouth.

  When Alexis awoke she threw off the covers Cloud had placed over them. Outside it was still dark but the lamp had never been extinguished and she lifted her head, letting her gaze wander over his lean, well-muscled features. He was a composite, she thought. A composite of valuable metals and precious stones: brilliant emerald eyes; rich copper hair; bronzed flesh hinting of golden undertones where the sun had not touched it; sinewy muscles having the tensile strength of steel. A human alloy cast from the materials men had prized from almost the beginning of time.

  He was lying on his back, one arm flung around his head as it rested in the curve of his elbow. The other arm lay at his side, palm up, and Alexis traced the lines of his life with her fingertip. His breathing was even, his chest rising and falling in a slow, easy motion, comforting her with its steady rhythm. His long legs were intertwined with hers and she could feel the pulse beat in his thigh against her own. His face showed no sign of past tension or any indication the future would not be exactly as he wanted it. There were no troubled lines marring the perfection of his classic features.

  A small, deep sigh escaped his parted lips. Alexis smiled, understanding what it was Cloud had wanted to capture when he heard her sigh. She felt the same desire to embrace the sound, its origins, and its creator so it would be repeated again and again.

  “Cloud?” She whispered his name softly as she nibbled at his ear and rubbed her leg against his. She liked the feel of their flesh touching.

  “Hmm?” he answered, not bothering to open his eyes.

  “When we were away from each other for so long…when I first escaped you until you returned for me…were there other women for you?”

  “Two. Three. I can’t remember.”

  “I’m not sorry there were others.”

  “Why?”

  “Because they would remind you only of how much you wanted me.” She was silent a moment, then, “Cloud?”

  She murmured his name against his shoulder, tickling his skin lightly with her breath.

  “Hmm?” he answered, eyes still closed.

  “If I told you Travers did not matter anymore…that I am tired of the pursuit…that I don’t care if I find him any longer…would you believe me?”

  “No.”

  “Good.” A brief pause settled between them, then, “Cloud?”

  She said his name wonderingly, as if she had just discovered she liked the sound of it. Her fingers traced lazy circles on the surface of his abdomen.

  “Hmm?” he answered, peering into the darkness afforded by his shuttered eyes.

  “On the cliff, the day I became Alex Danty again, I swore two things to myself.”

  “Yes?”

  “Do you know I’ve broken the second promise?”

  “I know.”

  “I love you.” The only sound she was conscious of came from the increased beating of his heart, then, “Cloud?”

  She breathed his name gently, the slightest catch in the single word. She caught his nipple between her teeth.

  “Hmm?” he answered, still closing her off to his vision.

  “They would have picked you for me. George and Francine and Pauley, I mean. They would have wanted me to choose you.”

  “Why?”

  “Francine would have picked you because you are so fine looking. You are, you know. She would have told me the qualities that make you beautiful come from your character. George would have chosen you because you’re intelligent, honest, and quietly arrogant. He would have said your pride was refreshing because it came from a man who believed in himself. And Pauley…Pauley would have singled you out because you would have never backed down from him. He would have said that it meant you knew what you wanted. That was a quality he valued highly. They all would have been right about you.”

  “And why did you choose me?” His eyebrows lifted almost imperceptibly.

  “For all those reasons—and one more.”

  “And?”

  “You wanted me for the same reasons.” She was quiet until she could stand it no longer. Finally, “Cloud?”

  She said his name anxiously, frustrated. Her palms slid up his chest while her knee moved to his naked thigh and rested there.

  “Hmm?” he answered, his heavily lashed lids still hiding green eyes.

  “What do I have to do to get you to make love to me?”

  “Is that what you want?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then ask me.”

  “Will you make love to me?”

  “Is there a chance you might sleep until morning afterward?”

  “A very good chance.”

  “Then I will make love to you.”

  His eyes opened wide in surprise as she sunk her teeth into his shoulder. Laughing, he threw her on her back and began to return the exquisite torture she had been putting him throu
gh.

  When Alexis opened her eyes the light flooding the room was not artificial. Cloud was sitting on the edge of the bed in the last stages of dressing. He felt her movement on the mattress and turned in time to see Alexis attempt to bury herself in the softness and cover her face with a sheet.

  “Isn’t it time the captain of this ship was up and about?” he asked, pulling the sheet from her.

  Moaning, she clutched the material and tried to draw it over her again. “I think the captain’s been drugged.” She gave up the tug of war and contented herself by flinging an arm over her eyes.

  “Any suspects?”

  She lifted her arm, cast him an accusing glance, and covered her eyes again. “All I want to know is if it’s addictive.”

  Cloud shook his head slowly. His voice could not have conveyed more seriousness. “I’m not sure. Let me know how you feel in a few hours.”

  Alexis lifted herself on her elbows in time to see a wide grin spreading across his face. She pushed him off the bunk. While he was laughing and tugging at his boots she wrapped a sheet around her and scrambled out. She got a few feet from him when she was stopped by a sudden tug on her covering. She spun and tried to release it from his fingers but he held fast and drew her closer. When she was standing over him he released the sheet and pulled her down onto his lap.

  “You didn’t struggle very hard,” he observed.

  Alexis wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her cheek comfortably against his chest. “It must be the drug. I feel as if I could use another draught.”

  “Already?” His tone mocked her but his hands had begun loosening the sheet and caressing her bared flesh.

  Alexis nodded. “Already,” she answered firmly, lifting her mouth to receive his kiss.

  Their lips and tongues had barely tasted of one another when they were halted by a hesitant rapping at the door. Alexis sighed and reluctantly released herself from the circle of Cloud’s arms. She looked up into his eyes and laughed at the expression of pure misery she saw there, knowing she was seeing the reflection of her own disappointment. To him she whispered, “It wasn’t meant to be, love.”