by Lydia Dare
He was handsome in his shirtsleeves, but he was even more handsome when he tugged his shirt over his head. Livi’s breath stopped and she raised a trembling hand to her lips.
Gray had a fine dusting of hair across his chest, and she reached out to touch it as he stepped closer. Her hand played in the springy curls until her fingertip brushed across his nipple and he sucked in a breath.
“You are wearing too many clothes,” he warned as he gripped her gown by the sleeves and began to pull it from her shoulders. With very little finesse, he shoved it over her hips and picked her up. Then he laid her gently on the small bed wearing nothing but her chemise, her stockings, and her single slipper. She giggled to herself when she remembered what had happened to the other one.
Gray looked down at her, his gaze skeptical as he asked, “And just what part of this do you find amusing?”
She lifted one foot, pointed to her slipper, and said, “My slippers, if you must know.”
Gray jerked her remaining slipper from her foot and tossed it over his shoulder. Then he shoved her chemise up a bit and began to roll her stocking down her leg. He let his hand slide along the sensitive skin of her thigh. “Where is it?” he asked, his voice gravelly all of a sudden.
“You just threw it over your shoulder,” she said, pointing to some unknown spot behind him.
“Not the slipper,” he said, his hand sweeping higher, so high that the backs of his fingers brushed her curls.
She sucked in a breath. “I don’t believe you need any help finding that,” she said, her face flooding with heat. A nervous chuckle, warbling because of her uncertainty, escaped her lips.
“Where’s the birthmark?” he asked as he tugged the stocking over her foot and tossed it in the direction her slipper had gone.
“The other thigh,” she whispered, her belly suddenly flooding with heat as he rucked her gown up toward her waist and bared her thighs. With a wicked smile curving his lips, he pressed her legs apart and pulled her remaining stocking down and off.
His eyes narrowed as he surveyed the intimate flesh of her inner thigh. His thumb drew little circles that stole her breath even more. “Gray,” she protested.
“Livi,” he countered. He suddenly froze. His thumb stopped circling, and he stared down at the uppermost portion of her inner thigh. She tried to close her legs, but he would have none of that. He tsked at her as he kept her legs open. He could see all of her in that position if he raised his eyes but a scant inch. Gray lowered his head toward her thigh, and Livi squealed, pulling away from him.
But he simply held her tighter. He growled playfully as he touched his lips to that birthmark. His touch was tender until she felt his playful little teeth nibbling the sensitive skin of her inner thigh. Her belly clenched, but she didn’t push him away. He was much too intent upon his task to be thwarted now. Instead, she simply lay back against the bed and closed her eyes.
The man was positively wicked, and she jumped when his hot breath blew against her nether curls.
“Shhh,” he said, as though he worked to gentle a stubborn mare. “I simply want a taste.”
A taste? What on earth was he referring to? Then his tongue touched her and she no longer wanted to push him away. He licked up her slit, letting his tongue press hard at that little nub that pounded so fiercely. Livi spread her legs a little further to give him access. There was no way she would push him away. Instead, she threaded her fingers into his hair. His tongue played about her flesh, around and around that little nub, until her hips could no longer remain still. Livi arched to meet his questing tongue as a wave of sensation, very much like what he’d provoked in that dark corridor the day before, built up within her.
“Gray!” she cried as the pleasure threatened to cleave her in two. But his ministrations stopped. He stilled and stood up, shucking his remaining clothes. He’d left her unfulfilled, her blood pumping within her veins so hard he could probably hear it. A sheen of sweat began to form on her body. She should have turned her head as he disrobed, but she wasn’t able to tear her eyes away. There was no way she could keep from looking at his narrow hips, his broad chest, and his manhood jutting from within a small nest of dark curls. “Come back,” she beckoned.
Gray tugged her fingers gently until she sat up just long enough for him to pull her chemise over her head. He stilled and took her in, like she was a pretty painting he wanted to study.
With a low moan, he laid her back and looked down at her nipple, its rosy tip so close to his mouth. “Dear God, you’re beautiful,” he breathed before he took her nipple into his mouth.
“Gray,” she pleaded, the breathless sound of her voice foreign to her own ears.
Gray settled himself between her thighs, rocking against her core as he came up to kiss her.
She ran her fingers into his hair and tugged gently. “Please?” she whispered. She had no idea what she needed, but she felt certain he had the answers to her questions.
He chuckled as his manhood probed her center gently. He rocked his hips, settling closer and closer. “I promise to fix it for you,” he said.
“When?” she breathed, arching to meet his thrusts.
“Now,” he said quietly as he thrust inside her. He stilled when she stiffened. “Are you all right?” he asked, his breath heavy and filled with longing.
Livi lay very still, not certain how to feel about the way he filled her. The ache of his possession began to dissipate and she nodded against his shoulder. He slid ever so slowly, sheathing himself fully inside her. Small noises escaped his throat beside her ear, and she’d never felt so wanted, so desired. To have a man as strong as Grayson Hadley murmuring helplessly in her ear was a heady feeling.
One of his hands slipped down between them as he raised himself up on the other and looked down at her. As he began to move within her depths, he stroked across that little nub of pleasure and she couldn’t tell which was more fulfilling, the breathtaking slide of his manhood inside her or his fingers strumming her higher and higher.
Livi clutched his arms as the pleasure built within her. His lips lowered to hover over hers. “I love you, Livi,” he breathed against her lips.
The waves crashed over her like water over the falls. It stole her wits, her breath, and her very being. Gray stilled while his fingers continued their play, and she quaked around his length. She clutched at him until he milked all the pleasure from her.
“Bon Dieu,” she cried when it was over. Her body was languid and soft, her muscles like water. But Gray took her hands in his and raised them above her head, pressing them firmly into the mattress as his hips began to move again.
“Mine,” he grunted as his jaw tensed. Yes, she was his. There was no doubt. He moved inside her, faster and faster. “Put your legs around me,” he urged.
When she wrapped her calves around his back, he slid even deeper inside her, touching some place that sent her once again over that waterfall, and this time he joined her. Gray shuddered above her, his hands still pressing hers to the mattress as he spent himself inside her. The jolt of his completion made her sheath clench again and he cried out her name, his hips moving until he’d taken everything she had to give him and given her all of himself in return.
Gray collapsed onto her chest, then rolled to the side, taking her into the crook of his arm just as surely as she’d taken him into her heart.
Livi sighed as she burrowed closer to Gray, and he trailed lazy circles across her back. “For a while there,” he yawned, “I thought I might never see you again.”
She’d had the very same thought, the very same fear. Livi rose up on her elbow to look at him, her husband, so handsome, so strong. “But you found me.”
“I don’t plan on ever losing you again.” A roguish grin settled on his face. “Lie here beside me for a minute, and then we’ll cross back to the Madame Gracieuse. I just want to enjoy a few moments of bliss in your arms.”
How could Livi possibly refuse such an offer? She lay back down and
snuggled against her very warm husband.
Twenty-Nine
Gray awoke to the creaking of wood and the swaying of the ocean beneath him. He blinked his eyes wide. “We’re moving?” he asked, tasting the salty sea air on his tongue.
In his arms, Livi stirred. “Mmm?” she groaned, more asleep than awake.
Dear God. They’d fallen asleep. And where the devil were they? “Livi,” he said, trying to hide the panic in his voice. “My love, I think we’re moving.”
Livi rubbed at her eyes, then slowly pushed up on her elbow. “Uh-huh.” She smothered a yawn with her hand. “It feels like we’re sailing.”
But they couldn’t be sailing. Gray scrambled from the small bed. “I have to get home. We have to get home.” What would Dash say? What about Archer and Wes?
Livi lifted the counterpane to her chest and yawned once more. “If we’re out to sea, Gray, there’s nothing we can do about it.”
But there had to be something. They couldn’t be stuck on a ship. That was madness. The full moon was a night away. He couldn’t be a bloody wolf on board a blasted ship. “They’re going to have to turn around.” He found his trousers in a heap on the floor and quickly pulled them on. “We have to go back,” he said. “There’s a full moon tomorrow, Livi.”
“Well, then I’ll have to keep you here all to myself and out of sight, won’t I?” She giggled.
“I hardly find that amusing,” he grumbled as he tossed his shirt over his head. “Stay here. I’ll sort it out.”
“You wouldn’t be the first Lycan to spend the moonful onboard a ship,” she called as he slipped from the cabin into the darkened passageway in his bare feet.
Moonful on a ship. That sounded like the worst sort of nightmare. Something had to be done. Gray quickly found the ship’s steps and climbed back to the main deck. The nearly full moon glowed in the heavens and stars twinkled above, mocking him. He and Livi must have been asleep for quite some time for it to be so dark.
“So the married man finally emerges, does he?” came a now all-too-familiar voice just a few feet away.
Gray turned his head toward his new brother-in-law. Armand leaned casually against the railing. He cast a smirk in Gray’s direction, then turned his attention back to the darkened horizon before them.
“Where are we?”
Armand chuckled. “Do you not recall jumping aboard the Aspire? Hopefully, you remember you took a wife this afternoon.”
Gray was certain Armand Mayeux thrived on needling him. “I remember all of that perfectly well. What I don’t understand is why we are at sea when we should be in England.”
Armand pushed away from the rail and shrugged. “Well, you absconded with Livi before any real plans could be decided. Captain Payne needed to continue on his course, and I didn’t think it would be wise to seek your counsel at the time. There are certain things I don’t want to ever witness.”
Gray’s mouth fell open. “I’m just supposed to stay on this ship?”
“I suppose Livi could always toss you overboard.” Armand grinned as though he’d be happy to oblige his sister, should it come to that.
“But I have to get home. I have to get back to my family—”
“Not to worry, my new brother. Etienne will explain everything to them. Once he dispenses with that Honeywell fellow of yours anyway.”
Etienne? Honeywell? “Your brother left the ship?”
Armand nodded. “Someone had to. And I like you better than he does.”
None of this made any sense. “But why?” Why would Etienne return to England, while Gray found himself bound for America?
“That lord who shot you. He thought he could take advantage of Livi. Etienne will see that he doesn’t take advantage of anyone else.” His grin widened. “And I think he has aspirations of stealing Lady Sophia away from your brother, not that he’d admit as much.”
Gray must still be sleeping. All of this was a dream. Not one thing Armand Mayeux said made any sense at all. “He wouldn’t have to steal Lady Sophia from Archer. In fact, my brother would pay Honeywell to take her, I’m certain.”
Armand snorted. “That’s not the impression that I got.”
What the devil? “What gave you any impression at all? The two of them despise each other.” Lady Sophia was a cold fish if Gray had ever met one. Not Archer’s type in any way. His brother tended toward busty blondes with hips a man could grab hold of. And probably ride all night. Gray’s thoughts returned to Livi, who was warm beneath the counterpane in their bed. He suddenly wanted nothing more than to get back to her. He turned in that direction. But then his original purpose for coming above deck sneaked into his path. “So, we’re on the way to New Orleans?”
“By way of Boston.”
“We’ll be trapped on a ship the night of the moonful.”
Armand nodded, continuing his appraisal of the nearly full moon in the sky.
“Doesn’t that concern you at all?”
His new brother-in-law finally turned to face Gray. “Does it concern you?” His eyes opened wide, somewhat mocking. “You’re not afraid you’ll lose control with my sister, are you? If so, tell me now.”
Gray wasn’t afraid of that at all. Only of someone stumbling upon him in wolf form. There weren’t that many places to hide on a ship. “I’d never hurt her,” he said instead.
“Livi would lop your stones off with a dull knife from the galley if you ever did anything to hurt her.” He clapped Gray on the shoulder with a chuckle. “If she could get to you before I did, anyway.”
This conversation had been far from reassuring and less than helpful in so many ways. “What do you plan to do during the moonful?” Gray and his brothers usually retreated to the forest to seek solace within the surrounding nature. They didn’t stay in close proximity with regular people. And they certainly didn’t set sail aboard ships.
“Same as always. What are your plans?”
To toss his blasted brother-in-law into the Atlantic. Gray narrowed his eyes on the other man. “You’ve done this before? Spent a moonful in the middle of the ocean?”
Armand nodded. “More than once. There’s nothing to it, Hadley. And as there are no ladies on board, aside from my sister, the population is safe from my lusty wolfish nature.”
Gray heaved a sigh and swiped a hand down his face in frustration. “Do you stalk the deck and howl at the moon?”
The American chuckled. “Livi will lock me in my chambers. And much to my dismay, she’ll lock you in yours along with her.”
Heat crept up Gray’s cheeks. He would be locked in with Livi on the night of the moonful. He’d claim her as his own in a ritual more basic than any marriage ceremony. His manhood twitched at the thought of it. He’d bite the sensitive skin where her neck met her shoulder and leave his mark upon her, like he’d wanted to do ever since their very first kiss.
“I’m not certain your hasty marriage onboard a ship by an Irish priest will please my father.” He must have seen how confused that statement made Gray feel because he continued. “Under other circumstances, he might very well try to nullify your marriage.” He sent Gray a sly look. “But if she wears your mark…” He shrugged. “Not even Philippe Mayeux would disregard the significance of a bite mark.”
“Thank you for the suggestion,” Gray muttered. He must be making headway, at least with Armand, if the man was willing to give Gray information about how to win against their father. “Do you think he’ll hate me on sight?”
“I think he’ll absolutely loathe you and call you a money-grabbing whoremonger, and he’ll give Livi a hell of a time about it all.”
That was hardly reassuring. “Didn’t he send her off to be married?”
“He sent her off to be married to a man of wealth and prestige.” He snorted again. It was a most annoying sound.
“I may not be a man of wealth or prestige, but I love her.”
“And that is the only reason you’re alive today, Hadley,” Armand said with a haughty smir
k as he strolled away toward a dark corner of the ship.
Gray stood at the rail for a while, looking at the clear sky and the nearly full moon whose light bounced off the sea. He’d once given Wes a hard time for falling so deeply and so completely in love with Madeline. But now Gray completely understood how his brother felt. His heart was so full that it was near to bursting. Livi was his, and tomorrow he would claim her for an eternity.
Usually, when the moon was this full, a feral wildness rested just beneath his skin and he wanted a woman like nothing else. But a certain peace had settled within his heart on this fine night, sailing the ocean. He certainly wanted a woman, but not just any woman. He wanted his and only his. He wanted her fiercely, desperately, and completely.
The crescent-moon mark on her thigh crept back into his thoughts, and his heartbeat quickened at the thought of tasting it again. But then he remembered her father who was waiting at the other end of the journey. The man wouldn’t be able to deny the way Gray felt about Livi. But was he worthy of her? He would be some day. Livi was worth a bloody fortune, but that didn’t even signify for Gray. He didn’t want a single piece of it. He just wanted to meet her father, show him he could be a good man, a good provider, a father for his grandchildren, and to gain his trust. He could do that, couldn’t he?
The thought of being a father to Livi’s children made a little part of his heart ache with sweetness. He couldn’t wait to run his hands over her burgeoning belly, to feel a life they created growing within her. He wanted to see her chase a child across the courtyard at Hadley Hall and kiss the bottoms of tiny baby feet. He wanted it all.
But what would her father see when he met Gray? A wastrel from a poor family who was part owner of a gaming hell? Or would he just see a man who loved his daughter?
“You look like you’re a million miles away,” a soft voice said from beside his shoulder. He turned and looked down into Livi’s eyes, which were almost black in the moonlight. “What are you thinking about?”
