What the Earl Desires

by Burke, Aliyah

  “Stop with the cryptic talk. I want a simple yes or no.”

  Her hips rolled her along his thigh and he bit back a growl of pure pleasure. It was almost too much. The rich smell of her skin chased away the dankness which had surrounded him before. He knew how she tasted and Lord help him all he wanted to do was lift her skirts and…

  “No. Lord Adrys asked for me to come along and protect his daughter.” Her breath hitched a bit when he pressed closer. “So Father sent me.”

  Father. That was the second time she’d said it like that. He nuzzled behind her ear feeling empowered by the rush her scent gave him. “Why were you in Egypt and what did you do to get Fineas?”

  Her head tilted to the side, an unconscious move he was sure, and gave him better access. His tongue swiped along the shell of her ear and she shuddered.

  “A sheik gave him to me.”

  He knew the Egyptians prized their horses more than their women, so what had she done in order to be given one? One hand moved to settle upon her waist, his fingers curling around the soft material of her dress.

  “What did you do to earn that distinction?”

  “I killed a rival of his.”

  He should be disgusted. He should be a lot of things but all he was could be summed up in a single word. Aroused.

  “Do you always kill when you go places?”

  “Only if Father has instructed me to. Or the situation calls for it.”

  His mind raced with all of what Wilkes had told him about this vixen in his arms. An houri he’d called her only to shake his head and say that wasn’t right, for she had been rumored to use sex to obtain her goals at times. The thought of another’s touch on her made him furious.

  Najja was his.

  And for the moment they were in a darkened secret passage. Why was he thinking of her past when he should be focused on the woman before him? The here and now.

  “Kiss me, luv,” he uttered sliding his lips along hers.

  “I have things to do, Colin.” Her words were more than a bit breathless.

  “You sure do. Kiss me.” Another light pass of his lips.

  “If I do, can we continue through the passage?”

  “Anything, luv. Just kiss me.”

  She did and his world shifted. Roughly. Najja didn’t give him an innocent’s kiss. No, she sank her hands into his hair, held him still and damn near ravished his mouth. Her tongue thrust deep, sliding along his, infusing their tastes together. She moaned with desire as she rode his leg. Instantly he was harder than the rock surrounding them. Before he could wrest control from her, she ended it and pushed him back.

  “Come on,” she said.

  His heart thudded and when her hand found his in the dark he jerked her back to him. The beast within him had been teased and unleashed. He wanted more. Needed more. Needed her.

  Colin slammed his mouth over hers in a fierce, passionate kiss. She remained stiff beneath him for all of a second. Then her passion exploded up to meet and tangle with his.

  Bloody hell.

  Chapter Five

  She was drowning. Willingly drowning in his embrace and his kiss. His arms banded about her like the iron she’d once worn but unlike then, his unyielding grip only heated her more. She wished there was time to allow him to sink between her thighs and show her what pleasure truly was about.

  Do not fail me child.

  Father’s voice in her head shoved the desire back under a rock where it lived. She knew Colin could tell something had changed for he slowly released her, not totally but the kiss ended and his grip loosened.

  “Najja? Talk to me, luv. What happened?”

  He didn’t back away, his arms still kept her banded to his solid chest. The fingers on her back swirled in small circles. Oh, it would be heaven to give in. Just once…

  “Nothing,” she lied. “We need to keep going. I have to finish checking the passageways and find out which to seal up.”

  He captured her hand and followed. “I know you are lying, Najja. Something happened and I want to know what. But that can be dealt with later. Why are you trusting me with news about this house?”

  “Lord Adrys told me he mentioned to you what happened. And to trust you.”

  “You would not tell me about this had he not told you that.” It was a statement.

  “No.”

  “Why?”

  “It is not my habit, Colin, to say things to people I barely know.”

  His hand tightened on her. “But kissing is?”

  “Sex is often a way to gain information. Naught but a tool.”

  She knew he would assume she’d done just that and hardened her heart against the stab of pain it caused her. Why did it matter if he thought her no better than a whore?

  “Is that so?” he rumbled in her ear.

  Ignoring the quivers of delight his breath along her skin created within her, she focused on the hand along the wall, searching for any sort of depression or crack. Logically she knew she should be checking the other side as well but she could do that later for having his hand secured around her own…was rather nice.

  “You are a man, Colin. Do you expect me to believe you have never used sex to get what you wanted?”

  “Perhaps,” he allowed, his words low in timbre yet they resonated powerfully through her. “What I want though is sex. With you.”

  She tripped only to have him save her from planting her face upon the floor. “Wait,” she muttered, backing up to check where she tripped. Something raised resided there. She couldn’t make it out in the dark. “Do you have a match?”

  He dropped her hand and moments later a small flame speared the darkness. She stepped back and drew him down with her toward the floor. The stone was higher than the others.

  “Shite!” Colin swore seconds before darkness shrouded them again.

  “You okay?”

  “Yes. Need another one lit?”

  “No. I can come back and check it out later with a torch. We should keep going. I do not want Jo to come looking for me.”

  Their hands locked together then continued along, silence expect for breathing and steps. No more conversation passed up to the time she found the other side of the passageway. They’d sloped down and honestly Najja had no clue where they would end up.

  “Do you know how to open this?” he asked in a whisper.

  “No. Nor do I know where it will come out so be prepared for anything.”

  They each took a side and not much later his soft tone reached her. “I think I found it.”

  Najja approached him and felt along his arms to where his hands rested. However, in order to do so she had to duck under one and place herself between him and the door. His hardness rubbed enticingly against her backside. His hard length obvious as he pressed close.

  “I like having you here, luv.”

  Biting her lip, she ignored her heart palpations. “Focus, Colin,” she snapped only partially annoyed for she enjoyed it as well.

  “Trust me, luv. I am focused.”

  She sought his fingertips and located the small depression. “Not the time.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She gulped. “Yes. When you press it, do your best to keep it from swinging wide. I will do the same from the other side.”

  He waited until she moved away. “Ready?”

  “Yes.”

  The door swung toward her and she pressed a hand on it, only allowing it to open a sliver.

  “What do you see?” Colin asked.

  There wasn’t much to see. “Looks like a cellar.” His presence materialized behind her. The door opened further. “Be careful.”

  “I was just going to give you the same advice, luv,” he said, his hand smoothing across her butt with disturbing familiarity.

  They stepped through and the door closed without a sound behind him. There was barely any light but some was better than none. In the dimness she could make out the large physique of Colin beside her. What little light there wa
s glinted off the earring he wore making him appear even more pirate-like.

  She really needed to concentrate on the task at hand.

  Something was in the air that struck her as familiar. “Do you smell that?”

  “No, what is it?”

  “I am not sure. I know it but I cannot recall from where.”

  They made their way slowly toward the light. Her body thrummed from merely being with this man and to have him at her side during a time like this…well, it made things go off the chart. The closer they got the more her instincts kicked up. They were not alone and she let him know that.

  Silently they moved forward, all her senses attuned to what lay ahead. She could feel him near but she stayed focused, her fingers of her left hand curled about the stiff handle of the item which made up her belt. Male voices could be heard and in her blood pounded the rush she got in situations like these. Colin’s fingers dug into her right arm and she knew he wanted to protect her and yet she would bet anything he was recalling what Wilkes had told him.

  She stopped and drew him down so she could murmur directly into his ear. “We should wait or go back.”

  “Why?”

  “That smell is opium.”

  “Opium?”

  “They will be out of it soon.”

  “What about getting back for Jo?”

  “If I do not find out who these men are they could kill her.”

  “So we wait. Where?”

  She headed off to a far corner, using his hold on her to bring him along. There were a few large barrels that she figured could be good cover. He put her closest to the barrels then sat beside her. She unfurled her left hand, knowing she would have to move in order to use the whip.

  “Do we get to play while we wait?”

  “Play what?” she asked deliberately being obtuse.

  “Any game that allows touching.”

  “No,” she said struggling to contain her laughter. She actually liked this man.

  They sat in silence for a bit while the voices rose and fell. She didn’t struggle when his arm draped around her and tugged her closer to his solid wall of muscle.

  “Tell me about you, Colin.”

  Maybe if she kept him talking she wouldn’t continue to think about how good he felt against her. And maybe she would sprout wings and fly.

  “What is it you wish to know?”

  Everything. “Where did you get the earring?”

  His chest moved in time with his silent laughter. There was something extremely intimate crouching with a man in a darkened corner whispering back and forth.

  “When I was in the Royal Navy.”

  The declaration had thrown her for a moment. Most aristocracy children who served bought a commission in the Army, feeling the Navy to be beneath them. Despite all that, she could picture him on a ship. The wind whipping through his dark brown hair, a cocky come-and-get-me smile on his face. The gold glinting in the sun while the rest of the rays continued to keep his skin a lovely and distractingly beautiful tan.

  And yet, somehow…

  “They allowed you, as an officer, to have one?”

  His fingers stroked her upper arm shooting spikes of heat through her even with the material of her dress between them.

  “How did you know I was an officer?”

  “You are the son of an earl.” I cannot envision you as anything but.

  He tensed. “So I am. They hated it but I refused to remove it. I had a bit of a hot head. Which is why I never made it higher than a commander. That and I put the lives of the men serving with me above some other things which would have ensured my promotion to Captain.”

  Those words endeared him to her even more. A bit of news which more than rattled her. Surely she of all people couldn’t be falling for the son of a titled English peer. The facts were all laid out before her. She wasn’t falling for him for she already had fallen for Commander Colin Faulkner.

  “So after you left the Navy you came here instead of London?”

  He nuzzled her neck and she shivered. “I had enough of being a war hero. After the last battle, Trafalgar, I found I craved the peace the country brings. My tenants are good people, hard workers who want nothing more than to make a good life for their families. They do not bother me with endless prattle like I got in London.”

  She could hear his dislike for London with each word he uttered. His other hand trailed down her arm and began touching her hand. Almost like he was memorizing the shape and feel of it. His fingers stroked her knuckles then dipped between each finger and back again. Over and over while his breath continued to fan along her neck and shoulder. The cold floor she sat upon, not important. The chill in the air didn’t matter. All that did was his touch.

  “I have not spoken to my family since I left the service. They live their lives and I live mine.”

  “Sounds like your life is perfect.”

  Back and forth between her middle and third finger he rubbed. “I used to think so.”

  Her stomach fluttered at the simple yet erotic touch. She had no idea of what to say. However, she knew what she longed to do. To him. With him. For him. It didn’t matter. Closing her eyes she gulped some stale air, which seemed to hum with sexual tension, and prayed for the strength to get through this.

  His tongue snaked out and tracked the outer shell of her ear. She jumped. There was no way around it. He made her feel things she couldn’t understand.

  “Najja,” he said on a deep throated purr.

  “I…I…hear nothing.” Well, if one didn’t count the thunderous pounding of her heart.

  “And?” He nipped the lobe, tugging lightly on the silver which hung there.

  Forcing steel into her limbs she got up. “So we can leave.”

  He rose beside her and backed her into the corner. “You can only run for so long, luv.”

  Oh, she could run for a very long time. No point in giving him a head’s up on that though. “Come on, we should go.”

  They walked in silence up toward where the voices had streamed from. All the while she mulled over what he had told her and what his friend Wilkes had said. Colin was having problems with hijackers. She offered to help him. It is his decision to take me up on it.

  The room splintered with light from the outside and she saw three bodies lying there, unconscious. Pausing, she scanned for any sign there were some awake. Seeing nothing, they progressed further into the room and she moved to one man while Colin headed to another.

  “Do you know them?” she asked, committing the man to memory.

  He crouched beside her. “No.” Colin moved and she turned her head to track him toward the final slumped man. “None of them.”

  She made certain to catalog the stats of the other two men before she headed for the door. Instinct told her to kill them but she doubted Colin would approve. But at least she could take their descriptions back to Lord Adrys and see if he recognized them. If he did, she could easily slip back through the passageway and eliminate them. From the looks of things, these men used this place often.

  With a groan, she headed back to the other room, and made sure there were no distinct footprints in the dirt covered floor. Colin waited for her by the door, keeping an eye on the men.

  Outside she breathed the fresh air with gratitude. She saw their horses but even they didn’t ring familiar to her from the night of the attack. Shite. She hated to be at a disadvantage. Head up, she stared at the tall thick trees around and back to the run down cottage.

  “It looks like a crofters hut,” Colin said.

  “Any idea how far from the main house?”

  “None. Sorry.”

  Swallowing her disappointment, she headed back to the entrance. “Come on.”

  “Why back inside?”

  “I have to get back to the house and fast. I know this route.” She stopped by a man and grabbed part of his dirty shirt before winding it around a stick she’d grabbed outside.

  They searched and found a way
to open the passageway. Once inside, Colin lit the cloth and the flame illuminated the area. She took the lead and set off at a good pace. At the place they entered she felt for a release catch and then rolled the torch on the dirty floor, submerging them into coal-black darkness one more time.

  Activating the catch, she peered through the crack and found the antechamber blissfully empty. They snuck through and the section closed silently behind Colin. She glanced at him and gave him a slight smile.

  His hand shot out and only curved around her wrist since she tamped down her instinctive reaction to move. She allowed him to tug her in closer until his green eyes stared down at her, smoky with desire and something else.

  “Do not go back down there to deal with them by yourself, Najja.”

  The words were said in a low tone, one covered in the iron will of a man who didn’t expect to be disobeyed. It was almost cute. But she didn’t take orders from anyone other than Father.

  She stared back at him, silent. His gaze narrowed and he gripped her chin in two fingers.

  “I mean it.”

  Jo’s voice calling her name could be heard along with feet pounding on the stairs. She had to get him to let go.

  “Promise me.”

  She couldn’t lie to him. “I cannot.”

  “Damn it, Najja.” She could feel his frustration.

  “It is my job to protect them.”

  His jaw tightened and his nose flared. “I thought it was to protect Jo.”

  “Her family means the world to her. If they die, part of her will and I will do everything in my power to keep that from happening.” His eyes darkened and swirled. “In here, Jo,” she hollered before stepping out of Colin’s intoxicating touch.

  Colin could think of nothing he’d like to do more than slam the door and lock it, keeping Jo out and him alone in here with Najja. What was wrong with him that he couldn’t get her out of his mind? Awake or asleep it didn’t matter, his thoughts stayed on Najja.

  He took another step back ensuring there was proper distance between him and Najja when Jo barreled into the room. As she and Najja spoke to one another he allowed his gaze to linger over the woman he didn’t know how to handle.