by Tonia Brown
PISTONS AND PISTOLS
TONIA BROWN
LYRICAL PRESS
http://lyricalpress.com/
KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/
This one is for lovers everywhere.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to everyone who helped shape the voyage of the Merry Widow. I have to give a special shout to Stephanie Kincaid for putting up with my constant annoyances, and to Pamela Tyner for bravely battling my laughable love of alliteration, and reminding me that a duvet is not a divan. And of course I have to thank my husband, Tony. Without his support I would have given up years ago.
Chapter 1
Desires and Doubts
In which we wish and wonder, worry and wait
Gabriella lay on her cot, trying her best to sleep, when she heard the undeniable sounds of someone outside her berth. At first she thought it was the indomitable Click on his way from one crewmember’s bed to another. Then, to her surprise, she heard the door open. Not the door of the room beside hers or the one down the way. No. Her door. She couldn’t imagine what Click wanted with her, of all people. Gabriella was set to run the randy cabin boy off when she caught sight of the dark silhouette looming in the moonlit doorway. A silhouette that wasn’t quite tall enough be the Tahitian native. Whether in either fear or excitement, she couldn’t be sure, Gabriella snapped her eyes closed and feigned sleep.
The telltale clack of the door closing reached her ears as she pretended to rest. For a moment she thought her uninvited guest had moved on, but no. She could feel him there, in the darkness, watching her. How uncivil. How gauche. How exhilarating! Gabriella could barely repress the grin that wanted to claim her lips as this stranger stood in the shadows of her room, watching her rest in the pale moonlight.
Yet it wasn’t a stranger. Gabriella knew who was watching her sleep, just as she knew her own heart. There was but one other male aboard The Merry Widow, and while she suspected that more than one of the all-female crew may have been a bit on the sapphic side, she was positive none of them would slip into her room just to watch her sleep.
At least, she thought she was sure.
The more she mulled over the possibility, the less convinced she became. In fact, she was close to asking the visitor to identify himself—or herself—just to clear the air. Before she could open her mouth, the stranger spoke.
“Are you awake, my angel?” he asked.
Gabriella melted into the welcome sound. It was the voice of Atom Loquacious, the Widow’s most recent employer and passenger, and the conqueror of Gabriella Upstairs’s heart. He had hired the ship to help him locate his missing father, the celebrated scientist Doctor Loquacious. Yet Gabriella liked to imagine that he remained aboard because he couldn’t stand the thought of leaving her side.
She would do just about anything for Atom. Indeed, she would do just about anything to Atom as well.
Her body tensed with the idea, and she resisted the urge to cup herself through her gown, as she had done for many nights now, in an attempt to relieve the deep ache his mere presence brought her. Just the thought of Atom left her anxious to delve into unspeakable acts, deeds that she had denied herself in the past out of propriety. Now, with him in her room, beside her bed, in the quiet of the night, she burned with unquenched desires.
Despite her cravings, not to mention the fact that their relationship was by no means ordinary, she found this unannounced visit inappropriate.
Turning her head to him, she opened her eyes and answered, “Yes, I’m awake. Why are you here? Is something wrong?”
“No,” he said, lurking somewhere in the inky shadows. “I know I shouldn’t just barge in like this, but…” His words trailed off, as if he were ashamed to say them.
Gabriella was touched by his shyness, then reminded herself that he was the one who had slipped into her room uninvited. “But?”
“I wanted to see you.”
“You can see me in the morning. When I’m not half dressed and in my bed.” Gabriella paused, her lips losing their battle against her grin. “Unless that’s what you came to see?” She spoke in jest, but as soon as the words left her mouth, she knew it was the wrong thing to say. She could have smacked herself for the way it sounded. Imagine speaking like some common whore to the man who could very well be the love of her life. She expected him to leave. She half hoped he would.
But he didn’t.
Atom came to her, his footsteps heavy and sure across the small room, until he stood in the narrow sliver of moonlight that poured from the vent above her door. Gabriella was shocked to realize he was in no less a state of undress than she. The debutante in her wanted to gasp and glance away, but the woman in her craved a closer look. Bare from the waist up, he sported nothing but a thin pair of flannel pants, the slightest barrier between Gabriella and the treasure that lay beneath.
“Came to see?” he asked. His voice was silk on her ears, kindling for her lust. “Why, my angel, you know me so well. That’s exactly what I came to see.”
Gabriella started, stunned from the haze of her desire by his frankness. “Mr. Loquacious! You forget your place.”
“No,” he said as he stepped closer. “I know my place. It’s with you, Gabriella.”
His proximity bordered on recklessness, but everything in her being wanted him to come closer. Yet, even in the face of naked desire, her years of ingrained social decency pushed her growing hunger down to a controllable level. “Please, Atom, this is most unbecoming.”
“I couldn’t agree more. I’m a rake, a rogue, a rapscallion that should be thrown overboard to my doom. I should turn around right now, leave and let you get some sleep.” Despite his words, Atom continued to draw closer, until he was atop her cot. As soft as falling snow, he laid his night-chilled body beside her warmth, right there in her very bed, coming to rest on his side, propped on his elbow so he could stare down at her.
She should have pushed him away, leapt from her cot, shouted at him to control himself and leave her be. While she should have, she didn’t. She couldn’t. The best she could manage was a weak whimper, as if she were some stray lamb under the weight of a slavering wolf.
“You’re beautiful tonight,” he said. “As always.”
“Please,” she begged. “Don’t make this hard on both of us.”
“Too late for that, my angel.” Atom rolled his hips against her thigh.
Her eyes grew wide as she understood the true meaning of his words. Never having felt such a thing in all her life, she gasped, “Atom!”
“Gabriella.” He leaned down and dropped a quick kiss on her lips, then moved in to scoop her into his loving arms.
Gabriella turned away from him, toward the wall, leaving Atom to grasp an armful of bed sheets instead of her. “We both know this is highly unsuitable. I’ll have to ask you to leave.”
Atom pulled himself even closer to her, trapping her. “Then ask me.” He pushed aside her hair to kiss the back of her neck, his lips fluttering a moment before he closed them full on her goose-prickled skin.
Soft kisses across her shoulders made it very hard for her to ask him to do anything. She groaned under his caress, wild thoughts racing through her mind. Delicious thoughts. Wanton thoughts. She wanted his hands on her body, wanted his mouth on her breasts, wanted his desire deep within, with hers, until they both exploded from joy. Gabriella cursed herself for thinking such awful things, but with his lips dancing on her skin she could think about nothing else.
All at once, without warning, the kisses stopped.
“You really want me to go,” he whispered. It wasn’t a question.
“I can’t,” she said, drawing the sheets tighter around her. “This just
…it isn’t right. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’m the one who should apologize.”
She felt his weight lift away from her as he sat up.
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” he said. “I don’t know what came over me.”
Gabriella turned in place, rolling around so she could see his handsome face, alabaster as a gravestone by the light of the moon. It was a face she felt she could spend the rest of eternity staring. A face that now bore a long look of sorrow.
“I shouldn’t have…” he started, but paused, as if trying to gather his courage as well as his words.
“No, you shouldn’t have.” Unable to help herself, anxious to lay her hands on him, Gabriella reached out and caressed his face. Closing his eyes, Atom sat statue still as she ran her fingers along his cheek, tracing his strong jaw, his regal nose, his trembling lips. His skin was icy from the night chill. How long had he stood at her door before he worked up the courage to sneak inside?
Against her fingers, he whispered, in a weak voice, “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I thought you desired me as much as I do you. I’m very sorry if I offended you.”
Gabriella sighed with frustration. He had misinterpreted her chasteness as frigidity. Where she was trying to be respectable, he read it as rejection. “I do desire you, Atom. I just don’t want you to think ill of me if we give in to those desires.”
Atom opened his eyes and stared at her in horror. “Gabriella, my angel. I could never think ill of you. You are the perfect example of…of… Why, I have never known a woman so gracious in all of my life.”
“Am I gracious?”
His face softened to a dreamy gaze. “Oh, yes. And beautiful. And chaste. And perfect.”
Gabriella was wooed by the simple sincerity of his words. Throwing away all propriety, she pulled Atom to her by the scruff of his neck and kissed him. She slipped her tongue past his lips, just for a brief moment. Atom seemed startled at first, but it wasn’t long before his wet tongue darted past her’s. The feel of him exploring her mouth was indescribable, a delight she never expected to enjoy. They wrestled like this for what seemed a long time before she broke the kiss to catch a much-needed breath. Shame settled on her in moments as she turned her head away. What would he think of her now?
To her delight, Atom took her by the chin, turning her face back to his as he announced, “I love you, Gabriella.” It was just what she wanted to hear, had waited to hear.
Her response was as natural as breathing. Sitting up to meet him eye to eye, she answered his ageless call. “And I love you, Atom. I really, really do!”
He laughed aloud, as if freed somehow by her proclamation. “By all that is good and right in this world, I swear to you, Gabriella Upstairs, that I will always love you. I have always been and will always be eternally devoted to you, my darling. I could never think of you as anything but my virtuous angel, no matter what you do.”
Gabriella pressed her thighs together to still her rising lust. Her heart beat a jackrabbit rhythm beneath her aching breast. She was on fire with hunger, with need, with want. And why shouldn’t she be aflame? She was a full-grown woman in love, and he a full-grown man in love. They should do what came naturally to a couple who cared for one another so deeply.
She seized both of his hands, warm and fleshy and so very large, into hers, and guided them to the fastening of her gown. He paused as he met her gaze with his own. Smiling, she nodded, assuring him that this was indeed what she wanted. With trembling hands, Atom pulled at the tie of her gown, parted the fabric in a gentle sweep, then slipped it past her shoulders until it came to a rest in the crook of her arms. Only then did he lower his eyes to her nude form. He stared at her nakedness for a moment, the sharp hiss of his appreciation forcing a blush of unease on her. Again a sudden shame surfaced. Here she sat, exposed to a male for the first time in her life, and without so much as even a hint of a proposal of marriage. What was she doing?
As if sensing her embarrassment, he held her face between his cool palms and assured her, “You’re beautiful. So beautiful. Just like a lady and an angel should be.” He kissed her, full and sweet, for just a brief moment. Then he pulled away, swallowed hard and asked, “May I…my angel…may I have the honor of being the first to touch your beautiful body?”
She shuddered at the tenderness of his request. What was she doing? She was about to make love with the man with whom she wanted to spend the rest of her life, that’s what she was doing, and that was all right with her. With a soft groan, she begged him to feel her. “Yes. Yes, please, Atom. Touch me now, before I lose my mind with desire for you.”
Gabriella moaned as his fingertips brushed her beaded nipples, then gasped as he grabbed her breasts in his strong hands. Yes, this was what she longed for. This was what she needed. His hands on her body. She looked down to watch him touch her, to watch his hands move across what she had saved so long just for him.
His hands.
Gabriella narrowed her eyes at his hands. Something wasn’t right about them. She snatched his left hand away from her breast and held it up to her face. It was all flesh, all bone, as it should be. She pulled his right hand from her body, holding it to her face as she eyed it with worry. It, too, was all flesh, all bone. That wasn’t right.
Atom Loquacious’s right hand was made of clockworks, not flesh.
She raised her face to meet his. “Who are you?”
“I’m your one and only true love,” he answered.
Gabriella sighed as she recognized the words. They were the very same words she had longed her whole life to hear. Words she pretended her husband would say to her on their wedding night. They were fantasy words, which was fitting given the situation. She sighed. “You’re just a dream.”
As she spoke, the room filled with a bright light, as though the sun itself were rising from behind her dresser. In the background, somewhere, a deep pounding noise began. All the while, dream Atom nodded. “I’m afraid so, Guppy.”
She narrowed her eyes at him again. “What did you call me?”
The room around them grew brighter. The volume of the pounding increased. Dream Atom’s voice took on a southern twang and feminine falsetto as he shouted, “Wake up, Guppy!”
Gabriella awoke, alone, in the early morning brightness of her small room. Her sheets were bunched at the foot of her cot. Her gown lay open, exposing her nudity to anyone who cared to take a peek. It was the third time this week she’d had such a vivid dream. It was also the third time she’d been late for the morning meal.
The pounding was a steady beat on her door. Magpie’s muffled shouts bled through the wooden barrier between knocks. “Get up, girly! You’ve overslept. Again.”
“I’m awake,” Gabriella shouted in return. She sat up and pulled her gown closed, wondering if there were a ghost of a chance that Atom was dreaming of her too.
She smiled with the idea as she began her morning routines.
* * * *
Rose Madigan wasn’t a happy woman.
Not today. Not this morning. In the normal course of events, she liked to think of herself as a cheerful person, at least since her horrible husband had died. Life was better now that Bill was gone. Except for today. Today she was miserable. Even with Click lapping at her breasts like the frisky puppy he always was, she was hard-pressed to remember when she had ever been so disheartened.
She was almost as wretched as she had been when Bill was around.
Almost, but not quite.
Her lover stopped his gentle worship of her full breasts, pulling himself up to ask, “What vexes you, my captain?”
She sighed as she rolled away from him. “I don’t know.”
“Of course you do.” He pulled her to him, staring down at her, wearing that eternal grin of his. “It is written all over your beautiful face. You’re filled to the brim with worry.”
“I know. But I can’t imagine why.” It was a lie. She knew exactly why.
As if he
’d plucked the very reason for her morose mood from her brain, Click nodded and said, “It’s our new recruit.”
Rose pursed her lips, made unhappier by Click’s choice of words. “For the last time, you ninny native, he is our employer, not a crew member. He has hired us for a job, not joined the crew.”
Click’s smile said he knew he had the better of her, yet again. “Whatever it pleases my captain to believe, I too shall believe.”
“Damn right you will.”
“Then it’s our employer that vexes you.”
Rose was tempted to lie, but it was no use. Somehow, the gorgeous Tahitian could read her like an open shipping log. How he knew her so well, she had no idea. She tried her best to maintain a professional detachment from him, when not in the throes of passion of course, but she supposed one’s professional life was bound to leak onto one’s personal life when one shared a cabin with one’s cabin boy.
A cabin and a bed.
“Yes,” she confessed. “He vexes me.”
“I don’t see why.” Click dropped himself on the mattress beside her. “I like him.”
Rose snorted. “You like everyone.”
“True. But I also like how he likes our Guppy.”
This simple truth made Rose smile. Rose didn’t just like how Atom treated their youngest crew member, she loved it. Gabriella deserved someone as dashing and handsome as Atom. He treated her with such tenderness it made Rose’s heart ache just to watch him watching Gabriella.
“Me too,” Rose said, the hint of a smile surfacing. It didn’t last long. “Even so, we know next to nothing about him.”
Click shrugged. “What’s there to know? He’s a nice young man.”
Rose’s concern wasn’t Atom’s manners, which were extraordinary considering he had spent so long on his own. Her worry lay in the lad’s mysterious life. For starters, he wasn’t all man. Not all human, anyway. Beneath what appeared to be flesh and bone, Atom Loquacious was half made of clockworks. No one could be sure that even the parts that weren’t mechanical were entirely organic. Not even Atom himself knew for certain.
