by Connie Mason
Eve’s heart constricted for his pain over the dead Hannah. So this was the cause of the deep sadness she’d sensed in him. She bore her scars on her back, but Nick carried his in his soul. If he’d been given a choice, he’d probably have chosen a flogging. She put a tentative hand on his arm. He covered it with his other hand immediately and gave her fingers a squeeze.
“I’m sad for you,” she whispered.
“Don’t make me out a martyr, Eve. There is no innocent party in this sorry tale.” He cast a darting glance at her, as if trying to gauge her reaction. “I’ve no talent for being a husband.”
“But you’re confident of your talent as a lover.” She blurted out the words before she thought. Memories of their lovemaking washed over her like a seventh wave.
He arched a brow. “You know firsthand, Eve. You tell me. Didn’t I give you pleasure?”
More than she could hold. She broke their gaze, but thoughts of his blessed hands, his skillful tongue, his body joining with hers made her feel feverish.
“We seem to have reached an impasse,” he said finally. “And baring one’s soul is weary work. It’s deucedly hot today. As long as we’re here, do you want to swim?”
Eve fisted her hair and lifted it from the back of her neck. “Not as long as you’re here to watch me strip and walk to the water.”
“It’s not as if I haven’t already seen you without a stitch,” he pointed out.
She shot him a pointed glare. “Reminding me of my past lapses in judgment is not the best way to endear yourself to me.”
“What if I don’t look? I could avert my eyes as you did when I came out of the water.”
“Not likely.” She wouldn’t admit she’d waited until she’d been favored with a quick look at his impressive attributes before she turned her gaze away.
“What if I promise?” he insisted.
She slanted her eyes at him.
“Have I promised you aught and not delivered?” He cocked his head.
“No,” she admitted.
“Then it’s settled.” He swung his legs off to the side. “I will stare fixedly at my big toe for the count of 20. That should give you ample time to reach the water.”
“But—”
“One…two…”
A hot bead of perspiration slid down her spine. The water looked like a slice of heaven. As he said “three,” Eve leaped to her feet and pulled the simple garment over her head. She folded it quickly and was off like a rabbit by the time he reached “ten.”
The dry sand was fire under her soles, but the wet sand nearer the shore cooled her feet. She didn’t stop running when she hit the waves, droplets flying all around her. Once she was thigh deep, she grabbed a breath and plunged in all the way. The water took her into its refreshing embrace.
She swam naked under the smiling sun. The magistrate who’d sentenced her for public lewdness would not be a bit surprised.
But Eve didn’t feel lewd. She felt free. And more unabashedly joyful than at any time in her life since the loss of her parents. She surfaced and drew in a big gulp of air before diving back down.
Brine stung her eyes, but the silent underwater world was a riot of color too gorgeous to miss. Sunlight danced along the ocean floor. Fish of every conceivable hue darted out of her path over patchwork beds of different types of coral. It was all so unnecessarily beautiful, she thanked God for her eyes.
Then a large body whooshed past her, leaving a trail of bubbles in his wake.
Nicholas! She clawed to the surface.
He bobbed up an arm’s length from her.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded. “You promised.”
“I promised not to watch you strip and walk to the water, and I didn’t,” he said with a grin. “I made no promise about what might come after.”
She sent a splash toward him and started to swim to shore. He caught up to her, wrapping his arms around her. They rolled in the surf like a pair of otters. Then his feet touched bottom and he stood, holding her flush against him. His heart pounded against her breasts.
“Eve, why is it so hard for you to admit you want to be with me?” He bent his head and kissed her, a salty wet kiss. His lips beckoned, enticed her to soften under them. So different from that first hard quick kiss when he was about to face a shark for her, though he didn’t even know her name at the time.
Wave after wave washed by them. Nick swayed with the surf, but continued to make love to her mouth. Her lips parted and he slid his tongue in. One of his hands stroked down to cup her bottom and press her against him.
The familiar ache between her legs started up again.
He released her mouth and rested his forehead against hers.
“Wanting to be with you isn’t the problem,” she began, but stopped when he put a finger to her lips.
“Then let’s not borrow one,” he said. “We’re on an island. If we don’t bring it with us, it’s not here. Let’s agree not to bring anything. Just this once, can’t we pretend that now is all that matters? There is nothing else.”
She looked up and fell into his dark eyes. The sadness in him had faded a bit, but she ached to erase it completely. Her whole body throbbed with longing. Her breath grew short. His body fit so seamlessly along hers, it was as if they were already one person. She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.
“You’re right,” she whispered. “There is nothing else.”
Chapter Twenty-seven
“For as long as we’re on this island, there is nothing else,” Eve said when she pulled away from his kiss and drew a shuddering breath. “Once we leave, we’re back in the real world once again. This is just for now.”
He nodded slowly. “It’s not as much as I hoped for, but I’ll take it.”
She tipped her face up to him for an open-mouthed kiss, while his hands and the ocean played over her body. Her nipples were hard and aching against his broad chest. She kissed her way down his neck, savoring the salty-sweetness of his skin. He groaned when she took his earlobe between her lips and sucked.
Hearing his need magnified her own. The emptiness between her legs made her whole body throb. As a lady, she knew she should resist when his hand found her crotch and teased her little folds. But as a woman, she couldn’t do it.
Grand Turk was an island of fantasy. The rules simply didn’t apply here.
When his fingers ran over her delicate secrets, they slid easily. She was slick and wanting. He lifted and centered her before his body. The tip of him entered her and she tried to move down to take him in, but she was too buoyant. She nearly growled with frustration.
“Is the lady in distress?”
“Yes, dammit,” she blurted out before she thought.
He laughed, the little lines of sadness on his brow smoothing. “Then allow me to come to your aid.”
She wanted to come to his, too. She wanted to wipe away every trace of sorrow from him.
With infinite slowness, he slid his cock in up to the hilt. He held her still, his gaze burning into hers. The island faded from her peripheral vision. The ocean caressing them seemed suddenly distant. All that mattered was this man, this joining, this heart of his thudding against her chest.
He kissed the tip of her nose. “I’ll always come to your aid.”
“I know.” She kissed his neck, his square jaw, then his chin. He was promising more than relief from the needs of her body, though she reveled in the hard thickness of him filling up her empty place. He was promising her the protection of his glorious body.
But not the protection of his name.
She shoved the thought aside. As long as they bided on the island, such concerns didn’t exist.
“Come here.” Eve pulled his head down for a deep long kiss.
The little minx. Nick’s eyes rolled back in his head before he shut them. She was undulating on him, riding his cock as if he were her stallion. She was so tight. Her wet velvet sucked around him with each thrust. The m
uscles in her thighs flexed and relaxed. She’d hooked her ankles behind his back and one of her heels rested at the top of his buttocks, kneading his spine just above the crevice.
He didn’t need to hold her up. The water and her legs wrapped around him did that. So his hands were free to touch every bit of her glorious skin. His eyes popped open at that thought.
“Lie back,” he suggested and eased her hands away from his neck. “I want to look at you.”
She didn’t fight him when he spread her arms wide. She gave the top half of her body to the ocean’s arms. He grasped her hips to steady her and keep the rhythm they’d built going. She closed her eyes and let the water bear her up, her pink nipples pointing sunward, her breasts and long hair moving with each wave, as if she was part of the colorful reef spread out around them.
A mermaid of his own.
He drove into her again and again. Her brows drew together and her mouth went slack. Nick knew that look of anguished ecstasy. She was close. He thrust deep and held himself still while one hand found her little nub of pleasure and stroked.
She cried out and convulsed as the first contraction of her release pounded around his cock. Nick bit the inside of his cheek to keep from spilling himself into her. He knew he should pull out to be safe, but he wanted to feel her joy, to revel in her losing herself to him completely.
Her orgasm continued, caressing his erection in frenzied pulses. It pulled him closer to the edge of climax. His balls drew tight, but he still couldn’t bear to leave her. He ached not to be alone when he came, but he knew he should withdraw.
Only a little longer, he promised himself, drawing her close and holding her tight so he could feel her whole body tremble with the force of her release.
Her gaze met his and she rocked her pelvis, grinding against him. “Come with me,” she begged. “Oh, please.”
A ragged cry tore from his throat. It was as if he were a loaded pistol and she’d pulled his trigger. He couldn’t stop, couldn’t hold back another heartbeat. His seed spurted into her in hot pulses as he arched his back to drive in as deeply as possible. She moved against him, drawing out his release.
Nick growled with pleasure as Eve’s narrow tunnel spasmed around him. Then guilt washed over him even though he was powerless to stop himself. After Hannah, he never let himself come inside a woman without the protection of a French letter. If he didn’t have one of the sheep bladder condoms, he always withdrew, separating from his partner at the moment of deepest intimacy. It never failed to make him feel bitterly alone.
He looked into Eve’s eyes as he gave the last of himself to her keeping. She wasn’t upset. She was smiling at him, her heart shining in those unusual aqua eyes. Accepting him. All of him.
But what if she should quicken? The horrific image of Hannah dying in the birthing chamber sliced into his brain. Christ, he’d put Eve in mortal danger through his carelessness.
“I’m sorry—”
“I’m not,” she said with a finger to his lips.
Then she kissed him again and all hint of loneliness fled.
Eve lost track of the days. She and Nicholas swived each other like wildcats at every opportunity in their little guest house. They discovered every inch of each other’s skin, lavishing the beloved flesh with hands and lips and tongues. One night, Nick grabbed up a blanket and carried her back to the secluded beach. They made tender love while the surf broke at their feet and the stars wheeled overhead.
Then the day came when the Susan Bell’s hold was filled with cakes of white salt. Nick sent for Higgs to come to his business partner’s house. Eve served them both drinks made from the local rum distillers and then started to leave them in privacy.
“Stay, Eve,” Nick said. “Our plans concern you as well.”
She settled in the swinging indoor hammock to listen to their discussion.
“You intend to resign as my first officer and I respect your choice. I’ve been thinking for some time now that you’re ready for your own command,” Nick told Peregrine. “I want you to take the Susan B on to Charleston.”
“You’d trust me with your ship?” A shocked smile split Mr. Higgs’s face, then faded as quickly as it came. “But, Cap’n, what about you and Miss Upshall?”
Eve took silent note that Mr. Higgs was on dry land and was not stammering. Something had changed.
“Last time we were here, I ordered a smaller sloop built hoping you’d captain it for me. I wanted it to be a surprise, you see. Instead we’ll use it for our return to Bermuda,” Nick said. “They tell me it’ll be ready in a week. Leave me five or six crewmen and the boy Reggie and we’ll make out fine.”
“What do you say to this arrangement, Miss Upshall?” Mr. Higgs asked, stone-faced. “Would you rather take passage on the Susan Bell to Charleston? That was your original destination.”
It had been so long since Eve had given serious thought to finding her uncle in the Colonies, the idea was jarring to her. She realized Nick was creating an excuse for them to remain a while longer on Grand Turk. Their lovemaking in recent days had been tinged with the urgency of those who know their time is short.
“I have no objection to remaining here a bit longer,” she said, biting back a secret smile she reserved only for Nick. “Besides, if I arrive in Charleston’s port without a female companion, my reputation will be in tatters.”
Such things didn’t count on Grand Turk. She was beginning to forget why they mattered so desperately elsewhere.
“Which is why I’ve arranged for a lady’s maid for you when we return to St. Georges,” Nick said with a grin.
So that was why he’d wanted her to be privy to this conversation, she realized. He’d managed to extend their idyllic interlude and protect her reputation when it ended. If only he’d just offer her marriage, there’d be no need for their time together to end at all.
But a man who intends to marry a girl has a care for her good standing. Perhaps this servant and solicitude was prelude to a proposal.
“Plenty of people saw you carry me on board the Susan Bell,” she pointed out.
“People have the memory of a gnat when it comes to such things,” Nick said. “They’ll be more interested in the fact that we survived that storm and returned in a new schooner. If you return in the company of a servant, they’ll assume you left with one.”
Higgs nodded slowly. “That’s true.”
“You know the agent we deal with in Charleston as well as I,” Nick said to his first mate. “Make the trade as usual and when you return to St. Georges, the schooner will be waiting for you to captain her.” Nick narrowed his gaze at Higgs. “If you’re still willing to sail under my colors.”
Higgs thought a moment, then extended his hand. “Aye, Nicholas. We have an accord.”
It was the first time Eve had heard Mr. Higgs address his captain as equals. It seemed right.
“Good,” Nick said as they shook on their new partnership. “I expect you’ll sail with the tide this afternoon.”
“Aye, the Susan B’s ready to go. Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of her.” Higgs made a neat leg to Eve and saw himself out.
Nick joined Eve in the hammock, his long body snugged up close with a leg casually hooked over hers.
“That was cleverly done,” she said.
“I’m glad you approve.” He ran two fingers over the tops of her breasts and then toyed with a nipple. “Taking the new ship back to St. Georges buys us more time.”
She covered his hand to still it. She didn’t need the distraction of her body’s reaction to him just now. “There is another way to accomplish that.”
His sensual smile flattened. “Eve, you know I care for you. More than I wanted to.”
“But you won’t marry me.”
“I’ve already proved I’m no good as a husband,” he said. “I haven’t changed my mind about marriage.”
“And I haven’t changed mine about becoming your mistress,” she fired back at him, stiffening in his arms
.
He feathered his lips along her jaw and trailed soft kisses in a line to her ear. “It may have escaped your notice, but you already are my mistress.”
She rolled out of the hammock, unbalancing the load and sending him to the floor. “No, I’m your lover. But that’s a situation we both knew would change. It may as well start now.”
Eve stomped out without a backward glance.
It was just as well that she barred her door that night. Her woman’s curse arrived and she wouldn’t have been able to welcome him to her bed in any case. It was so late, she’d begun to suspect she might have conceived. She was both disappointed and relieved she hadn’t.
There was nothing she’d like better than to bear Nick’s child. But if he wouldn’t marry her for herself, she didn’t want to force his hand with a bastard who needed a name.
He knocked again the next night, but she refused to admit him.
He didn’t even try the night after that.
Her new maid arrived, a silent island girl with a dark bruise on her jaw. She was clearly anxious to leave Grand Turk and wanted to please, but since she was fearful of speaking, she was very little company. Eve had no relief from her depressing thoughts.
She should have taken Mr. Higgs up on his offer of transport to Charleston. But she couldn’t bear to leave Nicholas entirely. Surely the man would come to his senses eventually.
When the day came for the new schooner to sail back to St. Georges, he sent Reggie to collect her. She said a tearful good-bye to their hosts, Maia and Hugh, apologizing for Nick’s absence at their leave-taking.
“Best you hurry, miss,” the boy said. “Cap’n says he’d as soon leave ye as take ye—oh! I shouldn’t oughta have said that. You won’t tell him, will ye?”
“No, Reggie,” she said. “He won’t hear it from me.”
Chapter Twenty-eight
Peregrine Higgs paced the dock at St. Georges. He’d sighted an unfamiliar sail from the northernmost window of Whispering Hill skirting around the island’s reefs with the ease of familiarity. Even though he hadn’t recognized the ship, he recognized the skill of her captain. It had to be Nicholas Scott. Higgs had bolted to the stable, hitched up the wagon and drove hell-for-leather down to meet the ship.
