“You’re so soft.” He fought the temptation to bite down, mark her so any man who dared look would know she was his. His woman—her man.
His hands worked her free from the frock until it lay pooled around her waist. The heat from his greatcoat was reaching unbearable proportions, but he didn’t want to pull away to free himself. Even a second parted was too much.
“I’m so hard for you.” He licked her skin, and reached around to cup her breasts. “Do you know what that means?”
He knew Piper was an innocent from the pretty way she blushed when he’d get close to her. But she was a creature who thrived on knowledge, and with Annie stuck in her head, he had no doubt the breadth of her understanding would likely shock him.
“Y-your… cock is erect.”
Stretching his leg out beside her on the bed, he was able to thrust his groin against her ass. “That’s right. I imagine with Annie’s thoughts in there you know what I can do with it.”
She nodded and groaned when he pinched her nipples. “She’s whispering to me. Telling me… so many things. It’s… it’s…”
“What does she want you to do?”
This time, Piper’s blush covered her neck down to the tops of her still covered breasts. “She wants me to get naked and lie on my back.”
“That seems very mundane for a prostitute.”
Piper hesitated, her body freezing for a moment before she shuddered again. “She wants you to get naked as well. I could let you—”
“Let me what? Tell me Pip, what can I do to you?”
“I could suck on your cock.” The words came out in a hushed rush of air.
The confines of his pants were suddenly too restricting for him. “I need to get up. To get undressed. Don’t move.” She did as he asked, but she turned enough to watch him.
Samuel didn’t put on a performance. With economical moves, he slipped his greatcoat from his arms and tossed it to the chair beside the bed. His fingers had steadied enough from earlier to make short work of the buttons of his waistcoat and shirt. He left his wrist strap on, not wanting to lose it. The braces slipped easily from his shoulders to pool at his waist, giving his trousers enough give to quickly fall to the floor.
With each article of clothing he removed, Piper’s eyes grew wider. When he finally pulled his boots free and kicked his trousers to the side, she was breathing so deeply, he thought she might faint.
“Lie down.” He kept his voice soft, hoping she could hear his eagerness but not his fear.
This was a terrible idea. They were in danger of being caught by the Guild Masters. Dennison could arrive at a moment’s notice. Hell, Jack the Ripper could burst through the door at this point. But none of those prospects could dissuade him.
Piper turned and stretched out on the bed. Her brown hair was a stark contrast to the white of the linen beneath her. Still in his trousers, Samuel sat on the edge of the bed, much as he had back at the Archives. This time he did what he’d been itching to do then.
Reaching down he found the first of the hair pins that held the mass of curls in place. One by one he removed them, giving him access to her long locks. She was beautiful like this, flushed and aroused, all for him.
“I want to see you.” He fingered the shoulder of her shift, teasingly tugging. “Can I?”
She nodded, but made no move to help him. He held her gaze as he freed the tiny buttons in the front, slowly exposing the pale skin beneath. He let the tips of his fingers graze the hot skin between her breasts, enjoying her soft gasps of surprise. When the buttons were undone and there was nothing left but to pull the fabric free, he paused. Hands hovering in place, he telegraphed his intent, giving her one final chance to object. She merely turned her head to the side, her gaze locked onto his.
“Oh, Pip.”
The creamy expanse of her breasts filled his sight. Dark nipples beaded in the chilly air, begging him to lean in and suck on them. Wanting to savor this moment, burn the sight forever into his memory, Samuel waited. He thumbed the sensitive peaks, enjoying the mewls of pleasure slipping from her.
“It’s only the beginning for us.” He rolled one tip between his fingers. “I’m going to make you feel things you never have before. You’re mine.”
She nodded frantically against the pillow. “Please, Sam.”
Samuel could feel the pressure of Piper’s emotions, the memories from the machine pressing down, threatening to break the peace that had finally descended upon him. There was something niggling at him, squirming around in the recesses of his memory, and it took concentration he currently lacked to keep everything where it should be.
Piper looked up at him with those beautiful brown eyes and smiled.
He was here, with Pip naked and writhing in his bed, why the hell was he paying attention to anything but her? Stretched out beside her, he found her lips once more. She was soft, sweet. Her tongue dipped into his mouth, exploring. Deepening the kiss, he caressed her breasts once more.
“Do you like that?”
Piper gasped.
“So sensitive.” His restraint was slipping, and with it the ability to prolong things. Christ, he’d wanted her for so long and now that he had her it was overwhelming. “I want to taste you.”
This time Piper’s groan was accompanied with the gentle bucking of her hips.
“I want to kiss and lick every inch of your body.” He suckled her nipples, ran his tongue across the underside of her breasts. Nipped at her side as he worked his way lower.
Samuel spent several minutes kissing her stomach, licking around her belly button, scratching his nails across the unmarked expanse. He was the only man ever to do this with her, the only one to see her with the flush of passion across her skin.
He teased the thatch of hair between her legs with his fingers. The treasure he sought was close now, still waiting for him to claim. She closed her eyes for a moment, turning her head as his fingers dipped closer to her clit. When her mouth fell open and her hips bucked up, Samuel knew he wasn’t able to hold back any longer. He needed her. Now.
Pressing his face closer, he spread her lips to reveal her clit. Perfect in every way possible. Leaning in, he flicked his tongue across the engorged flesh, reveling in the taste. Her gasp had him pull back, knowing the teasing would drive her mad, wanting to push her there.
“Sam,” Pip muttered, turning back to face him with wide, serious eyes. “Please.”
Please Sam.
Sammy.
There was something in her expression, the tone of her voice that broke a barrier in Samuel’s mind. She began to frown, but Samuel couldn’t see her anymore. Pleading, begging for something that he could never have. A connection, a touch from another person.
Life.
I’m so alone. Why won’t you talk to me, Sammy?
Tubes and wires, blackness seeping into his blood through his veins. Cold steel and hot steam pummeling against him, unrelentingly. Why was he the one to go? It wasn’t fair. Rage, a bitter poison in his mouth, making the blackness thick like ink.
They can’t keep me here forever. I’ll get away and then I’ll make them pay.
Samuel jerked his hand away, and scrambled from the bed. Blinking madly, he tried to fight off the encroaching gloom of his mind, swallow down his anger. What the hell?
Running. He wasn’t even sure of the direction any longer, but he knew this was his only chance. Run, fast, before they caught him. Get out. He had to get out.
Samuel fell, tripping over his own feet, and landed in a heap on the unkempt floor. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Barely managing in time, he got to his knees before the vomit left him.
“Don’t fucking turn your back on me! You don’t need them, don’t need her. I’ve always been here for you. Look at me!”
“No.”
He’d lived through so much here, accepted the abuses because he thought there were worse things on the outside. But there was nothing worse than this. Everything. Every single nightmar
e was real. The monsters did exist, and they were coming to get him.
“Sam?” Piper pushed herself up onto her forearms.
“Madness.” Samuel muttered before he crossed the room, naked in the growing dark.
“Sam, what’s wrong?”
“I don’t know.”
Wires and darkness. More images from the bloody Archives machine? It couldn’t be real. Not even that last night in the deepest recesses beneath the Archives—his final failed attempt to find John before he’d fled—had he seen anything close to the picture that filled his mind now. The night he’d discovered a set of tunnels he’d never explored before, and wandered lost until his torch flickered out.
Samuel told himself it had all been a nightmare, the whole dark journey and every demented image that lingered in his brain. And he was almost a man, far too old to be frightened by nightmares once the sun came up.
He’d been convinced then that the Archives were alive. Nothing he’d experienced since had changed that opinion. But what he saw now was no ghost in a machine, no wispy archived extraction run amok. It felt like a memory, a clear one. Like it was only yesterday.
Why was it calling to him now, working its way up from the darkness he’d long thought buried?
Turning his head so he could see Piper, he forced his gaze to stay on hers. “It’s so angry. He’s so… angry.”
Piper had stopped dressing, fear and confusion battling for dominance inside her. It was impossible not to notice the pale skin of her shoulder, or the swell of her breast as it disappeared beneath the bunches of fabric she clutched to her chest. She was beautiful and intelligent, but there was something else there too. Not darkness, but certainly a touch of gray threaded through her personality. If anyone could understand…
Pressing his back to the wall needing the support, he let his gaze fall to rest on the bunch of white linen around her legs.
“When I was being… when the machine reached out to me, I think it was trying to communicate.”
“That’s impossible.” She shuffled forward on the bed until her legs dangled over the edge. “I don’t care what they say; it’s not alive.”
“You don’t know that.”
“It’s a machine, Sam. I don’t pretend to understand how it works, but it’s nothing more than wires and circuits.”
And black and dark and pain and please dear God someone pull me out of here.
“You should dress. I wouldn’t want anyone to think you’ve done anything inappropriate.”
“Sam—”
“I need time. I can’t… I just can’t right now.”
Ignoring the twist in his gut, Samuel turned his head away. Despite everything, he still wanted her. But the darkness called to him, begging him to embrace it and become one. He wouldn’t put her at risk of being pulled along.
He cared for her too much.
“You bastard.” Her voice cracked, but she shed no tears. “You bloody bastard.”
Dear God, what had he done? “Pip, I’m—”
“You think this was a game? Something I’d casually do because it was you? ‘Oh, Pipsqueak, I missed you. Have relations with me, love’?”
His rejection of her, her reaction to it, hurt him like a piercing blade, slicing through skin and tendon and bone until it tore at his core. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? Sorry?” Her pained laugh turned his stomach. “No, I’m the one who’s sorry. I thought things had changed. I see I was wrong.”
No. “You don’t understand—”
“I understand perfectly fine. Now, if you don’t mind, please look away.” She stood up, holding the sheet to her chest, her expression as stony and distant as it was the night of their reunion. “I would appreciate the privacy so I can dress.”
Her hair spilled across her shoulders to cover her back. Its length kissed her waist as she smoothed down her dress and righted her corset. In the blink of an eye, he’d lost the one thing he’d coveted for years. Gathering his own clothing, he moved to the far side of the room and dressed.
“Do I look presentable?” She’d tucked her hair back into a loose bun at the base of her neck.
Piper’s self-reliance had always been an attraction for him. The way she could pull herself up from any situation to simply keep going. Never before had he been on the receiving end of her ire. It was a cold place to be.
“I’m sure Dennison will suspect me of taking advantage anyway, but you look”—beautiful, stunning, arousing—“as you should.”
“Good.”
Silence stretched between them as Samuel finished dressing. He couldn’t keep up with the torrent of emotions raging inside him. Something had happened to him five years ago, something he couldn’t quite gasp. Coupled with his desire to finally be free, to move past the hell of his childhood and into a life of his own making. All he needed to do was take what he wanted and run.
“We could leave.”
“Sam—”
“There’s nothing stopping you now. You’re a full archivist with the ability to come and go as you will. Once this is done and we find out who killed Mary and Annie, you could disappear.”
Piper sighed as she clasped her hands together. “And where would you suggest we go? I have a head full of someone else’s memories.” Piper turned away from him, her hair shielding her face from his view.
He shuffled closer. The pressure in his head increased, making it hard to concentrate, to form thoughts that made sense. “We could take an airship to Canada, start again. I have contacts who could forge us new identities. I’m sure the Company would have the means for getting Annie out of your head.”
“You’d move to a war zone? That hardly seems rational.”
“The king sends reinforcements to Canada monthly. It would be easy enough to get a posting with the militia. The fight with the United States can’t last forever. I could sneak you in. Marry you. We could do this, Pip. Once this case is done, we could be together.”
“Marry?” She turned to face him, eyes wide. “Are you mad? Do you honestly think I’d marry you after this? I don’t even know who you are.”
Chapter Twelve
“When I grow up, Imma gonna get married.”
Piper pretended to hold flowers in front of her as she skipped down the dark corridor. She liked playing here, no matter what that grumpy Sam said. Master Ryerson was a bit scary, but he liked her. Called her a silly goose once and even mostly smiled. That made her giggle.
“Who’s going to want to marry you?”
Samuel’s brown hair was too long again. It flopped forward, so she couldn’t see his eyes properly. Master Ryerson wouldn’t like that. Piper did though. He was sitting on the floor, his chin resting on his knees.
“I dunno. But when I’m older I’ll get married and have babies and live in a cottage by the sea. My mum said that’s what good girls do.”
“You’re stupid.”
Piper stopped dancing and looked at him. “I’m not…”
“You can’t get married because you’ll be an archivist. We’re not allowed.”
“That’s dumb.” Piper wasn’t sure why the older boy was here, but she could tell he was sad. Coming to sit beside him, she made sure not to get too close. He didn’t seem to like that. “You don’t really think I’m stupid, do you?”
Samuel looked up and she could tell he’d been crying. He wasn’t now though. Now he just looked sad.
He shook his head. “No, I don’t. I’m sorry.”
“Okay.” Piper rested her head on his shoulder and was happy when he didn’t pull away. “Maybe you and I can get married. Someday.”
“Maybe.”
Something had changed from the moment Samuel had gotten out of bed. Under his touch, Piper had been mad with a burning need she’d never experienced before. Her body had flared to life, the ache between her legs had overridden her reason until all she could think about was having Samuel ease it. There’d been a spark, a connection between them and Piper had thought this
would finally be the moment she experienced what Annie whispered about.
But in the blink of an eye, something had changed.
He had changed. And it hurt her as much as it angered her. There was nothing stopping them from being their true selves, nothing preventing them from simply being Sam and Pip. And yet, he’d stopped when they’d been so close to finally having the one thing she’d always dreamed of. Sam pushed her away when she was the one with the most to lose.
“You know I can’t marry you.”
Samuel stiffened and the lines around the corner of his eyes and mouth tightened. “Why not? We could escape.”
“You know why not.”
“No, I don’t. This isn’t like that night. They let me go and I’ve made my way in the world. I can do it again someplace else. You can, too.”
“I may not have chosen this life for myself, but it’s who I am now. Those people—Dennison, Jones, Master June—they are my family. You can’t expect me to leave them behind.”
“They took you from your real family. Took away your choices.”
Ah, they were back to this old argument. “Few of us have any real control of our lives.”
“You were a child, brought here from Wales because a recruiting agent saw potential in you. They gave your mum some money and took you away forever. How the hell is that a choice?”
He’s gotcha there. It’s not right for a wee one to be taken away from a mum. And to not let you be touched, be a woman—that’s worse than death.
Closing her eyes, Piper swallowed down her frustration. “You know what I mean.”
“This is it, our second chance.” Samuel growled low in his throat, his fists clenched at his sides. “Let me keep you safe.”
“I don’t need you to save me.” She smiled at him, knowing he was simply trying to deal with his frustration. “But New London needs your help. You can’t walk away and leave a killer wandering the streets. I know you well enough.”
Canada and its natural resources were the center of a bitter war between the rebel American army and New Britain’s soldiers. Yes, she could imagine a life on the frontier, perhaps finding a job with the ingenious Hudson’s Bay Company. She could work as an engineer, building ships and rigs to explore the north. Samuel would probably even be able to continue his police work. It would be perfect.
Gilded Hearts (The Shadow Guild Series) Page 15
