Passion's Tide

by Sarah West

He was taken by surprise, and his voice lost its angry edge as he spoke again. “What did you feel, Amber?”

  She blushed. “I felt warm, and protected. Safe. And at the same time I felt like I was in danger of something, I don’t know what. But…”

  “What else?” he urged.

  “I think,” she said, taking a deep breath and meeting his stormy gaze, “that whatever it was, I wanted it to happen.” He watched her for a long moment, his intense gaze unsettling.

  She attempted a casual shrug. “It’s not important anyway. It didn’t happen again, and it most likely never will.” She started to turn away, but Logan reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her back so that she stood between his legs, their faces almost level.

  “The hell it won’t,” he growled, his eyes intense and bright, “you’re just doing it wrong.” Then he slid his arm around her neck and drew her against him, his lips crushing hers.

  Amber steadied herself by grabbing his shoulders, her squeak of protest barely heard as he cupped her chin and continued his assault on her senses.

  He tried to deepen the kiss, but her mouth was closed beneath his, so he pulled her bottom lip into his mouth and nibbled. Not hard enough to hurt, but enough to shock her. Her gasp of surprise was more than enough, and he took the opportunity to slip his tongue between her parted lips.

  Unlike last time, her tongue darted forward to intertwine with his almost instantly, any ounce of hesitation she may have felt gone. It had disappeared the moment he slid an arm around her waist and clutched her to him. He explored her mouth with finesse, Amber meeting each kiss with ardor and taking advantage of the situation to learn and explore his body.

  Her fingertips roamed over the wide expanse of bare chest, tangled in the dark coarse hair, reveled in the feel of his rippling muscles. Suddenly he pulled back, leaving her gasping and at a loss for why their kiss had ended with such abruptness.

  “Take down your hair,” he commanded in a coarse whisper. Without answering, she nodded and pulled the ribbon from the bottom of her braid, then loosened her curls until they hung free about her back. Logan lifted a lock and felt the weight of it, and letting the silky strand fall through his fingers he drew her in for another kiss that left her breathless.

  His lips traveled from her mouth to her neck, her head falling back to allow him easier access to her soft skin. His fingers plunged into her hair and he kissed a trail to her ear.

  “Do you feel it now, Amber?”

  “Yes,” she replied, her voice husky with desire.

  “What do you feel?”

  She struggled to turn her muddled thoughts into a coherent sentence. “Warm. Hot, like I’m on fire. I want…I want you to touch me.”

  Logan stood with a crooked smile and pushed Amber back onto the bed, where she lifted herself onto her elbows and watched as he removed his boots and tossed them aside. Then he joined her, sliding his body up so that it lay alongside hers.

  She tilted her head so that he could kiss her again, his skilled fingers drawing lazy circles on her overheated skin. She shivered, and he brought his hand to the gentle curve of her hip, then drew it across her stomach.

  Her body twitched under him, and she broke the kiss. “More,” she gasped, her eyes closed. Logan slipped his hand beneath the large white shirt, brushing his fingers over her soft stomach while he watched her face. She bit her lip and moaned, the sound reverberating through Logan’s defense. “So hot…”

  His self-restraint crumbled, and he gripped the hem of her shirt and pulled it up and over her head, ripping it in the process, then threw it onto the floor.

  Amber’s eyes shot open as cool air breezed across her chest. Logan was leaning over her, his breath caught in his throat as he stared at full breasts, the dusky rose centers that budded under his heated gaze.

  She squirmed again. “Logan, please!”

  And then he was cupping her breast, and all thoughts vanished as her back arched off the bed, pushing herself up into his large hand.

  Logan fought off the simultaneous urge to groan and smile at her impassioned reaction, but instead lowered his mouth to her neck again. Her hands tangled in the quilt, her toes curling as he rolled her nipple between his fingers, causing the fire to spread further through her body. She was lost in a sea of desire, drowning.

  Suddenly, Logan’s mouth was on her breast, and she gasped with need as heat pulsed between her thighs, liquid warmth seeping from her very core. His tongue laved her smooth skin with finesse even as he rested a hand on her stomach to keep her body from thrashing.

  It was too much for her to handle. “Logan, I need…oh god…” Her voice trailed off in a whimper as she gasped for breath. For control. For release.

  “Shh, love. I know what you need,” he whispered as his hand strayed to the tight breeches that had caught his attention and stirred something primal within him earlier that night, the same need that coursed through him now, making his own breeches damned uncomfortable. He tried to ignore the erection that throbbed against the coarse fabric of his pants, a feat that was near impossible as he slid hers off.

  Again, he was struck by her intense beauty. Her legs, which until now had always been hidden beneath layers of skirts, were shapely and smooth, the creamy skin glowing under the flickering candlelight. His grey eyes clouded with desire as his gaze was drawn upwards to the red triangle of curls that nestled at the apex of her legs. His hands expertly massaged her thighs until they fell apart, allowing his fingers to roam further.

  Amber’s body went rigid as she felt him part the folds of her sex and brush across her damp opening. He waited what seemed like hours until she relaxed and her muscles lost their tension before he moved his thumb to circle her sensitive bud, an action that caused her to suck in a breath. “Logan?”

  He lifted his head and met her eyes, thrilled to see pure, sensual energy shining in them. “Make love to me, please?” His hand stalled.

  She whimpered, never tearing her gaze from his. “Please Logan, I need…”

  “I know, sweetheart.” His thumb began teasing her again. She tried to push his hand away, but he resisted. She tried to pull him towards her, but he wouldn’t budge.

  After that, she was lost to the intense pleasure-pain that he was causing, her hips bucking upwards in sweet agony, aching for something, anything. And then he was inside of her.

  Through glassy eyes, she saw that he hadn’t actually penetrated her. He hadn’t moved from his position lying beside her, and his breeches were still in place, however straining at the front. It was his fingers, then, that were causing her to moan and tremble.

  Then he slid another finger inside her slick heat, and Amber cried out in helpless abandon as her body shook, the fire that had spread through her veins igniting in a scorching inferno and blinding her momentarily as Logan’s name tumbled from her swollen lips.

  Logan eased his fingers from her even as she fell back against the pillows, her breathing heavy and uneven. She forced her eyes open and stared at him, suddenly embarrassed and demure. “What…” she stopped as he gave her a smile and pulled the blanket from under her, then covered her with it.

  “Get some sleep, we’ll talk in the morning.”

  She shook her head and tried to fight off the drowsiness that swept over her. He stood and removed his belt, then slipped beneath the blankets and pulled her against him. The last thing she remembered was his soothing hands stroking her back, and then she surrendered to the blessed darkness that overwhelmed her.

  Logan’s body ached as Amber slept soundly beside him, unaware of his inner turmoil. He groaned and rolled onto his back, throwing an arm across his eyes. When she had looked up at him, and asked him, no, begged him to take her, it had taken every ounce of self-control he had to resist. Even now, the temptation roared within him, his erection surging to life and straining uncomfortably at its confines.

  Amber stirred, then turned in her sleep to snuggle up against him. He gritted his teeth and prepared himself fo
r a restless night.

  Chapter Twelve

  The following morning, Amber was pulled from her somnolent state by a persistent feeling that something was amiss. She was woozy as she blinked against the harsh daylight, wishing she could return to the pleasant dream she had been having before she woke up. Her eyelids drooped as she began to slip back into sleep, the gentle sway of the ship rocking her like a baby in a cradle.

  A nagging thought kept pushing against her subconscious: what ship? Her brain won the battle with her body and she sat up with a start, immediately regretting the swift movement as her vision began swimming.

  She fell back against the pillows of what she now knew was Logan’s bed onboard the Imperial Shadow, groaning as she clutched her throbbing head. The after-effects of the alcohol did nothing to buffer her against the onslaught of memories that rushed back to her from the previous night; her failed escape attempt, the attack, Logan’s rescue, the kiss, her foolish inhibition.

  A pink flush crept up her cheeks as she recalled in vivid detail what had occurred after Logan returned from his raid. She was humiliated. How could she have thrown herself at him in such a wanton manner? And then she remembered the heat she had felt, the burning desire that had her writhing under him, her body aching for the release it instinctively knew must follow such searing passion.

  And how he had turned her down. Though she supposed she should probably thank him for not taking advantage of her, the defiant part of her brain still contended that he had taken advantage of her by leading her on and then denying her the thing she wanted the most: himself.

  She threw back the covers and saw, to her horror, that she was wearing a thin cotton nightgown that she had packed at the bottom of one of her trunks. This meant that Logan had rifled through her clothes and dressed her upon their arrival back on the ship. She groaned. Had he carried her naked through the streets of Tortuga? She looked around and saw no evidence of the clothes she had been wearing the previous night, the ones she had been all to eager to rid herself of after a single kiss.

  Amber realized that her fists were clenched so tightly that her fingers had gone white. She released them and waited for feeling to return, fury simmering inside her. Well, she wasn’t the type to just give up when she faced an obstacle, and this time would be no different. A plan still hatching in her mind, she sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed, then forced back the urge to vomit and stumbled across the room to the door.

  Logan was sitting at the table in the galley, nursing a cup of coffee and a frown when Eli found him.

  “I take it she’s still asleep?”

  “How’d you guess?”

  Eli plopped himself down on a barrel and stole a sip of Logan’s coffee. “Because if she was awake she would have torn you apart by now and scattered your remains all over the deck. And I’d have to clean you up.”

  The brooding pirate glared at him. “Don’t you have anywhere else you could be?”

  “No I don’t. As acting best friend, I’m required to be there at all times to make you regret any stupid decisions made on your part. Check the pirate code, it’s in there after the bit about getting four hundred pieces of eight if you get your right leg chopped off.”

  “It’s five hundred for your right leg, four hundred for your left.”

  “Details. But regardless, my point has nothing to do with the amount of money you receive for losing your big toe or your pinky finger—”

  “You get one hundred for each finger, and as far as I know, nothing for a toe.”

  Eli rolled his eyes. “Are you just trying to keep me off topic?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, congratulations. Now I’m preoccupied, wondering why the hell a poor bloke who loses his toe is any less important than the guy without a little finger.”

  Abe limped into the galley, dragging a sack of sweet potatoes behind him. “I’ve always wondered why we even have toes in the first place. I mean, what do they even do?”

  “They help with balance,” Logan said as he stood to help Abe lift the sack onto the table. “And someone should be helping you. Where did Henry and Johnny get off to?”

  “Oh, they were more of a hindrance than a help, what with the weather being so nice outside, so I sent them to play. And I can manage just fine, so don’t you worry about me. I think you should focus on what you’re aiming to do about that girl you left passed out in your bed, wearing naught but a blanket wrapped ‘round her!”

  Logan groaned. “She’s not wearing the damn blanket anymore. I had the decency to put some clothes on her.”

  “Is it decency when you were the one to rid her of her clothes in the first place?” Eli pondered as he dipped a finger into Abe’s mixing bowl, snatching it back before he got swatted with a spoon.

  “Wonderful, Eli, why don’t you tell everyone the sordid details of my private life?”

  “Begging your pardon, Cap’n, but it’s not so private when you carry her back on board in the wee hours of the morning, unconscious and naked as the day she was born.”

  Eli winked at the cook. “Well said, Abe!”

  Logan sighed. “With any luck she won’t even remember what happened last night.”

  Eli studied his face. “What actually did happen last night, Logan? I tend to stay out of your affairs,” Logan snorted at this, which Eli chose to ignore, “but I’ve grown pretty fond of Amber, and if you did something to hurt her…”

  “ Are we talking about how Logan bedded Miss Amber last night?” asked Pax with a smirk as he strolled into the room, Deacon at his heels.

  “I didn’t bed anyone, damn it!” Logan fumed.

  “I told him to stay out of your business, Captain,” defended Deacon, with a pointed look at the freckled teenager. “He just doesn’t listen to reason. I says to him it’s not his place to be asking questions about Amber’s deflowering—”

  Logan’s chair toppled over as he leapt to his feet. “For the last time! I did not deflower, defile or compromise Amber last night!”

  “Relax, Logan. We only thought—”

  “I know what you thought, Eli, and I won’t lie and say it hasn’t been haunting my every thought since it bloody happened.” As soon as the words came out he wished he could take them back.

  A puzzled look came across Eli’s face. “But why should you worry? You just said that nothing happened! If she’s still innocent…” He saw Logan’s eyes darken, and he sighed. “Oh Logan, you didn’t.”

  “You devil!” Pax exclaimed with a giant grin, which was wiped from his face as Deacon hit him on the side of the head. Abe concentrated on mixing the contents of his bowl, and avoided eye contact with everyone in the room.

  “Shit, Logan!” Eli groaned, rubbing a hand across his face. “What are you going to do?”

  “What do you mean, what’s he gunna do? He doesn’t have to do anything!” interjected Pax. “Except maybe finish the job, if you know what I…All right, all right! You don’t have to glare, Cap’n. I get the picture, I’m leaving.” He was about to exit the room when Johnny brushed by him, looking anxious and scared. Pax smiled and leaned against the wall to watch. “This ought to be entertaining.”

  Logan scowled. “If you don’t get out of my sight, you’ll be scrubbing the deck for the next two weeks. Got that?”

  “But, I—”

  “By yourself.”

  “But I just—”

  “With the smallest brush I can find.”

  Eli cracked a smile as Pax stormed from the room muttering angrily to himself, Deacon shaking his head as he followed him. Logan turned to Johnny, who during the argument had attempted to make himself as invisible as possible by pressing up against the wall. “What is it?”

  “It’s Amber, Cap’n. You said you wanted to know when she woke up.”

  “You look like you’ve seen the ghost of Davy Jones, boy. Come and have a cup of coffee to settle your nerves,” Abe said, pouring the boy a mug.

  Logan stood to give the boy h
is seat at the table. “What’s gotten you so shaken?”

  “It was Amber, Cap’n.”

  “Did she yell at you?” Eli asked, thinking back to her previous heated arguments.

  “That’s the strange thing. She didn’t scream, or yell, or hit me or anything.”

  Eli glanced over at Logan. “I don’t know how, but it sounds like you lucked out. If she remembered what happened last night she’d be furious.”

  “Oh, she’s mad all right. You’d know it if you saw her. I could tell she was trying real hard not to raise her voice, and her eyes…” the usually stoic boy shuddered. “She reminded me of a wolf about to slaughter a wounded rabbit, she looked so mean.”

  “Great,” murmured Logan with a sigh. “What did she say to you?”

  “She said she wanted her clothes from last night.”

  “Tell her that losing her dress was her own fault, and that there was no hope of saving her shift, so I just left it at the inn.”

  “She told me you’d say that,” replied Johnny with unease, “and she told me to tell you she didn’t mean those clothes. She meant the ones she received from the innkeeper’s daughter, the ones…” he dropped his gaze to his feet, “she said the ones you stole from her last night.” There was a moment of strained silence.

  “I wonder what she wants those dingy pants for,” mused Abe.

  “She’s just being defiant,” replied Logan. “But in any case, what did you do with them, Eli?”

  “I just tossed them in the hold. I didn’t know what else to do with them, but I figured we might as well keep them in case we make a habit of abducting females, or if Johnny suddenly decided to sprout hips.”

  The young boy looked petrified at the prospect that he might one day be as curvy as the beautiful redhead. “You don’t think it’s contagious, do you?”

  “I’m fairly certain you’re safe,” Eli reassured him with a chuckle.

  “Still, if it’s the same to you Cap’n, I’d rather not go back in there just yet.”

  Logan stood. “Don’t worry, Johnny. I was planning on bringing her the clothes myself.”