by Merry Farmer
Heidi drifted in uncharted waters. Even in the early years of her marriage, she’d never experienced the breathtaking cataclysm Maximiliano’s touch had wrought. Safe in his strong arms, she relished the heat of his skin, the rise and fall of his chest, the aroma of male essence that bonded their bodies. The scent of male sperm normally turned her stomach. Now, she wanted to taste him. Witnessing the eruption from his magnificent pik had tipped her over the edge into an ecstatic free-fall.
“The sun’s too hot on your skin,” he whispered, interrupting her musings. “We’ll go back to the cave and try to get a fire going for cooking.”
Little did he know he’d already ignited an inferno—in her heart and her loins. Still in a fog of sexual satisfaction, she gathered up her garments, intending to carry them back. What was the point of clothing when a woman was marooned in paradise with a god?
But he took her elbow. “You should get dressed. It will cool off soon.”
She wasn’t confident coherent words would emerge from her mouth, but she had to try. “I...er...that was...”
He tilted her chin to his gaze. “I understand, cariña. For me too. It will be even better when we join our bodies.”
A splash drew their attention back to the pool before she could respond.
He drew his dagger from its sheath and reentered the water slowly.
She stood stock still, watching the play of his muscles as he moved stealthily with the dagger clenched in his fist, his gaze fixed on the water. She gasped when he lunged, then held the dagger aloft, their dinner skewered by the blade.
She smiled proudly at his triumphant grin. Poseidon had come down from Olympus and caught an impressively large fish.
She pondered the night ahead as they dressed. Men were motivated by the need for sexual release, yet she craved the promised joining. A pirate, a man she barely knew, had overcome her abhorrence of sexual union simply by touching her lovingly in intimate places. Or was it something more, and what had he meant when he said for me too?
Hunkered down outside the cave, Maximiliano tried patiently to create a spark. The fish lay beside the pile of wood, skewered on a length of green wood. Hunger made his belly rumble, but his mind wasn’t on the firesteel and flint.
Heidi’s admiring gaze made him feel like a god. It was an odd sensation for a pirate normally looked upon with fear by women. Or lust for his coin by prostitutes.
“Any luck?” Heidi called from inside the cave.
Startled when a spark immediately landed on the wood shavings, he scrambled to his knees and blew on the wisp of smoke, elated when a flame sprang to life. “You’re magic,” he replied, sliding the burning kindling under the woodpile. “Mi hada afortunada.”
She laughed as she came to sit beside him. “I’m too fat to be a fairy, and I wasn’t good luck for your ship.”
“On the contrary,” he replied, holding the skewered fish over the flames. “Carrying you off was the luckiest day of my life. And you’re not fat. Just voluptuous.”
“You make me feel beautiful,” she whispered.
He turned the makeshift skewer when the fish-skin began to crinkle. “You are one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever met.”
She scoffed. “That can’t be true. You must have known many beauties.”
It seemed important to hide nothing of his past from Heidi. “I was married to one. Her name was Juana.”
“You named your ship after her.”
“Sí,” he chuckled. “She wasn’t happy about that.”
Into the silence that followed, he poured out the whole story of his wife’s murder. “I try not to think of her,” he admitted. “The memories are always tinged with intense anger at the way she died.”
“You can’t blame yourself,” Heidi said softly.
“She’d still be alive if I hadn’t turned to piracy.”
He expected the question before she asked, “Why did you become a pirate?”
“My island’s fortunes are intertwined with a once-mighty colonial power. As Spain’s influence and power waned in the Caribbean, life became very difficult for us. No trade meant no money, no food and a shortage of other necessities we’d become accustomed to enjoying.
“Juana was horrified when I turned to piracy, though she and her relatives gladly ate the food my thievery provided and wore garments made from the finest materials.”
“You stole to feed your family.”
“And other needy families.” Reluctant to portray himself as the hero he wasn’t, he changed the subject. “Speaking of food, the fish is cooked.” He set the skewer aside and took her hands. “You’ve endured a loveless marriage, so you’ll understand. Juana and I accepted the arrangement. It was the norm among people of our social standing.”
She nodded. “I was promised to Torsten when we were both children, but our parents were farmers.”
He wiggled the tail of the cooked fish and pulled. The skeleton came away cleanly.
“Nicely done,” she said, accepting the morsel he held to her lips.
He decided this was as good a time as any to tell her of his ancestry before he became too absorbed in feeding her. “In the sixteenth century, my family received recognition and a coat of arms from King Carlos of Aragón. My father was the son of an Aragonese nobleman, but was forced to flee after being implicated in a duel that led to the death of a prominent merchant. He settled eventually in Puerto Rico and married a woman from the island’s aristocracy.”
“Your mother.”
“Sí, María de Arellano.”
“So, you’re a nobleman who turned to piracy to feed the poor. Sounds like a story I once heard about a crusader knight in medieval England.”
“Robin Hood,” he replied.
“Ja,” she exclaimed.
“But I am not a hero, Heidi. Men have died by my hand and I’ve broken all the Commandments.”
Trust
What was a girl brought up in the Lutheran faith to make of Maximiliano’s confession? It would be foolish to think a man like him had never bedded other women, yet jealousy knotted Heidi’s insides.
But his world wasn’t the one she’d left behind in Denmark. Life in the Caribbean was based on a different moral code. She’d learned that in Sankt Thomas.
He’d admitted he was no saint, yet she recognized he was an honorable man at heart. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me,” she said.
“You and I may be marooned on this island for a long time. We’ll only survive if we trust each other.”
Heat rose in her face that had nothing to do with the fire. “I’ve let you do things...”
He put his arm around her shoulders. “I know. You’ve trusted me with your body. We’re drawn to each other.”
She stared into the flames. “But men are naturally drawn to women.”
He inhaled deeply. “Believe me, querida, I have gone for long periods of time without bedding a woman. I should be using my energies to find a way off this island. Yet, I find I’m content to stay here with you. You’ve bewitched me.”
“I feel the same,” she confessed. “My parents must be turning over in their graves, but you’ve ignited passions I never knew I was capable of.”
He stood and took her hand. “Wait until this night is over,” he said. “I promise you’ll truly know passion.”
Maximiliano chuckled at his own bravado. While it was true he’d slept with other women, not one had pronounced him the greatest lover she’d ever had. Nor had it been his ambition to garner such a reputation, unlike other pirates of his acquaintance.
Juana submitted to what she called his invasions but made no secret of not enjoying marital relations.
The intimacies he and Heidi had shared by the pool were unlike anything he’d experienced. He couldn’t explain it. She was a widow, daughter of a Danish pig farmer, a woman who’d known grief and abuse. Yet she drew him like a moth to the flame.
He’d spoken of trust and believed she trusted him. Perhaps seducin
g a woman he’d known only a day or two wasn’t the best way to convince her he was trustworthy, but an insistent voice in his head told him their union was meant to be.
He’d divulged things about himself he never told anyone. Was it because, deep down, he knew they might never leave the island? Rather, he sensed she would keep his secrets, no matter the circumstances. She didn’t judge him by his misdeeds. With her, he could be the honorable Maximiliano Aguero again.
This unusual woman deserved to be bedded by the world’s greatest lover, and he vowed to do his best to fulfill that role as he drew her down on the mattress.
“Shall I take off my clothes?” Heidi asked, ridiculously nervous as she sat on the mattress. She’d been married. It wasn’t the first time she’d lain with a man.
“I plan to do that,” Maximiliano replied, tracing a finger from her ankle up her skirt to her thigh. “First, these endearingly old-fashioned bloomers. Lie down.”
She obeyed, appreciative of his attempt to calm her nerves. “I brought them from Denmark.”
“I suspected as much,” he replied, kneeling beside her and reaching for the waistband. “Lift.”
She raised her hips, surrendering to the incredible sensations as he slowly peeled the bloomers off her bottom and down her legs. Alarm surged when he held the underwear to his nose, but he growled, clearly relishing her scent.
“My Heidi,” he rasped. “Now, I want to watch while you unbutton the blouse.”
He locked his gaze on her chest. With each button, desire spiraled up her thighs and into her womb. By the time the last one was unfastened, she was awash with desire.
He stayed her trembling hands and opened the blouse to reveal her breasts, raking his gaze over them before leaning forward to lick each nipple in turn.
“Again,” she murmured when he sat back on his haunches.
He nodded. “Don’t worry. We’ve only just begun.”
The World's Greatest Lover
Maximiliano got to his feet, yanked his shirt over his head and divested himself of his pantaloons before his erection ripped them apart. He inhaled deeply, hoping to calm the urge to fall on Heidi like a wild thing and ravish her.
He’d promised a memorable experience, but her lecherous smile when she set eyes on his arousal roused the beast again.
He knelt between her legs. “As you see, querida, I want you badly.”
She pulled up her skirt, opened her legs wider and curled her hand around his cock. “Come inside me,” she whispered, her eyes full of trust.
The beast egged him on.
The world’s greatest lover wanted more. He curled his arms around her thighs and lifted her woman’s place to his mouth.
Her moans of delight didn’t ease the need to take possession. Her skin heated as he lapped her salty-sweet juices. Sensing she was nearing release, he slipped one finger in and out, then two.
A long, throaty wail emerged as she clenched on his fingers. The climax tore through her body.
The beast could wait no longer. He positioned his rampant cock at her opening and thrust.
Heidi had been falling, but now she soared, lifted up to the heavens by intense pleasure. Her soul watched her body convulse with a joy she’d never known.
If only, a little voice said. She searched, not understanding, until Maximiliano filled her.
She’d expected pain, but the muscles of her sheathe wept with elation and held him fast.
She clamped her legs around his hips as he thrust, brushing her thumbs over his male nipples.
She matched his rhythm stroke for stroke, hypnotized by the muscles of his chiseled chest, the strong lines of his neck, the sinews in his arms.
He opened his eyes and looked into hers. His body went rigid as his seed flooded her womb. “Dios,” he cried before collapsing on top of her.
Her soul returned to her body and assured her she’d never been as happy as she was at that moment.
Maximiliano wanted to stay inside Heidi forever, though he’d intended to spill his seed outside her body. “I meant to withdraw,” he confessed as she traced circles on his back.
“Why?”
“We can’t risk a child,” he replied, though his heart warmed at the thought of Heidi round with his niño.
“I’m barren,” she whispered. “My husband and I wanted a child for a long time, but...”
He lifted up on his elbows, saddened by the bleakness in her eyes. If ever a woman was born to be a mother...
“I’m sorry,” he said. “But it’s just as well in the circumstances.”
She nodded, pulling him back to lie atop her.
“I’m too heavy,” he protested.
“No, you’re not.”
They lay together, listening to the crackling fire. Maximiliano couldn’t recall the last time he’d felt so utterly content.
He’d almost fallen asleep when smoke drifted into the cave. Heidi coughed. Predictably, his happy cock curled up at her opening. “I’ll put on more wood,” he said, getting to his feet. “We should keep it going all night.”
“I feel like I’ve known you forever,” she said as he hunkered down to tend the fire.
He understood what she meant, but their situation was precarious. They’d be living from day to day. Satisfied he’d banked the remaining wood sufficiently for it to last most of the night, he returned to her side, smiling at the sight of his woman propped on her elbows—hair disheveled, skirts up around her waist, the firelight flickering on pouting breasts.
My woman.
“What’s funny?” she asked.
“You look like you’ve been well bedded,” he ventured.
“That’s an understatement,” she replied with a grin.
Resisting the urge to strut about, crowing like a rooster, he stretched out beside her and took her into his arms.
“Thank goodness for the mattress,” she whispered.
He pulled down her skirt and drew the edges of her blouse together. “Do you need to put your bloomers back on?” he teased.
They laughed together until they fell asleep.
Too Soon
Raised on a large family farm, Heidi had never lingered in bed, usually rising before dawn.
When they’d first arrived in the islands, Torsten’s workday had begun early. As their marriage deteriorated, she fell into the habit of getting out of bed before her husband woke, often after a sleepless night.
Waking in the cave, she nestled closer to Maximiliano, twirling a finger in the soft hair on his chest. A myriad of thoughts swirled in her head. However, she barely knew this pirate whose lovemaking had freed her from so many bonds. It was too soon to speak of love, to tell him he’d shown her how euphoric relations between a man and a woman were meant to be. Men looked upon sexual intercourse differently. Sometimes, words spoken in haste could ruin everything. She’d learned as much from Torsten.
Maximiliano kissed the top of her head. “You’re awake.”
“Ja.”
“Did you sleep well?”
Should she tell him it was the first time in years she’d enjoyed a deep, untroubled sleep? “Very well. You?”
“Sí,” he replied huskily, placing her hand on his manhood. “But I want you again, querida.”
The warm weight of his arousal sent desire spiraling, putting paid to the fear he’d lose interest once he’d had her. Nipples tingling, she arched her back, relishing the power as his erection hardened and grew beneath her hand.
She could accept it might simply be inevitable for a man and woman marooned together to become lovers. Intimacy with Maximiliano had banished a deep seated guilt that she now saw with utter clarity had plagued her since childhood and only worsened with Torsten. He’d released the inner Heidi.
Perhaps one day she might tell the pirate who’d taken her captive that his touch had set her free. “I want you too,” she confessed, giddily happy it was the first time she’d ever said such wanton words to a man.
Maximiliano convince
d himself it wasn’t a lie to say he’d slept well. He’d fallen into a deep, contented sleep after their lovemaking. In fact, he couldn’t recall sleeping so soundly for a long time.
However, it didn’t take long for the little swimmers in his balls to clamor for attention again.
He’d lain awake since dawn with Heidi in his arms, wanting her badly, but unwilling to disturb her dreams.
It was a stunning realization for a man who’d learned to temper his male urges and normally cared little for the feelings of the women he bedded.
But then, making love to Heidi had been more than just a sexual release. She’d somehow insinuated herself into his blood.
But it was too soon to speak of love. Did he even know what love was? Was it the overwhelming contentment in his heart?
His thoughts wandered as Heidi’s hand worked its magic. He’d feared she might regret their joining, but she’d admitted she wanted him.
He suckled when she contrived to hover a nipple close to his mouth, suspecting the moans deep in her throat were a sign she’d never experienced the sensual delight of being suckled. He couldn’t get enough, licking and teasing each nipple in turn until she writhed with pleasure.
She rolled onto her back and opened her legs. “Play with me,” she whispered, her eyes full of wanting—and something else that was humbling. She trusted him.
Still lavishing attention on one nipple, he parted her nether lips and found the swollen diamond of her desire. “Come for me,” he rasped, flicking his finger over the nub until she screamed out her release.
To his surprise, she pushed him back as he rose to mount her and straddled him. Her sheathe was wet and welcoming as she eased him inside her body.
