ClaimedbytheCaptain (8 page)

To his surprise, Cathy did not struggle against him. She
melded against his body, resting her head against his chest, shuttering her
gaze as if that could block out the reality his hunger for vengeance had
forged.

Still imprisoning her in the circle of his arms, Jason
stared down at her. Catherine Farrell was a beauty, but there was more. Much
more. Her spirit stirred his soul and something he’d believed long dead—his
heart.

Cathy tilted her face to meet his eyes. Her throat burned
with tears she refused to shed. She wanted to hate Jason, to punish him for the
way he’d made her crave his touch. But she could no sooner despise him than
deny the yearning deep within her heart.

Taking control of her defenses, she swallowed against the
lump and steadied her voice. “You did not answer my question. How did this ship
get its name?”

She’d expected him to release her, but he continued to hold
her to his unyielding length. The ship listed beneath her slipper-clad feet.
Cathy clung to him more tightly, drinking in his scent and the security of his
strength.

“My mother’s name was Virginia,” he replied without emotion.
“She died when I was sixteen. My father’s death was too much for her to bear.”

An unexpected surge of compassion flooded her. Her father’s
treachery had gouged a vicious wound on Jason’s heart. Pressing her palm to his
cheek, she caressed the stubble-roughened flesh. Her fingers threaded through
his hair.

“That was a long time ago,” he continued. “I gave her my
word that I would be strong, that I would prosper.”

“At any cost?”

His eyes darkened. “At any cost.”

Her pulse quickened as he lowered his head, brushing his
lips over her mouth, her neck, her shoulders, bringing her senses to life with
feather-soft kisses rained over her flesh.

She stiffened beneath his touch.
I will not succumb to
him. I won’t give him that satisfaction again.

Pressing her palms to his chest, she shoved him away. Her
eyes narrowed as she met his gentle attentions with derision, wishing to
provoke him. His tenderness was far more unbearable than his harsh mastery.
“Unfortunately, Captain Kane, I’ve borne the cost of your vengeance. Neither
you nor my father has suffered in your quest. If I live to make it off this
ship, I’ll bear the scars of this captivity.”

“Scars?” he scoffed. “I have not harmed you, lest you
consider coming undone in my arms a brutal torture.”

“You wield your caress as a weapon. Your gentleness is a
ruse, nothing more.”

“Shall I hike your skirts right here and now then?” he
grated savagely, coiling his hands over her upper arms. “Is violence what
you’ve come to crave?”

She wrenched away. “I crave nothing from you.”

“Liar,” he breathed against her mouth, his visage
transformed from a gentle lover to a dark satyr who would deny himself nothing
as he slaked his passion with her flesh. Seizing her in his arms, he possessed
her mouth with no trace of mercy. He swept her off her feet and into the cradle
of his embrace.

“You can’t do this,” she murmured in a halfhearted protest.

“Why do you doubt what I am capable of?”

Cathy writhed in his possessive hold. Surely he did not
intend to take her there, on the deck, making her shame complete by possessing
her in full view of his crew. “Don’t do this,” she whispered. Reaching out to
him, she encircled his neck with her arms, drawing his mouth to hers.

His mouth curved in a rueful smile. “What do you require,
Cathy? How does a captor take his prisoner? Gentleness is nothing more than a
tool to win your submission. Do you propose I woo you with sonnets and words of
love like some besotted schoolboy?”

The mocking cruelty in his words etched a shallow wound on
her soul. She dragged in a breath, drawing strength from the flash of an
emotion far more profound than anger in his dark gaze. Steeling herself, she
issued a bold challenge. “I want no part of sonnets. Take me as your lover.”
Her words nearly caught in her throat. She searched his face, desperately
seeking his response.

His eyes flared with heat that set her aflame. He needed
her, just as, heaven help her, she needed him. Cathy hungered to touch him, to
love him, to spend her nights in his arms and in his bed. His woman. Not his
captive. She had to take this chance.

“I want to pleasure you,” she breathed against the harsh
line of his mouth.

His brows rose. “Little more than an innocent, and you
deceive yourself into believing you tempt me.”

Gambling with her soul, Cathy lowered her hands. Unfastening
the top buttons of his shirt, she eased the fabric from his warm skin. She
pressed her lips to his flesh, leaving a fevered trail in her wake as she
explored the lightly furred plane over his heart.

She glanced up to meet his hooded gaze. “I do tempt you,
sir. You cannot deny it.”

“That you do, wench. That you do.” His tone of bored
disinterest could not conceal the hunger in his gaze. “You are playing a risky
game.”

He tilted her face upward and cupped her chin. Her breath
caught in her throat. “Are you ready to up the stakes?”

Chapter Seven

Jason Kane had faced many temptations in his life. He’d
succumbed to most without a second thought. But something in Cathy’s expression
gave him pause. Passion. Courage. A need for him the likes of which he’d never
encountered in his thirty years.

She desired him. The throaty challenge she laid down before
him sent a rush of blood to his groin. If the wench had intended to provoke
him, she’d succeeded in grand style.

He watched her ministrations with interest. “So, you intend
to seduce me?”

Her fingers continued to work the buttons of his linen
shirt, baring his flesh to her touch. Cathy’s inexperienced hands traced a
searing path from the breadth of his shoulders downward, branding him with an
intoxicating heat. Her small mouth etched spirals of sensation from the broad,
hard planes of his upper torso, descending across his belly to the place where
the mat of hair tapered into his trousers.

He knew better than to let his prisoner get the upper hand
in their battle of wills, but his body disagreed fiercely. His fully aroused
cock mutinied against his intent to maintain control, swelling against the
constraining fabric. His balls ached, craving the touch of her small, smooth
fingertips.

He bit off a curse as her exploration trailed below his
waist. Christ, was this her idea of revenge for the delicious torments he’d
inflicted upon her? His fingers coiled around her wrist, securing her without
anger.

“Are you trying to drive me mad? Do you truly want me to
take you here and now?”

A hint of a smile graced her rose-hued mouth. “Not here. Not
now.” Her perfect white teeth nipped teasingly at his chest. “Teach me to
pleasure you.”

He hesitated, torn by his desire to teach her a hard lesson
about taunting a dangerous man and the insatiable craving for the pleasure of
embedding himself within her heat.

“You wish to become a courtesan?” he asked finally,
appraising her with a scathing gaze.

She shook her head. “Not a courtesan. You are the only man I
wish to pleasure.”

Struck speechless by her words, he scanned her face, finding
no trace of guile, no hint of coy manipulation. He saw only desire, stronger
and purer than he’d ever seen in a woman’s eyes.

He swept her into his arms, cradling her against him. At
that moment, she was no longer his captive. She was his woman.

“Your wish is my command.”

Jason carried Cathy to his cabin, placing her in the bed and
stretching his length along her body. The need in his hooded gaze etched into
her soul.

Her fingers trembled as she splayed open his shirt, baring
his chest to her gaze. She slid the garment over the corded muscles of his
shoulders. Her breath caught in her throat as she exposed the carved planes of
his upper body. Deep brown hair tapered from his upper chest over a flat,
sculpted abdomen. Her gaze moved lower. His arousal strained against his
trousers, offering silent testimony of his body’s hunger.

“The trousers,” he managed in a barely audible plea. “Strip
them off.”

Cathy licked her lips. A heady rush surged through her. She
held such power over him. The realization thrilled her.

Emboldened by the need emanating from every inch of his
powerful male body, she smiled slowly. “Not yet,” she breathed. He scanned her
features as she removed the satin ribbon that tied back her hair.

“Do you trust me?” she whispered against his ear.

“Not for a moment.” His eyes flashed with carnal hunger.
“What evil do you plan to inflict upon me?”

Her teeth nibbled her lower lip while she considered his
question. “Just a bit of amusement.” Her hands captured one sturdy wrist.
Smiling to herself, she looped the end of the ribbon around his arm and tied a
square knot.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Despite his harsh
tone, he made no move to resist her.

She didn’t respond. Instead, she wound the length of satin
around a spindle of the headboard, took hold of his free wrist and began to
bind that as well.

“Do you really believe a flimsy ribbon could hold me
captive?” he scoffed as she finished the second knot. Allowing him no time to
ponder the question, her fingers moved to his trousers. His cock stiffened more
than she’d believed possible against the imprisoning fabric.

She shook her head slowly as she set about unfastening the
closures.

“Your desire will accomplish that task.”

She wriggled the garment past his hips and tugged it from
his body. His fully engorged shaft sprang free, lying heavy and erect against
the flat plane between his groin and his navel. A thatch of black hair nested
around his cock. Naked, his arms bound in place over his head, he strained
against the ribbon. A frustrated groan escaped his throat as the ribbon proved
a surprisingly effective restraint.

Cathy grazed her fingertips over his belly, trailing lightly
to his cock. His arms stiffened as his low moan drifted through the chamber.
She leaned over him. Her tongue swept a slow circle on the head of his cock.
His body arched as though struck by a lightning bolt and he groaned again, the
sound deeper, more intense. A gleaming drop of liquid pearled at the tip.
Intrigued, she lapped at it with her tongue. His body shuddered at the contact,
his hips arching in a silent plea. Emboldened by the intensity of his reaction,
she brushed her tongue along the length of his shaft. Her hands cradled his
sac, gently kneading, caressing the firm globes with an instinctive awareness
that seemed to drive him to the brink of sanity.

Writhing on the bed, he raised his hips. His lids closed,
his mouth drawn tight in an expression of pleasure and pain, he desperately
sought to intensify the contact between her lips and his swollen cock. “Good
God, what are you doing to me?” His voice, throaty and raw, kindled a sweet
warmth deep within her.

She sat back on her heels, taking in the sight of him. Jason
was magnificent. The thick cords of sleek muscle banding his shoulders and
biceps tensed as he strained against the restraint. His hair was dark
everywhere, from his head to the thick patch surrounding his manhood. She ran
her fingers through the pelt on his chest and belly, easing her way back to the
curly nest between his legs.

His engorged shaft throbbed with need. Need for her, she
thought with a surge of triumph. Cupping his balls in her hand, she took his
shaft into her mouth. The scent of him, the aroma of pure male musk, surrounded
her, spurring her on in her conquest.

He nearly came off the bed as her mouth encased him. Hard,
hot steel, captured between her lips, fully at her mercy. He was now her
captive, not by virtue of the fragile binding she’d used to tie his hands, but
by his desperate thirst for the pleasure she would bestow upon him.

She kneaded his balls while sucking his shaft gently. His
reaction to her touch told her the head was excruciatingly sensitive. Cathy
rounded her mouth, taking the swollen head between her lips, tormenting him
with the intimate caress.

Every muscle in his body tensed wildly. A low roar of
ecstasy rumbled from his throat, unrestrained. He thrashed against the bed,
racked by powerful spasms of pleasure, until he lay spent and at her mercy.

She untied the flimsy binding on his wrists, allowing the
ribbon to fall to the floor. She rolled onto her side and her breaths came
quietly. “Did I please you?”

Jason’s low growl of satisfaction provided her answer. He
rolled from his back to his stomach and stretched contentedly, viewing her with
the heavy-lidded eyes of a well-satisfied male. “You required no instruction.
Your instincts could enslave a man.”

Cathy flushed under his gaze. “I wanted to bring you
pleasure.”

Lifting himself on his elbows, he looked away, fixing his
gaze on the porthole. She stroked his back. The muscles flexed beneath her
hands, warm steel melding to her touch. If only he’d turn to her. If only he’d
take her in his arms and kiss her senseless. Yet, in her heart, she knew that
wouldn’t be enough. She needed so much more.

“Ancient mariners believed sea sirens would lure sailors
from their course, leading them on a path to destruction.” He reached for her,
drawing her to the lean length of his body. His mouth hitched, not quite a
smile. “I am starting to believe I’ve captured such an enchantress.”

She nestled against him, luxuriating in his heat. “You
believe me capable of leading you astray?”

Jason traced lazy circles over her back. He brushed his lips
over hers, a lingering caress. Longing pierced her heart as delicious warmth
spread through her body.

He raised his gaze to lock with hers. Was it a trick of the
light that his eyes seemed darker, a deep ebony hue? “I am not so weak,” he
said in a whisper against her mouth. “But I’ve no doubt the temptation will be
considerable.”