Windswept (38 page)

Standing behind her, he shifted the weight of her hair until it trailed down her back. Then with his fingertips, he gently pushed the straps of the nightdress down her arms. When her shoulders were bare, he curved his hands over them and moved from their rounded contours to the column of her neck and back again, the smooth texture of her skin a balm for his work-roughened palms. She tilted her head back, and his fingers met at the hollow of her throat and slowly moved down.

When his hands splayed on her chest, her bosom rose with a quick intake of breath. He would have stopped then before it was too late if she’d asked him to, but she didn’t. Instead she closed her eyes and leaned back so her head rested against his abdomen. Her hair swept against his lower body and blanketed his thighs, causing a swift, sweet ache of tension between his legs.

Watching her in the mirror, he moved his hands down her chest, savoring each satiny inch until his fingers slipped under the thin fabric of her bodice and captured her breasts. She sighed and leaned more fully against him. Her nipples strained against his palms, inviting him to cup the fullness of each glorious mound. He moved his hands in small circles, feeling the crest of each breast pucker against his callused skin. The tension in his loins coiled until the tip of his manhood thrust upon an uncomfortable layer of black gabardine.

His hands slipped further down to her ribs, over the flat plane of her stomach and back to hold each perfectly rounded breast from below. He teased the nipples with the pads of his thumbs, relishing the quick, ardent response. His own breathing sounded like the scrape of sandpaper to his ears as a moan came from Nora’s lips. Her eyelids fluttered open.

Still massaging her, he smiled down at her face. “You are my savior, Nora. You have brought me back from the brink.”

Her lips curved upwards in a quiver of delight. “It was you who brought me back, Jacob, in the most literal sense.”

Against her murmur of protest, he took his hands from her breasts and stepped to her side. Then he lifted her from the stool. The gown slipped down her arms and chest to her waist. When he pulled her against his body she molded to him as if made of clay. Her rigid nipples tantalized him through his shirt. “Perhaps it can be said we saved each other today, Nora,” he breathed into her lilac-scented hair.

She pulled back enough to see into his eyes and cupped his face with her hands. It was the dearest face in all the world, and if she had had some part in erasing the lines of anguish that had been there she was thankful. What she saw in his features now was contentment, edged with something sharper, finer, perhaps even a little dangerous, and it thrilled her.

Seeing her own face, eager and expectant, reflected in the smoldering ash of his eyes, she would have passed through them to his soul if she had been able, for she knew that finally peace existed there. “I’m happy for you, Jacob. You have your life back.”

His arms tightened around her. “I hope and pray that I have much more than that, dearest Nora.”

Her heart understood the implied declaration of his words and rejoiced. “You needn’t pray too fervently,” she said, and the embers of his eyes flared as if fanned by a bellows. “I suspect that all you desire can be yours if only you would ask.”

“Then I’m asking, Nora. I am most assuredly asking.” His body shuddered with reckless hunger. He pulled her hard against him and lowered his mouth to take hers in a shattering kiss that ignited the fire of a passion only she could have started.

It was a mad, wild kiss, given and taken, driven by urgency and long denied need. For one brief moment of sanity he feared the power of his emotions would frighten her. He couldn’t get enough of her lips, her tongue, the sweet, welcoming darkness of her mouth. His hands roamed over her back and slipped between their bodies to cover her breasts. He kneaded each quivering tip until Nora moaned against his mouth. She wasn’t frightened. She was alive in his arms and matching his hunger with her own.

Nora swept her fingers through his hair to the nape of his neck, massaging, caressing, drawing his mouth even more forcefully over her own. His kiss scorched her lips and poured warm honey through her limbs. Still it was not enough. She knew instinctively that it wasn’t. Her hands came around to his chest and she worked feverishly loosening the buttons on his shirt. Her breath came in short, heated gasps as she pulled the tails free of his trousers.

She thrust the sleeves over his arms and let the shirt fall from his body. Free at last to explore every inch of his broad chest, her fingers played in the short springy curls, danced over his muscular shoulders to descend the rounded biceps and corded tendons of his arms.

When her hands wrapped around his neck again, he cupped the back of her head and turned her face against his neck. His breath was hot and moist on her ear and sent shivers of anticipation skidding down her spine.

“Nora, I want you,” he said huskily. “I have wanted to make love to you for as long as I can remember, probably from the first moment I saw you. If you don’t want it to happen here, tonight, then we must stop now.” His hands moved slowly up and down her back, leaving a trail of tingling heat wherever his fingers touched her skin.

She looked into smokey pewter eyes that melted her heart and filled her with longing so intense she couldn’t have let him walk away. “Make love to me, Jacob,” she said hoarsely. “It’s what I’ve dreamed of. It’s what I want.”

In one swift motion he picked her up in his arms. The flimsy gown draped over her hips fluttered to the floor, and he carried her naked to the bed. He sat beside her and placed his hands on the coverlet on each side of her face. “You are as perfect as ivory, Nora, as splendid a creation as nature can achieve. You are beautiful.”

She pulled him down until his chest pressed against her breasts, satisfying, for the moment, the aching need for his touch. She pressed her lips on his, giving back for each glorious kiss he had given her. She trailed kisses over the line of his jaw, his cheekbones, his eyes, while he caressed her body with eager hands.

He stretched out beside her to explore every satiny inch of her skin and she turned into his embraces. He swept over her breasts, lingering again over each thrusting tip. He moved over her stomach to her hips, cresting each mound and exploring each valley of her body with fervent caresses.

When his hand slipped to her inner thigh, a sudden, intense spurt of warmth flared deep in her abdomen, and she opened her legs to him. He lowered his mouth to her breast and teased the taut bud with his tongue, drawing the warmth between her thighs upward. When his lips closed over her and he sucked hungrily on her nipple, she felt the pull deep inside. It seemed a magnet for the searching hand that with aching deliberateness climbed her flesh. He cupped her sensitive mound, and she drew a shuddering breath.

When Jacob’s finger entered the place that was all silk and honeyed heat, the world behind Nora’s closed eyelids lit with a thousand shooting stars. He entered and withdrew, spreading rich cream around the part of her that became the center of the universe. He massaged her gently
there
, while his lips moved to take hers again. She spiraled upwards, arching away from the bed until her mind exploded in riotous waves of ecstasy.

“That’s it, sweetheart,” he said against her mouth. “Let it go.” And Nora could only moan a response as she did just what he told her.

He stood up from the bed to remove the rest of his clothes, leaving her senses to flutter like hummingbirds at the precipice he’d taken her. Then he covered her body with his. In the shadows of descending night, his magnificent torso glistened like copper and sent her heart skittering toward a path of discovery. Her nearly sated body quivered in anticipation of what was to come. In some secret, mysterious, womanly way, she knew he had satisfied her body’s yearning for a man’s touch but not yet the longing of her heart. She wanted to be one with him, to find completion with this man as only two hearts could.

“Don’t be afraid, Nora,” he whispered in her ear.

“I could never be afraid with you,” she answered back on a sigh.

“Touch me, Nora,” he said, and guided her hand to his erection.

It was firm and strong and leapt against her palm. She brought him to the part of her that still tingled from his lovemaking. Her breath hitched and held when his smooth flesh slipped inside, and he began to move with a slow, natural rhythm. Suddenly all of Nora’s power and energy centered on her core where he’d entered her body. It felt so right having him locked with her in the most intimate way, and soon she matched his movements with the rise and fall of her hips.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he mumbled against her ear. “If this hurts you, it will pass. It only hurts for an instant.”

“How can this hurt?” she responded in a voice that seemed to drift above them. “It’s heaven. Only heaven.” But then a swift, sharp stab of pain streaked through her, and she strangled her cry against his neck.

He moved more slowly until a dewy warmth comforted her. “It’s all right, Nora, darling,” he said. “Move with me, sweetheart, you’ll see.”

She did, and soon all traces of pain vanished in the sweet, hot motion of their bodies. She climbed again to the brink of exploding passion. She followed him upwards to the blissful apex where everything rational dissolved into pure pleasure.

His movements quickened, and she met each thrust with her arching body. Together they crested and rode the spasms of passion until it was impossible to tell her heartbeat from his, and their muffled cries mingled with the breeze of the dark Caribbean night.

Without withdrawing from her, he pulled her on top of him. Her legs entwined with his, her head nestled against his neck. “My God, you are wonderful,” he said. “Desirable beyond all measure, generous, incredibly passionate. Quite definitely all a man could possibly wish for.”

She laughed softly. “You would think me a wanton if you knew what I was wishing for right now.”

He tilted his head to better see her eyes. “I’m sure I would not,” he said. “You have to tell me now, for my curiosity is almost as great as my love for you.”

She opened her mouth on a gasp, and her eyes grew wide. “Your
what
, Captain?”

He smiled. “Did I neglect to say it? How ungentlemanly of me, especially when I have so often appeared rude and uncouth in your estimation.” He cupped her chin in his hand and looked deeply into her eyes. “I love you, Nora Seabrook, with all my heart and for all my days. And it would be my greatest honor to have you accept my proposal of marriage.”

She suppressed a most unladylike squeal. “Do you mean it? Truly mean it? You’re not going to change you mind and run off as though being chased by the devil?”

He laughed. “My devils are all gone, my sweet, and it was you who did the chasing. Now it is my fondest wish only to be caught.”

She could have sworn her heart leapt from her chest and soared around the room. Her happiness was that complete, her dreams that fulfilled. “Then yes, Jacob, I will proudly marry you.”

“Good,” he said and kissed her soundly. When he attempted to draw back, it seemed his lips would not cooperate, for they stayed on hers, tasting and teasing until her giggles turned to sighs and her arms went round his neck. Before they were utterly lost again, he said, “Now tell me, wicked enchantress, what was it you were wishing for that makes you a wanton?”

She felt him grow hard inside her again and nipped playfully at his earlobe. “I don’t need to say it, my love,” she snickered. “For it is right now coming true.”

Chapter Twenty-four

On the fourth day of their voyage back to Key West, Nora heeded Jacob’s warning to face the serious matter of her family. It was hard to accept that reality would soon descend upon them with the force of a Federal judge’s vengeance, yet accept it, she must.

But Nora had never been so blissfully happy in her life. She and Jacob had resolved the issues of his family, and while she had avoided any contact with Harrison, she had bid an almost “sisterly” farewell to Dylan. He seemed to have forgotten the incident on the cliff and regarded her with a detached but curious attention. Now, with Belle Isle four days behind them, all Nora wanted to do was float on the waves of enchantment that carried the
Dover Cloud
through calm seas and deliciously warm nights.

“We’ve caught a good headwind,” Jacob told her the morning they navigated the Mona Passage and sailed northwest toward the Bahama Islands. “I have a hunch we’ll reach Key West in two and a half days, cutting several hours from our journey to Belle Isle. That means we could be sailing into Key West harbor the evening of our sixth day out.”

“So soon?” Nora said. She snuggled against Jacob’s side and lay her head on his shoulder. When his arm came around her, she breathed a sigh of utter contentment. She loved being with him when he took his turn at the wheel, especially since he’d altered his normal routine and chosen to guide the ship during daylight hours. That left the nights free for other, delightfully personal pursuits. “Can’t you slow the ship down so we’ll have a little longer?”

“And risk getting into a storm?” he said. “Any good sailor knows you have to make time when the seas are peaceful and not tempt the caprices of the weather gods.” He leaned down to brush a kiss against her hair. “Besides, the storm we’ll face when we reach Key West will be quite enough of a tempest for us to handle.”