The Captive - By Joanne Rock Page 0,57
her attention floated somewhere besides their disagreement. As if her body remembered the kind of decadent pleasure that made a woman moan like that.
“We should not discuss this here.” She swallowed hard, and he hoped that she could envision herself feeling as fulfilled as the woman who’d just cried out.
“Come with me, Gwen,” he urged her between clenched teeth, his need crawling up his back with fierce claws. “Tomorrow, I could bleed out on your shores with a Saxon arrow through my gut, and we will curse our stubbornness this night.” He tunneled his fingers through her hair on either side of her head, guiding her mouth to his. “You breathe fast and shallow, like a woman who is aroused. Your tongue darts out to lick your lips like a woman anticipating a kiss. And I would wager all of my gold on two continents that your thighs are pressed tightly together beneath your skirts like a woman who would prefer another sort of pressure there—”
She rose up on her toes and kissed him before he could finish. Her soft mouth molded to his while she wrapped her arms about his neck and squeezed.
He wanted to get her back in the shelter of his tent, but she hooked her hands in the front of his tunic and yanked it open, distracting him. The cool sea breeze blew over his body, powerless to chill the inferno burning away his usual caution.
“Touch me,” she demanded, arching against him so that her breasts tempted him beyond reason. “I want to feel the night air on my skin when you undress me.”
It was all the concession he needed from her tonight. If she was naked beneath him, she couldn’t steal horses or dive off his ships.
Lifting her off her feet, he backed her deeper into the woods. Her bare skin would not incite any man’s lust but his when he hauled up her skirts.
He could not be sure how she’d caught the feverish hunger that affected him, but it burned her up. Her fingers unfastened his belt and tunneled under his tunic, her hands splaying across his chest before descending low along his waist.
Finding a solid hawthorn trunk, he settled her against it and went to work kissing her neck and the exposed skin of her shoulders. The ties of her tunic were undone in a trice. He pulled it up and off, leaving her in the same shift she’d worn to swim the sea. Her breasts strained the fabric, the tight peaks vying for his attention.
He wanted to sink to his knees and kiss her through the shift until she begged him for more, but to do so would leave her too exposed. He palmed one of her breasts and nipped the other with his teeth. She cried out, her hands raking through his hair and down his back in silent demand for more.
Would he ever have enough of her?
Need rocked him, compelling him to lift her skirt just enough to slip a hand up her thigh. An answering moan filled his ears, setting his nerves on edge and making his shaft throb.
“Quickly,” she urged, her voice cracking with the same desperation he felt.
His tunic fell away. Her nails scratched his chest lightly. Her thigh slid up the side of his and she tugged away the extra skirts impatiently so their hips met.
He sucked in a breath behind his teeth and held it, trying to find a shred of his scattered control. He was used to being in command, to standing apart and issuing orders. Right now, he couldn’t stop himself if he tried.
Hunger blindsided him. His hands took over, tweaking a taut nipple to a stiff peak, cupping her mound at the juncture of her thighs. A roaring in his ears drowned out everything except the sound of her erratic breathing and the hum of approval deep in her throat. He kissed and licked her, testing her readiness with his two fingers inside her.
She gasped at the invasion, then murmured a chant of sweet encouragement, her hips bucking against him to take more. He wanted to bring her back to his tent, but they’d waited too late. Too long.
He kept his body between her and the village, even knowing they were too deep in the forest for anyone to see. Loosening the laces on his trousers, he freed himself enough to position between her legs. Then, lifting her up, he parted her sex and lowered her onto his cock.
Her nails bit into