The Devil and the Deep - By Amy Andrews Page 0,60

Lady Mary.’

Rick remembered what she’d said about Lady Mary not being her in anything other than a generic female way. Her slickness coated his fingers and he picked up the pace. ‘And you’re not her, right?’ he whispered.

Stella was so close to falling over the edge. So far gone she didn’t know which way was up, but even she knew to answer that question truthfully would be madness.

‘Right,’ she gasped as she squirmed against him and he stroked harder.

She clutched convulsively at the back of his neck as a tiny pulse fluttered deep and low, fanning out in ever-increasing waves. Mary was forgotten, Vasco was forgotten as it pulsed and grew until nothing else mattered but the magic Rick could do with his hands.

‘Oh, God,’ she groaned, arching her back, tilting her pelvis. ‘Don’t stop,’ she begged. ‘Please don’t stop.’

Rick felt the tension in his groin tighten to almost unbearable tautness. ‘Yes, Stel, yes,’ he panted, working her slickness, feeling her ripple around him. ‘Come for me. Come.’

Stella bucked as the wave broke over her, undulating with a ferocity that tore the breath from her lungs and, for a moment or two, the beat from her heart.

It gripped her and shook her in endless waves and she knew there was no possible way she could be put back together right, once it ended.

CHAPTER TEN

Mary chafed against the four silken bonds that imprisoned her, legs akimbo, upon Vasco’s bed. For no matter how many times she shared it with him she would never regard it as hers. She eyed the big brooding pirate as he prowled back and forth. He was wearing breeches and boots and nothing else save the sunlight slanting through the portholes.

He stopped and turned to face her from the foot of the bed, shoving his hands on his hips. ‘I’m waiting, Mary.’

His low rumble set her heart aflutter and her nipples to attention. She watched as his glittering blue eyes took in their state of indecency. How could they not when she was barely covered? When he had stripped her to her undergarments not ten minutes ago this had not been the expected outcome.

Damned stubborn man.

‘I insist that you untie me immediately, Captain Ramirez.’

Vasco chuckled, his gaze fanning over the hard peaks tenting her chemise. ‘Methinks you like to be tied up, Lady Mary,’ he murmured, planting a knee on the bed.

She glared at him both scandalised and titillated at the thought. ‘Captain Ramirez.’

He ignored the warning in her voice, slowly advancing onto the bed. ‘I do so prefer it when you call me Vasco. Like you did that day on the deck when I washed your hair.’ He prowled closer on his hands and knees until he was sitting on his haunches between her spreadeagled legs. ‘And when I first touched you here,’ he murmured, stroking his finger down the open central seam of her linen drawers.

She sucked in a breath and he smiled triumphantly. ‘Like you did last night and the night before that and the five nights before that.’ He stroked again.

Mary squirmed against his hand. ‘Vasco, please,’ she moaned. ‘It’s the middle of the day. The crew...’

He shook his head and chuckled that she could still keep a sense of propriety while tied to his bed. ‘Say it,’ he insisted. ‘If you want it, Mary, you’re going to have to ask for it.’

Lady Mary Bingham had been a willing and eager bed partner but there was part of her he hadn’t been able to reach, a part she kept aloof from him even when she was in the throes of her release. It made him feel like a common street urchin and she the lady who was condescending to allow him to use her body while she had nothing better to do.

He needed to know that this fever was burning in her blood too.

Mary shook her head. Gently bred ladies did not talk so.

She’d already taken a pirate as a lover. How much more did he want? ‘I will not.’

Vasco smiled at her, watching as she bit down on her bottom lip and fought against closing her eyes. ‘You know you want to, Mary, I can feel it right here...’ He slipped a finger inside her where it was hot and slick and she gasped. ‘I know you, Mary.’

Mary hated how he could addle her senses so quickly. ‘You know nothing about me, sir,’ she said vehemently as her hips moved against him restlessly.

Vasco grinned. ‘I know you like this,’ he said, pushing