Читать книгу Sexual Hunger - Melissa MacNeal - Страница 7

“Aarrrrrgh! Naughty wench! There’s no help fer yer wicked soul save to tie yer pretty arse to the mast and spank it! Like so!”

The smack! of Jason’s hand on her bare bottom made Maria squeal and clutch the bedpost. Blindfolded, with her wrists bound to the bed by his red bow tie, she laughed and then cried out again as he playfully slapped each half of her backside.

“Do ye repent of yer lewd and lascivious ways?” he teased near her ear.

“And what fun would that be?”

“Are ye sorry fer baitin’ poor Quentin? Leadin’ him astray with yer feminine wiles?”

“No! Never!” Maria squirmed with need as his warm breath tickled her neck. How she loved it when he took her captive! Jason kissed her relentlessly, until her knees went weak. As he wrapped his hot, bare body around her from behind, his erection throbbed between her thighs, preparing for entry.

“I thought as much. Ye’ve had yer eye on me young butler ever since ye met him!” He claimed a breast in each hand and held her firmly against his chest. “There’s no help fer ye then, save to let Blackbeard have his way with ye. Plunder and pillage, it is! Assume the position, lass. I’m comin’ in!”

Her moan joined his in a lusty duet as Jason entered her, bending her forward over the bed to find the best angle. He thrust into her fully, until she thought she might die from the exquisite pressure when his long cock found that sensitive spot deep inside her; held her absolutely still, with her eyes squeezed shut beneath the blindfold. Her jaw dropped in a silent scream. This man knew precisely how to control her, how to bend her to his will with his skilled finesse.

When Maria thought she might faint from the mounting suspense, the sharp sensation of feeling nailed to the bedpost, Jason eased his cock out until its tip tickled her rim. Then he began to rock, slowly and rhythmically…in and then out…in and then out, until they breathed and pulsed as one. The pace between them quickened as need overtook the urge to play.

“You drive me mad with hunger, woman,” Jason rasped against her neck. “I swear it was all I could think of from the time I arose: your hot, sweet cunt swallowing my cock. Poor Blackbeard finally stayed so hard for so long, he nearly got severed by the seam of my trousers. I had to leave the office because I could sit no longer! Were it not for my suit coat, everyone would’ve seen I was a man about to shoot like a cannon.”

Maria held her breath to keep from crying out. All the while he talked, Jason was stroking her wet passageway, quickening the pace. “I—I hope we’re not agitating poor Quentin with our noise,” she rasped. “And Mrs. Booth! She looked appalled when you grabbed my hand and we went flying up the stairs—”

“They’ll have to live with it, my love,” Jason purred. His lecherous laugh reverberated all the way down her spine. “It’s why Mother insisted we live here rather than at Wildwood, you know. Our amorous outcries would be the undoing of her prim and proper sensibilities—not to mention an education for young Jemma. But why are we talking about them?”

He leaned her farther down, slapping his thighs against the backs of hers in his urgency. Gasping her name in a frenzied whisper, Jason stiffened—and then cut loose in a series of shudders and moans.

Maria clutched the bedpost. Like a whip her climax snapped inside her, surging into a cataclysm of clenching muscles and inner spasms. On and on it continued, until her lover had spent himself inside her. She was vaguely aware that Jason untied her wrists. The two of them landed in a sweaty, heaving heap on the bed, still a-tingle from nerve endings teased beyond tolerance…laughing and kissing and sucking in air until they could breathe normally again.

“God above, but I love you, woman!” he whispered reverently. He removed her blindfold so she could see the adoration in his smile. “Who else would play my pirate games? Who else excites me so much that I feel sorry for the chaps coming tonight to bemoan the last of my bachelorhood?”

Maria yanked off his eye patch and then coyly widened her eyes at him. “I don’t know. Who?”

Jason held her in a long, glorious hug. What a man he was, all taut body and smooth skin, large enough to wrap himself completely around her like a cocoon. With a bandanna still tied rakishly on his head and a slender mustache that shimmered whenever he grinned, Jason looked the part of the pirate he often played when they made love: randy and powerful in a way that always made her pulse skitter, even after he’d sated her.

“You’re incorrigible!” he muttered into her hair. He inhaled deeply, sighing his appreciation. “And in my haste to plunder your fine body, I nearly forgot something! Check the pocket inside my suit coat.”

Prickling with curiosity, Maria slipped off the tall bed to find Jason’s jacket among the garments strewn around the room. When she fumbled beneath its lapel, her fingers felt a fine mesh chain…a flat, shaped piece of metal, cool and smooth on one side…pronged and bumpy on the other. As she pulled it out, its brilliance made her gasp. “Oh, Jason! Jason, it’s—it’s so beautiful! And you know how I love butterflies!”

Her fiancé rolled to his side to watch her with a lazy grin. “A gift for you on the day before we wed, sweet Maria. I told Jude to spare no expense when it came to the stones. Did he choose well?”

Holding the pendant up to catch the light, Maria could only gaze in disbelief: if Jason’s twin had fashioned this exquisite piece, these colorful gems were genuine. Never in her wildest dreams had she hoped to own such stunning jewelry. “What have I done to deserve such—”

“Deserve?” Her beloved bent his arm to rest his head on his hand. “You’ve shared your heart and soul with a man whose only thought was of his next adventure; a man who spent his days avoiding matrimony. Until I met you.”

Fully stretched out, naked, with his dark chestnut hair in disarray beneath his bandanna, Jason Darington was the picture of a rakish aristocrat whose ambition burned behind his shining brown eyes. Or was that a love like she’d never hoped to know, glowing like the stones his brother had so expertly arranged for her? “Thank you, Jason, but this piece must’ve cost you—”

“Nothing, compared to what you have given me, Maria.” He smiled sweetly. “In the years to come, I hope you’ll realize my family’s wealth and possessions are merely…decoration. Window dressing.” Jason rose from the rumpled bed to take the pendant from her. With utmost care, he fastened it around her neck and then steered her toward the cheval mirror. “Now here’s a picture worthy of Matisse or Renoir! True wealth of spirit and affection, without a stitch of clothing or pretense to hide behind! You, Maria. Simple, yet simply everything to me.”

She swallowed hard. Fixed her eyes on his in the glass, praying the devotion she saw there would never waver. “You could have chosen any woman you fancied. Certainly a more socially acceptable—”

“Acceptable?” His finger drifted along the column of her neck before following the pendant’s chain to rest directly above her heart. “Pay no attention to my mother’s blather about one’s station in life, or what passes as acceptable in her circles, Maria. You’re like this butterfly: free and uniquely beautiful, because you follow no one else’s preconceived ideas about love and marriage. You came to me—gave yourself to me—expecting nothing in return. Have you any idea how refreshing you are?”

She smiled shyly, only now allowing herself to relish the gemstones that shimmered in the hollow of her collarbone. The butterfly’s body curved slightly, in beads of onyx. Lustrous sapphires and rubies formed the lower wings and then swirled into spiral antennae. Diamonds and blue topaz made the upper wings seem to flutter when they caught the afternoon light. “I—I don’t know what to say.”

“Then I’ve performed a miracle! I’ve left you speechless!” He brushed his lips against her temple. “I hope you’ll accept this pendant as a token of the love I intend to rejoice in every day, for the rest of my life.”

Jason grinned wickedly, cupping her breasts. “And to think I could have been sailing off on one of Father’s ships to once again lose myself in Jamaican rum, island women, and gambling! No, thank you!”

Maria’s lips curved wryly as she thrust into his caress. “That is a miracle.”

“That’s what Father said. Jude is just damn thankful I haven’t gotten myself killed during some of my wilder forays,” he added with a chuckle. “Nothing he fears more than bearing up under the mantle of family responsibility, you know. In his way, he’s every bit the vagabond I am. Just indulges in more artistic pursuits.”

“And he’s very, very good at it, too.” She teased her fingertip along the prongs of the butterfly’s jeweled wings. “I’ll wear this tomorrow, instead of the pearls Jemma loaned me. Your mother will fuss, but—”

“My mother has a chest of jewelry that rarely catches the light of day. So many exquisite pieces she’s demanded over the years, as payment for Father’s perceived shortcomings.”

“What a shame! And what a sad commentary on their marriage.” Maria’s hand flew to her mouth. “I’m sorry! It’s not my place to judge or—”

“You hit the nail on the head. And your outspoken honesty is one more reason I love you,” he murmured. “It’s also another means of defying their authority when they insisted I marry on their terms. So you’re perfect. Absolutely perfect for me.”

Once again her throat tightened with emotion. While Jason Darington often showered her with compliments and encouragement, this afternoon was a rare treat: his words shone as brightly as the jewels he’d just given her. Maria watched him dress in a fresh shirt and suit then, openly admiring his fine body, his casual donning of the Darington wealth and its trappings. Would she ever forget her meager years of scraping by, looking after her younger brother, when their mother’s untimely death had left them alone on foreign soil?

Or was this a dream? A vision that would disappear like morning mist in the bright light of day?

“Have a good time tonight,” she offered.

“Oh, my friends will see to that.” He deftly tied a fresh necktie and then folded his shirt collar over it. “I’m only succumbing to tradition, spending this evening at the club to avoid loving the night away with my bride. Not that I give a damn about tradition.”

Maria smiled. She smoothed the broad shoulders of his serge suit, a houndstooth check in shades of umber and cinnamon. “You look very handsomely put together—”

“Jude chose the fabric. Says it complements my eyes.”

“—except your hair looks like, well—a pirate’s, after he’s romped with a wayward lady.”

Jason laughed and checked his reflection. “I should leave it this way. Give the boys something to speculate about, eh?” He swept a comb through his chestnut hair as though good grooming was the farthest thing from his mind. “There. Better?”

“Until I get my fingers in it again, it’ll have to do.”

“Can’t happen soon enough.” Jason bent to kiss her, quickly taking her beyond a going-away peck into those realms of passion that once again had her succumbing…surrendering. With a sigh, he released her. “Damn. Better get going before Blackbeard overrules my better judgment.”

He strode briskly toward the bedroom door and then turned to gaze at her. “By this time tomorrow, I’ll be the happiest man alive because you’ll finally be mine, sweet Maria. Pleasant dreams tonight, love.”

As his boots beat a rapid tattoo on the stairs, Maria’s body prickled with a premonition. Ecstasy and joy juxtaposed with excruciating pain. Loss of love and life as you now know it.

“Oh, stifle yourself, Rubio!” she muttered. While she had a glimmer of second sight now and again, Maria preferred to let her renowned brother be the medium—and sometimes one bearer of future tidings was too many. She watched out the window until Jason’s horse-drawn carriage rolled smartly into the street. And then she listened.

Stillness. A hint of baking beef wafted up from the kitchen, but otherwise the town house felt deliciously peaceful.

Maria gathered up the skirt she’d stepped out of before Jason could feel how heavy it was, to pluck the letters from the deep pockets she’d sewn into its sides. Quickly she crossed the bathroom that adjoined their separate bedchambers, grateful this house had been built with a master and a lady’s needs in mind. Jason intended to sleep with her every night, but having her own room made it easier to keep the one secret no one but her brother knew. Still, it would be a challenge to carry on her career in the presence of a husband, not to mention the servants—

Was that the swish of skirts in the hall?

Maria yanked open the bottom drawer of the armoire, cringing when it creaked. She dropped her mail into it. Was shoving it shut with her foot when someone tapped lightly on her door.