How To Please a Pirate (22 page)

“You’re more chilled than I thought,” he
said. “This may call for drastic measures. Come. We need to get you
back into your bed.”

She nodded and let him lead her away from the
treasure and back up the winding stairs.

“No doubt the fire in my chamber is out by
now,” she said softly. “My bed will be cold as a tomb.”

“There’s a remedy for that.”

“Not one we should avail ourselves of.”

“You disappoint me, Mistress,” he said as he
swiped away a draping cobweb. “You are determined to think the
worst of me. My sole aim is your comfort. I didn’t ask anything
improper of you. I merely said I could mend the problem of a cold
bed. Any untoward ideas in this exchange are coming from you, not
me.”

She swallowed her surprise. Did he not want
her after all?

“So this is the thanks I get after I handed
over my shirt and refrained from any ungentlemanly advances this
night,” he said as he slogged up the steps. “Keep your hand on my
shoulder so we don’t become separated.”

She tried to reach his shoulder, but between
his height and going up the stairs, her palm kept slipping down to
the broad expanse of his ribs.

“I’ll swear your hands are getting colder,”
he said. “Perhaps you’d like to reach around me and slip them into
my pockets.”

“You only want my hand close to your—” she
stopped herself.

“Mistress! The naughty direction of your
thoughts amazes me.”

“Do you deny that you want my hand on your .
. . gentlemanly parts?” she said in frustration.

“No, I’ll not deny it,” he said with a
chuckle. “But there’s nothing gentlemanly about them.”

She sighed in exasperation.

“Kindly lead me back to my chamber and I’ll
deal with a cold bed on my own. This subject is closed.”

They climbed in silence. Then they came to
the long unevenly walled corridor where they’d left torches still
burning. Gabriel rubbed each one out as they passed, letting the
pathway behind them fall into darkness.

“The wind off water can be especially bitter.
Sea-faring folk have long had methods for dealing with the cold,”
he said, not technically ignoring her request to end the
discussion, but damnably close. They came to the last torch sconce,
retrieved their candles, lit them and continued their upward climb.
“Meri told me once of the way the old Vikings used to keep warm on
a long sea voyage.”

“How was that?” she asked, despite herself.
They were whispering now in the narrow space and hearing an
occasional cough or snore from the far side of the wall.

“Body heat. At night, the Vikings climbed
into two-man sleeping sacks.”

“Two-
man
?”

“Only for warmth,” he explained. “They
generally left their womenfolk behind when they went off on raids
and the old sea wolves didn’t hold much with buggery.”

“So is that what pirates do as well?”

“No, but then the Caribbee is much balmier
than the northern seas. Here we are.”

He pushed open the secret door into her
chamber. The return trip took less time than she expected.
Strangely bereft that their adventure was at an end, she stepped
back into her familiar room. The full moon was framed in her
window, washing the chamber in shades of gray. As she foretold, the
fire in the grate was dead ash.

“Thank you for seeing me back,” she said.
“Good night.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“What?”

“My shirt.” His smile glinted silver in the
soft light.

“Oh! Yes, of course.”

“If your fingers are too cold and stiff, I’ll
be happy to do the unbuttoning for you,” he offered. “Anything for
a lady, you know.”

“Somehow, I don’t think being unbuttoned by
you will be conducive to my remaining a lady.” Her fingers flew
down the front of the shirt, tugging at the horn toggles lest he
step in to help. She peeled the shirt off and held it out to him at
arm’s length. “Thank you.”

“And is that what you really want, Lyn?”

She frowned quizzically at him, rubbing her
arms with her palms for warmth.

“To remain a lady?” he asked.

“Of course,” she said. “Just because we’ve
tumbled into bed together in the past, there’s no need to repeat
the error.”

“It didn’t seem an error to me,” he said his
tone growing ragged. “Mayhap not a seemly pastime for a gentleman
and a lady, but for a man and a woman, I can’t imagine a better
occupation.”

“I assure you I do not want to bed you,” she
said, trying to remember whether Father Eustace had named lying as
one of the seven deadly sins.

“Well, then you won’t mind putting that
notion to the test. Lie down with me.”

“What?”

“You’re still shivering. Your bed is cold and
I’m throwing off heat like a galley fire. Dragon Caern will
certainly suffer if you catch your death of cold,” he said. “Let us
climb beneath your covers long enough to put the old Vikings’
example to good use. As shipmates, as friends, we’ll share my body
heat.”

“That’s prepost—”

He covered her mouth with his hand. “Then
once you’re warm, I’ll rise and leave you, if that’s still your
wish. I give you my word.”

“Your word as a pirate?” she scoffed.

Gabriel shook his head. “My word as a
gentleman.”

“All right,” she said warily. “But only until
the bed is warm.”

His wide grin did not give her comfort.
Neither did the fact that he began to unfasten the drop front of
his breeches.

“What are you doing?”

“Undressing. It’s a well-established
scientific fact that bare bodies warm together faster than clothed
ones.”

“Did Mr. Meriwether tell you that, too?”

His smile was evil incarnate. “No, experience
taught me that.”

A fizz of irritation sizzled through her.
Jacquelyn knew the man was no monk, but the thought of him in bed
with another woman made her feel prickly all over. She supposed she
should thank him. His artless comment was all she needed to stiffen
her spine enough to withstand whatever seduction he might be
planning.

And he was no doubt planning one.

No matter. She would use his heat and then
toss the lout out of bed on his ear. She pulled back the coverlet
and began to climb in.

“If you’re still clothed this will take
longer,” he warned.

“Do you believe me simple?”

“No, I believe you cold.” He lowered his
breeches, but she forced her gaze to remain riveted to his dark
eyes. “Trust me, Lyn. I only want to warm you.”

She glanced southward on his big frame. His
body told a different tale.

“If you want me gone sooner, you need to
strip, too.” Gabriel pushed past her and climbed into the fluffy
feather tick. He settled on his side, propping his head on his
hand.

It would serve him right
, she
reasoned. If she was able to lie naked beside him and still order
him away, it would settle once and for all that their misbegotten
entanglement—she wouldn’t use a more tender description, even to
herself—was irrevocably at an end.

“Very well,” she said. “Turn your face to the
far wall.”

“Now where’s the fun in that? It’s not as if
I haven’t already seen—“

“Would you like to leave right n-now?” The
chill caused her to stammer.

With an incoherent grumble under his breath,
he rolled over, making the whole bed shake. She swept the room with
a quick assessing glance to make sure there were no more
strategically placed looking-glasses as she toed off her slippers.
Satisfied he couldn’t see her this time, she peeled out of her robe
and nightshift and climbed under the coverlet with him.

She settled into the mattress, the sheets
cool and smooth on her bare skin. Gabriel didn’t move.

“I’m here,” she said in a small voice.

“Believe me, I know.”

Jacquelyn trembled, whether from cold or
something darker she wasn’t sure. He still didn’t move.

“How will this warm me?” she finally
asked.

“Well, we can let my body heat make its way
slowly over to your side of the bed,” he said without the twitch of
a single muscle. “Of course, that will probably take the rest of
the night.”

“What’s the other option?” A shiver raced
through her.

He rolled over and raised himself on one
elbow. “Or you can allow me warm you in a more active manner.”

“And when I tell you to stop?”

“I stop.”

“And when I’m thoroughly warm?”

“I will quit your sheets upon your command,
Mistress.”

“Very well,” she said.

“Huh-uh.” He made a soft negative sound. “You
haven’t said please.”

“What?”

“Aren’t you always telling me that politeness
is a thing to be cultivated? Lord knows you’ve corrected my manners
often enough.” He cocked a brow at her. “Ask me nicely.”

“I will do no such thing.”

“Then I wish you joy of your exceedingly cold
bed,” he said as he threw the coverlet back.

The fresh wave of night air sent her into a
spasm of shivering. “Oh, all right. Please.”

He pulled the bed linens back up over them
and leaned on his elbow again. “Please, Gabriel,” he prompted.

She drew her lips together in a tight
line.

He lifted the linens and started to ease out
of the bed once more.

“Please . . . Gabriel,” she said softly.

A smile spread across his face. “That is my
every intention, Lyn. I shall not rest until you are . . .
pleased.”

Jacquelyn had the sinking feeling she’d just
made a deal with the devil.

Gabriel pulled her close, tucking one arm
under her neck and draping the other across her waist. He hooked a
leg over hers, the small hairs on his legs tickling her in a way
that wasn’t at all unpleasant. Every inch of his skin was warm, but
his enraged cock at her hip was like a live coal encased in smooth,
hard male flesh. Her shivering stopped as his warmth enveloped
her.

“Better?” he asked.

She nodded, not trusting her voice.

“Of course, for a deep chill friction is
best.” He rocked his hips in a slow knock against hers as his leg
moved up and down. His splay-fingered hand wandered over her belly
in a languid circle.

Against her will, she shuddered with
desire.

“Now if friction doesn’t work, more intense
measures are warranted,” he said before he disappeared beneath her
bed linens.

“What are you doing?”

“Warming you,” he said. “Lay still, Lyn.”

He didn’t touch her, but his breath slid over
her breasts, hot and moist. Her nipples tightened and she fisted
the bed linens, fighting against the urge to arch them into his
mouth.

Lay still, the man said,
she reminded
herself. She could do this. She could accept his heat without
succumbing to his wiles. It was merely an exercise of her will over
her wayward body.

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to feel
nothing but the blessed warmth of his exhalation.

The linens shifted around her as he moved
down her body. His breath slid over her ribs and hovered near her
navel. His open mouth had to be mere finger-widths away and yet he
never grazed her prickling skin once. Her entire body thrummed like
a plucked string, but—drat the man!—he wouldn’t pick up the bow and
play the whole tune.

It was positively maddening.

The short curly hairs over her sex swayed in
his hot breeze and she shifted, opening to him almost without
conscious thought.

Almost.

The ache between her thighs was back with a
vengeance. Pounding. Relentless.

With supreme effort, she pulled her legs
together and crossed her ankles.

A muffled snort came from under the
linens.

“Something vexes you?” she asked.

“Only you, Lyn,” his voice rumbled up to her.
“Only you.”

Undeterred, he continued his trek downward.
He spread the warmth of his breath over her tightly clamped thighs
and lingered at her kneecaps.

His heat swirled around her, his essence
engulfing her.

“You know, only last week Father Eustace was
regaling me with a bit of academe I thought I’d never have use
for,” he said, his voice ragged.

“What’s that?” she whispered.

“He says the ancient words for breath and
spirit are virtually the same. Maybe that’s because our breath
comes from deep inside us. Sharing it is like giving life.” Gabriel
chuckled. “Imagine he didn’t have this sort of sharing in
mind.”

As Gabriel poured out his spirit on her, her
spirit struggled to answer him.

Along with her thoroughly roused body, which
she fought with every ounce of her battered will.

Because her feet were so cold, he rubbed them
with his hands as well as caressing them with his breath. Life
roared painfully back into them, then for a blessedly long while,
her feet basked in the tender ministrations of his hands. He
massaged the balls of her feet and rolled her toes between his
fingers one by one. He caressed the delicate bones of her ankles.
Gently, he uncrossed them and spread her legs wide.

She was too blissfully relaxed to care.

When he took her toe into his mouth and
sucked, a streak of desire shot up her leg to quiver in her
groin.

Her breath caught in a gasp.

And he heard it.

Pressing his advantage, he moved between her
splayed legs. He trailed his mouth up along the inside of her leg,
pausing to dally with the crease behind her knee. Jacquelyn knew
she ought to protest, but for the life of her, she couldn’t bear to
stop the shivers of ecstasy that replaced her shivers of cold.

His warm breath was on her crotch now, her
secret folds moist and hungry for him. He nuzzled her with his nose
and lips, softly, tentatively.

Then he devoured her.

She thought she might die.