My Seaswept Heart (29 page)

“There was nothing I could do to keep from
hurting ye,” he whispered into the soft skin beneath her ear.

“It’s all right... really.” The pain had been
sharp, but quickly gone. Now Anne felt only a fullness that was not
unpleasant. She tilted her hips, and the anticipation of erotic
sensation was fulfilled. His hands dug beneath her buttocks,
lifting them, lifting sand, and instinctively she wrapped her legs
around his muscular thighs.

He drove deeper, rocking her body, sending
her higher as each thrust set off a shower of sparks behind her
closed eyes.

The ecstasy built, white hot and frantic,
until Anne wondered if she could stand it longer without
fragmenting into a thousand pieces, like the sand that covered the
shore. She could no longer think, no longer control the cries that
passed her lips. Her fingers opened and closed, alternately
clutching his tautly muscled shoulders and thin air. She was
consumed. And still he drove her higher.

When his mouth locked with hers, the
explosion came. Overwhelming in its power, blinding in its
intensity. Anne could do naught as the surge of pleasure swept her
up, shattering her.

Her body convulsed around his staff, snapping
his hard-won control. Jamie’s thrusts became frenzied and he
erupted within her with a ferocity that he wasn’t prepared for.
With a wild cry he collapsed, his face buried in the sweep of soft,
sweet-smelling curls.

Reality returned slowly. Gone was the urgency
of moments before. Now Anne felt complete and satiated like never
before. His fullness still filled her. His chest and shoulders
flattened her, grinding her deeper into the unyielding sand. She
should have been uncomfortable. But she wasn’t. Even though her
breathing was shallow, she didn’t want him to leave her. She lifted
her arms, languidly wrapping them around his shoulders. His skin
was slick with sweat, and smooth.

She could stay like this forever.

But the captain... Jamie had different ideas.
Anne keened in protest when he rolled off her, but her
dissatisfaction was short-lived as he took her in his arms,
cuddling her close.

They slept then, caressed by the tropical
breezes, canopied by the stars.

It was the strong feeling that someone
watched her that made Anne slit her eyes open. Her smile was slow
and sensual as memory and the expression on Jamie’s face brought
her to full awakening. His chin was propped up on bent elbow and he
watched her with something akin to fascination.

Anne reached up and touched his cheek above
the line of whiskers.

“I’ve a mind to teach ye to swim,” he said
before turning his face and kissing the tender underside of her
wrist.

Her skin tingled where his mouth touched and
for a moment, what he said didn’t register. When it did, Anne sat
up, knocking him away in the process. “I can’t swim. I don’t even
like being in the water.”

“Ye enjoyed floating.” He was back feasting
on her skin, this time the sweet line of her neck. “Ye told me so
last night.”

She would have told him the sky was green
last night, though he was right, floating was wonderful. But it
also didn’t involve sticking her face into the water. And she’d
watched the way he dove beneath the surface, moving his body like a
fish.

“I can’t do it,” was all she said, as the
soft whisper of his whiskers trailed lower along her
collarbone.

“Which is why we shall start our
lessons.”

“Now?” Anne’s head fell back, her hair,
sprinkled with sand, tickled the base of her spine.

“Soon,” Jamie promised as his mouth clamped
over the already distended crest of her bosom.

His tongue teased the tip, then he pulled
away, his thumb taking up the delicious swirling. “You’re sandy,”
he said. “And so am I.”

What did something as insignificant as sand
have to do with anything? Anne’s body arched toward his touch.

But he stopped the sensual movements of his
hands and mouth and stood, reaching down to pull her to her feet.
Anne didn’t understand his intent. His arousal was thick and heavy,
the burning desire in his green eyes, obvious. But he was pulling
her toward the water.

“No, Jamie,” Anne protested but he wouldn’t
stop until their feet splashed into the gentle surf. “Please.”

“Ye need to be cleaned off, Annie. And as
much as I’d like to explore every inch of your sand-covered body, I
don’t think ’tis a good idea. You’ll be sore enough after last
night without adding sand to your misery.”

I’m not sore...” Anne insisted, but as she
walked, she admitted to herself at least that there was slight
discomfort between her legs.

He pulled her deeper, the water teasing her
knees, then her hips. But it didn’t cool the desire, the heat he’d
sparked with his touch. It did soothe. Warm water against naked
skin. She didn’t resist at all when he tugged her away from shore.
When the turquoise liquid lapped about her breasts.

He stopped then, cupping his hands and
trickling water over her shoulders, watching the droplets, his eyes
smoky with desire as they rolled down her skin. He skimmed gentle
fingers down her body, washing away the encrusted sand, igniting
the flames. His touch lingered on her nipples, his thumbs beading
the tips until Anne moaned.

“Bend your head back.”

His voice was husky and deep and Anne obeyed,
letting her hair float out around her face. He stepped between her
legs, pressing his hard staff against her womanhood as he reached
around and finger-combed the sand from her curls.

Anne’s back arched, her toes barely found
purchase in the sandy bottom. If not for his arms holding her, his
muscular thighs anchoring her body, she would have floated to the
surface. As it was her breasts lifted, wet and thrusting above the
water.

Jamie couldn’t resist licking the salty brine
from her nipples.

“Perhaps my suggestion of a bath wasn’t as
unselfish as I thought,” he murmured as he drew her lower body
against his.

Anne instinctively spread her legs wider,
wrapping them securely around his. The hands that moments before
tangled in her hair, now moved down to support her back, lifting
her up toward him. Her breasts skimmed the damp fur on his chest.
He held her high, her thighs around his, his swollen manhood
pressed to her stomach. He was hot and hard, and Anne clung to his
shoulders as her hair dripped water down her back.

“Are ye sore, tell me true, Annie. For I want
no part in hurting ye again.”

She could barely think with his staff
throbbing between them, but she knew the ache she felt would not go
away until he was deep inside her. She told him as much, her voice
muffled by the kisses she rained over his eyes and nose. “But how?”
she asked, grabbing onto his shoulders when he laughed, a deep
booming sound that vibrated through her body.

“We shall find a way, my practical Annie. We
shall find a way.”

He lifted her then, his muscles bulging from
the strain, until he could reach out and take a nipping bite at her
breast. Anne squealed and wriggled closer, following his urgent
commands to spread her legs further.

“Around like this. Ah, Annie. Ye feel so
good.”

“Mmmm.” Anne could only moan her agreement as
she settled onto his impaling hardness.

His open mouth tasted her skin, the sweet
curve of her breast and Jamie thought he might keel over from the
pleasure of it. “I’ve had fantasies of this,” he admitted, clamping
his hands around her hips and lifting her. Gravity brought her back
until she accepted all of him. He shifted her again, and this time
Anne wriggled down, eliciting a deep, heartfelt moan from the
captain.

“Annie, lass, you’re a fast learner, ye
are.”

“I... I do my best.” By now Anne had
discovered she could help pull herself up along his hair-roughened
chest. The slippery feel of him was so intoxicating she barely
noticed when he told her to hold her breath. The order registered
as he bent his knees, plunging them both beneath the warm,
caressing water.

Anne sputtered as they shot up, still
intimately joined, to continue their sensual dance among the
swells. His hands moved lower, clutching her buttocks and
separating them for his aggressive thrusts. They dipped beneath the
water again, but this time Anne barely noticed, so wild was she
with wanting, so close to the maelstrom he’d shown her last
night.

She sank down hard and his fingers reached
lower, dancing across flesh sensitized by his invasion. And Anne
lost her hold on reality. Spasms of pleasure seized her, tightening
her thighs, raking her with pure sensual sensations.

His body stiffened, then as he exploded
inside her, his knees buckled and they both sank into the water.
When they reemerged, his lips were sealed to hers. They broke off
the kiss when the need to breathe became too great. As they each
sucked in air, their eyes met. Their laughter burst out
simultaneously and so hard that their limbs grew weak.

“Did you really have fantasies about... about
that?” Anne asked as Jamie set her down, holding onto her shoulders
while she got her footing.

“Aye. But in my daydreams it wasn’t so hard
on my knees.” He grinned. “Not that I’m complaining, mind ye.”

“No, I didn’t think you were.”

“Actually, I think with a bit of practice we
can master this technique.”

“I’ve no doubt about your abilities,” Anne
said with as serious an expression as she could. But again when
their gazes locked, sobriety gave way to mirth.

“Well, practice we may need, but it won’t be
now that we’re getting it.” Jamie took her hand and started wading
back toward shore.

“Why not?” Anne stuck out her lower lip in a
pout. A pout he quickly took advantage of as he bent around and
gave her a hard, fast kiss.

“For one thing, my apt student, ye really
will be sore if we don’t take a bit of a rest.”

“How long?”

Anne smiled as his face whipped around toward
hers. She actually shocked him.

“I should think a day would do it.”

Anne let out her breath on a sigh. “Well, I
suppose if you insist.”

“I do.” The water played around their ankles
now and she stood before him naked in the sunlight. The skin
usually covered by her clothes was pale, like ivory silk, and
slightly puckered from their stay in the water. Her breasts were
small but full, with the most delectable pink-tipped nipples that
tasted as luscious as they looked.

Jamie caught himself as his gaze roamed lower
to the swell of her womanly hips and the tight curls that shielded
her sex. With a jerk he raised his head, realizing his own sex was
swelling and that there was nothing to stop her from noticing.

Actually she seemed quite taken by the
phenomenon, watching him, her eyes wide, her delectable mouth
open.

“No more today,” he said, catching her chin
with his thumb and lifting her face toward his. She merely smiled,
a smile he didn’t know her capable of smiling. The tip of her
tongue peeked out, licking her lips and Jamie nearly dropped to his
knees.

It was all he could do to turn and walk
toward the spot where they slept last night. With jerky motions he
yanked on his breeches, then moved to their shelter to find the
knife. Without looking her way he raced toward the surf. “I’ll
catch us some breakfast,” he called back, before splashing face
first into the water.

He just hoped to goodness she did something
to cover herself before he returned.

~ ~ ~

By a week later, August seventh to be exact,
for Anne still kept a series of carved notches on the largest palm
tree, they’d settled into a routine of sorts. By unspoken agreement
Jamie fished and cleaned whatever he caught. Anne started the fire
with the wood they both gathered, and she fetched the water.
Obtaining coconuts was no problem. And cooking seemed to be a
“whoever was near the fire” chore.

Anne complained that he roasted his catch too
quickly, searing the outside and leaving the inside not evenly
done. “It takes patience and an orderly turning of the spit to cook
the fish correctly,” she told him one evening. But her argument
lost its appeal when he laid the fish aside on the palm frond they
used as a plate.

“Aye, and ’tis true,” he said advancing on
her step by deliberate step as she sat watching his approach. “But
how can I linger over a dead-eyed fish when ’tis ye I want most to
devour?”

Proper cooking, the fish, dinner, were all
forgotten as he showed her how thoroughly he meant what he
said.

Anne no longer nagged about their shelter. It
appeared he was right anyway. They needed only the minimal roofing,
certainly nothing wider than their entwined bodies... and often not
even that. Many nights they fell asleep under the stars, satiated
and happy. With Anne’s head resting on Jamie’s shoulder, his voice
as he pointed out different constellations, vibrating in her
ears.

They’d slept that way last night and Anne
woke in a bed of dried seaweed to stretch her hands high above her
head. It was late, by the position of the sun, she guessed nearly
ten, but Anne no longer chastised herself for her stay-a-bed
tendencies. As Jamie said, “There was plenty of time left in the
day to do whatever needed doing.”

Leaning up on her elbows she squinted out
over the diamond-splattered water, searching for Jamie. He was by
nature an early riser, and spent his mornings swimming, frolicking
with Lucy, and occasionally fishing.

Anne decided the dolphin was the pet he never
had, and though her own parents never kept dogs or even cats, she
didn’t feel the pull to connect with Lucy. That wasn’t why she
planned to swim out to the end of the rocks today.

Anne pushed to her feet and lifted her hands
lazily over her head. Then with a quick motion she yanked off the
captain’s shirt, and ran naked toward the surf. Warm water tickled
up over her feet, then calves as she splashed forward, diving under
when it reached her waist.