Shipwrecked (11 page)

 “Rowan,” she
whispered against the stubble of his cheek as she held him close to her. 

He froze, using
all of the restraint that he could muster not to move.

 Please don’t
ask me tae stop.

“We can’t do this
here, right out in the open!” her voice was insistent, slightly panicked. 

She hadn’t
asked him to stop.

“Aye, lass, we can. 
Right here,” he murmured, “right out in the open.”

“Rowan!” she
whispered harshly.  “We’ll wake up Malcolm!”

“You’ll just have
tae be quiet then,” he coaxed, drawing her in for a tender kiss and sliding his
fingers lower, brushing again over her sex.  His fingers worked nimbly, caressing
his way through her curls to the heat of her desire.  He intended to silence
her protests by driving her mad with ecstasy. 

Anna gasped, never
having felt such intense desire.  Her nerves were on fire and as Rowan’s
fingers danced over her womanhood, she arched against him, greedy for more.

He parted her with
his fingers, and she let out a moan of pleasure, which he tried to silence with
his kiss.  His fingers touched the wetness between her thighs, the wetness that
was there just for him, and his cock bucked against his pants, aching to be
inside of her.  He began making slow, rhythmic circles against her silky skin,
relishing how soft, how wet she was beneath his fingers.

Rowan let loose a
low groan, burying his face into Anna’s hair.  “Ye feel sae good, lass,” he
groaned, reveling in the ecstasy of touching Anna so intimately.  She was
giving herself to him so completely, so trustingly.

Anna had never
felt such pleasure in all of her life, a low cry of need escaped her lips and
she instinctively spread her knees more widely for Rowan.

Rowan smiled
lustily at her response to his touch and increased the pressure of his fingers,
nibbling Anna’s ear and caressing her breasts through her dress.  He knew that
he was about to drive her over the brink, and rose up above her, wanting to see
the passion that he had kindled reflect in her eyes.

“I wish that ye
were mine,” he whispered before settling his mouth over hers and claiming them
in a hungry kiss.  He slid a finger up inside of her, teasing, tormenting, and
driving in and out of her slick wet heat. 

She moaned against
him, no longer able to keep quiet.  “Rowan!” she whispered as the unfamiliar
tremors of passion took hold of her body for the first time. “Oh!” she gasped
as he teased her, making love to her with his hand.   Her body was overwhelmed
with the new sensations that Rowan was giving her, never before had she been
touched like this.

He worked her
harder in response, quickening the pace of his caresses, driving in and out of
her tenderly as he increased his tempo.  Anna’s hips began to move against his
hand, she was now wild with desire.

“That’s it, baby…give
in tae it, let go,” he coaxed as his fingers played against her skin.

“Oh – Rowan!” she
pleaded “Rowan!”

“Shh…” he
whispered, chuckling into her hair as he continued to drive her towards madness
with his fingers.

A low steady moan
escaped from Anna’s lips and Rowan slowed his caresses as he felt the first
tremors of release overtake her body.  He kissed her tenderly as her hips
bucked wildly under his hand.  She seemed to come apart in his arms, and he
continued to make slow, sweet circles with his fingers as she caught wave after
wave of her first orgasm.

He expertly coaxed
her body through the last spasm of her surrender, kissing her softly and
sliding his hand down her thigh, letting it rest there.  He lay watching her in
the dark, holding her and kissing her gently in the glow of the firelight.

“Shh…” he
whispered into her hair, holding her against his chest as the last tremors
overwhelmed her body. 

“Oh my God,
Rowan…I had no idea…” she whispered, shaken from the power of her release.

“Are ye tired now,
Anna?” Rowan asked with a slightly naughty smile, chuckling slightly and
reaching his hand up to brush her disheveled hair from her face.

“Exhausted,” she
smiled, and reached up to take his hand, kissing him atop the knuckles. “I had
no idea that you could…that I could…”

Rowan kissed her
hair and pulled her up closer against his chest.  She was so innocent, and her
uninhibited response to his touch had pleased him greatly.  Hell, the fact that
she had allowed him the pleasure of bringing her to orgasm for the first time pleased
him beyond belief.

 “What about you?”
she asked, looking up boldly to meet his eyes.

“I’m exhausted
just from watchin’ ye,” he chuckled, smiling down at her, still holding her
hand.

“That’s not what I
meant, Rowan,” she said, suddenly embarrassed, biting her bottom lip.  “What I
meant is…is there something that I could do to make you feel like that?  Can I
do that to you?”

Rowan swallowed
hard, now understanding the implication of her comment.  His cock pulsed in
response.  He wanted nothing more than to bury himself inside of her slick, wet
heat, but there was no way in hell that he would allow that to happen.  He
could never dishonor her by stealing her virtue, stealing what belonged to
another man.

Rowan had vowed
long ago to save the act of love making only for his wife. He had struggled and
denied himself on many occasions, always stopping just short of penetrating the
willing lasses that had warmed his bed.  There was no particular reason that
Rowan Murray had remained a virgin except for that he had thought it was the
right thing to do.  He wanted to save himself for his wife, and never before
had he felt compelled to take a particular lass to wife.   The problem now was
that although he felt the desire to claim Anna Stanton as his wife, to beg her
to have him, she was already taken.            

Touching her so
intimately had been one thing, most likely a poor choice in moment of weakness,
but making love to her would be another thing entirely.  He would never be able
to let Anna go if he made love to her.

“I’ll survive,” he
whispered, grinding his teeth together in restraint.  Just the thought of her
fingers closing around his shaft was enough to make him need to spill his
seed.  “Pleasuring ye was all that I needed,” he lied, remembering how good she
had felt, how tight and wet around his fingers.  “Time tae go tae sleep, Anna,”
he whispered, pulling her down next to him, worried that if his thoughts
continued down this path, he might ravage the lass while she was sleeping.

Anna had settled
against Rowan’s chest and suddenly, her eyes flew open with the realization
that she was wasting precious time.  She turned in Rowan’s arms, and casting
caution and propriety to the wind, she kissed him with every fiber of her being.

And that’s when
they heard the footsteps.

Chapter Seven

“Shhh…” Rowan said
sternly as he tucked the blanket securely over Anna’s head and shielded her
with his body. 

Adrenaline
thrummed in her veins, and she could hear Rowan’s heart pounding as her cheek
was crushed against his chest.  Something was very wrong.  Anna knew that the Murray’s
only had two daggers between them as well as her own.

Footsteps
approached the campsite, and Anna felt Rowan’s arms tense around her, as he
pulled her even closer, molding her body to his beneath the blanket.

“Is it just the
three of you?” A gruff masculine voice asked without wasting time with an
introduction.

“Yes, Sir, just
myself and my brothers,” Quinn said firmly.

Anna felt her
muscles begin to quiver, and in response, Rowan’s grip on her shoulder
strengthened. 

“Have you by
chance seen a young lady traveling North around these parts?” The man asked,
now standing only a few feet from where Anna was concealed.

“No, not that I
can remember,” said Quinn, pretending to contemplate the question.      

  Are these men
looking for me?

“There was a
shipwreck off the coast; the
Mary Catherine
went down in a storm just South
from here.”

“Aye?” Quinn
asked, seemingly indifferent.  “I’d not heard.”

“Anyhow, there’s a
girl whose been seen around these parts, guess she survived the shipwreck. 
She’s betrothed to Jonathan Arbor, who’s a General in the King’s Army.”

“Hmm, I’ve heard
the name before,” Quinn said, pretending to ponder the information. 

The second man
chimed in, eager to have his part in telling the story, “Arbor’s offering a
reward to whoever brings the girl into his care safely, he’s offering a pretty
penny to get her back.”

“I’m sure that
she’ll contact the magistrate as soon as she arrives in a village, that is if
she actually survived the shipwreck,” Rowan said speculatively.

“Oh, she survived
all right.  She wrote a letter to Colonel Murdock back in Manteo, some of
Arbor’s men were given the letter to carry to Murdock, and suspecting that it
might be from her, Arbor got a hold of it an opened it.”

Adrenaline rushed
through Anna’s blood.  Jonathan had read her letter, and he knew that she was
close by.

The first man
continued, enjoying the adventurous thread that he was spinning.   “The reason
that Arbor has put out the reward is that no one has seen the girl since the
inn in Manteo, and I guess she mentioned in her letter to Murdock that she was
traveling with some companions.  Half of the passengers on the
Mary
Catherine
were prisoners being transported to the New World as indentured
laborers.”

The second man
chimed in again, not wanting to be left out.  “Arbor’s worried that mayhap
she’s been kidnapped by some of the prisoners, and that she may be in danger
and not even realize it!” he said fantastically, voice rising with enthusiasm.

“That is most
worrisome,” Rowan said softly, still clutching Anna firmly against his chest. 
“Seems tae me that Arbor should have taken more care in selecting an able guard
to mind the lass.”

The men grunted in
response, seeming to agree with Rowan.

“I’m sorry that we
canna help ye,” Quinn said calmly, “but we havena seen such a lass that matches
yer description.”           

“Well, if ye do,
alert the magistrate at once.  The people that she’s with may be dangerous,
especially if they’ve gotten wind of how valuable she is to Arbor.”

Anna felt Rowan’s breath
hitch slightly, and his thumb rubbed reassuringly across the skin of her back
as he crushed her against his chest.

“Well, should you
see her, we’ve been told that she’s fair haired and slight of stature, pretty,
and has a pronounced English manner of speach.  I’d be most obliged if you seek
us out, the name’s Percy Ellis.  We’ll share a portion of the reward with you
if you heed viable information about where she is.”

“We’ll do that,
Sir,” Quinn said.  “Have a good night.”

“Same to you
fellows,” the man said as he and his companion continued down the road.

“Shhh….don’t move
yet,” Rowan whispered, almost inaudibly.  “They might be checking out our story
and waitin’ in the bush.”

Dread settled in
Anna’s mind as she contemplated her current predicament, cuddled against
Rowan’s chest and bathed in silence.  Jonathan was looking for her, and he
believed that she had been kidnapped by prisoners that had escaped the sinking
of the
Mary Catherine
.  He was spot on in his estimation of what had
transpired, except for the kidnapping part. 

When you were
kidnapped you were not supposed to want to stay with your captor.

                                                                
***

Anna awoke the
next morning to the sound of Malcolm and Quinn cleaning up their camp and
readying the horses.  She was still wrapped up tightly in Rowan’s arms
underneath the safety of the blanket, and her face flushed with color as she
thought about what had transpired under the cover of said blanket last night. 
Nervously, she glanced over at Malcolm and Quinn, trying to gauge if they had
heard anything last night.

“Time tae get up,
lazy bones!” Malcolm called in her direction when he saw that her eyes were
open. 

Anna hoped that
her face wasn’t really as red as it felt.

“And why don’t ye
jab my brother in the ribs while yer at it,” he prodded, swinging the saddle up
onto the sorrel mare’s back.  “We
could
use his help getting the horses
ready,” Malcolm said, voice heavy with disdain.

Rowan chuckled
softly under the blanket, and squeezed Anna to his chest once more.  When he
was absolutely sure that his brothers weren’t watching, he lifted up his head
and placed a soft kiss right at the base of Anna’s ear, in the hollow of her
neck.

Fire shot across
her skin as his lips touched her, reminding her of how it had felt to kiss him
last night.  She wanted to stay in the cocoon of Rowan’s arms, safe beneath the
warm blanket.  Her lips tingled as she thought of kissing him again.

Rowan slapped her
playfully on the bum and then threw back the blanket, stretching languidly
before shuffling over to help his brothers ready the horses.

“What if we come
across those men on the road and they see me?” Anna asked to no particular Murray.

“We’ll be more
careful,” Quinn responded.  “We’ve come this far towards Williamsburg that I’d
rather not take the chance of handin’ ye over in the middle of the night to
strangers.

“We wouldn’t want
tae split the reward with them anyway,” Rowan chided, teasing Anna.

                                                            ***