The Elusive Flame (16 page)

Catching Cerynise’s hand, he whirled her gently away
from him, allowing himself time to turn away to the washstand before she could stop spinning. Washing his hands, he stated gruffly over his shoulder, “Our wedding feast is awaiting us, madam. ’Twill be cold if we delay much longer.”

Cerynise withdrew her shawl and waited timidly as Beau stripped down to his shirt and trousers. He tossed aside the cravat and, with one hand, unfastened his shirt as he approached the table. Refusing to look at her, he drew out a chair for her as he tried to take control of his wanton thoughts. Every time he glanced at her lately, it seemed that he was confronted by an unquenchable urge to take possession of her. The kiss he had given her up on deck had lit a fire in his blood, and he knew henceforth that it would be doubly hard for him to control those insatiable longings.

Settling down into his own chair, Beau opened the wine and poured two goblets nigh to brimming as she, in wifely duty, ladled the bouillabaisse into their bowls. They ate in silence for a while, each mulling over separate predicaments. The idea of going to bed with Beau as his wife would have been the culmination of past dreams, yet Cerynise knew she could not in all wisdom take such a risk, perhaps getting with child and then being cast aside like something worthless.

Beau, on the other hand, was fully cognizant of the commitments that he’d have to make to claim Cerynise’s virginity. His bride had come back into his life only a few days ago. After so short a period together, how could he dare make judgments that would bind him to her for a lifetime? He had to have time to get to know her! And she, him! And if he took her under her conditions, then he’d definitely be saying farewell to sailing, and that idea was not particularly to his liking.

Cerynise was anxious to hear about Charleston, and though Beau hadn’t been there in some months, his news of home and acquaintances was far fresher than hers. “Do you remember Mr. Downs, how he used to come to the
schoolhouse and fuss about the boys racing through his garden after they left class? Do you suppose he’s still living?”

“Aye. Now his grandchildren are trampling it underfoot.” Beau chuckled. “But the old man is infinitely more tolerant of them.”

“I always thought he was a cantankerous old man, but I don’t imagine that was really true. In fact, I’d probably be just as angry if someone destroyed what I’d worked so hard to create. I’d like to see Mr. Downs, if only for the memories I have of home and my father’s school.”

“Perhaps we could take a drive out there in my carriage after we reach Charleston,” Beau suggested.

A soft smile accompanied her answer. “I’d like that, Beau. I have many memories of you when we were children.…Well, actually when I was a child and you a growing youth eight years older.”

“You’ll certainly bedazzle all of your old neighbors. They’re probably still thinking of you as that spindly little girl with enormous eyes and braided pigtails.”

Cerynise giggled. “Please, Beau, don’t remind me how horrible I looked then.”

“You err, madam, if you remember yourself as being homely. You couldn’t have been when you now look like a graceful swan.”

“Please!” she begged again through her laughter. “You’ll feed my vanity with such wonderful flattery.”

He gave her a crooked smile as he refilled her goblet. “Do you think I lie?”

“I know you’re not a liar, Beau. I remember too well the many times you’d admit the truth to my father even though it might have meant harsh discipline. I can only think that that kind of honesty has carried over into your maturity. My father was so desperate to keep you from killing yourself on that stallion you used to ride. If you didn’t finish your lessons, he usually took that opportunity to make you stay after school, just so he wouldn’t have to worry about you getting on that animal.”

“My father finally had to put ol’ Sawney down after he went blind. I’m sure it was from all of those thorn trees he was inclined to take me through. At times, he just got it in his head that he didn’t want to be ridden and would try to get rid of me any way he could.”

“Oh, I can remember one of those times very distinctly, and listening to you only affirms the fact that my father had cause to worry.”

“Aye, he did, but I was determined to master that ol’ brute. In the process, I nearly killed myself.”

“I’m glad you didn’t,” she murmured.

Her soft gaze and warm smile were what a man could dream of in a lonely port far away and yearn for through months on end. How could he take her truly to wife and then be able to leave her?

At the conclusion of the meal, Beau pulled out a pair of trousers, the kind that he usually wore when he worked. Unfastening the more costly ones that presently clothed him, he cast a glance toward Cerynise as he warned, “You might want to turn away if you have any reservations about watching a man change his clothes. I need to go back on deck, and I’m sure as hell not going to run to another cabin every time I lower my pants. My men would certainly think that odd, considering our newly wedded state.”

Cerynise coolly presented her back. “Have you become angry with me again because I rejected your proposal of intimacy? Or do you usually snarl at all the women you marry?”

Beau laughed shortly. Having already come firmly to the awareness that being within close proximity of his wife aroused every mating instinct he was capable of feeling, he was not in the best of moods. When he saw no hope of her yielding to anything else he had in mind, how could he even think of being gracious. “If you’re going to be my wife even for a few weeks, my dear, you’re going to have to get used to my cursing, if that’s what you mean.
Sailors are prone to say what’s on their minds without giving thought of a woman being within earshot.”

“So, are you going to instruct me in your seaman’s vernacular?” In the lengthy silence that followed, her teeth tugged nervously at her bottom lip as Cerynise awaited his reaction to her gentle goading. She had challenged him often as a child; how could she stop now?

Beau slowly perused the stiffly erect form of his young wife as he stripped off his shirt and trousers. Of course, she had no concept of the pain it caused him to curb his male instincts and refrain from seeking appeasement with her. Nor did he have any idea if telling her the truth would help his circumstances, but he was not above trying. “What I’d really like to do, my dear, is to instruct you in something far more pleasurable. Since you’re not in favor, you can expect me to be a little on edge when I’m around you. A man can hardly look at a beautiful woman without imagining her naked in his arms. In your case, I need not wonder. It has dwelt on my mind since your first night here in my cabin.”

“When you bathed me, you mean?” she prodded.

Beau nearly dropped his jaw in surprise. She was carefully keeping her gaze fastened on the far wall, he supposed, but he sensed that she was just itching to savor his shocked expression. “How did you know?”

“I saw a long hair on your tub which looked very much like mine.”

Beau buttoned his trousers as he approached her. “I had to do something, Cerynise. You were chilled all the way through, and I didn’t want you to catch your death. In recent years I’ve seen a man succumb to the frigid weather after he tried to return to our ship from shore leave. You were so cold, I was afraid you wouldn’t make it through.”

“Is it safe to turn around now?”

“Aye.”

Deliberately Cerynise faced him and immediately felt heat flooding upward from her neck to the crown of her head. He was naked from the waist up, and the sight of
those wide square shoulders and the hard muscular chest narrowing to a taut waist made her breath wane in awe.

“You’re n-not dressed,” she stuttered in confusion, discomfited by the sight of such manly grace and beauty.

Noticing the scarlet blush imbuing her cheeks, Beau settled a curious stare upon her as he approached. “Haven’t you ever seen a man without a shirt before?”

“Perhaps when I was a child, but only my father.” She focused her gaze elsewhere. “Beyond that, I can’t remember.”

“Look at me, Cerynise.” When she refused, Beau caught her hand and clasped it to his chest, holding it firmly there against her efforts to draw away. “You see? I’m flesh and blood. Nothing to be ashamed of.”

Her eyes lifted hesitantly, meeting those of emerald green. They seemed to burn with a fire of their own, fanning a flaming heat deep within her. “My encounters with half-naked men are a rarity I cannot deny.” She passed her gaze shyly over the muscular expanse. “But if I were to guess, I would say that you come close to being perfect.”

Beau chuckled softly. “Eh, now? Look who’s giving pretty compliments.”

“’Tis true,” she sighed, her mouth quivering upward in a tentative smile.

He moved her hand upward near his heart, over a male nipple, slowly across his chest and then downward to the top of his trousers, all the while watching her eyes growing increasingly limpid with what he could only imagine was desire. He stepped near enough to touch her with that bare expanse and tilted his head aslant as he slowly lowered his lips towards hers. He saw her mouth part to welcome his. It was all the excuse he needed. Suddenly she was in his arms, and he was crushing her hard against him. He explored her mouth with heady delight, his kisses attesting to his ravenous greed. Behind her back, his fingers began to pluck apart the fasteners, deftly loosening the placket of her gown down to her hips until he was able to sweep it forward over her shoulders and arms. The garment slid
past her petticoat with a gentle swishing rustle as he drew away to indulge his gaze. Her diaphanous-clad bosom rose tautly above her corset, awakening a memory of when he had hurriedly stripped away her wet clothing. At the time, he had been far too anxious about her condition to indulge his manly appreciation for her feminine form. It was only later, after he had become confident that she would revive, that his memory had taunted him with visions of the soaked chemise clinging to her round breasts and lithe form, whetting his hunger no small degree. It was no different now.

Beau smiled down into those darkly translucent orbs that eyed him almost warily, conveying her timidity and uncertainty. Beneath his lengthy stare, she made an effort to cover her breasts, causing him to shake his head.

“Let me look at you,” he urged softly, gathering her hands into his. He brushed fleeting kisses upward from her wrist to a fair shoulder, drawing soft, wavering sighs from her lips. His own traced her silken skin in a slow descent until they reached the tantalizing fullness pressed brazenly above the lace of her camisole. He saw her eyelids flutter as he caressed the swelling mounds with warm kisses, coming nigh to the clothed peaks but prudently avoiding them for the moment. His playful dallying reversed itself, sliding upward along her throat. Then he straightened to his full height and, watching her face carefully, lowered his mouth toward hers. He saw no sign of resistance in the offing. His tongue coyly teased hers until she joined the playful merging, awakening his delight as she flicked her own shyly across his mouth. His kisses grew more dedicated to strengthening her response, delving deeply, drawing her tongue inward, and nearly devouring her lips in a tantalizing frenzy as his mouth covered hers.

Cerynise felt as if her whole being would melt, but her heart began to drum a faster rhythm as he pulled back to allow his fingers to leisurely stroke along the top of her chemise, working the undergarment downward provocatively
until the uppermost part of a delicate pink sphere peeked up at him above the lace. Fascinated by its softness, he rubbed the silken texture gently with a fingertip, causing the beat of her heart to race in quickening excitement as his stroking caresses began to move infinitesimally lower. A sharp catch in Cerynise’s breath accompanied the moment the tiny nodule thrust into view, for his thumb was instantly there, gently brushing across it and then moving around the pink flesh that encircled it.

The gratification Beau felt for having come so far without being halted brought an accompanying sigh from his own lips. His head dipped downward, and her breath was snatched inward in a sudden gasp of surprise as his open mouth claimed her nipple. A flaming fire began languidly stroking across the pliant crest, awakening an insatiable hunger deep within her, until a muted moan was wrenched from her lips. Her head fell back in ecstasy as she yielded herself completely to the sensual delight that he awakened within her. Vaguely she was aware of her corset being loosened behind her back, and then her petticoat accompanying its descent to the floor.

Her hair was plucked free and fell in shimmering waves over her shoulders. His hand followed its silky, cascading length down her back until it reached her pantalettes. It slipped inside, moving over her naked buttocks, stroking the delectable fullness until Cerynise felt driven to press herself tightly to the hardness beneath his trousers. Then, of a sudden, she was being lifted up into his arms. In three long strides, Beau was at his bunk, laying her upon it, and jerking down the covers beneath her. He swept the last of her clothing from her, and then stood back to doff his trousers, making no effort to turn away. Cerynise’s eyes widened at his bold manly display, but in the next moment he was pressing alongside, kissing her face, her breasts, and nibbling at her waist and hips.

“I want you,” he murmured huskily, sliding his hand downward over her body and then sweeping it upward again between her thighs. Cerynise started in surprise at
his intrusion and tried to roll away, but with soothing words and sultry kisses he cajoled her to relax until she opened herself to him. He was infinitely gentle as he searched her womanly softness, and before long her senses were reeling in ecstasy. Strange fires were lit and began to flare upward from her loins, making her writhe as the sweeping sensations began to course through her body.

Cerynise felt driven to roll on her side and face him. Soon their lips and tongues were blended in a wild exchange of fevered kisses. Fairly besotted by them, she pressed close to his muscular form and lifted a slender thigh over his hip. The fiery blade pressed forward to caress the moist womanly softness until the slow, teasing strokes along the outer fringes evoked sensations that caused them both to gasp in sensual delight. Awakened to an unbridled brazenness, Cerynise began to caress and kiss her husband’s tautly muscled chest. Her fingers fluttered shyly over small hard nipples and around the male breasts. In the next moment Beau was catching her hand and moving it downward over his chest until he closed it around the hard shaft, drawing a startled gasp from her. He murmured near her ear as he caressed her face with kisses, and she timidly complied with his instructions until she was snatching his breath. The thrill of pleasing him augmented her nerve, and she became bolder, appeasing her own curiosity while driving him to heights that Beau had never known were possible to obtain before entry. Perhaps there was something to be said after all about making love to a wife instead of a well-versed woman of the world.