When Joshua entered his cabin almost an hour later, Lynna was nibbling on a square of buttered cornbread and reaching for the nearly empty bottle to refill her glass. He was taken aback by her apparent thirst for wine. Was the lady a lush? Some women would be falling out of their seats after consuming an entire bottle.
Lynna wasn’t exactly falling out of her seat, probably because she had a death grip on the edge of the table with her right hand, while her left hand was pouring more port into her plate than her glass. Joshua grabbed the bottle as she took a bite of apple cobbler and smiled up at him.
“Port is sreally very good, Captain Jordan. I was never allowed to have it at the Chateau. Father said ladies should not par…part…partake of spirits.”
“Now you tell me,” Joshua moaned, shaking his head at his ignorance. Some protector he was. The girl was drunk before they left the docks.
“But it does make my head feel... frunny.” She hiccupped loudly, daintily covering her mouth with a lace handkerchief. “I need fresh… air.” She looked with longing toward the open window as she stood and cautiously made an unsuccessful step toward it.
Joshua reached out to catch her just as she fell into his arms, causing her gown to gape open and reveal things that he did not need to see at the moment. “Here, Miss Rhodes, please, allow me to fasten your stays. It seems that I have been remiss in my duties.”
“Thank you, Captain Jerden.”
He inhaled a deep, steadying breath, stood erect, and once again reached for her back. No, he could not do it. He knew better than to touch her. Her father would demand his heart on a silver platter. “Please, have a seat until I return. There is one other female passenger on the ship that should be able to help you dress. I will fetch her.”
“Non, I want you, not a stranger helping me dress.” Lynna waved an unsteady finger at him. “My father ass…ass…assured me that you would see to all my needs. I am to thrust no one else.”
She made a good point. He could do this. Casually opening his hands to see the task completed, his thumb accidentally caressed the softness of her back. Her skin was silky to the touch. Smooth as glass. Radiating heat. So soft. What would be the harm in allowing his palms to caress for the briefest of moments the velvety softness?
With his blood beginning to simmer at a low boil he could not imagine a single harmful consequence to such an action. Placing his hands upon her back, Joshua closed his eyes, savoring the heady feeling of having her smooth skin beneath his calloused palms.
As the rest of his body immediately responded to what his hands were feeling, he was quick to realize what a grievous error in judgment it had been to touch her. His hands now moved of their own volition across her back and toward the gentle rise and fall of her breasts?
She should turn around any moment and land a resounding slap to his cheek. He would welcome the pain. Better still, he prayed that she would draw up her enticing knee and deliver a fierce jab to his privates. Anything to clear his head and put a halt to his roaming hands before it was too late.
The thought of slapping or kneeing Joshua never entered Lynna’s spinning mind. In fact, she didn’t benefit from a clear, rational thought at all. Her head was swimming through a murky lake while still attached to her shoulders. Her blurry eyes saw two Captains standing before her. And she would swear on a stack of bibles that if she didn’t soon remove her cumbersome clothes she would surely perish from heat stroke.
She drew a shattered breath when she felt his rough hands on her unclad skin. In her inebriated state his touch felt glorious, absolutely sublime. So sublime in fact that her entire body seemed to melt. Not just where he touched. The very skin where his hands rested felt singed by flames as they left a trail across her heated flesh.
Every nerve in her body seemed to be centered under the palm of his hand. And those hands were moving around her sides…slowly…much too slowly. Her breasts ached, no throbbed, with each and every beat of her heart, pulsing against the thin material of her chemise, her nipples pleading and straining against the fabric.
She had never experienced such all consuming feelings as these at the Chateau. Not once. Was it the wine? Is that why her father never allowed her to drink it? Could this ship be enchanted? Was she under the influence of a magical spell? Was the Captain a wizard perhaps?
She knew about sorcery and bewitchment from the books she had read and Gertrude quite frequently consulted Tarot cards when Lynna’s father was not around to witness the Celtic spread. Why, the elderly woman even possessed a voodoo doll which she would viciously push pins into nightly while she chanted some unknown tongue, made to a likeness of the woman who had pilfered Gertrude’s betrothed away.
Lynna could not quiet the ramblings in her head, nor fathom what was happening to her. Yet, there was an urgency about the feelings that was not to be denied.
She felt his hands fluttering at her sides and knew that where she really wanted them was on her aching breasts. She recalled frequently hearing her father say to his associates, “If you want something, go get it. Odds are that it won’t fall in your lap.” Perhaps he had not meant for his words to be taken quite so literally but, in that moment, she knew that having Captain Jordan’s hands on her breasts would surely be tantamount to dying and floating off to heaven on a wispy bit of cloud.
She was at a loss to explain the craving, having never felt it before, yet, it was intense. Seeing absolutely no harm in fulfilling the desire, she reached up and placed her hands on top of Joshua’s, tugging them to cup her throbbing breasts. Oh. The erotic sensation of having his hands on her breasts caused every nerve in her body to snap to life.
She heard Joshua gasp and mumble her name against her ear as she pressed back against him. She had never known that such intense, all consuming, rapture existed as when his hands closed around her breasts.
Her head fell back limply on Joshua’s shoulder as a soft moan of sheer, uninhibited ecstasy flowed from her parted lips. Then, she felt herself being spun around in his arms as his soft lips lowered to hers. She moaned softly as their lips met in a kiss that she felt in the very pit of her stomach.
One hand moved to her midsection, afraid that she would soon be beset by her monthly spell of painful cramps. What else could cause such fluttering in the space between her legs?
His hands slid over her flat stomach causing every muscle in her body to tense with anticipation, then he slowly caressed her hips and buttocks before coming back to rest on her heaving breasts.
He lifted her gently and carried her to the bed. She hiccupped loudly as Joshua lay down beside her and brought his mouth down to drink deeply from her honeyed lips. Easing the gown from her shoulders, he stroked the inside of her lips with his tongue until her mouth opened to him.
Molten lava coursed through Lynna’s veins. What were these unique and startling stirrings inside her? Why did she wish to cry out at the loss of his lips as they left a burning trail down her throat and over the pulsing hollow between her breasts? Then his moist lips slid over her flushed skin to rest on a rosy peak. She inhaled sharply when his tongue sent flames of desire fanning out in all directions.
As his soft lips devoted undivided attention to her breast, her mind centered around the intensifying need that threatened at any second to explode and set fire to her lower regions. When the explosion finally came, she had to wonder what would happen to the charred remains of her insides?
Joshua continued his lustful assault, running his tongue along the tender underside of her breast and sending shivers of pure bliss coursing through her until she thought she might go mad from the sensual torture. When she could stand it no longer, she took his head between her hands and returned it to her swollen peak. “Oh, Captain Jordan,” she whimpered, “I need…”
He removed his lips long enough to murmur, “Lynna, would you agree that under our present circumstances you may forgo the formalities and call me Joshua?”
She was unable to answer as the ache inside her intensifi
ed and she writhed on the bed in search of… relief. Her legs fell open of their own accord, wanting, needing, and searching. “Please, Joshua, release me from this torment.”
In that moment, he would have given all of his worldly possessions to make love to the tempting seductress. But her virginity was not worth the loss of his life, and he had no doubt that Nathan would seek a physician’s reassurance when the ship docked.
He winked seductively as his mouth fell to her breast and his hand traveled to the space between her legs. “I will be happy to release you from your torment.”
His finger touched her most sensitive spot while his lips suckled her breast, sending her to a climatic finish that rocked her to her toes and left her gasping for air.
When her breathing returned to normal, Lynna released a contented sigh and stretched her arms over her head in a seductive pose of satiated bliss. Seconds later she was sound asleep in seconds.
She would probably sleep until noon the following day, so Joshua went on deck and took matters into his own hands before his lower anatomy exploded. He had no idea that he possessed such herculean willpower as to leave a gorgeous, naked woman begging him to make love to her. In his bed.
Only the thought of having a man like Nathan Rhodes hell bent on his rapid demise was sufficient to cool his ardor.
A lovely little French beauty from an ale house he had frequented while in France, had kept him awake for the better part of the previous night. He was exhausted, but he had certainly issued no complaints whatsoever about the loss of sleep.
As weariness seeped through to his bones, Joshua made his way back to his cabin. He lay down beside the intoxicating and intoxicated creature and drew her into his arms, surprised by the feeling of contentment that enveloped him as he joined her in slumber.
Chapter 6