Ecstasy

Chapter Three

Raven arched against her lover’s hand, desperately seeking the exquisite relief of his touch. Her senses were painfully acute. Her skin felt too tight, too sensitive, the ache between her legs unbearable.

“Please,” she begged, “make it stop.” She felt so feverish, so hot, as she wavered between illusion and awareness.

“Steady,” he murmured in reply, as if gentling a fractious mare.

His hand slipped inside her bodice and gently stroked the tender flesh of her breasts, playing over her taut nipples. She sighed at the soothing coolness of his palm offering her relief.

Her fantasy had never been so vivid, so intense. She was acutely aware of her pirate lover in a way she’d never experienced. The animal heat radiating from his body. The male musk of his skin. The delicious taste of his mouth. The demanding gentleness of his caresses…Nearly shaking with desire, she reached for him, wanting him with a blind, ferocious need.

He wanted her as well, she could tell. He hadn’t fully undressed, but beneath his breeches, he was hard, swollen, ready to take her. Yet when she touched his loins, he stiffened and drew back, out of reach.

His hand moved lower, though, down her body, slipping between her thighs, as if he knew exactly what she craved.

“Let me help you…”

She scarcely comprehended the words, but his voice sounded like poetry: dark, sensual, arousing. Whimpering, she lifted her hips to him and dug her fingers into the bedcovers.

His hands were magical against her moist, yearning flesh, assuaging the terrible sweet ache that consumed her. When he relentlessly increased the pressure, inciting a wild throbbing inside her, a cry of longing escaped her.

Still stroking, he bent to her, his lips finding her peaked nipple through her chemise. Wet, white heat scalded her through the thin fabric.

She moaned aloud at the sharpened pleasure, while his fingers continued to work their sorcery, ravishing her with tenderness.

His caresses roused her blood to liquid fire. She was simmering from the molten heat, assaulted by raw, unbridled feeling. She bucked in an effort to escape the intensity of it, but the dark velvet of his voice urged her on.

“That’s it, let go…”

Thrashing her head, she strained against his hand, begging him to take her. How she longed to feel him inside her! But still he refused. Yet to her profound relief, he slid his fingers deep within her, penetrating her slick cleft. She felt her pulse racing, her blood pounding at the hot, voluptuous sensation. She was burning, crying out for fulfillment. She writhed with the frenzied need coursing through her, her body shuddering as her hips undulated.

The rush of sensation ruthlessly intensified, and she went wild with excitement. An instant later she screamed as agonizing pleasure tore through her senses, erupting in pulsating waves, her climax so prolonged, she thought she might die of the painful bliss.

For an endless moment, she shook in uncontrollable spasms as he continued to wring every last drop of relentless pleasure from her quivering flesh. Finally she fell back, delicious rapture washing through her exhausted body. Her limbs felt limp and heavy and utterly boneless as the fiery heat cooled…

Turning to him, she nuzzled her face gratefully into the hard wall of his chest and sank into sleep.

Kell bit back a low curse, keenly aware of the effect Raven Kendrick’s meagerly clad body had on him. After nearly four hours of attending her, the pain in his loins was excruciating.

He had relieved her suffering as much as was humanly possible, yet he couldn’t relieve his own. She was his captive, completely at his mercy. What kind of bounder would take advantage of her drugged state? Even if she was burning to have a man between her legs?

Whatever aphrodisiac she had been given was more powerful than any he knew of. It had made her sexually insatiable and frantic for a lover. Despite his skill, manual stimulation wouldn’t be enough to satisfy her. She would need more, would demand more…

He eased back, away from her warmth, but that slightest bit of distance was scarcely an improvement. He should have put out the lamp. Her shift was dampened from the many times he had bathed her feverish skin, and the cambric had molded itself in a transparent film to her body. The rigid peaks of her nipples strained against the delicate fabric.

Involuntarily his gaze drifted down her body, over her slender hips and thighs, and lower, where her shift rode up. Those long, naked legs were so slim and lovely. It was too damned easy to imagine them wrapped tightly around his flanks as he took her-

His arousal throbbed sharply in anticipation.

He drew a slow breath, trying to ease the brutal tension in his body. Her condition would likely last for hours, and he had to find the strength to resist her allure.

Averting his gaze from her body, he instead focused on her face. In sleep she didn’t resemble a heartless bitch. On the contrary she looked appealingly vulnerable, with her long lashes fanned out against her smooth cheeks.

He’d rarely seen any woman so arrestingly lovely, but hers was an unconventional beauty: fresh, vivid, wholly enchanting. And her mouth…that sensual, provocative mouth was parted in sleep…

He had tried to avoid kissing that incredible mouth, but she had clutched at him, raising her face to his, imploring him. And in a lamentable moment of weakness, he’d given in, tasting her warmth.

“Witless fool,” Kell muttered accusingly to himself. He hadn’t wanted her to taste so sweet and hot.

She moved closer just then, pressing against him, and Kell tensed. He’d removed his boots and coat but left on his other garments as a barrier between them so he wouldn’t be tempted by the intimate contact of skin to skin. Yet clothing had proven little protection.

“My splendid pirate…” she murmured, curling her fingers on his chest.

Pirate? That was the second time she had called him that. He raised an eyebrow as he caught her hand and urgently removed it from his body. What would a blue-blooded debutante know about pirates? But then she obviously had more depth of experience than any unwed young lady rightfully should.

In truth, he’d been frankly surprised by her evident carnal knowledge-and by her boldness. He could well understand how she’d teased and tormented his brother into forgetting his own name.

She stirred against him, and Kell knew his temporary reprieve had ended. With a resigned sigh, he reached down to give her what she craved.

His hand claimed the softness of her, and instantly he felt moisture, warm and silky, coat his fingers. When he slid them along her drenched cleft, she whimpered gratefully.

He stroked her for a moment, then penetrated her warmth with his fingers, sliding inside her hot passage. She moaned and twisted under his caresses, clutching at his shoulders as she tried to get even closer.

The movement of her body only sharpened his desire, and Kell clenched his jaw against the pain. She was like live fire to his touch: beautiful, hot, wild.

His own breath was ragged by the time she climaxed for what seemed like the hundredth time tonight. Her cry was sharp and agonized, her body arching and shuddering in his restraining arms.

He held her close until the feverish tempest within her had stilled. As soon as she relaxed, though, he eased away, not knowing how much more torture he could endure.

Taking advantage of the lull, he closed his eyes, needing a moment’s rest. What he really should do was stroke himself to assuage the savage ache…

He must have dozed off, for he woke to the most incredible sensations. A dark-haired woman was leaning over him, staging a delectable assault on his helpless body. She had unbuttoned the front flap of his breeches and was trailing her lips over his swollen erection, ravishing him as he slept…

His hand curled in her raven hair, urging her on-

Startled awareness made him go rigid.

Wide awake now, Kell caught her hands and dragged them to her sides. A mistake, he realized, for she only leaned closer, giving him a perfect view of her bare swelling breasts that now spilled over the bodice of her shift. Ripe and rose-hued, they loomed eager for a man’s caress…his caress.

A lightning stroke of desire surged through him.

Dragging his gaze from her luscious breasts, he found himself staring up into wide sapphire pools that were glazed with passion.

“I will never love him, I swear,” she murmured huskily. She bent even closer, her tantalizing mouth hovering over his. “I am yours. Only yours…”

“Bloody hell,” Kell muttered under his breath. He’d refused to take advantage of Raven Kendrick’s slumberous state, but she had done just that to him in her hunger for a man.

And he wasn’t a damned saint-far from it. The temptation to take her was so great, he could feel himself yielding.

She kissed him then, her tongue sliding enticingly into his mouth, seeking. In self-defense, he shifted his hands to push her away, but her nipples stabbed his palms.

Kell groaned. When she straddled his hips, he no longer could summon the will to resist. She was feverish with wanting, every flame-hot inch of her ripe for the taking, and he intended to allow her to have what she craved.

He grasped her hips, lifting her slightly and easing her onto his huge erection, drawing a harsh breath at the exquisite feel of her sleek heat…

Suddenly she stiffened. She gave a sharp, twisting movement, trying to impale herself on his rigid shaft, but then she stopped, a look of quivering surprise on her face.

A startled surprise that Kell shared. Shock reverberated through him at her virginal tightness. She was untouched by a man…

Frantically he jerked his hips, withdrawing from her chaste body and holding her away.

She looked down at him in bewilderment, her hair a tangle around her beautiful face, her glazed eyes pleading.

“Please…” she whispered.

Without waiting for him, she ground herself against his muscular thigh, her pelvis thrusting wildly against him in an agony of need.

Compassionately he gripped the firm, sweet flesh of her buttocks and aided her, setting a hard rhythm until she exploded yet again, crying out in rapture and collapsing bonelessly upon him.

Lying there in the painful aftermath, Kell held her exquisite body as if it were fragile glass, as if he were afraid to touch it.

How in hell could she possibly still be a virgin? With her courtesan’s lashes and sultry mouth and her reputation as a seductress, he’d naturally presumed her carnally experienced. Her desperate lust could be accounted for by the aphrodisiac, of course, but there had been nothing innocent or virginal in her practiced kisses or her bold caresses.

A gamester by profession, he would have wagered half his fortune that she was no virgin. A wager he obviously would have lost.

Devil take it, her eager assault on his manhood suggested clearly that she was no stranger to a man’s body…

Yet perhaps she was indeed carnally experienced but had been saving her virginity for her husband. Her noble husband. Kell frowned suddenly, recalling that Miss Kendrick was supposed to have wed her duke yesterday. In fact, that celebrated event was what had driven his brother to finally act, to mete out his avowed vengeance.

Kell took a deep, steadying breath, unintentionally inhaling the delicate fragrance of her hair. What had his volatile younger brother gotten him into? And what the devil was he supposed to do with her now?

Just then she gave a sigh and buried her nose in his shoulder, making a mewling sound like a kitten. An odd tenderness flooded Kell-a totally involuntary response that grated on his nerves.

He was still enraged at her for wounding his brother so savagely, yet for the first time, he began to question Sean’s veracity. Sean’s claim that he’d enjoyed her sexual favors, that she had in fact offered her body, was clearly untrue. Was it also possible that Raven Kendrick wasn’t entirely the vicious Jezebel she had been labeled?

Admittedly Sean’s feelings toward her had been warped by his recent brutal impressment. Yet his darker side had fomented long before, Kell knew to his sorrow. Worse, his brother still harbored a simmering resentment against him, blaming Kell for abandoning him to their uncle’s perversions more than a dozen years ago.

Kell squeezed his eyes shut at the familiar anguish. Since their mother’s senseless death when he was fifteen, he’d felt responsible for Sean, who was five years his junior-even though their paternal uncle had assumed legal guardianship for them both. But he had failed miserably in his duty to protect his young brother, unwittingly leaving Sean to their uncle’s debauchery.

He’d tried desperately to make amends since then. Remembering, Kell raised his fingers to his cheek. His scar had resulted from a violent fight with their uncle, when he’d discovered William Lasseter’s sordid crime. He’d wanted to kill the bastard, but instead he’d escaped with Sean to Dublin, vowing to keep him safe.

For a time they’d known no other home but the streets, scrounging for their very existence, struggling to survive. Kell had quickly learned to rely on his exceptional gaming skills to put food in their empty bellies. They’d had only each other, and then their uncle had pursued them to Ireland…

Deliberately Kell crushed the dark memory. Yet he couldn’t quell his growing misgivings about his brother, or summarily dismiss Sean’s vengeance as focused merely on Raven Kendrick and not on himself as well.

He would have given his life for his brother, if need be. It pained him to think Sean might have deliberately sought to destroy the tenuous reputation he’d fought so hard to build for his gaming house.

But why else would Sean have brought Miss Kendrick here, if not out of vindictiveness?

Reminded of the blue-eyed siren in his arms, Kell winced. Her hair drifted like cool silk against the backs of his hands, her soft breasts and slim thighs scorched him like hot coals, eliciting powerful emotions inside him that he didn’t want to feel…

“Bloody hell,” he cursed again, damning her and his brother both.

Her, for arousing the most savage lust he’d ever known. And Sean, for inciting this damnable situation.