Desire in the Sun (24 page)

“My dress will be dry in an hour or so.”

He shook his head. “Wet or dry, you’d be too much of a temptation. They don’t strike me as a simple crew of honest sailors.”

Her brow wrinkled. “What else could they be?”

“Pirates. An honest ship would not be likely to do their careen on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere. Not when there are livelier ports around.”

“But …”

At that moment a woman screamed, the sound high and shrill and frantic.

Lilah looked down the beach to see a woman running, her black skirts and equally black hair flying behind her. Chasing her was a man with a red kerchief tied over his head, his chest bare except for a leather strap cutting across it that might have held a sheath for a knife. As Lilah watched, wide-eyed, he caught the woman by the ends of her long hair and jerked, tumbling her to the ground. As she hit the ground she rolled onto her back, her hands going up as if to ward off the man, though the gesture was useless. He fell on top of her, and as she screamed again Lilah saw that he was pulling up her skirt and fumbling with his own breeches. Lilah’s eyes widened as the man’s thin white rump was revealed to her view. It settled into position between the woman’s bare thrashing legs, and began to move.

“You don’t need to watch that,” Joss said roughly, catching her by the shoulders and pulling her around and into his arms so that her face was pressed against his chest.

“But we have to help her!”

“What do you propose we do, run down there and punch him in the nose? We’re unarmed, remember? And you are a far more fetching package than that poor woman down there.”

“Oh, dear God!” The thought that she might suffer the same degradation as was being visited on that woman had not even occurred to her.

“Come on, I’ve seen all I need to.”

Joss’s expression was grim as he led her away from the cliff. He kept her hand in his, and Lilah followed
him meekly, shocked by what she had seen. If she had followed her original impulse and shouted out from the pool when she’d first heard voices, she might very well have shared that unfortunate woman’s fate. That Joss would have fought to the death to protect her she had not a single doubt, but he was only one man and unarmed. If not for his caution, he would very likely have lost his own life and she would even now be worse than dead.

They’d been lucky. She’d been lucky. For the time being.

But a serpent had invaded their small paradise. The island was tiny, and the chances of their being found by the intruders were good. They would have to hide until the ship had finished with its careen and left.

The taste of danger was bitter in her mouth.

XXVIII

B
y nightfall they had removed every trace of their presence from the beach. Joss had even swept away their footprints. If anyone came looking, there’d be nothing to indicate that the two of them had ever been on the island.

Their new shelter, a small hut that Joss constructed out of palm fronds and vines, was hidden behind a wide, flowering snow-on-the-mountain tree and the huge, half-rotted trunk of a tamarind. Unless someone stumbled right over it, the low hut was almost impossible to distinguish from the rest of the undergrowth around it.

They had an ample supply of coconuts, and fresh water fetched from the firewater pool and stored in empty shells. There was no reason for them to leave the protection of the rain forest, not even to fish or catch crabs. On the white sandy beaches, they would be all too visible to chance passersby.

With the coming of night could be heard strange rustlings from the forest floor. Lilah and Joss looked at one another, then turned and crawled into the hut as one.

It was not much bigger than the last one he had built, but the bedding he had piled on the ground was thicker and more comfortable. With Lilah’s petticoat spread over it, it made a very adequate bed. Once inside, Joss stretched out flat on his back and Lilah curled naturally
against him, her head on his shoulder and her arm curved cross his chest. Her fingers idly stroked the silky hairs beneath them, but at the moment she was not really aware of what she was doing.

“I keep thinking about that poor woman,” she said into the darkness, and shuddered.

“There’s nothing we can do for her, so you may as well try to put her out of your mind.” His voice was soft but grim.

“Where—how do you suppose they got hold of her?”

“I don’t know. Maybe she was a passenger on a ship they attacked.”

Lilah was silent for a while. From outside could be heard the sounds of the wind blowing through the trees and the calls and shrieks and rustlings of the island’s nocturnal creatures as they went about their business. The inside of the hut was so dark that she could not even see her hand as it rested against Joss’s chest, or the gleam of his eyes.

“Do you think they’ll find us?”

“I don’t know. I doubt it. Why should they? They’re not looking for us; they don’t even know we’re on the island.”

“That’s true.” The thought was comforting, “How long does a careen usually take?”

“It depends on the crew. Not more than a week. From their progress I’d guess they’ve already been at it for at least two or three days.”

“Maybe that was the ship we saw!” At the notion that they might actually have succeeded in attracting the pirates’ attention, Lilah shuddered.

“Maybe.”

“Joss?”

“Mmmm?”

“We may not have very long together.”

“No.”

“The pirates could find us. Even if they don’t, another ship could stop here if they did- At any time.”

“Yes.”

“Whatever happens, there’s something I want you to know. I—I love you.”

A long silence greeted this gift that she had expected him to return with delight. Lilah lifted her head and tried to read his expression, but the darkness was so thick and so all-enveloping that it was impossible for her to see anything.

“Joss?”

“What?”

“Aren’t you going to say anything?” She almost whispered the words.

“What do you want me to say?”

“What do I want you to say?” Lilah sat up, suddenly angry. “What do I want you to say!” she sputtered as she repeated it for the second time.

“You want me to say that I love you, too, I take it. If I do, what good will it do me? You’ve already made it quite clear that you’re in the market for a lover while we’re on the island. Once we’re rescued, I won’t be good enough to kiss the hem of your skirt, much less your mouth. You’ll take a husband like your precious Kevin, and he’ll sleep in your bed and put his hands on your white skin and give you children. But you know what?”

She didn’t say anything, shocked at this sudden bitter outpouring.

“You won’t ever again in your life feel with any man what you feel with me. Do you know how rare what we have is? Hell, no, of course you don’t! You say you love me, Lilah, but I don’t think you even know what that means!”

“I do! And I do love you. But—”

“The bloody hell you do! There are no ‘buts’ when you love someone!”

With that he jackknifed upright and crawled from the hut.

“Joss!” Lilah was right behind him, hurt and frightened by his sudden fierce anger. He got to his feet outside where it was light enough that she could at least see him. He stood with his back to her, his arms crossed over his chest, his legs braced slightly apart. Lilah looked at that broad muscular back, the set of that black head, and felt her throat tighten.

“I do love you, Joss,” she said pitifully, and coming up behind him stroked soft fingers along his shoulder. He stood there, rigid, for just a moment, then as she stroked him again he turned on her with an expression so hard that she was momentarily frightened.

“You don’t,” he said through his teeth, his hands coining out to catch her by the shoulders. “You just think you do. You think you can play at loving me for a little while, then when we’re rescued your life can resume along the nice smooth path you have mapped out for it. Well, that won’t work, my dear. We’ve come too far for that, you and I.”

His hands tightened on her shoulders, and he pulled her against him, his eyes glittering down into her face.

“By God, you will love me,” he said, then bent his head to take her mouth.

XXIX

H
is mouth slanted over hers brutally, hurting her, making her gasp out a protest against his bruising lips. He paid no heed to her cry, forcing her back over his arm so that her head was wedged against the unyielding strength of his shoulder. His arms around her were like steel bands, holding her so tightly that she could scarcely breathe. She had to clutch at his shoulder with the hand that was not trapped between them or lose her balance entirely. The heat of that satin-sheathed muscle seared her palm.

The fury of his kiss forced open her mouth. His tongue penetrated deep inside with none of the gentle wooing he had shown her earlier. He took her mouth, forced it to his will, used it ruthlessly. His tongue met the feeble protest of hers and conquered it without mercy. Then he staked his claim to the whole of the warm wet cave with a ferocity that made her tremble. The violence of the sexuality he had so suddenly unleashed frightened her. Clutching him, suffering that savage kiss, Lilah felt the world spin around her and feared she might swoon. Then he shifted his hold on her, loosening his fierce grip by the merest of degrees so that she was again able to get her breath.

His hand closed over her left breast.

Lilah gasped and started, feeling the heat and strength
of that hand burn clear through the thin material of her dress and chemise to her skin. Her nipple puckered, hardened against his palm, sending a shaft of pure fire straight to her loins. The sensation was like nothing she had ever experienced. Her eyes flew open. Instinctively she fought to free herself.

His kiss deepened savagely, and his hand remained on her breast, caressing her, searing her skin like a brand. Her eyes fluttered shut and she moaned, no longer struggling to get free. Her nails curled into the flesh of his shoulder, but not in punishment.

His hand moved upward to the satiny arch of her neck. He stroked the bare skin, then, without warning, slid his hand down. His fingers thrust inside her bodice, and the much-put-upon muslin gave with a soft ripping sound. His hand closed over her soft breast, and Lilah cried out as her knees gave way.

He caught her, lowering her with utmost gentleness to the ground. She lay quivering, helpless to do anything but stare up at him through the shifting darkness as he knelt wordlessly beside her, his hands sliding behind her back to find the buttons to her gown. He undid one, then another, then a third, quickly, efficiently, with a controlled savagery that made her heart shiver in her breast. Even if she had wanted to protest, she could not have. She was incapable of making a sound, incapable of making a move to help or hinder him. Her blood boiled within her, her limbs trembled, and a fierce need built up inside her to match the savage hunger she read in his face.

Whatever he was going to do to her, however he was going to do it, she wanted it. She wanted him. She felt as if she could die from the wanting.

He had her dress unbuttoned and pulled it down to her waist, not bothering to first free her arms from her sleeves. The unfastened bodice bound her elbows to her
sides, increasing the sense of helplessness that both frightened and thrilled her.

Beneath the dress she wore only her chemise. The thinness of the primly pin-tucked garment provided scarcely more than a tantalizing veil over the nakedness of her breasts. As her nipples thrust against the white cloth, Joss growled under his breath. Then he reached out with fingers that suddenly were less than steady to yank her chemise down to just beneath her breasts, baring the satiny white globes to his touch and view.

For a long moment he stared without moving, the shifting moonlight behind him casting his head in dark silhouette and making it impossible for Lilah to read the expression on his face. As he looked down at her she felt her breasts swell and tighten, causing an ache inside her that was both pleasure and pain. The sudden quickening in her loins drew a soft, wordless murmur from her. In an instinctive movement as old as woman, her back arched and she offered her breasts to him. He sucked in his breath, the sound ragged and harsh. Then, the movement so swift it startled her, he was coming down on top of her, lying on her, his weight crushing her into the thick dusty carpet of vines and mulch and leaves. There was a rock beneath her spine and she shifted her hips to get away from it.