Nicole Jordan (32 page)

Her shawl had long ago slid off her arms. Now he tugged the neckline of her gown over her shoulders, then the bodice of her shift. Her bare breasts tumbled forward, begging for the touch of his teeth and tongue.

When his wet mouth seared her nipple, Caro half moaned, her body on fire. Responding to the sound, Max nudged her backward till her knees touched the bunk. Her limbs were so weak, she helplessly sank down upon the mattress.

Max followed, spreading her thighs with his knee as he sprawled over her, his hot mouth returning to capture hers, drinking feverishly.

Lost in the depths of his heated, intimate kiss, Caro scarcely heard the knock on the door. She moaned again as Max’s wonderful hands tormented her bare, aching nipples—

Suddenly she felt Max stiffen, even before she heard the low curse that came from across the cabin.

“Damn you, Leighton.”

She recognized Thorne’s hard voice with a sense of shock.

A brittle silence followed. Max sat up slowly, using his body to hide her disheveled state.

Her breasts were fully exposed, Caro realized with horror. She hastily fumbled to replace her shift and bodice and cover her indecency as she struggled to regain her dazed senses.

When she sat up, she ventured a glance at Thorne, who stood planted in the doorway.

His face had darkened to a thundercloud, but she might not have existed for all the attention he paid her. His angry gaze was riveted on Max.

“How long?” he demanded, his sharp tone slicing like a knife. “How long have you been taking advantage of her?”

Max didn’t reply at once. His jaw merely set in a rigid line.

Thorne’s jaw tightened just as rigidly as he crossed his arms over his chest. “I have no doubt you intend to do the honorable thing. You will wed her, of course.”

A mask fell down over Max’s expression. He cast a brief glance at Caro, then looked away.

“Of course,” he agreed, his voice holding scarcely any inflection at all.

Chapter

Nineteen

“Thorne, that is perfectly absurd!” Caro protested. “In the first place, Max did not take advantage of me—I was a willing participant. And in the second, it is none of your business whom I choose to kiss.”

“Stolen kisses are one thing,” Thorne retorted. “Ruining you is something else entirely.”

“He didn’t ruin me—”

“It’s close enough. You’re like a sister to me, love, and I won’t stand by while some bounder seduces you, even if he is a friend of mine.”

“What rubbish! Do you hear yourself, Thorne? How many women have you seduced in your rakehell career?”

“Which is precisely what makes me an expert. And the cases aren’t at all alike. I’ve always been astute enough to keep well away from complete innocents.”

Caro bristled at his characterization of her. “I am hardly an innocent. A woman of my age and experience is permitted more license than a girl just out of the schoolroom.”

“Not in my book. When a man dishonors a genteel female, marriage is the only possible course.”

“Oh, go to blazes!” Caro spat.

“I have no objections to wedding her,” Max interjected into their argument.

“Well, I have objections!” she exclaimed. “The entire notion is ludicrous.”

Max winced at her fierceness, then sent Thorne a wry smile. “I think this discussion would be better continued in private. I’ll thank you to make yourself scarce, friend, and allow me to make my own proposals.”

“You will do the honorable thing?”

“You may trust me, I assure you.”

Stifling an oath, Caro rolled her eyes in frustration.

When Thorne had left, shutting the door behind him, silence fell over the small cabin. Caro ventured a glance at Max and found his unsettling blue gaze locked on her.

With another heated exhalation of disgust, she scurried off the bunk and turned away to smooth the bodice of her gown, determined to eliminate the evidence of their aborted lovemaking.

“You shouldn’t listen to the ravings of a madman,” she muttered. “The difficulties of the past few days evidently affected Thorne’s senses.”

“He seemed of sound mind to me.”

“He clearly is not! And there is no reason whatsoever for you to propose to me.”

“I think there is.”

She turned to stare at Max. “You can’t possibly wish to wed me. You haven’t spoken even two words to me since I returned.”

His mouth twisting in a crooked smile, Max leaned back, bracing himself on his elbows. “If you care to know, I was trying to act the gentleman and give you time to recover from your ordeal. But I’ve had the devil of a time staying away from you. Witness what happened between us a few moments ago. I nearly ravished you. And I’m still as hard as granite.”

A swift appraisal of his breeches suggested to Caro that he was telling the truth. She could clearly see the swollen bulge of his arousal beneath the fabric.

She felt color rise in her cheeks. “You know that is purely a physical response of male lust. Perfectly understandable after a separation. It’s also quite normal for a man to feel a certain fervor after a victory. Now that the danger has passed, your desire has returned in full force.”

“Thank you for your expert medical opinion, Madame Physician. But permit me to be the judge of my own motives.”

Her hands went to her hips. “Just because Thorne found us together is certainly no reason for us to marry.”

“My proposal has little to do with Thorne’s finding us.”

“Perhaps not, but you are obviously trying to be noble. You believe that honor dictates you make amends, but in this instance, there are no amends to make, Max. You certainly haven’t ruined me. Nor did you seduce me. I went into our affair with my eyes wide open, fully understanding the consequences. I won’t have you offering for me out of duty or honor. And I absolutely won’t accept.”

“So you are refusing my proposal?”

“Of course I am refusing! We wouldn’t suit in the least. Marriage between us would be impossible.”

“Why?”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Have you even considered what our union would mean? Just begin with the simple matter of where we would make our home. Would you expect me to return to England with you? I would hate living there, Max. With all the stifling strictures they have for feminine behavior, it would be difficult for me to continue working as a Guardian. And it would be impossible to continue my medical vocation. I couldn’t willingly relinquish either.”

A shadow seemed to fall over his expression. “I would never ask you to.”

“So we would live on Cyrene? Do you mean to join our order, then? If you stay, you will have to, you know.”

When he hesitated, Caro searched his face. The graveness of his features spoke volumes.

Her heart contracted painfully in her chest, while her lungs felt suddenly tight, making it difficult to breathe.

She had been wrong, she realized that now. She’d been totally selfish, pressing Max to deny his most fundamental instincts of survival. She had no right to demand that he become a Guardian. No right to condemn him to such an uncertain future, where he might never be free of his nightmares.

A sickening sense of inevitability flooded Caro. Despite the hollowness in the pit of her stomach, however, despite the ache in her throat, she knew she had to brazen out her response to Max, pretending she didn’t care that her heart was bleeding.

Regrettably, when she finally allowed herself to speak, her voice sounded hoarse and uneven. “You have more than proved yourself worthy, Max, but you don’t belong as a Guardian.”

Pushing himself up, Max rose slowly to his feet. “Why do you say so?”

“Because it would make you continually relive your nightmares, for one thing. And if we were to wed, I would be the chief cause of them. I won’t let you make such a sacrifice, Max.”

He moved across the cabin toward her, holding her gaze. “It wouldn’t be a sacrifice.”

“Yes, it would. If your heart isn’t truly committed to our cause, then you would be damning yourself to a life of misery.”

He didn’t refute her, Caro noted. She took a slow, deep breath, trying to quell the relentless ache inside her. “I couldn’t bear for you to remain simply for my sake.”

A long moment passed before he spoke. “I want you as much now as I ever did, probably more so.”

She tried to smile. “I understand. I feel the same need. But it is simply the island’s influence.”

Max shook his head. “That isn’t true, and you know it. We are still a hundred miles from Cyrene. And our night together at Saful’s stronghold demonstrated clearly that your island legend has nothing to do with my desire for you.”

“You want my body, I have no doubt. But I am not the kind of woman you would want for your wife. Even if I were, you are forgetting that I don’t want a husband. I don’t want any man commanding me, controlling my life, telling me what I should or shouldn’t do.”

His blue eyes held hers. “What about children? What about companionship?”

“I don’t need those things,” Caro replied, her tone insistent.

“Liar,” he said softly.

Her eyes shut. She was indeed lying. She didn’t want to contemplate a future without Max. The emptiness. The long, lonely years ahead…

She tried to turn away, but he forestalled her, his fingers a gentle band of steel around her wrist.

“Don’t, Max,” she rasped. “Please believe me. We agreed to a few weeks of pleasure, only that. I have no interest in anything more.”

“Pleasure is not a bad basis for marriage.”

“But it would never be enough when there are other more overwhelming problems to consider.”

When his grasp tightened, Caro roughly pulled her arm away. “I won’t marry you, Max!”

“So you just want to end it now?”

“Yes! That is exactly what I want. As soon as we reach Cyrene, I think you should return to England. Now that Isabella is safe, there is no reason for you to stay.”

A dark, stormy expression fell over his features, making the intensity of his blue eyes even bluer. He intended to argue with her, Caro knew.

“And what about us?” he demanded stonily. Drawing close again, he captured her face in his hands, his thumbs stroking her lower lip. “You can’t claim you are eager for our lovemaking to cease, for I will never believe you.”

“Our lovemaking has nothing to do with the matter.”

“Nothing? Should I remind you what you will be giving up?”

This time instead of just slipping her bodice off her shoulders, he reached around to unfasten the hooks at the back of her gown.

“Max…”

As she began to protest, he captured her mouth, kissing her with a hard assurance that beguiled even as it claimed.

To Caro’s dismay, her surrender was just as swift as before. She would never be able to deny Max anything he wanted—and just now he wanted
her
.

In only moments he had bared her breasts again to his caresses. His tongue dueled with hers, mating fiercely, while his fingers rubbed her nipples to hard little points of fire.

Her heart was thundering when his hands slipped under her aching breasts and thrust them provocatively upward, leaving the mounds high and jutting. Bending, he fastened his lips around one peak and began to suck hard.

Caro let out a helpless gasp. Desire knifed through her, sharp and insistent. Feeling the searing heat of Max’s loins through their clothing, she knew she wouldn’t stop him.

She wanted one last time with Max. Wanted it desperately. She needed to know his passion once more to sustain her in the barren years to come.

He must have sensed her capitulation, for suddenly he broke off his kiss and drew back. His expression was hard and sensual as he swiftly unfastened the front placket of his breeches, almost tearing at the fabric. His male length rose thick and full from his groin as he stepped toward her again. Reaching down, he tossed up her skirts, as if he couldn’t wait to have her.

She couldn’t wait, either. The blazing heat had become a hurting, painful need. She made a small mewling sound when his hand slid between her legs to cup her sex, his fingers gliding over her already sleek wetness, finding her ready. Instantly his hard thighs pressed between hers, parting her legs as he clasped her buttocks to lift her against his erection. Caro helped him, needing the hot slide of his flesh into hers.

He took her without further preliminaries, impaling her on his rigid shaft.

She let out the soft, shocked cry of the surrendering female. The carnality of it was staggering. Reflexively she arched against him, but his arms were shackles, holding her to him, keeping her breasts crushed against his chest.

She was trembling violently now, her sheath clenching rhythmically around him. Twisting his hand in her hair, Max claimed her mouth again, his tongue penetrating possessively.

The taste of him was wild and heady, making passion, hungry craving, erupt between them. Caro made a soft, ragged sound that was matched by Max’s low groan. He was setting her aflame, and her fire only fed his own.

She was only dimly aware of Max moving over to the bunk. Still joined to her, he laid her roughly down on the mattress and covered her. Keeping her shaking thighs spread wide by the weight of his body, he surged into her with hard, fierce urgency.

With a hoarse whimper, Caro twisted beneath him, frantic with heat and desire and a deep empty ache that only he could fill. Her nails clutched at his shoulders while her heels dug into the backs of his muscled thighs, drawing him even closer. She wanted him with a blind, ferocious need.

She heard herself moan again, heard herself pleading for him to take her harder, the words smothered between their starving mouths. And Max complied, plunging into her.

They were both shaking violently now at their frenzied mating. It was a raw, powerful bonding, her hips straining and reaching as he drove into her, ruthless and deep, the force of his thrusts almost savage. Writhing, Caro arched in a powerful bow, lifting Max with her as flames of explosive sensation overtook her.

She felt him bucking heavily against her, felt his rhythm breaking as the first cataclysmic waves began.

Her keening cry became a scream of ecstasy, while a harsh groan tore from his chest. His head thrown back in mindless abandon, he shook and convulsed and spurted his seed into her.

The spasms of painfully intense pleasure faded slowly. Her flesh still quivering from the impact of his thrusts, Caro buried her face in Max’s shoulder, holding him close, cherishing the fierce intimacy of his body locked with hers, the feel of his vital weight crushing her into the mattress.

She had wanted their final union to be this way: raw and forceful, both of them helpless in the wild grip of passion, their coupling shatteringly intense.

A dozen heartbeats later, Max eased away from her and fell limply back against the pillows, his chest rising and falling swiftly as he gulped in air.

When at last he could speak, his voice was low and hoarse. “You will never convince me that you won’t miss that.”

Caro shut her eyes, deliberately swallowing the ache in her throat. “I know I will miss it. But I won’t marry you, Max.”