The Pirate and the Pagan (69 page)

Ruark applied a strong, delicious pressure as he cupped her, and ground his palm in a slow rotating motion until she thought she might climax into his hand, but he was a superbly skilled lover and withdrew his hand, trailing the pads of his fingertips across her hot center. The peaks of sensation receded and he immediately set to work rebuilding them. He knew that one of the most pleasurable parts of making love was penetration and so he showed her all the different ways to go about the sensual business.

At first her cheeks and throat were suffused with blushes at his boldness, but she soon lost her ability to think clearly. She could only feel and she let herself go and gave herself up totally, absorbing his masculinity to the full, high up inside her. Each time he withdrew totally and each time her body mourned the loss. He penetrated her over and over again, burying himself to the hilt,
then his tongue filled her mouth with the same dominant insistence before withdrawing completely.

Finally she could bear the torture of separation no longer and her body closed over him, tightening, squeezing, not permitting him to withdraw. She did the same with his delicious tongue, sucking hard so that he couldn’t bear to withdraw it from her honey-drenched mouth. He pressed her up against the mirrored wardrobe, thrusting up into her so savagely that her feet no longer touched the floor.

Their gyrations became so frenzied that suddenly her waterfall of diamonds broke and showered down over their fused nakedness. “I’ll buy you more diamonds … emeralds … rubies,” he vowed.

“Ru, I don’t want jewels,” she whispered huskily.

“What do you want?” He knew he would give her anything.

“Fill me with another babe,” she said simply.

His hands slipped beneath her buttocks and she wrapped her legs about his back, then he walked to the bed and spread her beneath him. They wanted it to last all night, but they were both out of control and in a few minutes they were both shuddering as he began flooding into her.

Later, as they lay talking in the privacy of the great curtained bed, her hand absently cupping and fondling him so that he remained aroused, he murmured, “Will you miss London?”

“Of course I shall miss it. But every year you will take me back so that I can shop, see all the plays, and have a flirtation with the King.”

“There was a great scandal at Court recently,” he told her. “Charles caught the virtuous little Frances Stewart in bed with Richmond, so Richmond had to marry her.”

“I knew they were having an affair. I saw him take her to his rooms one night, down by the bowling green.”

“You never breathed a word,” he said, marveling.

“I couldn’t betray another woman. After all I was having an affair myself with that damned pirate. Well, if Frances is married, that should make Barbara Castlemaine happy.”

“Not a bit of it.” He laughed. “Married to the Duke of Richmond makes Frances a duchess and Barbara is only a countess. She’s nagging Charles to death to make her Duchess of Portsmouth. He’s given her Berkshire House to keep her quiet.”

Summer stretched like a cat in the warm bed and ran her bare
foot up Ruark’s leg. She wouldn’t change places with anyone in the whole wide world and she had the powerful knowledge that neither would her husband. She leaned over him so that her breasts lay on his hard-muscled chest and ran her fingers along his jaw. “Don’t shave today, and remove that black stuff from your silver flash of hair.”

“Ah, you fancy being made love to by Rory, do you?”

“Well, it’s not every woman who is lucky enough to be married to two men … after all, variety is the spice of life,” she purred.

He was insanely happy that she was over her ordeal and that they were more in love than they had ever been. He looked down into her eyes and said softly, “Darling, do you forgive me for all the grief I caused you?”

“Forgive you? Forgive you? Hell no, I haven’t even forgiven you for the bloody oysters and champagne you fed me!” she cried as she reached up to pull handfuls of his dark hair.

He captured her hands and pulled her down to him. His deep kisses had the ability to make her forget everything. He was her rock, her strength. She would cleave to him forever and there would be no more nightmares in his safe arms.