Too Dangerous to Desire (13 page)

Turn away from temptation
. “Yes,” he replied. “But most often the sensible decision is to cut your losses and quit.”

“If I wished to be sensible, I wouldn’t have come here in the first place,” retorted Sophie. “Twenty-five. You have twenty-five seconds. If you fail, you lose a piece of clothing.”

“I accept—with one small alteration. As the previous winner, I reserve the right to decide which garment to shed.”

“As you wish.”

At her signal, Cameron once again attacked the lock.

“Oh, fie!” she cried, watching him fumble away the seconds. “You failed on purpose!”

“I do have a shred of decency left,” he replied, removing his shirt. “I couldn’t allow you to sit there and shiver on your own.”

Sophie swallowed hard, her eyes widening slightly as she stared at his chest. “I—I’ve seen Lord Elgin’s marbles, but somehow a man’s naked torso looks different in the flesh.”

“Everything—and I mean everything—about them is smaller, for one thing,” he said slowly.

Her face flamed.

“They are pretty, in a very abstract way,” went on Cameron. “However, something gets lost in translation from flesh to stone.”

“A different language completely,” she agreed with a worldly nod. But a tiny tremor inflected her voice. Unlike the smooth, solid Greek sculptures, her composure appeared on the verge of cracking into a thousand tiny shards.

“Shall we call it a draw?” The fire had now reached her eyes, provoking his deliberately risqué comment. “Another loss and you’ll lose your shift,” went on Cameron. “Clad only in a tissue-thin corset, your lovely nipples might tighten and pucker from the cold.”

“Without your breeches, your intimate parts might also suffer shrinkage,” countered Sophie.

Cameron let out a bark of laughter. “How do you know such shocking details about male anatomy?”

“You snuck a swim in the sea when you were twelve, and left me to hold your clothes.”

He had forgotten about that long-ago interlude until now. But then, they had shared many adventures over the years. “Good God, how extremely embarrassing.”

“Extremely.”

Her grin, sparkling with suppressed mirth, suddenly silenced the warning voices in his head. “So, I take it you wish to go another round?”

She nodded.

“Let’s make it a little more interesting.” He pulled a different tool from his boot. “You’ll get a second try at one minute with the thin probe. But I shall have to work with a hook, which is designed for a different type of mechanism. That should even the odds.”

“Do you always carry such an interesting assortment of implements in your footwear?” asked Sophie.

“It’s best to be prepared for the unexpected. So yes, I always have a number of intriguing items hidden within my clothing.”

“Interesting.” Her gaze lingered on his leg for a moment, and then she leaned forward to readjust the pocketwatch, giving him a tantalizing peek at her rounded breasts and valley between them. It was dark and inviting—just wide enough for a tongue to dip in and taste a trace of salt and spice.

A strange, sweet music began echoing in his ears.
Sophie the Siren.
Luring a man to break himself on the rocks of forbidden desire.

Don’t.
Cameron closed his eyes for an instant.
Don’t go there. She is a Sunbeam and I am the Devil’s own Darkness
—a bastard in the eyes of the world, which was the only truth that mattered.

He hadn’t been able to offer her a decent life in the past. And after ten years, the only thing that had changed was now he was even more dangerous, more disreputable. Sophie deserved better. He knew that. Oh, yes, he knew that.

“Are we ready?” she asked.

“But of course.” Shutting his ears to the whisper of his conscience, he pressed his palms together. “In this round we will simplify the rules. If you open the lock in the allotted time, you are the winner and get to name the article of clothing that I must forfeit. Fail, and it is the other way around.”

“Perhaps I’ll ask for your snake when I win,” she murmured. Her gaze slid to the small gold hoop dangling from his earlobe. It was, in fact, a tiny hooded cobra holding its tail in its mouth.

What goes around comes around?

“Another word of warning, Sophie. Don’t make assumptions or think ahead. Concentrate on naught but the present moment when you are in the midst of a perilous job. Otherwise you are apt to make mental mistakes.”

N
o mistakes. Concentration is key.” Sophie rubbed her hands together. “I vow, this time I shall do better.” Closing her eyes for an instant, she imagined that the blue-black steel lock was more than a lifeless mechanism, and that if she wielded her touch skillfully enough, she could release more than a clever array of levers and gears.

“Time,” called Cameron.

The probe seemed to move of its own accord.
Trust.
She decided to let go of conscious thought and to trust her instincts.

“Well, well, well.” He sounded a little surprised as the lock signaled its surrender just before the final seconds ticked away.

“A boot,” she announced.

“A lowly boot?”

“I plan on fine-tuning my timing,” she replied. “And I don’t want your most delicate parts to take a chill.”

“Careful, Sunbeam. Remember what I told you about overconfidence,” said Cameron over the thud of leather hitting the earthen floor. “The gods love nothing better than to humble a mortal who shows hubris.” He took up the hook. “Twenty-five seconds?”

“Yes,” replied Sophie, sure that in half a minute all of his toes would be clad in naught but stockings. The allotted time was impossible.

Snick, snick, SNICK.

The rapidfire metallic sounds proved her woefully wrong.

“Ha! Now we shall see who will be shivering.”

“Drat.” She made a face. “Last time, it looked as if you were working as fast as you could.”

“It’s wise to hide both your weaknesses and your strengths, Sophie. It keeps an opponent off-balance and always guessing.”

“A painful lesson to learn,” she responded, obeying his hand signal to strip off her shift.

Gooseflesh pebbled her arms as the lawn cotton grazed against her skin. It wasn’t, however, the tickle of the fabric or the breeze that stirred the reaction. His lidded gaze was like a physical caress, stroking along the ridge of her collarbones before dipping down in a lazy, lingering path to her half-bared breasts.

The corset lacing suddenly seemed to tighten, squeezing the air from her lungs.

“Painful, indeed.” Silent laughter quivered at the corners of his mouth. “I imagine that the chair’s seat is prickly with splinters that may prove deucedly uncomfortable on a naked bum.”

Sophie glanced down at her drawers, which offered scant protection from rough planks or roving eyes. “I shall just have to see that I don’t lose.”

“That may delay the inevitable,” said Cameron. “But you don’t control your own destiny. I have only to win…” He paused to carefully count what little she had left on. “…six times and you will be entirely naked.”

A shiver collided with a curl of heat licking up from her core.

“Twenty-five times six equals one hundred and fifty seconds—exactly two-and-a-half minutes.” A snap of his fingers made her jump. “It will be gone just like that.”

“That’s assuming you won’t make a careless slip,” she said. “You have little left to sacrifice, and if I take away all your garments first, the game will be over.”

Cameron leaned across the table, the rippling sunlight making his smoothly sculpted muscles glow like burnished bronze. “Actually, we never defined what would bring play to an end. We have been making up the rules as we go along.”

A cat-like stretch and he touched the hook to the top row of her corset’s lacing. “The lock has become awfully familiar. What if I changed the challenge to a new puzzle?”

His teasing smile belied the coiled tension of his body. The air between them crackled with temptation.

Sophie had only to say no in a myriad of subtle ways—pull back, shake her head, whisper a word. She had done it before, choosing rules over recklessness. At the time, it had been the right decision, no matter how much it had hurt. They had both been too young, and her family had been too much in need of her.

And now?

A flick of her lashes and he would ride off—perhaps forever—leaving her to face yet another interminable stretch of gray days. A lifetime leached of all color and fire.

The rules, of course, left no doubt as to what her choice should be. But rules did not understand regret. Rules did not lock out uncertainties. Rules did not keep longing at bay.

A split second.
Cameron had warned that in the heat of danger, one could not hesitate in making a decision.

No.
No, no, no. This time, she was older and wiser. In her heart she now knew that any life worth living entailed risks.

And suddenly the sliver of space separating their lips was gone.

“Sophie,” he rasped against her mouth. “Think—”

“Oh, please, Cam. Let us let go of the past and the future and seize the present moment.”

“If you are sure.”

“Yes.” She had never been more sure of anything in her life. “Yes.”

“Then God help me, I shall be selfish enough to accept your decision without argument.” Framing her face between his hands, he possessed her in a hard, hungry embrace. “Though a true gentleman ought to be more honorable.”

“I don’t want you to be honorable.” Her hands skimmed over the taut chiseling of ribs, drawing a muffled groan. “I want you to be to mine.”
If only for a fleeting interlude.

His restraint, held hard in check, suddenly snapped. A deft few tugs of the clever little hook and the knotted bow of her corset strings came undone. Sophie felt his hands unloop the laces and strip away the fabric. Rising, she twined her arms around his neck as he shoved the table aside and pulled her close. The thud of its fall was echoed by her half boots. Freed by two wiggled kicks, they landed atop her crumpled skirts.

Cameron spun around, their mouths still joined in a deep embrace, and in two swift strides carried her to the makeshift bed. He had left a thin bedroll of blankets spread over the wooden frame.

“You deserve silk and champagne, candlelight and crystal,” he whispered, breaking off the kiss to feather his lips along the arch of her neck. “Not a primitive hovel.”

In answer, Sophie found the flap of his breeches and worked the fastenings free. “I care naught for fancy frills, Cam. I am no highborn London lady, no glittering Diamond of the First Water. A simple setting is perfect, for I am…simply me.”

“And your pure, sparkling light, Sunbeam, puts all the London belles to the blush.”

I should be suffused with shame
, thought Sophie, peeling the buckskins down from his thighs. Held in check by only the thin scrim of his cotton drawers, his arousal was rampantly apparent.

But I am not.

She undid the ties and boldly pressed her hand to its ridged length, reveling in the sensation of liquid heat pulsing against her palm.

Cameron inhaled a ragged breath and held himself very still as she explored its contours. Steel sheathed in velvet. Alluring, mysterious, a conundrum of contrasts—like Cameron himself.

“The Devil take me,” he finally gasped, catching her wrist and easing her down onto the bed.

That she could stir such a swirl of molten color in his eyes sent a trill of excitement thrumming through her body. Gold-flecked fire, smoke-tinged jade—a sensuous sea. Dark, alluring. Daring her to dive into its depths.

He kicked away his fallen breeches and wrenched off his remaining boot. His drawers followed, slithering to the ground with a sinuous whisper. And then he was gloriously naked, all taut muscle and primal male, limned in the honeyed morning light.

“Think one last time about whether you want to do this,” he murmured, dropping to his knees and tugging off her garters and stockings. “For in another instant, Lust will be deaf to Reason.”

“I don’t want to think,” said Sophie, remembering his words from their rainy night London tryst. “I just want to
feel
.” Her fingers twined in his long, silky hair.

I want the texture of your skin, the chiseling of your muscles, the shape of your manhood forever imprinted on my body.

“Touch me, Cam. Let us hold onto this moment, come what may.” Her mind was made up—she intended to hold on to it now and forever. Love was too precious to let slip through her fingers again. Win or lose against Dudley and Morton, she would be free to follow her own heart. Either Georgie and Anthony would provide a stable, secure home for the family…or they would all be ruined, so it would hardly matter if she chose to partner with a pirate.

That realization was incredibly liberating.

“Sophie.” Cameron’s sigh was soft as satin as he slid his hands up her legs and gently parted her thighs. “It was only by keeping a grip on the sweet memory of you that I managed to survive the bleak, black twists my life has taken since leaving Terrington.”

She arched up to meet him, wrapping her arms around his neck. Shadows danced over his skin, the scent of him now an earthier musk that left her a little dizzy. The stubbling of whiskers on his jaw was rough against her cheek, his mouth was now hard and demanding.

Cameron claimed that he did not want to share his solitary life with anyone, but she meant to challenge him on that. Surely love was stronger than cynicism.

Surrendering to his need—and her own—Sophie eagerly opened herself to his embrace. Their tongues twined, the slow, sensuous play of flesh teasing a sudden surge of heat at her very core.

Oh, this is wicked…and wonderful.

A purr of pleasure slipped from her lips as Cameron settled his body atop hers, melting, molding flesh to flesh. His cock nudged between her thighs, grazing the honey-slick flesh nestled within their “V.”

“I shall try to go slow, Sunbeam.” His voice was low and rumbled. “There may be a pinch of pain, but I promise you it will quickly pass.”

An exquisite ache was already building inside her. Sophie lifted her hips in wordless urging.

He responded with a ragged groan. His fingers—those oh-so-skilled fingers—delved into her feminine folds and found her hidden pearl.

A moan caught her throat as he stroked and stroked the sensitive spot. Fire swirled beneath his touch, the heat growing unbearable.

“Hush, sweetheart.” Cameron muffled her cries with a kiss.

“I want…I want…”

“I know what you what.” The head of his cock was now pressing against the opening of her passage. “And God knows, I want it, too.” He eased forward a fraction. “Desperately,” he added through clenched teeth. Sweat sheened his forehead, the tiny beads of moisture dampening his tangled hair.

So good, so good.

A fierce need, too new to have a name, was cresting inside her. Hands clutching the broad slope of his shoulders, Sophie could bear it no longer. With an upward thrust of her hips, she drove him deep inside her. The momentary stab gave way to a surge of far sweeter sensations. She felt herself clench around him, and for an instant it was as if two had become one. He was part of her—and always had been.

She could, at that instant, have wept for joy.

Sucking in a breath, Cameron slowly rocked back.

“No—” she cried, only to be filled again with his sleek heat.

Another thrust, another withdrawal. Urged on by some elemental intuition, Sophie matched his rhythm, slowly at first, but the friction sent a thrumming through her limbs. Her breathing quickened, as did his.

Cameron’s thrusts were now coming harder, faster.

With a moan, she rose to meet him, again and again and again.

Higher, higher.
The sun in all its blazing white-hot glory seemed to be floating just overhead. And then in a blazing, brilliant burst of light, it seemed to shatter into a shower of golden sparks.

By sheer force of will, Cameron held himself together as Sophie came undone in his arms.

Oh-so many dark, devilish nights, his dreams had taunted him with this moment. He hardly dared to believe that the sound of her voice, the scent of her skin, the heat of her passion was real.

Sophie.
She was now his, body and soul.

With the cries of her climax still swirling in the air, he gave one last shuddering thrust, his own hoarse growl of exultation breaking free, and then withdrew, just in time to spill his seed safely.

“Sunbeam.” Her face was wreathed in a beatific glow. And for an instant, his own inner darkness was banished by its sweet, sweet light.

Utterly spent, he collapsed beside her and gently gathered her in his arms. Of all the dangerous, demented risks he had taken in his life, this was perhaps the most foolhardy.

A man like me must be heartless.
And yet the rapidfire thud in his chest warned that his vital organ had come back to life…

Passion. Peril.
Somehow he would keep Sophie safe. As for himself…

She stirred, and murmured a sound against his shoulder.

“Sunbeam,” repeated Cameron, stroking a hand over her tumbled curls. “Forgive me for behaving like a randy schoolboy. Lovemaking is more than a frenzied coupling,” he murmured. “It should be done slowly, savoring the sensations like a fine wine.”

“Mmmm, no wonder ladies are warned to keep their lips far, far away from the glass of passion,” she replied in a muzzy murmur. “This first sip was intoxicating.” A feline stretch twined her legs with his. “A fizzy bubbling through the blood, potent as sin.”

Cameron felt himself start to harden at the touch of her flesh. Quelling the fresh rush of lust, he shifted and pressed a light kiss to her forehead.
I have sinned enough for one morning.

“Whatever the strictures say, you’ve done nothing evil, Sophie. That said, we must be careful…”

A soft snuffle, and Cameron realized that she had drifted into a doze.

“I’ll not have your reputation shredded,” he went on, making the vow to himself. “For all my past failings, I will guard you from danger.”

Sophie woke, and for a moment lay hovering in a cloud-like haze, wondering whether the enchantment that had wrapped around her body was some otherworldly spell.

Black magic
. Wielded by a dark-haired pirate…

Cameron shifted, his long lean body brushing against hers.

No, not magic. Something infinitely more powerful.