How To Please a Pirate by Mia Marlowe Page A

cheek lift in a smile. “Do you
think you could bear to do it again?” he whispered.
    “That makes two questions, my lord.”
    “Who’s counting?” When he drew back and
lifted a brow at her, she knew she was lost.
    She raised herself on tiptoe, found his mouth
and slanted hers across it. For a moment, he seemed content to let
her set the pace and she embarked on a leisurely exploration of his
lips. But when she slid her tongue into his open mouth, the kiss
changed.
    Command of their carnal odyssey shifted to
him and he took possession of her mouth as if by right. To her
surprise, Jacquelyn didn’t mind. She surrendered to his plundering
tongue, gasping for breath when he released her mouth to trail his
lips over her jaw, down her neck and straight as a plumline back to
her aching nipples.
    Far from stilling the need, his mouth at her
breast made her want all the more. Outlandish things. Wicked,
indecent things. Things her mother had told her about. She never
dreamed she’d actually want a man to do them to her, but now they
suddenly sprang into her mind. A second heartbeat pounded between
her legs and she felt a spurt of moist warmth.
    She groaned. She could no more control the
helpless little noises of distress coming from her throat than she
could stop the torrent of wanting that washed over the rest of
her.
    “Ah, Lyn, that’s it, lass. Sing for me.”
    He released her wrists so he could palm both
her breasts. She was free, but passion rooted her to the spot where
her spine pressed against the cold stone. Instead, she buried her
fingers in his hair, kneading his scalp, whispering urgent
encouragement in disjointed sounds. It was no language known to
man, but he seemed to understand her perfectly.
    He yanked the front of her skirt up. Cool air
breezed over her heated flesh as he draped the yards of fabric on
the wire and horsehair shelf of her panniers.
    Gabriel stepped back and looked down at her
triangle of coppery brown curls. She stopped breathing.
    “You’re beautiful,” he said with reverence.
Then he cupped her sex with his whole hand.
    She whimpered with longing as he spread her
swollen folds and drew a fingertip along her delicate inner lips.
When he dropped to his knees before her, she swayed unsteadily.
Only his arms around her hips and his hands on her buttocks kept
her upright as his mouth claimed her secrets.
    Had he somehow climbed inside her mind and
seen her most wicked fancies?
    Jacquelyn was drowning in a sea of sensation
with only a pirate to throw her a lifeline. She nearly wept with
relief when he stood and unbuttoned the front of his bulging
breeches.
    He kissed her again while he hooked his
elbows under her knees and lifted her, spreading her wide to
receive him. She pressed down on his shoulders to help him. Just
the tip of him slid between her throbbing folds.
    To her dismay, he stopped.
    “I want you so bad, it’s like a sickness but
I have to be certain,” he said, his voice hoarse with passion.
“You’re a maiden and once done, this is a thing that cannot be
undone. Do you want me, Lyn?”
    “Yes, oh, yes,” she almost sobbed.
    He kissed her again as he lowered her, his
shaft gently invading her moist flesh. When he reached her
maidenhead, he paused for a blink and she moaned softly. Then he
rammed himself home and pain shrieked through her.
    He held her perfectly still. Then the pain
sizzled away and she felt his full length embedded in her, hot and
hard and throbbing with its own rhythm, his heartbeat in tandem
with hers. One salty tear streaked her cheek.
    “Now, there’ll be only pleasure between you
and me,” he assured her as he kissed away the tear. “No more pain,
I promise.”
    “I believe you,” she whispered.
    Slowly, he began to move and the world faded
around her.
    Until the door behind him swung open and
Father Eustace burst in.
    “Gabriel, lad, you must come right away.
We’ve royal compan— Oh!”
     
     

Chapter 11
     
     
    “By Thunder,” Gabriel