Chapter 30 #2
“As I said,” Danielle went on, “a topic for another time.” She paused in her work and stared at Linus. Luke followed her gaze.
Linus was snoring lightly, fast asleep.
Danielle rose quietly. “Will he be alright, do you think?”
Luke stepped into the passageway and beckoned her. She covered the refreshments, set them aside, and went to him. He closed
the cabin door. “If he can survive a year in a dungeon, I assume he can survive a Channel crossing.”
Danielle chuckled and looked up at him. She said nothing. She licked her lips.
“You should also rest,” he told her. It was a formality. He did not want her to rest.
Unless she needs rest more than she needs me, he amended in his head.
Meanwhile, he needed her more than he needed air.
She kept quiet. She stared at him. The boat tipped, rocking with the waves. Luke steadied himself with a hand above her head.
She leaned against the closed door and looked up.
“Thank you for your kindness to Linus,” he said.
She lowered her eyelashes, a move that caused Luke to bite back a smile. She tortured him on purpose. He deserved this, of
course, but he refused to make the wrong guess about whether she wanted him to touch her right now, or talk to her, or leave
her to rest.
“M’étoile?” he whispered.
She licked her lips again.
He was becoming aroused by the sheer act of her leaning against the door.
The lip licking did not help. His heart rate increased; his body hardened.
He thought of his letters, long and conciliatory; and her letters, brief and curt.
Idly, he twirled her ring on his finger.
They’d not spoken—really spoken—since their wedding night.
He flattened his forearm against the wall above her head, bringing his face closer. Could he kiss her? He’d devoured her in
the dark room inside the castle. Could he take her to her cabin and make love to her? They’d been married almost five months
and only made love on their wedding night.
“Princess?” he whispered, dipping his head closer, nuzzling the curls at her nape. He could hear her breath. If she was exhausted,
she wasn’t too exhausted to respond to his closeness. She wasn’t too exhausted to drive him mad.
Suddenly, inspiration struck. He dropped his lips against her ear and whispered, “What do you want?”
It was the correct question. She rolled from the wall and tipped against him. He caught her around the waist and crushed her
to his chest.
“I want you,” she breathed against his neck. “You.”
Dani hadn’t planned a manipulation, but she had wanted him to ask her. Not in their lovemaking necessarily, but in most things—in
all things—she would be asked.
“Marie believes you to be resting,” he said between kisses. He staggered down the small passageway with her in his arms.
“Marie does not believe this,” she murmured, reclaiming his mouth. “No one believes we are asleep.”
He came to the small door of her cabin and bumped it with his hip. They fell through the tiny opening, kissing and cleaving
and fighting for balance on the rocking boat. When they were inside, Luke kicked the door shut with his boot. He released
her long enough to snap the lock in place.
Dani dropped onto the small bunk, chest heaving, gazing at him. She’d missed him, and worried about him, and agonized about all the things left unsaid. There had been months of pining and praying—and now here he was. He was—
Well, he appeared to be stripping naked before her. She laughed and fell back on the bunk, watching as he tore off his coat,
yanked his tunic over his head, pulled off his boots, and unfastened the fall of his trousers.
“We did it,” she said. “I came for you, and I found you, and we did it.”
“We’re about to do it,” he said, shucking his trousers. “And you’re about to come for me.”
Dani laughed a little and then fell quiet, studying his naked body. Idly, she unfastened her shoes. He was, she thought, the
most exciting thing she’d ever seen.
“Dress off,” he said. One pant leg looped around his ankle and he kicked it away. Now he was completely, gloriously naked.
His body was lean and muscled, his skin tanned from years at sea. His erection jutted out, and she marveled at the mechanics
of it, the arousing sight of how much he wanted her. She ignored his command and reached out to touch him.
“You must be joking, Princess,” he said, leaning just out of her reach. “You’ll finish me here where I stand, and then where
would we be? I want to savor this.”
“How very aroused you can become, so quickly,” she said.
Luke let out a little groan. “Quick, am I?” He grabbed her beneath the arms and stood her up.
She went, stumbling over her discarded shoes.
He spun her, kissed her neck, and ground his erection into her bottom through her skirts.
Dani was woozy with desire and she indulged a swoon, tipping forward.
He caught her up. With nimble fingers, he attacked the fasteners of her bodice.
He shifted her this way and that, jerking her bodice open hook by hook.
The boat rocked, adding to the motion. Dani giggled and reached across the bunk to catch the wall.
“I need only think of you, and I’m aroused, Highness,” he whispered. “It’s improper, how often I think of you, how much I have wanted you.”
“How can it be improper to want your wife?” she asked.
“Excellent point,” he said. Her dress gaped open and he pulled it down her body. The waist caught at her hips and he gave
it a yank, sliding it to the floor with a whoosh.
She wobbled, drunk with desire and unbalanced by the rocking boat. His large, calloused hands caught her around the waist.
His balance on the moving boat was infallible; his possession of her body was delicious. Massaging upward, he followed the
boning of her stays until he reached the top. Her breasts spilled out, covered only in the thin fabric of her chemise. She
burned for his touch. Here, she did not want to ask, she wanted him simply to know. Somehow, he understood, sliding his hands
under the low neckline of the chemise and palming her breasts. He worked his fingers underneath, cupping her, thumbing the
tips. Dani’s knees gave out.
He groaned and caught her, pulling her back to his front. His erection was hard against her bottom, his hands on her breasts,
and she dropped her head back, lolling it against his shoulder. With her face so close, he could kiss her. He seized her mouth,
tongue probing. Her knees buckled again, and he grumbled, “Not yet.” He caught her up again.
When she was steady, he moved his hands to the lacing of her stays. His fingers, she noticed, were less adroit now. They were both clumsy with desire. He yanked and tugged, unfastening the laces like he was unwrapping a long-awaited gift.
“The nuns at the convent layered and bound and trussed you,” he grumbled.
“A fraction of what I typically wear. You’ve never undressed me before,” she murmured.
“Can that be?” he mumbled. “How can that be?”
“It was only the chemise, wasn’t it, on our wedding night?”
“No man deserves to wake up and find you in his bed,” he groaned, kissing her neck, “in only a chemise. In any state of dress,
actually. But I deserved it least of all. Even so, the memory of that night has sustained me. I relived it every night we
were apart.”
“There could have been more fodder to sustain you,” she said lazily. “You could have undressed me before the wedding night.
I was waiting for you to undress me.”
With every tug of the laces, the confining garment loosened. She was able to breathe. Her chemise fell off one shoulder.
“I resisted you before that,” he said, “but honestly I have no idea how. Some misguided idea that I was a gentleman—”
“You are a gentleman.”
“Or that you were too young and innocent.”
“I am very young and entirely innocent.”
He growled, yanking at the strings. They flew, popping her skin like little whips.
“I prioritized Linus,” he remembered. “I . . . I couldn’t allow myself to have you until he was safe.”
“You were right to go for Mr. Welty,” she murmured, looking at him over her shoulder. “I understand now.”
He paused in what he was doing, blinking down at her.
“You should’ve asked me to go with you,” she added, “but you were right to go.”
He shook his head, returning to the laces. “I would never put you in such terrible danger. In fact, I’m furious that you came.”
“So furious,” she whispered, pressing her bottom into his erection.
He growled and gave a final tug to the stays. The binding fell slack and he pulled it from her body, leaving only the thin
shift underneath. He smoothed away discomfort, massaging his fingers across her ribs. Gooseflesh crawled up her body. Her
nipples were so very taut. She bowed her body, and then his hands were there, lifting her breasts. The pleasure was so intense,
Dani cried out.
“Yes,” he hissed, and he spun her to face him. She was limp with desire, falling against his chest.
“Arms up,” he said. Dani blinked at him, eyes half-lidded, breathing heavily. Her body throbbed. Languidly, she lifted her
arms, trailing her hands over his shoulders and through his hair. He paused to give her a deep, possessive kiss. She leaned
under the force of it, arching over the bunk. He caught her between the shoulder blades and she slid her arms around his neck,
trying to pull him down.
“Not yet,” he said against her skin. Gathering the fabric of her shift in two handfuls, he slid it up her body.
“Now the bed,” he breathed.
Dani shivered, awash in sensation. She felt the warm press of his skin against hers; tingles at every point of contact. His
erection throbbed against her belly. He breathed in her hair, scraping his mouth along her throat.