Chapter Fifteen #2
“They’re only watching, love,” he coaxed in English. It was unlikely that the thugs understood much. “They enjoy watching you move, trying to slip through those knots.”
In response, Diana rolled her body against his, as if acting out their scene, while she twisted her hands. Anyone would think she was in the throes of their passionate encounter, not trying to loosen her tie and his.
“Stupid cow,” the sailor said. “Thinks she can get away.”
“You don’t want to escape, do you, darling?” Ian teased in Spanish, for the benefit of the goons. His tongue circled her collarbone. “You love it here. With me. Show them what you want me to do for you.”
Diana hinged toward him to offer him her beautiful breasts, and the pleasure that flooded through him was pure fantasy. He kissed her luscious curves and blew on the hard peak of her nipple through the silk of her gown before taking it in his mouth.
As her legs squeezed around him, she rasped, “I must give the devil his due.”
And then she moved on him.
She rocked against his hips. The friction against his stiff cock was torture. He was going to spend in his pants and he didn’t care who saw it. It was going to be worth it.
“I’m so close,” Diana moaned.
It took him a full minute to realize she didn’t mean her climax. Her knots were finally loosening.
“What about you, darling, are you there?” She panted.
Ian tested his own bindings, which were nearly undone. The amazing woman had been working both sets of knots the entire time.
“No. You don’t get to come until I do,” he barked, with one eye fixed on the men. They were watching Diana ride him with glazed expressions and didn’t notice the ropes loosening. “You need to take all of me, love. And you’re so tight, I’m the only one who can undo you.”
“You’re wrong there, mate,” slurred one goon.
“Think I should help,” his accomplice added, unfastening his belt. “This bitch needs to be fucked before she gets to ride someone else.”
White light exploded across Ian’s vision. With a growl, he rolled across the bed and shoved Diana behind him. He hardly registered that the movement was tearing off his skin. It didn’t matter; his hand was free.
Diana pressed a hairpin into his palm.
“Throat,” she wheezed.
He flung the pin into the open mouth of the man who stood before the bed. The sailor staggered back and gasped before he collapsed, blue-faced.
Ian caught the other bewildered man by the throat.
“Don’t say a word. You leave quietly and we’re both safe.
You stay, you’ll be on the wrong side of Costa.
I took what’s his.” He glanced over at Diana on the bed; she was staring at the ceiling, which he hoped was part of her performance.
“If Costa finds you here, you’re as good as dead. ”
The sailor paled and glanced at his mate, unconscious on the ground.
“Go now. While you can.” Ian gave him a shove, and the man needed no other urging. He tripped out the door and slammed it closed behind him.
Ian returned to the bed to free Diana’s other hand. “That was brilliant. I hope you’ve more pins to use on the way out.”
When he loosened the last tie and she still didn’t move to follow him off the bed, he saw she was trembling. “Diana?”
She didn’t respond. The need to draw her into her arms was overpowering, but as he leaned closer, she shuddered.
“Forgive me.” He sat back on the bed, afraid to touch her. “I took things too far—”
“No.” She seized the lapels of his coat. “The only thing keeping my fear at bay is your hands on me.”
The desperation in her voice cut into him. He was hard again; his breath sawed in and out in raw gusts that burned his dry throat.
Diana was equally winded. The neckline of her gown had frayed during their performance, and the tops of her breasts spilled out of it as they rose and fell.
“What can I do?” he begged.
She swallowed. “Help me—help me finish. Please.”
He folded her into his arms. Relief washed over him as her curves melded against him. She met his mouth with a searing kiss before letting him take the lead.
His hands, now free to do their will, stroked her breasts and caressed her waist through the silk bodice. “Having you tied up above me aroused me beyond comprehension.”
She gave him one of those unintelligible moans, and he rejoiced silently in the confirmation that her cries of pleasure before had been genuine. “But I prefer you this way, free to hold.”
He stroked his hand down her silk-clad leg and hooked it around his waist to fit her against him, which she approved of, judging by the frenzied way she rocked into him.
“Do I feel as right to you as you do to me?” Ian’s words fell as softly as snow as his hands gentled her. “I cannot wait to touch more of you.”
She responded by kissing him passionately, grazing her teeth against his lip.
With a tight clasp on his hair, she breathlessly demanded, “More.”
He thrust his hips against her and drew the tip of her breast into his mouth. He sucked on her bare nipple and traced it with his teeth until she cried out.
“Now.” She gasped. “Touch me now, Ian, please. Make it fast.”
He growled as he kissed her deeply and rucked up her skirts.
“Yes,” she purred into his mouth when he found her drawers. He plunged his hand through the slippery ribbons and lace and pressed against her mons.
“Please,” she begged again.
Ian caressed her entrance. He gently traced her lips, found them achingly smooth and damp. As he delved one finger inside her, Diana’s hips bucked to meet his movements, and he sensed his own climax stir at the base of his spine.
“How luscious you are, Diana. What I would give right now to taste you here.”
He thrust his finger to demonstrate; she responded with a seductive whimper.
“Is that enough to fill you?” he teased as he burrowed in and out in a taunting rhythm. “Or do you need more?”
“More, more, more,” she pleaded. “Hurry, please. I can’t stand it.”
He added a second finger and twisted them inside her. He relished the way she writhed on him. “God, do I want to soothe this sweet ache of yours with my cock. It’s only ever been this hard for you, tesora. Only you.”
The bawdy scream from her throat as she exploded around him drew his own swift, mind-shattering release.
A moment of silence followed before cries above them resounded their passion.
Diana sat up and looked at him, flushed and stunned.
He cupped her chin and shook his head in quiet, amazed agreement.
Footsteps drew them both back to reality.
As they bounded off the bed, Diana grimaced at the body blocking the door. “We can’t exit the way we came in.”
Ian’s blurry eyes clapped on the window. “We’re one story up. Too far to jump, but we could scale the side of the building so that the drop isn’t too far.”
They worked together to pull open the window, and Ian tried to ignore the heady scent of sex that was permeating the space between them.
The stain on his trousers was a painful reminder that they’d lost precious time.
And that Diana could unravel him with little more than her proximity and her kiss.
As long as he lived, he wouldn’t regret it.
When the window finally creaked open, the shriek of mating cats made Ian recoil. “I hope to hell those vermin aren’t mating in the alley. It will make for a terrible landing.”
The shriek sounded again, and Diana placed a hand on Ian’s arm to still him. “Wait.”
She gave a low whistle, which spurred another punctuated shriek from the street below.
“Not cats, a barn owl.”
They poked their heads out of the window and found Birdie standing below them. She tossed them a rope and turned to the end of the alley before she repeated the low whistle Diana had made.
“We’re clear,” Diana confirmed.
Ian secured the rope around the bed frame, and Diana was already over the window sash before he finished tying the knot. He followed her down. His knees nearly buckled when they hit solid ground.
“Costa has the police looking for you,” Birdie reported as she ushered them through the lane.
“We can’t risk staying for the meet tomorrow. Do you have transport?” Diana asked.
Ian expected a vehement protest from Birdie about abandoning orders, but she only tilted her head in affirmation to Diana’s question and led them down to the beachfront, where she dragged a rowboat out from under the pier.
“Tell me you’ve checked for leaks,” Diana insisted as she boarded while Ian and Birdie shoved off into the water.
“This ain’t my first passage.” Birdie handed Diana a blade, which Diana accepted with a grateful smile.
“Good woman. You can return Mr. Holt’s pistol to him as well.”
With deliberate slowness, Birdie reached into her pocket and handed Ian the gun.
“How did you find us?” Ian asked as he inspected the pistol to confirm it was still loaded.
“I was across the street, sorting this out.” Birdie flapped the oars. “Saw them surround you, so I followed at a distance. Took me bloody ages to double back for the rope.”
“We must make note of that oversight so we don’t let it happen on future operations,” Diana remarked.
After a beat, Birdie said, “We’ve never ignored orders before.”
She delivered this observation casually, but Ian made no mistake of the accusation buried beneath it.
If their situation had been less precarious, he would have enjoyed correcting her view of their predicament with his usual terrifying means.
“The situation requires it.” Diana employed the same commandeering tone she used aboard the Ever Hart, which bore a striking resemblance to the way she addressed volunteers at a charity fete. “We’ll signal when we’re clear of Costa.”
Her shift back to that cool, contained society heiress was remarkable. With the detached way her glance shifted between Ian and the harbor, no one would suspect that she’d been wild in his arms merely moments before.
Diana was too intelligent to deny the signs that the Stag traitor had penetrated her own crew and could have arranged for Costa’s lookouts to nab them. And yet, remarkably, she maintained her perfect mask of composure.
If only he could tell her to surrender it. He’d draw her onto his lap, close enough that he could match his breaths with hers again. She’d look at him the way she did at the brothel.
Like she needed him.
Tonight, she’d saved his life. Again.
With a hairpin.
Tomorrow, he would tell her why he chased her on this journey. And why she needed to let him leave with the necklace. Alone.
As Birdie rowed, Ian registered they were heading north. But he’d never been more adrift in his life.