She stared at him, and something in her shifted. He wanted her as desperately as she wanted him—that was obvious—but there was something more. He made himself vulnerable by telling her things she could not make her mouth utter. He did not have to tell her she was glorious, but he had. She sighed. All her life, gentlemen had ignored her and she had been content for them to do so. Yet here stood the handsomest and most fascinating man she had ever met and he claimed that he wanted her.
It was a heady thought, an enticing one.
She threw herself against him. He let out a startled breath and then locked his arms around her. He kissed her until her knees grew weak with it. His hard arousal moved against her belly and she shivered with desire.
"Make love to me, Drake."
He could no more resist the need in her voice than he could stop the tide, but he wondered if she planned to call him Drake when he was buried deep inside her. Or would she finally deign to use his first name?
He swung Thea into his arms and carried her to the small bunk. What he was about to do would be irrevocable. It would change the course of her life, and his, forever. He laid her on the bed and stood above her.
"You must be certain, Thea. We can still turn back."
She met his gaze, hers unflinching. "I do not want to stop. Please, Drake."
That final plea decided him. "I don't either."
He lay down next to her on the narrow bunk. There was barely room for him, and their entire bodies touched from where the side of her breast pressed against his chest to her legs that moved restlessly against his own.
He forced himself into complete stillness. He wanted to savor the feel of her naked body against his. She belonged to him, and when they finally came together, she would know it.
She said his name in impatient demand. He smiled. "Yes?"
He thought to tease her a little, to heighten the tension. She forestalled him by pulling his head down for a passionate kiss. He gave in to the emotion pulsing through him and kissed her back with all his pent-up desire made huge by wanting. Thea moved her hands over him with reckless abandon. She touched him everywhere, and everywhere she touched felt like it was on fire. Her body moved restlessly against his.
He cupped her breast, delighting in the weight of the soft flesh against his palm. He squeezed. He pushed and pulled, almost drunk with the feel of her under his hand. She moaned, arching her back in a silent plea for more. He knew what she needed even if she did not. Bending his head, he opened his mouth over her already distended nipple.
She nearly came off the bed. "Drake."
He stopped suckling and looked up. Her eyes were wide and dark with need in her flushed face. "Pierson."
"What?" Her head tossed from side to side in frantic movement.
"We are making love, Thea. Call me Pierson."
"Pierson," she gasped, grabbing his head with frantic fingers and pressing his face into her breast. "Don't stop."
He smiled against the generous flesh. "Aye, aye, Little Captain."
She started to say something, but it turned into another long-drawn-out moan when he closed his mouth over her nipple once again. She rocked her hips and he could not resist sliding his hand down her rib cage, over the smooth skin of her belly, and into the nest of curls at her most feminine place.
She arched toward his hand even as she protested, "Surely you aren't supposed to touch me there."
He nearly strangled on a laugh. "Surely, I am."
"But, I thought…" Whatever she thought went unsaid as he dipped his fingers into the tight, wet passage.
She groaned. He slid his finger out and back in, loving the feel of her moist channel. This with Thea was something so unlike matings he had experienced before. Never had he felt this desire to please, this sense of oneness with a woman. He ached to bury himself inside her, but it had to be right. He would make this first time perfect for her, and then she would understand that she belonged to him.
"I didn't know it would be like this."
He smiled at the wonder in her voice. Exploring with his thumb, he found the small button he sought and rubbed it experimentally as he continued the movement of his finger sliding in and out of her rapidly swelling flesh.
Unbelievable pleasure spiraled through Thea as Drake's hand and mouth inflicted exquisite torture upon her body. She rocked her hips in a mindless attempt to assuage the burning ache he stoked with each thrust of his finger. "Please. Don't. Stop."
"Never."
He increased his tempo until she felt her entire body straining toward release. Remembering her other experiences in his arms, she could not credit how much more intense the sensation when his fingers touched her body skin to skin.