Tension arose between them, but how oddly stimulating it was. Like the tug of his ship’s anchor rope, it captured her attention. Peculiar though it was, it made Maisie want to spar with him. “I am curious about you. It is a natural instinct, is it not?”
He shrugged. “Look all you want.”
When she met his gaze again, she did so with astonishment and curiosity.
“I intend to get my fill of looking at you during our voyage to Dundee,” he clarified. “It is only fair.” With that statement he set the dish of water on the floor. Turning to face her, he raised the damp cloth in his hand to her groin.
Maisie gasped aloud when she realized it was his intention to bathe her—down there, where she had been so recently plundered. She shot out her hand, intending to stop him, but he stayed it with his free one and continued his ministrations with the other.
“Lie back. I will see to this.” His eyes twinkled.
Maisie balked. “No!”
“I will enjoy the task, believe me,” he promised with a chuckle.
That only served to deepen her embarrassment. “You cannot do such a task.”
“Oh, but I can.”
Then the firm swipe of the cold cloth on her sensitive mound distracted her from her argument with him, making her cry out and squirm against the surface of his bed.
He laughed again, a low rumble in his chest that both teased and inflamed her.
A dribble of cool water ran down into her niche, arousing her. She squeezed her thighs tight together, mortified. “I can see to it myself,” she murmured, weak with sensation, racked with embarrassment.
He shook his head.
Did he know that bathing her would affect her this way?
After dabbing at her mound, he squeezed the bunched cloth between her locked thighs, prizing them open.
Pressing her head back into the mattress, Maisie covered her mouth with the back of her wrist. How delicious it felt, but how wrong. The two wildly conflicting reactions confused her, for they made her feel hot, lusty and liable to do something she regretted.
When she dared to look at Captain Cameron again
she could see he was indeed enjoying it. His mouth was pursed in a half smile, his eyelids lowered as he eased apart her legs and stroked the damp cloth over her inner thighs. Maisie whimpered when she realized he was looking directly at her splayed flesh. Every part of her was on display to him, and he was studying her intently. His expression was brooding, pleasured and intense. He clearly approved of what he saw.
The fact he was looking at her that way made her chest feel tight and breathless, as if a weight pressed down upon her. Yet it was pleasurable. Again she was astonished at the effect his intimacy had on her. Not only was she rapidly aroused once again, but she felt almost dizzy because of it.
Her mind flashed to what could have happened, how different proceedings would have been if it had been Cyrus who had deflowered her. It would have been awful, of that she was sure, because she could not think of him that way, even though it was what he wanted. In contrast, mating with Captain Roderick Cameron made her feel stronger in every way. She thanked nature for playing a part, for landing her in his charge, when all she had to offer was herself.
Much to her astonishment, she realized her legs shifted farther apart of their own accord, her body responding to him without censure. She covered her eyes with her hand, unable to bear witness. Control was gone, reason, too.
The captain only took advantage of her opening legs, pushing the cloth against her plump folds and then swiping it up and down. When her body arched, then fell supine, it was because he had extended a finger beneath the cloth and probed her entrance.
Clutching at the thin blanket that covered the mattress beneath her, she tried to calm herself. It was no good. His ministrations were about to make her lose her last vestige of self-control.
“Oh, please,” she begged, pleading for mercy.
“More?”
She shook her head, adamant. “No, I did not mean that.”
But it was too late. He was moving his finger inside her as if testing her.
Her spirit flared. “You embarrass me, sire, and I sense you are enjoying it!”
“You think so?” With his free hand he pinned her down at the collarbone, stemming the rise and fall of her torso, and then he glanced at her hips, still moving rhythmically in response to his touch.