Her touch was even more tantalizing than the first time he had felt her caress. Her kiss was far more flavorful than his favorite brandy, and the warmth of her inner heat as he brought their bodies together radiated clear through him. He could not even imagine another man ever finding the blissful happiness his reluctant bride provided in such abundance, and he was overjoyed that she had given him her word never to leave him. Basking in the afterglow of her loving, he knew whatever risks he had to take to keep her would be well worth it.
They had gone to bed earlier than was their usual custom, and when Eden realized Raven had not fallen asleep in her arms, she seized the opportunity to make the closeness they shared last far longer than it ever had. She slid her fingers through the crisp curls that covered his chest, and snuggled against him.
“Talk to me, Raven. I know so little about you. Won’t you please tell me something about yourself?”
Raven drew in a deep breath rather than react angrily to that request but he didn’t want to talk. All he wanted to do was hold her and pretend that she loved him. “Is that what Alex did? Did he keep you constantly entertained with amusing stories?”
That was exactly what Alex had done, but Eden did not want to compare the two men in her life. “I want to talk about you, not Alex. You’re my husband, but I don’t know you well. Can’t you think of something to tell me?”
With a perverse sense of pleasure, Raven rose up slightly and propped his head on his hand, but he kept Eden pulled close to his side. “All right, I’ll tell you a story if you insist I must.”
“Thank you.” Eden reached up to kiss him, for truly she was thrilled that he had agreed to confide in her.
“I told you I outgrew Alex’s clothes in my teens. I must have been six feet tall by the time I was thirteen. There are a great many advantages to having a man’s height at an early age, and I used them all.”
“To do what?” He’d made her too curious to keep still.
“Just hush and listen. When I was almost sixteen, Alex decided I ought to know about women so he took me to the most expensive brothel in Kingston.”
Now Eden was really intrigued. “That was when he was married to Eleanora, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, but he didn’t intend to avail himself of the services, he was just taking me there. Now are you going to be still and let me finish or not?”
“Yes, m’lord,” Eden replied through a burst of giggles.
Raven began to laugh too then. “The whole point of the story was, that when Alex took me to the brothel to introduce me to the pleasures of the flesh, every last woman in the place already knew me.”
Eden knew that was surely the most shockingly inappropriate story any man could ever tell his wife, but she was so amused by it she laughed right along with him. She was certain he had told her far more than he had intended to, for now she knew exactly what type of women the few he had admitted to knowing truly were.
“If you were that good a customer, you obviously resembled a grown man in more than height,” she remarked with her usual ready wit.
“I’ll not deny it,” Raven admitted through another burst of deep chuckles.
They had never shared such a relaxed mood, and Eden pressed for every advantage. “You promised to be faithful to me. I know the women in Kingston are going to miss you terribly. Will you miss them?”
Eager to make love to her again, Raven moved over her. “Tha
t’s entirely up to you,” he replied with a wide grin but his real answer flavored his kiss with a devotion Eden could never mistake. No other woman would ever take her place in either his bed or his heart, but he could not bring himself to put that promise into words until he was confident his love was returned in full measure.
While Nathan Sinclair did not board Raven’s ship again, the sight of the Southern Knight off the stern kept Eden’s spirits so high the remainder of the voyage passed swiftly for her. The crew, while still somewhat shy around her, had become friendly. She found it difficult to believe the kindness she had shown John Rawlings had changed their manner toward her so drastically, but she accepted their pleasant smiles without questioning what had prompted them.
The weather continued to be mild and the winds brisk, allowing them to make up the time they had lost during the storm. Unlike the gray-green Atlantic Ocean, the waters of the Caribbean were a dazzling sapphire blue that promised with every sparkling drop that Jamaica would indeed prove to be the paradise Alex had described.
That Eden had not once complained of their bargain left Raven slightly perplexed, but he enjoyed her ample affection too greatly to bring up the topic himself just to test her resolve. Once he had discovered how much he liked making her laugh, he had continued to tell her stories he had once thought unfit for her ears. After making love, she would lie in his arms listening to his hushed confessions until they had each laughed so hard tears came to their eyes. They would make love again, and when Raven fell asleep, he always knew Eden’s dreams would be as sweet as his own.
Alex had had a gift for telling the most trivial incident in an enormously entertaining fashion. Raven made no attempt to duplicate his late uncle’s style. Instead, he would merely relate one of the many ridiculous and sometimes dangerous incidents he had managed to survive unscathed. He had never regarded his life as being particularly amusing until Eden had asked to hear about it and then had reacted in such an appreciative fashion. That he could entertain her so easily continually amazed him, but best of all, he found the laughter they shared late at night brought a closeness that lasted all the following day.
That he would surely run out of stories eventually worried him, but he hoped by the time that happened they would be home and have enough to talk about without him having to describe his past. He was careful never to mention the days before he had come to live with Alex, for the stories he could tell about his childhood were all tragic rather than amusing ones.
“The entrance to the Rio Bueno is just ahead.” Raven handed Eden the spyglass so she could see it. “Kingston is on the opposite side of the island, but apparently the first Earl of Clairbourne to come here valued privacy more highly than companionship and chose the site of his plantation accordingly.”
Eden scanned the palm tree-lined coast for the mouth of the river. The beach was littered with palm fronds but the contrast of the rich green of the foliage, the sparkling white of the sand, and the startling blue of the sea was magnificent still.
“From the looks of the beach, they have had stormy weather here too.”
Raven took the spyglass when she offered it, then had to agree her observations were correct. “I’ve not seen a gale severe enough to uproot the palms, but you’re right about the amount of debris lying about.”
Raven was obviously concerned, and Eden stepped close and took his arm. “A few palm fronds doesn’t mean your home was damaged.”