'Oh, my God,' she moaned, making his breaths come rough. He'd begun grinding against the bed.
He spread her flesh, took her clitoris with his tongue and lips, then slowly suckled her. 'Yes,' she cried, arching her back, rocking her hips to his mouth. 'Ah, Ethan…'
As she began to climax, she moaned his name again and again, making him certain he was dreaming—no man could know this much pleasure. When he'd suckled her spent, her legs trembled around his shoulders and neck.
He released her, moving up to take her place, but she clutched his chest, rubbing her face against his neck. She whispered in his ear, 'I love the things you do to me,' making his chest swell with pride and his erection pulse unbearably beneath her.
Then she kissed down his body, her hair trailing down his heated, sensitive skin. He yelled out when her hot little mouth closed over him. Wet, sucking, hungry…
He growled, 'That's my good lass. Nice and deep.' Disbelieving, lost, he struggled not to clench her head to hold her while he thrust. She was taking him greedily, moaning around his shaft. It was as if he were an outsider looking in as she had a love affair with his cock—she adored him with her tongue, consuming him with licks and tender kisses.
The experience was mind-boggling. She worked his flesh lovingly, yet wantonly, mystifying him. But when she was about to bring him to come in her mouth, and he felt himself on the verge of losing control completely, he gave a defeated groan and pulled her away.
'Ethan?' she asked, her tone dazed when he drew her up to his chest. 'Am I doing it wrong?'
'No, no. I just doona want tae do anythin'…tae make you shy with this.' Feeling wicked, his cock about to explode, he looped an arm around her neck and kissed her.
As he teased her with her taste, he began to handle his shaft. 'A particular favorite,' he said against her lips, 'want you tae love it as I do.' He stroked harder, his other hand palming her arse. He broke away to ask, 'Do you want tae watch me?'
Wide-eyed, she nodded, and he eased his grip around her neck so she could look down at his fist pumping furiously.
Her eyes on him only aroused him more. When he came, the force of his release was violent. He yelled out, and his back arched sharply, seed spurting up across his torso as she gaped.
Once he'd at last finished, they lay catching their breaths. Feeling overpoweringly satisfied, he held her for long moments, petting her hair. Damn, if she hadn'tenjoyed giving him a below job—yet another example of how well she fit with him.
He finally made himself rise and clean off, but when he returned, she cried, 'Oh, Ethan! Your injury is bleeding!'
He glanced down at his chest and shrugged.
'Come here, please.' She eased up on her knees and beckoned him. 'Let me check you.' When he returned to the bed, she sidled close to examine him. 'You didn't pull the stitches open, thank God. But it's bleeding more than I thought it would.'
As she rose to collect a wet towel, he tilted his head to stare, riveted by her pert arse. 'I dinna take you for the nurturing sort,' he said absently.
Towel in hand, she said, 'I will be with a man like you.'
'Like me?'
She climbed back into the bed with him. 'Yes, Scot, you're the dark horse I'm betting on.' She lovingly brushed his hair from his forehead, catching his gaze. 'You get all my extra sugar and apples.'
'What about servicing mares? I've one I want to be led to.'
'And I'm sure she wants to be covered by a virile stallion, but she needs to secure greener pastures for her future first.'
Even to himself, his tone sounded fascinated as he murmured, 'Daft, cheeky lass.'
She slid him that grin; he stared dumbly. All at once he understood why a man might go a little crazy over a woman.
Chapter Thirty
Asea squall had whipped up late in the night, and the ship was pitching.
'Tell me how you came to be in La Marais,' Ethan said, as if to take her mind off the storm. He was leaning up against the headboard, with her lying on his torso.
'What did Quin tell you?' Maddy asked, drawing back so she could see his face.
'That your father died in a duel and creditors seized your home. Your mother was French and took you back to Paris.'
She shrugged. 'That's about it, really.'
'No, it's no'. I want to know everything.'
'So you can have more ammunition to be mean to me?' she asked.
'No. I'm curious about you.'
'I'll tell you, but first you have to reveal something about yourself that I didn't know.'
He frowned. 'Like what?'
'Something about your past. A deep, dark secret.'
He seemed to be giving this a lot of thought, taking his time before answering, 'I used to think I was cursed.'
Her eyes widened. 'Truly?'
'Aye. There's a book that's been handed down in my family for centuries—it contains foretellings that have all come true. They have for my brothers and myself as well.'
She eyed him suspiciously. 'Are you jesting with me? Because I would never take you for superstitious.'
'O' course I'm superstitious—I'm bloodyScottish .'
'In any event, this doesn't sound like a deep, dark secret to me. I think it's adorable that someone as strong and powerful as you, with so much control over your destiny, has irrational beliefs.'
'Adorable?' he spat. 'And I suppose you doona have any irrational beliefs?'
'I do. Very much so. But then, I don't have a lot of control over my own destiny.'
They both fell silent.
She quickly reached up to touch his shoulder. 'Ethan, I didn't mean that I felt forced to come with you. I chose to. And I'm glad I did.'
His demeanor grew guarded. 'I've told you what I will, now it's your turn.'
'It's not a pretty tale,' she said. 'And I don't want to hurt your opinion of me.'
'What do you mean?'
'Brides from happy families make happy families. That was inGodey's , which is an irrefutable source.'
'It will no' hurt my opinion. Now tell me.'
'Do you want the long story or the cursory one?' she asked.
'Tell me everything.'
She took a deep breath and began, 'Well, contrary to what everyone thinks, my life didn't fall apart on the day of my father's death. It was on a night six months before that.'
A night of secrets and fury that she had never been able to understand.
'It was all so dreamlike, Ethan.' Lightning crackled just outside the ship, and she shivered. 'I went to sleep safe and secure, and I woke into a different life, a foreign world filled with strangers. It's hard to explain.'
He rubbed her arm with his big scratchy palm. 'Try.'
'I've struggled for years to put together what occurred that night.' Her brows drew together as memories assailed her. 'The first thing I noticed when I woke was how jumpy the servants were. They peered at me as if to gauge what I knew of the night before. Finally, I learned that two of our family's most trusted servants had been fired—my father's right-hand man and my mother's maid and confidante.' She trailed off, studying his expression. 'Are you going to ridicule everything I'm about to tell you?'
