As the wind whipped by again, she returned her gaze to Phoenix. She screamed as he lost his grip and was blown free, his body dangling precariously by the rigging. He was suspended there as the wind flew by, and then his hold began to slip. Unable to watch, Olivia turned to Red and buried her face in his chest, her fists clutching handfuls of his filthy shirt. No one could long survive being battered against the mast like a flag.
'Damned stupid fool!' she cried into the pirate's chest as the men on deck scrambled into action.
It was unreasonable, this horrid fear that clawed at her vitals and tortured her mind. Phoenix was a stranger of only hours' acquaintance. But they'd been intimate. He'd touched her in ways she'd never touched herself. He'd made her feel reckless and wild. She'd felt alive-
Warm hands gripped her shoulders and turned her, pressing her face into salt-flavored bare skin. 'Hush, love,' Phoenix's deep voice purred in her ear, his warm breath fanning across her neck, his hair blowing around them.
Olivia sank into him with relief. Her fingers clawed at his back, pulling him closer. 'You bloody idiot!' she scolded.
He chuckled. 'Don't swear, sweetheart. I'm fine.'
She pulled back and slapped his chest with a smack that tingled her palm. 'You won't be when I've finished with you! Are you
It was then that she saw his arm, bleeding and chafed raw from the coarse rope that had saved his life. 'Oh… look at your arm.' Her hands went to the injury, and her eyes flew up to his.
'It's nothing,' he said dismissively, absently rubbing the spot where she'd hit him.
Maggie leaned over. 'I can make my grandmother's healing tea. It'll take a bit to cook up, but it works miracles.'
'Yes, do that.' Olivia returned her gaze to Phoenix as the abigail moved away. 'I have some salve to put on this. Return to the cabin and allow me to tend it.'
The blue of his eyes darkened. 'I suppose you'll insist, and threaten me with some weapon or another.'
'If I have to.'
He offered a mocking half-bow. 'After you.'
Clutching her bodice, Olivia hurried down to the cabin, willing her heartbeat to slow. Her entire face was marked with his scent. Salty and spicy, it was a richly masculine smell of hardworking male and pure Phoenix. Every breath she took was redolent of the faint traces of his cologne and his unique fragrance.
She threw open the door and rushed to the smallest of her trunks, all the while agonizingly aware of his presence behind her. Delving around, Olivia found the small jar of medicinal salve and straightened, turning to face her pirate captor. He stood just inside the closed doorway, watching her intently, his hands fisted at his sides. The room drew in, shrinking, until there was nothing but Phoenix and her and the powerful attraction between them.
'Come closer,' she urged.
His brows drew together as his gaze dropped. Olivia followed it, catching sight of her gaping bodice offering him an unhindered view of her breasts. She hastily covered herself, embarrassment heating her cheeks. His face was hard, his body as still as stone, a statue of a god rendered in flesh and bone.
Turning her back to him, she set the salve jar atop her trunk and retrieved the shirt he had given her earlier. 'If you rub that into your-'
She stumbled into silence when he appeared at her side.
How a man as large as Phoenix could move with such stealth she couldn't fathom. He stood behind her, so close she could feel the heat of his skin and the warmth of his breath as it gusted across her shoulder in unsteady measure. He tugged the shirt from her hands and tossed it away. Wordlessly, he reached for the jar and opened it, scooping up a small amount of the salve. Olivia watched unmoving, arrested by his proximity, as he set the jar aside and picked up her hands. He began to rub the salve into her chafed wrists, his touch strong yet gentle and soothing. The moan that rose in her throat escaped without thought.
'You like my touch,' he whispered hoarsely, 'don't you?'
Helplessly, she lifted her face and stared into his eyes. She swallowed hard. 'It burns.'
Phoenix nodded, his gaze knowing. 'Offer me your mouth.' Although his voice was soft, there was no mistaking the command.
Caught in his spell, Olivia's lips parted as his head dropped to hers. At the first contact, her knees went weak. She would have fallen if he hadn't drawn her close. Her senses flooded with his taste, her body softening instinctively for his. His head slanted, finding the perfect fit, and his tortured groan made her dizzy.
Arms around her waist, Phoenix lifted her feet from the floor and carried her to the small corner table. He kicked the chair aside and laid her on the polished surface. Following her down, his mouth never left hers, his tongue sweeping inside with caressing licks.
He gripped the torn edges of her gown, and with a harsh, impatient tug, he ripped the garment and the chemise below it to the waist. His hands went immediately to her aching breasts, plucking the tips, twisting them, the way he must have sensed she desired. Her sex flooded with moisture. He was ravishing her, pillaging and plundering, and it was just what she wanted him to do, what she'd wanted him to do since he'd first come onto her ship.
Olivia moaned into his mouth. 'What are you doing to me?'
'What are you doing to me?' he retorted harshly. 'Only hours I've known you, and already you drive me to madness.' He nuzzled her throat, then blazed a burning trail of open mouthed kisses to her breasts. 'I want to devour you, fill you with my cock, ruin you.'
'Phoenix…' She shied away from the tumultuous sensations that were entirely new to her, but she could not escape him. The pirate held her pinned, his hard body pressed between her spread legs. He sucked a straining nipple into his hungry mouth, the combined effect of his tongue strokes and the rhythmic pulling causing her to grip his hair convulsively. Unable to help herself, Olivia arched upward and rubbed herself against the straining length of his erection. Pleasure speared through her, hot and searing. Stunned, she sank back onto the table.
'No,' he ordered around her breast. 'Don't stop…' He ground his cock into her, moving his attentions to her other breast, and Olivia moaned loudly, her body on fire. Phoenix pulled back far enough to push the volume of her skirts out of the way. His hand brushed the damp curls of her sex, and he stilled.
His gaze moved to hers as he slid a long finger through the slickness of her desire and parted the soft folds. He circled and rubbed the tiny spot where she ached, causing her back to arch on a startled cry and moisture to flood his hand. Groaning, he eased inside her. She murmured a faint protest, but her hips lifted of their own accord, pushing into the wicked invasion.
'You're so hot, so tight.' His finger slid in to the base. With his free hand, he lifted her leg until her slippered foot rested on the surface of the table. Then he pushed her knee outward, completely opening her to his gaze. He stared at her sex and withdrew his finger. Olivia watched, fascinated, as he brought his hand to his mouth and sucked his finger inside. 'Ummm,' he purred, the sound deeply sexual.
He lifted and spread her other leg as he had the first. She flushed, knowing she looked wanton, her gown ruined, her breasts exposed and damp from his mouth, her sex open and glistening with her lust for him.
Phoenix brought both hands between her legs-one spreading the sheltering lips while the other slipped the long, calloused finger back inside her. He began to pump in and out, his gaze arrested by the sight. Her hands gripped the rounded edges of the table, her lower lip caught in her teeth, as she struggled to remain silent. She wanted to cry out, to scream. It felt so wonderful she could hardly bear it. Tension built, coiling in her stomach and shooting outward in hot waves. She didn't understand it, but her body knew, her hips lifting in counterpoint to his movements.
She was so wet, so wild, for him, Olivia could hear the sucking sounds of her body as it tried to hold the plunging finger within her. And then there was more of him inside her-two fingers, drenched in her cream, thrusting in and out. She released her lip and cried out, her body shuddering.
'Please…' she begged, but she didn't know for what.
'Feels good, doesn't it?' he growled. 'The feel of me inside you. You'd like my cock, wouldn't you, sweet? Stretching you, filling the emptiness that my fingers cannot.'
His intense blue eyes remained locked on the place where he claimed her, as he slowly slid down her body, his skilled fingers never ceasing their torment. He licked his lips, and his scandalous intent became apparent. 'No,' she whispered in protest.
