The Devil's Luck Ch. 04

"Mr Till tells me you were reading The Storm," he tried again to engage her, silently thanking his friend for this bit of information he could use to do so.

"Did he?" she asked, sounding polite, but possibly reluctant to take his conversational bait.

"He did. Tell me, Mrs Collingwood, what did you think of it? Is Mr Defoe not a brilliant writer?"

"I suppose he is, Captain. I suppose he is that..." she trailed off, something else clearly on her mind.

"You didn't enjoy his account of the events, then?" he pressed her, wanting to root out what had put that faraway look on her face.

"'Enjoy' might not be the word I would use, Captain. The man can certainly paint a picture with his pen, there's no doubt. Were you raised in England, Captain?" she asked, turning to face him, her question surprising him.

"No. Jamaica. Can you not see how the island colonies have corrupted my morals?" he tried to jest with her in hopes of drawing her out of the sombre mood she seemed to be in. He was rewarded with a wry half-smile from her and a short, bitter laugh.

"Yes. Well. I was brought up there, Captain Blackburn. I weathered that storm myself." Her eyes grew distant again and he wondered what sorts of horrible memories had caught her up. Watching her face draw ever so subtly tighter as she no doubt recalled her experience with the disaster, Edmund was overcome by the desire to prevent her from ever feeling such pain again. A face like hers should not have to look this way.

"Mr Defoe, I'm sure, is a talented man," she continued, her voice softer now, "but there are simply no words to describe what happened that day. Not from any tongue of man, at any rate."

He was losing her into the memory of the terrible event. This was not unfolding as he'd hoped. More importantly, he was losing himself while he watched and listened to her there, and to a debilitating set of emotions he did not want to name, even in his most secret thoughts. He needed to resurrect this situation before it was irretrievable.

Edmund reached up and ran the back of his hand gently along her forearm where it rested on the railing and she turned her head to meet his eyes at the touch.

"There are other things, Mrs Collingwood, which no words can describe." As the statement left his mouth he realised that it had not been merely a clever line to win her affection.

The pain drained out of her face now and her pale blue eyes held his, searching. He had not taken his hand from her arm and he turned his palm over to rest his fingertips there. Emotions played out over her features, competing for mastery of her. Edmund thought he saw fear, but also disbelief, and possibly something else? Hope, perhaps?

She turned away from the gunwale to face him bodily, her arm pulling away from his touch in the process. Still silent, she stared up at him now with as much uncertainty on her face as was coursing through him at that very moment. If he wasn't exceedingly careful, he could ruin this.

He stepped deliberately into her space, trying not to frighten her with any sudden moves, as though she were some skittish animal. The distance between them mirrored the tantalizing proximity she didn't even know they'd shared last night in his bed. He saw that her breasts were rising and falling with the quickness of her breath, but she did not step away.

Edmund wanted her acceptance like nothing he'd wanted in a very long time. He could no longer hold himself back.

She still did not shrink away when he slid his left arm around her waist to pull her the rest of the way to him. His own heart was racing as if he were some nervous boy. Dare he risk a second kiss now? Perhaps one that wouldn't end in biting and punishments?

"Hannah," he breathed her name like a promise, inclining his head ever so slightly, not pushing himself on her, but making his unspoken request clear.

Her unblinking gaze went on for a maddening length of time and Edmund was nearly ready to give up on the whole affair as a failure, but in a move that spoke of a hard fought decision, she raised herself up on her toes and accepted his silent offer by placing her lips on his.

For a moment he was frozen in place, almost unsure what to do now that she was granting his wish. Desire overcame fear, though, in a warm rush, and he melted into tasting her the way he'd wanted to the first time.

He'd only put the one arm around her at first, giving her a route of escape if she'd truly wanted to flee, but now that she'd granted him some level of permission he circled his other arm 'round as well, pulling her against him in a fast embrace.

The kiss was exquisite; better than he'd hoped. She was no longer timid and met the strokes of his tongue with the heat of her own. They ranged all over the map of the lover's art, one moment fevered and desperate for mastery, the next in languid exploration. Her hands had slipped inside his coat to press against his back through his shirt and she moaned into his mouth as they savoured each other.

She broke off the kiss and for a second he panicked, but to his pleasant surprise she pressed her lips up under his jaw, nudging his face upward with a nod of her head. Edmund felt her chin work against him as she made her way along the column of his neck with her mouth. A nip of her teeth made the blood surge to his cock and a low groan rise up in his throat.

Bloody hell, who is this woman? What did Benjamin do to her?

The astonished questions in his head, he found, deserved further serious consideration, when she didn't slow down at setting her lips to his throat, but slid her two hands down to clutch at his backside, grinding the two of them together at the hips. He could barely contain his surprise at her brazen actions, and he knew she could feel his throbbing response through his breeches. A silly hope flitted through his mind that she might be pleased with the size and feel of his lust.

There was no holding himself back. His hands were at her shoulders, her hair, skimming over the tops of her breasts. Their mouths came together again and they devoured each other, the desperate pull of her lips and teeth driving his hunger for her to a tremulous pitch. She whimpered with need at the dangerous edge she'd brought them to teeter upon and he knew that if there was ever a time to gamble that this was it.

He gripped her by the waist and spun her to face the gunwale, pressing the length of his body against hers. There might be a man or two on watch, but Edmund didn't care who saw him just then. The graceful arch of her neck was bent to the side under his mouth and she pushed her firm little bottom against his erection, challenging him to take what he wanted.

"Please," she rasped, her appeal to him unnecessary. His fingers were already frantically gathering up the back of her skirts, and groping to free his aching length into the open air.

He couldn't imagine stopping himself now, but he wanted to be completely certain of her choice.

"Hannah...shall we?" his question came thick and urgent, positive that he would expire on the spot if she denied him now.

"No!"

"No?" He couldn't believe her sudden refusal. The entire careening carriage of his libido had just been overturned in the roadway.

"I mean...please, Captain," she struggled between his body and the railing, her breath coming short, "not here. Not where everyone on watch can see. Can we not share this below? The two of us alone?"

Edmund was a hair's breadth from ploughing ahead anyway, so high burned the inferno of his lust at that moment. The sincerity he heard in her simple plea, however, pulled him just enough out of the bonfire to realise that if he did so he would undo everything he'd earned thus far.

Grabbing her hand up in his, he turned and all but flew back over the deck the way he'd come in great, purposeful strides, pulling Hannah along behind. The poor woman nearly had to run to match his pace, and he thought he might have heard a feminine giggle bounce out of her as she stumbled behind him along the way. The inversion was not lost on him between the way he'd dragged her naked up onto the deck before to do something horrible to her, versus the way he was tugging her, fully clothed, back below decks now to try something wonderful instead.

No sooner than they had made it down the few steps into the council room and he'd slammed the door to the upper deck shut in haste, then he had her pinned again, the same as before, between his body and the room's long central table. His stateroom was simply a dozen paces too far: he needed her now.

Fabric was rucked up under his hands, air from both their lungs could be heard hurrying in and out, and once more they were at the precipice, and now out of sight of the crew.

"Now, Hannah?" he pressed her again, desperate for her assent.

"Yes! Please...yes," her hoarse permission was the last sign he needed.

Edmund slid himself down between the silken curves of her bottom and bit back a loud groan when he found the wet mess she'd become with the head of his shaft. His lovely widow clearly wanted him as badly as he wanted her. Angling his cock to meet her entrance he gave a firm upward thrust and was encased in the slick grip of Hannah Collingwood once again.

With a gasp at the force of his entry she quickly tilted her hips up to better accommodate him and he lapped up her acceptance with long, deliberate strokes. It didn't matter now why she'd changed her mind about him, only that she had. One hand at her waist and the other curled up under her arm to grip her shoulder, he pushed up into her again and again, greedy for her noises of pleasure, her willing embrace.

They worked together there in the darkened council chamber, the sturdy surface of the table helping to force their bodies together at the hip. Edmund was soaring in triumph at the way she relaxed her weight against him, his wildest hopes for the evening surpassed by her unbridled surrender to her desires.

Their motions became shorter, quicker, each straining toward the infinite. She covered his hand at her shoulder with hers, the fingers of her other hand circling behind his neck as she lay her head on his shoulder. Her jaw was slack, lost as she was in sensation, and her throat moved in wordless plea. She was so, so beautiful this way and he knew the image of her like this would be burned for ever into his memory no matter what became of the two of them in the end.

Liquid heat clenched around his cock and he knew she was just as close as he. So very, very close.

"Captain...yes, God!" her urgent whispers set him aflame, but he felt the tiniest distance in the remnants of her formal address.

"We're beyond that now, aren't we Hannah?" he ground out between his teeth. So close, so close. "Use my name if it pleases you."

"Edmund!" she cried out then, and loud enough that someone would probably hear, even from outside the room. "Edmund, please!"

It was all he needed.

He reached the peak of his firmness in that last painful moment before he came, his flesh so sensitive it almost hurt. Finally, surging over the walls of completion with an intense but muffled growl, he set his teeth against her shoulder to help conceal his sounds of sweet release.

Hannah mumbled nonsense into his ear, working through her own shuddering climax while he pumped his hot seed into her, joining the both of them together in joyful oblivion. Nothing mattered at the moment but this. Nothing.

The height of their passions subsided, but he still pushed into her with lazy strokes, hoping to prolong the blinding pleasure of their union for a moment or two longer.

She craned her neck to the side to kiss him and before her eyes closed in bliss she caught him in a heartbreaking gaze.

Despite all he'd done to her, Hannah Collingwood wanted him, and did so with reckless abandon. Edmund thrilled at this turn of events, wallowing in her favour. His happiness needed to overtake him now, if it were to push down the nagging thoughts of what would happen once she discovered his plans for her uncle. He would delay that revelation for as long as humanly possible, and soak up the approval she'd given him, for whatever time he could.

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