“Oh captain, my captain, you still know how to pleasure a woman,” the queen crooned.
Captain? Had she truly said captain? Was it Noir who’d pleasured the queen? Faryn’s eyes widened as her gaze roved over the man whose face was turned away. The dark hair matched his but truly that was all she could recognize, for she’d only ever seen him clothed, and this man…was most definitely not clothed.
But then she saw him, standing across the room. Captain Noir. He was not the one who’d been with the queen after all. His low voice rumbled as he spoke. The black cape and linen shirt he wore had been removed, and his back was to her.
His shoulders and arms rippled with muscle. His back bulged and flexed as he moved, and the way he stood, she imagined as no lady should, that beneath the tight breeches the most beautiful, muscular, round, hard halves of a male’s buttocks were waiting to be discovered. He could have been forged from one of the many godly statues and paintings she’d gazed on. His legs were long, lithe, and strong.
She swallowed hard, belly quivering.
Captain Noir was more than a man. And that was only her impression from seeing him from behind. If he were to turn around… If he were to stand before her and she could see his chest…
Her heart pounded. Her breaths were shallow. Her mouth was suddenly dry. She wouldn’t mind at all if Noir, this god were to do the same to her that the other captain had done to the queen.
Was there room to hope? If the queen were insistent that Faryn’s virgin’s blood be taken… Could it be…? Could he be the one to see to the ghastly farce of bedding her before one and all?
She shook her head, as if doing such a thing would force her thoughts to flit away. There was no hope in this place. Only hedonistic torment it would seem. Besides, she couldn’t think of enjoying his body, not when he’d be taking what belonged to her betrothed. Not when she was a lady who shouldn’t want him. When she shouldn’t desire the pleasure that tingled just beneath the surface of her conscience.
’Twas this place. It was getting into her head.
Aye, she couldn’t think of garnering pleasure from this pirate. Nay! She should be outraged. Yet, she was not. If anything, her blood heated. The place between her legs thrummed with need. Ignoring all of her logical thoughts.
Indeed, she would secretly enjoy it if the captain were to climb atop her and thrust himself between her thighs.
She whimpered before realizing the noise had escaped her.
Noir turned from his companions then and, dark stormy eyes locked with hers. His gaze moved over her face, pausing at the lip she had tucked between her teeth down to her rapidly rising and falling chest. Her nipples tingled, already hard and begging for his mouth to clasp the flesh between his teeth, to lick and suckle her.
Her emotions must have flitted across her face, as the captain smiled at her in a devilish and inviting way. He slowly stalked to ward her, standing at the foot of the bed. The front of him was even more impressive than his back.
His chest and stomach were sculpted into ridges and valleys tapering down to his navel, where the sprinkling of his chest hair came to a line that led directly beneath his breeches.
“Welcome back, lass,” he said smoothly.
Faryn nodded, tugging at the ties.
Her body might have pulsed a tune of anxious anticipation but her mind screamed nay. She couldn’t allow this to happen. She had to stall for time. Time for her to figure out a way to escape. She tore her gaze from Noir’s magnificent body and stared at the impossibly high ceiling.
Tears pooled in her eyes again. She’d only been in Orelia’s lair for a few hours and already she was changing. Already her morals were leaving her. Everything she valued tossed to the wind. Everything she believed in—gone.
The mattress moved beneath her and from her peripheral vision she watched the queen stand and saunter toward the captain.
“You have one hour to prepare her for what is to happen. I will be most disappointed if she doesn’t open her legs for you willingly and equally disappointed if she doesn’t enjoy it.”
Faryn closed her eyes, though she couldn’t close her ears.
God help her, she would be ruined.
Yet, she didn’t have much choice. Be ruined, or forever a slave in this place.
Faryn chose ruined and free.
Chapter Four
Desire had filled the innocent depths of the Faryn’s eyes as she’d greedily taken in the sight of Wraith’s half-nude body. Just as quickly fear, anger and hurt had replaced it and she’d turned away.
He’d seen the calculation in Orelia’s eyes as she’d watched the interplay between them. She’d seen a way out of her bargain. A way to keep the girl, who he was sure she wanted for herself.
One hour.
Was one hour enough for him to convince the lass to be willing, to make her pleasure known? Noir was not at all in doubt he could give her pleasure, but asking a shy virgin to show it in front of others was a whole other difficulty.
He pulled on his shirt, hoping that by covering his naked chest he would be able to quell some of her fears, have her listen to and concentrate on his words.
She still stared up at the ceiling and now he could see moisture on her cheeks. She was crying. Pulling a thin sheet from a chest against the wall, he walked slowly forward and sat down on the bed beside her. Gently, he covered her with the sheet, and relief flooded him when she turned her gaze toward his, the hate gone from her eyes.
“Thank ye, but why did ye do that?” Her voice was small, and he hated that.
He hated that she was scared. That this woman who’d come at him with a flashing tongue could be cut down to something so small. Hated that when they’d raided Ireland, she’d been rounded up and tossed below decks. Hated that he’d not even bothered to see who had been taken, and only come to see her when she was being whipped at the mast nearly a month later. He wasn’t idiot enough to flatter himself that the would have rescued her for something better had he gone below to the slave hold to see their newly acquired flesh, but he liked to think he might have.
“Ye looked cold,” he murmured with a smile.
“Ye lie, Captain.” Her words were filled with mirth and accompanied by a small smile. “Ye seek to comfort me. But ye needna do such a thing. I know what I must do, and I promise I will do it. Ye shall have me, ye shall have my family’s coin. And I shall be free.”
More than her fear, he hated the fact that he would bed her only because she wanted freedom. He wanted her to desire him. He wanted her to beg him. But with a woman of her stature, her moral code, such a thing would be impossible without marriage. Marriage was not up for bargain.
But perhaps he could hint… and that would help to assuage her.
“Leannan,” he sighed. “I know ye to be of noble birth. And while a pirate may not be who ye’d thought would take away your most valued possession, it is so. If it pleases ye—”