Page 20 of Breath From the Sea
The look of pure astonishment, followed by rage, that passed over Sweeney’s face made her heart skip a beat. She realized that she and Titus looked like lovers. Happy lovers at that, and she regretted having told him such a personal story, one that had brought a chuckle to them both. But she couldn’t help it. There was something about Titus that made her want to share. She opened up to him without thinking.
Even still, she wiped the smile from her face and gave her crew her most fearsome stare.
Titus walked her to the rails and she looked Sweeney right in his angry eyes when she said, “I’ll be up shortly. The captain and I have some business to deal with.”
Business. Everyone knew what that meant.
“Captain…” Sweeney drawled. “I must insist that a guard accompany ye.”
“That will not be necessary,” Antónia said, narrowing her eyes. There was no way in the vast blue sea she was going to allow one of her men to stand outside the door while Titus bedded her. “I assure ye all is well. Captain Graves has sworn to return me in one piece as soon as business is concluded.”
“One piece,” Sweeney drawled. “What about—”
But she cut him off before he could alert the whole ofThe Lionheartas to what the entire deal was. That was up to Titus. “All is as it should be.”
“Best keep your sails low and prepare your men to settle in,” Titus said. “Storms brewing and we’ll likely not be done for a few hours.”
Then he whirled around and started back towards the stairs, stopping abruptly, to turn to his men. “As you were! Grenville, you’ve got first watch.”
Silence followed them down the stairs and into the cabin. Titus placed her back on her feet and shut the door behind him.
“That went better than expected,” he said.
“What did ye expect? Mutiny?”
“Aye.”
“From your crew or mine?”
“’Haps both? Grenville certainly looks like he may shite himself. Pardon my language.”
“I’m a pirate, Graves, ye need not curb your tongue of vulgar words.” She unbuttoned the coat and tossed it over a chair. “Now, about our business. ’Twould be best if ye undressed, too.”
Titus grinned. “I insist you stop calling me Graves. My name is Titus, and if we’re to be intimate, than I want to hear my name on that luscious tongue of yours.”
“Titus,” she drawled, winking and walking toward his bed.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“To your bed?” She glanced over her shoulder, raised a brow, pausing in her steps.
He shook his head. “Oh, no love, it’s a business transaction. I want you on my desk where such things occur.”
Antónia flushed from head to toe. Brazen, he was. It was not lost on her how utterly perfect a lover he was for her. “I wholeheartedly agree, Gra—Titus.”
As she walked toward his desk, he shed his clothes until he, too, stood naked before her, all sinew and sensuality. His shoulders were as broad as she’d imagined. A sprinkle of dark hair dusted his muscular chest, coursing a path over a flat stomach straight down to his groin. And that… well, she’d not been with a man so endowed. Her insides twitched, and she hurried her pace toward the desk, eager to offer him her part of the bargain.
On her finger, the ring sparkled, and it felt hot around her flesh.
But before she could think more on that, Titus reached for her, lifting her up and setting her bottom down on the edge of his desk. He spread her thighs with his hips, one hand snaking around her waist to haul her up close and the other threading through her hair and tugging her head back so he could devour her mouth with his.
Titus left no inch of skin unexplored. No part of her untouched. Unkissed.
She melted into his embrace. Followed in his footsteps and kissed her way from his head to down to his knees. When they were both trembling uncontrollably with need, only then did he finally thrust inside her.
Antónia cried out, clutching to his shoulders, her legs clutched around his strong body. He surged inside her, over and over, never allowing her to catch her breath. Pleasure sparked bone-deep along every inch of her body. No lover compared.
And then, when she thought his lovemaking could get no better, she was falling apart, her body seizing and then bursting in waves of pleasure. “Oh, Titus!” she cried out, curling herself around him and riding the seas.
