He demonstrated a lightning fast blow.
Silence looked at him dubiously. “I’m not that quick.”
“Ye will be with practice,” he said. “Tomorrow I’ll bring back padded jackets and ye can learn how to use the knife on me.”
She raised her eyebrows. “You want me to stab you with a knife?”
“Aye,” he said seriously. “Ye need to know how to kill a man.”
She shook her head, folding her arms. She felt cold. “Even if you show me how, I won’t ever do that.”
He set his lips. “Then maim him. Thrust for the eyes, the throat, and the belly. That’ll back off even the most insane o’ men.”
She shivered. Was the Vicar insane? She supposed he must be to pursue Michael so blindly. To send someone to kill a woman with vitriol. If it meant protecting Mary Darling from such a beast, she would learn how to wield a knife.
“Here,” Michael said, offering her the knife. “Feel the weight. That’s Spanish, that is, made by a fine swordsmith.”
She didn’t ask where he’d gotten the deadly little knife. She took the dagger and saw that it was rather pretty. The blade had been engraved with flowers of all things. The hilt was curved and fitted her palm perfectly. She weighed it. The dagger was heavy for its size.
Michael stood in back of her and wrapped his right arm around her to hold her hand and show her how to thrust the dagger. With his left he held her by the waist and prompted her movements. After several minutes Silence was panting, but Michael was not even breathing hard.
“Ye can keep it in a pocket under yer skirts or in yer garter,” he said.
Silence wrinkled her nose. “Won’t it rub?”
His eyelids drooped. “It’d better not. I wouldn’t want yer tender skin chafed for the world.”
She turned in his arms, the dagger falling to the floor, and looked up at him. His black eyes were weary and she could see worry for her in his face. The blue-black stubble of his beard shadowed his jaw and his wide, sensuous lips were slightly parted. She reached up to stroke through his hair, feeling the locks curling around her fingers in welcome. He hadn’t told her what his business was in London, but she knew by his refusal to answer her question that it was something to do with his pirating—something dangerous. What if he were wounded—or worse, killed tonight? She might never see him again.
The thought sent an awful tremor through her belly. A world without Michael in it would be utterly dismal. Even if she lived apart from him, she wanted—always—to know that he was somewhere.
She stood on tiptoe and brushed her lips over his warm mouth, tasting the wine they’d drunk at dinner.
She heard him mutter a curse, then he was sweeping her into his arms and carrying her to the bed, placing her gently there.
“Why?” he whispered as he leaned over her, supported on one arm. “Why must ye be the one that haunts me dreams? I’ve seen ye weepin’ night after bloody night since the day I sent ye from me palace with yer dress half undone. If I had it to do over again, I’d cut me own right hand off rather than hurt ye so. Will ye never be able to forgive me, Silence love?”
“I already have,” she replied, cradling his cheek in her hand. “Long, long ago.”
And it was true. She understood now the man he’d been that day—and the man he was today. The two men were the same—her Michael, cruel and gentle, autocratic and kind. If she loved him for his best parts, then she must in some way love him for his worst as well.
“Darlin’.” He skimmed his warm lips over her cheekbone, down to her jaw.
“Michael,” she whispered, longing, hoping. “Can you not—?”
“Hush.” He turned his head, laying his cheek against hers. “Let us not argue.”
She swallowed past the thickness in her throat. They’d already been over this at dinner and come to an impasse: he refused to give up his pirating. There was no more to say on the matter—he was right: discussing it now would only lead to an argument and she didn’t want that just before he went into danger.
So she smiled—or tried to at least, with lips that trembled—and stroked her fingers through his beautiful hair. “Will you lie with me, Michael O’Connor?”
He rose to look at her and she thought she saw something close to love in his black eyes. “If I were at death’s door I’d stand and come to you.”
She’d love this man for the rest of her life. Silence sat up and drew her chemise over her head, baring herself entirely to him. Then she lay down and opened her arms. “Come to me then.”
He needed no further urging. He took her mouth like the marauding pirate he was. She opened gladly, accepting him, catching his tongue and sucking it. He growled and laid himself flat on her, pinning her to the bed. The feel of his coat and breeches against her bare skin was exotic. She wriggled a little, enjoying the friction on her thighs and belly, trying to push the coming sorrow from her mind. She couldn’t change him, after all, only Michael himself could do that. If he refused to act, then she must accept that fact.
Accept and try to recover from the grief.
But he was moving lower now, going from one nipple to the other, licking and gently biting. She grasped the sheets in her hands, gasping at his fierce lovemaking.
“Spread yer legs for me now, sweetin’,” he rasped as he sat back on his knees to unfasten his fall.
She complied, widening her thighs, watching him prepare himself for her.
He palmed his thick erection. “Will ye be wantin’ this now, madam?”
“Yes, please,” she whispered. She wanted to engrave the sight of him thus, about to make love to her, in her mind.
He nodded and taking her by the hips pulled her toward him. He settled her bottom in his lap and pushed the tip of his cock down to rub at her entrance.
She whimpered from the pleasure, the anticipation of what was coming next: joining her body with Michael’s. Submitting to him.
Slowly, slowly he inserted himself in her. The angle was extreme, but because of it, his penis seemed to slide against something sensitive inside her. She felt herself already beginning to break apart—and he wasn’t even all the way in.
“Is it sweet, m’darlin’?” he asked, panting.
She only sighed an answer—the act of speaking seemed too difficult.
Suddenly he was over her, his weight pressing her into the mattress, his cock sinking to the hilt in her. He was over her, in her, powerful and male. “Answer, m’love. Is it what ye want?”