Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

Helen awoke in the dim light pre-dawn light, to the sound of footsteps padding towards her bed.

Despite the late night and her exhaustion from the excitement of the evening, she had always been a light sleeper.

She lay still under the blankets, trying to keep her breath slow and even as a figure came to stand beside her bed.

"Helen," came that smooth, coaxing voice, and at once she knew the Captain had stolen into her rooms.

"What are you doing here?" she whispered, scandalised, drawing the covers up to her breast as the maddening man moved to sit on the edge of the bed.

He leaned down, his unshaven whiskers grazing her cheek as his mouth hovered beside her ear.

"You promised me one night, did you not? It is not yet dawn."

Helen sighed, but even she had to admit he was technically correct.

"Have you decided what to claim as your prize?" he asked, nipping her earlobe teasingly.

Immediately her blood started to sing, her traitorous flesh already warming at the memory of their risky tryst in the portrait hall.

"I thought you had requested a rematch?" she managed to whisper around the desire clawing its way up her throat.

"Ah, yes. I am glad you recall granting me my wish," he replied, nipping her earlobe playfully as he rose and stalked to the door of her room, the sound of the key turning in the lock making her press her thighs together in excitement.

Why had she not done something like this sooner?

It was… unnerving, how much she wanted him. Even though it had been mere hours since he had first taken her.

Starling returned to her side, clambering onto the bed and pulling steadily on the covers until they slipped from her fingers, falling to the floor in a whoosh.

He wore nothing but a loosely buttoned shirt and a pair of light lawn breeches, his broad, smooth chest exposed to her greedy eyes as he bowed over her.

Helen could see his face now, the light shining slightly brighter through the curtains. Starling looked as hungry as a wild beast, his eyes roving over her form as her nipples hardened into tight peaks beneath her shift under his inspection.

"Christ, look at you," he murmured, reaching out to tease his fingers over one nipple, making her arch on the sheets, then dipping his head to nuzzle his face against her belly, dragging his nose down over her navel and unerringly to the place between her thighs that burned with want for him.

Starling breathed deep against her mound, his nose nudging the nub hidden in her folds as he smothered himself between her shaking thighs.

With a groan he dragged himself free, his hands already skimming up her legs, urging them to open for him as he settled his shoulders between them.

Helen knew what was coming, of course, he intended to torment her as she had done to him, but the shock of his hot, hungry tongue lashing its way through her core still had her gasping for air, her throat tight with the cry of amazement she desperately tried to hold back.

"You taste exquisite," he breathed against her heated flesh, kissing his way across her inner thighs before diving back into her heat, exploring every inch of her with that wicked tongue as his fingers dug into her skin, holding her still for him as she thrashed and moaned on the bed.

Helen was lost, overcome. Her hands somehow found their way into the short, silky strands of his hair as she arched like a bow under the onslaught.

Starling growled possessively as she dragged her nails over his scalp, pressing closer, spearing his tongue into the well of her opening as his fingers spread her wide, then licking his way up to the bud of her pleasure and latching onto it with his lips, sucking lightly, then deeper, his tongue fluttering over the sensitive flesh in a way that made bright shards of light explode behind her eyelids.

A euphoria she had never felt before rushed from her core and out through her limbs, her entire body quaking as the pleasure built towards an impossible height, her body tensing for the fall that would surely destroy her.

Suddenly, his mouth left her, and Helen bucked on the sheets with a cry of dismay.

Starling crawled up her body, lifting her shift as he went, until he drew it up over her head and flung it away, lowering himself over her.

A smooth, hard ridge came to rest against her wanting flesh, and Helen realised the devil had opened his fall, his cock now nudging its way through the sensitive, slippery mess between her thighs as she panted and moaned, her legs closing greedily around his hips as his face rose above hers.

His smile was wicked as he gazed down at her, those blue eyes flashing as he dipped down to kiss his way along her jaw, teeth grazing her skin as she arched and clung to him.

"Tell me you want me," he groaned, rolling his hips so that the thick head of his crown nudged against her slick opening.

Helen turned her head and claimed his mouth with hers, tasting the tang of her pleasure on his lips even as they teased each other with their bodies. She tore the shirt from his body, her fingers nerveless with the need to feel the heat of his form without any barrier.

Oh God. Never had she felt this unhinged with desire, all shame or rational thought burned away in the wake of the feel of his skin against hers.

Her nipples scraped against the fine hair that covered his chest, her heart beating fiercely.

"I want you," she breathed, raking her nails down his spine and dipping her hands under the waistband of his breeches, feeling his buttocks flex beneath her palms as he shuddered.

"Say my name," he commanded, pulling back at the last moment, and Helen sobbed, his name rolling off her tongue like a plea for mercy.

"Colin," she cried, as he growled in approval and started to press forward, filling her, stretching her with heart-stopping perfection as her eyes fluttered closed in bliss.

She wrapped her legs around his hips, urging him deeper, but he resisted, slowly inching his way into her clasping heat as fierce, impatient need beat inside her with every thump of her heart.

Helen opened her eyes, looking straight up into his heated gaze as Starling cupped her face in one hand and pinned her to the bed with his weight, using his size to still the roll of her hips as he dragged himself torturously through her depths, sliding and grinding into her channel with maddeningly small pulses of his hips until she was gasping and whining with need.

Move. She needed him to move. To take her hard until this unbearable tension would finally explode and consume her whole.

"Please-" The entreaty escaped her lips before she could realise what she said.

But once the words were free, there was no stopping them.

"Please, please, please…" Her head thrashed on the pillow as she twisted below him.

Starling flashed her a grin that melted her insides, and he nipped at her lips, his hips surging forward with a kick that had her moaning in satisfaction, even as he pulled away again.

"Helen, do you want me to make you come?"

"Yes. Please," she cried, trying to lift her hips into his.

"Are you begging me?" he asked, his voice low and victorious.

The bastard.

"Yes." Her stubborn nature warring against her voracious desire.

"Yes, what?"

"Please, Colin. Please, make me come… I'm begging you."

He surged deep again, grinding the base of his cock roughly against her bud, and Helen felt wetness flood her core, molten heat boiling over with each fresh drive of his hips.

"You want me to fuck you, take you hard, just like this?"

The words skimmed over her skin like the touch of the devil himself, making her burn in places she had never experienced before.

Helen reached up and bit his lip in retaliation, making him hiss as she groaned against his lips.

"Fuck me, Starling… Colin. Please."

"Thank Christ," he rasped, ducking his head against her shoulder and driving into her with jagged, desperate pumps, his hips snapping against her with delicious jolts of pleasure as she raised herself eagerly to meet him.

Low, sobbing moans wrung themselves from her throat, and Helen clawed at his back.

She needed more.

With a growl, Starling pulled back, flipping Helen onto her side and pressing her upper thigh to the mattress, notching himself to her core and sinking once more into her greedy heat.

"What are you doing?" whimpered Helen, her eyelids fluttering as she felt him surge inside from this new and unknown angle.

"Watching my cock slide into you," he growled, moving faster, pinning her to the bed with those strong hands on her knee, her hip.

His eyes flicked to hers, devouring the passion etched on her face, then back to where she was spread for him. "Watching you take every inch as you moan for me."

At those words, Helen did moan, her breasts crushed to the sheets as she squirmed and arched to take him deeper.

His fingers slid over the slick flesh where he speared into her, then up towards a place no one had ever touched her.

"Colin," she mewled, tethering on some dangerous edge, as his thumb brushed against that secret place.

Sweat slicked her skin, legs tangled with his as they strained and surged together, a long desperate cry building in her lungs as the pressure between her thighs threatened to explode.

Starling covered her with his body, rolling her flat to the mattress as he shoved her legs apart and plundered between them with his hard length, ragged breath harsh against the damp hair curling at her nape.

"Scream for me, Helen," he groaned, his hips starting to lose their rhythm, grunts of pleasure rumbling against her back as he finally lost control.

The angle of his cock drove deep, rubbing against a place inside that tore through the final barrier of her defenses, pleasure surging and crashing, then rising again like a wild ocean swell. Leaving her breathless, her throat raw, his name a chant of exquisite relief as her crisis sucked her under and stole away every sense but the unbearable pleasure.

With a shout, Starling shuddered behind her, heat flooding her core as he pressed deep and held himself taut, head falling against her shoulder as he pulsed his release into her depths.

Finally, he rolled to the side, and Helen found herself splayed across the rumpled sheets, her body wracked by small shivers of delight in the aftermath of their lovemaking.

Starling leaned over her, pressing a light kiss to the back of her neck, his lips brushing down her spine.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, "I couldn't control myself at the end. Are you displeased?"

Helen vaguely felt the old pain of her childless state resurface, but she quickly brushed it aside.

"There is no need to worry, I am not able to bear children," she whispered against the pillow, keeping her eyes closed as his fingers explored her back softly.

Starling said nothing more, but his touch was a comfort. He didn't withdraw, as she had expected.

After a long moment, he pressed a hard kiss to her shoulder, falling back on the bed beside her.

"There, now I know one of your secrets," he said, a faint hint of a grin hovering around the edge of the words.

"What?" asked Helen, momentarily taken aback.

He pulled her towards him, dragging her closer to sprawl across his chest. Lifting her chin, he stared into her eyes, his own glinting with something soft, then sparkling with mischief.

"You secretly love it when I tell you what to do," he smirked.

Helen gasped, smacking him across the shoulder as her temper flared.

"What, you deny it?" he growled, pulling her closer, his mouth hovering over hers. "The way your body yielded to my every command begs to differ."

He plundered her mouth with his, telling her something, without words, that made her heart thump in her breast.

"You have me wild for you, did you know that?" he sighed, pulling away at last.

"You are absolutely insufferable," Helen sighed, curling up against him in defeat, her body warm and relaxed as he cradled her in his arms.

She dared not name the feelings that swirled within her in the wake of that kiss. The words that had followed.

"Helen," came his voice as if from far away, exhaustion claiming her swiftly. "There is something I would like to discuss with you…"

"Later," she whispered, pressing a kiss to the skin above his heart. "Much later."

And then, there was only sleep.