Page 76 of Barbarous

Her lips parted. “I believe you’re frightened of her.”

“You’re bloody right I am.” He gave her a gentle push. “You go in first. I shouldn’t be surprised if the old gorgon is lying in wait to catch me defiling you.”

She gave a low, delighted laugh and shook her head, but opened the door and disappeared inside.

Hugh had to wait only a few seconds before the door swung open.

“Ahoy, Captain Standish! The coast is clear,” she said in a stage whisper.

“Ha. How droll you are.” Hugh stepped inside and closed and locked the door before turning to her. She wore a smile he’d never seen before: saucy, erotic, teasing.

“And just what do you find so amusing, my lady?”

“You.”

Hugh yanked her close and held her tight. “Is that so?” he murmured against her temple, burying his nose in her hair and inhaling until he was dizzy.

She made a sound suspiciously like a giggle. “What would the world say if they knew the fearsome One-Eyed Standish was cowed by a lady’s maid?”

Hugh nibbled her jaw, which he decided was his new hobby. “I will deny it to my last breath.”

Her hands slid around his neck and she pulled him down, pressing her mouth over his. Hugh stood unmoving under her exploration, his body vibrating with want beneath the tentative probing of her tongue, surely the most erotic experience of his life—until she latched on to his tongue and sucked it into her mouth. He groaned; languages didn’t seem to be the only thing she learned quickly.

Just when Hugh believed he could not bear another second of suggestive sucking without throwing her onto the bed and plowing into her—she released his tongue.

But she wasn’t finished.

She lightly dragged the very tip over his lips, as if drawing his features, leaving a searing trail of heat as she kissed and licked and nipped her way up his scar, pulling his head lower and feathering the torn, tender skin with the lightest of kisses. Before Hugh knew what she was doing she’d untied the ends of the strap that held the patch over his eye.

He moved to grab it, but she flung it away and then clutched his face in both hands and pulled him lower.

“I want all of you.”

He hadn’t believed he could become any harder; he’d been wrong.

Her lips were already dropping kisses around the damaged skin around his eye, as if to claim the territory as her own. Air moved over his sightless orb, the sensation making him feel strangely naked and vulnerable. So he closed both eyes and gave himself up to her exploration, which stalled at his temple, where the line disappeared into his hair.

“Mm, you smell so good,” she murmured, her nose pressing against his scalp. “I smell mint and something else . . . something sharp and spicy I cannot place.”

“It is bergamot in my shaving soap. That old woman Kemal makes it for me, swearing it will protect me from bad spirits,” he laughed. “If you like it, I will bathe in it for you.” He all but purred as her hands moved from his hair to massage the rigid muscles of his neck while pulling him lower and lower, until he was almost bent double. He gritted his teeth and pulled away before straightening his back. Slowly.

“Hugh?” Her eyes were blue pools rippling with reproach—and lust.

“I’m an old man, darling. You must take care not to break me.”

She snorted and he reached behind her, grabbed several cushions, and piled them up.

And just because he knew it would ruffle her feathers, he ordered, “Now lie back like a good girl.”

She gave him a dangerous stare but complied.

Hugh took a step back to admire her. Her expression was sulky as she pulled her legs onto the bed, folding them demurely to one side, the silk gown molding to her body. Her eyes glared up at him in a slightly out-of-focus way. Her lips, lush and pink in general, were now deep red and swollen from tormenting him.

He fiercely wished he had two eyes to drink her in. Which made him remember something.

“Where are your spectacles?”

She shrugged. “I can see.”