Seduced: The Scandalous Virgin Read Online Free Page B

single kiss he’d pressed upon them? The mere thought of him made her breasts and thighs ache for his touch.
    As Genia sat in a quiet corner of the roundhouse, rain lashed against the bank of windows that ran along the stern of the ship and heavy seas buffeted the Hartwell. Just as Blade had predicted, the storm had kept them cooped up in the roundhouse, unable to indulge their desires with even a hot, fleeting kiss. Genia felt like an oil-soaked rag that might burst into flame at the tiniest spark.
    â€œYou seem very subdued, Miss Vernon.” As if conjured by her thoughts, Blade suddenly appeared beside her. The warmth of his voice and the sultry shimmer of his gaze seemed to glide over her in a provocative caress. “Are you feeling ill from the turbulence of the ship? I could take your mind off it by reading to you.”
    He pulled out a slender volume and sank onto the chair beside her. His nearness, his scent and the heat radiating from his body ignited a yearning she could barely contain. All that kept her from hurling herself upon him was the fear that it might drive him away.
    â€œI am not seasick,” she murmured, “only dismayed that you have kept your distance from me since the other day. Were you offended by my forwardness? Do you only desire me when I shrink from you?”
    â€œOn the contrary.” Blade opened the book and pretended to read to her, though the ragged intensity of his voice betrayed desires smoldering dangerously close to the surface. “Your spirit and forthrightness are among the qualities I most admire in you. It is myself I do not trust in your company when you are so deliciously willing.”
    â€œYou’re certain?” Genia searched his countenance for proof of his sincerity and found it in his ardent gaze.
    When old Mr. Ramsey walked past them, Blade raised his voice and read an actual passage from the book. As soon as the man was out of earshot, he answered her question. “Quite certain. If your cabin were directly above mine, I fear I would have long since bored a hole in my ceiling to reach you.”
    His words kindled a wanton heat between her thighs that begged for his touch. Margaret had told her what raptures awaited her in the arms of the right man. But even her friend’s blushing, breathless descriptions had not prepared Genia for the sensation of Blade’s deft fingers probing her body’s most intimate secrets. That foretaste of the carnal delight had whetted her appetite for more. She longed to press her naked body against Blade’s and feel his fingers and lips work their sensual magic upon her. She yearned to lie beneath him and take him deep inside her in the way Margaret had described.
    â€œI would have welcomed you with open arms.” That provocative whisper had scarcely left her lips when a violent gust of briny wind blew in one of the window panes, dousing all the candles in the roundhouse at once.
    At the very same instant, the ship listed at a steep angle, throwing Genia from her seat and flinging her across Blade’s lap.
    The other passengers cried out in shock, but she could think of nothing beyond the firm bulge of Blade’s straining manhood against her belly and the reassuring strength of his hands as he grasped her around the waist. He must have been equally conscious of her alone, for he seized the unexpected opportunity to fondle her bottom. The rhythmic caress of his hand conveyed urgent yet tender yearning. It sent ripples of tingling heat radiating outward from her bottom to the rest of her body.
    Genia writhed in the throes of reckless delight, even as the darkened roundhouse erupted in cries of alarm. Neither the peril of their situation nor the danger of discovery and disgrace mattered at that moment—only the urgent passion that racked her body, straining for release. Arching her bottom higher, she spread her legs, begging him to touch her there, as he had during their last furtive