Why did the damn man always need to make things so difficult?

"I fell in love with you, you irritating oaf." Bloody hell, she was crying and her nose was getting stuffy. "And right now I have no idea why because you don't understand anything."

He pulled her into a kiss. If they'd fallen off the boat and were in danger of drowning she imagined this was the sort of kiss he might give her. Desperate, as though they had everything and nothing to lose. When he broke away he kept her trapped forehead to forehead.

"Let's agree," he said, his breathing ragged and eyes closed, "that I understand nothing. Explain it to me."

"If you ask me to marry you then I can decide if I want to."

"And being in love with me has some bearing on this?"

"Some small bearing," she grumbled. He smiled as though she'd whispered sweet nothings instead. He finally pulled back and opened his eyes to look down at her.

"And the fact that I'm in love with you, does that have any bearing?"

Her heart bloomed but she also wanted to beat him senseless. He was in love with her? Since when? "None at all," she assured him, but couldn't keep the grin from her face. His answering grin turned wolfish.

"Francie Walters, would you marry me?"

Oh God, now that the question was out there she rather wished he hadn't asked. If she demurred at this point he would be quite justified in throttling her. But was it what she wanted? To marry him and run off to Bermuda and spend all her time with Navy men and boats and the ocean? Well, now that she put it that way.

"Yes?"

He put his hands on his hips. "You don't sound certain, Francie Walters. I'll not have a wife who doesn't wish to be with me."

"Fine, yes. Yes! Let's get married this minute."

He stepped forward in the small space, putting his hands on her waist and pulling her toward him. "This very minute?"

"If it's not too inconvenient," she said brightly.

He brushed his lips over hers once. Twice. The teasing kisses drove her mad for more and she captured his head to keep him close for a longer kiss. He pushed his coat off her shoulders and wrapped his arms around her back.  He broke the kiss. "There's something I've been meaning to do," he said. With that he hoisted her up to his waist and her legs instinctively wrapped around him. Keeping one arm securely behind her back he leaned forward and kissed her breast through the thin silk. She gasped from the incredible sensation.

"Reggie," she said, burying her hands in his hair.

Once he'd laved and sucked the nipple until she was writhing he moved his attentions to the other. She realized now that all their previous encounters had only been play compared to this. She couldn't catch her breath and he was only starting.

"We should have figured this out at the inn," she gasped.

"Why?"

"Bigger beds."

He chuckled and pulled her closer. "I love you, Francie Walters."

"I love you, Reggie Burnham."

He opened his eyes and stared at her, quite serious. "You're mine now, and I'm yours. Tonight and forever."

"Tonight and forever," she agreed.

He set her on her feet again. "Take off your chemise."

She felt surprisingly shy considering everything they'd already done, but pulled the thin silk off over her head.

He stared at her body with a burning intensity. "You're so beautiful it almost hurts to look at you."

Perhaps she was starting to remember why she was in love with him after all. He took her left hand and kissed the tattoo on her wrist. Yes, it was definitely coming back to her. "Do I get to look at you too?" she asked huskily.

He pulled off his shirt as though he were only waiting for her to ask. She'd not seen, well, that before, but she'd felt it earlier. And other times when they'd embraced.

"Does it make you curious?" he asked. Clearly she'd been staring.

"A bit."

"Touch it."

Well, that sounded quite bold. But this was to be her husband. Flesh of my flesh and all that. She reached out a tentative hand. The skin was silky soft but the shaft was rigid as wood. She wasn't sure, but she thought she rather liked it.

 

***

 

Reggie wouldn't swear to it, but it seemed his soon to be wife was petting his manhood. He'd only hoped to allay any maidenly fears, and now her ministrations less seductive than affectionate, although that part of his anatomy certainly wasn't complaining about the attention. Why did he continue to be surprised that she was surprising?

"Have you made a new friend?" he asked.

She wrapped her hand around him and stepped closer. "I'd like to think so."

Well, and there she tipped from affectionate to seductive as hell.

"The only problem is," she looked over at the tight space of the bed. "I don't see how we can both fit in there."

He stepped away from her to pull the tick off and throw it on the floor beneath their feet.

"Well, aren't you handy?" she asked with a smile.

"I solve problems," he said. "That's what I do."

She sank down on the cushion that was now wedged between the cabinets and door. "Come here," she said, patting the space next to her. "I think I have some problems for you to solve."

He fell to his knees at the bottom of the bed. "You'll have to make room for me."

She tried scooting even further to one side, but he grabbed her hips, set her in the middle of the bed, and leaned down over her.

"It's important to remember there is always more than one way to solve a problem, and you need to be attentive to the ones you haven't thought of before."

She grinned and slid those delicious legs around his waist again.

"Perfect," he said. He kissed her briefly on the lips, but he'd waited too long to taste the rest of her to linger there for long. He kissed her neck, her shoulder, the delicate skin under her breast. He sucked her nipples until they were hard little points again, then covered them with his palms while he kissed down her belly to that sweet little navel he'd seen earlier. She arched her back, impatient and wanting. When he rolled her nipples between his fingers she gasped and arched harder.

"Reggie!"

"You should be quiet, love," he said softly against her hip. "There's not much privacy on a ship."

She patted the top of his head absently. "Should have done this at the inn."

"Just bite your tongue and think about how much you love the ocean," he advised.

She snorted, but kept quieter, only yielding soft gasps and sighs as he kissed down her hip to her leg. The delicate flesh of her inner thigh deserved special attention, including some nips that made her skin quiver.

"Reggie," she growled threateningly. She grabbed his hair and yanked at it. He obligingly slid back up her body.

"Yes, love?"

"If you don't want me to scream," she bit out, "then don't do things that will make me scream."

"Perhaps we can solve that problem another way." He kissed her until she relaxed into his embrace. When he covered her intimate curls with his palm she shifted but settled after a moment. When his fingers started stroking gently into her heat she pushed him back from their kiss. Impressive, really, since he had a good two stone on her.

"Yes, love?" he asked.

"I need, I need a moment."

He'd never stopped stroking her and she didn't push his hand away, so he continued. Lazy, delicate strokes that barely probed her heat. He settled his mouth near her ear and whispered, "I think what you need is to scream. A lot."

The way she arched against him made him think he was right. He covered her mouth with his own again and echoed the thrust and play of his tongue with his fingers. The first time he dipped a finger fully into her slick heat he groaned right along with her. He couldn't wait much longer to be inside her or he would spend right here andnow. While his finger tested how tight she was his thumb brushed over the bud at the top of her sex. She trembled the first time he made a firm swipe against it. Bloody hell, she was responsive. He wanted to make sure she achieved her pleasure the first time and he didn't know if he would be more than a rutting beast when he mounted her, so he rubbed her clit until she was moaning and writing beneath him. When he felt her sweet little cunt starting to spasm he finally gave himself permission to enter her. He took the risk of breaking their kiss for a moment.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes, oh God, yes!"

He bit her neck. "Not God, just Reggie."

She pulled his face back for a kiss just as he slid into her the first time. She screamed into his mouth as her cunt closed around him like a fist. He thrust into her in a near frenzy and his own orgasm overtook him moments later. His vision turned red as he came into her longer than he thought possible.