Catherine caressed his cheek. "My hunger was as greedy as yours."
He smiled. "But I have more experience and should have considered that the loss of your virginity would leave you tender."
She blushed at his reminder.
He turned his lips into her palm and kissed it. "Thank you for giving me that precious gift. I shall cherish that memory forever."
Words failed Catherine. His response had touched her heart deeply and just as deeply she feared the outcome of their precarious situation. But for now she would savor this time with him.
She twisted her fingers in his hair and tugged, bringing his mouth down to hers. "Thank you for being my first. I would have wanted no other," she whispered against his lips before kissing him.
Another yawn attacked her as their lips parted.
"You," he said, pressing his finger to her lips to ensure silence. "Will rest while I see to the running of this ship."
She pouted and spoke against his finger. "Must you?"
"Yes," he insisted, and hurried off the bed. He retrieved his clothes from the floor where they had been hastily discarded.
"Rest with me," she suggested, bracing herself on her elbow to watch him. She wanted him to stay with her, to hold her, to sleep safely tucked in his arms.
He threw his shirt over his head, pulling it down to tuck in his breeches. "You will find no rest if I stay with you."
Her pout turned petulant. "Perhaps I have no desire to rest."
He laughed, tugging his boots on. "I didn't ask you if you wanted to rest. I said you will rest."
"A command?"
"Precisely," he said, standing tall and looking ever so like the dashingly handsome pirate that he was.
Intent on arguing the point, she said, "And if I don't?"
He sprang to the spot on the bed beside her, capturing her hands and forcing her onto her back. His face drew close to hers. "You will rest or I won't do this—"
His words trailed off as his head lowered to her nipple and licked it ever so teasingly slowly.
Delivering identical treatment to her other nipple he then moved lower until he rested in the valley of her legs. "And I won't do this—"
His mouth found her sensitive flesh and harassed it near to bursting. He then moved back up along her quivering flesh, kissing her belly, her midriff, her breast, her neck, until he reached her lips once again. "And you do want me to do those wicked things to you, don't you, angel?"
A response proved difficult. Breathing proved difficult. Thinking proved difficult. She nodded her head.
"You will rest?"
She nodded again; doubting rest would be possible now.
He smiled and brushed a kiss across her lips. "I will make certain sleep comes easily for you."
With that he lowered his head and claimed her intimately.
o0o
Later that night when most of the crew slept and the sea slumbered and the night sky sparkled with hundreds of stars Lucian and Catherine stole up onto the deck.
Lucian wearing only his breeches and Catherine snug in his shirt and a quilt cuddled comfortably on the deck.
"Will we reach Heaven soon?" she asked, anxious to see his home, but nervous that this special time they shared would end all too soon.
"Two or three days at the most."
"Tell me about your home."
"It's like no place on earth," he said. "The island welcomes all regardless of wealth or manner. Rules are set forth and everyone obeys for each islander respects their freedom too much to jeopardize it. Food is plentiful. Fresh fruit grows profusely. Fresh fish is available with a simple drop of a baited line into the sea. Shelter is but a day's work of constructing a hut until a more permanent structure can be constructed."
"It sounds like paradise, this Heaven."
"It is, and created by people who spent most of their lives in hell."
Catherine remained silent, well aware that Lucian would continue. She had come to understand him well. He often paused to give an important subject thought before proceeding.
"Outcasts, they are. Accused of thievery, murder, and whatever else the Crown decided was their crime."
He paused once again and Catherine understood that his concern for these people weighed heavily on him.
He continued, his voice deep with emotion. "Many stole to feed their children. Some murdered out of self-defense and some never murdered at all, but were accused nonetheless since the aristocrats could suffer no blame. England's unwanted and long-suffering wash up regularly on my shore. Some survive, some don't. But Heaven welcomes them regardless. I turn none away. The island was deserted when I came upon it. So all who live there now come from foreign shores. Even the island people there are from other islands where they found living intolerable. It's a haven for those willing to work and keep the island flourishing. Everyone does their part in maintaining Heaven as the perfect paradise."