Free ClaimedbytheCaptain by Tara Kingston

gouged a vicious wound on Jason’s heart. Pressing her palm to his
cheek, she caressed the stubble-roughened flesh. Her fingers threaded through
his hair.
    “That was a long time ago,” he continued. “I gave her my
word that I would be strong, that I would prosper.”
    “At any cost?”
    His eyes darkened. “At any cost.”
    Her pulse quickened as he lowered his head, brushing his
lips over her mouth, her neck, her shoulders, bringing her senses to life with
feather-soft kisses rained over her flesh.
    She stiffened beneath his touch. I will not succumb to
him. I won’t give him that satisfaction again.
    Pressing her palms to his chest, she shoved him away. Her
eyes narrowed as she met his gentle attentions with derision, wishing to
provoke him. His tenderness was far more unbearable than his harsh mastery.
“Unfortunately, Captain Kane, I’ve borne the cost of your vengeance. Neither
you nor my father has suffered in your quest. If I live to make it off this
ship, I’ll bear the scars of this captivity.”
    “Scars?” he scoffed. “I have not harmed you, lest you
consider coming undone in my arms a brutal torture.”
    “You wield your caress as a weapon. Your gentleness is a
ruse, nothing more.”
    “Shall I hike your skirts right here and now then?” he
grated savagely, coiling his hands over her upper arms. “Is violence what
you’ve come to crave?”
    She wrenched away. “I crave nothing from you.”
    “Liar,” he breathed against her mouth, his visage
transformed from a gentle lover to a dark satyr who would deny himself nothing
as he slaked his passion with her flesh. Seizing her in his arms, he possessed
her mouth with no trace of mercy. He swept her off her feet and into the cradle
of his embrace.
    “You can’t do this,” she murmured in a halfhearted protest.
    “Why do you doubt what I am capable of?”
    Cathy writhed in his possessive hold. Surely he did not
intend to take her there, on the deck, making her shame complete by possessing
her in full view of his crew. “Don’t do this,” she whispered. Reaching out to
him, she encircled his neck with her arms, drawing his mouth to hers.
    His mouth curved in a rueful smile. “What do you require,
Cathy? How does a captor take his prisoner? Gentleness is nothing more than a
tool to win your submission. Do you propose I woo you with sonnets and words of
love like some besotted schoolboy?”
    The mocking cruelty in his words etched a shallow wound on
her soul. She dragged in a breath, drawing strength from the flash of an
emotion far more profound than anger in his dark gaze. Steeling herself, she
issued a bold challenge. “I want no part of sonnets. Take me as your lover.”
Her words nearly caught in her throat. She searched his face, desperately
seeking his response.
    His eyes flared with heat that set her aflame. He needed
her, just as, heaven help her, she needed him. Cathy hungered to touch him, to
love him, to spend her nights in his arms and in his bed. His woman. Not his
captive. She had to take this chance.
    “I want to pleasure you,” she breathed against the harsh
line of his mouth.
    His brows rose. “Little more than an innocent, and you
deceive yourself into believing you tempt me.”
    Gambling with her soul, Cathy lowered her hands. Unfastening
the top buttons of his shirt, she eased the fabric from his warm skin. She
pressed her lips to his flesh, leaving a fevered trail in her wake as she
explored the lightly furred plane over his heart.
    She glanced up to meet his hooded gaze. “I do tempt you,
sir. You cannot deny it.”
    “That you do, wench. That you do.” His tone of bored
disinterest could not conceal the hunger in his gaze. “You are playing a risky
game.”
    He tilted her face upward and cupped her chin. Her breath
caught in her throat. “Are you ready to up the stakes?”

Chapter Seven
     
    Jason Kane had faced many temptations in his life. He’d
succumbed to most without a second thought. But something in