One Night to Remember Read online

  “There is nothing to fear, Elizabeth, I assure you.” He brushed his hands over her shoulders. “The berg was enormous—I saw it with my own eyes—but it glanced off the hull of this ship like it was nothing…we’ll be fine.”

  “Is that why you came here? To tell me the news?”

  “No.” His gaze drifted to the lace collar of her robe and for a breath Elizabeth thought he might’ve come back for a second affair. “When we scraped the berg, it dropped chunks of ice on the forward deck. A group of second class passengers are kicking it around, playing some sort of game. I thought you might be interested in watching a bit.”

  He wanted to spend time with her. Outside of the stateroom. She kinked her neck to the side, eyeing him carefully. “What of Lady Grace’s clutch?”

  “I returned it to the Master at Arms on the way here. He’ll be delivering it to its rightful owner.” Thomas’s jaw ticked to a clench. While talking of icebergs and collisions, he remained composed. One mention of Elizabeth’s proposed guilt and Thomas was a tightly wound spring. He’d tried to play it cool. Like letting her go free was no big deal. From the sharpness of his tone and the pallor of his cheeks however, Elizabeth could tell that it was.

  “So you have decided not to take me into custody after all?”

  “I’ve gone on break.” His eyes shone the color of rich driftwood, one of her favorite shades to use while designing. “And I’m afraid I’ve forgotten my cuffs.”

  There was the playful side she’d witnessed before.

  “Pity,” she said, perching on the edge of her bed. “They provided much entertainment.”

  Thomas sat beside her, mere inches away. Elizabeth could smell the spiciness of his cologne. The salty sea breeze flowing off his clothes. Something about him had changed. He was stronger, his jaw tight, his shoulders pulled back.

  Confidence, Elizabeth realized. That’s what it was. He’d grown certain of himself and wore it well.

  “Tell me something.” He swiveled on the bed, just enough to face her, and crossed his leg, ankle to knee. “This clothing company you own…where is it located?”

  “Boston. Why?”

  “Do you design clothes or make them?”

  “Both.” Her gaze narrowed. “Where are you going with this?”

  His hand found her thigh. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out. You are a mystery to me, Elizabeth. A puzzle that I’m struggling to put together.” He paused as if trying to find the right words to say. “I hardly know two things about you, yet can’t get you out of my head. I’m trying to make sense of this…of you.”

  “That’ll not be an easy feat.” Laughter bubbled out of her. “I’m not like other women.”

  “That’s precisely the problem. I’ve never met such an honest thief.”

  “Thomas, you don’t have to know every detail about me to validate what happened between us. You can leave it as a great,” unbelievably amazing, “affair I’ll not soon forget.”

  “What if I don’t want to leave it?” he asked, boring into her with those mesmerizing hazelnut eyes. “What if I want to explore it?”

  “I think that—”she began, but Thomas stopped her by tipping her chin with two of his fingers. Then ever so slowly, he moved in, catching her lips with his.

  He spoke his desire with long swirls of his tongue. Whispered his need with soft, dreamy lips. Her body answered by flashing heat across her skin and spiraling nerves into her stomach. With a swift pull, Thomas scooted her across the bed and onto his lap, cradling her against him.

  Everything faded away…

  How could she get lost in him so easily?

  Elizabeth was going to tell him that if they explored their chemistry too deeply, she would inevitably tire of him. Elizabeth had never felt these stirrings before, so there was no way to tell for sure, but that’s how it worked wasn’t it? Excitement eventually wore off, surprise droned to complacency, and lust dwindled to boredom.

  She needed to tell Thomas that she’d rather keep their affair a magical fling than exploit it, lessening the passion to forgettable status.

  But in the next second, the moment his hand found her breast, those words evaporated off her lips. All that mattered was that his lips continued to brush against hers. That his hands continued to wander over her body.

  And wander they did…

  His hand palmed her stomach, kneading and pulling at her robe. With desperate, urgent fingers, he squeezed her backside and swept along the dip of her waist. And when his caress found its way back to her breasts, Thomas gently plucked at her nipple through her nightgown.

  Shock and a bit of pain caused Elizabeth to cry out and kiss him harder, deeper, setting fires blazing in her stomach. He responded, passion enflaming, his tongue seeking the far corners of her mouth.

  Between gasps of air, Thomas removed her robe and tossed it aside. Elizabeth tugged Thomas’s coat off the wide span of his shoulders and worked on unbuttoning his shirt, while he jerked his coat off the rest of the way.

  She laid back onto the bed, waiting for him to come to her. He was undressed in seconds, his boots having been kicked off, his shirt flung aside.

  What a glorious sight!

  It thrilled her to watch Thomas kneel over the bed and stalk up her body. For the first time in her life, Elizabeth didn’t feel like she had to look away from the form of a man. She fed the electricity tingling in her toes by meeting him eye to eye, then trailing her gaze down his bronze, chiseled body. She drank in every hard ridge of his abs, every last twitch and flex of muscle as he crawled over her and finally settled between her hips.

  “This time” he said, leaning down to claim her mouth once more, “I want to feel you skin to skin.”

  She obliged, tugging her nightgown over her head. When she met his stare, it was softer, full of adoration. There was something else behind his heavy-lidded gaze, too. Something Elizabeth didn’t recognize right away.

  Worship.

  The emotion shone through his honey soft eyes, melting her with a radiance she’d never known. How could she have ever thought she’d tire of such a man? He didn’t treat her like a lady in bed—handcuffs and rough hands spoke to that—and that’s what she enjoyed most about his lovemaking. Yet in the next second, he gazed upon her tenderly, with kindness and respect.

  If ever there was such a man who could catch and hold Elizabeth’s interest, she dared say it was him.

  As Thomas dropped down over her, supporting himself on his elbows, they touched skin to skin for the first time. Chest to chest. Hip to hip. The contact enflamed her body and sent her skin sizzling beneath the magic of his touch. Elizabeth moaned as pools of heat flashed between her legs, drowning her in molten desire.

  He brushed his hands around the hair framing her face. Stroked his thumbs along her cheek and dropped them beneath her chin.

  “You are magnificent,” he breathed, studying the contours of her face. “Absolute, heart stopping perfection.”

  Her heart gave a tug as she kissed him, letting her tongue discover how to drag the deepest moans out of him. He was an easy subject, groaning into her mouth with each swirl, opening up wider, taking more of her in. Wrapped in each others arms, the heat of their bodies rising against one another…it was almost too much to take.

  As the thick shaft of his erection pressed against her thigh, Elizabeth had the urge to grab hold of it. Instead she sent her fingers exploring the grooves and ridges of his body, over and around the wide head of his shoulder and down his side. Her nails dug into his back, clawing their way to his neck as he moved his hips in a slow circle, hinting at what was to come.

  As if her body knew what it needed, her hips tilted up, meeting the head of Thomas’s shaft. With a hiss, he threw his head back and buried himself in her warmth.

  Their bodies exploded on contact. Pure need, primal and hot, bucked their bodies against one another. With a throaty moan, Thomas plunged into her core deeper than before.

  Elizabeth gasped as he mo
ved his hips in small circles, stroking her from the inside out. Restraint held him taut. Sweat formed on his brow. He rose up, propping himself on his arms. His muscles tensed with each drive into her.

  She arched back, cherishing the feeling of him moving inside her. Her innermost skin tightened against him, little tugs that seemed to stoke his fire hotter.

  He pumped harder. Faster. Barely breathing, he pounded his hips against hers, racing toward a climax that threatened to break Elizabeth in two. He closed his eyes, clenched them tight, biting on his bottom lip as if to hold onto the control slipping from his grasp.

  Dizzy with lust, Elizabeth reared up and grasped onto his shoulders. She nipped at his bottom lip and suckled it into her mouth. It seemed to drive Thomas to the edge.

  His whole body tightened as he pushed into her one last time and released himself with a force that Elizabeth felt down in her bones. His orgasm seemed to go on forever, filling her to the brim, his hips rocking slower, but just as fully.

  Sensations tingling in Elizabeth’s core coiled together into a hot spike of lust and need. And then, when Thomas pulled back on her hair to gaze in her eyes, she cried out, her body clenching and releasing in its own orgasmic wave.

  After the tide had flowed and ebbed and their bodies had spent, Thomas collapsed on top of her, the warmth of his breath coating her neck.

  Everything about this moment was perfection. The pressure of his body, heavy and hot. The way he stayed deep inside, even though their lovemaking had finished.

  All too quickly, Thomas rolled off Elizabeth’s quivering body, exposing her to the cold. She tugged the sheet over her breasts and sighed happily when Thomas sank into the mattress beside her.

  “Mind if I stay for a bit?” he asked, curling her into the crook of his arm.

  Yes. Stay. “I suppose that’d be all right,” she said.

  It seemed as though Elizabeth had just closed her eyes and nestled into Thomas’s chest, when two loud bangs pounded on her stateroom door.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “Excuse me, Miss Scott.” Another two knocks. “As a precautionary measure, the Captain has asked all first class passengers to put on their life vests and assemble on deck.”

  “Yes,” Elizabeth called, catching Thomas’s perplexed gaze. “All right.”

  Thumping knocks continued down the hall until they could no longer be heard. In fact, when Thomas listened closely to the sounds of the ship, he realized the engines couldn’t be heard either.

  They’d stopped.

  Something wasn’t right.

  “What do you think is going on?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure.” Thomas dressed in a rush, tugging on his pants, shoving his arms into the sleeves of his shirt and coat. “It must have something to do with the damage to the ship.”

  Elizabeth moved much slower, wrapping herself in a sheet for cover. She curled into a ball on the bed and watched him button his boots.

  “I think you should get dressed,” he said, opening up the wardrobe on the opposite end of the stateroom. He removed the life vest from the top rack. “Wear something warm and put this over the top.”

  “You can’t be serious.” She frowned. “You heard the stewardess. Precautionary. I’d much rather stay in bed.” Yawning, she rolled on her back and stretched tall. “Can’t you go see what the fuss is about and return with more news?”

  Thomas supposed that sounded logical. But a low throb in his gut warned that this was more than precautionary. Although he saw the iceberg with his own eyes, he’d at first dismissed the feeling that something was amiss.

  The officers in the wheelhouse had assured him that the Titanic was built to withstand such a blow. Surely, of anyone, they would know if there was real danger.

  More than an hour had passed, hadn’t it? The ship felt no different beneath his feet. It would’ve been easy to crawl back into bed with Elizabeth and drown out what seemed to be a ridiculous order. But if the crew was calling first class passengers out of the warmth of their beds and asking them to assemble, Thomas knew things weren’t as they appeared.

  They’d need his assistance on the boat deck…

  “I would feel much more comfortable with you at my side.” He set the life vest on the table, dismissing the clench of his gut at the words. He really did feel more at ease when he was with her, didn’t he? “We can find out what’s going on together. If nothing is amiss I’ll escort you back to your room.”

  “All right.” She sighed, nudging her chin at the bulky life vest. “But I’m not wearing that thing unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

  Thomas relished the small victory.

  A few minutes later, Elizabeth had dressed in a lavender silk gown with a lace bodice and matching sleeves that flared a bit at the wrist. Beneath the lace, four tiny straps streamed over her shoulders and crossed down her back.

  She spun for him, pulling her small train around the side. “What do you think?”

  “It’s breathtaking.” Like its designer. “One of yours?”

  She nodded, genuine excitement gleaming in her emerald eyes. “One of my newest. I hate to cover it up, but I fear where you’re taking me, it’ll be bitter cold.” She pulled a black fur stole from her wardrobe and tossed it around her shoulders.

  “Shall we?” He stood by the door and raised his arm, waiting for Elizabeth to curl hers around it. When she did, Thomas led her into the hall and ran into a handful of other first class couples looking as confused as Thomas felt.

  The corridor was alive with chatter, humming with questions.

  When will we be under way?

  Why have we stopped?

  What will we do once on deck?

  Thomas didn’t know the answers to any of the questions firing his direction, but he fully planned on finding out. And when he did, he’d make sure everyone got the answers they were searching for.

  *

  Elizabeth couldn’t believe her eyes.

  The first class lounge was bustling with passengers. Most of them had donned their life vests and looked rather irritated about the new attire. Men tipped back drinks and talked business that they’d carried up from the smoking room. Women were bundled for the cold, gossiping and speculating as to what had caused the ship to stop. The band was stationed in the corner, playing a lively waltz. Waiters served drinks, swerving through the crowd with trays held high.

  Perhaps Thomas was wrong and there was no urgent matter after all.

  He’d been gone ten minutes. He’d asked her kindly to remain in the lounge and had also asked her to refrain from reaching into others’ pockets. He’d smiled at the last remark, but she could tell it bothered him to have to say such things.

  It’s not that she was a heartless thief…Elizabeth simply considered herself an opportunist. And even though the lounge was large, with passengers not paying much attention to the location of their assets, Elizabeth couldn’t think about taking advantage. Not while everyone was waiting for the news of the night.

  She spotted Thomas streaking through the crowd, his stride fast and determined.

  When he reached her side, his expression was grim. “Let’s go,” he said, and lifted her gently by the elbow.

  “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  He leaned in to her ear. “We must get you to a lifeboat immediately.”

  She pulled back, examining every shadowed corner of his eyes. “Whatever for?”

  “What other reason would one have to abandon ship?”

  “We’re sinking?” Her heart caught as her stomach fell. “You told me it wasn’t serious.”

  “Shh, love.” Thomas led her across the lounge. “You must not say it so loudly.”

  She cowered from the bone-numbing cold as they swept out the doors leading to the first class promenade. Wind bit at her cheeks and puffs of cold air escaped her mouth. Steam hissed from the towering stack above their heads, so loud she could barely hear her own thoughts. On the far end of the deck, a lifeboat was alread
y being prepped for lowering.

  They were serious about this, weren’t they? Somehow, Elizabeth still couldn’t believe it. Perhaps that’s why everyone remained indoors, talking like they’d be on their way in no time—they couldn’t believe it either. This was not a drill, she told herself, though the crew hadn’t led one anyway; it’d been postponed and deemed unnecessary. Irony choked the tears in her throat.

  “It’s imperative we do not cause a panic,” Thomas hollered over the booming sound of steam being released. He helped her out of her coat and put on her life vest.

  “There should be panic, Thomas,” Elizabeth said while he replaced the fur over her shoulders. She burrowed into its warmth, gazing at the first class passengers milling about indoors. “If the ship is sinking, everyone needs to get to a boat. Why aren’t they coming out on deck?”

  Thomas shook his head. “There aren’t enough lifeboats, Elizabeth. There’s simply not enough room. We’ve been told to keep everyone calm.”

  “Calm?” Air tore from her lungs as the gravity of the situation hit her full force. She’d never felt more helpless in her life. “Thomas, what will happen?”

  He pulled her close and escorted her to the small group of passengers who’d gathered near the lifeboat. “You will get off this ship. You will get off right here, right now, before it is too late.”

  Fear strangled her words. “And you?”

  “I’ll stay behind to help the other passengers.”

  Chills coated her body in a rolling wave. She didn’t know Thomas well. But she knew, with every ounce of her being, that she wanted him to get off the ship with her. She wanted him at her side. Hugging her close. Telling her it would be all right. It seemed from the moment his touch sparked something within her, she couldn’t imagine living without it.

  “No.” Her hand found his heart. It beat hard and true, thumping against the palm of her hand. “If I’m getting into this boat, you’re coming with me.”

  “Women and children first.” His lips strained white as his hands wrapped around her waist and pulled her close. “I wouldn’t need the order to offer my seat, but the captain has already given it.”