The Final Storm

24. Consecutive Coincidences

Adaira felt the captain's lips meet hers, and everything else evaporated from her mind. Thoughts. Memories. Worries for the future. Nothing of it mattered now, as long as she could feel his lips on hers and his arms wrapped around her waist. Nothing mattered as long as he looked at her with those sparkling eyes full of mischief that promised a future together. A future that would never be boring.

Breaking their kiss, his lips started to move down over her cheek, along her neck and towards areas that had always been strictly off limits for any man, leaving a trail of fire in their wake. Adaira felt the blood rush to her head. Had...had he really been serious before? When he mentioned that bedroom?

"I...I'm not sure I'm ready to go that far, yet," she whispered, hating how weak her voice sounded. "We...we can find a bedroom if you really want, but..."

"Silly girl." Glancing up at her from beneath his dark lashes, the captain gazed into her eyes in a way that made her heart melt. "Don't you know that I was just teasing you before?"

"Y-you were?" Relief, mingled with a hint of disappointment, spread throughout Adaira's body. "Really?"

"Really." Reaching up, he gently stroked her cheek with a thumb. "Like I said, we don't need a bedroom for that kind of thing. Isn't there a convenient table nearby?"

"You...!" Adaira aimed a stomp at the scoundrel's toes, only for him to promptly avoid it. "You abominable lout!"

"Yes, darling?" He enquired, completely unrepentant.

"You...you..."

"...are too handsome to resist? I know." He stroked her cheek again, uncaring of her renewed attempts to squash his toes. "In all honesty, though...I would never do something like that. I would never ask something of you that you are not ready for. And besides..." All humour vanished from his eyes and he stared at her with such a serious gaze that it made her foot freeze in mid-air. "I intend to spend the rest of my life with you, Miss Adaira Louise Jannet Melanie Georgette Ambrose. I'll be damned if anyone, including me, lays a finger on you before I put a ring on your finger."

Adaira felt her knees go weak.

He remembered my names! He actually remembered all of my names!

For someone like her, with half a dozen names that even her relatives got mixed up sometimes, that meant more than an "I love you."

"Although," he added with a smirk, "That only applies to laying fingers on you. Not lips."

Then he bent forward and kissed her once again.

Under the gentle caress of his lips, Adaira melted into his arms. All the worries that had plagued her just a few moments ago dissipated, leaving her only with the feeling of bliss that came with being his. Being held by him and knowing they would be together forever and ever and ever. She couldn't imagine anything that would make her happier, or any man that was more kind, loving, gentle—

Just then, he pushed her over onto the floor and jumped on top of her.

"Ugh! What the—?!"

"Shh! Be quiet!" Once again, he sealed her lips—only this time with a hand instead of his mouth. This beast! Didn't he say he wouldn't do anything she wasn't ready for? She was about to try and protest, or maybe bite the scheming, lying scoundrel, when she suddenly heard it. The sound of marching feet, fast approaching.

From where they lay on the floor, Adaira looked up at the window, only a few feet above them. Her breath caught as several tall figures suddenly appeared on the other side of the glass. They marched past, eyes straight ahead. Adaira didn't dare to move a single inch and just lay there, eyes fixed on the warm, brown orbs only inches away from her that seemed to provide the only bit of comfort. Three seconds that seemed like an eternity passed like that, filled with the sound of marching feet. Then four. Five. Finally...