Page 39 of Match Made in Heaven (The Cricket Club #5)

After Jack had joined Callahan’s crew, he’d been pressured to climb the rigging all the way to the top of the old clipper.

He’d only been sixteen, and had never shaken so much in his life.

But he’d done it, remaining on his precarious perch for as long as allowed, certain that he could see the end of the world from that glorious view.

The wind had whipped through his hair and his clothes, turning him into another sail as the crew cheered on from below.

The entire experience was exhilarating and terrifying.

It was the first time he’d realized what it meant to truly feel alive.

To be a part of something greater than himself.

Until now.

Ella’s voice was soft when she answered him. But it wasn’t lost.

“I would love nothing more than to marry you.”

Jack tilted his head, his heart beating through his chest. “How about now?”

“Now?”

He smiled.

Ella’s mouth twisted until she couldn’t hold back her own. “How?” she asked.

Jack arched a brow, puffing his chest out as he raised his hands at his sides. “Did you forget that I’m a captain? And you just happen to be on my ship.”

Ella laughed. “But that isn’t legal, is it?”

“It is to me,” Jack said quietly. “Say the words, Ella. And we’ll be married from this day forth. If you want to wait for a priest and a piece of paper, we can do that too, but know now that when you leave this room tonight, in my heart, you’ll be my wife. Forever and always.”

Ella exhaled. Her face was impossibly open. Willing and trusting. Jack felt her hands climb his back, settling on his neck. She urged him closer, not giving up until his lips found hers. It was a tender and sweet kiss that whispered so many things, but nothing louder than yes .

“I love you,” she said against his mouth, capturing Jack in a heart-melting embrace that left him shattered. Good intentions fled with inhibitions, and he locked her tight, claiming her lips, again and again, as passion flamed between them.

Ella walked backward, towing Jack with her. When her legs hit the bed, she fell back, laughing when he collapsed on top of her, unwilling to part for even a second.

Jack couldn’t laugh. His chest hurt too much. Still fragile, he clung to her lips.

Ella’s hands shook as she worked to rid him of his clothes. She was impatient and hungry, but Jack forced her to slow down. He wanted to string out this moment for as long as he could, because nothing could ever be better.

He stripped her with care, kissing every creamy piece of skin he discovered, cherishing it in the way that only he could.

When Ella was bare beneath him, he imagined himself as water being poured over her body, baptizing her anew as his wife, touring her flesh like a pilgrim arriving at the Holy Land.

Ella cuddled him in her warmth, and Jack ran his fingertips down the outsides of her legs from her hipbones down to her ankles, relishing the satin texture and the goosebumps he left in his wake.

Ella’s hands curled into his back, her nails digging into his flesh while he turned to her breasts. Jack feasted on her taut nipple, tugging it between his teeth, devouring it until she let out those husky moans that drove him crazy.

They weren’t in the eye of the storm—as their bodies and need became more frenzied, they became the whole storm.

Ella waved and billowed beneath him, encouraging his exploration.

Jack surveyed the slope of her neck, the long bones of her clavicle, the ridges and valleys of her rib cage.

Her skin was slick and pink. Her tongue was restless as she captured his lips for another wet kiss that made the insides of his ears ring.

Breathless and heaving, they lost themselves in this moment, pushed by the swell of their desire to become one in all things.

Jack felt Ella reach for him, pull her thighs wider. She tightened her hold over his shaft, and his head immediately fell onto her shoulder as she guided him to her entrance.

He picked up his head to see her watching him. Eyes alight, her face damp, her features grave. Jack’s cock wept as it stood poised at the threshold, but he held back. He used his entire body to rub up and down her length, sliding his cock against her folds, which grew wetter with each pass.

He chuckled, kissing Ella’s desperate frown. “I’ll give you what you want, my love,” he murmured, tracing her heated lips with his tongue. “But not before you say the words.”

Flustered, Ella shook her head. Her palms skated to his arse, and she tried to encourage him inside, but Jack was adamant. “Say… what…?” she asked.

Jack invaded her mouth, sinking his tongue inside before pulling away.

But not far. His words vibrated against her lips.

“Say that you, Miss Ella Chesterfield, take me to be your husband, to have and hold”—pulling her hands above her head, he twined their fingers together—“through sickness and health, from this day forward.” Jack rocked his pelvis against her again, eliciting a harsh gasp. “Say it.”

Ella locked her eyes on him. She licked her lips. “I take you, Lord John Alexander Sutton, to be my husband—”

Jack thrust inside her, biting her shoulder as she cried out. He angled his head toward her neck, waiting… not moving.

“To have and to hold,” she continued, breathless, “through sickness and health, from this day forward.”

Something inside Jack snapped. He straightened his arms at her sides, bracing himself as he pulled out of her tight passage only to surge into her again.

His strokes were long and hard, lingering and sharp.

He rode Ella, hiking her knees along his hips, driving into her, trying to reach her very center.

Ella cupped the side of his neck as she met his strokes, using the strength of her hips to copy his rhythm. “Tell me,” she said, leaning up to place the command on his lips like a kiss. “Tell me.”

Jack’s body was lost to him, his mind even more so, but his heart was alive and listening. His heart knew exactly what Ella demanded of him.

He careened into her as he repeated the vows. The bed squeaked, their lower bellies slapped as he pumped and filled her with his commitment. Worshipping her with his body. “I, Lord John Alexander Sutton, take you to be my wife. To have and to hold, through sickness and health, from this day forth.”

Jack couldn’t wait any longer. Ella’s telltale noises in the back of her throat warned that she was at her limit.

Her walls pulsed and vibrated, quickening against his sensitive flesh as her back arched and she screamed.

Jack wrapped his hand behind her head, picking up Ella until their noses touched.

He used her breath to feed his own. “I will love you as no man has ever loved a woman. This, I pledge.”

Then Jack let the water take him, and he relented to the abyss.