“I was just telling Astraeus that we plan on leaving tomorrow morning to accompany the Rising through Skyscape Pass.”
Vienah’s eyes softened on mine, and her strawberry blonde brows tilted up. She glanced at Astraeus, who slid a hand around her waist, before agreeing with the pirate lord that it made most sense to stay on board.
My anger strained against its leash. I leaped on Tiberius’s back and shot into the night sky. Astraeus’s gaze lingered as we disappeared into the black, moonless night.
Between Evony’s adolescent cheek,Vienah’s unending need to ravage the pirate lord, Vulcan’s unexpected geniality toward theHydra’screw, and Astraeus’s incessant arrogance, my mood improved very little over the next weeks. My powers simmered deep below.
Patience.
Tiberius echoed the prayer as we trained daily. We would slay one monster at a time. And when we returned to Lotrennia, we’d bring the full force of the Bellator powers with us.
I tunneled my focus into my training sessions with Vulcan, passing them on to Evony when she would listen. Astraeus’s wind, a musky combination of leather and cedar, quickened our travel to an impressive level. The dull shores of late autumn Sultira were now in sight.
My eyesblinked open to darkness. The door to the cabin swung open, and the captain’s dark figure filled the space, the soft blue of midnight illuminating his silhouette. An intoxicating breeze followed as he stalked forward, raucous laughter and music beckoning beyond the open door.
The space between us went taut. My heart thumped wildly in my chest as a longing snaked its way down my lower abdomen, heat quickly pooling between my legs. We only had a few precious minutes of time together. And we’d waited so long. Too long.
He crossed the space in two strides, and his rough hands slid into my unkempt hair, his fingers twining and twisting through the strands as his smooth lips crushed against mine. My arms wrapped around his neck as his lips slid to that space beneathmy ear. He nipped at my lobe before his teeth slid to my neck, my blood pulsing beneath the skin where his tongue touched.
More.
More of this, my body, my mind, my soul screamed at me. My hands slid down his chest, too quick to register anything but the feel of his skin and the goal of reaching his pants.
A howl of laughter bellowed from outside the door.
Hurry, I urged him, please.
We moved, and my backside thumped into something hard. A bed, a desk, I wasn’t sure, because my hands found the warm, hard length of him. His thick, bulging cock tightened as I palmed him above his leathers, and he let out a groan, the sound pure, primal desire. I smiled against his lips, teeth grazing against his own.
My fingers loosened the ties, and he was free. And damn was he perfect.
“How do you want it?” he murmured against me.
I melted at the sound of his voice, an octave lower than I’d ever heard it.
“Fuck me,” I rasped, my words a desperate whisper.
His lips curved into a wicked grin. He flipped me around, hands at my hips, sliding to my own leathers. Another burst of shouting and laughter echoed from beyond.
“Please,” I breathed into the darkness.
My hands slapped against the cool desk as he yanked my leathers halfway down my thighs, the laces ripping free. His hand slid up my shirt with swift ease before he cupped my breast, as claiming as the teeth sliding across my neck. His other hand slipped between my legs, and he let out a soft string of curses as his fingers brushed against my soaked center.
And then he was in me.
He wasted no time. He thrust himself, filling me to his hilt, the stretch a delicious burn. He hit that inner wall, and I bentforward over the desk, the cool wood smooth against my cheek. I slid against it. Over, and over, and over again as he moved inside of me. He gripped my hip with one hand as he drove home, the other sliding up my back beneath my shirt. He moved perfectly within me, burning and pulsing combined in a mad array of pleasure.
“Fuck me,” I moaned.
He went deeper.
His hand left my hip and slid to the front of me, his fingers meeting the drenched bud of nerves at my center as he slammed in from behind. My breathing hitched. Two rising, pulsating sensations collided as stars exploded behind my eyes in waves of pleasure. I convulsed, my body a distant, uncontrollable thing as warmth flooded through me and a whimper of pleasure escaped my lips.
He growled in response, as if the sound itself was his undoing, before withdrawing to the tip and slamming back in. The movement came faster the next time, and he roared into the darkness of the cabin, the entire ship shaking with his completion.
His scarred chest was on my back as he slumped over, hands sliding along the smooth desk and under my own. I interlaced my fingers with his as his breath tickled my ear, his lips leaving little prints of kisses along my neck. My finger rubbed against the cool metal of his rings…
Rings…
