Chapter 20 Lyx
TWENTY
Lyx
Slap me.
Lyx feels like she’s been electrocuted, but she can’t focus when the sea tosses her like she’s nothing.
No matter how long it’s been, she’s never managed to get used to sailing through storms. With Tidus, no journey is smooth.
Every single one is filled with choppy waves and angry skies as the ocean tries to drag him back to where he belongs.
Once upon a time, she relished rough seas. She basked in the turmoil. She sensed what the ocean would do. Now, she fears the unknown like any other land dweller. She can’t trust she’ll make it to the next port.
But the way Cav speaks to her is a distraction. He’s warm and pliant beneath her, making her head swim far more than the motion does. “Why?” she croaks. His mouth is so close that she’s not sure what she’s asking. She tries again. “Why would you offer that?”
“Because I think you want to.” His chest glows beneath the fabric. “Because I want to give you what you want. Because I like the fire in you.”
“No, you don’t.” She knows better. She won’t be fooled. Pirates do not want the sirens of legend or myth; they want a pretty woman to tame, to melt down and forge into something they can use. “You just want a toy you can break.”
She’ll show him. She reaches for his throat, prepared for him to flinch — but he doesn’t. In fact, he tips his head back and arches into her palm. His voice vibrates under her hand. “I want you to break me.”
His gaze looks so glassy under her touch. It’s impossible for him to be under the thrall of her song, and still, he looks so…compliant. Subservient. Obedient.
She can’t think with him this close. With him looking up at her like that. She pushes to her feet, but he eases up onto his knees. “You want to shut me up, right?”
It’s as if the ocean is playing along, pitching Lyx back against the bed and sending Cav sliding toward her.
His hands dart out to catch himself. “You’ve thought about it, haven’t you? Payback. Revenge.”
Her mouth twitches.
That’s answer enough. He shakes out the tension in his shoulders like a diver preparing for a plunge, presenting the untouched skin of his cheek. “So rough me up a little.”
Her palm itches to make contact. She presses it against her thigh to will the feeling away, but the sight of him on his knees twists in her stomach. When was the last time she touched someone without duress? Because she wanted it, not because it was required. Not because it was the only way out.
Her nails dig into her palm, but the wild urge remains. She wants to do this. She wants the satisfaction, the retribution, the emotions that have plagued her to form into a handprint across his face.
Cav watches her hungrily. “You know the word to use if you want to stop? If I want to stop?”
Parley. Lyx nods once.
He releases his grip on the bed. “Then slap me.”
Her skin flares hot. Foolish pirate, trusting a siren to obey his rules.
It’s so careless, so confusing, made worse by his fingers trailing up the back of her calf.
She pushes to her feet to keep from shivering, her fist still clamped tight.
Cav waits on the floor for a long moment before he carefully reaches for her hand.
Every instinct in her screams to jerk away…but she doesn’t. Her throat bobs, eyes burning into his as he caresses the inside of her wrist. Slowly, his fingers drag against hers, unfurling them fully so that he can set her palm against his face.
It glows beneath her touch. A raindrop falls from his hair, sizzling when it slips between his cheek and her palm. He fits perfectly in her hand, his head tilting until she’s cradling his jaw.
The sight of it is too much. She has to pull away, to put some space between them, but she doesn’t go far. Her hand hovers next to his cheek, still soaking in the warmth.
A dreamy smirk drifts across his face. “Would it help if I mouthed off a little? Give you an excuse?”
Her mind is as splattered as the raindrops on the window, a mix of awe and unbridled appetite. She recognizes something in him, but she can’t think past the craving buzzing through her. “What is wrong with you?” she whispers.
Cav shrugs. “I don’t know. Why’d you let me bury my mouth in your pussy?”
Her hand meets his cheek.
“Better.” He grins. “Now, can you come just from chaos, or do you need me to get you there?”
Another lackluster slap. Depths, why doesn’t she just hit him? She wants to. She knows she does, but she fears how much she’ll enjoy it. How much more she’ll want.
Cav flexes his jaw. “Come on, I tail-fucked you harder than that.”
Her hand lands with a satisfying sound, and she can finally see the outline on his skin.
With a laugh, Cav stretches out his jaw. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”
She’s practically vibrating. “The more your mouth moves, the easier it gets.”
“Yeah?” He settles back on his heels. “Maybe I should move it on your clit again.”
This time, the sound is as sharp and sudden as lightning.
It’s like a dream. She wonders if she’s gone too far, but Cav’s eyes are bright and vibrant, looking up at her like she’s feeding him from her hand. “There you go.”
Her palm tingles. She should stop this. She should deny him the pleasure…but she wants it just as badly. This is more than a game. This is more than revenge.
It’s like he can see the hot hook tugging on her stomach. “Chaos feeds you, right?” He licks his lips. “This feeds me. Do it again.”
Impossibly, it’s true. With every slap, the tension melts from his body, leaving him open and easy. Her hand trembles to touch him again.
His pupils blow wide. “Now shut me up before I have you coming on my face again.”
Her hand connects. Hard. The boat rocks beneath them, and slowly, he turns back to her. The outline of her palm is embedded in his skin.
“Fucking perfect,” he rasps.
Her toes curl. He looks alive, the same way he did on the Silver Spoon. The same way he did when she first kissed him. Was this the way he looked before the grotto, too, disheveled hair and wild eyes begging for adventure?
Fucking perfect.
Her legs lock as desire tunnels through her. Cav eases his knees further apart, sinking lower until his ass meets the ground. His pants sit so low on his hips, exposing the V of muscle there. He taunts her like a drunk in a barfight, begging for one last swing. “I think you’ve got one more in you.”
Her breath comes faster now, fingers flexing at the promise.
She’s done denying herself; she wants the stinging pain in her hand, the relief of her flesh against his, the sight of her mark across his face.
She craves more than the physical reward.
Every slap draws arousal into Cav’s eyes like water from a well, and she wants more of it.
Wants to swallow his desire the way she swallows chaos, drinking from his yearning until his lust runs down her lips and chin and makes a mess of her.
She meets him harder than she ever has, knocking out a gasp when his head whips sideways. Smoke pours from his nose and mouth. Only once it clears does she see blood beading on his bottom lip.
Cav’s forked tongue probes the wound with a groan. “That’s fucking it.”
Her stomach knots like the ache between her legs, a volcanic eruption threatening to cover everything with molten need.
Cav spits on the floor, eyes sparking when he lays out the flat of his tongue toward her. “Give it back to me. Spit in my mouth.”
This time, she can’t blame the boat for the way she tilts. Cav finds the backs of her legs and guides her forward until her knees brush his chest. She steadies herself with a hand on the wall, but it does little to offset the delicate patterns Cav traces behind her knees.
Her legs tremble. She hates that. This cannot be what gets to her. This is nothing. She’s fucked her way through countless pirates, feasting on storms and shipwrecks, but this…
Lightning flashes before the sky falls dark as night again. Lyx’s mind whirls at a dizzying speed, but her voice is sharp with laughter. “You want me to — what? Degrade you? Humiliate you?”
Blood blooms when a smile stretches across his lips. “Yes, ma’am.”
She tries not to shudder. She’s never witnessed such a willingness to be powerless. No pirate has ever kneeled before her. Not without her song. Not without compulsion. She’s in a daze, some parallel world that couldn’t possibly exist.
“Beg.” She doesn’t know where the word comes from. All she knows is that she desperately needs to hear his pleading.
Cav’s irises glow like two midday suns. “My vicious captor…”
Lyx’s body pings like a tuning fork.
His voice is hoarse with want. “I am but your humble servant. I take only what you deign to give.” He spreads his knees to sink lower, eyes wide and wanton and pathetic. “Please.”
A different hunger spreads its aching jaws inside her.
This is a part of her that has never been fed, a part that has never been set loose.
Her mouth waters at the sight of him, staring up at her and willing to do anything she demands.
He would let her suck bruises onto his skin.
He would let her rake her nails down his back.
He would let her sink her teeth into his flesh.
Depths, what has he done to her? She can’t remember to hate him. When she’s standing over him like this, all she can think of is the tantalizing sway of his tail and how beautifully he yields to her.
She lifts her hand toward his face. His lips part eagerly to suck on two of her fingers like they were sweet nectar. She adds another finger and stretches the rim of his mouth. He doesn’t resist. He doesn’t bite. He just takes it, opening wider until three of her fingers are buried to the hilt.
Abyss, he looks pitiful and needy and hot. Saliva gathers in the corners of his mouth, eyes glassy and helpless while he lets her do whatever she pleases.