Chapter 24
CILLA
Taking off from Nova Scotia was harder than I expected. He’d been pissed off that gassing up took longer than usual, and I could tell his only goal was to get us back on the safety of the water.
We’d had a wonderful day, and now the old Locke was back. He was quiet and withdrawn. His mind obviously not with me anymore. At least not only with me.
And I couldn’t blame him, because I was the same.
I’d barely thought about the man who was determined to wipe me off this earth. A few times, I’d gotten nervous in the crowds of the market, but overall it had been just a touristy kind of day.
Until I’d heard the panic in Locke’s voice.
Not the clipped soldier that never was far away, but the kind of panic that makes your stomach lurch and twist. And now that it was in between us, I didn’t know how to get rid of it.
I wanted to strangle the man like he’d tried to strangle me. I wanted to stare right into those black eyes and watch the light go out. I wasn’t exactly proud of the need, but it was there.
I wanted him dead.
Nearly as much as he seemed to want the same from me.
I wrapped my fingers around the railing of the stern of the boat. The sky was a beautiful shade of lilac and pink with a hint of fire. I could tell he was pushing the engine. He hadn’t even bothered to use the sails.
He wanted us gone.
I watched the bay disappear in the distance as he navigated the gnarly currents before we were able to get far enough off the coast for him to downshift to a slow cruising speed I was used to.
I refused to let this day be all the way ruined. My leg was sore from all the walking, but I was getting stronger by the day. The pull of the muscles were ever constant, but I didn’t get the shocking pain nearly as much.
“Cil?”
I turned to his voice. He was leaning out of what I called his captain’s seat.
I’m sure there was a more boat-worthy term, but I didn’t know it.
Usually, I needed to know every last piece of information on a topic, but this entire situation had taken so much from me that I was just concentrating on myself for once.
He waved me away from the railing. The protective side of him was in control now.
Instead of heading back down to the main living area, I eased around the walkway to the stairs to his domain.
I’d never actually been able to get up there with him before, but I found I wanted to get in there with him.
To see what he saw and what drew him so deeply to this vagabond life on the water.
He was about to head to meet me when I smiled at him. “Can I come up?”
I saw the indecision, then he reached his hand out to me.
The muscle strain was like fire, but it was worth it when he drew me in close.
I could still feel his distance and his eyes were guarded.
The soldier was back. I wanted the happy Locke I’d caught a glimpse of today.
The man who he might have been before the death of his friend—before he was forced back into protector mode for me.
Before I could overthink it, I hooked an arm around his neck and pulled him down to me. He froze when my lips found him. I could feel the riot of emotions trapped under his need to control the situation.
I sighed his name into the kiss and his arms came around me, crushing me to him in that forceful way that made my whole body light up. I backed him into the little observation area and pushed him down into the seat. There was just enough room for me to sit on his lap sideways.
What I really wanted to do was straddle him and finally get us past this make-out session limbo we’d been exploring. I appreciated that he was worried about pushing me too far too fast, but I was going a little crazy.
For now, it was enough that he allowed me in his space. I slipped my arm around his shoulders then nipped his ear. “So, Captain, care to show me how to steer this thing?”
He gripped the wheel in front of us, his fingers tightening and loosening again and again.
He turned me so my legs were in front and tucked his chin onto my shoulder. “It’s not like driving a car, you need a longer correction time.”
I shivered. “Makes sense.”
He covered my hand, bringing it to the wheel. “This controls the aft and starboard turns. This boat has some controls to keep on a course heading, but it’s not overly complicated. I don’t have millions of dollars for one of those kinds of toys.”
His other arm slid around my middle, shifting me against his lap.
I tried to hide my smile at his growing situation.
“This is the throttle.” He moved my hand to the lever. “We’re set on a cruising speed, but if I needed help to get through a spicy current, I’d hit the throttle to either work with the current or fight against it.” His lips teased my neck. “Do you want some speed, Priscilla?”
“Yes.”
“How fast do you want to go?” His arm fell from my middle to the top of my thigh.
“I want to push the limits.”
His fingers bunched up the material of my dress. “I think we can manage that.”
We were sheltered from the sea breeze and spray in here, but I still shivered when the hem of my dress rose past my knees.
“Eyes on the horizon.”
I nodded as he gently widened my thighs.
He groaned as he got to the tops of my legs and found the barely there thong. “That’s all you had on under this thing all day?”
“Was a matching set to the bra.” I couldn’t stop the smirk. I knew the demi-cup bra was barely worth wearing. The lacy thong was for him more than me.
“Did you buy these for him?”
“No.”
Surprised at the rumbling jealousy in his voice, I covered his hand on my thigh and brushed the side of my cheek against his.
“Good. Open the top.”
I licked my lips and flicked open the buttons at the front of my dress.
He bunched up the dress until the cool night air kissed my skin there too.
Sick of being ignored, I’d stopped dressing for Marcus a helluva long time ago. The little shopping spree in the lingerie shop that miserable rainy day had never been more welcome than it was now.
“More,” he said quietly.
I kept going with the buttons that went right down the front of the dress until it was completely open, the sides slithering away from my skin.
His hand came up to cup my breast through the filmy lace. His rough fingers and lace both making me gasp at the friction.
“Whoever designed this needs a raise.”
I laughed and moaned at the same time as my nipple tightened causing an arrow to go right between my thighs. Restless, I rubbed against his rock hard cock tucked under me.
“You’re killing me.”
“Same,” I mumbled as he moved to the other breast, his forearm still putting pressure on the other one.
“Cil?”
“Hmm?”
“I’ll buy you another pair.”
“What?”
Then I felt the snap of the strings at the side of my leg release and the lace over my pussy fall away.
“Tell me if I hurt you.”
“You’re definitely not.”
He eased my legs open even more. “I know your leg is still healing.”
“I’m good. More than good.” I covered his hand and brought it between my thighs.
“It doesn’t need to be more than this.”
“You have life preservers on this thing?”
“What?” Confusion dented the thick tension between us.
“Because if you don’t finally fuck me, I’m tossing you overboard.”
His quick laugh made something inside of me melt.
“Is that why you asked for a lesson?”
“Maybe.” I rubbed my ass all over his lap until he was wedged tight between my cheeks.
He jerked the lace down and exposed my breast to the night air. I gasped. His touch wasn’t light and exploring anymore. It was firm and had one mission in mind.
Leaving me a destroyed mess in his captain’s chair.
He dipped two fingers inside of me and I cried out.
“Fuck, you’re so wet.”
I was.
Never one to shy away from sex, I still couldn’t get over how different it was with this man. The tension was always there, like an impending storm on the horizon. I never knew if it would be fast and overwhelming or a soft gentle rain.
Today was fast.
Like a wave it came for me and dragged me under. I rode the current and cried out his name on the wind.
“Please, Locke.”
“This is enough,” he said on a pained voice.
“No, it’s not.” I reached up to grip the back of his neck. “Inside me.”
“Baby, I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Hurts more not to know.”
He slid out of me and the absence made me moan. His fingers weren’t enough, but they were something to fill the ache.
He lifted me and fumbled with his shorts.
“I’m not ready to do this. The condoms are below deck.”
“I’m protected.”
He held me even tighter. “Are you sure?”
“So sure.” I dug my nails into his forearm banded across my middle, my back arching as the emptiness threatened to roll over me and flatten me.
We both fumbled to get him where he needed to be. It wasn’t ideal, but we were both too far gone to care. And when the hot, thick head of him finally slipped inside of me I groaned. His arms shook as he lowered me down on him.
The angle was a buffer to what I really wanted.
Complete invasion.
But it was more than enough when he finally set me fully on his cock. His hips moved under me as we slowly acclimated to one another. Finding a steady rhythm that left me in a dreamy haze.
His teeth bit into my shoulder and his fingers dug into my hips as the tempo slowly went from light pulses of fullness to thrusts that ratcheted up the sensations inside of me. He fit me like I was made for him. His shaft stretching me beyond anything I’d felt before.
I arched for him, pushing harder down on him.
The need breaking out of the filmy lust to something wilder.
He drove into me, his arm banding around my middle to take the pressure off my leg. I wanted to widen myself even farther, but my muscles protested.
He seemed to know, and his other hand moved from my hip to my pussy, the slickness making us both groan. Then his fingers found my clit and the friction I needed added to the fullness and every muscle locked as I cried out.
“Fuck.” His voice was dark and guttural blowing me past the precipice.
And still he drove into me, riding his own demons right into me.
Until I was the shaking around him and he held me tight against him, filling me in every way.
His breath labored behind me as he pressed his forehead to my shoulder, still jerking against me as he came.
I looked down at his hand over my center and as he slipped out of me, he held onto the mess we’d made. My breath slowing as he lightly strummed over my swollen pussy.
“One more.”
“What?” I twisted around. “Locke, you’re—”
His pupils were blown out in the low lights of the captain’s cabin night, but I saw the need still there.
He cut me off with a kiss and the furious fingers that demanded just a little more from me.
I gave it because there was nothing I’d deny him right then.
Shaky and off balance, I sagged against him.
I gasped as his fingers slipped from me, dripping with his cum and my own. Instead of setting me onto the seat beside him, he lifted them to his mouth.
I stopped him on the way, sampling our merged essence.
His eyes blazed.
He drew my fingers down and repeated the process, this time he sucked them clean, then kissed me in that same wild way that strengthened and weakened me in so many ways.
Finally, he settled me beside him on the bench. “Are you okay?”
I stretched my arms over my head. “Nope.”
He laughed and zipped up his shorts. He powered down the boat and the familiar hum of the anchor dropping filled the air.
“I meant was I too rough?”
I leaned into him, resting my head on his shoulder. “I’m currently fucked senseless and couldn’t be happier.” I touched his lips. “You?”
“Give me ten minutes and I’m ready for more.”
I laughed and then shrieked when he dragged me out of the shelter in a fireman’s carry and raced down the steps to the upper deck. Instead of staying there, he kept on going.
“Wait, stop.”
He froze.
“Water.”
“Good thinking.” He stopped at the cooler and handed me two bottles before heading down to the lower level.
After a shower where we kept bumping into each other, he showed me just how well he could recover.
Finding creative ways to love me until dawn.
Never so happy to be exhausted, I rolled over when he got up to get the boat moving for the day.
When I surfaced again, the sun was high in the sky and a tray was next to me with a bottle of water and some fruit.
I was glad he wasn’t in the room with me.
My thigh was definitely not happy with me this morning, but the pain was worth it.
So very worth it.
I did my morning routine, dressed in my usual bikini top, but went with shorts this morning. I didn’t trust myself not to flip up my skirts and ask for more right then.
He was moving around the main cabin as I stopped at the stairs.
I wanted to ignore the need for help, but called up for him.
He stood at the top. “Need a little help?”
“That smug smile is new.”
“I have reason to be smug.” He came downstairs in a holey T-shirt that had seen better days and oil streaked shorts. “I was doing a little maintenance while you rested.”
“I could start helping you know.”
“Nah. I’m used to it. You can make lunch though. How’s that?” He hauled me over his shoulder and smacked my ass.
“Hey!” But were both laughing when he set me down on the kitchen island.
“I’m starving. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich I ate burned off long ago.” He opened my legs gently.
“How late is it?”
“After eleven.” He kissed me slowly and sweetly.
I draped my arms over his shoulders. I could get used to this way too easily.
Instead of worrying about it, I sunk into the kiss and let myself sit in the fantasy for a while.
We both needed it.