Chapter 17
17
Toorin
I stared into Marc’s eyes, balls deep in a man I shouldn’t want anything to do with, overwhelmed by the need to protect this man at all costs.
And it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that my heart beat in his chest.
The whirring behind my ears became louder, almost deafening, as I pulled out and pushed in. I hadn’t had sex since before I got the mechanical heart, and I had no idea how it would hold up, but I was willing to take that chance.
I couldn’t think of a better way to go if I had to die.
At least it wouldn’t be at the hand of the chancellor guard.
Marc pulled me into another kiss, and I poured myself into it. I couldn’t say what was in my heart—or what now passed as one—but maybe he’d feel what he’d come to mean to me in such a short period of time.
I had to break the kiss as my strokes quickened and my lungs screamed for oxygen. “ Moon and mars . So. Bloody. Good.”
The words came out a staccato, ragged sentence that I didn’t know was decipherable until Marc smiled and squeezed my ass tighter.
“Faster,” he said. “Harder.”
“I don’t want to hurt—”
He took my face in his hands to force me to focus on him and his words. “Faster. Harder.”
I grinned at the command, a snippet of the chancellor’s spawn I knew him to be. A man who knew how to command when he needed to.
I sat back on my heels, looping my arms under Marc’s thighs and pulling him to me, spreading him wide, his hard cock a desperate, deepening shade of reddish purple. I angled, hitting that spot inside him that made him groan and shudder in my hands.
His cock pulsed, and I almost batted his hand away when he took hold of himself, but the base of my spine tingled, and I knew I wouldn’t last much longer, and I wanted to be inside him when he came.
I slowed, readjusting the angle until I could hit that spot inside him over and over again. His head thrashed as he jacked himself faster and faster, his breathing short, ineffective huffs of air.
I dropped back down to my hands, nipping at the soft skin at the juncture of his neck and shoulder. He tasted like the sea.
“I’m so close,” he said, his hand bumping my abdomen again and again.
I stroked long and deep, my climax on the near horizon. I raised my head and scraped my teeth across his nipple. He grunted, his strokes erratic as he tightened around my cock, his warm cum painting my chest.
It shot me over the edge, the tingling exploding. I froze mid-stroke as I shot my load inside him. Marc pulled me down, smearing his cum over both of us. It was so fucking sexy.
I loved how he didn’t shy away from the messiness. From the sex, the sweat, the cum.
“I’m wrecked,” Marc whispered as his bear hug loosened.
“Sorry.” I knew I shouldn’t have gone as fast or as hard as he’d wanted. I’d been around the IP enough to know my cock wasn’t the largest, but it wasn’t the smallest, either. I started to pull out.
“Not yet.” He rolled his hips, taking my cock deeper before I softened too much to make that possible.
I nipped at the corner of his jaw as one of my crew stomped across the aft deck above the cabin, reminding me of my duties. “I can’t stay much longer.”
“I know.”
“And you need to get some rest.”
“Mmmm.” His eyes closed and nearly didn’t reopen, the release of his orgasm and the long night guarding over me pulling him under.
With a reluctance I’d never felt when leaving a man before, I pulled out and climbed out of my bunk. I used a clean rag and water I had in a basin and washed up as best I could before I dressed. Before leaving, I wet another scrap of cloth and sat on the edge of the bed.
Sleep had already pulled Marc under, and he barely stirred when I lifted the covers and cleaned his chest and abdomen. I tossed the dirty rag to the side, the air ripe with the scent of our combined musk, sweat, and sex.
I tucked the covers around Marc, unable to fight the need to lean forward and press a kiss to his temple. Connections. True connections in this world were rare, and I’d been around long enough not to question this one too closely.
I left the cabin, propping the door open to air it out and keep the sun from making the interior stuffy and insufferable.
“Finally,” Bodie said as he passed by on deck. “If it weren’t for the thumps and noises coming from your cabin, I would have feared you’d fallen overboard during the night.”
His tone was joking. Just .
“Sod off.” I didn’t put any heat behind the words. I was in too good of a mood to take his tone personally. Besides, if the roles were reversed, I might have been a little irritated myself.
Secrets were hard kept on a boat this size. Everyone knew what Marc and I got up to. I wasn’t embarrassed. I had no reason to be. However, knowing I’d left part of myself inside Marc when I’d left only made my indomitable smile widen.
“You sure have been smiling a lot lately.”
I headed for the galley for some much-needed coffee with Bodie hot on my tail. “Shouldn’t you be catching up on your sleep? We'll be off again as soon as we catch some fish and have a hot meal.”
Bodie caught my arm, and I turned to face him. “I don’t like this.”
I leaned closer, all humor leaving me. “Jealous?”
Bodie crossed his arms over his chest, his irritated gaze never leaving mine. “You know me better than that.” It wasn’t often that Bodie could make me squirm, but the way he studied me now, he did. “You like him.”
I huffed out an over-exaggerated breath. “You know I do.”
“Yeah, but it’s… more .”
“So what if it is?” I held his gaze until he scoffed. “And I’d appreciate it if you tried with him. Really tried.”
Bodie’s scowl only deepened.
“For me, mate?”
I wasn’t one for pulling the friendship card, but I would if it brought some peace between Bodie and Marc.
Bodie glanced away, grumbling something unintelligible before giving me a short, crisp nod. “I’ll try.”
I clapped him on the back, and as I turned toward the galley, I scanned the horizon for the first time since I’d come on deck. Normally, I did that as soon as I came out of my cabin, but I’d had Marc on my mind.
I stopped at the rail, and Bodie stepped beside me. “A little close to shore, aren’t we?”
“Lyric and Darwin wanted to row in close to those jetties. They want to try and get some crab and oysters for a change, and the land drops off quickly here. Besides, we’re in the middle of nowhere. No one has lived near this part of the IP since the war. We’re safe here.”
I scanned the shoreline, seeing nothing that contradicted him. I trusted Bodie’s judgment. Still, the little hairs raised on the back of my neck.
Behind us, Lyric and Darwin bickered as they lowered the dinghy for their trip to shore. The promise of hot coffee called me, and I left the rail to pour myself a mug. In the galley, I refilled Bodie’s. We sat in silence at the table, Bodie yawning and downing his coffee. It wouldn’t keep him awake. It never did.
“You should get some sleep while you can.”
He set his now empty mug down and waved a hand between us. “We good?”
My expression softened. I knew Bodie was only looking out for me. “Of course. Now go get some sleep.”
Bodie set his mug in the sink and squeezed my shoulder on his way out of the galley, leaving me wondering if he worried too much or if I didn’t worry enough.
Marcelis
I awoke to the sound of someone pounding at the door to my cabin. I mean, Torrin’s cabin.
“Oi, get yer ass up,” Bodie hollered. “Haven’t got all day if you want me to teach you to sail.”
“Coming.” I stumbled out of bed and found my clothes under one of the rags Toorin must have used to clean us up. It had left a damp patch on my trousers. No matter. As I bent to put on my boots, there was no doubt I had been truly, thoroughly, deliciously fucked.
I’d have to find some of that lube when I returned to Toonu.
Mate, you can’t go back. Not with a price on your head.
As much as I’d wanted out of Toonu, out from under my sire’s thumb, I felt adrift not having a place to call home.
Toorin and the rest of the crew, Bodie notwithstanding, were great, but I felt like a newborn camel, all wobbly legs and worldly ignorance on the Lark and the IP.
Bodie pounded on the door again, and I nearly got a knock on the forehead when I yanked it open. He lowered his hand. “Follow me.”
I didn’t know what had gotten into Bodie. Toorin, most likely. I relieved myself over the side of the boat before following Bodie to a mass of ropes at the bow.
Bodie handed me a length of rope. “Do you know how to tie?” I opened my mouth. Before any words came out, he added, “Tying your boots don’t count.”
I took the length of rope, and as much as I wanted to pretend I did, there was no point in lying. He’d figure it out in about two seconds. “No.”
He grumbled something about me being posh and pampered, but I let it slide. At least I would learn something besides how to peel potatoes or scrub stubborn stains out of threadbare clothes.
Bodie started with basic sailing knots. The bowline, the reef knot, the square knot, the clove hitch. I practiced until I became a wee bit proficient. It didn’t take long. If anything, learning came fast for me. You had to be around my sire if you didn’t want to land on his bad side. That went for the provincial staff and myself. A necessity for survival.
Bodie scrutinized my work, clearly not expecting me to catch on so fast. I didn’t even try to hide my smile. “What’s next?”
He stared up at the center mast in the middle of the boat, and the bottom dropped out of my belly. He handed me a long length of rope, and my knees nearly buckled under the weight.
“There’s wear on the mainsail from the storm. We need to change it out before we set sail again.”
“Aren’t there pulleys to bring the ropes up?” I couldn’t even begin to count the pulleys on the ship. They were everywhere.
He pointed to the top of the mast. “That one needs replaced. One of the wheels broke. That’s how the rope got frayed.”
Lovely .
Darwin or Lyric usually ran up the masts when needed, but they were on shore, and I’d give up my eye teeth before I’d tell Bodie I couldn’t or wouldn’t do it.
I trudged under the rope's weight, my legs shaking after carrying it down the few steps to the main deck. Bodie relieved me of the rope and tied the replacement tackle around my waist.
“Go on,” he said. “We haven’t got all day.”
I couldn’t see the top of the mast without craning my neck. It swayed in the gentle breeze as the boat rocked. I gripped the first handhold and pulled myself up.
Bodie’s hand clamped around my upper arm. “Be careful. If you fall, Toorin will kill me.”
“I’m not going to fall,” I said in the same exasperated voice I’d once told my sire I wouldn’t cut myself after he gifted me my first blade—moments before cutting myself.
At least I wasn’t a young spawn of six anymore.
I climbed rung by rung. The mild breeze seemed to kick up the higher I climbed, even though it had to be my imagination and how the mast swayed with my added weight. I stopped midway up to catch my breath and give my arms and legs a break.
In the distance, I spotted Darwin and Lyric rowing toward the Lark, the sun already starting on its downward arc.
“Oi,” Bodie called up. “Keep going.”
I started climbing again, wishing I didn’t have to prove myself to Bodie and afraid that if I didn’t win him over, he’d find a way to drive a wedge between Toorin and me.
I didn’t kid myself that Bodie didn’t have any sway with Toorin. They had a history together that Toorin and I didn’t have. And despite the sex and whatever attraction and budding affection he might have felt for me, I wouldn’t want to pit my relationship with Toorin against Bodie’s.
I knew who would win that one…
…and it wouldn’t be me.
“That’s far enough,” Bodie hollered up at me.
I wrapped a leg around the mast to keep from falling, making the mistake of looking down. I hadn’t eaten since the night before, but my dinner almost came back up. I spit to rid my mouth of the vile taste.
“Ew. Did you spit on me?” Bodie swiped a hand across his face.
“Sorry!” I hollered down.
“Bloody nob.” He didn’t yell it at me, though he’d said it with enough vehemence that I heard it anyway.
“Having fun, mate?” Juniper called from below, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand.
“Heaps.” I unleashed as much sarcasm as I could muster, and if I wasn’t mistaken, Bodie chuckled.
I nearly slipped disconnecting the broken tackle, and Bodie’s repeated “Careful” didn’t help.
“You’re gonna get him killed,” Juniper said. The words weren’t meant for me, yet I heard them all the same.
I didn’t hear Bodie’s response. I was too busy trying not to die.
It took all my strength, concentration, and balance to remove the old tackle, and I still needed to put the new one on. I didn’t know how Darwin and Lyric did stuff like this all the time.
After a struggle, I got the new tackle in place. “Got it.”
I held the damaged pulley out and glanced down to find Bodie and Juniper holding opposite ends of a blanket.
“Drop it,” Bodie said. “Straight down.”
I aimed for the rectangle of fabric. Toorin would never forgive me if I put a tackle-sized hole in the middle of the deck. It fell away and neatly landed in the center of the blanket.
Darwin and Lyric reached the side of the Lark with the dinghy, and Toorin appeared out of an open hatch in the deck. With Darwin and Lyrics’ help, he and Juniper hauled the dinghy up the side of the boat.
From my vantage point, I saw the baskets of crabs, oysters, and a few fish. I’d eat well tonight if I didn’t fall and kill myself first.
I untied the new pulley from around my waist and set it in place, proud of what I’d accomplished even though, to Darwin and Lyric, it would have been another task in their normal day.
“Catch,” Bodie called out.
He swung the end of the rope round and round. He released it, and the end sailed toward me. I wrapped one arm around the mast and leaned out to catch it.
I bobbled at the top of the mast but brought it in and threaded it through.
When we’d finished, I took one last look around. It was beautiful up there. I scanned the horizon, almost missing the blip of a shape where everything should be flat.
“What’s wrong?” Toorin must have noticed the tightness in my body. The stillness.
“Over there.” I pointed into the sun. My eyes watered, but the object grew larger as I hung there, too many feet above the Lark. “A boat. And it’s coming fast.”