Chapter 8 #2
She knew she wouldn’t be able to control the loudness of her voice to answer him, not when she felt her body clench around his fingers as he moved them faster, in and out.
She looked at her dice and threw out a random guess that was only slightly higher than the last bet.
Oh! Her brows drew together, and she had to fight against her own bottom lip to avoid letting out a moan. He was right; Rosetta was about to come, and it took everything in her not to grind into his hand as she did.
A shiver ran across her skin like a rippling dance.
Her hands squeezed the cup tighter as her body started to stiffen, her core clenching those sensually moving digits. I’m... about... to...
“We’re out,” Alister said when the round ended, pushing the cup away.
He slipped his fingers from her right before she could blissfully come around them. Wait, no!
Bringing his hand out from under her skirt, he pulled her until she was seated over his right thigh again.
“But I didn’t get the chance to win my coins back off her!” the guy next to them bemoaned with a laugh.
Alister grabbed the four coins she’d won with the hand that had been playing with her. He placed them into one of her open palms, spreading her own dampness across her hand, plus something a little whiter and milker than usual.
Her nose crinkled with just how much liquid spread over her fingers from his.
He was staring at her dishevelled state with a sly grin, as if he knew she was aching for the orgasm he’d denied her.
Her cheeks were warm, no doubt flushed with drunken arousal. Her lips were wet from repeatedly licking and nibbling them, and her breaths were short and shallow. Even her breasts felt heavier than normal, her nipples aching for attention.
With her eyelids heavy, she peeked back at him.
“She’s got beginner’s luck all over her,” he said to them as his eye flickered over the features of her face. “She’ll steal all your coin if I keep playing with her.”
She understood his double entendre.
The game continued without them, someone else joining to take their place.
She gripped his jaw while squeezing her thighs together, trying to put pressure on her throbbing clit. “That wasn’t fair.”
Now she was horny and well into being intoxicated since she’d been drinking the entire time in an attempt to hide her noises. She’d been using the bottle as a way to stifle them.
“I like you in a skirt, lass.” He hefted her higher up his thigh.
He pushed another strand of hair back from her neck that had fallen from her bun, almost as if he was trying to show rather than tell her that he liked it the way it was.
“It has its many uses,” she mumbled, surprised he’d complimented her in some small way, and a little nervous by it. He didn’t do it often. “As you’ve discovered tonight.”
“I thought you wore it to hide your weapons.” He raised a brow at her, grabbing at the sword hidden beneath her skirt.
“I do, but it’s also easier to get under it.” She gave a mocking snort to herself. “Can’t really wear a dress on a ship; it’s near impossible to climb the shrouds in one. Tight pants make it easier to move around, but they aren’t easy to play in.”
Hell, she and Alister sometimes struggled when they needed to be quick. It wasn’t often her leggings came off when they were on a sinking ship they’d just attacked.
“You were expecting to be played with?”
She didn’t understand why his expression darkened, his eye narrowing on her while his upper lip twitched. Whatever thought had struck him, it soured him completely.
Knowing she was going to need to rescue him from his own mind, Rosetta placed her hand on the side of his face so she could press his head closer to hers. She slipped her lips over the corner of his jaw to give it a sweet kiss.
“Knew you’d eventually shove your hand up my skirt.” She placed her hand on the erection pressing against his breeches, hidden under her dress. She even gave it a stroke. “Didn’t think you’d deny me if I let you.”
He turned his head to her while pointing his index and middle fingers at her face. It seemed her words eased whatever had been eating at him because he said, “You’re a horny bitch, you know that?”
He only asked questions like this when he knew she was teasing him, and it was clear he liked it.
“Takes one to know one,” she threw back, stealing a quick kiss on the mouth before anyone could notice.
He seemed surprised that she did.
If Alister had known Rosetta would be playful and seductively taunting like this, he may have gotten her drunk while sitting on his lap sooner.
They’d had ample opportunity on their ships in the past.
She’d managed to figure out a way to claim his lap for herself completely by throwing one of her legs over his other thigh, leaving no room for anyone to sit.
Currently, she was curled into him, her arm across his stomach, the other around his shoulders. Her face was buried against the side of his neck, and occasionally he’d feel her lips move against him, or her wicked little tongue.
Having a warm woman on him while his hand was constantly filled with a cool bottle made him rather content.
His men were still talking, but the crowd had thinned out a while ago. They’d been dragged away to tup the women on their laps seeking coin, happy to oblige them. He’d lost Pierre a few times, but the man always came back and found a new girl on his lap. Derek had left long ago.
Now that they’d thinned, the chatter was less frequent, but Alister enjoyed listening to those who did talk while others rested their sorry, drunken faces against the table, as if they might fall asleep.
He would occasionally drop in a few words, especially if there was a disagreement he could settle.
As his gaze scanned the table, he noticed a collection of full bottles in front of Rosetta.
She’s slowed down. At some point, he thought she may have been trying to match him, but it was obvious by the two bottles and the half-full one in her hand that she’d long ago fallen behind.
Actually, she hadn’t moved for a while.
He wiggled his shoulders. “You alright, lass?”
“Mmm.” She seemed to clutch him closer. “You always smell so good,” she softly slurred with her face still buried against his neck.
Well, he shouldn’t. He should smell of salt, sea, sweat, and often booze. Occasionally blood.
Oh, nay you don’t. He pulled her until her back fell against his arm.
“Don’t you dare fall asleep,” he demanded as he watched her head fall back limply, her eyes barely open.
She gave him a small smile, like she’d known that was what she was doing.
He reached forward and tapped her cheek with his hand a few times. “I’ve got plans for you later.”
“I’m not.”
He knew that must be a lie, and yet, she lifted her bottle to drink a quarter of it. She tried to place it on the table, missed it completely, and emptied the last quarter onto the ground.
It looked as though Alister was going to have to leave sooner than he’d originally planned. He started moving her so she could get to her feet.
“Can you walk?”
“Yep!” She stood, stumbled to the side, then steadied herself by putting her arm around a random patron to stop herself from falling. “Well, aren’t you a helpful chap.”
She bopped the confused man on the nose.
As he was getting to his own feet, he watched her dip like her legs were buckling before she righted herself. He watched her do it again and had to catch her right before she hit the ground.
“Nay, up you go.” He put one arm under her legs while the other he curled around her back. She squealed when he cradled her in his arms, and he chuckled at her. “You’re a funny one when you’re drunk.”
He turned them both to Pierre.
“Little help here, lad.” He nodded towards the two full bottles on the table with their corks still tightly squeezed into their necks.
The man laughed with a shake of his head. He stood to place them on her stomach, and she curled her arms around them so they didn’t fall.
“You off to the ship?”
Shit. Despite the fact he was hiding it, Alister had to right his footing by stepping back when he himself felt his legs caving, both from the booze and from the fact he hadn’t used them in hours.
“Nay, won’t make it that far.”
Pierre looked them over with a hint of concern. “She’s pretty drunk, Captain.”
“Don’t give a crap what she is.”
Rosetta had been teasing him all night, and he was going to make her pay for it.
The more intoxicated she got, the worse she seemed to be.
She even tried to undo the buttons of his breeches so she could slip her hand inside, right in front of his men, as though she’d forgotten where they were, that they had company.
He walked them from The Drunken Sailor into the street.
Other drunk pedestrians walked past, like obstacles he was sure he was going to struggle getting through. Thankful he knew there was a hotel close by he’d stayed in a few times, he headed in that general direction.
“Do ye not know how to walk in a straight line, lad?” she said, mocking the way he spoke by exaggerating it.
“You wouldn’t know a straight line if it spanked you on the arse right now,” he retorted with a laugh, stumbling to the side to right his footing. “At least I can walk.”
Albeit not well, but walk nonetheless.
She gave him one of those laughs that always made him shake his head. Such a horrible sound.
Holding the bottles with one arm, she slipped her hand up over his tunic, into the open vee of it, then up the side of his neck to hold onto him. The way she did it had been sensual, caressing his skin slowly. She’d even scraped her nails over him.
He picked up his pace when he noticed her head slump forward. Walking inside the hotel, he went straight to the counter. “Oi, give us a room. Now.”
“That’ll be four pounds,” the attendant told him, looking over the rim of his square glasses.
“Don’t care what it costs. I’ll pay it in the morning.”
The man folded his thin arms across his surprisingly well-tailored chest. “You pay first.”