Chapter 9
A disgruntled groan fell from Rosetta before she even opened her eyes. She could see the brightness of the sun behind her lids and knew if she were to open them, she’d be terribly blinded.
She curled her body into the side of the person she was lying against, her head burrowing deeper into their chest to hide from it.
“Someone shoot the sun,” she grumbled to herself, her head feeling like it was splitting open the more she woke.
I’m so hungover.
Deathly hungover. She couldn’t even remember how much she’d drunk, or how she’d gotten to this bed to wake up next to someone who felt wonderfully warm and comfortable.
“I don’t think that would be wise,” came a familiar deep voice, followed by a chuckle.
Her brows drew together, and she peeked open her eyes. She tried to use his broad chest to shield her from the sunlight filtering into the room through the uncovered window.
“Alister?”
“Who else would it be, Rosetta?” There was a heavy bite to the tone as his head turned down to her. His eyes peeked open, as if he also wasn’t ready, but there was a tight glare in them.
“You’re usually still asleep when I wake up,” she answered plainly.
She had a feeling the entire time that she’d been cuddling into Alister. The body next to her had smelt like him, felt like him.
He tilted his head back to the pillow, closing his eyes once more. “That’s because you wake up as soon as the sky does.”
True. It was as though the moment the sun gave just a fraction of light over the horizon, Rosetta was awakened by a beckoning call. It made waking up with it high in the sky strange.
To wake up gently next to him like this, while he was already awake to share it with her, was actually rather enjoyable.
He made their cuddle more intimate by turning towards her to lie on his side. He brought his other arm over the top of her body and dragged her closer. Facing each other, he made her face squish against the centre of his chest as he placed his chin against the top of her head.
His warmth helped soothe her raging headache. She sought it, not wanting to jar herself out of her satisfied state.
Yet, she also felt something else: a strange wetness over the front of her stomach as her skin stuck to his. Her brows came together to knot in concentration as she mentally assessed her body when she thought she felt it in other places, like... lower.
She squirmed a little at the odd sensation. Rosetta dug her hand between them and felt the lips of her folds, finding them slippery and tender.
“Alister...” she asked with a thoughtful tone.
He answered her with a sleepy “Hmm?”
“Did... did you come inside me?”
“Oh, aye.” His jaw moved against the top of her head as he spoke. “In you, on you, around you. I think I even hit the ceiling, lass.”
That made her eyes open wider than she wanted. “But you never do!”
“Was a wee bit drunk last night. Almost dropped you twice carrying you here.”
He tightened his arms around her, holding her closer like nothing was wrong with the world. He even kneaded her ass with one large hand, pushing her hips against his.
She’d never experienced him this lax and satisfied before.
“But you never get drunk.”
She’d seen the man drink rum like it was water and never miss a step, even on a rocking and unsteady ship.
“I do when I’m in port. Give me a belly of whiskey and scotch and you’ll see me walk like a landlubber on the ocean.”
A chuckle followed his words.
She was too shocked to move. “But you never come inside me!” she repeated. “Why would you do that?”
And why was he so damn calm about it?
“You were riding me like you wanted it.” She felt something growing against her abdomen. He was getting hard at just the memory. “Wasn’t really in the soberest state of mind to stop you.”
That seemed to make the worst of her anxiously beating heart settle. Rosetta could remember fractions of her night the more she woke. She could remember being beneath Alister for a lot of it, as well as on top of him once.
“So, it was only once.”
Still not good, but she’d had men stupidly come inside her before, even though they weren’t supposed to.
What also helped calm her was that she truly did think she was a broken woman. Either it didn’t matter at all, or it was just extremely difficult to get her pregnant.
Once more couldn’t be that bad. Fuck, I hope so.
“Oh nay. More than that. We were going until the sun rose.”
No wonder she was so tired!
Her heart thrummed in her chest and she started pushing against his torso.
She could forgive once, maybe twice, if they were going all night and he was drunk. She knew she must have been three sheets to the wind, so trying to get a woman astride him off in the middle of coming and clinging desperately would have been difficult.
It was probably Rosetta’s doing. In the throes of her climax, too drunk to care, she could picture herself riding him as he came, so long as she got to come too. He probably even told her and she’d been too focused on reaching bliss.
But she couldn’t stay calm for the rest.
“What about at the bar then?” When he wouldn’t release her, she started bashing on his chest. It wouldn’t do much, considering her arm was twisted between them. She could only deliver small punches. “You have no excuse for that!”
She was suddenly flipped to her back, with Alister kneeling over her on a straightened arm. His silver locket dangling from his neck almost brushed over her naked chest.
One of his knees was between her thighs as he gripped the underneath of her jaw in one large hand. He clamped her mouth shut, tilting her head back slightly, and she was forced to stare at his snarling face.
The contented and relaxed Alister she’d been experiencing for the first time had turned into a murderous-looking man who held her down.
“I was angry, Rosetta.”
His hand gripped tighter, and if he’d been holding her neck lower, he would have been strangling her.
She tried to pry herself free, not feeling a shred of fear as her own anger rose like a monstrous beast.
“If you touch other men while we’re sailing together, you’ll regret it.”
Then his grip softened, as did his expression. He looked over her face like he was mesmerised by it, his thumb rubbing across her bottom lip as though he couldn’t stop himself, and the sensitive flesh tingled under his hypnotic strokes.
Even though everything became gentler, the way he said his next words made dread pool in her stomach.
“I’ll hunt them down and kill every single one of them.”
Her lips parted in shock while her eyes widened in realisation. Because his hold on her had loosened, she was able to push her way free.
“You don’t get to make such a threat!” she yelled as she crawled to get off the bed and away from him, taking the sheet with her to hide her nudity. “It’s not fair when you have your girls and prostitutes. If you’re going to–”
Rosetta’s words were cut short when her feet found the floor... and her legs immediately gave out. A sharp gasp of pain cut its way from her throat before she even hit the ground. She found herself on her knees right next to the bed, gripping the sheet as agony shot through her.
Because she hadn’t been moving, and had been too distracted, she hadn’t realised just how much her body ached.
Her thighs were so sore she couldn’t stand, as if they’d been stretched apart further than they’d ever been before.
Her belly ached like she’d been punched in the gut repeatedly.
Her core was so tender, even the singular step she’d taken had made it throb deeply, and it’d sapped all her energy in one go.
What did he do to me? She was sure if she really tried, she could stand, but it felt like a battle that would be too difficult.
She hadn’t even noticed he’d come closer until she felt his hand wrap around the nape of her neck and pull her forward. He pointed at the headboard. “Do you see another woman in this bed with you?” He barked the question at her so loudly it made her flinch.
She turned her eyes away from his furious face to scan over the bed. No, she didn’t. She knew from her hazy memories slowly returning that it had only ever held the both of them.
“I never bring a woman alone to my bed when I’m in port, Rosetta, and now you know why.
I’m not the same man as when I’m at sea.
When I’m in port, I get drunk, and when I get drunk, I get horny.
” He let her go so he could start backing off the bed.
“I drink all evening and then fuck all night since I usually don’t get to. ”
“But you currently do!”
Why did she have to take him like he was a rutting beast when she’d been satisfying him for months?
He stood, stalking around the room with loud, echoing footsteps. His round, muscled arse flexed as he reached down to grab his breeches, stealing her attention for a split second, like she couldn’t stop herself from ogling his scarred body.
“Oh aye, I know,” he answered as he stabbed his foot into a pant leg. “Tell that to my dick that wouldn’t go down, even though I knew you couldn’t take much more.”
Talking about it, even now it was semihard!
“You can’t change a habit I’ve had for over ten years.
” He shook his head as he made his way to the door once he finished putting his breeches on and nothing else, that wide and glorious chest covered in hair in full view.
“Be thankful I stopped when you begged me to, because I didn’t fucking want to. ”
Then he opened the door and slammed it behind him as he left. Rosetta stared at the doorway, dumbstruck.
She couldn’t believe what this morning had turned into.
She tried to stand so she could collect her dress, but her legs wobbled and refused. Giving a groan of pain, she stayed on her knees and flopped her upper body down onto the mattress in dismay.
Why do I have to pay the price for his habits? she thought, scrunching up her face as the twinges, aches, and pains radiated throughout her body.