35. Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Five
I wake up to the clinking of metal. Blinking, a man’s silhouette comes into focus, pulling his shirt over his head. A lantern now stands at his feet, painting the room in a soft, golden glow.
My eyes widen as I watch him push his breeches down too, revealing strong, muscled thighs. The shadow that he casts looks faint and stretches unnaturally wide against the other side of the cabin. I cannot get myself to look away, keeping my lips sealed, I start to pull the sheets over my face.
“I know you’re awake,” he says in a low voice, making me jump. “You were snoring when I came in, now you’re dead quiet. I tried not to wake you, but—”
“It’s okay.” I interrupt him, my voice nothing more than a whisper. I prop myself up upon my hands and pull the blanket against my chest. Neither of us says anything, the moment between us thick in the air like honey.
The mattress dips where his weight settles as he climbs into bed with me. There’s only one sheet, but he doesn’t tug at what covers my body. Instead, he lies on his back and stares at the ceiling, with his body draped with a sliver of the sheet.
“You’re being silly,” I say while lifting the blanket, before throwing it over his chest.
Sable moves his head to the side with a huff and sets his eyes on me.
“I’m trying to be a gentleman.”
“You’re a pirate,” I argue. “Isn’t that against your nature?”
“Isn’t sleeping in a bed with a pirate against your nature?”
A smile tugs at my lips as I shrug. He’s right. We’ve stopped letting what we are define our actions, our feelings towards each other a long time ago. My back softens against the mattress at the thought, the warmth of the thought wrapping around me as we grow more comfortable with one another.
“So, what do you think is out there?” I ask, my voice low.
Sable swallows. “I wish I knew. I don’t think the passage will open up or bring us somewhere else. There’s nothing here, besides water. It looks like—“
“The womb of the sea?”
“I wanted to say a giant cave,” he says with a light laugh. “But yes, that describes it pretty well.”
I bite my lip. “What about the Glim?”
“It stopped moving. It’s…there, but faint and pulsing. We’ve set anchor for the night, the crew is exhausted.”
“We have arrived? We’re in the Sea of the First Song?” I try to contain my excitement at the thought of it, but a smile pulls at my lips anyway.
It would make sense, considering how well the walls of the cave echo every sound. If I were to use my siren song in here, I’m sure the echo would multiply it, and with that, my powers.
“Aye,” he sighs. “But we can’t stay long. We’re running low on supplies…and I have to sail home.”
“Home?” I whisper, my voice thin as the truth settles heavy in my chest. I know what sailing home means. I have seen it with my own eyes.
“The curse. I’ve run out of time, darling. The sea has been calling me back home since we woke up from the dream. I tried to tell you that I am too far gone.”
His words land like a punch to my gut, knocking something loose inside me, and suddenly I remember the words of his shadow as if it were yesterday, along with the splash of water as the bodies of the pirates broke the surface.
Some try to outrun it. But none of that makes a difference once the sea decides it is time. They sail home to follow its call.
“I don’t have enough power yet, I can‘t— I mean, I don’t know if I can. I can take another salt bath, I can—“
“You’re ready, Risa,” he says, his voice so sure that I almost believe it. He lifts my fingers to his mouth, then kisses them once, the brief touch of his lips against my skin making me shiver. “Tomorrow, you sing back the shadows of the crew. I know you can.”
None of us dares to say what we both think. That I might not have enough power to actually save them all, even with the echo and the power radiating within the cave.
“Sable—”
“Don’t,” he says, his voice sharp. “Don’t apologize for something that hasn’t happened yet, little siren. We are still here. We are alive. We are breathing.”
He takes my hand and gently puts it on his chest, then lays his fingers on top of mine.
His heart drums behind his ribs, a steady rhythm that soon syncs with mine.
The contracting muscles pump blood through his system the same way that the power is pumped through mine.
Closing my eyes, I follow the urge to lay my head on his chest, to not only feel, but hear the beating of his heart.
Alive. His body is warm, not cold. He is not going to be climbing over the railing in the Sea of Shadows, and he is not going to drown.
His bones will not become part of the collection that rests at the bottom of that seabed.
Not if I can help it. With a quiet exhale, Sable curls his arms around me as I do him, and we lie there, counting the synchronized beats of our hearts.
In this very moment, I decide that I will do anything not to lose him. I will not accept a fate in which he is not here with me, a fate in which he is not made whole.
“There’s something else I want to tell you,” he says, his voice suddenly unsteady.
I lift my head slowly to take in his face, his grey eyes now look hazel in the subtle glow of the lantern.
“If you fail to sing my shadow back tomorrow,” he takes a deep breath. “I want you to know that I have never regretted the kiss. I have never regretted touching you on that little sandbank either.”
I open my mouth to say something, but he squeezes my hand, making me close it again.
“Not for one single second have I regretted you, Risa,” he continues. “In fact, you had me in your hold from the very first moment you stood there, in your white night gown, so otherworldly, so… beautiful.”
Adoration flashes through his eyes, and I forget how to breathe. His eyebrows knit together as the drumming of his heart becomes faster.
“While I tried to resist, tried to avoid you, to make you hate me,” he says and glances away, only for a brief second before our eyes meet again. “My shadow couldn’t. My soul was drawn to you, and I knew I was doomed to want someone I could never have.”
“Don’t you dare say goodbye to me now, pirate.” I sob, tears falling off my cheeks freely and onto his chest. “Don’t you dare, Sable.”
“I wish we had more time, my little siren. How I would love to see the world with you and shower you in dresses and gold. I’d bring you men to drown if you asked for it, and more.”
I sniffle as he places one hand on my cheek, brushing my tears away with his thumb.
“I want you to know,” he says, his gleaming eyes locked with mine. “That on some days I forgot my name, but I never forgot yours.”
The world slips out from under my feet like sand washing away from the tide.
My mouth wobbles, the tears still streaming down my face.
He catches every single one of them as they fall and brushes them away before they reach my lips.
All this time, he didn’t loathe me. He didn’t fear me.
He was trying to withhold, knowing his fate would take him away in the end.
“Then kiss me,” I whisper. “We are still here. We are alive. So kiss me.”
His eyes widen in surprise as he leans back and releases a long breath. He smiles. With one hand at the back of my head and one at my hip, he turns us in the sheets. His head is now hovering above mine. He bites his lip, waiting for permission.
I curl my legs around his body, hooking him closer. Whatever leash he had on himself seems to snap, and his mouth crushes against mine in a hungry kiss. It isn’t gentle, it is devouring, as if he wants to make up for the time we likely will never have.
As his teeth scrape over the bottom of my lip, I moan into the kiss. My mouth opens for him, and his tongue slips in, caressing my own. Strong hands move over my hip, stroking me above the thin fabric of my gown, before moving lower, lower, lower, until his fingers slip underneath.
Sable tears away from the kiss, pressing his mouth against my shoulder as his fingertips brush the bottom of my chest. Each feather-light touch of his lips against my skin feels like little bolts of lightning shooting through my system.
His hand moves further up until he cups my breast, all while planting kisses upon my shoulders, my collarbones, my throat.
I arch my back into the touch, wanting more.
Desperate, I thrust my hands into his thick hair and tug.
The sound he makes almost causes me to lose control.
I am about to beg when he removes his lips and finally lifts my gown above my head.
Sable pulls back to look at me, to devour me with his eyes, before leaning down to cover my nipple with his mouth.
As his tongue circles around it, I gasp and tense and wiggle underneath him.
Within one swift movement, Sable grabs my wrists and pushes them into the mattress above my head. I gasp and test his hold, but he has his hands firmly locked around them, keeping me in place. When I glance down at him, our eyes meet.
“We will do this one time,” he says, a devilish smile now spreading on his face. “So I’ll make sure we do it right. Keep still for me.”
Biting my lip to hold back a whimper, I give in and nod. Whatever I want to say to him dies on my tongue as he sucks on my nipple, and I roll my hips against his body.
“So eager,” he murmurs between kisses, his teeth now scraping against sensitive skin. “We have all night, love. And I intend to use every last minute. Because I’m selfish like that.”
He kisses my stomach now, my belly button, until his hands leave my wrist to grab my thighs instead. His dark curls sit between them now, his lips hovering over the skin of my thighs, but never touching.
I thrust my hips up, towards him, so that he would finally touch me there. Sable groans in response and pushes my hips into the mattress with his arm, keeping me still.
The first flick of his tongue against my sensitive nub sets me on fire.
Moaning, I cling to the blanket, the cushions, anything that surrounds me to not lose my senses as he begins licking through my folds in long, torturing strokes.
“Sable—” I gasp, but that only makes him more eager. Within me, I feel myself changing, how the lust fuels and feeds the power behind my ribs. It burns bright now, buzzing with life and climbing higher, and higher like a wave rolling towards the shore.
His tongue then dips into my channel, making me whimper.
“Please,” I whisper, lost in the haze, not even knowing what I‘m begging for.
But he does. His fingers replace his tongue, slowly pumping into me as his tongue flicks against my clit again. It takes one more stroke, and I shudder, like a wave crashing into cliffs. My hips buckle, my entire body shaking, but he keeps me pinned to the bed and continues to devour me.
He builds me up, and I come again, gasping and panting, until stars burst across the ceiling of the cabin. Only when my muscles are soft and my body feels limp, does he let go. From the corner of my eye, his shadow is partially detached, watching me with intent.
“Sable—”
“It‘s okay,” he assures me as he places a soft kiss on my stomach. “I am not whole, but as whole as I can be.”
I nod, still floating in between the climaxes, and wrap my legs around his head. The locks of his dark hair have fallen into his face, and by the seas, he looks delicious.
“Are you thinking about devouring me now?” he asks, a slow grin spreading across his face. “Should I be worried?”
I hiss, baring my sharp canines. “ You should be if you don’t bed me right now, Captain.”
“Captain,” he murmurs as he climbs on top of me again. “I think I like that word coming from your mouth.”
With one hand, he pushes down his linen shorts, and his hard length springs free. I swallow at the sight of it, so thick and velvety and exactly what I need. When he lets the head of his cock glide against my slick core, I whimper.
“I want you,” I whisper and curl my hips against him, trying to pull him closer. “I want you inside of me, Sable, want to lose myself in you.”
Something flashes across his gaze, and he parts my legs further before nudging his cock at my entrance.
Then, ever so slowly, he pushes inside of me, filling me up and giving me time to adjust. I moan softly as he leans down to press his lips on mine in a searing kiss. He thrusts deeper, making my toes curl, and my hips lift to meet his.
When he bottoms out, I see stars.
He tears away from my mouth, his gaze studying me with care. “You okay?”
“Yes,” I say breathlessly and hook one leg around his butt.
“Good. Because this is about as long as I can hold myself back.”
Slowly, he pulls out again, before thrusting back inside, his hips meeting mine. By the seas, he fills me up so good. He sets a faster pace now and tips his head back, moaning. With every stroke, my own moans grow louder, wilder.
The power buzzing through me feels as if it is about to burst free.
Somehow, I still need him closer, so I grab him and pull him down into a desperate kiss.
Our tongues meet in a dance neither of us has learned before but still master perfectly.
The kiss turns into nudging and scraping teeth, into something hungry and primal.
We kiss as he rocks into me, until I shake beneath him. The waves keep on building and crashing, as if he knew exactly how to set the pace, how to make me wiggle underneath him.
With my next climax, Sable follows, pushing deep into me and then keeping still.
He groans as his hands caress my body, like a man possessed.
As he collapses on top of me, I welcome the weight of him, the warmth of his skin against mine.
I don’t know where my body begins and where his ends, and I wish I could just stay here, with him, forever.
With the desire and the proximity comes the devastating truth that I might lose this man tomorrow. This man, this pirate, that I have come to care for. To yearn for. To love.
When he lifts his head again to meet my gaze, a tear slips from my eye. Sable leans down and kisses it away, then gently presses his lips against mine again, coating them with salt.
He pulls out then, slowly, and curls his arms around my body to hold me close. For a while, neither of us moves, our breaths still uneven, the world narrowing to the quiet space between us.
“Promise me you won't mourn me,” he whispers. “I was never meant to last. Find comfort in knowing I’ll be with the sea.”
Little does he know, the only thing I find comfort in is the sound of his beating heart.