Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The bioluminescence was at its peak tonight.
Millions of microscopic creatures lit the surface of the ocean, a blue-green fire rolling out from the bow wherever the hull disturbed them.
The wake behind the ship was a shimmering path, a galaxy of emeralds standing in stark contrast to the black of the water.
Corynne stood at the rail watching as they moved, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. I’d seen plenty of stars, but never once had I thought to take my eyes off the sky and see the beauty that could lie before me.
I didn’t speak, only watched as she took it in.
The sea glass beads winding through her curls caught the glow and threw fractured turquoise across her cheekbones.
Her lips parted, releasing a small, soundless gasp.
In that moment, the curse quieted within me.
The itch on my back dulled to nothing. There was no pull in my blood and no hunger gnawing at my core. There was only the sight of her.
“It’s as if the heavens have fallen,” she whispered. Corynne leaned forward over the railing. Light danced in her brown eyes.
“And it seems an angel along with it,” I said, my voice scratched and gruff. I hadn’t meant to say the words out loud.
Corynne turned toward me, her chest rising and falling in quick succession.
“What did you say?” she asked breathlessly.
I cleared my throat and answered a touch awkwardly, “I said I have something for you.”
Her brows furrowed as if she didn’t quite believe me. Instead of acknowledging the silent question, I reached inside my coat pocket and proffered her most prized possession.
Her hands trembled as she reached out and took it.
The honey and ink scent of her hair surrounded me as the breeze blew and ruffled the pages of her journal.
I thought it would end there, that she would have me turn around so that she could study my back once more. Or maybe even slap me again for holding it hostage. Instead, she sat the book down on the railing and turned to study me, the bioluminescent colors from the sea reflecting in her dark eyes.
“Sit,” she commanded, gesturing toward the steps.
Had I been one to laugh freely, I might have. The last man who tried to command the Cursed Captain of the Mourning Star lost his tongue. This woman, so fierce she could have rivaled the sun for heat, I obeyed.
I sat on the low step beside the helm and tensed as she hiked up her skirts and straddled my lap.
It took every ounce of restraint I had not to run my fingers along the creamy skin of her inner thighs.
“The world is very good at making monsters,” she whispered.
“It takes something living and starves it, hurts it, strips it of everything kind until all that’s left is a savage hunger one cannot simply ignore.
” Her fingers brushed the back of my neck.
“I don’t think you were born a monster, Silas.
I think the curse has been carving you into one for so long that you’ve started believing the shape it gave you was the only one you ever had. ”
Breath seized in my lungs.
Then, more gently than I deserved, Corynne stroked the side of my cheek, brushing a few strands of hair away from my lashes as she whispered, “That doesn’t erase your transgressions, and it doesn’t change the past. What it means is that the man is still in there somewhere, and you can still fight for him. We both can.”
Her words sent a jagged crack running through the armor built by years of solitude. Corynne’s hands settled on my shoulders and slid slowly down over the front of my shirt to rest just above my heart. I hoped she couldn’t feel its traitorous rhythm.
If I were redeemable at all, I would have retreated back into the icy shell of the man who had held her captive and nearly killed her.
Instead, I stayed exactly where I was and let the warmth of her palms soak through the linen of my shirt.
I’d spent a hundred years seeking a touch that didn’t feel like a searing flame, one that didn’t send the feeling of creatures skittering across my skin until I was sick to my stomach with violated rage.
A touch that could satiate the need to be seen.
In Corynne’s arms, I’d finally found it.
“Corynne,” I whispered, and her name on my lips was a sort of divinity that could bring even the righteous to their knees.
The living lights in the water painted her throat in a celestial show of blues and greens, and her pulse fluttered beneath them, its pace matching the rhythm of my own.
Her eyes roved over my face in silent question as she leaned in slowly.
For a moment, neither of us moved. Then I closed the distance, answering with the soft brush of a kiss, my lips lingering against hers.
I wanted more. I wanted to devour her from the inside out before she disappeared from my life forever.
She parted her mouth and the taste of her was sweet on my tongue as our breaths filled the space between us. My hands found the backs of her thighs and I dragged her closer, relishing the sound of her soft moan as my hardened cock pressed against her center.
Sliding under her skirts, my palms mapped her bare skin as my thumbs brushed the edge of her undergarments. She broke the kiss long enough to whimper my name against my mouth, and the raw, wanting sound of it set my blood alight.
I could have taken her right there against the rail. I could have moved my fingers another inch and touched her where my mouth longed to be. However, I forced my hands to still on her thighs and pressed my forehead to hers.
“Not here,” I managed. “Not like this.”
Corynne’s hooded gaze searched mine. For the first time in longer than I could measure, the beast was not the loudest thing inside me…
It was the man.