25. All Tide Up at the Moment #2
Grabbing my shirt in his fist, he tugs me forward and down the beach to a small, more secluded section beyond the rocks. My feet kick through the sand as I trip after him and then down as he guides me, never once breaking the kiss.
Swinging my legs over either side of him, I straddle his hips.
I’ve never straddled someone else before, and something about it, about this sort of dominance, makes me gasp his name into his mouth.
His hips crash up to meet mine, his length pressing against my thigh, and I know all too well how easy it would be to undo his pants and run my fingers down him, grip him tight and make him moan.
But I force myself to slow down, to savor this moment, to savor us. I smooth my hands over his shoulders and chest, memorizing every scar and tattoo.
“What’s this one?” I ask, breaking the kiss and tapping a jagged line over his ribs.
“Jack stabbed me there.”
“Why?”
Silas shrugs, grinning. “I was being stubborn.”
“Pirates,” I say with a shake of my head, capturing his mouth once more.
His calloused hands drag my shirt from where it’s tucked into my pants, the action slow and drawn out, his fingers skating over my stomach and chest as he pushes the fabric up, making me inhale sharply as they slip over my shoulders and gather the fabric in his hands.
Before I know it, he’s pulling my shirt over my head and tossing it away, and the heat of his bare skin against mine is a welcome contrast to the cool evening breeze as we press together, chest to chest, heart to heart.
Between us, my fingers slide over his stomach, and I can feel his heart thrumming as my hand skirts along his abdomen.
I bend down to press a kiss to the inked crescent moon along his ribs before my lips trail up his chest. My hand slides over his skin, tracing the black ink, and up his neck, tangling in his hair.
When I finally pause over him, our lips inches apart, he regards me with hooded desire.
I press a brief kiss to his lips, tentative as I regard him, but he doesn’t hold back.
He closes the distance between us and kisses me back with a fervor I haven’t felt since that first kiss at the tavern.
He rolls on top of me, one hand wrapping around my wrist and pinning it above my head.
I make a strangled sound as he tightens his hold around my arm. His other hand climbs down my stomach and toward my pants, his nails raking over my skin and leaving behind red, angry scratches.
But Silas pulls back to admire me, straddled beneath him, pinned in the sand.
We are both panting, our chests heaving as we survey each other, each waiting for the other to give in.
His dark, peppered hair cascades around us as he leans closer until his nose nudges mine, and I reach up with my free hand to run my fingers through his hair, tangling in the waves.
There’s a tightness in my chest as I smile up at him. I love this man. It doesn’t matter how little time I have known him, I’ve never felt this way about anyone, not even Julian before he broke my trust all those years ago, but I love him. I love Silas.
“You are so beautiful,” I say. When I press my palm to his cheek, he nuzzles my hand like it has the power to hold him up.
“You’re strange,” I continue, “and so kind. You act all broody and mysterious, but you have the biggest, most wonderful heart. And no matter how much I tried to resist you, I’ve wanted to kiss you since I first landed on your ship. ”
Whatever the hell brought us together, whether it was the space-time continuum or fate, I will never repay my debt. Because he is my everything, and I didn’t know I needed him until I found him.
“I love you to the end of the Earth,” he whispers. I can’t help it; I laugh. He frowns, sitting up on his elbows. “What?”
“Sorry,” I say, snorting. “There’s some geographical discoveries that won’t happen for some time.”
He contemplates it for a beat. “I’d rather stay oblivious.”
I nod, grinning. “Okay.”
Silas traps my other wrist above me, and I don’t know if it’s just him, or the way he’s pinning me to the sand, but I am impossibly attracted to all of this.
He bends down and presses a kiss to my ribs. I squirm beneath him, the motion both sensual and ticklish. His nose skims up, and he leaves a map of hot kisses across my chest until he breathes against my collarbone.
My god.
He rakes his bottom teeth across the delicate skin there, and up my neck to my ear, biting down. The sound that comes out of my mouth is a high-pitched whine, and I flush and squeeze my eyes shut as his other hand digs into my hip, tugging the waistband of my pants down an inch.
“Never heard that sound before,” he murmurs against my skin. His breath fans over me, his lips whisper-soft, and damn him, I am a goner.
“Never made it till now,” I admit weakly.
Silas’s lips glide over my jaw, and his tongue dances across my skin as his fingers hook into the space between fabric and skin, impossibly close.
And then he pauses.
“May I?”
I blink up at him. “Yes, please.”
With painstaking slowness, he unties the laces of my pants. Tugging with knowing, nimble fingers, he folds them down, slides his hand in, and grips me. He’s warm, and I am burning up, and when I moan his name, squirming to try to touch him, he only tightens his hold on me.
“Is this good, Laszlo?”
“Tighter.”
His grip tightens, and I gasp.
“Silas.”
He presses a tender kiss to my stomach as he sinks down. “I’m busy,” he mumbles.
“Silas.”
He lets go of my wrists.
“Silas.”
He tugs down my pants the rest of the way and tosses them to the sand, never once letting go.
“Silas.”
My hands dive into his hair as he stares up at me, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
I scrape my fingers over his scalp and start to say his name again, but he wraps his lips around me, and whatever I was about to say dies on a moan as I sink into the sand, close my eyes, and give in to the pleasure.
O Captain! my Captain! I salute silently as he takes all of me into his mouth, his name melting into a sigh on my lips.