Chapter 22
“The Pandora’s ready to sail.”
Riella’s heart leaped. “We can go to the Black Cliffs?”
He nodded. “Tomorrow morning, we’ll set off. We can’t dock in the bay of the Black Cliffs, because it’s far too shallow, but we’ll get as close as we can and travel by horseback the rest of the way.”
He and Riella sat on tree stumps on the edge of the clearing, their conversation masked by the crackling and spitting of the growing bonfire.
Inky darkness fell across the island like a cloak. Ulyss helped Kohara and the children prepare food, as the rest of the crew drank and talked and cast grudging looks at Riella.
“And your crew?” she asked doubtfully. “They’re willing to assist a siren?”
“Once we dock, they’re going to plunder the inland armory of a slaver, to fortify ourselves against Artus. A showdown with him is inevitable, and we need weapons. To the crew’s knowledge, that is why we are sailing tomorrow. Meanwhile, I’ll go to the Black Cliffs with you. We’ll be more stealthy with just the two of us.”
Riella nodded, mulling this over. “Yes, that’s wise. Polinth has an excellent vantage point from his workshop on the cliffs. And I’m sure he uses magic to defend his territory.” The siren allowed herself a brief glimmer of hope. At least she’d have the chance to face the sorcerer. “I look forward to killing him.”
“And I look forward to watching you do it.”
They smiled at each other. Even if she had no chance of attaining the amulet, she could stop Polinth and Artus the old-fashioned way. She could disembowel them.
But right now, it was a balmy evening on a tropical island, and she had naught to do except wait until the morning.
The pirates became steadily drunk, their jibes and insults about Riella traveling across the fire to her ears. Perhaps she ought to get rotten drunk, too. That might dissolve some of her painful thoughts about her friends and Seraphine.
“Want to go see the best place on the island?” asked Jarin, eyeing her.
She nodded gratefully and stood. “Very much so.”
He led her to a steep rock formation in a quiet pocket of the island. Vines covered the path and she had to walk with care to avoid tripping. The canopy blocked out the moon and the only light was the darting flame of the torch Jarin carried.
But once they climbed to the top of the formation, the canopy of the jungle spread at their feet like a green velvet carpet. The dark sea and distant horizon lay beyond. The surface at the summit was flat, and the stone was still warm from the now-absent sun. A light breeze teased at the hem of Riella’s dress, which was now quite worn and ragged.
“This is where I sleep most of the time, when I don’t have a siren to look after. No one else knows about this spot.”
Riella tilted her head. “Look after me? Is that what you’ve been doing?”
Chuckling, he wedged the torch in a crevice and sat on the rock overlooking the emerald canopy. She sat next to him.
“Yes, looking after you. You’ve survived, haven’t you?”
She made a noise in her throat. “For now.”
He touched her arm. “It’s not like a siren to give up.”
“Well, lots of things about me are not like a siren anymore.”
“Hey.” He lay on the rock, putting his hands behind his head. “Lie back and get a load of the view.”
She did as he said. The cloudless night sky filled her vision completely and took her breath away. Stars were packed densely into every bit of darkness, sparkling white and pink and blue and yellow. She’d gazed at the night sky before, of course, but never while lying high on a hilltop like this.
She ignored the waxing moon—the celestial time-keeper for Riella’s mortality.
“I feel like I could stay up here forever,” she said. “I wish I could.”
“Some legends say that we end up among the stars when we die.”
“Ours say that we dwell in the sea forevermore, floating on the currents.”
He reached down and took her hand, holding it to his chest. The gesture made her feel strangely shy, and she was glad of the dark and that she faced the heavens. The heat from the rock seeped into her body, relaxing her muscles.
“If you knew your days were numbered, how would you prefer to spend your remaining time?” she asked in a pensive voice. “I mean, what would you like to do?”
“Honestly?”
“Yeah.”
“This,” he replied quietly. “I’d do this.”
Riella’s chest quaked. The sensation felt new but also achingly natural, and she didn’t speak, because she worried that if she did, she would cry. Jarin held her hand tighter, rubbing his thumb back and forth on her palm.
All her life, Riella had only ever viewed humans from the outside. From her vantage point, they seemed like illogical and brash creatures. But she was learning more and more that a deep undercurrent of passion accounted for their perceived madness. Humans had different, more complicated bonds to navigate than sirens. Family and friends and lovers.
Jarin seemed to have a particularly complicated emotional tapestry, despite his insistence that he was just a simple pirate. He was an outcast, his mother was a murderer, and he fought to usurp his mentor, Artus. And now, he lay on a warm rock in the dark with a siren, his sworn enemy.
“Tell me a nice memory of your mother,” said Riella after some time. “If you have them?”
“I do.” He paused. “You know, I don’t think anyone’s ever asked me that before. Everyone assumes she’s a demon. All bad, all the time. Sometimes I feel guilty for even thinking about good memories of her.”
Jarin exhaled. “Well, she used to tell me stories about where she grew up, in Morktland. A place made of ice and snow. Of course, growing up in Zermes, I’d never seen proper snow, but it sounded magical and I really wanted to, especially during the festive season. One night, on the eve of Yule, my father woke me in the early hours and brought me outside. It was snowing, as if we were in another world. There were great snowy drifts on the ground and icicles on the trees and flurries dancing through the air. My mother had learned how to conjure snow from the sky. And in her typical excessive style, she did not just conjure it. She covered the whole land in it. The High Magus was furious and she was punished severely, but she didn’t care. She said it was worth it to see the look on my face. She was brilliant, and unstoppable, like a wildfire.” He swallowed. “Unstoppable by anything, except her own heart.”
“What a tragedy. For one so talented to fall prey to madness.”
“Can’t have one side of the coin without the other, I suppose. Duality exists in all of nature. Land and sea, dark and light.”
“Sirens and pirates,” said Riella with a smile.
He squeezed her hand. “Aye. Sirens and pirates.”
Her attraction to Jarin was peculiar, given their traditional hatred and distrust of one another. But their opposing natures seemed to stoke the passion between them, not lessen it. Was that why she craved him in a way she didn’t quite understand? Was he the land to her sea?
The familiar recklessness of her nature stole over her. Riella pushed herself up and threw a leg over his body, lowering herself to straddle him. A slow smirk started on one side of his mouth, his white teeth gleaming. His hands found her hips, and his sex hardened beneath her as his blood flowed rapidly to his groin.
Trailing her fingertips over the fabric of his shirt, lightly grazing his skin, she admired him. His strong tanned arms, chiseled jaw dark with stubble, broad tattooed chest. Deep, intense gray-green eyes, like the ocean right before a storm.
Wanting to see more of him, she sank her talons into the fabric of his shirt. Once she’d hooked them in, she tore the shirt off, leaving the material in shreds on the stone beside him. She ran her hot palms over his muscular chest, feeling the thump of his heart under the tuft of dark hair. With her touch, she memorized his solid pectorals, strong shoulders, and prominent abdominal muscles. She traced the line of hair leading down the center of his stomach to the top of his trousers.
Holding his gaze, she removed her dress, slowly pulling it over her head. With a teasing smile, she let the dress dangle from her hand for a moment before dropping it on the remains of his shirt, then eased herself out of her underwear. Naked, she enjoyed the feel of the ocean breeze and Jarin’s intense stare on her bare skin.
His engorged cock strained against the confines of his pants. Riella giggled, enjoying the power she had over him. Wriggling her hips, she ground her own throbbing sex against his, eliciting a moan from Jarin. Her blood tingled with desire, her skin ultra-sensitive to every sensation. Her pink nipples hardened in the night air and warmth poured through her core.
Unable to restrain himself any longer, Jarin dug his fingers into her hips, gripping her so hard that she gasped. He drove his bulge against her, lifting her off the ground. A small moan escaped her throat.
In response, she grabbed his wrists, yanked them off her hips and slammed them into the stone over his head. She leaned over him, her platinum hair tickling her breasts and falling over his face and chest. He ran his tongue across his bottom lip, his eyes hazy and half-mad with desire.
“Gods,” he said huskily. “You really are perfect.”
She climbed up farther, so that her knees pinned his wrists to the stone and she was kneeling upright over him. He gazed as if mesmerized at her pink slit directly over his face, his forearm muscles taut under her knees.
Riella tilted her head back, the stars sparkling like a million diamonds in the sky. She lowered her body onto his face, his eager mouth greeting her parted entrance with a guttural moan. Jarin swirled his tongue around her slick folds, then slid it back and forth over her pulsing clit. Her head still tilted back, she ran her fingertips over her erect nipples, amazed at how they seemed to be connected to her clit by currents of pleasure.
He dipped his tongue into her tight opening, making her rock suddenly forward with the shock of how good it felt. She grabbed his dark hair with both hands and rode his mouth, her juices of arousal spilling down her thighs and drenching his face. His fists clenched and unclenched the air, unable to move anything except his mouth and tongue.
Intense waves of pleasure inside of Riella grew, and she smiled at the sky in anticipation of climax. When the waves peaked, she cried out into the warm night. Jarin sank his tongue into her, eagerly tasting her waterfall. As staggering as the climax felt, it only made her want Jarin more intensely. She craved more than his mouth and tongue—she wanted all of him, inside of her.
“Take off your pants,” she commanded as she released his wrists. “And then don’t move.”
She shifted to the side and watched as he ripped his pants off, kicking them indiscriminately out of the way. From between his muscular thighs, his cock extended thick and long from dark curls of hair. In wonder, she ran her fingers all the way up the veiny shaft, starting from the base.
A single clear drop beaded in the indent at the very end of the tip. She touched the bead and it turned to silky liquid, which she then used to make the head of his cock slippery as she rubbed it between her thumb and two fingers. Jarin gritted his teeth and slammed his head back on the rock.
“Riella—” he said, a growl of warning in his throat. “You’re about two seconds away from finding out whether I really can overpower you.”
With a soft, evil laugh, she straddled him again, hovering just above his gigantic cock. She guided his shaft vertically with one hand, positioning the silky tip against her throbbing opening. Jarin’s eyes rolled back in his head and he grabbed her waist.
Riella pushed the tip of his cock into her aching slit, making the delicate opening part for him. She drove herself down on the head, his erection impaling her. She gasped at the wholly unfamiliar sensation of being penetrated. The burn was overwhelming and made her dizzy, yet she longed for more. The combined pain and pleasure brought tears to her eyes and made her pant with arousal. Using her strength, she plunged his cock all the way in, to the hilt.
There she sat, lightheaded and ecstatic, her inner muscles encasing his steel-hard cock in its entirety. Her walls pulsed with the overload of sensation, her entrance growing slicker to accommodate the invasion.
“Gods, your strength makes you so tight,” said Jarin with a groan. “Your muscles are going to crush my cock.”
Riella was disappointed. “Oh. Do you want me to stop?”
“No. Don’t you dare stop. It’s a good thing, believe me.”
She looked down at Jarin to realize he was gazing at her face. The pirate snaked his hand around her neck and pulled her forward, kissing her hard on the mouth. She kissed him back with equal force, sliding her tongue into his mouth and eagerly accepting his into her own. The sudden change in her body’s angle made his rod press into her core more firmly and she moaned into his mouth.
Her clit pressing flush against his groin sent another strong current into her depths. She ground her heat down into him, the head of his cock driven strongly into her core. The potent sensations quickly brought her to climax. She rode the wave, rocking back and forth on his groin, kissing him deeply.
Breathless, she leaned back, exposing her breasts to him. He kneaded them roughly, rubbing her erect pink nipples to make her gasp. While he watched, she lifted her hips higher off his body, his slick cock revealed incrementally as her entrance stretched around him. When she neared the tip, she drove herself back down on him, burying his length inside of her.
She gazed down at her pink clit, shining and swollen, and marveled that her body could accommodate his incredible girth and length. Not only that, but it felt heavenly—even better than she’d imagined. Just to see what would happen, she clenched her core muscles around his cock.
Jarin let out a guttural moan. “Riella. Don’t. I’m moments away from flooding you. That feels too damn good.”
She didn’t know what he meant by flooding her, but she giggled and clenched again, enjoying the sensation of gripping his thick, unrelenting shaft.
He gave a husky laugh. “You know what, Riella? I was going to go easy on you, but if that’s how you want to play, you got it.”
With a grunt, Jarin lifted her with one arm and flipped her onto her back, his cock remaining inside of her. She wrapped her slender legs around his waist and anticipation curled in Riella’s core. The pirate tensed his sculpted, muscle-bound physique and drove his cock into her depths with all his strength, making her cry out. He speared onward until his entire cock was buried inside of her, making her pearl sing with pleasure.
His chest glistened with perspiration as he pumped into her tight depths without pause. She felt every stroke in perfect detail.
The sensations weren’t confined to her folds and pearl—they spread through her entire body. As Jarin rammed his shaft into her willing depths, a tidal wave built in her core with such intensity that she vowed to murder him if he stopped. She wrapped both legs around his svelte waist as he drilled into her.
Her talons pierced the skin of his muscle-bound shoulders, blood trickling from the wounds. Jarin seemed not to notice, thrusting into her with frantic speed and strength, his jaw clenched. Then, the tidal wave inside Riella broke, releasing an explosion of impossibly intense pleasure through her body, starting at her core and spreading through her chest and limbs.
The pirate did not relent, pumping her interior while another wave crashed through her body, then another. Her moans and cries filled the sky. Jarin looked down with a lustful, victorious smile as he continued driving into her.
“Told you I’d make you sing for me, siren,” he said.
On the next out-thrust, he let his cock slide out of her. She cried out in annoyance, not wanting to stop yet. But neither did Jarin.
“Turn over,” he said, kneeling over her, his veiny erect cock flushed and shining.
“What? Why?”
“Just do as I say.”
Too aroused to argue, she rolled over on the rock. Jarin grasped her hips and yanked them upward, so that her knees propped her ass into the air and she leaned forward on her arms. He kneaded her cheeks, parting them to expose her aching sex fully.
Unable to see what he was doing, she cried out when his tongue swirled around her clit, then firmly lapped at her opening. But he didn’t stop there. His hands held her steady while his tongue progressed to the tight pink rosebud between her cheeks, making her inhale. He teased the opening with feather-soft licks to gauge her reaction.
Her eyes slid unfocused and she rested the side of her face on the hot stone, arching her back further and sighing. Jarin encircled the rosebud with his tongue, while reaching his hand around to rub her clit with his fingertips. With Riella moaning in the warm night air, he coaxed another deep and reverberating climax from her.
She felt it on a different level this time, intensified by his attention to her forbidden back entrance. As she reached the peak, her body quivering, he maintained his fingers’ steady rhythm on her clit and pushed his wet, smooth tongue into her tight rosebud, making her almost pass out from the sweetness of the sensation.
As the waves of pleasure moved through her core, he straightened up while she remained on all fours. He lined himself up and slammed the length of his cock into her swollen opening, amplifying the tail-end of her climax. Barely giving her a chance to breathe, he grasped her waist and pummeled her depths from behind. Each thrust sent a thrill of bliss into Riella, his cock causing new sensations by entering at the unfamiliar angle. She could do nothing except moan and hold onto the rock as he pounded her without pause.
His rod hardened and finally, he flooded her depths with his hot seed. He made a sound that was almost inhuman, groaning in ecstasy and digging his fingertips into her skin. Her muscles squeezed his shaft, compressing every last drop of the pulsations from him.
Her body hummed with the reverberations of pleasure, and her legs felt shaky. Jarin’s must’ve too, because when he finally withdrew from her, he sagged next to her on the rock, panting while he pulled her close.
In the distance, waves crashed endlessly against the dark shore.