Chapter 36 #2
Once the cool air kisses my bare legs, he reaches out to beckon me in, but there’s no way we’ll fit.
He takes up the lion’s share of the room, but I take his hand, and somehow we do, with my back flush to his chest, half in his lap so the hard length of his cock rests between my legs.
He reaches forwards to thread my fingers, then holds both my hands to my chest with one of his own.
I suck in a breath as the first brush of contact drips water down my stomach.
It’s warm, but the touch is too gentle. Intentional.
Like it’s meant to prove to us both we’re still here.
All is quiet as he dips the sponge in the water again, and it splashes in drips over my thighs.
“Rune,” I say as he runs it over my shoulders and across my back, tightening his grip on my hands, like he thinks I might try to bolt away.
He’s right. I don’t know if I can take this.
The water tracks down my skin, slips down my spine.
“Rune.” My voice cracks, sounding strange in the empty air. I’m not sure what I intend to say.
Just as well he doesn’t answer.
Instead, he lifts my hands up over my head, pulling me up on my knees, and runs the sponge down the bottom of my arm, then scrubs slow circles beneath my breasts.
Everything in me feels painfully exposed, like he’s washing away what’s been there too long.
Like he already knows what he’ll find underneath.
I can’t help the part of me that wants to shy away.
Not the animal this time, but me. The woman whose body has only ever been a weapon to tend to rather than . . . this.
He trails his lips up my shoulder as he lowers us down, planting slow kisses down my neck.
I dive into the sensation, using it as an anchor.
My hips move on their own, seeking friction, slipping against the length of his swollen cock.
“So impatient,” he says. But I’m already trembling.
The water below splashes again, and he sits back before squeezing it over my hair and using his fingers to scrub at the roots.
“Prince.”
“Hmm?”
“Let me touch you.”
“I’m not done yet.” Then he’s wrapped each of his hands around my wrists and pushes me forwards so my hands grip the side of the tub, his chest grazing my back.
A thrill of adrenaline beats through me with every pump of my heart.
“Don’t move,” he says. His voice rumbles, and my stomach swoops as I watch talons grow from his fingers on either side of mine.
Besides my chest, which moves with every quick breath, I’m still as he sits up on his knees behind me. The water sloshes, and I gasp as one warm hand grips my thigh, then he pulls my legs out wider.
“Fuck,” he whispers as he trails the sponge over my ass and down each of my legs. The murmur goes straight between my thighs. As if he knows, he glides the sponge between them, favoring one side and then the other, barely grazing where I need him most. “You’re so perfect.”
My fingers clench the tub’s wooden sides.
The water splashes again, then goes quiet as sharp, languid talons graze down my back and around my hips.
Every inch of my skin erupts in goosebumps.
There’s a wet smack as he slaps my ass, and a spark of pain flares through me before I jolt at the feeling of smooth, untaloned fingers slipping in teasing circles around my clit.
Heat immediately starts to burn low and build, and I arch into the friction, reaching for more.
He grips my hips, keeping me still, and when he finally sinks a finger into me, he speaks.
“I want to watch you break on top of me.” Another finger joins the first, working in and out, growing slicker with every pass.
“But that will require us to move to the bed.”
“Please.” I can’t take it anymore, but he doesn’t stop, just keeps his fingers moving in slow strokes. I continue to beg, my voice is needy and breathless, dangling on the very edge of my sanity.
Finally, he stands and steps out of the tub, splashing water over the floor as he goes.
The sight of him sends a fresh wave of arousal dripping down my legs.
The light catches every dip and cut of sharp muscle.
On the glittering scales that shine up his arms and in patches on his face.
He could be a statue. A god of the sea. His cock twitches, and my eyes lock on the movement.
It strains into the air, already dripping from the tip.
Rune glides his fingers over the head, then fists his hand along the length and pulls in one slow stroke, his attention glued to the way my eyes widen.
“Don’t stop,” I say, crawling over the lip of the tub. The floor is cool on my hands and knees, but his eyes are heavy with heat, the high points of his cheeks are flushed with red, and the groan he gives as I rise to catch the beading precum with my tongue, makes power sing through my veins.
“Odi.” His talons thread through my hair, and I respond by swallowing him down in one motion, as deep as he’ll go.
His hips jerk and his hiss sends another thrill of victory through me.
I bob up and down in time with his hand, swirling my tongue over his head and flicking the sensitive triangle of skin at the bottom.
He begins to move with me, rolling his hips, meeting me for every stroke, fucking his hand and my face. “Fuck, Odi.”
I groan, urging him on. I’m growing wetter.
My nipples ache from how taut they are against the cool of the air.
I need to take more of him, but the grip in my hair tightens, then pulls me off with a wet pop.
I suck in a sharp breath and then whimper as he brings my body up, lifting me off the floor.
My nipples brush against his chest as he pins us together with a single, massive arm.
I wrap my legs around his waist and lock my lips with his, still needing to taste him.
He responds in kind, sweeping his tongue against mine as he moves us to the bed.
He lays back on the blankets, never breaking the kiss.
The wood of the bedframe protests at the added weight, but the mattress is soft beneath us and he uses one hand to line himself up and the other to hold my hips as he eases in the tip of his cock.
I press back into him, greedy for the way I know he’ll fill me, and he takes my cue, easing out and back up, working deeper, stretching me to the point of sweet sting.
“Too much?” he asks when my breaths grow shorter.
I shake my head no, unable to pull in enough air to speak.
The world has narrowed to this moment—the strength of his chest pressed to mine, the way his arms engulf me, how he peppers my shoulder with light kisses, so soft I hardly feel them as he rolls his hips, reaching deeper and deeper.
When he’s finally seated all the way, he stills, waiting for me.
It doesn’t take long before I sit up, letting my nails dig into his chest, feeling another rush of wetness at the predatory way his eyes travel over my parted lips and peaked breasts.
He nearly takes up the whole bed. I’d never noticed it before, but with him beneath me now, in his half-shift, it’s undeniable.
My hands look small compared to his shoulders, and when he wraps his hands around my hips, his fingers nearly touch.
The thought has me moving, working myself up and down.
He watches, keeping that intense gaze on me as he holds back.
I can tell because his fingers flex where they’ve gripped me, as if it’s an effort to keep his touch light.
I grin, slowing, tightening on him as I trail two fingers around my breast, down my navel, and to my clit.
His groan is nearly a growl as he traces the movement with his eyes. My breath hitches at the first light touch, and his hands tighten, but I don’t go faster. I want him in a frenzy, and I’m close, judging by the way his attention flicks to my fingers, to my face, to my bouncing breasts.
“Odi.” There’s a touch of warning in his voice, and it sends a thrill of sensation up my spine.
I toss my head back at the feeling, arching as I move, basking in the feel of him, in the slow swirl of my own fingers.
But instead of taking control like I dare him to, he loosens one hand to tease and pinch my nipple, and I nearly collapse right then.
Intent leaves my mind, and all that’s left is this feeling that finally drags us under.
“Yes,” he says, his voice like gravel. “That’s it. Just like that, little doe.” I speed up at his encouragement, chasing the way his voice vibrates through my body. “I want to watch you break for me.”
The tension levels to a higher, needy baseline and I cry out, my breath coming in groaning pants now. Finally, his hands wrap my hips with all the strength in them, and suddenly he’s moving with me in perfect rhythm, grinding us together with all the fluid power he has.
“Rune, I—” My breath hitches as he cants his hips at the perfect angle, pushing me higher with every stroke.
“I can feel that,” he says. He doesn’t waver.
Doesn’t push for more. He works the angle till I’m soaking him.
Until there’s no thought left in me. My cries are wordless, formless, and my legs are shaking before he has mercy and speeds the pace to near punishing.
All I can do is hold on while a wave of building heat spirals from my core and wraps up my body like a vise.
Every part of me burns. I’m lost to it. The bed begins to creak, the bolts that hold it to the ship loosening enough that the bedhead begins to rock against the wall.
If Rune is worried the crew will hear, he says nothing, only thrusting harder while he holds me still, my knees buried into the blankets on either side of his hips
“Look at me,” he says. I do, and the fierce need on his face sends me over the edge.
I cry out as it takes me, sweeping the world away for white-hot bliss.
Rune doesn’t stop. He rides it out until I’ve returned, and then his talons thread into the hair at the base of my neck and pull tight, sending my face up and the rest of me arching for him.
“Again.” The growl settles somewhere in my bones.
Air isn’t enough as the command pulses through my core and the pressure starts to build, as if he alone can sway it.
His chest is sweat-slicked beneath my fingers, but he doesn’t vary, just presses his thumb to my clit and rubs in tight circles.
“Again, Odi,” he groans as I begin to tighten for him.
“Yes—” I say to the ceiling, breathless, trying to let him know I’m rising fast. Trying to let him know that between his cock, thumb, and the grip in my hair I didn’t stand a chance. “Don’t stop, Rune. Please—”
I may fracture apart this time. I may break into a million little pieces and never form together again. The sensation builds fast, and goes higher, then higher still. I grit my teeth, crying out as he hits a stride that tells me he’s past the point of no return.
“Rune.”
“Come, Odi.”
“Rune—” My voice cuts off as the orgasm barrels through me, taking my breath. Rune cries out as I clench around him, and delicious heat fills me as he comes. We ride the sensation together, then slow to a stop.
His grip in my hair falls away, and I let my head drop forwards.
His broad chest heaves beneath me. For a moment, our gazes lock, something vulnerable and impossible threading between us.
Then he smirks, eyes glinting, and I can’t pin down the edges of my smile.
My entire body thrums, alive with something I didn’t know existed.
His attention skirts down over the sweat on my skin, and he starts to harden inside me again.
“Still thinking you’ll get rid of me after we get the treasure?” I croon.
He pulls me closer, burying his face in my hair. “I think I plan to spend the next few days convincing you to stay.”