Chapter 35 #2
“We should leave.” I fanned myself as I tried to work up the courage to return to the bow, where I needed to pull up the anchor my lovely vessel had dropped so she could stay near Darcke’s ship.
“That sounds like a very bad idea.”
My whole body tingled with his presence. It was what I imagined being engulfed in flames might feel like, every inch of my skin burning as Darcke’s steps struck the deck, too purposeful and steady.
“You should leave,” I said. I wrapped my hands around the empty space in the bow where I’d one day add a figurehead if I survived the next weeks, holding on to it so hard I would have remained in place even if a storm tried to keel us over.
“An even worse idea,” Darcke drawled as he came closer.
“Not worse than staying here,” I said.
“Why?”
“Geord has drugged everyone so that he can report us to the king if we give in.”
“Give in?” he asked, and a prickle ran up my spine at his low voice. “Give in to what?”
I made the mistake of turning around.
Darcke jolted to a stop, his eyes wide and bottomless when they met mine.
The muscles beneath his shirt didn’t only play, they coiled tight before relaxing, continuing to do so when I didn’t stop taking him in.
There was a carelessness to his features I’d never seen before, a wild edge that had nothing to do with his skills in battle and everything to do with the rough hands twitching by his sides.
I nearly moaned at the thought of his palms dragging down my chest, moving into my hair before lifting me onto the railing I leaned against and pressing his hot, hard body against mine.
“Well, fuck,” Darcke groaned.
Heat pooled in my gut at the desperation making his voice hoarse. The tether between us was as strained as his muscles, stretched out like a mooring line. We were both challenging our restraint, and I had to pinch my arm not to whimper when I felt him slip an inch.
“Yes,” I could only reply.
He took another step toward me.
“We can’t.” I swallowed hard. “We’re not… I can’t.”
“I don’t like to be told what to do,” Darcke said, a challenge in his voice I wished I could afford to lose.
I needed to figure out something to distract us both, because my core clenched until it ached at how much effort it took him to keep his feet in place and not come press the cock I could see bulging through his leathers against me.
“You’re not helping,” Darcke said in his lethally quiet voice.
“I know,” I whispered.
“Fuck, Elvara.” He raked his hands through his hair. “How do you live two days on a ship without food or a bath and look like that?”
I pinched myself until my nails drew blood.
I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t.
“Like what?” I asked, breathlessly.
His smirk was devastating.
“Like you want me to fuck you so hard over that railing that the king will have no choice but to execute us both for how loud you’ll scream.”
My skin didn’t even have the decency to blush as it flushed with warmth.
The bond between us burned so hot it should melt, sending flames through my body that made my knees weak.
The want turned into a desperate need, and if it hadn’t been for my fingers still digging into the wood, my stumble would have sent me right into his arms.
Thank the fucking gods Envis was quiet. Hopefully she was asleep, or whatever she did whenever she didn’t feel like being around me.
“You’re good,” Darcke breathed. “You’re a very good girl.”
This time I didn’t want to break his nose. I wanted him to break me instead. Ravage me, consume me, taking over my every thought and will to be able to soothe the inferno burning me up from the inside.
I wanted to give in.
Darcke erased some of the space between us, keeping me trapped between the railing and his body. His breaths shook his chest, and when the air caressed the skin over my tunic and moved around my neck, a wanton sound slipped from my lips.
“You were angry with me,” I said, refusing to let my hands wander to touch his skin and feel if it burned as hot as I imagined.
“No,” he replied heatedly. “I was angry for you.”
I didn’t ask why. I didn’t need to.
“They’ve taken over your ship,” I said instead. “You shouldn’t have left her alone.”
“I know,” he said, eyes roving over me so violently the trail they left in their wake felt physical—a fiery path of desire.
“Then why did you?” I asked as I tried to rub my thighs together to get some relief from the throbbing need only building within me.
Darcke’s breath caught in his throat, and he cleared his throat before he responded, “Because you needed space.”
Not anymore. Never again.
His eyes flashed, heat spreading through them.
“But it’s your ship,” I breathed.
“Exactly,” Darcke responded as he took one more step forward. “She could keep an eye on you.”
I was going to try to joke when the truth of his words settled within me.
“Is… is that why you all were out here? So she could keep tabs on me and Envis?”
“Is that what you’re calling your ship? Cute.”
“Darcke,” I moaned.
He went still.
“Say my name like that again,” he asked.
“Darcke,” I whimpered.
His eyes rounded with surprise at me following his orders for once. I would have smiled if this wasn’t such insanity. We’d been alone here for too long. There was too much at risk. But this need was killing me. He was killing me.
“Fucking Hel,” Darcke groaned. “Turn around.”
“What?” I could barely hear myself over the blood roaring in my ears.
“I said. Turn. Around.”
When my face fell, one side of his mouth lifted. “I said turn around. Not that I’d fucking stop this.”
Again, I did what he ordered, a cry weaving up my throat when he groaned in response.
My hands slid over the railing, my back arching.
Darcke swore again.
“Touch yourself,” he ordered.
My head shook before the words even settled in my mind.
That wasn’t what I needed. That wasn’t what I wanted.
“Trust me,” Darcke growled. “I know exactly what you need, but you will regret this when dawn comes.”
“Won’t you?” I ask, the need becoming painful.
His silence stretched on too long, and for the first time since I turned around to face him, cold crept over my back.
“I would, but not for the reasons you think,” he finally replied.
My nod was shaky, and before long that raw, primal want took over, making my core clench for any release. The only thing I could imagine was Darcke’s long fingers running down my spine, brushing over my waist until they slid down my front and into my trousers.
“For fuck’s sake, touch yourself, Elvara.”
“What about you?” I asked, my hands trembling as I tried to resist.
“I can promise you I won’t be able to not touch myself as I watch you come undone.”
The thought of him wrapping those rough hands around a thick, throbbing shaft, fisting it at the bottom until come dripped from the tip, made me salivate.
“Or that. Whatever you thought just now is enough.”
The sound of trousers dropping echoed in my ears.
“What if someone—”
“I had Envis pull up her brow and only wake up if someone makes their way onboard.”
He planned this. Somehow that made me even wetter.
“But how—”
“She likes my ship. I said you could take the spot beside us in the harbor.”
Because he wanted me close. I felt that emotion like a harsh wave crashing over a longship.
My eyes closed as I slipped a hand into my trousers.
Darcke’s posture locked, and I wasn’t sure who the crushing feeling came from, but it went right in between my legs, making my most sensitive area grow warm and heavy.
My middle finger slipped into my wetness, and we groaned together when my eyes rolled back into my head. When my nipples scratched against my tunic and Darcke took a sharp intake of breath, they hardened to points that ached almost as much as my core.
“Show me,” Darcke rasped. “Show me what I can’t have.”
I cried out as I swirled my clit, then moved my fingers to tease my entrance.
“Inside,” Darcke panted. “Please.”
I nearly came at the pleading in his voice. He wanted me as much as I wanted him.