She met his gaze, her green eyes ablaze with lust. “My god, Percy, this angle. You’re reaching new places…” Her words trailed off on a gasp as he snapped his hips in a thrust.
He couldn’t go easy, couldn’t take his time. His body was afire, and he needed more.
Shudders rockedthrough Heather’s frame as Percy thrust into her. His eyes were dark and heavy with want, and his big hands gripped her hips. It was heady, indeed, being the object of his desire. And he was the object of hers. There was something tangibly exciting about watching him this way, his skin flushed and slicked with sweat as his hips snapped and his cock hit all of the spots that thrilled her deep inside.
Pleasure built inside her, but she knew that without touching herpearl—as Percy had once called it—she would never find release. Her hand twitched on the mirror, her desperation showing in her gaze.
“Please, Percy,” she begged. “I need to—” She broke off on a moan as he slammed into her.
He gave her a half grin. “I know what you need, sweetheart.”
Releasing one of her hips, he reached around her until he found her slickened pearl and gave it a flick.
A cry of pleasure was pulled from her throat, and her legs began to tremble.
“Keep your eyes on me,” he urged, swirling his fingers in steady, delicious circles.
He continued to thrust. Their panting breaths and the lewd slapping and suction of their joining filled the air around them. It was too much. It was so fast.
Her climax came upon her suddenly, the tingling rushing up her legs without warning before bursting like fireworks of pleasure in her blood and wrenching a scream from her throat.
And all the while, she kept Percy’s gaze.
“Fuck,” he ground out, the pink in his cheeks deepening as his rhythm faltered. “Fuck.Fuck.”
With a hoarse growl, he tightened his grip on her hips and stilled deep inside her, his cock pulsing as he released his seed into the condom.
“With salves, it is crucial tha’ye correctly prepare th’ herbal oil an’ allow it t’ infuse fully,” Duncan instructed, his gaze intent on Heather. “Donnae think ye can skip a step, or th’ salve willnae be potent, an’ ye risk swelling, the fever, an’ amputation. De ye ken?”
Heather nodded, jotting the note in her mother’s journal, then looked back up at the older sailor. He’d quickly become a friend. His flushed red cheeks and bushy beard were familiar now and brought her comfort among the ever-present threats aboard thePandora.
“Now, let’s see.” He turned toward the crates of ingredients and hovered over them.
This surgeon’s room was much like the one aboard theSapphire, though the racks were filled with the previous surgeon’s items while Duncan’s filled crates lined the floor along the wall nearest the examination table. He’d cleared the desk of parchment and notebooks and placed the stacks of books upon additional shelves behind the chair in which Heather now sat. Heaven knows how the previous surgeon had worked in such clutter, but he was not around to ask. As much as she didn’t care to think on it, Heather suspected that he’d perished during the battle with theSapphire.
She cleared her throat and shook her thoughts clear, ready once more to learn. “Might I use one of the herbal oils that we created this week to make a salve?”
“Aye. First, I’ll tell ye how t’ make it, an’ then if ye decide t’ use one, ye can.” He tapped the side of the crate as he inspected the bottles within. “Ye mustn’t rush into it, ye ken. Ye must carefully consider if th’ oil will serve any purpose as a salve. Yer calendula oil mixture, fer example, is good t’ pour over wounds, an’, depending on ’ow severe, ye might wish t’ rub it in as a salve. ’Tis ideal t’ ’ave both on ’and, aye?” He withdrew a jar with a flourish. “Aha! Th’ beeswax. Blasted thing was hiding.”
She grinned at him before dipping her pen in ink and jotting the information down.
The next hours passed companionably, with Duncan first instructing her and then guiding her in the making of salves. She’d already learned a vast amount about apothecaryship—in theory, at least—and could scarcely await her return to England to put her newfound knowledge to work.
But what would that mean for her relationship with Percy?
Her thoughts elsewhere, she bid an absent farewell to Duncan before leaving the aft platform and ascending the companionway to the mess deck.
The last sennight had passed in a flurry of activity, and she didn’t wish for it to end. She knew about their plans to reach San Luis and search for another vessel to bring them home, but Percy would no longer be captain, and their time alone together would be at an end. And, while it didn’t have the comforts of home, she’d come to adore their cabin with a swinging bed.
It was difficult to fathom that mere weeks ago, she’d been a spinster wallflower sneaking past her aunt and uncle’s watchful eyes to carry out assignments with her friends on Bow Street. And now she was, for all intents and purposes, a pirate.Not only a pirate, her inner voice amended. She was a pirate having nightly—sometimes dailyandnightly—sex with a pirate captain.
As exhilarating as it had been, being with Percy for the past sennight, a part of her grew apprehensive about what the futuremight hold. What would happen to them once theydidreach home?
The earl would be publicly humiliated, tried, and hung for treason, leaving her his ruined former intended who had journeyed for weeks, without a chaperone, on board ships of men. She would move into the rooms above the Bow Street offices as planned, continue to take on assignments, and create an apothecary for the women there.
But Percy… Did he wish to continue their dalliance? It was entirely possible that he considered their trysts just that: convenient relief of their desires while living in close quarters. And whileshemight wish to continue their assignations once they returned home, she would not force the man into something he didn’t want.
The bubbling of nerves in her abdomen intensified, and her chest squeezed at the thought.
