“More,” she ordered.
So I gave her more, let go of the restraint holding me back. I slid into her, and my eyes rolled back in my head at how wet and tight she was. Fitting so fucking perfectly around me. Like she was made for me and for me. Written into the stars and intertwined between the lines of the universe.
“I’m yours,” she said, her hand holding my neck, refusing to let me go.
“Yes.” I panted.
Every thrust was like coming home, and it was threatening to break across me in a thousand pieces. She felt so fucking good, and she was mine. Mine. My Wife.
“To have,” I said against her lips.
She smiled. “To hold.”
And with the happiness that shone in her eyes and the way her body hugged me, I shattered. Pleasure coursed up my spine, and when she lowered her head into my neck and bit gently down, I felt her contract around me, following me. If I could have stayed in that moment, I would have lived there for a lifetime. Holding her against me, books scattered along the floor, and not a care on my mind except for this. Except for her.
Maybe I was a fool for letting her manipulate me into this marriage and into living, but I couldn’t find anything left in me to be angry about it. I’d lived for revenge, and now I’d live for love. For her. I’d turn this obsession into something worth having.
Living for her meant getting the serpent tattoo on her forearm off her skin. That was all that mattered now.
Right then, I vowed I would help her retrieve Edmond’s treasure or kill him. Either way, his claim on my wife was going to be short-lived. Maybe I’d place my own mark over where his had been just so I’d feel better about it.
First, though, I had more promises to keep that involved the woman in my arms and the floor of this library.
Chapter twenty-five
No More Pirates
Rose
The Mysterious Deep reminds us that there is always more to learn, which is perhaps the most exciting thing of all.
— The Mysterious Deep: A Comprehensive Understanding
This was a disaster in so many ways, and yet I had absolutely no regrets. This was our second attempt at redoing the buttons on my dress since the first one ended in Bash getting frustrated and tearing it off again, just to take me from behind, just as he said he would. In fact, every wicked thing Bash had teased me with was now well and truly done. Which begged the question, how much time passed while we were consummating our marriage several times over?
Bash grunted in frustration, and I so much wanted to take it from him. It wasn’t fair that he’d lost his arm, and while I thought no less of him for it, I knew he couldn’t say the same.
“It’s fine, Bash, just go find Ruby and she’ll fix it and my hair,” I said.
Lord knew I’d tried a hundred times over to wrangle it back down, but it also didn’t help that my rouge was gone now, and the charcoal around my eyes was smeared. Though Bash didn’t say as much, I looked like I was well and truly fucked. While that may have been true, I didn’t need all of London knowing it.
“I’m not going to get your sister. She already threatened to kill me once,” he said.
“You're Captain Sebastian Flynn, you aren’t scared of anything except a cat.”
“A cat and Bailey women. All terrifying in equal measure,” he said.
Despite our predicament, I choked out a laugh. Though Blackbeard was an odd fear, he was probably wise on the other account.
He’d made it more than halfway, but from the way he sucked in air from time to time, I could tell his thumb was sore. Voices down the hall were both horrifying and liberating all at once. I would recognize those anywhere.
“This is worse than a kraken,” Bash murmured.
I shrugged and went to the door, opening it a crack.
“Oscar!” I whispered.
“Rose?” my brother answered.
