“What I want,” she whispers, mirroring my words during the storm.
I hold her gaze, heart trembling in my chest.
By the seas,she's infuriating. Impossible. Everything I should stay away from. Completely opposite of who Ishouldfall for and yet, there’s more to her than I had ever let myself see.
I can’t promise her anything. Not with the keys, the map, the damned Adamaris Sea hanging over us like chains. But maybe . . . just this once. One night where it’s not about riddles or the weight of what waits for us. One night when I take her in my arms and forget the world.
She needs it. I need it. A release from all the grief and tension that’s been weighing us down.
And damn me . . . damn every reckless part of me, for wishing it could be more than just one night.
The sun has well and truly set. The only light comes from the golden glow of the flames in the fireplace. Their shadows dance across the rug and spill over the table. Slowly I release her wrist, flicking my gaze between her lips and her eyes. “Then have your way with me . . . Odelia.”
She exhales, a soft sigh spilling from her lips, and my mind fractures into a storm of colour. Hues burst behind my eyes. Wild, blinding—splintering into prisms the instant her hand grazes my semi hardened length. And the second she wraps her silk fingers around it, I’m as hard as a rock.
Her gasp cuts through the air, sharp and breathless. Eyes widening as the truth of what she’s stirred takes hold. Her lips part, just barely, and the sight alone sends a brutal pulse ofheat through me. My cock thickens, aching at the thought of those lips closing around me, soft and willing.
“I guess it’s true what they say about big hands,” she murmurs, eyes heavy with desire.
A grin pulls at the corner of my mouth. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
She pumps my length, slow and steady, a wicked smile on her lips and I’m tumbling over the edge and into the world that is Odelia.
The ship is getting fixed, and then we will chase down the last key, we’ll find the treasure and then she will be gone. That’s the truth waiting for us, no matter how hard I try to ignore it. So why in all eight seas, are we torturing ourselves by holding back, pretending we don’t want what’s already written across both our faces? It’s going to tear us apart either way.
We’ve cheated death too many times. Every fight, every storm, every breath could have been our last. And if the Adamaris Sea decides to drag me under tomorrow . . .godshelp me, I want her to have had me first.
She’s close enough that I can feel the heat of her breath, see the flecks of gold in her irises. The air between us hums, heavy with the desire we both know we crave. Then she tilts her chin, just slightly, and that’s all it takes—I’m gone.
With a low, rough moan I cup her face between my hands and drag her lips to mine, fierce and hungry, all the restraint I’ve been carrying over the last few days shattering in an instant. She tastes of everything I’ve ever wanted, sharp and sweet, and I drink her in like I’ve been dying of thirst. Her hand pulls away from beneath my trousers,and even though I miss it the moment it’s gone, I relish in the feeling of both her hands stealing around my neck, fisting in my hair, dragging me closer until there is no space left, only heat and the press of her body against me.
The kiss deepens, teeth and lips colliding, messy, desperate. Kissing her underwater was mesmerising, but kissing her when we both have the freedom of air is intoxicating. I can’t get enough of her mouth, as I nip at her lips, and suck her tongue.
She sighs into me, soft and breathless, and the sound rips through me like lightning. I pull her closer—if that’s even possible—as I run my hands down her back, over her perfectly round ass and cup the back of her thighs.
With one effortless lift, I place her on the edge of the table, dropping my hands to lay flat against the surface either side of the cotton gown that I long to rip from her body. Her chest rises and falls, breath coming in short gasps. “What are you waiting for, Rune? Take me.”
“So, impatient,” I say, my voice low.
I run my gaze over her face, softly biting the corner edge of my bottom lip, before I slowly lean down and drag my mouth across her jaw. Her shoulders drop, body relaxing as I trail kisses down her neck, each one slower, deeper, as if I can brand her with nothing but lips and breath.
When I reach the hollow where her neck meets her shoulder, I let my incisors graze the delicate skin. A warning, a promise. I bite just hard enough to claim a sound from her, then move lower, repeating as each moan spills from her mouth like it’s meant only for me. Her hands grip the edges of my pants as she holds herself steady.
At this point, my cock is so hard it could tear a hole right through the front of my trousers. It’s been quite some time since anyone—besides my hand—paid any attention to it. I’ve had the opportunity to bed beautiful women, but it never amounted to anything more than a convenient distraction for all involved.
I drag the tip of my nose back up Odi’s neck, all the way to her ear, where I nip her lobe. “Show me how you like to be touched.”
She doesn’t hesitate. The fire in her eyes telling me that she wants this just as much as I do. With a flick of her wrist, she pulls the front of her nightgown to the side, exposing one of her breasts. My knees go weak at the sight of her pebbled nipple under the golden glow of firelight.
“Suck it,” she whispers.
With a vicious grin, I drop my head and capture her peaked nipple between my lips, sucking gently before running my tongue around it. She gasps out loud, arching her back to press her breast deeper into my mouth.
I think I’ve died and gone to the good place, and I truly hope no one wakes me from this pleasure. Pulling back, I see Odi’s eyes roll back as her body responds to my touch, and I want to reach for my length and fist it until I’m spurting all over her legs, but I don’t. I’ll make sure she’s writhing with bliss before I dare to finish.
Her gaze finds mine, and she reaches between us, lifting the white cotton of her gown up to her hips, until her legs are completely bare. I swallow, the heart in my chest exploding when she partsthem wider for me.
I drop to my knees, desperate to feel some solid ground to support the trembling that has begun to plague my body.
