“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 averygood 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 togive 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 angryforyou.”
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.
