Pirate witch, p.10
Pirate Witch, page 10
part #3 of The Deadwood Series
Through it all, my siren mate never goes on the offensive. Never makes a move that might trigger me. No matter how frustrated I become, or how aggravated and heavy my strikes are, he simply stands there and takes it.
He knows exactly how badly my heart is breaking, and he doesn’t tell me to pull my punches or calm down. At first, that makes me angrier, but the emotion burns away and fizzles out as my energy wanes.
I don’t know exactly when the first tear escapes, but once I start crying, I don’t stop. My face is a wet mess, and my vision blurry as I level hit after hit towards my siren. Each sob saps my strength until my punches are so weak he doesn’t even try to stop them. Instead, he tugs me into his body and lets me continue my half-hearted thumps against his chest.
“Fight back,” I order, hating the way my voice shakes.
“Let it out,” he replies.
His hands trail soothing lines up and down my spine while his chin comes to rest on top of my head. Klaus hums a quiet melody that’s barely audible over the soft sounds of the ocean beside us. After several long seconds, it works. My tears stop flowing and my breath comes a little easier. My whole body is still quaking and hiccoughing on every inhale, and I hate it. I’m a Shadow. I’m stronger than this.
I don’t realise I’ve spoken aloud until Klaus chuckles. The sound is so out of place that I freeze, daring him to say something.
“Sorry,” he says. “It’s just bottling up emotions requires far less strength than actually facing up to and owning them.” At my disbelieving look, he continues. “I’m a siren, remember? We know about these things.”
I believe him. The song he sang for me at our mating ceremony made me feel every single thing he did. So it’s no big stretch to assume that sirens are far more empathic than most of the other races.
When my breathing evens out completely, and the tears have dried on his bare chest, he finally releases me. I step back, feeling strangely empty. As if crying somehow emptied me of the internal conflict which was eating at me.
I’m not sure which is worse, feeling like my emotions are about to burst out of my skin, or feeling nothing at all.
That’s when the first wave brushes my foot.
I never noticed the tide coming in, and I stiffen. Klaus sighs, presses a soft kiss to my forehead and sweeps me off my feet into his arms.
“No,” I protest, pushing against him. “It was just the shock.”
It’s only a half-lie, and it must work because Klaus gently lowers me back down to the sand, lingering for a second before he fully lets me go. His eyes are still crinkled with concern, but now that I’m braced for the coolness of the water, it’s actually not that bad.
“I’m not sure you should push yourself like this after the day you’ve had,” he cautions.
Maybe he’s right. Maybe I shouldn’t.
But in this void, where all of my emotions have drained themselves dry, I don’t mind the salt water lapping at my toes. Now that the shock has worn off, it’s almost… pleasant.
Surely, that’s progress?
Klaus takes my hand, tugging me away from the water.
“Associating the water with negative events won’t help you in the long run,” he says.
“Then make this a good memory,” I challenge.
My siren mate hesitates, probably doubting the wisdom of my idea. But I’m a Lunar. Built for touch. Made by a Goddess who worships pleasure. Sex isn’t something that messes up our minds. Quite the opposite; it’s grounding for us. Healing.
Klaus is over-analysing this, and I decide to put a stop to it. I rise to my tiptoes, wrap my arms around his neck, and press the first kiss to the underside of his jaw. The second brushes against his lips, which part on a defeated sigh.
My siren takes over before I can push him further.
NIKLAUS
My mate is eroding my self-control. When I gave in and kissed her, I never intended it to be more than a swift display of affection. A small, pleasant memory to help her look back more fondly on the ocean.
Only she doesn’t let it end there. Her hands wind into my hair, keeping me in place as she devours my mouth. My whole body adjusts to hers automatically. I palm her ass and squeeze the muscle as I cage her against my body. Before I can think better of it, I slant my mouth over hers and sweep my tongue out to taste her.
Another wave sweeps across our ankles, but Nilsa doesn’t seem to notice. She’s too caught up in kissing me. Her entire body grinds into mine like she can weld us together if she tries hard enough. The filmy fabric of her dress teases my exposed skin, taunting me with how easy it would be to rip it away.
Her hands find my chest, and her nails dig into my skin. The sharp bite of pain buried under the onslaught of her drugging kisses. My fingers dig harder into her ass in retaliation, only to release as I realise what I’ve done. I drag my lips away, worried that I’ve hurt her.
But she doesn’t seem to mind. If anything, the corners of her lips turn down slightly in a moue of disappointment.
“You can touch me however you like,” she promises. “I’m not going to break.”
I shake my head, because I can tell exactly how close she is to breaking. Not physically, but emotionally.
I’d rather cut out my own heart than hurt hers.
If Nilsa wants me to make love to her, then I’ll do it. But on my terms.
My hands stroke against her back as I take her mouth with mine once more. This time, I keep my strokes slow and steady. Worshipping her with my tongue until she squirms against me.
Her hands press against my chest, nails scraping against the flat disks of my nipples. I know what she’s doing. My witch is trying to make me lose control of the situation.
Not going to happen.
I palm one of her breasts, testing the weight before sliding my hand under the deep v-neck of her dress to caress it skin-to-skin. She smiles against my mouth, thinking I’ve given in, only to moan in frustration as I gently massage the flesh in my hand. My thumb rubs softly across her nipple until the tormented flesh tightens into a hard pearl.
When I move on to the other side, I give that one the same treatment.
“Klaus,” she groans, her hand abandoning my chest as she tries to reach between us to grasp my dick. “You’re going to drive me mad.”
“Shh,” I mutter, capturing her hands in my free one and continuing to tease. “Let me love you.”
She moans but doesn’t object as I push the fabric of her dress aside and drag her nipple into my mouth.
Small breasts, I muse, flicking my tongue against her sensitive bud before retreating to lick around it, are seriously underrated. I love seeing how much of Nilsa’s I can fit into my mouth at once.
Her hands tug against my grip, and I hesitate before releasing her. Nilsa’s fingers fly into my hair, tugging my head away.
“I need you,” she gasps.
I smile, taking in the way her pupils are blown wide and her lips are slightly parted.
“Then lie back on the sand,” I reply.
The triumphant smile on her face falters, but only for a second, before she lowers herself to the shifting floor. She props herself up on her elbows, but the rising tide still wets the tips of her hair where it drags on the beach.
She looks like an ocean goddess washed up on the shore, her breasts spilling out of the black fabric of her dress. Her eyes round and heated as they fix on the tent my dick is making out of my kilt.
“Panties off,” I order, palming myself and giving the head of my dick a rough squeeze because the sight of her has me too close to the edge already.
Nilsa grins, pulling up the hem of her skirt and hooking her thumbs underneath her panties until she can drag them down her legs. When she’s done, she throws them at me, and I catch them, grinning as my hand makes contact with the damp fabric.
Seems like she doesn’t mind my teasing so much after all.
Another wave washes over her, and I see the hint of indecision there as the cool salt water splashes against her exposed skin.
“Nilsa?”
She shakes her head. “Get down here.”
That’s my little warrior.
I drop to my knees with a wicked grin. “Want to know the best part of mating a siren?”
She stares at me with wide eyes, the hint of fear from earlier dissipating as I lower my face between her thighs and meet her gaze.
“I can eat your sweet little pussy underwater, too.”
I lower my mouth to her core just as another wave splashes over my head.
Goddess, she’s so responsive. So perfect. Her thighs clench around my head like a vise as I take a second long lick of her, and I’m forced to use my shoulders to keep them apart so I have room to continue.
I alternate between long licks and teasing little flicks of my tongue until she’s writhing on the sand. Her hands grip my hair so hard it’s almost painful, but I keep going. When she starts cursing, I take it up a notch, adding tiny sucks to her clit until she screams. At one point the water rises until I’m forced to half-shift my gills to keep going, but I don’t stop.
“Klaus!”
I lift my head, grinning. “Yes?”
She’s panting, propped up on her elbows and completely wild.
This is how she should always look.
“Fuck me,” she demands.
I smirk. “Don’t you like this?”
My mate growls. “You know exactly what you’re doing.”
“Yup, taking care of you. So behave.”
With that, I dive back in, pressing a finger into her. Not far. Just to the first knuckle.
Enough to feel her clenching, trying to draw me deeper.
“If you don’t hurry, I’m going to…”
She trails off as I give her another inch and then moans as I draw back.
“You were saying?”
She shoots me a glare, and I can’t help smiling harder. Her head falls back as I slide two fingers in all the way to my knuckles and curl them inside her. I pump them once, then twice, before letting my thumb take over from my tongue. Circling that bundle of nerves until she vibrates beneath me. Her hips rise from the sand, her whole body straining to reach her release.
Her heat is so tempting, and my resolve to draw this out weakens the longer I feel her clenching around me, so I start talking to distract myself.
“You’re so freaking gorgeous like this,” I tell her. “One day, I’m going to take you swimming and drive you onto my cock while there’s nothing but ocean around us.”
“Goddess,” she whispers, head falling back as I up the pace of my fingers.
Nilsa’s thighs tense around my ears. Her internal muscles clench and release my fingers as she nears her peak.
So I stop.
Her cry of frustration echoes over the cove, making me chuckle. Goddess, I love the way she sounds.
“Oh, sorry.” I paste an expression of false sympathy on my face. “Were you close?”
In a move so fast I never saw it coming, Nilsa catches her foot under my arm and flips us. The wet sand makes contact with my back as she rises over me like an avenging angel.
“Your teasing”—she growls, shoving my kilt up, gripping my cock and pressing me against her entrance—“is going to get you killed.”
She sinks down on me just as a huge wave splashes across her back, making her tense.
Before she can lose her nerve, I buck up into her. She gasps, distracted from her fear by the unique friction, and I groan as she squeezes my dick so hard it’s like I’m being strangled.
Nilsa’s hands find my chest and she uses my body to support herself as she takes her first few experimental grinds against me. Her nails scrape my pecs with each one, and her eyes fall closed as I grab her thighs and help her, sliding her up and down over my cock. Watching her breasts bounce with every drop of her body is hypnotic.
But my view is interrupted as she stops moving altogether. Nilsa’s grey-blue eyes focus on me speculatively, then flick over her shoulder to the ocean.
When they take on a determined glint, I wonder what she’s got planned.
She doesn’t leave me in suspense for long.
My mate twists on top of me, rotating on my cock until she’s facing my feet and the ocean. The dark spill of her hair falls back, but can’t quite cover the breathtaking view of her ass as it bounces up and down on my dick. I thought the view was perfect before, but this…
Watching her move over me as she stares down the ocean like she’s daring it to take this moment from her is just about the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. The tiny noises she makes when our hips meet and she’s impaled fully on my cock drive me closer and closer to the edge until I can’t hold back any longer.
I spill inside her as her muscles clench around me and she comes with a scream, dragging the last drops of cum from me. Beneath my palms, her thighs quiver, and I frown as one of the tattoos on her hip seems to glow slightly.
“What’s that?” I ask, stroking a thumb over it and almost cursing as she clenches on me in response.
“Contraception sigil,” she mumbles, collapsing back against my chest. “I don’t want to become a mother until I’m at least four hundred, if ever.”
I smile, trying to imagine our motley crew as parents and failing.
No, we’re nowhere near prepared for that. Nilsa might never be, and that’s fine with me.
“Okay.”
“It wouldn’t work,” she continues. “The girls would be witches. They’d need to grow up in a temple circle to control their magic, and I’m a Shadow. We can’t guarantee I’ll be able to stay in one city for that long.”
I take her chin in my fingers and turn her face so I can kiss her silent.
“You don’t have to justify your choice to me, little warrior. I’ll support whatever you decide.”
She kisses me back just as another wave washes across us both.
The tide is up to my armpits now, and I know she’s noticed because she never fully relaxes. It’s a big step, and I’m honestly surprised that she doesn’t immediately stand and move away from the water.
“I love you,” I whisper, kissing her hair.
“I love you too,” she replies, snuggling deeper into my arms. “I can’t believe…” she begins, then trails off, losing herself in thought.
A big part of me wants to make her finish her sentence. To understand what’s going on in my little warrior’s mind. It takes everything I’ve got to hold myself back.
“Come on,” I say, after several long minutes. “Let’s get you dry.”
My brave mate has faced enough of her fears today.
Chapter Twelve
NILSA
Klaus’s soft mood continues for the rest of the night. He carries me back to the palace and washes and dresses me with the same delicate attention that you’d give a piece of priceless spun glass. I let him. Partly because it feels nice, but mostly because I think it soothes something in him to do it.
Klaus might be too much of a warrior to be considered a good male siren, but he still has a softer, caring side too. It must be easy for him to slip into the role, given how he was responsible for Cassie. He certainly seems content as he braids my hair back out of my face.
When he goes toward the jewellery box, I stand up and cut him off.
“We should go.”
Klaus doesn’t argue or tell me it’s too early. He simply nods and heads for the door.
That all changes when he sees me pick up Glenna’s Athame.
“The others said the last time you used that, you almost died,” he censures. “It’s your magic, and I trust your judgement, but please consider how they’ll feel if the same thing happens because you’re trying to save them.”
My mouth turns down in a grim but determined frown. “I won’t hesitate if it will save them. But it shouldn’t happen again. Destroying the Claw took a massive amount of magic. Essentially, the power involved purged the athame of Glenna’s magic completely. It’s attuned to me now.”
Am I sad that I’ve lost that final link to my mentor’s magic? Absolutely. But the dagger itself was chosen by her. I can fit my fingers into the grooves hers have worn on the handle.
I might be too young as far as most witches are concerned, but I’ve felt too young for a lot of things in my life. It didn’t mean Fate pulled any of her punches.
I sheathe the blade at my hip and brush past him, leading the way down to the cellar. The closer we get, the more I start to notice the cliff shaking rhythmically.
“What is that?”
“The crew,” Klaus answers. “They’ve been putting all of their energy into breaking the bars, the ceiling, the floor. The bargain is forcing them to try everything to get to you.”
I gulp, biting my lip.
We really have no choice now. That bargain has to break, or they’ll be compelled to hunt me down and kill me.
Elsie and Reva are outside, with Cooper hanging back, as they pore over a book which must be at least three centuries old. Beyond them, Sade, Pierce, and Cirio are waiting for us by the stairs. The vampire queen studies the young witches with her unnerving gaze as they work, but Elsie and Reva don’t pay the intimidating trio any attention.
“Are we sure this is a commonsensical idea?” Cirio whispers to Pierce, loudly enough that we can all hear him.
“It’s the only idea,” I retort, just as the entire patio shakes from the force of whatever it is they’re doing in there. “We can’t leave them locked up forever. They’re going to break out sooner or later.” When the pirate king still doesn’t look convinced, I add. “I don’t like it either, but we have no other options.”
Pierce nods, adding. “I’d want you to do the same thing if I were in their shoes.”
Cirio’s grim expression turns sappy, and he presses the softest of kisses against his vampire mate’s cheek before turning back to me.
