by Marie Hall
“All right Mia,” he said, closing the door and crossing to her. “I’m not resentful, just surprised and now a little worried that perhaps the commodore will change his mind and take you back. Give you to someone more able to settle you in the life to which you are accustomed.”
“I’m accustomed to life at sea, Devin,” she said putting her arms around his neck. “Give me a strong wind to fill my sails, a course to follow, and steer clear of the rocks.”
“Is that all it takes to keep Mia happy?” he asked with a chuckle and stretched his neck so she couldn’t reach his lips and had to keep placing kisses under his chin.
“Aye, mostly that is all. Unless you know something I might request be added to the list?” She pressed against him and reveled in the feel of his hands smoothing down her back, cupping her ass and pulling her hard against his body. His squeezing fingers instantly sent a thrill through her and she felt the wetness seeping out.
“Damn, but I’m a lucky man,” Devin said and dropped a kiss on her cheek before stepping away to pull off his shirt. They’d dined on deck with the entire crew and most every formality was left below deck. Devin’s dress consisted of his shirt and his pants, even his boots were left in these quarters. Mia thought it wonderful he could leave all his stiffness and protocols behind for a short time at least. She saw too that his crew respected him. Not only as the captain, but as a man and a sailor.
Crews were often a good indicator of the character of the captain. A happy gang that worked well together only happened when the leadership was strong and trustworthy. A leader who gained compliance only through hazing his shipmates didn’t tend to have the same results. Devin’s crew laughed freely and worked with little direction.
“What is it, Mia?”
She started at the question. “What?”
“You’re looking at me oddly,” he said sitting down and motioning her to come to him.
“Oh,” she giggled. Always her expression gave her away. “I wonder, you’ve said that a few times, that you’re lucky.”
“I am. I’m not always able to see it at the moment it starts, but I see it much faster now than I used to.”
“Do you mean because you didn’t want to marry me. I mean you did say ‘I’m not marrying that’, and you weren’t nice when you said it.”
“Mia,” he said with a laugh as he pulled her down on his knee and hugged her until her breath was squeezed out. “I wasn’t nice that night. I had no idea marrying a pirate could be so enjoyable.”
“Devin, I don’t know why think piracy runs in my family. Papa is only a merchant seaman.” She was a little taken aback by Devin’s expression, but he covered it before she could try and read the doubt. And it could only be the rivalry between the two masters of the oceans. Both complaining the other got in the way.
“It doesn’t matter Mia, none of it matters. I’m a lucky man. Lucky to come to the sea, lucky to live well and safe on the waters and now to have you as my wife.”
“You truly feel lucky to have me as a wife now? Now you know I’m not a whore and such.”
“Mia,” he said, his voice hardening as did his hold on her. “Mia,” he softened his tone and shifted so she sat more leaning on him than away. “Try not to get your rigging in a knot. Let me finish first.” She nodded and put her head on his shoulder. “Even when I thought… you were… less than a virgin, I felt quite blessed. Maybe a little bit more so for thinking you had some experience.”
“Why’s that? I thought a husband wanted a virgin.” Mia lifted her head and looked at him. He looked to be telling her the truth.
“I’m sure many husbands do want virgins in their beds on their wedding nights. I’m sure too, most of them get prudes, cowering virginal sacrifices who’ll never want more than the most necessary contact to occur and only for the needed procreation.”
“You don’t want that?”
“It doesn’t appeal to me. I rather thought it would be another ten years before I wed, and being nearly forty by then I’d take some widow as my wife. I certainly never intended to waste time partaking in the season, trying to find some girl with a desperate family,” he trailed off, maybe thinking about what she said to him this morning. “Your display of utter disregard for modesty and,” he hugged her close to him and buried his face between her breasts, “your unbelievable willingness to let me have my way with you. If I’d been granted a wish to have something in a wife, it would be what I have in you.”
“I’m modest, well, I can be modest,” Mia said though at the moment with his hot breath puffing out down her cleavage and her desire to have his fingers replace his breath, maybe there was cause for doubt.
“I have no doubt, but,” he said sliding his hand up her side and cupping her tit, doing just as she hoped he would, “if it’s all the same, Mi, leave your modesty topside.”
“You’ll not think me—”
“Anything but perfect? No, I won’t. Such decorum is overrated.” His hand slid down her side, past her hip and across her thigh until he was able to hook her knee and lift it so her foot rested on his other thigh. When his hand started back up he found his way under her skirts. He was nearly weight-sided by her drawers but he shifted again, causing Mia to slip between his legs. There he found the opening he needed.
“Captain,” Mia groaned as his fingers reached her sex.
“Mia, use my name,” he said against her neck as he pinched her flesh. The pain caused a sharp contraction within her and her breath caught. She put her arms more firmly around his neck and pulled up hoping to ease the storm building. The new position, however, allowed him even more access to her body and she felt his fingers stroking at that so very sensitive nub. “My name, Mia,” he said again and when she hesitated his fingers closed hard on her.
It wasn’t quite the full firing of a cannon, but it was enough to make every bit of her body ache and throb. And he wasn’t done. His fingers relaxed and with firm pressure stroked up and down between her folds. Mia couldn’t stop if she wanted to and her hips flexed into the touch adding even more contact. She might again be concerned at the wetness leaking from her like she’d a crack below the waterline, but Devin didn’t seem to care, in fact she felt him gently dip his finger just past her entrance before again resuming what he did.
“Say my name, Mia,” he said again. Mia bit her lip knowing what would come. He didn’t disappoint. He pinched hard, tugged and twisted. That was all it took. Mia’s cry was muffled by his shoulder and her fingers dug into the skin of his back as she tried to hold on through the pleasure breaking over her. “My naughty little pirate,” she heard him say and felt him chuckle. “Did you like that?”
“Aye, Captain,” she teased to see if perhaps he’d do it again.
He laughed, pushed her out of his lap and stood. “Don’t think I don’t see what you are about. There’ll be more, but I think maybe you should return the favor.” She watched him unfasten his breeches and push them down to mid-thigh.
“What might I do that you’d like so much?” she asked watching his prick come out like an unsecured boom.
“Kneel down, Mia,” he said and added pressure to her shoulders. He must’ve read her doubt on her face. “It’ll be fine Mia, try it. If you don’t like it, we can do something else.”
She had a good idea what he wanted. She had seen this act performed in a few dark corners and alleys. But she’d never seen the appeal and often the woman doing it didn’t seem to care for it. Still his demeanor wasn’t the same as those men she’d seen. They’d been forceful and rude. Devin’s very being was encouraging. She slipped down to her knees and put her hands on his thighs.
“Gently pirate,” he said setting a hand to her cheek and guiding her face so his prick brushed against her lips. “Tongue, lips, and fingers. No teeth. Go ahead, try it.” She hesitated again. “Use your hand. Start with that.” He took her hand from his thigh. “Take a good grip.” He set her fingers on his shaft, but did nothing else.
No, he wa
sn’t going to be forceful and rude. Mia slid her fingers around the thick shaft. The velvet softness was maddening. His hard length was maybe the softest skin she’d ever known and yet he didn’t know about sugar scrubbing. The dark tight curls of hair on his groin told her that. She drew her hand up, towards the head. Devin hissed, but when she looked up his eyes were closed and his expression was that of bliss.
Did she do that? Was it as easy for her with him as it was for him with her? She slid her hand back and Devin groaned. Perhaps it was. She stroked forward again, this time with a bit more hold. Devin sighed, put his hands on his hips and tipped his head back. Mia made another pass and was shocked to see a bit of fluid seep from the end. She wasn’t the only one to spring leaks when touched. Her touch became bolder and Devin’s knees buckled a bit.
“Aye, Mia. That’s perfect,” he said as he started to push and pull in time with her hand.
It was a powerful feeling, seeing what she caused him to feel. He was lost in what she did. Exactly like she became when he touched her. What then if… Devin cried out and nearly toppled forward on her when she took him in her mouth. He recovered, setting a hand to the back of her head. He didn’t hold her with any force and again Mia felt safe to try this. Closing her lips, she used her tongue to lick all around the mushroom shaped head of his shaft, before leaning in and taking more of his length in her mouth.
He tasted salty, but clean. Like a sea breeze. And that familiar spicy scent he always carried made her mouth water. It made other things on her water too. She could feel the dewiness between her legs build and drip down. If he touched her right now she’d break apart. And if the sounds he was making were any indication, she was about to cause him to do that very thing.
“Ah,” he shouted, jerking back. He released a heavy breath and bent to pull her from the floor. “Enough of that or it’ll be done.” Spinning her around, Devin made quick work of divesting her of the dress and most everything she wore. Her drawers fell to her feet, leaving only stockings and shoes. She reached for the ties of the garters, but he stayed her hand. “Perfect,” he said surveying her person. Kicking out of his pants, he lifted her and in two strides laid her on the bed. Only there did he pull off her shoes, but he lay between her stocking clad legs hooking them over his shoulders, and put his hands under her ass and lowered his head.
“Devin,” Mia cried out as his mouth latched onto her clit. “Devin,” it was practically a growl as she wound her fingers in his hair and held him in place while he gorged on her. His lips and tongue, and for him, even his teeth, gave her no reprieve. He was one moment sucking that nub, the next his tongue was sweeping around in her channel. Then he was pulling her flesh with his teeth only to again latch onto the swollen and aching bud. Mia couldn’t breathe deep enough to fill her lungs and she didn’t try as the more he worked at her the more she breathed out with a cry until he touched her one last time and she was lost to it.
She couldn’t think getting struck by lightning would feel any more powerful. Though this was almost all pleasure, it was right on the edge of pain, rippling through her body like a stone tossed into a pond. Wave after wave, only not diminishing with each. She was lost to it when she felt Devin climb over her and enter her as he’d done last night. The twinge of discomfort only added to the experience and when his weight lifted and his hip thrust forward Mia came undone a second time.
Devin’s undulations became strong and steady, Mia again found no respite from the sensations he created within her. If this didn’t kill her, surely she’d be left a wreck. She wrapped her legs and arms around him because all she could do was hang on and ride it out. Three more times she found herself drowning in it. Then with several hard, purposeful strokes, Devin went stiff, cried out and collapsed. For a time, the sound of their heavy breathing pushed all other sounds of the ship and water out.
Devin managed to move first. Lifting up so he hovered over her he smiled. “Yes?” he asked settling more lightly on her.
“Aye,” she knew just what he was asking.
“Thank god,” he said putting his hands on either side of her face then brushing a soft kiss over her lips. “Thank god.”
Mia chuckled, he sounded so relieved. “Why ‘thank god’?”
“Aye, that I didn’t ruin you last night with my bullishness.”
That was an odd thing for him to say. “Devin isn’t a girl who beds a man ruined? I mean that’s what Mama said my father did to her. She said it all the time.” Was she ruined now? In some way?
“Ah, Mia mine, we’ll have to sit one day and speak on it, after we’ve more common ground with simple vocabulary. When I said I’m glad I didn’t ruin you I meant I didn’t hurt you so much last night you’d get no pleasure when I entered you again.”
“Oh,” she said not sure why it mattered. “You care?” It wasn’t like she’d have a say in it.
“Oh Mia, more than you know. A wife who can enjoy her marriage bed, to me, is special.”
“Most wives don’t?” She knew the women who worked the docks and taverns were a mixed group depending on who they’d spent the night with. More often they grumbled and complained the next morning, but usually about what they’d been paid.
“I can’t say I know for sure, but as many men leave their wives and seek out mistresses, lovers and even whores, I can only say the wife must not care for their husband’s attention and rarely give him any attention in return.”
“And what reason but they dislike what is done,” Mia concluded. “I think then you’ll not have need of mistresses, lovers, or whores. I enjoyed this greatly.”
“Should you mind then being all those things to me for the rest of my life?” he asked, sliding to the side and reaching for the blanket.
“All of what? Mistress, lover and whore?”
“And wife. Don’t forget wife.” He pulled her close and tucked her under his chin.
“You’d like me to be a whore?”
“Well not in the true sense of the word Mia, but perhaps in the way you’re willing to do things few women will.” His hand moved to her breast and taking the nipple between his finger and thumb he rolled it until it stiffened. The pinch caused her to inhale sharply. “Do things you like, but other woman would hate.” She turned to look at him. “You like a little pain, Mia.”
He sounded so pleased. “Is this not normal?” She couldn’t say why she did. Of course it had to be the right kind of pain. Banging her shin on a deck hatch did nothing for her.
“If there’s normal Mia, I don’t know it. I know women are conditioned from birth to remain silent on all things related to the bedchambers, so I can’t say if many others like what you like. And honestly, I couldn’t care. I only like what you like. And that’s how it’ll be between us. So if you don’t like something, we won’t do it.”
“Oh well, I didn’t like when you hurt me with the batten,” Mia said rolling against him and feeling the soft rocking beneath the ship.
“You’re not ever going to like that, Mia. You’re not meant to,” he said a little sharply, but his hands caressed her back, and held her close. “Pain for punishment and pain for pleasure will never mix. You’ll always know the difference.”
She rather thought he’d say something like that. Still, if she found even the smallest port where pleasure in the pain might wait she’d sail to it.
“Best you avoid those punishments Mia, because I’ll withhold pleasure until you’ve learned the lesson.”
“How might I avoid them, sir?”
“Follow your captain’s orders.”
“My captain? You mean you?” He nodded. “Well if you’re the captain, what am I?”
“First mate,” he said without hesitation.
Ha,” Mia shouted. “What if I be captain and you be first mate. I think I like that arrangement better.” But did she?
“No Mia, I’ll captain this ship for us. That is how it will be.”
It didn’t sound so bad. First mate often steered the ship. Still, s
he huffed at him. “Fine.” She was answered with his snores. Fine indeed.
Chapter 11
“Captain. Captain.”
Devin rolled to his back and tossed his arm over his face. Why was that crazy little china man disrupting his dream about Mia?
“Captain.”
Devin heard the man call him again, but Mia was naked on the sandy beach.
“Captain, hurry, get up. Come see Mia, not happy. Captain.”
The vision of Mia faded away, but he knew if he reached beside him… he let his arm fall. He was jolted awake when he found an empty space.
“Yes, you come now, Mia not happy. You come, hurry, make Mia happy.” The man rushed across the room and grabbed Devin’s pants and shirt from the floor. Holding them out, “Hurry, hurry.”
Devin groaned, his eyes going to the portal where the sky outside showed only gray. What time was it and where had his wife gone? Sitting up he rubbed at his chest.
“Come hurry, you make Mia happy again. Hurry hurry.”
“Mr. Hong.” Both men turned at Mr. Quiggly’s shout. “I told you to leave the captain be.”
“What time is it, Mr. Quiggly?” Devin asked
“Barely a quarter past the hour five,” Mr. Quiggly said coming to where Mr. Hong stood holding out Devin’s clothes from the night before.
“Past five, yes hurry now. Mia not happy,” Mr. Hong persisted.
“And she isn’t going to get any less so in the next hour,” Mr. Quiggly said snatching Devin’s clothes. “Now out.”
“Captain come, make Mia happy,” the man said as he moved towards the door.
“Mr. Quiggly, where’s my wife?” he asked holding out his hands for his clothes.
“On deck, Captain.”
“And do you happen to know what she’s unhappy about?” Devin asked and swung his legs to the floor.