“He has many ships.”
“Captain Zale busted his rudders. That won’t go over well with him either. He is kind of anal.”
“He is kind of cute,” Gwyn shot back.
I laughed. “Why you naughty, naughty pirate. Sorry, I automatically call anyone living on the rogue islands a pirate.”
“I don’t mind. This is going to be fun. A lifetime of adventure,” she added on a sigh.
I couldn’t help but agree with her. Life on the islands was filled with danger and mayhem, but damn if it didn’t make one feel alive. Living with the man I adored was going to be one hell of an adventure.
I walked toward the captain’s desk and searched the chests. Expensive clothes. Custom-made boots. Drinks with weird labels. Where was the food? I was so hungry I felt nauseous.
Banan had served on this ship. He’d know where all the food was hidden. I told Gwyn I needed food and left to find Banan.
I found the new crew member below the deck, showing the others where everything was kept. Majority of his audience were shieldmaidens. Banan had found his piece of heaven. He found mine in a large stash of thick, hard biscuits, overly salty pickled vegetables, and beef jerky. At least they looked like beef jerky. They tasted like salted cardboard.
I hugged him with gratitude and received envious looks from his admirers. Grinning, I carried my food back to the cabin. My excursion below the decks also told me sneaky Lord Conyngham had lied when he’d helped Captain Ren a week ago. The ship had several private cabins below the captain’s. These were for the officers. Lord Conyngham could have easily given me one of those cabins during our journey to Hy’Brasil. He’d been looking out for me even though he’d had doubts about my identity.
Storm was still conferencing with the other captains, and Gwyn was busy getting the queen mother ready for bed. She’d even found the bathroom, which also had a tub. I must have missed that during our journey to Hy’Brasil, unless it was new.
I settled on a lounge and ate my hearty pirate meal, washing it down with ale. Stuffed, I removed my gown, the golden hair piece the seamstress at the palace had placed on my head, and boots, and curled up on the lounge. Singing, I stroked the bridle around my neck.
How differently tonight had ended. If Storm hadn’t arrived for me, I’d be bonded with a different bridle.
~*~
I woke up to gentle arms lifting me from the lounge. The familiar warmth and scent had me saying, “Storm?”
“Go back to sleep, muh’Lexi.”
I buried my face in his nape as he took my place on the lounge and covered us. I was draped on his chest, my legs between his. He kissed my forehead, his arms tightening around me. I frowned. He was tense, his emotions all over the place. Somehow, I knew the cause.
“How is she doing?”
“Not so well.”
I lifted my head and peered at him in the dark. Someone had turned off the candles. I stroked his cheek, then scooted up and kissed him, slowly at first as though I was teaching my taste buds to re-appreciate the taste of him. And he tasted so good.
When he tried to deepen the kiss, I backed off, pressed my lips to his cheek, then jaw, and finally his nape, where I nestled.
“I’ve missed your kisses,” I said.
A chuckle rumbled through his chest. “Is that why you won’t let me kiss you, mo ghrá?”
“No, that’s preserving my modesty. If you kiss me, I won’t want you to stop, which will lead to me ripping off your clothes and shocking Gwyn. You already shocked her by stripping on the battlement. So, I can kiss you, but you can’t kiss me back.”
This time, his chest shook with silent laughter. “By the gods, I’ve missed you. The way your mind works, the way you feel in my arms, and the way you taste.”
He had me at how my mind works. And I’d eased his worries about his mother.
“Not as much as I missed you. Actually, on the scale of who’s missed the other the most, I, hands down, trounce you.”
“How do you figure?”
“While you were healing and completely knocked out, I was wide awake, listening to people say stupid things about our people, which made me want to smack them, and wishing I was back at home in your arms.”
His lips pressed against my temple. “I adore you, Lexi, my mate.”
“I adore you more.”
“Not even possible.”
“Tell me about her. What happened?”
He sighed. “She cried.”
“While you were talking to her?”
“Yes. Gwyn needed to stretch her legs, so I sent her outside and sat with her. I was telling her about training for regional games when tears slipped from under her closed eyelids. I stopped and, uh, I apologized for making her cry.”
My throat closed. I wanted to cry without knowing what he’d told her. And he was still referring to his mother as “her.”
“Was it a bad period in your life?”
“It was okay.”
“Okay” in man language meant “sucked.” “I’m going to love you so hard, Storm Orath,” I vowed.
“There’s a cabin downstairs we could use.” His hand slipped between us and crept toward the junction between my thighs. “We’d have to kick Kheelan or Nerissa out first.”
My body trembled, and heat pooled low in my belly. I wanted to say yes. It had been so long since he touched me, and my body desperately craved a release. I wanted to let those fingers reach their destination, but I was too aware of the other two people in the cabin to give in. Kicking someone out of their cabin didn’t seem right either.
Laughing, I grabbed Storm’s wrist and brought his hand to my back. He ran it up and down my butt cheeks as though memorizing their shape, and I let him. It felt so nice to feel his hands on any part of my body, and the chemise and silk bloomers offered very little barrier to the heat from his hand and its effect.
“I don’t mean that,” I said.
Who was I kidding? I meant that, too.
“I was talking about in general. I’m going to love you and put you first every day. That’s the promise I made to myself and to your mother when she and I last spoke.”
His hand went still, and my body protested.
“She spoke to you about me?”
“Whenever she was coherent. She said she loved you but never put you first. She made me promise to put you first. I’d already planned on it, so it was an easy promise to make.”
“Lexi?”
“Yes?”
“I need to kiss you.”
“You can’t.”
“I wasn’t asking, lass. That was a warning.” He cupped my face then captured my mouth in a searing kiss that had me moaning and pressing against him.
His fingers sank into my hair, gripping my head, and he went into an all-out kissing assault that left me dazed and achy. I crawled up and straddled him while he nibbled and sucked on my tongue. He started with slow, languid thrusts, but I needed it hard, and he gave it to me again, a dueling of teeth, tongue, and lips.
He was so damn irresistible. So delicious.
When we came up for air, his erection was nestled between my butt cheeks and a pulse beat a steady staccato rhythm between my thighs. I wanted to love him and mate with him so much it hurt to stop.
He tucked my head under his chin and covered us again. There was nothing I could do about his arousal or mine, except sleep them off. The problem was sleep was the last thing on my mind.
“I’m sorry you had a shitty childhood,” I murmured.
“You had a shitty one, too.”
“I had Tommy, and Dad was around a little longer.” His parents had died months apart. Then his grandparents had followed. “Was Nerissa’s family nice?”
“Very, but it was different. I’m going to love you hard, muh’Lexi. Both ways. In general and in the bedroom.”
“Does that mean we can’t anywhere else?”
“Like now? Up on the deck? Or below?”
I sighed. “Don’t tea
se. How soon before we reach the Mac Lir?”
“Two days.”
It was going to be the longest two days of my life.
“Can you wait that long?” Storm teased.
“Shut up.”
“I knew it. I’m going to have fun changing your mind, starting now.” He stood easily with me, and I wrapped my legs around his midsection and my arms around his neck. The coat fell to the lounge, but he didn’t pick it up.
“Where are we going?”
“I want to show you the stars.” He walked to the door, gently opened it, and closed it behind us.
The deck was quiet, most of the crew down below. A few were taking a turn on the lookout, and Nerissa was on the helm with one of her shieldmaidens keeping her company.
“Beautiful night,” she said.
“I could have the first turn while you two sleep,” Storm offered.
“No, we are good, Cap’n. But my bed is empty.”
Storm looked at me, checking my reaction. I shook my head.
“Thanks for the offer, but she wants to wait and make me suffer after my heroic rescue.”
My jaw dropped. “You didn’t have to tell her that.”
“You are the one making us wait, muh’Lexi. I’m ready. I told you, after a battle, making love is the only way to spend the adrenaline rushing through our veins. Don’t you feel it? The urge to tear the clothes off my body?”
I did, damn it. I buried my face in his nape while chuckles from Nerissa and the shieldmaiden followed us. Gah, he was so mean. I bit his neck, and he groaned.
“That’s a start,” he said in a voice gone husky.
“That’s for embarrassing me.”
“I just want you in my arms, lass, with nothing between us. Not even air, and I’m not ashamed of it.”
He hadn’t been kidding about having fun changing my mind. He was enjoying it. I gripped his face and kissed him to shut him up, which was probably what he wanted, because my back was pressed against a rail and his hands crushed me to him as our mouths meshed and our tongues danced.
He tore his mouth from mine and stared at me in the darkness. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but the swell of love and desire so deep and vast coursed through me and drowned my resistance. I initiated the next kiss, letting him know I wanted him just as much.
A groan rumbled through his chest. He buried his mouth on my neck, and I felt him move without knowing where he was going. I didn’t care. When he stopped, I hoped we were in a cabin. Any cabin. He lowered me, and turned me around, arms pulling me flush with him. My head spun, and I was disoriented when I opened my eyes, expecting to see a bed.
Instead, my hands were by a rail. We were on the highest deck, above the one with the helm, and it was deserted. His large body blocked anyone watching us from seeing me, not that I would have cared.
He ran kisses along my nape and tilted my head sideways to capture my mouth. His free hand slipped under my arm and closed on one breast, first squeezing it then zeroing in on my aching nipples.
A moan escaped me, my hands reaching up to pull his head closer, my chest bursting as I struggled to breathe. It wasn’t enough. I needed to feel his skin against mine.
I tried to turn around, but he wouldn’t let me. Trapped between the rails and his body, there was nothing to do but let him have control. Not that I was complaining. My body craved his touch, and I needed everything Tully had done erased from my head.
His other hand closed on my left breast while the right one stopped tormenting me and crept lower, bunching my chemise along the way. Anticipation had wetness pooling between my thighs and my body trembling. When his mouth left mine and followed a trail to my shoulder, I turned my head and kissed his ear, taking it between my teeth and bearing down.
“Lexi,” he rasped.
“Make the ache stop,” I begged in a voice I didn’t recognize.
His slow movement stopped, and I protested too soon. Moving fast, he lifted my leg and rested it on his knee, which he’d propped on a lower rail. At the same time, he lifted my chemise and slipped a hand under the waistband of my bloomers. I became dizzy with anticipation when he cupped my heated flesh and stopped.
He just stopped. What the hell?
“Please,” I whispered.
“Don’t beg, lass. I’m savoring the feel of you. So many emotions pouring from you and arousing me in ways I never knew possible. You want me.”
“I do.”
“So much,” he teased.
“Storm,” I hissed.
Chuckling, he slipped one finger between the folds of my nether lips and swept it across my clit.
I gasped at the sensations. He groaned.
“So wet just for me, Lexi?”
“For you.” How could he doubt that? Surely, he wasn’t thinking of Tully now? “Just you, Storm. Always.”
Growling, he did it again and kissed me, swallowing the sounds I made. With every swipe, the pressure grew. I tucked my hips and pushed against his hand, and his hips followed. I could feel his erection pushing through his breeches. I needed him inside me. I didn’t care if Nerissa heard us.
Just as I reached behind me to find him, he slid one finger inside my moist interior, and I hissed, my hands closing on his thigh and my fingers digging into his flesh.
Damn, that felt so good.
His movements were slow and sensual, and I got lost in him. When he added a second finger and angled his trajectory, I almost blacked out. The sensations were overwhelming, yet I didn’t want him to stop. He whispered words in Gaelic, his voice becoming gruff as he pushed me higher and higher until my body couldn’t contain the pressure anymore.
My body fell apart, stars exploding in my head. If his mouth didn’t capture mine, my cries would have filled the night air.
“Bite me again,” he ordered, still driving me insane with his gifted hands, prolonging the wave as it swept through my body.
I sank my teeth into his sensitive ear, and his movements grew frenzied. I didn’t think it was possible, but the second crest caught me by surprise, and it was greater than the first one. This time, my cries mingled with the waves slapping the hull of the ship.
Body limp, tremors shooting through me, I fell against him.
Storm held me close and nuzzled my neck, whispering the same words he’d said to me before Captain Ren’s men threw him overboard. I repeated them in my fuzzy head and wondered what they meant.
“I told you I’d show you the stars,” Storm whispered and kissed my nape.
And he had. “They exploded.”
He chuckled while I rested my head on his chest, body still humming, my breathing slowly returning to normal.
His hand eased from my sensitive nub, spanned my stomach, caressing and pausing to play with my belly button. He stroked my side as though learning the texture of my skin, or maybe discovering my curves.
I sighed blissfully. I loved the feel of his skin against mine. As if that wasn’t enough, he caught the arched bottom of the bridle around my neck and stroked my skin with it. The two sides looped around my neck fell over my breasts and brushed across my nipples with each movement. I trembled as the sensations from the tight buds combined with the aftermath of the orgasm rocked through me. A woman could become addicted to this kind of loving, yet it was only the tip.
“I can’t wait to fully make you mine, Lexi. To feel you tremble as we join and I get lost in your arms.”
Me, too. Me, too. “We don’t have to use Nerissa’s cabin. You can see the stars right here.” My hand crept behind me to find his erection.
A moan escaped him as he pressed against my hand. He took my questing hand, kissed the knuckles, and placed it on the top rail of the deck.
“Not tonight. Tonight, I get to enjoy you. Look at the sky. See how big, beautiful, and endless the stars are? They hold nothing on you.”
I realized Storm was talking about actual stars. I snuggled and studied the sky. The dark surface of the water reflected the crescen
t moon, but the endless cascade of stars got lost in the ripples. He wrapped his arms around my midsection and rested his chin on my head.
“They are beautiful,” I said. “And the sky seems wider.”
“Yes, they are, but you outshine them.”
I giggled. The damn bridle appeared to have developed a life of its own and was still moving under my chemise. It tickled.
“You find my compliment funny?” Storm asked.
“No, it’s cute, but the bridle is restless,” I said.
“It will calm down once I stop focusing on what I want to do to your body.”
“Really? Like what?”
“No, I’m done talking. When I do, I only make things worse for me. Then the bridle will continue to crawl all over you every second of every hour. If it bothers you, let me know and I’ll lock it in one of the trunks in the cabin.”
“Lock it away? That’s mean.”
“Why does it get to enjoy what I can’t?”
“Well, I’m never giving it up.” I even loved that it responded to his naughty thoughts.
“It will settle into place once we mate and become one. Ignore it, and help me find something boring to numb my senses. Like the weather, or how calm and tranquil the ocean is. Makes me want to go for a swim. Would you like to swim with me?”
“Why not? Just remember, I don’t have a swim suit, so that means—”
“Forget I asked. Think up something quick because right now, I have a one-track mind and it leads to you.”
I laughed. “You see that constellation?” I pointed at a group of stars. “That’s the flying horse, Pegasus.”
He snorted. “No, lass. That is the white horse of Mac Lir, our sea god. Powerful with a thick mane and tail and huge wings, some say it was the first Kelpie. When it drew the god’s boat across the ocean, it flew over the waves. But those of our people who believe in the old religion say it is the white horse of the Goddess Epona. You see the stars in the back?”
“Andromeda?”
He chuckled again. “That is Goddess Epona riding it. She is the goddess of horses.”
I’d better wipe my memory clean of everything I’d learned about constellations and their origins. He pointed out Orion.
Storm Unleashed: Phantom Islanders Part III Page 22