The Pirate King Ch. 16

I threw my head back as the Captain took my cock into his mouth, my breath coming in soft gasps in time with his motions. When he lifted his head and flicked his tongue over the tip of my cock, I doubled up in pleasure.

"Good," I heard him whisper. "So fucking good, you're perfect, baby. Taste so good. Wait for me."

And he left me on the bed, gasping for breath and spinning from his touch.

He was back too soon for me to have found my footing again, but still he had been gone too long. Any time he spent away from me was too long. When he returned to me I reached out to him immediately, pulling him into a deep kiss.

He had taken his pants off while he was away from me and so we were pressed together skin to skin, our cocks rubbing, aching, together. When he broke away from me he was panting, pupils blown.

"Give me your hand." My fingers were in his palm the next instant, my compliance unquestioning. He covered them in slick lube then guided my hand between our legs. My shoulder had to hitch for my hand to reach his ass, and he took that as an invitation and buried his face in my neck.

"You know what to do?"

I nodded, then realized that he couldn't see me. "Yes, sir." My finger circled his hole, his hand on my wrist as some sort of guidance. I didn't need it, not really. His reactions were my guide. The way his breath hitched, the way his teeth caught on the skin of my neck. That was all the hints I needed.

"Sailor," he whined as I made another circle. I was in no hurry. I liked the way he was pressed against me, shaking and mine and perfect. I knew I would like what came next just as much, but this was good and I didn't want to rush. My finger started another circle. "Baby."

I kissed the top of his head.

His free hand snaked around my arm still wrapped around his back and found it's way into my hair, reminding me painfully, wonderfully of my lack of control here. Why had I ever thought I had a say in how long we spent in any one place? "Fucking do it," the Captain, my Captain, hissed into my neck, and I pressed my fingers to his spine as I sunk my middle finger into his ass.

He hissed into my neck, back arching with the sensation. I knew exactly what he was going through and stroked his back as he spun through the myriad of sensations I had just sent him crashing into.

"More," he begged immediately, but I knew he couldn't be ready for it yet and I pulled back and pressed into him again instead, causing him to bite my neck. It wasn't until he didn't tighten his grip on me with each entrance that I allowed myself to add another finger.

"Fuck yeah," he gasped. "Now bend your fingers, just a little more to the -"

I shifted my position and found the spot that he was asking for.

He pulled at my hair, gasping. "Yes," he told me, "fuck yeah, baby, that's it, again, baby do it again, do it again..."

I did. And then again, and again, until he was falling apart on top of me, his face pressed to the mattress, his hand tight in my hair, a steady stream of curses and promises and commands streaming from his mouth. My free hand lightly ran up and down his spine.

Suddenly he rolled away from me and laid on his back, panting. I propped myself up on my elbow, watching him gasp for air, loving the way he looked. Naked and flustered and on edge, hair wild and legs spread, cock hard, all for me.

His eyes snapped over to me, looking me over, and I hope he saw the same things in me that I saw in him. I know his breathing grew deeper and faster. I know his eyes grew darker with each second they spent on my skin, and when they passed to my soul.

I had never before seen darkness like that.

"Fuck," he said explosively. He grabbed up a pillow, pulling it to his body even as he was reaching back for me. "Fucking, gods. Come here."

What else could I do? His eyes tied me. His words bound me. I was free to move only as he desired and it set my soul on fire.

The pillow found it's way beneath his hips and then he was pulling me against his back, my cock nestling between his ass. "Fuck me," he commanded. His head rested on the bed, eyes dark and soft and so much, so much more than I could handle as he looked up at me from where he lay. "Baby, baby come on, fuck me."

"Lube," I managed to remember. I watched frustration roll off his body. He pointed in a general direction, his eyes still on me.

"Over there." I glanced over and and found the jar where he had left it on the other side of the bed. "And Sailor."

I looked down at him. My seas crashed against the night that he contained, that he had become, and were lost in infinity. I spun at the contradiction of towering above the sky.

"Get it fast."

I didn't have to be told twice. I was pressed back against him in moments, my cock slick and ready, and he moaned his appreciation. His eyes still looked up at me but they were ragged, unfocused. I slid a hand up his back as much to steady myself as to make sure he was still there, still with me.

"Ready?" I asked quietly, but my word simply caused him to push back against me.

"Fuck me," he said again, and this time it was a command and there was no way I could ignore the way those words slipped into my body and so I pressed into him.

I meant to go slow, thought I was, but halfway through he said something and slammed his hips into mine so there was nothing slow about it. There was nothing slow about us. I bit back my own gasp and ran my hand up and down his spine, feeling the way he shuddered to breathe, feeling him all around me. He was all around me.

I kept moving my hand and tried not to fall apart.

His breath finally took the shape of my name. "Sailor." His hips lifted away from me then slid back slowly, showing me he was ready. "Sailor."

I moved my own hips, causing him to gasp. At first I moved slowly, gently. Then when it became apparent he was not in pain, I pulled out nearly all the way and then slammed back in.

The Captain collapsed before me, shouting my name. "Again," he commanded. "Fucking again, again."

And so I did it again, and again. Before me the Captain slowly fell apart, and I watched him with wonder, with love. I wanted to turn him to nothing but atoms, to lift him from his skin and make him forget he had a body. I wanted to fuck him until he forgot his name and only remembered the ones he had for me. I wanted to be the things he always managed to be for me, and I wanted to watch him while I did it because he was so damn beautiful.

"Sailor," he was saying, babbling, "fucking, baby, love, Sailor,fuck." He threw his head back, hands reaching behind him. I leaned down until his hands could grab hold of my sides. His fingers slid wildly until they found my hands on his hips. "Fucking, Sailor."

I let him move my hands as he wanted. When he put my hand on his cock the walls of his ass tightened and my rhythm hitched, my self control nearly lost in that moment. But he jerked at my other hand and I remembered that I was there for him, that I was his, and I held myself together and slammed into him hard enough in the next moment that he forgot where he was going to put my other hand and just held it tight, cursing me.

"Sailor." His voice was raw. "Sailor, fucking look at me."

I met his eyes and held his hand tight. He was so lost, so lost to me. "Captain," I murmured in reverence.

"Gonna, gotta come." He didn't appear to have heard me. I don't think he heard anything besides the song that I was pounding into his soul. "Come in my ass, baby. I wanna feel, I gotta." His fingers squeezed around mine; I tightened my grip in response. "Say it, baby. Say you'll fucking do it."

"Yes, sir." I could have tripped on those words alone. I held back for him.

Our hands together were still jerking off his cock in time with my thrusts. "Sailor."

"Captain." The word was pressed against him, so soft, so careful.

"Say it."

I readied myself to say whatever it was he needed to hear, whatever he wanted. I would say anything. I would say -

"Say you love me."

I froze for only a moment before my face was pressed next to his, my lips below his ear. "I love you, baby. I love you. I love you."

"Oh, fuck." I felt him seize around me as my words wrapped around his soul. "Sailor!"

"I love you." My hips hitched as I emptied myself into him, my hand so tight in his. "I love you."

"Sailor," he whispered as I collapsed next to him, gathering his body to mine.

"I love you," I told the back of his head. The pounding of my heart took up the refrain. The stillness that existed around us, so sudden, so strong, took hold and kept the words safe. "I'll love you forever."

The Captain lay in my arms, quiet and shaking, for some time. I thought he might have fallen asleep. When he moved it was sudden and violent and perfect, his elbow nearly catching my chin, his face so serious I almost pulled away before he grabbed my hair and pulled my lips to his.

At the end of the kiss we were both panting. He pressed his forehead to mine.

"Thank you," he told me. His dark eyes searched mine, and I know they found what they needed because I know I was everything that he needed, because he was the same for me. "Thank you."

I wrapped my arms around the small of his back and gathered him to my chest, content and tired and happy, and so, so in love.

***

The Captain had just fallen asleep when Natch knocked on the door.

"Fuck," he mumbled sleepily into my chest.

"Who is it?" I called out. Natch identified himself and I told him he could come in.

You would think he would expect to see us in this state by this time, or at least be used to it.

He was not.

"Jesus." He turned away immediately, covering his head with his arms. "Gods. All the. At leastwarn me, fuck. You gonna get dressed or some shit?"

I shrugged. I wasn't going to move, not when the Captain was so comfortable in my arms. "What did you need?"

"The bearings." His voice was muffled from where he stood. "We're at a decision point and Cap told me to come and get him when -"

"Aw, fuck," the Captain muttered in my arms.

"- we got to the currents we needed," Natch continued. He bounced for a moment on the balls of his feet, waiting.

The Captain began to push away from me, but his heart wasn't into it. "I'll go show him," he grumbled. I could tell just how little he wanted to be moving and held him fast.

"Natch knows where the Ephretes are," I reminded him. "There's no need to get up.

Natch," I called out. "You'll be taking the Ephretes until they fray. It should be a five days journey."

Natch shifted but didn't leave.

"Is there something else you need?" The Captain had laid back in my arms and was breathing evenly again. He would be asleep in a few moments.

"The Ephretes?" Natch confirmed.

"Was I not clear?"

"No, yeah, it's just." He shifted.

"It's just what."

He didn't turn around, but he began bouncing again, slow and uncomfortable. "You know who else uses the Ephretes this time of year."

The Captain was nearly asleep. I pushed back a strand of hair from his face to better see the gentling of his features. I loved seeing him like this, on the doorway of peace. It amused me to know all the violence he held so -

Natch's words settled onto my soul.

"Oh." I sat up to look at him. He was standing very still except for the tell-tale bounce. It was like watching a statue being shaken. "I didn't realize it was that time of year." Yarrick would be making his runs to the Mainland, his hulls full. This was when he had picked me up. This was where he had picked me up.

"It is." His arms crossed, then returned to his sides. "What if we run across him?"

I took a moment to take in this man standing before me, his anxiety turning him into something he couldn't control. What if we did run across him?

Easy. Simple. Hadn't I made a promise? Hadn't I already claimed his soul? "We kill him."

Natch turned to me, his bouncing arrested in his moment of surprise. His eyes tracked over my face, set and confident. I watched him take some of that calm onto his own face, if not some of the confidence.

"Okay," he said. "Okay."

Then he pointed at me. "But you're fucking telling Sneg." And he turned and left the room.

I stared at the door long after it had closed. Was this smart? It would take me from my goals, keep me from my daughter. But, I rationalized, perhaps we would not even run into the man. Perhaps it would not even become an issue.

When had things ever been so easy with me?

Only the fates would tell, only the sea would determine if our paths would intersect. I gave myself over to its currents and laid back down with the man I loved.

"Sailor," the Captain murmured as I joined him, his body poised on the doorway of sleep. "Who did you say we're killing now?"

"A bounty man." I thought about adding his connection to Natch, but that was for Natch to share if he was willing, if he was comfortable. If he wanted. "He's the one who sold me to the mines. His death is mine."

"Okay, sounds nice." The Captain yawned and snuggled closer into my arms. "Just don't take too long, we have places to be."

I kissed him on his forehead. "Of course." But I don't know if he heard me; he might have already been asleep. I smiled down at this man, this loving, violent, peaceful man, and then settled down beside him to join him in sleep.

***

Baking bread in an art. You need the coals just right, the heat to be absolutely precise. It takes a careful hand. It takes a steady eye. Above all, it takes a lot of pain.

There's this moment when you're raking the flame to get a better one, when you're trying to make everything perfect. And in that moment you will always be burned. The sparks will fly up, they will land on your arms and no level of patting down or running water over your body really makes those coals go out, not right away. Minnie called that moment trying to hold a star. Shit, she'd say when I came in to see her in the mornings, her arms deep in a bowl of water. Got caught trying to hold another star.

I didn't like her doing it. I hated seeing her in pain. So I would come down every morning and rake her coals for her, make them how she wanted. Feel hundreds of sparks land on my skin. Minnie used to laugh at me, at how stoic I would try to be. You big man, she would say, you eternal soul. Even you aren't that large. Do you really believe you can hold the whole of the sky? And she would laugh as another spark landed on my arm, or chest, or nearly caught up in my long, fine hair.

And yet here he was, and here my arms were wrapped around him. Here his back was, pressed against my chest, my stomach. My face buried in the small of his neck. Look, Minnie, I thought. I hold the whole of the sky.

And he burns me so well.

I kissed the back of his neck and gently disentangled myself from him. He grumbled slightly at the disturbance, still worn from the night before and not used to being up so early. By the time I was standing beside him, he was again deep in slumber.

I smiled down at him before heading toward the kitchen to help Cookie start the daily baking.

***

Sneg pulled me aside at breakfast. "The fucking Ephretes?"

I shrugged. There was really nothing more to say.

"I don't want to see him," they told me. "I never wanted to see him again. That's why I left the fucking ocean. This, this is why I left the sea."

"We might not even run into him," I told them, not believing it for a moment.

"And if we do? What do you think will happen? We'll kill him and then everything is better, me and Natch are suddenly healed? We just close that chapter of our life like it never even happened? Fuck, man. This is stupid. This is cruel." They stared me down with eyes so light they couldn't even be called blue.

"So you don't want him dead."

They threw up their hands. "Of fucking course I want him dead. I want him so dead he can't touch anyone for the past twenty years, but that can't happen and it won't happen so don't think that this won't fuck me up. Don't think that this won't fuck Natch up." They narrowed their eyes. "Don't think this will fix anything, that's what I'm saying. You can't just kill trauma. You of all people should understand that."

"Sneg."

Sneg and I turned at the soft voice behind them and found Natch, quiet. Bouncing.

"Fuck," Sneg told the air. Or maybe me. It was hard to tell.

"Come help me with the sails?" Natch asked.

I watched Sneg look between their friend and my form, again and again, trying to decide if this fight was worth giving up. Finally they sighed. "Yeah, Natch. I'll be right there." Then they pointed at me. "But don't you fucking forget what I said."

They turned and walked away past Natch, not waiting for him to catch up. Natch gave me a look.

"Don't you have sails to work on?"

"Fuck, Ghost," he muttered, and turned to follow Sneg.

***

On the third day on the Ephretes, we lost Ichor.

"What do you mean, you lost Ichor?" I asked Sneg.

"I mean, no one's seen him in six hours. We thought he was just in his hole down below decks but." They shrugged.

I spared a quick glance at the Captain, deep in a conversation with Natch about sails and wind strength. Ichor was squarely my responsibility, since I had brought him back. I would rather fix this problem quickly and not ever have the Captain involved or stressed over it, especially since it might involve Dave.

Dave. At the thought of him a slight anxiety built in my stomach, but I steadfastly ignored it. It was unlikely that Dave would take back Ichor to get back to me, or to get at the Captain. But still. One could never be too careful.

"You checked the riggings?" I asked.

"Of course. And behind the barrels, and my hammock and the storage room where he sleeps."

"Fuck." I pressed my hand to my face. "Alright." I turned without checking to see if Sneg was following.

They couldn't keep silent anymore when they saw where we were heading. "Why the fuck would he be in the kitchen?"

He wouldn't be. I, however, needed Cookie's window if I was going to get to the ocean to divine. I didn't bother to explain this to Sneg as we made our way into the small space.

Cookie was working on dinner as we walking in. He raised an eyebrow and jerked a head toward the window. "Was wondering when you'd show up."

My question to him died on my tongue when I saw the rope that already hung from the window, taut with the weight of a body.

"Huh," I stated, crossing my arms. I had never had a soldier brought back that willingly went alone into the ocean. "He drowned yet?"

Beside me, Sneg started.

"Not that I can tell," Cookie said. "Andthat one ain't shown his face either." He pointed out the window. "You got a strange one, there."

I did indeed.

I sent Sneg back up on deck, against all their protests. Then I settled down to wait.

It was another two hour before Ichor drug himself, dripping and pruned, through the small window. I passed him the towel Cookie had left with me. "You shouldn't do that. He might claim you again."

Ichor merely shrugged. "I missed the ocean."

"You aren't worried?"

"If he comes for me, he comes for me. I wasn't afraid when I was alive." He looked down at his hand, a motion that seemed even slower for the mercury he held in his veins. "Why should I be afraid now?"

Because now you've seen what it's like, I wanted to say. Because Dave has seen you and knows your face, and is more likely to come for you. Instead I asked him the more important question; "Do you want to go back?"

"No," he answered immediately. Then he seemed to think on it more. "It doesn't seem much different than this, I guess. It's all death."

I raised my brow. "Do you regret that I brought you back?"