Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 163328 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 817(@200wpm)___ 653(@250wpm)___ 544(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163328 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 817(@200wpm)___ 653(@250wpm)___ 544(@300wpm)
Beneath the feverish swamp of his masculine heat and the sweet relief of his cock fitting against my cunt, I didn’t have the strength to stop this. I wanted him to the point of pain.
Until he shifted his hips and pressed up into my darkest place.
“Wrong hole!” My hands shot out, grappling at nothing, the scream in my throat strangled to silence.
“Mercy God.” He pushed past the ring of muscle, groaning low in his chest, his fingers a bruising vise on my hip. “Let me in. Deeper. Deeperaaaaah!”
I bucked, gulping for air, stunned beyond thought, as he worked the enormity of his cock into my arse. He was so well lubricated that he’d already sunk halfway in.
“Ashley…” I breathed through the sharp sting, the searing pressure, and tried to shove him away. “Stop!”
He pulled out, and his open hand slammed against my buttocks, jarring fire into my bones.
“Be still while I use you.” Then he was on me again, inside me, impaling his length into my backside. “Take it. Just how you like it.”
Something fractured inside of me. A breaking apart of my spirit. By the time he was fully seated, I had no fight left.
With unbending hands and an iron will, he controlled me, and I yielded, defeated, letting the ruthlessness of his lust hammer in and out. He felt terrible and beautiful, wild and experienced, mean and ravenous.
I didn’t know how many thrusts he got in, but it wasn’t many. He fucked me hard and came fast.
When it was finished, he withdrew from my slumped body. His hands didn’t reach for me. His eyes didn’t seek. He turned his back and strode away, leaving me to fester in agonizing silence.
I wouldn’t chase him. I wouldn’t beg for a different outcome. And I would not cry in front of him.
Pushing away from the rail, I retreated into the shadows of the balcony and listened as he washed behind the privacy screen. He was cleaning me off him, rinsing every trace of me away. Like it never happened.
It shouldn’t matter. I shouldn’t care. I was stronger than the cruelty of men.
Footsteps sounded beyond the door. Moments later, he strode past the balcony, dressed in a shirt and breeches, without casting a glance in my direction.
“Why?” I heard myself ask as I stepped back inside. “Why did you take me there? Why like that?”
He stopped, his broad shoulders stiffening, as he assumed the powerful stance of a commodore.
“I know why you’ve worked so insidiously to lure me. You wanted my seed.” He turned to face me, his blue eyes blazing. “So I gave it to you in a place you couldn’t use it against me.” His nostrils flared. “You will stand trial, Bennett Sharp, and you’ll do so without my babe in your womb.”
I backed away, my legs shaking as shock and overwhelming sorrow rode roughshod over my insides. Of course, he was right. I’d arrived with several plans of escape. But the one he referenced would’ve been a complete and utter lie.
“If you had taken the time to look at my body, you would’ve noticed my scar.” I placed a trembling hand over the puckered skin low on my abdomen.
His gaze followed the movement and jerked back to my face.
“Do you know what happens to a woman when she takes a sword through the middle?” I raised my chin, helpless to stifle its quivering. “She loses her female organs, her menses, and her ability to conceive. I will never be a mother, Ashley. Your concerns have been wrongly placed.”
I tried to stem the flow of tears. Tried. And failed.
He didn’t stick around to witness them. Turning on his heel, he stepped through the chamber, the hem of his untucked shirt just a flick of silk behind him as he vanished beyond the dining cabin.
The exterior door opened, followed by a deafening slam.
My diaphragm convulsed, shoving a sob past my lips. A series of choking, wheezing, wet hiccups followed, and I tried to swallow them. Tried to muffle my cries. But I couldn’t. I doubled over and wailed like a pathetic child.
As those wretched sounds met my ears, I clamped my mouth shut.
This wasn’t the ferocious daughter Edric Sharp had raised.
This wasn’t me.
I slapped at the tears on my face and staggered to the balcony. There, I transformed my cries into rage. Snarling and roaring into the wind, I let the ocean snatch away my heartache and bury it beneath the pounding waves.
For the past seven years, I’d lived among men, fighting tirelessly for every inch of respect in a man’s world. I never let their prejudices weaken me. I never swooned, cowered, or submitted in the shadow of masculine strength. I never allowed anyone to see me as anything but a hardened, ruthless pirate captain.
With the exception of two.
I’d let two men inside my very vulnerable, very feminine heart. And they chewed it up, one behind the other.