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)
His lips curved against my own.
“Is that—?” I pulled back, trying to see his expression. “Are you smiling?”
His mouth chased, kissing me hungrily. “No.”
The devil he wasn’t. With effort, I wrangled my arms free and grasped his jaw. I pushed. He tightened the tangle of his legs around mine but allowed the distance between our faces.
And there, caught in the bite of his teeth, was a small, heart-melting smile that pulled so playfully at the corners. I was awestruck by the sight of it, dizzy with reverential disbelief.
“There’s magic on your lips.” I touched them hesitantly.
The twitching lips kissed my fingers, binding me with a supernatural spell.
“Magic is fake.” I lowered my hand. “Love is real. What is this?”
“It’s real.” His expression sobered, and he caught my wrist, squeezing the delicate tendons. “Do you know how I know that?”
“It hurts.”
“Yes. But I can give you more than pain.” He let his weight rest fully on top of me, making my blood run as hot as a fever. “Strike your colors, pirate.”
“Never.”
He clicked his tongue. “You hoisted your white the day we met.”
I’d raised that damned flag in a ruse to distract him from firing upon my ship. But I couldn’t tell him that. “I won’t strike for you again.”
His eyes lit with challenge. That look alone sent my pulse into a frenzy.
“Ashley.” I grabbed a fistful of black hair. “Don’t even think about it.”
Slipping from my grip, he shoved down my body.
My lungs slammed together, and I twisted away. But Ashley quickly yanked me back by my ankle, giving me no time to counter. In a fraction of a breath, his hands spread open my thighs, and his mouth covered the juncture between.
Everything ceased to exist, the distant waves a mere echo of the world around me. All that I knew, all that I felt was the hot caress of lips and the tongue that stroked, dipping inside, licking circles, and teasing all the sensitive edges.
Sublime torture.
“Not fair.” I moaned loudly, shakily, rocking against each annihilating kiss.
I wasn’t impervious to radiant heat. Nor was I resistant to the destruction of storms. I was only human. A lusty one by most standards, but a mortal, nonetheless. I had no defenses against the whims of a god.
“I’m still…” Aching. Heaven and Hell, I ached for this man beyond reason.
“Still what?” His tongue slid upon me in divine torment.
“Still angry.” I dragged in air, trembling. “I’m not striking. Not forgiving. Notahahahhhh!”
His mouth plundered, ravaged, and buried itself voraciously. When his fingers joined in and impaled me to the knuckles, I grabbed his hair and cried out. My back arched, and I flexed my hips wantonly, recklessly, beneath the scorching lashes that tore me asunder. I couldn’t be still or quiet, too lost in the delirium of pleasure as he claimed another piece of me.
It was far too late to turn back. He’d already scaled my bow and flung me into a sea of pure ecstasy. Hot shimmering sparks burst through me, spasming my insides as I rode his sinful mouth through the torrential waves of orgasm.
Eventually, my shallow breaths lengthened and slowed, finding a safer tempo, and reality crept back in.
“How did you learn how to do that?” I sagged on the bed, dissolving into lethargy.
“Practice.” He sat back on his heels and pulled off his shirt. “Before I joined the Royal Navy, I had more free time, in which I spent beneath the local girls’ skirts.”
“Those poor maidens.” My gaze ate up his sculpted chest, my skin heating anew. “Their virtues didn’t stand a chance with the likes of you.”
“I heard no complaints,” he murmured, his eyes glinting with triumph. “None from you, either.”
“A lopsided victory.” I straightened the coverlet, where it draped around my torso. “You disarmed me unjustly and usurped the advantage.”
“On the contrary, Goldilocks. It is me who has been put at a disadvantage for a week and counting.” His hand curved around my breast and smoothed down my stomach, drawing back the coverlet to bare me fully. “Your beauty affects a man like potent wine. When I look at you, I’m drugged.”
He lowered his head and brushed his lips across my scar. My breath hitched, and my legs quivered around his waist.
“When I lick you…” His tongue trailed a wandering path to my chest. “Taste you…” He drew my nipple between his lips, sucking. “Kiss you…” His mouth returned to capture mine, delving deeply with sweet, languid strokes. “You make my head spin as though I’m drinking from the unholy grail.”
“Unholy?”
“Filled to the brim with sin. I want to consume every drop.”
He set out to do just that, eating at my mouth with an unhealthy obsession. I tasted myself on his tongue, the sharp tang of arousal mixed with the clean mintiness of his breath.
“Do you forgive me?” He suckled my lips.