My heart sped up, as I imagined what it’d be like when he sank his teeth into me. It would hurt, of that I was sure, but it would also be something new. And something new was always always worth it.
He withdrew his finger and wrapped his hand, slick from my spit, around my cock, starting to pump it very gently. He began to move his hips faster, and I moaned my gratitude. “Yes, please… Go…” I cleared my throat. “Yes, please Dante. More.”
“All right, sunshine,” he murmured. I felt warmth flood my chest and my mouth pull into a smile. Damn, for a monster he was being so cute!
I was soon panting and writhing beneath him, wanting more, wanting release, but wanting to feel his bite as well. “I’m getting close.”
He shoved his hips against me and started to move at a reasonable clip, fucking me not with the intense violence of the Captain but with enough force to make me grunt when he was fully embedded.
His skin didn’t bead in sweat, but his gaze got ever more intense. I felt myself lost in the sensation of his body against mine, and entranced by the strange severity of his gaze. His dark eyes had a sheen of silver to them, I thought. I couldn’t look away. Out of the bottom of my eye I saw his mouth open, his fangs elongate under his lip.
Part of me wanted to escape then. A small, prehistoric part of me recognising him as a predator I should try to flee from. My heart accelerated and I shuddered. A much larger part of me wanted to find out what it would be like. If I could surrender to a predator and survive, that seemed like a fantastic adventure.
My mouth was already open to breathe heavily and now I tipped my chin up again, inviting him in.
His hand tightened on my cock and he pumped harder, leaning his head in to breathe against the skin of my throat.
“Do it,” I said, trying to somehow present my throat to him even more than I already was.
He shoved his cock deep inside and pierced my throat with his fangs.
It was a bizarre sensation. Pain, for certain, but more than that. A depth to the feeling, which quickly became an ache of pleasure. I could feel him sucking, sucking my blood out of my body and I closed my eyes, gave into it all, and orgasmed hard enough that I thought I’d surely have milked his orgasm out of him.
I wasn’t far off. I heard him moan, almost an animal sound, the apex predator feeding, and joined him in it. My head spun as he pumped his hips again and filled me with his seed. He shoved deep inside and with something of an effort, pulled back from my throat.
For a moment I felt my blood, hot, spilling onto the skin of my neck. Dante leaned in and licked the wound and the ache dulled to a distant pain. I shivered in his arms, gasping for air and not sure I’d ever be able to get enough again. Dante filling me had felt like everything, especially with the bite. Giving and taking in the same moment, making us utterly linked in a way I didn’t truly understand.
I let my eyes flutter closed and gave into the bliss of it all. Dante moved on top of me, licking my neck again, pulling out of me and gently disentangling himself from my limbs. I wasn’t about to let him get away though, so I opened my eyes and drew him in with one arm as he settled on the bed beside me. I needn’t have worried about him running out though. When I looked into his eyes I saw contentment and warmth and he smiled softly back at me.
Chapter 18
In which the pillow talk is slightly better
“That was a thing,” I murmured.
“You taste… just… delicious, sunshine,” he said back, matching my quiet tone.
“Thank you?” I tilted my head to the side and grinned. “Your bite felt… incredible. Transcendent.”
Dante smiled wider, showing off those fangs and I felt a thrill of excitement at the sight of them. He seemed much more mellow, more present with me than he ever had seemed before. I liked it, liked him more and more. I stole a kiss from him and lay back, feeling warm through and through.
“Transcendent,” he repeated and rested his head on my shoulder. “You are such an enigma, Cedric Hale-Harrington.”
“How so?” I raised my eyebrows at him. I’d always prided myself on being very straightforward and direct with what I wanted after all.
“When we planned this scheme, we expected a docile, frightened boy with more money than sense, who would cower in the brig and be minimal trouble. Instead, we got a boy marked by a dark arts obsessed death cult, and aside from all that, a promiscuous mischief-maker.”
I flushed with happiness. “Promiscuous mischief-maker, I love that. Put that on my gravemarker, please.”
Dante’s expression quickly darkened. “You’re not going to die.”
“Eventually, I assume I will,” I said. I let my hand play up his back and stroke his hair, which hung long around his shoulders. It felt soft and smooth, despite the appearance of being tangled or ill-cared for.
“Eventually, but we won’t let the cult get to you,” Dante said. His eyes blazed a little darker with a possessiveness that went straight to my cock. “I won’t let them hurt you, sunshine. I will continue to protect you.”
I licked my lips before responding. “I imagine the captain might overrule you on that particular point… I understand he’d still like the prize money for returning me to my family.”
Dante glanced at the door, guiltily, and then started to pull away from me, his hair trailing through my fingers. I tried to grab onto it but it was slippery as silk.
“Gabriel claimed you first and now I’ve…” he swallowed and covered his eyes with his hands. “Fucked everything up.”
“Excuse me.” I took hold of his wrist and pulled his arm down, which he let me do. I’m confident he had supernatural strength and could easily have resisted if he’d chosen. “You didn’t… I’m not Gabriel’s property. He well, yes all right, he’s claimed me if you want to put it in those words, and it was ridiculously fun, and I want it again but he never said I couldn’t go looking for anyone else.”
“He has kept you locked in his cabin.” Dante tugged against my hold on him, so gently it was like he was encouraging me to grip him tighter, so I did. The point he made was rather a good one and I didn’t have an exact counter to the argument. Instead I pulled his hand to my mouth and kissed the tips of his fingers.
“I am in control of my own body,” I said, the thought solidifying in my mind as I spoke it out loud. “I get to decide who and when I give access to it.” The thought of the confounded tattoo on my back gave my words extra meaning. There was after all, the threat of what the cult would do to my body should they ever get their hands on it again… “And I choose you, and I want to be with you, and yes, I want to be with Gabriel as well. And, if at all possible, the both of you at the same time.”
I shivered again, imagining it briefly and then bit Dante’s finger gently. Dante’s eyes had closed and he intoned a gentle “Ohhhhh…” which was enough like a moan that it encouraged me to continue. Perhaps he had also thought of the Captain in such a light?
“I’d really like to be in between the both of you,” I murmured. “Or have you fucking me while he fucked you… that would be…” I groaned, because there weren’t exactly words for it.
Dante pulled his hand back and shook his head at me, gently. “We have to talk to him.”
“About all three of us, God, yes please.”
Dante closed his eyes and his forehead crinkled. “Uh, sorry. I mean, yes, definitely.”
“No, we have to tell him what we’ve done. I’m sure he’ll be missing you shortly. It’s astounding he hasn’t already…”
We both listened for a moment, but there were no shouts from outside the door. My heart sank, and I knew Dante was right. There was no way Gabriel wouldn’t miss me, and soon. I felt coldness wash over me as I thought of how cold Gabriel had been with me. I wanted to stay here with Dante, in this delightful bubble of post-coital mellowness. Well, that would require Dante to get back to mellow, I supposed.
He sat up and started pulling his clothes back on, so I got up to do the
same, sighing again. Just once on this ship, I’d like a little bit of a lingering cuddle after the fuck.
Once we were both shipshape and Bristol fashion, Dante led the way out of his cabin. His hand in mine, I assume more to ensure I stuck with him rather than out of any affection.
Although he did call me sunshine and has more or less sworn to protect me. Very curious indeed.
The two of us headed up to the main deck. “Dante, if you’re a vampire, how can you go out in the sunlight all the time?”
“A witch did a spell for me, I have a charm for it.”
Ah, that explains the thing around his neck.
I squeezed his hand a little and there was a tiny, infinitesimal squeeze back.
Gabriel was at the helm, and Dante strode right for him, which didn’t at all seem like a good idea to me, but well, best to get it all over with, I supposed.
Gabriel called some other member of the crew forward. “Kaito, take the helm. I need a word with my quartermaster in private.” Kaito had an incredible head of blue-black hair, and shoulders that promised a nice body under his white shirt.
Focus, Cedric. Focus.
“To my cabin with the prisoner, if you don’t mind.” Gabriel said, pointedly directing this at Dante. I could feel the waves of anger rolling off him.
Dante yanked me to the cabin by the arm, we went deep into the room, Gabriel slammed the door behind us and folded his arms, looking at us both.
“Well? I’d like to know the reason our hostage was out on the deck.” Gabriel narrowed his eyes at my throat and his apparently fury ratcheted up a few more notches. “And why there are puncture wounds in his neck.”
“He came to my room,” Dante said.
“Dante came in and then he left and forgot to lock the door,” I said, trying to make it sound a little more like it was my fault and not Dante’s. “I went looking for him.”
“This is why I said none of us should interfere with him!” Gabriel shouted, his voice seemed to reverberate off the walls of the cabin and echo in my ears. “Look at him, we can’t give him to his parents with holes in his neck!”
“Those will heal in a day,” Dante said. He folded his arms and I shifted my weight, my mouth suddenly dry.
“I feel like I should get to-”
“QUIET!” Gabriel roared. I pressed my lips together and dropped my eyes. “I’ve said from the start that I wouldn’t touch him, and neither would anyone on this ship…Now, this has happened.” Gabriel’s hand flew up to point at Dante. “I didn’t even think you’d be hungry after that bloody cult attack.”
Dante dropped his eyes to the deck and shrugged his shoulders. “The boy had a nightmare, it was magical, I could sense it. I came to check if he was all right, it was perfectly innocent.”
“You can just call me Cedric,” I grumbled. “Not the boy or the prisoner.”
“Shut up, boy,” Gabriel said. “I’m going to deal with you in a moment, I am speaking to my quartermaster.”
My ears pricked up at that, thinking of all the variously exciting ways Gabriel might punish me.
Dante swallowed. “He’d had a magical dream, about the cult, and he was terrified, I sensed it so I came to check that nothing untoward had happened, that’s all. I didn’t think you’d object.”
A muscle in Gabriel’s jaw jumped as if he were about to burst a blood vessel.
“Perhaps if that was all that had happened I wouldn’t have minded. But as it is.” He strode over to me and his hand flung out. I thought he was going to hit me so I flinched, but his hand closed on the back of my neck and forced my head back. I opened my eyes to see him peering at my throat.
“Really, it’ll be healed soon, Captain. I licked it afterwards, it speeds the process. The mending. Within a day it’ll be as if nothing had ever touched him.”
I felt Gabriel’s hand tighten on my neck. His eyes flicked up to meet mine, and I saw the fury and something behind it. Pain, perhaps? Sadness?
“I’m sorry,” I breathed. “I didn’t think-”
“Exactly, you didn’t think,” Gabriel’s fingers tightened again and then he let go. I felt my stomach go out from under me. I’d hoped he’d kiss me or tell me it was all right, or possibly jump into bed with me and Dante. “You’re going back to the cell.”
“To the cell? No!” I shook my head.
“I’m Captain of this ship!” He shouted. I bit my lip. “We’re mooring at the next English friendly port we can find and we’re getting the ransom for your sorry, over-privileged hide.”
He gripped me by the arm and propelled me out of the room. “Gabriel, please,” I said, scrambling for the right words. “I don’t want to go back to the cell.”
“Is it not comfortable enough?” He hissed. “I suppose you got used to my bed, didn’t you? Well, no more!”
He led the way down the stairs to the hallway below deck. My heart sank.
“Please, Gabriel…”
He hauled the door to the cell that had previously housed me open and pushed me inside. My skin was hot and prickly at the injustice of it all.
“Now, see here,” I said, trying to, well. I was trying to talk him around. I didn’t want to stay in this miserable room, and I certainly didn’t want him this angry at me.
“I’ve made my choice,” Gabriel said. He had already pulled the door mostly closed, but he lingered in it, looking at me with blazing eyes and a fierce frown. “You are my hostage and nothing more. I shall use whatever means necessary to contact your father and arrange the exchange.”
My heart ached, hating the thought of Gabriel selling me back. As if I were nothing more to him than a few coins in a bag. Nothing more than a thing to be sold for profit.
It hurt in my chest, and my stomach. I genuinely enjoyed his company, but there was another matter frightening me.
I was afraid of the cult. I knew he could protect me from their fervour, and on land I had no one.
“Gabriel, please,” I said again, my voice breaking a little this time.
I saw something softer cross his face, an expression that might have been something more friendly, something that gave me the smallest flutter of hope, and then he squared his shoulders, huffed his breath out and shook his head.
“My name is Captain Lucifer, and you’d do well to use it.”
He locked the door and I was once again alone.
Chapter 19
In which sleeping arrangements change again
The stars were close and dancing again. Under my feet the deck shivered lightly. I was chilled to the bone, and I wrapped my arms around myself.
Looking up at the stars, I found my eye drawn to two in particular. They were above me at perhaps a sixty degree angle from the horizon. Two stars that demanded I watch as they swirled around each other, drawing close together, almost enough to touch and then dancing back again. Almost like two magnets attracting and repelling.
I hated it.
From the darkness, the velvet depth behind the star's lights, I thought I saw another sort of movement. Narrowing my eyes I tried to make it out, what could be there beyond the stars? What could possibly?
A being? Another form of star perhaps?
Then I remembered the words Dante had said about monsters and old gods, and my blood frosted my veins, aching suddenly, as if something poison was within me. I shook, struggling to take a breath as my chest tightened and my mouth opened for a scream that wouldn’t come.
I wanted to wrap my arms around myself, but with the ache and the pain, my limbs wouldn’t respond properly.
The stars dazzled my eyes, waltzing closer in their inexorable pattern, obscuring…. whatever was behind it. Had there been something there? I couldn’t see it now.
Something wet slapped itself on the deck near my feet and I knew, deep in my soul, that it was a terrible thing. Something monstrous and weird, something I couldn’t understand. Merfolk? No, something stranger than even them.
Tentacles? Perhaps, but no normal octopus,
far more likely a kraken or some creature twisted by foul magic....
I wanted, desperately, to look at it, but the stars wouldn’t release me. They got closer still, and the slapping squelching noise on the deck did too...
I woke up with a gasp, my body aching. I had no idea how long I’d been asleep but it felt like hours. It was likely dark outside by now.
I wasn’t used to the hardness of the cot in the cell, nor the scantness of the blanket. The ship was sailing further North and leaving behind the balmy temperatures of the Caribbean.
Despite the chill, I felt sweat dampening my forehead and soaking my shirt.
“Ugh, fuck,” I croaked, sitting up and pulling my shirt off. I used it to wipe my face off.
I patted my trouser pocket but there was nothing there.
That damn witch’s charm. I really had to get it back. I didn’t at all fancy what would happen in my dream if the stars parted to show what was behind, or the … thing… on the deck reached my feet. It was all too horrible.
I went to the door of the cell. “Is anyone out there? I need to speak to the Captain!”
For a moment there was no response, and then I heard Marco’s voice. “He said no one was to go in or out.”
I sighed, rested my forehead on the wood of the door and closed my eyes. Last time I’d had such a nightmare Dante had run to my side. I wondered if the same would happen this time. “Please, Marco. Dante… Dante probably felt that, there’s something magic happening. I had a charm, it was in my pocket but I don’t have it now.”
Marco’s voice was closer when he replied, as if he were directly on the other side of the door from me. “I can go ask him, but I have to tell you I don’t think it’ll go well.”
I was too afraid to be angry or brave about it. I felt tears leak out of my eyes at the hopelessness of it all. Here I was tormented by otherworldly monsters and the captain was mad at me for having sex with the quartermaster.
“Please, Marco,” I said, letting my voice crack with the horror of it all. “Please, I’m so frightened. Dante will know what it means, maybe, and if he doesn’t, perhaps the charm…”
Kidnapped by the Gentleman Page 9
