36. The Blood-Stained Shirt

Chapter 36

The Blood-Stained Shirt

The Siren

I let the door close behind me as I made my way below deck, though the chaos I'd left still hung heavy everywhere that I looked. The youngest of our crew, even Barlow, ran through the ship with bandages, rags, and whatever medicines they could get their hands on, bringing it above deck to those in need. I knew where I'd find Kipp, and as I approached his private quarters, I could feel his deep anguish and pain over everything that had transpired, the losses we'd both suffered.

The door swung open, revealing his curved back to me as he sat at his desk, his hands splayed through the length of his hair as his elbows pressed into the wooden surface while he held his head. We both knew that his time was coming to an end, that he'd almost lost himself surrounded by the bloodlust of my people. If he lost himself to the darkness again, it would be his undoing. There would be no returning from that ledge a second time.

The feelings within me were new, and I didn't know what to do as I shut the door behind me with a soft click. I stood there a moment, watching the gentle rise and fall of his shoulders as he just breathed. The beige shirt he wore held splatters of blood, and I couldn't be sure just whose blood drenched him. Some of it mine? Most of it his? Patton's? His enemies who were my people?

Letting instinct guide me, I crossed the room until my arms wrapped around him. I leaned over his shoulders, my dark hair falling between us as I brought my cheek close to brush against his. The stubble rough against my skin.

I breathed in deeply as I enjoyed that scent that was uniquely him. Sea salt mixed with a spiced rum. It was intoxicating and having it cling to my clothing for the past several weeks… I'd become addicted to it.

I gave him every piece of me as I placed myself like a shield along his back, and my heart fluttered in my chest as his hands rested over mine while I held him to my chest. In this moment, we were just two broken monsters who needed each other.

He spun his chair from the desk, pulling me around himself until I sat in his lap. I still only wore the lengthy shirt that hung only to my mid thighs, having waged a battle with my fellow, equally bare, sirens half-naked. His hands grazed my skin, and my breath skittered as I turned toward him, my own hands following the lines of his jaw as I held his face. The pain within his dark eyes nearly broke me, so I clashed my lips against his, a desperation igniting between us both as we gave in to the passion. We clung to each other like lifelines, our bodies yearning for the temporary escape from these overwhelming losses we both felt.

Kipp pulled away from the kiss, his hands cupping my face with a gentleness that stilled me. "My beautiful, little monster," he breathed against my lips.

His pain was bared to me, something I knew he'd never displayed to anyone outside of this room before. Why he let me, his enemy-turned-lover, see the heaviness of his grief still confounded me, but I didn't turn away from his emotion. We had lost several of his men on this journey, and this was the first sign he shared that those lives weighed on him. So, I stayed with him, letting his rough palms drag a smooth rhythm over my bared skin as he lost himself in my gaze.

"I need you," he finally said, carefully tucking strands of my hair behind my ear and over my shoulder. "I need to feel something other than this never-ending nothingness. You're the only one who has ever made me feel anything different in my long, miserable existence."

I opened my mouth to speak, to protest, but his lips crashed against mine, cutting off my words, my thoughts, with the heat of his passion as his mouth brutally consumed me.

"Pull out those lovely claws," he murmured against my skin, lifting me into his arms and pressing my back into the smooth wall next to the open window.

My legs wrapped around his hips, my ass sat against the wall as he leaned his shoulders back, his hand tugging at the blood-stained shirt I wore until he pulled it over my head. Before my hands fell from the sleeves, he crumpled the shirt in his grip, binding my wrists to the wall above my head. The cool, salty breeze drifted across my bared flesh, puckering my skin and nipples and sending a growl up Kipp's throat as he admired me within his hold.

"By the gods." He inhaled sharply. "I've never seen a more lovelier creature."

Taking my breast into his mouth, he sucked at the sensitive, peaked flesh, and I buckled within his grasp, my arms struggling against his hold where he pinned them to the wall at my head. His teeth nipped at my pale pink nipple, and pain blossomed into delight as I gasped, my head leaning back as I arched into his warmth. He released my hands, and I tossed the fabric to the floor, already reaching for the shirt still covering him and tearing it over his shoulders within a blink that had him chuckling against my chest. My sharpened claws dragged against his chest, avoiding the wounds still healing from the battle we'd fought.

"Do that again, and I'll rip my own pants off with how hard I am for you right now," he said, his voice low and lustful as he lightly snapped at my breast with his teeth.

Heat pooled low in my belly, and I shifted my hips, begging for him to slide between my warmth and consume me from within, but he held me in place, a teasing smirk on his lips as his eyes glittered with mischief. My claws moved lower, to his abdomen, and I let them draw blood, relishing at the breath that caught in his throat.

Kipp hissed, biting the flesh of my breast again as he slammed me into the wall, the rough wood scraping against my delicate skin and wrenching a moan from between my teeth. I clung to him, my heart pounding with need within my chest as I begged him for more. "I want more," I gasped out, feeling the warmth building at my core. "I need it!"

"Oh," he said, his voice low, "I intend to give you so much more."

I gasped, a wild laugh tearing from me as he swung me around and tossed me onto the mattress before hurriedly climbing atop of me. His lips captured mine in a heated kiss as his hands trailed along the curve of my hips, his soft touch a tease as he traveled close to all the places that begged for his touch but never connecting as his tongue warred with mine. My hands followed the lines of his muscular chest, to the smooth skin of his back, to the lifted scars that crossed along his flesh. I wanted every bit of him, and I fisted my hold along the waist of his pants, needing the feel of him against me.

He pulled his mouth from mine, a slight shake of his head as he pulled my hands from his waist. His teeth nipped at the delicate skin of my neck, along where he'd already laid claim with his teeth before, and a shiver lifted the hairs at the nape of my neck as I relaxed into the cushioned hold of his bed. My fingers dug into the sheets as I writhed beneath him, his heated mouth capturing my nipple before it sunk lower still.

My chin dipped, watching as his tongue trailed down the center of my body until his head rested between my thighs. His heated breath tickled my skin as his large hands wrapped around my waist, holding my hips firm to the mattress even as they begged to meet his promised kiss. Warm, honey brown eyes met mine, and I melted beneath him as I realized there was no sign of the shadows that threatened to consume him behind his hungry gaze. The soft flesh of his lower lip grazed my skin as he said, "I'm going to devour you until you are nothing more than a puddle beneath me. I'm going to take my time so that you never lose the feeling of me inside of you. I'm going to break you and you are going to love every minute of it."

Then his mouth was on me, his tongue circling the bundle of sensitive nerves that throbbed for his touch, and my spine arched as I gasped out his name. My fingers clawed at the mattress beneath me as he pulled me into him, sucking at my flesh as if he couldn't get enough of the taste of me as I shredded the sheets. He lifted my legs, one at a time, until both hooked around his shoulders, his starving eyes never leaving mine as I watched him consume me.

My hands fisted in his hair as I held him to me. I rode his mouth as I rocked my hips, and he moaned against my folds, a vibration that nearly undid me as I cried out. His hot breath danced upon my center as he whispered, "Use those claws, my little siren."

Extending my claws, I let them cut gentle paths along his arms, around his shoulders, and down his back, raising lifted marks where they didn't break through the skin and welling beads of blood where I pressed just a little bit harder. Every time the dampness coated the tips of my sharpened claws, it sent him wild against my core, his mouth consuming all that I was as pleasure crested like a wave I couldn't hold back for much longer. A crescendo of ecstasy as I lay on the edge of release, his tongue lapping at the wetness of me like it was the finest of desserts until I toppled over the edge into an orgasm that melted the world around me.

My breath heaved from my chest and sweat coated our skin as he slowly, gently, kissed my thighs before he lifted himself above me, a satisfied grin lifting his lips as he watched me catch my breath. His hands went to the waist of his pants and my mouth practically salivated as he pushed the fabric aside, his length springing from their confines as he smirked.

"Are you ready to be thoroughly fucked, my little siren?"

All I could do was whimper as he settled himself over me, my hands clamping around his hips and the pointed tips of my claws digging into the flesh of his ass as I felt his thick tip graze my most sensitive bundle of nerves. Before he sunk into me though, a wicked grin lit up his face and he flipped me around until my knees pressed into the mattress and my gaze peered out at the sea beyond the small, rounded window.

His hand pressed between my shoulders until my chest lay against the bed, my hair splayed out around my head as his chest leaned against my bare back. He brought his lips close to my ear, his voice low and rough against my lobe as he said, "I want you to keep your eyes on the sea but know that everyone on this ship is about to hear you cry out from the pleasure, and they're going to know that I am between your beautiful legs, that I am fucking you senseless."

Before I could respond, he slammed into me, and I moaned at how I stretched around his hard length. His words still played in my head, turning me on even more as I muffled my cries of pleasure into the mattress. Kipp fisted my hair and guided my head until my mouth was no longer pressed into the mattress.

"Nah-uh, princess," he chastised me, holding my head in place so that I could peer up at him. His warm brown eyes glittered with delight as he shook his head. "I want them to hear how much you are enjoying this."

Another whimper trembled from my lips as he slowly glided outward, his cock teasing areas within me that sent thrills through my blood as he wrapped one arm around my waist, holding my ass in the air while he still held my head in place against the mattress. His length tantalized sensitive spots I didn't even know I had, and my body spasmed beneath him as he found a slow rhythm, filling me completely as he rocked into me.

He let go of my hair, his hand grazing down my back, sliding around the curve of my waist, and dipping to my folds as he rubbed circles around that throbbing nub. The pace quickened, and he pumped harder, each thrust eliciting a cry from me as he hit that inner spot of pleasure. Another wave of ecstasy built within me, and he slammed into me harder and faster until I screamed out his name, hearing it echo across the sea as my entire body trembled beneath him.

I felt him twitch within me as he stilled, his cock buried to the hilt as he spilled himself into me. Slowly, with another whimper from me, he pulled himself free, and my hips lowered to the bed as he lay his head on the small of my back. Both of us spent, we lay there breathing, the waves of pleasure rippling through our veins as the soft sound of the sea created a calm ambiance.

Twisting in the bed, I began to pull away, ready to clean up and readying for bed, only his grip tightened around me.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked.

"To retrieve my shirt so that we can go to bed," I replied.

Kipp simply chuckled. "Oh, little siren. We are far from done."