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“Do you mean your body?” I ask her dumbly.

She nods and the sweet honesty, such a juxtaposition to her earlier, makes my cock strain uncomfortably against the buttons of my fly.

“Darling, your body would bring any man to their knees where they would be in the right position to worship you. It’s a body carved by god yet meant for sin, and it would become anyone’s salvation.”

“Then why aren’t you on your knees?” she asks, her lids growing heavy again.

God Almighty, she is the moon and I am the tides. I feel my resolve begin to slip away as her eyes pull me in.

“Because I don’t trust you not to knee me in the face,” I admit. “I don’t want to end up like your husband.”

“So the big bad captain finally fears something.”

“I fear many things, luv. And from the start, I have always feared you.”

She gnaws on her lip for a moment and my cock twitches again, hot and swollen and begging to be freed.

“Touch me,” she whispers.

I swallow hard. I am not sure I will survive this.

“Touch you where?” I ask, my voice husky with pure red lust.

“Everywhere,” she says softly. Her eyes close. “Please.”

This is a trap and you know it, my mind reasons.Leave her where she is and go tend to your crew. Break them the bad news about the dead prince and mermaid.

But though my mind is right, I can’t.

I’ve dreamed about doing this too much and my cock is always in charge.

I reach out with both of my hands and gently cup her breasts.

She immediately lets out a low moan that leaves me weak at the damn knees.

Her breasts are heavy and sink into my palms, her skin sinfully soft and warm and I want so badly to take my body and press it against hers, take my cock and find the heat inside her. But even though I’m obliging her wishes, I can’t play into her hands. This is a game, after all, and it always has been.

Instead, I slowly run my thumbs over her nipples, feeling them harden more until they’re round pebbles, and the gasp she lets out makes me moan in response. Her head goes back, long black hair unspooling down her back, her neck exposed as she writhes under my touch.

I can smell her blood under her skin, smell how addictive she would be. I want nothing more than to just take her, bite her, have my way with her rough and hard. I have always been a man of restraint when I need to, an important lesson to learn when you’re at sea, but even so it takes all my effort not to let loose.

I bring my eyes back to her beautiful tits, so weighted in my hands, working her nipples again and again until she’s starting to buck against the restraints.

Keeping my eyes glued to her, watching for any sudden movements, I bring my head down until I’m pressing the flat of my tongue against her skin and lapping up around the deep curve of her breasts.

“Ramsay,” she says through a broken gasp, and it’s not lost on me that this is the first time she’s addressed me by my name. It sounds reverent when it comes from her lips.

With my gaze locked on her wanton expression I suck her nipple into my mouth, my tongue swirling around the tight peaks, her pulse thrumming beneath the skin. She tastes heavenly, feels like sin, and I know she has the power to pull me to the depths and sink me. Yet it’s a risk I’m willing to take in order to get her to say my name like that again.

With her moans increasing, one hand releases her breast and roams down over her stomach, through her curls and to the meeting of her thighs, which the leg cuffs are already holding apart for me.

I slide my finger between her and find her drenched with desire for me, my breath hitching in my chest and how silky she feels.

“Christ, woman,” I swear gruffly. “You could drown a man.”

She lets out another breathy moan, this one deeper and so desperate that it shoots straight to my cock. I don’t know how much more of this either of us will be able to take. She wants me to bed her, I can tell, but that would be a misstep on my behalf. As long as I’m standing here and feeling her then I’m in control. The moment I stick my cock inside her, I know I’ll let my guard down and that can’t happen.

But, heaven help me, I want it to happen.