Page 61 of The Sea Witch (Salt & Sorcery #1)

Their lips met, and the kiss was deep and lush, tasting of honey and loss. Ben cupped her head. He consumed her as a man might

savor his last drink of summer wine before a long barren winter.

As they kissed, they tugged at each other’s clothing.

“I want all of you,” he growled into her mouth. “There isn’t a part of you that I don’t want to feel.”

He would come back to her.

It was awkward and clumsy, yet in a few moments they were stripped bare. His markings were visible now. His hands stroked

along her body to touch her curves and hollows and sinews and scars. No one felt like her. He gripped her arse and pulled

her tightly against him.

When she gave him a shove, he willingly went, tumbling so that he half lay on her berth, his legs splayed wide as he leaned

back on his elbows. She stood between his thighs. Her hair was loose around her shoulders, a flaming curtain that spilled

over her rising and falling breasts. Her eyes blazed and she was everything powerful, all the stars and tides.

“Witch of flame,” he rumbled. “Pirate queen. My queen.”

That seemed to please her, a small-edged smile curving her lips.

“Let me serve you, my queen,” he said, his voice a rasp. “My heart is yours. My body belongs to you.”

He reached for her, but she knocked his hand away.

“If your body’s mine,” she said huskily, “then I’ll take my pleasure with it.”

“Anything,” he vowed.

He stared as she lowered to her knees. Yet there was no submission in her, only a claiming of what she wanted. Her hands stroked

up his thighs, digging into the straining muscle.

Her eyes avid and commanding, she wrapped her fingers around his cock.

“Fuck.” His hips bucked up.

She held him tightly, her fist going up and down with almost punishing strength. The pleasure... He’d never known anything

like it. And when she lowered her head to take him in her mouth, he swore and sweated. The sight of her swallowing him down

was too much... he would lose all control... and yet he couldn’t look away. Couldn’t close his eyes. She was too beautiful,

too powerful, licking and sucking him.

“So good,” he panted.

She sucked harder, her hand clasping him with the strength of a woman who lived on the sea. Low in his spine, the hot tightness

of a climax gathered.

“Not yet, not yet.” With a groan, he pulled from her mouth.

She rose from her knees and climbed over him. He lay back, clasping her hips. With her hands spread on his chest, she positioned

herself over his cock, lining the head up with her opening. Their gazes locked.

Slowly, she lowered herself down to impale herself on him. For a moment, she was still, her breath coming in quick gasps,

but then she began to move.

She rode him, slowly at first, her hips moving up and down as she angled herself exactly how she wanted. Pink washed through

her cheeks and flushed her body.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said, hoarse. Whatever happened to him after this didn’t matter—not when he’d seen something so perfect as Alys in ecstasy.

Her breasts swayed with her movements, and he lifted up enough to take one of her nipples in his mouth. He lightly bit the

point, making her gasp. Her hips ground down as she rubbed her clitoris against him. Undulating cries slipped from her mouth.

With short fierce movements, she rode him, her thighs taut. Sweat slicked both of their bodies. His own hips jerked up to

meet her and the cabin was filled with the sound of flesh against flesh, and their intermingled moans.

He gritted his teeth, determined to last as long as he could. Yet he didn’t relent, not when her body went still as she came.

He reached down and stroked her clitoris with his thumb, summoning another climax from her, and then another.

This might be their last time together for a long while. Perhaps evermore.

Only when she bowed forward, her hair hanging in her face as she panted, did he allow himself to let go.

His orgasm tore through him, jagged and unrelenting. He arched up as he held her tightly and her fingernails dug into his

chest.

“All of you,” she gasped. “I want it all.”

On and on his climax went. He was annihilated and reborn. And she held him within herself through everything, until he was

wrung dry.

He was still inside her as she draped herself over him. His arms looped around her waist and he closed his eyes.

“I care for you, Alys,” he murmured into her hair. When she was silent, he held her even tighter. “You can say the words,

or not, but it changes nothing. I care for you.”

Something damp dropped onto his pectorals. A droplet, and then another. Her tears.

His chest seemed to cleave apart. There was no taking his words back, and he didn’t want to. But causing her pain, any pain, was a knife that carved him from the inside out.

He opened his mouth to say... he didn’t know what... only he had to comfort her from the agony that was caring for another

person.

The ship jolted violently. Shouts sounded above.

They were being attacked.

“For the love of the tides,” Alys snarled as she stood, throwing on her clothing “can’t we have an uninterrupted moment?”

She braced herself as the ship gave another powerful lurch.

“The stars align against us.” Ben kept his balance as he, too, struggled to get to his feet. He dressed quickly, his shirt

covering the marking that still curved over his skin. “If I had faith in such things.”

She staggered toward the door, pulling it open as she did her best to stay upright while the ship listed from side to side.

Ben was close behind her. They both scrambled up the companionway to stand on the top deck. Crew members fought to keep on

their feet, clinging to whatever was fixed and solid so they didn’t pitch into the sea.

No other ship was nearby, and the skies were clear of any storm.

“They just set upon us,” Stasia said, lurching toward Alys and Ben.

“ They ,” Alys echoed.

Stasia glanced toward the rail. “The creatures.”

Alys tottered up to the quarterdeck and peered over the rail. She cursed.

A pair of large sea creatures, the size of jolly boats, rammed into the Sea Witch ’s hull.

The top half of the beasts looked something like a beetle, with mandibles, antennae, and legs, while the bottom half had the long length, tail, and scales of alligators.

Their black iridescent bodies were glossy and forceful seawater churned around them.

“I’ve never seen creatures like them,” Ben said, gripping the railing as he, too, watched the beasts slam their heads into

the hull, over and over again. The sea creatures moved to assault the hull beneath the quarterdeck.

“Eris has not spotted the Jupiter nearby,” Stasia said, lurching toward them. “Nor any other naval ship. These beasts act of their own accord.”

Alys’s teeth rattled from the force of the impact. They’d break the ship apart soon. “We’ve done nothing to make them angry.”

Ben darted down from the quarterdeck and ran toward one of the guns.

“Don’t fire on them,” Alys shouted after him. She wouldn’t harm any animal or beast unless absolutely necessary. As long as

her ship remained intact, she refused to hurt the creatures.

Ben didn’t seem pleased by her order, but he obeyed.

And then...

The creatures swam away from the quarterdeck. They moved to the part of the ship where Ben stood before resuming their attack,

battering themselves into the hull.

“Ben,” she shouted.

“I see it.” Experimentally, he ran to the prow. The creatures followed him. And when he sped back toward the middle of the

ship, the beasts did the same.

Alys hurried toward him.

“It’s me,” he said grimly. “They want me.”

“They’re not getting you,” she said at once.

“I should—”

“No. There’s another way.” She glanced over the railing. “We can lure them off with something. Food, perhaps.”

Ben rubbed at his jaw, and his markings were still visible along his neck. As she watched, the dark patterns began to fade. A moment later, they were gone, and his skin returned to its original unmarked state.

The ship leveled. Alys looked over the gunwale.

The creatures turned and swam away. They seemed entirely disinterested in the Sea Witch as they vanished beneath the water.

Everyone aboard the ship collected themselves, murmuring.

“What the hell was that?” Thérèse demanded.

“I’ve never witnessed anything like it,” Dorothea said, furrowing her brow.

“There’s no explanation,” Susannah mused, as Inés wrapped a protective arm around her shoulders.

But there was an explanation.

Ben turned to Alys and spoke quietly. “My markings, my... magic.” He looked down at the backs of his hands, now free of

the patterns. “They appear when you and I are... close. We knew that at Lambert’s, when we kissed to summon my power to

help you find the carving knife. And every time we’ve kissed or been intimate, my markings show up.”

His gaze moved to hers.

“At the island of the Weeping Princess,” Alys said grimly, “creatures followed us to the beach.”

“When we were in the room at the inn at Domingo,” he added. “The chickcharney appeared. And when the Redthorn attacked you—”

“You killed him, we kissed, and two creatures appeared. Then, at Lambert’s enclave, a beast attacked the manor. It was searching

for someone.”

“For me,” Ben said darkly. “There’s something about my markings appearing when you are near me... It summons creatures,

makes them angry.”

She slammed her fist on the railing. “Fucking Luca Pasquale. Taking that book. We could’ve learned something.”

Frustration rose acidly within her.

“I have to return to the Jupiter .” His words were both resolute and somber. “Sooner rather than later. I’ll take the cutter and should intercept them soon.”

“There’s time,” she said at once. “We need to review our plans, and provision you, and—”

“Alys.” He stepped closer to her. “I must go. Now.”

She fought to swallow down the burning lump in her throat. Her body was too small to contain the battle brewing inside her.

It was as though a frantic, furious being was caged within her own skin.

“Go, then.” Her voice came out clipped and sharp as a cutlass. She moved away from him. “We’ll gather enough supplies, water,

and food to keep you provisioned. And we’ll summon winds to move you along faster. They won’t last very long, the farther

away you get from the Sea Witch , but it should be enough to speed you to the Jupiter quickly.”

He reached for her and she stepped back.

When it became clear she wouldn’t go to him, he exhaled. Expression hooded, he slowly nodded. “As you like.”

“It isn’t what I like,” she answered. “Not at all.”