Chapter 5

Her weight left him, the cool air settling against his damp skin. She stood beside the berth, a silhouette of coiled authority against the lantern light. “I have many questions for you,” the Captain stated, her voice low and even. “If you want to stay, you will answer my questions.”

She looked over to Riley who welcomed the captain’s authoritative voice. She smirked with a mischievous plan.

“And you will pleasure my first mate, Riley, willingly.”

Thomas’s throat was dry. He gave a single, sharp nod.

The Captain’s eyes narrowed. Riley eased downward, and his world became breath, pressure, and the Captain’s quiet approval.

“First question,” the Captain said, her thumbs making small, possessive circles on his skin. “Who are you, and what do you want on my ship?”

In a flash, the heat of the Moon Gem came rushing back to him. He hoped this recollection had not exposed him. Thomas’s mind scrambled. “I… I seek my fortune,” he breathed out, the words feeling hollow even to him. “I want success.”

The Captain’s eyes, those piercing grey pools, narrowed. In an instant, Riley lowered herself. The air vanished, replaced overwhelmingly by her. He could feel the firm muscles of her thighs framing his ears. It was all rather metaphorical, this sexual beratement of his answer. Yet, he had seen women smaller than her crack watermelons in two, so he would be careful not to give too many lacking answers.

“To live amongst us means to surrender yourself completely. No merchant’s lies. Now, what do you really want?” The Captain grabbed him with deliberate pressure.

The truth, raw and unfiltered, tore from him. “To feel it! The rush of life! To take what’s mine!”

This time, Riley’s descent was not a punishment but a reward. Her pleasure was palpable, a hungry, living thing. The Captain rewarded him in kind. Her hand wrapped around his aching length. The sensation was exquisitely smooth, almost unbearably good.

“Better,” the Captain purred, her voice a low thrum he felt in his bones. “But to be with us means to trust us fully. A trust that is given, and earned. Do you trust me, Thomas?”

His answer was not with words this time. He buried his face deeper into Riley. Riley jolted, a high, surprised cry of pleasure escaping her. 

“We have to trust you, too, Thomas,” the Captain murmured, her voice shifting as she moved, a shadow detaching itself from the edge of the berth. Riley was lost to it now, one hand braced on the wall. Her moans were muffled by the wood, her enjoyment of his service utterly genuine.

Then he felt it. A tug at his wrist. The rough hemp binding gave way. Then the other. His hands were free, the blood rushing back into his fingers with a prickling surge.

The Captain’s form leaned over him, her lips close to his ear. Her whisper was the most intimate touch yet. “Can we trust you? Tell me. What are you truly willing to sacrifice for this life?”

His answer was immediate, physical, final. His newly freed hands came up, his palms finding the firm swell of Riley’s buttocks. He held his breath, giving his full attention to her body. A guttural sound of pure approval vibrated through Riley’s body. He was no longer a captive, but a participant, capitalizing on his freedom, and he would show them exactly what he was willing to do.

A low, possessive growl rumbled from the Captain’s throat. “We share everything here.” Her hand fisted in Riley’s sun-streaked hair, yanking her head back to expose the elegant line of her neck. She fastened her mouth there, not a gentle kiss but a claiming, sucking at the skin until a faint bloom of red began to form beneath Riley’s tan.

Riley’s rhythm on Thomas stuttered, a choked groan of pure ecstasy escaping her as she dove into the Captain’s mouth, her own pleasure amplified by the dual sensations. Thomas could only watch, mesmerized, as the Captain dominated her first mate as Riley dominated him. 

Just as Riley’s movements became frantic, the Captain hauled her backward. Even at half her size, the Captain tossed Riley’s weight onto the nearby heavy oak desk. Charts and a compass clattered to the floor, forgotten. The Captain couldn’t resist her taste either. She dipped her head between Riley’s thighs. Riley’s back bowed off the desk, a raw, wordless cry ripped from her lungs as her release crashed over her.

The Captain looked over at Thomas, still lying on the floor, his chest heaving, his body humming with unmet need. A low, dark chuckle escaped her.

“You did a good job. She liked it.”

The approval, so simple and direct, struck him harder than any blow. Riley, spent and smiling lazily, caught his eye and gave a slow, sleepy blink, her gaze then drifting meaningfully back toward the Captain, who was already returning to her feast.

And Thomas saw it. The situation presented itself with dizzying clarity. The Captain was bent over the edge of the desk, her body offered to him as she attended to Riley. Her skin shone with a fine sheen of sweat, and the sight of her, this formidable leader, laid bare and glistening for him, stole the air from his lungs. An invitation.

Tentative, his hand shaking slightly, he pushed himself up and stepped behind her. The heat radiating from her was immense. He placed a hand on the small of her back, feeling the corded muscle there. He didn’t enter, not yet. 

A sharp, impatient noise came from the Captain, her voice muffled against Riley’s thigh. Even lost in pleasure, a thread of command wove through her annoyance. “Take what’s yours... Live!”

The words were a spark to tinder. It was a gift. She wasn’t just giving him her body; she was offering him the key to the life he’d gambled everything for. Her. Permission. Belonging. His hesitation evaporated, burned away by a sudden, fierce certainty.

He pushed forward, a choked gasp was torn from the Captain. On the desk, Riley moaned in shared sensation, her eyes fluttering open to watch him. She was on a wave of ecstasy and another peak was around the corner.

They were connected, a circuit of pleasure. Each forward thrust pushed her body more firmly against Riley, a chain reaction of motion and sensation. He found a rhythm, a rolling wave of momentum where every inward plunge for him was an added pressure for them.

He lost himself in the feeling, in the symphony of their ragged breathing. The lantern light caught a mark on the Captain’s shoulder he hadn’t seen before: a crude, scarred ‘A’ carved into her skin. A life that had seen true death. This body was a map of a brutal, full existence, and he was now a part of its story.

A blissful shout from Riley snapped him from his thoughts. It was a sound of pure, unadulterated lust that seemed to circle the room and tighten around them all. She wrapped her strong thighs around the Captain’s head, locking her in place. He couldn’t hold back. They couldn’t hold back.

Riley was the first to break. A raw, guttural scream was torn from her as she peaked. Her fingers dug into the Captain’s back, her other hand shooting out to grip Thomas’s forearm with startling force, her nails biting into his skin. The Captain, feeling Riley’s pleasure so intimately, gave herself over completely. It was a perfect, harmonic convergence. Thomas’s vision whited out as the energy surged through him, a scalding rush of intensity more powerful than anything he had ever known.

For a long moment, there was only the sound of their harsh, ragged breaths. The Captain slowly crawled up Riley’s body, the two women meeting in a slow, deep kiss that tasted of shared exertion and satisfaction. 

Riley sat up on the desk, her eyes heavy-lidded and sated. The Captain turned her head, looking at him over her shoulder. Her grey eyes were dark, satisfied, but held a glint of something final. A curt, knowing smile touched her lips.

“Welcome to the pirate life, Thomas. We just have one last thing to do.”