Under Black Skies (Beneath Black Sails, #3)

by Clare Sager

“I want you.”

“To do what?” “You know what I want you to do.”

“I want to hear you say it.”

“Take me,” she panted. “I want you to take me.”

“Who am I to deny my Queen?”

OH MY GO

“You are delicious.” He kissed her shoulder, tongue laving her hot flesh. “Devastating.” Then the side of her neck. “My Queen, my Captain, my ...” His breath caught, the first sign of quite how affected he was.

“Vee,” he said, low and firm and hot, eyes locked with hers in the mirror, “I want you to come for me.”

She’d submitted, let him rule her, and had loved it—was still loving it. She was his. Utterly.

“Do you want to come again, my Queen?”

“I am your willing servant.”

Pleasure was all she knew and its name was Knigh Blackwood. Both it and he were hers and she never wanted that to end.

“Come back to me,” she whispered against his lips. “Always.” His voice rumbled against her chest, making her heart stutter, and he slid into her with deliberate, delicious slowness that had them both groaning.

Around the wellspring, her lightning storm churned, violet-blue, but at the edges there was a golden light. “You’re here,” she murmured, “in my gift. It glows now.” His brows lifted and his eyes went distant for a few seconds. When he blinked back, a sweet smile bloomed on his mouth before he kissed her. “You’re in mine too, crackling at the edges.”

Her arms were full and so was her heart. He was generous and thoughtful. Deliciously intense. Clever enough to keep her on her toes… No wonder he was the one who’d finally managed to catch her where other pirate hunters had failed.

He’d never come so hard, surging not just from every part of his body, but from his entire being. And he’d never seen her lost in climax for so long, felt her so tight around him. It had been everything. He was undone. Completely. Utterly. Hopelessly… Hopefully. Willingly. Happily.

“She is beautiful.” But she wasn’t Knigh.

Didn’t matter if it was a foolish smile on her face. Didn’t matter one bit, not when his warm gift still glowed alongside her own magic. Not when she’d share her bed and herself with him again tonight. Not when she’d explain to him about Drake’s co-captaincy tomorrow and they’d look through the clues and work it out together.

“Good gods. You’re in love with him.” “Typical FitzRoy, sees actual human emotion in someone and jumps to the wrong conclusion.”

But he’d proved he’d die for her—all those times he’d risked ridiculous odds. And she… yes, she would die for him.

“Smash them, Fitz.” She clapped him on the shoulder. “To smithereens.” He flashed her a

“Almonds and cashews,” he said. “Your favourites. I figure you might need the energy.”

“Because you probably have more experience of sailing in a fleet than anyone else in Nassau. And you know the Navy better than any of us, too.” He said it quickly, like each word pained him and he wanted it over and done with.

“But I swear, if you betray us, I’ll hunt you down and feed you to the kraken myself.”

“Never ever do anything like that again.”

“I’d expect that sort of madness from Vice, not you.”

“Barnacle and the babies are safe, too. I checked when Perry picked us up.”

“You’re trying to keep me out of the way, just like in Ayay.”

“I’m asking you—I’m begging you, please help me keep everyone alive.”

“I thought the Pirate Queen didn’t beg.”

“For you, I make the exception.”

“But the others will see. Secrecy and—” “I don’t care.”

Their mouths melted together in a kiss that said all the things she’d tried to push into her eyes earlier. Desperation and relief. How much it had ached to not know whether he was safe. A thread of fear for what might come.

Pride that this man, brave and strong and sweet and smart, was hers and would lead Nassau’s survivors to safety. Pride that she, for all her failings and monumental mistakes, could trust and rely on him to do this. Pride that they had become something that meant she could ask this without feeling a need to sharpen her claws and lash out. Something that meant he could accept without questioning himself and his readiness to take on the role.