Ned

“This is unconscionable,” I whispered to William, watching him topple over and writhe on the bed as the pain took over. “Touch me.”

“You don’t know what you’re asking,” he gasped. “You don’t understand the consequences.”

“Dammit, William, it doesn’t matter.” I gulped. “If I end up pregnant, you won’t have any responsibility. I will care for the babe myself.”

“No. It’s not that.” Tears welled up in his eyes, and I couldn’t tell if it he was crying from the pain or because of what he was about to tell me. “My family is cursed.”

“Cursed how?”

“Every alpha is cursed so that pregnant omegas in his presence die. It happened to my omega-grandfather and my omega-father. I grew up with Jolly, a witch-doctor, because my alpha-father could not stand the thought of being around me after his mate died.” The tears overflowed. “I could not bear it if you died because of me.”

I nodded. “Then I’ll go away. Please, William. Don’t let your pain continue. I don’t want you to die because of me, either.”

That finally got through to him, at least a little. He glanced at me with guilt in his eyes.

“I mean it,” I urged him. “We will deal with the consequences later. For now, please. Put us both out of our misery. Make love to me.”

I took his hand in mine and carefully, deliberately, placed it directly over my heart. His shiver moved through William and into me, as if I were taking his pain and turning it into desire.

He teased my lips open with his tongue, deepening our kiss. I’m not sure who is the one doing the seducing here.

William pulled away long enough to brush strands of hair from my face and stare into my eyes. “This okay?” he asked softly.

“Oh, yes,” I murmured, wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling him back down into another kiss.

Sliding his palm down my bare side and settling it my hip, he pulled me closer to him, molding my body against his until I couldn’t tell where I ended, and William began.

The realization that even if he had been coerced into this, he wanted it every bit as much as I did, finally broke through the last of my self-control. I used my legs to pull him down closer to me, on top of me on the bed.

With a groan, William skimmed his mouth down the side of my neck, dropping kisses and pulling me tight against him with the other hand against my back.

Streaks of heat sparked straight down to pool in my abdomen, where it seemed to throb in time to my heart, every beat a pulse of sheer desire.

“Please,” I whispered, my omega heat forcing the word out of me, and it acted as a spur for William, who swept me up with both hands under my ass and lifted my legs up to push them back over my shoulders, moving his mouth back to mine for another deep, tongue-tangling kiss.

Instinctively, I shifted until my opening pressed against the base of his cock. With harsh, inarticulate noises, I wiggled a little, as if I could get him to enter me by desire alone.

With a curse, William shifted enough to free one hand, using it to gather his cock in his hand.

I held my breath, taking in the intent expression on his face, even as I felt my own anticipation building. I wanted to feel guilty—after all, I had barely touched him at all. Then again, all we had done was kiss, and I was hot and wet and ready for him.

I moaned as he guided the tip of his cock to my slick entrance, wiggling as he barely pushed in, then slid back out without fully settling into me.

“Yes. Please,” I said again. “That. More.”

He watched me through eyes smoldering with passion, pushing harder, going farther into me.

“Oh, please, William. Fuck me,” I begged.

“Hang on,” he whispered, then thrust upwards at the same moment he loosened his grip enough to let me drop down onto him.

The sudden sensations as I stretched to take him in completely made my eyes closed, and all I could do was repeat “yes,” over and over, even as I pushed to meet him, thrust for thrust, while he pumped into me.

Our lovemaking was light and motion and electricity, blinding and paralyzing me even as I wrapped myself tighter around William.

An unbelievable, liquid, melting fire inside me pooled in my very center, gathering and swirling as we moved against one another.

The desire inside me built to a crescendo as we strained to match thrust for thrust. Tiny flames of pleasure licked across my body as my sweat slicked across William’s chest.

Something powerful twisted and surged around me as we moved in perfect congruity with one another, until it erupted through us, moving across our skin, pushing us over the edge to release.

We clutched each other, crying out. My cum shot up high between us, glazing his chest, and at the sound of my groan, William released, his heated semen filling me.

And after he had exploded inside me, I expected him to pull out, like the few other men I’d had sex with back in London, before I knew I was an omega. But that didn’t happen. Instead, William ground himself deeper into me and moaned.

To my surprise, I felt him swelling even more than he had before he came. He pulled me tight against him, leaning over until his head rested on my belly so he was curled around me, his cock still inside me.

That stretch filled me, holding him deep inside me, its presence somewhere between pleasure and pain.

“What is that?” I asked breathlessly. “Oh, God. It feels so...good, and yet...” I tried to pull away from him, but the swelling of his cock tugged against me, sending pleasurable pain racing through me.

“It’s my knot,” William said, breathless himself.

“Your knot? What is that?”

William’s eyes rolled back in his head as I struggled a little against it. “It keeps us connected long enough for you to fall pregnant,” he managed to gasp out. “If you lie still, it will eventually abate.”

“I can’t,” I protested. “It feels so...”

“Amazing?” William asked.

“God, yes.”

“It’s because we’re so sensitive after sex. I’ve heard stories of it causing second orgasm, though I’ve never experienced one.”

“I’m about to,” I said, rocking back and forth in tiny, frantic motions.

“As am I.”

This time, we clung together, our orgasms sending shudders through us, though neither of us ejaculated again. It was the most intense experience I never had, and like nothing before.

Afterward, we collapsed against each other, this time able to simply lie together and enjoy the feeling of his knot swelled up inside me until it receded, and he was finally able to pull out.

And then we lay together in perfect silence.

* * *

OF COURSE JEREMIAH had no plans to let us out of the cabin before we made port. The second time William emptied himself inside me was just as heated and furious as the first. But the third time was gentler, as we focused more on pleasing each other than we had before.

From frantic kisses, William slowed to deliberate movements, placing soft, hot kisses everywhere he touched.

This time, as we were both naked in bed, I stared my fill and ran my hand along the hard planes of William’s stomach.

As he leaned in between my legs, I drew in a shaky breath. Lightly, William scraped his fingernails along my thighs, then flicked his tongue along the side of my cock. My breathing shifted to match the rhythm of his tongue as William moved down, then back up to the head, and when he grasped me to guide the length of me into his mouth, I groaned. Then his mouth enveloped my cock, and I could no longer think clearly as I let him suck me.

Part of me knew the experience was strange, magical.

But I ignored that, focusing instead on the feel of my cock inside his mouth, the silken feel of his mouth over the hot hardness of me, the rhythm of our motion, the way that the shivers running through him made me tremble with desire, as well.

After only a few moments, I whispered, “Stop, William. Please,” my voice as hot and throbbing as the rest of me.

Slowly, William drew me out of his mouth, and I reveled in the feeling of power it gave me for him to bend down over me. I drew in a deep breath, then pulled him up to face me.

“My turn,” I whispered.

“I’ve dreamed of you like this,” he said as I moved down. “Your beard tickling my balls as you—oh. Yes. That.” His words became incoherent as I sank down on him, taking him balls-deep into my throat.

Sated as it was, though, the omega-heat wouldn’t allow me to let him explode in my mouth. I pulled him up to sitting, wrapped my legs around his waist, and sank my ass down onto his cock.

When he entered me, so much heat surrounded us that I worried for a moment that we might explode, setting off the gunpowder in the holds below as he pumped, and I ground against him.

The last few moments were a blur, until the heat from our joining exploded into something exquisite, both of us again crying out within moments of one another.

Afterward, we worked to create another knot-orgasm without causing each other too much pain. And then we slept in a tangle of arms and legs, never breaking contact. And when we awoke, we did it all over again.