up. To open that door and let it ruin the first moment they’d been alone since the magni.
Instead, Mia felt lips on the nape of her neck, sending shivers down her spine.
“You could always get out of the bath,” Ash murmured. “If it’s not big enough.”
“In a minute…” She winced as Ash’s hands worked a particularly tight knot. “Goddess … keep doing that…”
“You’re wound tight as mekwerk, love.”
“Hard work, being the most wanted killer in the Republic.”
Another kiss. A soft nibble at her ear as Ash whispered, “I can unwind you.”
Mia felt Ash’s hands slip around to slowly caress her breasts. Fingers running over smooth skin, setting it tingling. Mia’s breath came quicker, her belly thrilled, another shiver rolling right through the core of her. Goosebumps rose over her body, a soft sigh escaping her lips as Ash’s kisses tickled her neck, as the girl’s hands went roaming, one teasing her hardening nipple, the other tracing a long, agonizing spiral down. Down. Over her ribs, inch by inch along her tightening belly, tracing the cusp of her navel with whisper-light circles of flickering arkemical current.
“More?” Ash whispered, lips brushing her earlobe.
Mia wondered at the rightness of it. Some lingering guilt at the presence of the Hearthless boy on deck above, perhaps, or the fight she was in with her brother or the idea she should be indulging herself at all in waters this perilous. But Ash’s hand slipped below the water, and a fire rose up inside Mia, melting her misgivings as she felt the gentlest of touches between her legs.
Breathtaking.
Maddening.
“More,” Mia sighed.
She felt Ashlinn’s other hand rise, fingers entwining with her hair. Mia groaned as Ash pulled her back, upright, leaving her exposed, steam rising off her skin, her thighs quivering. Ash’s lips found her neck again as the hand between Mia’s legs began to move, firm, tight circles, strumming the tune her lover knew so well. Mia reached back, sighing, grabbing a fistful of Ash’s hair and pressing her girl’s lips harder against her neck. There was some illicit thrill in it; the feel of Ash pressed against her fully clothed while she was so utterly bare. A surrender that left her shaking.
“O, fuck,” she breathed, hips moving in time. “Fuck.”
“More?” Ash whispered in her ear.
Lips tickling her skin.
Teeth nipping her neck.
Fingers dancing.
“More,” Mia pleaded.
She felt Ash’s second hand join her first, in front and behind. Mia reached back, fingernails clawing at Ashlinn’s arse, grinding back between her legs. She felt Ashlinn’s fingers, stroking, kneading, singing on her lips and bud. Time frozen still and burning in the light of a black sun. Shapeless nothings spilling from her lips, eyes rolling back in her head as she was dragged ever higher by her lover’s touch, flying now, every caress, every movement pulling her up toward that dark immolation.
“Yes,” Ashlinn breathed.
“Yes,” Mia groaned. “Fuck yes. Yes.”
She threw her head back as she ignited, mouth open, every muscle taut and singing, every nerve aflame. Ashlinn’s hands kept moving, grinding, prolonging the shuddering, pulsing bliss. Mia cried out, pulling Ashlinn in against her, quivering and senseless, not enough air in her lungs, not enough blood in her veins.
Ash’s movements slowed, working a sweet and gentle torture until Mia reached down, pressed her hands against her and held them still.
“Enough,” she sighed. “Goddess … enough.”
She felt Ashlinn’s lips curling in a smile, another gentle nibble at her neck.
“Never,” Ash whispered. “Not ever.”
She stood up slowly, offered Mia her hand.
“Come with me, beautiful.”
CHAPTER 16
TEMPEST
The storm hit a few hours later.
They lay in each other’s arms in Mia’s cabin, skin to skin as the thunder rolled and the oceans swelled and the Maid rose and crashed and rose again. Mia had been grateful for the tempest once it settled in; the thunder and wind had been loud enough to drown out Ashlinn’s cries. Keeping their balance in the rising swell had proved a challenge, but through sheer determination, they’d managed it. On the floor and against the wall and in the hammock, too, finally collapsing there in a breathless, heaving tangle. The hammock swayed back and forth with the movement of the ship instead of their bodies now, timbers groaning around them.
Mia’s hair was damp with sweat, Ashlinn’s body slippery against hers, the girl’s scent hanging in the air like the sweetest perfume. Mia could taste Ash on her lips along with the sugar of her cigarillo paper, the heady gray burn of the smoke on her tongue.