Twisted Metal Heart - Eve Langlais Page 0,78
nothing. She didn’t have to.
Darius, fully aware of what she could do with metal, sighed. “Fine. You can have the cabin.”
“I thought you might see it my way.” She snared Titan’s hand and tugged him from the bridge, the wrecked door impressive. She wasn’t sure she could have had the same impact with her bionic arm. Then again, she would have just whispered to the metal to unlock it.
The captain’s room was at the back of the wheelhouse, facing the rear of the ship. She knew how to get there and knew Titan realized it, too, as she slid open the bolts for the door.
“I can’t believe you spent a month with that prick.”
“Jealousy is cute, but not all the time,” she murmured, stepping inside.
She’d barely sealed the door shut, and then he spun her, his mouth hot against hers. Claiming her in some primal fashion. Asserting his dominance in some respects, too, but she could understand the reason behind it. He wanted reassurance, and she gave it to him.
She returned his kiss. Wrapped her leg around his hips, and when he managed to undress them enough he could slip into her, she welcomed the hard thrusts. Yelled his name as she came.
Only as the pulse in their bodies eased did Titan realize it. “We’re moving.” The motion was slight, but noticeable. Noticeable enough he reeled back, and swayed, gulping. “I need air.”
Her big, brave Wasteland lover practically leapt out the door the moment he wrenched it open, and she watched as he ran for the closest rail. When he leaned over, she shut the door and gave him privacy. Not everyone took to the seas.
After a nap and a sponge bath, she emerged to find Titan sitting on a low-slung chair, looking green around the edges, but his expression was at least alert. He stared at the open expanse of water rather than the edge of the land where the coast sailed by.
She wondered what he was thinking. What he saw. She crept close to him and crouched. “You don’t have to stay out here. You can come inside.”
“If I’m going to die, it won’t be in a sinking metal box.”
She almost laughed to hear Darius’s pride and joy insulted. “You’d have time most likely to get out so long as you can swim.”
“I can swim.”
“Not fast enough to avoid getting eaten, unfortunately.”
He cast her a glance. “Not funny.”
“Says you.” She grinned. “I am very amused.”
“How long until we make it around the coast?”
“Three days.”
He groaned.
“It won’t be that bad. I know ways we can take your mind off it.”
Which meant three days of pleasure, where they left their mark on every inch of Darius’s bed and cabin. Three days of wondering what came next. Of pretending they stood a chance. But she was a pragmatist at heart. She knew the queen would be well guarded, making it hard to get close enough. What if the queen died and the one to take her place proved worse?
By the second day, Titan no longer lunged for the rail, meaning by the time they sailed into Crimson Bay, he stood tall and clear-eyed. Alfred, on the other hand, sulked atop the mast. Apparently, someone didn’t like she’d taken up the attention of his friend.
She’d make it up to him later. She had a plan to present him a cubby full of bodies so he could choose what shape he wanted to take on daily basis.
Given she was supposed to be a captive, she’d been lashed to the post. Kind of dramatic, she thought, but Darius was known for being over the top. Currently, he stood atop the wheelhouse, using the scope on the turret to scan the shores.
“See anything?” she called from her spot, slightly bored. The ropes were only a sham. A tug and they’d fall away.
“Heat shimmer at the mouth of the river, behind the barricade. More than likely a cloak for the queen’s ride.” Darius leaped onto the deck. His crew remained out of sight, manning the various controls to the weapons and traps the ship possessed. Darius used to say if you were down to a hand-to-hand fight on deck, then you’d already lost.
“If she’s hiding, then there’s no way to tell how many she’s got with her,” Titan remarked. “We’ll be going in blind.”
“You don’t need to play charades. I get the hint. I’m going to look,” Alfred grumbled. Also an act. He liked being useful, and with so many people around, he’d felt somewhat pushed