Imena squeezed his thigh.
“You wouldn’t have to give up your ship.”
“Stop it,” she said. She twisted around, grabbed his hair and said, “If you’re trying to seduce me, I’d rather you didn’t talk about impossibilities.” She kissed him, firmly, and had to take a sharp breath at the taste of him. “Your seduction has worked. You don’t have to discuss this anymore.”
“But what if I want to—”
Imena kissed him again. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I have had a very trying few weeks. Do you want to fuck, or not?”
“An interesting question.” Maxime slid off the bench and stood in the pool before her. “I’ve tried that, in these pools, and it really wasn’t as exciting as you’d think. Inconveniently placed lumps of stone, for example, and of course there’s the mineral residue. But if you would just lean back and relax—” He smoothed his hands over her arms, then cupped her breasts. He could cover each one entirely with a hand; she felt her nipples tighten and press into his palms. “Stop scowling.”
His touch felt wonderful, but wasn’t distracting her from her problems. “I’m not scowling.”
“You think this is a bad idea.”
“Not entirely,” she admitted. “I do want you.”
“I suppose my being a cure for a terrible mood is better than some of the alternatives. I won’t be offended if you refuse me. Do you want me to stop?” When she shook her head, Maxime smiled and touched her face. His thumb brushed her cheek like a kiss. “Then perhaps if you come screaming a few times, it will help.”
Startled at his bluntness, Imena laughed. His mouth closed over hers, his tongue searching. She grasped his shoulders, then tangled her fingers in his hair. Wet, it dragged between her fingers. She burrowed down to his scalp and scratched. He moaned into her mouth and pulled back.
“No, no, you’re the one who’s supposed to be moaning,” he said. He rubbed his palms over her bare scalp, sending tingles down her torso. He didn’t stop, and she shuddered, arching up toward his body. “I wonder if I could make you come like this? You just shaved it, didn’t you? Your skin is so smooth. It feels like honey looks.” He leaned forward and licked. “You taste better than honey,” he said, his voice lowering.
He bent and suckled her nipples, one after the other, just enough to tantalize, not enough to satisfy. “Round and firm as grapes,” he murmured, and pressed them with the flat of his tongue, as a tongue might press her clitoris. She spread her knees, using her thighs to grab his hips; he made a needy sound and nestled between her legs. His cock thumped against her belly, enormous and hard and hot as the water, and she squeezed his length with her hand while he rubbed against her. His cock filled her palm, heavy and growing heavier. She wanted to put her mouth on it.
“That feels exquisite,” he murmured in her ear. “Stop, stop. You’ve got to stop that, or I won’t be able to—here.”
He slid his hands beneath her buttocks and lifted her out of the water, planting her firmly on the pool’s edge. “Strong,” she gasped. She caressed his shoulders, his skin satiny from its recent scrubbing, his muscles like carved jade beneath.
Maxime rubbed her thighs, then pressed her legs apart and teased her cunt with his forefinger, sliding down the seam of her outer lips, leaving heat in his wake. She stopped breathing. He said, “You’re all gorgeous muscle with this glorious softness in the center. Have you ever sucked the sweetness from an orange? I’m going to peel you open, hold you captive against my mouth and suck your flesh until your juice runs down my chin.”
Imena grabbed his head and tugged him forward. She saw his teeth glint in a grin before he pressed a kiss to her inner thigh, on her octopus tattoo, his damp beard rasping softly against her skin as he nuzzled the line where her torso met her thigh. “Your skin is like silk, soft as water, soft as water on my skin,” he murmured. One cheek brushed her cunt, his beard tangling in her hair, pulling with a thousand tiny flashes of pleasure. She dragged his head to her cunt and growled wordlessly, knowing he would allow it, sensing he would even like her forcefulness.
Maxime’s breath steamed over her flesh. Delicately, he opened her lower lips with his thumbs. “Did you know all women look different inside? But you’re all so tender, and slick, and you smell so delicious—” He rubbed her with his nose, then pressed his tongue to her flesh, a sensation soft and wet above and faintly rasping with beard below. “You taste like the ocean.”
Imena panted and dug her fingers into his hair. She might be hurting him. She tried to relax her grip, but couldn’t manage it at first. When she did, she couldn’t drag her hands away from his head, couldn’t stop stroking his hair.
He was suckling at her now, and teasing inside her with a fingertip. She wound tighter, tighter, then shuddered in a brief climax. “More?” he said. He scraped her clit with his teeth, soothed with his tongue, then did it again, and again until she gasped and writhed up against his mouth. Still he continued with the sequence of hard and soft until all at once she came forcefully, for a few moments losing control of her limbs.
Maxime brushed her softly with his tongue as ripples of feeling passed through her, easing her down. When she’d caught her breath again, she released her grip on his hair. Her arms felt loose and relaxed now, at least more so than they had been; she still wanted to bury her fingers in his hair, stroke his scalp and tickle her fingers with his beard. Perhaps it was the way he smiled at her, openly delighted that he’d made her come.
Her chest tightened at the sight, tightened enough to hurt. For long moments, she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t look away from his eyes, creased at the corners with his smile. He was sweet, as sweet as Sanji. She hadn’t expected that. She wanted to curl up against him and lie quietly for a time; she wanted to close her eyes so the sight of his smile wouldn’t hurt her anymore. Instead, she said, “My thanks.”
“You didn’t scream,” he said, stroking her thighs. Her muscles were still trembling, just on the edge of perception. “I think you need another or three.”
He rose higher on his knees and kissed her; she tasted the sea on his lips, and belatedly realized she was tasting herself. She shuddered, deep in her belly, and Maxime caught her to him with one arm. Her breasts rubbed his chest and she abruptly wanted to be lying down, with his weight pinning her. Wanted to hook her thighs around his hips and burrow her heels into his muscular buttocks. Another few moments and her desire would be fulfilled.
She couldn’t do this. It would hurt too much.
She couldn’t make the tide with her employer. She shouldn’t even have glimpsed the merest flicker of a possibility of fucking her employer. Who was a duke. It was a terrible idea, and she’d even warned herself against it before arriving here. It didn’t matter that Maxime was a trustworthy man whom she liked. She had learned her lesson about mixing business with pleasure years ago. She should never have taken her clothes off in the first place.
“Thank you,” she said again. “That was lovely. I’ll send the manifests over as soon as I’ve received them from the harbormaster. Goodbye, Your Grace.”
She was nearly out the door before he called to her. She whirled; he’d scrambled out of the pool and stood dripping on the floor. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she said. “It was fun. Thank you. I’ll see you later on—”
He
