Page 7 of Darkest Dredge

Noah chuckled as he crouched and reached beneath his bed in search of something.

"It's not Cthulhu I'm worshipping tonight, Bea."

My stomach whirled with butterflies, and I clutched his pillow tighter to my chest. When he got back up, holding a bundle of thick black zipties, I balked.

"W-wait. You're not actually tying me to your bunk?"

That arrogant smirk cresting his lips had me turning to goo all over his mattress. "You should know me well enough by now, Bea. I don't make empty promises."

All the moisture sank from my mouth straight to the place between my thighs, leaving my tongue dry. All I could do was watch in speechless silence as he peeled his shirt off to reveal honed shoulders covered in eldritch runes that bled into his galleon tattoo, covering the sails and giving the otherwise normal nautical piece a dark, cosmic flair.

"I, uh..."

Noah titled his head to the side, hiking an eyebrow at me. "Unless you can't handle this. Which is fine, Bea."

It wouldn't be fine. I needed him so bad, it was a physical ache in my chest.

"If I change my mind, will you cut me loose?"

"Of course."

"W-what if I do change my mind? Then what? Where will that leave us?"

I wasn't going to change my mind. Still, as a scientist, I liked knowing all possibilities and their branching outcomes.

"Then we sober up and go to work tomorrow, like tonight never happened."

The thought of forgetting about all this had an involuntary whimper tearing up my throat.

My cheeks heated as he climbed into his bunk and crawled over me, taking the pillow from my arms so that nothing separated us.

"I don't want to do that, though, Bea. And you don't want that either, do you?"

I swallowed and shook my head once. "No. I think I'd rather throw myself into the sea."

"Always one for dramatics," he rumbled, his voice dropping to a dangerously deep cadence that scraped over me, leaving my flesh red and tingling. "Always were one for dramatics."

"Says the literal eldritch fisherman," I retorted. I stuck out my tongue like I often did, teasing my grumpy captain in a way I knew he secretly loved.

This time, instead of scolding me, he arched down and caught my tongue between his teeth, capturing my yelp of surprise in his mouth.

His cavernous chuckle started in his throat and ended in mine as he took both my wrists in a single hand and pressed them to his headboard.

My eyelids drifted to half mast as his teeth loosened their hold on me, only to gain access to my mouth and push his tongue inside.

He tasted like cigarette smoke, rum and dark prayers. The kiss was so deep and violating, it left me trembling beneath him.

The sound of a ziptie tightening in my ear had the little hairs on my neck shooting up. The plastic band bit into my wrists, keeping my arms over my head and anchored to his headboard.

"Comfy?"

I shook my head.

He sat back on his heels to admire me stretched out over his mattress. "Want me to cut you loose?"

Again, I shook my head.

"That's my good girl."