Part 12 (2/2)
”Oh, Lock,” she whispered, her fingertips outlining his mouth. His tongue snaked out and licked between her fingers before he captured one with his lips and sucked it gently.
As their bodies heated and their movements became more demanding, Sparrow clung to his neck, leaning back and closing her eyes. His hands gripped her waist and hips harder. Sparrow exploded, moaning and crying his name. With a groan of fulfilled pa.s.sion, Lock erupted inside her as waves soothed them from every direction. Afterward, they lay on the blanket she'd brought. Sparrow curled against his chest as they gazed at the sky.
”Do you think I'll like your island?” she asked.
”Parts of it. I don't want to stay there, though. We'll take my belongings, buy another s.h.i.+p, and move somewhere else.”
”Why?”
”I don't want you living in the Archipelago with all those cutthroats. Even with guards on you.”
”Guards?” She sat up, a hand on his chest. ”What are you talking about?”
”While I'm at sea, it wouldn't be safe for you otherwise.”
”So you're not going to stop pirating?”
He narrowed his eyes. ”I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet.”
”Couldn't I travel with you? If I learned how to run a farm, I can learn how to sail.”
”We have time to discuss all this. Right now I want to go back to the house, eat supper, and f.u.c.k you till you can't walk.”
Sparrow's stomach danced as she tugged on her clothes. He was right. They could discuss his redemption later.
”I have to go to the village for supplies,” Sparrow remarked the following morning at breakfast.
”I'll go with you.”
”Lock, as long as you're living here, when we're seen in public, you have to wear a slave band.”
His lip curled. ”What?”
”It's the law. I'm sorry.”
He muttered a curse in his own language, but she understood every word.
”You're the one who said you'd stay until Shea-Ann comes back,” she told him.
”Fine.”
Sparrow opened the trunk at the foot of her bed and removed a metal band. She approached Lock and snapped it around his thick bicep, glad she'd chosen the right size. She'd bought it the same day she'd bought him, and she'd hoped he'd live to wear it. Now she hoped for a time when they could walk together as a free couple.
He glanced at the band with disgust.
”I can't control you,” she said. ”I can only ask you to keep your promise.”
”And play the part of your slave?”
She trailed a finger across his chest. ”Is that really so bad?”
”I suppose we'll find out.”
Every eye in the village followed Sparrow and Lock as they walked through the marketplace. At first she felt conspicuous, then began to enjoy the attention. Lock was a breathtaking sight, so tall, long-limbed, and packed with sculpted muscle. He wore trousers, boots, and a leather vest that left his big arms and broad shoulders exposed, the slave band glistening around one thick biceps. His brown and white hair was pinned back from his face with a plain silver clip and hung in a kinky ma.s.s halfway down his back. He walked two steps behind Sparrow, appearing every bit the tamed servant, and Sparrow relished the envy in the eyes of nearly every woman who saw them together.
She paused at a fruit cart and bought a sack of apples which she gave to Lock to carry, then a sack of wheat which he slung over his other shoulder.
When they pa.s.sed the fish cart, the fisherwoman stood talking with the tall blacksmith, two of the women who'd ”inspected” Lock several days ago.
”So, Sparrow, you got your man to behave?” The blacksmith offered a toothy smile. Her arms folded beneath her small b.r.e.a.s.t.s, which appeared more like a man's pectorals. She stepped closer to Lock, her gaze sweeping him.
”How long has he been unchained?” The fisherwoman stared hard at the couple from beneath her fuzzy white eyebrows. ”Several cottages were robbed a few days ago.”
”It wasn't him,” Sparrow snapped.
”He is a pirate,” the blacksmith said.
”I know it wasn't him because two nights ago thieves followed me home, and if it hadn't been for Lock, I'd have been robbed, raped, and probably murdered.”
”He protected you?”
Sparrow gazed at Lock, resisting the urge to kiss him in front of the entire village. ”He's very loyal.”
The blacksmith said, ”Now that he's tamed, you could fetch a high price for him at the palace in Begonia.”
”I'm not selling.”
The blacksmith and the fisherwoman exchanged glances and smiled at Sparrow.
”Perhaps you use him for more than farm work.” The blacksmith's eyes fixed on the enticing bulge in Lock's trousers. Sparrow knew she was remembering the sight of him naked, and jealousy burned in her gut. ”I can understand why you wouldn't want to sell him if that's the case. He's young and strong, and he looks like he's loaded with stamina. How about loaning him out? I'll shoe all your horses for free if you let me bed him.”
Lock glanced at the blacksmith from head to foot and said, ”Tell her to throw in either a blindfold or an aphrodisiac because that's the only way a man could get hard facing her.”
The blacksmith's fists clenched and if Sparrow hadn't stepped between her and Lock, she probably would have hit him.
The fisherwoman glared at him and told Sparrow, ”You should cut out his foul tongue!”
”No,” Sparrow smiled as she and Lock continued on their way, ”his tongue is one of his greatest a.s.sets. And he's also not for sale or for rent.”
”Good luck to you!” snarled the blacksmith. ”I wouldn't really have paid for that scarred freak, anyway! I just thought I'd do you a favor and free you of him for a couple of hours!”
”A couple of hours?” Lock muttered to Sparrow. ”She could probably kill a White Island yak after five minutes.”
Sparrow ran a fingertip across his belly. ”You might say that about me after tonight. That little trick you taught me with the leather belt and the flower petals, I want to practice more.”
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