Emma's dedication to teaching him how to read was telling about the woman. She was patient but precise, and she did not joke about it to the other crew members. Charles almost felt guilty that he could, in fact, read. He had taught himself to read for the very reasons she had mentioned. He pretended not to know for the advantage. Pirates had to be cunning sometimes, and he enjoyed this woman’s company, but he’d choose any option if it meant he did not have to read poetry.

  Charles’s aim with this tutoring session was to be close to her. He had a taste of her, and now he craved her. When her lesson concluded for the day, he made his move.

  “It's my turn to teach you something,” Charles told her before he took her book away and placed it out of reach.

  “Charles.” She sighed his name. “We did not agree to that.”

  She was blushing ever so slightly when she said it, though.

  “That’s true, we did agree upon nothing, but I am a pirate. I could steal the bounty.” He smirked as he spoke. He stood up and moved in front of her.

  “Will you ever cease this foolery?” She looked up at him with innocent eyes, but there was a spark of interest behind them. Desire? Playfulness? What was that look?

  Although he craved her surrender, he did not wish to win by some default.

  “Why do you think I want you?” Charles asked, pressing closer to her.

  He reached for her face, and she did not flinch away from him. She gasped when his finger gracefully slid over the cupid's bow of her lips.

  “You’re used to getting what you want.” She answered with a slight gulp as she frowned up at him.

  “That’s true.” He answered. “But that’s not why I want you.”

  “Then why?”

  He moved his fingers across her cheek and towards the nape of her neck.

  “I’m a pirate.” Charles began. “The thrill of the hunt is what I live for.”

  Charles tightened his grip and urged Emma to stand.

  “I catch a ship in my sights.” Charles looked over Emma's body.

  She shivered under his gaze.

  “I give chase.” When she retreated a little, he moved closer, giving her nowhere to run.

  “I board her.” He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her onto a stack of boxes. Then he ran his hands up the bare length of her legs until he reached their center.

  “I fight off those who would kill me.” He slipped his thumb into her folds and found the aching bud waiting for him.

  She cried out and reached for his hand, but he grasped her wrist to stop her.

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  “Charles.” She gasped.

  “I breathe in the smell of gunpowder despite how it burns my nose and eyes.” He rasped as he leaned in close to her so he could kiss her neck.

  Her folds became slick, and her protests stopped as her nails now dug into his arms and she began to breathe heavy gasps.

  “I fight every last enemy until the bitter end. Until there is nothing but silence.” Charles thought about that moment, and a rush of excitement swept over him.

  “This is hardly romantic, Charles.” Emma scolds him. A small, defiant part of her is still in need of surrender.

  “Really?” Charles says as he takes hold of her hand and places it over his heart, showing her how strongly it beats within his chest. “Because you are exactly that for me.”

  “That...that was a little better.” She confesses, tripping over the words as she speaks.

  “You hasten my blood. Your smell is intoxicating, and I’d rather hear you screaming my name when I am buried within you than the silence of a hundred defeated ships.”

  She gapes at him for a moment, she opens her mouth, closes it, then opens it again.

  “I want to claim you as my bounty, Emma. Body and soul.”

  Charles leaned in close so his lips hovered a hair's breadth over hers.

  “So, surrender and let me fuck you.” When his lips descended on hers, there were no more protests.

  She was surrendering to him. Her arms wrapped around him. Her mouth opened for him, and she kissed him with a passion that set them both on fire. He wasted no time and freed himself, and with a firm thrust buried himself deep inside her.

  With Eleanor for the last few years, he'd taken what he could get. With Emma, he demanded, and she gave. She was willing for his touch. She even fought for it. Her legs wrapped around him. Her fingers tangled in his hair, and her hips started to grind in rhythm with his thrusts. It was pure and simple desire that drove them forward.

  He fumbled and fought with the string of her corset so he could free her breasts as Emma kissed him thoroughly. He didn’t want to part from her lips, but he eventually did so that he could move his kisses to her neck. When the string was loose, he grasped and yanked the fabric down so he could palm the heavy flesh in his hand. He teased one of her nipples between his thumb and forefinger until he could take the tight bud into his mouth.

  When he sucked on the bud, Emma let out a soft moan, and her back arched, pushing her breast further into his mouth. He teased both of her lovely breasts equally until Emma growled in frustration.

  “Please, Charles.” She begged for what she didn't know.

  He would be the first to teach her what it meant to give way to carnal desire, and the fact had him sitting straighter than the steel of his blade. Every thrust into her was ecstasy, but pulling out was almost agony. She gripped him so tightly. He pivoted his hips and searched for the right angle to find the spot that drove a woman mad. He knew he had found it when every muscle in Emma’s body tensed around him and she screamed out his name.

  He returned his mouth to hers, and she stole the breath from his lungs as her body stole his sanity. She let out a beautiful moan into his mouth, and he thrust his cock into her as many times as he could, and just when he thought he couldn’t last any longer, her sex clamped onto him and began to shudder. The pleasure that followed as he joined her was something that no mortal man should experience on Earth.

  Charles couldn’t move for several minutes. As he started to regain control over his body, he hated that it was overly sensitive. Hell, the breeze on his bare backside was enough to send a jolt of pleasure through him.

  Carnal instinct almost took over again when Emma looked him in the eye. There was a wild lust behind her eyes now and a teasing smile on her lips. He leaned down and kissed her again. Still buried deep inside her, he scooped her up into his arms and blindly stumbled them both into a cabin.

  This time, before making love to her again, he stripped them both naked. He laid her down on the tiny bed meant for one and fucked her again, and again. He lasted until his body gave out from sheer pleasure. He collapsed beside Emma and gathered her close to him.

  As Emma succumbed to her exhaustion, Charles lay awake. He wanted to fall asleep with her in his arms, but he also wanted to wake with her in them. Eleanor had run like a coward, and it seemed she had left a scar on Charles. One deeper than he cared to admit.

  As he breathed in Emma’s scent, he closed his eyes and decided to trust that this was real. He knew Emma would be in his arms in the morning. He’d make damn sure she stayed there, too.