Chapter 60

  They watched the moon rise together, not that there was much to see. It was dark, except their little fire that they had let burn down to just a few coals. Enough to keep them, and their egg, warm. Nereida slipped her hand onto her wife’s leg.

  “What do you want to do now? Stay up a bit, sleep?” She kept her tone comforting. After their tears and grief, both of them were a little raw. Ael smiled a wobbly little smile. She clearly still had some fear. Nereida wished she could take it away.

  “Don’t judge?” Ael whispered. Nereida squeezed her wife’s hand. “I… I don’t want to think.” Nereida waited for her wife to continue the thought, but when she didn’t, Nereida leaned in to kiss her cheek.

  “You want to escape with me?” she asked softly. She wanted, badly, to start kissing Ael, to let her know that she was fine with it, but if she was misreading her wife, she did not want to hurt her, push her away.

  “I know I said I wouldn’t be used as a comfort but I….” The Admiral trailed off, looking out over the water. The waves crashed gently into the beach.

  “You aren’t using me, love.” Nereida replied. She smiled in the darkness. “I’ve been used. I want you. And I will never pretend to want you if I don’t. No pretending, between us.”

  “You promise?” Ael whispered, a hitch in her voice.

  “I swear. I will never pretend with you. I will be myself, completely and truly. But you have to promise the same.”

  “I promise, love. I will be myself, completely and truly, and never tell you I want to if I do not.”

  “Can I kiss you now?” Nereida asked, an impish smile forming on her face. “I’ve held back a while now.”

  She leaned in, kissing Ael’s neck, up to her ear.

  “Ael,” Nereida nibbled Ael’s ear as she spoke. “I want you.”Ael shivered at the words. “Take the helm, Admiral,” Nereida continued. “Show me, love, what you want, show me who you are. Show me that fierce woman who pinned me to the wall and almost made me swoon before her whole crew.” Ael moaned.

  “Witch,” she muttered fondly. “Do you really want that me?” She sounded slightly unsure.

  “I want all of you,” Nereida replied honestly. “I want to know what you like, I want you to find what you like. Undress me, love, explore me. Tie me up, if you want. Make me helpless to do anything but beg.” Ael shivered again, pressing her body into Nereida.

  “Winter means stop,” Ael managed.

  “I remember,” Nereida replied. “Don’t call me cruel things, I don’t want that.”

  “How could I, when you are so perfect?”

  They moved to the cloak that was spread on the ground, their makeshift bed. Ael undid the ribbons of Nereida’s shift, dropping it to the ground and kicking it aside. She began to kiss Nereida’s neck, her hands gently wandering Nereida’s body, her touch soft, teasing.

  “Tell me you want me to tie you to a tree, love,” Ael whispered as she cupped Nereida’s breast with her hand. She brought her thumb over a sensitive bit slowly, teasing as she did so. “Tell me you want to beg.” Her voice was low and husky. Nereida shifted toward her wife, warmth spreading over her.

  “Ael, please…” She leaned in to her wife’s teasing kisses. “Tie me up, love. Make me beg and plead, making me come apart with your name on your lips. Touch me, tease me, anything, please!”

  “Can I sp you?” Ael questioned, her tone still husky. She brought her hand to Nereida’s exposed rump. “Here?” Nereida felt her knees buckle at the teasing, soft touch. A shiver passed through her, and she felt a thrill of excitement, a wash of pride that Ael was asking for what she wanted without embarrassment.

  “Please,” she managed. “Yes, there. I need…. I need to feel you, light and darkness and everything you are.”

  Ael kissed her neck deeply, pulling Nereida into her, her breath ragged.

  “Perfect wife, love.” She nibbled at Nereida’s ear as she spoke, and then, with no warning, gave her a quick, sharp pat on her behind. It didn’t hurt, but Nereida made a noise of surprise. Ael’s expression was one of deep appreciation. “More?” Ael asked, leaning in again. Nereida could feel how her wife was grinning, her teeth against the siren’s skin. “Or something else, love? This perhaps?” The pirate flicked Nereida’s nipples with her thumb. Nereida felt every hair stand on end, and she shifted closer to her still-clothed wife. The need spread through her until she was nearly trembling with it. “Should I tie you up now, love? I want to watch you come apart again and again.”

  “I want to see you,” Nereida managed.

  “Soon,” Ael promised, kissing her deeply, using her teeth to capture Nereida’s lower lip, holding it for a long, lingering moment. “Ready, love?”

  “Yes!”

  Ael used the sash from her jacket to bind Nereida’s hand behind her back. The fabric was soft and slippery, sliding as the Admiral applied her years of training to make a very different kind of knot. Nereida felt a rush of anticipation wash over her, the need of it nearly overriding her senses entirely.

  “I want you standing as long as you can manage, love,” Ael whispered. “How long can you st?” There was a teasing note to her voice, and she gently caressed Nereida’s cheek. “How long can you hold out before you are begging?” The siren gasped as Ael began to touch, to tease, to lick and taste in earnest. Her knees buckled, but she forced herself to stay upright as Ael trailed her lips and fingers ever lower. The pirate took Nereida’s nipple between her teeth, not biting, just holding and running her tongue over the sensitive tip. The siren made a mewling sound, and redoubled her efforts to stay standing. After an eternity of teasing, Ael stood, a satisfied smirk on her face. She began slowly lifting her tunic over her head, revealing her naked chest.

  “Your turn, love,” Ael whispered. “No hands for you, but show me what you can do with just your mouth…”

  Nereida leaned forward, having difficulty getting the proper angle without her hands. She took her wife’s breast in her mouth, intending to do what Ael had just done, when she felt Ael’s fingers probing lower. Nereida opened her legs, inviting her wife in. But Ael continued to just tease near the entrance, never quite slipping her fingers inside. Nereida let herself loose, kissing, licking, sucking, until Ael moaned and the fingers finally found their way inside. They broke apart after a moment, panting in need, in lust. Ael brought her hand up tenderly to Nereida’s cheek, and the siren leaned into the soft touch.

  “If you can get my drawers off with just your teeth, love, I will reward you,” Ael whispered, the gentle touch becoming teasing as she moved her fingers in zy circles along Nereida’s chest. Nereida felt her breath quicken again, the need crashing into her. She dropped to her knees slowly, feeling the wool bnket beneath her. She found the edge of the drawers, skimming her teeth gently along the skin near Ael’s hip. Slowly, carefully, she pulled the cloth down, alternating sides if it snagged on its journey. She felt Ael steady herself by grabbing her shoulders. After a long moment, she was able to get the fabric off, and Ael stepped gracefully out of it. Her legs were muscur, lithe and ever so inviting.

  “Can I taste you?” Nereida asked from her knees. When Ael gave her assent enthusiastically, Nereida leaned forward. As the siren tasted, teased, with just her tongue, Ael had threaded her hands into Nereida’s short hair, holding tightly, guiding her with gentle pulls and tugs. Soon, Ael was on the verge of coming undone, and Nereida pulled back when her wife tugged.

  “It’s not my turn yet,” Ael said, her voice strained as she tried to regain her composure and control. She helped Nereida down to the bnket, undoing her knots and freeing Nereida’s hands. Nereida felt awash with disappointment, until Ael urged her to put her hands in front. “I won’t break your arms by accident, love.” She nibbled on Nereida’s wrist before re-tying them, this time above her head, securing her to a nearby tree. “Struggle a bit , my love, I need to see that you can’t just slip out.” Nereida obliged, wriggling and pulling. The knot did not tighten, but she still felt a thrill of danger. “That’s the way, love,” Ael managed, her voice slightly strangled. “Now… I want to tease you, touch you, bring you to the edge of pleasure. I pn to keep you there until you beg.” She straddled Nereida, looking down at her. In the shadows, Nereida could not make out her beloved’s expression. “But once you beg, love, once I finally let you come apart, then you will have to do the same for me… still tied to the tree.” She kissed Nereida’s lips, a hungry, demanding kiss, before she straightened up. “Tell me you want that, or tell me what you want instead.”

  “Ael… please… that first one. Make me beg. Make me go out of my mind with pleasure!”

  Ael had learned a lot since their first encounter. She had become more confident with her touching, her teasing. She seemed to know when the pleasure of it was about to bring Nereida crashing over the edge, and she would take a break from what she was doing, leaving Nereida craving more, her body screaming for more, in need, in desperation. But Nereida did not beg, not at first. She wanted more, more pying, more torturous pleasure. Ael’s fingers and mouth explored her, touched her, teased her until she could not manage to maintain anything approaching composure, and she begged her love to let her come apart, to let her have it all. Ael seemed eager to give as well as receive, and so she positioned herself so that Nereida could taste her as she tasted the siren. And together they brought each other to the limits of pleasure, until Nereida saw stars.

  Finally both satiated, Ael worked quickly to untie Nereida. She rubbed her wife’s arms, making sure that there was no damage.

  “Are you alright?” Ael asked, concern in her tone. “That wasn’t too much, right?”

  “You could have done more, with the spanking,” Nereida replied. “I liked it, Ael. But I loved you taking control, your confidence.” She pced a chaste kiss on Ael’s cheek. “Did you enjoy it?”

  “Very much,” she admitted. “I… I like how you look, tied, at my mercy.” She had a strange tremble in her voice. “That’s… that’s alright?”

  “More than alright, love,” Nereida replied soothingly. “I enjoy being at your mercy. I trust you not to push past my limits.” She kissed her again. “Can you sleep, or should I tire you out further?” Her voice was teasing, and Ael chuckled.

  “I could go more.” She went quiet for a moment, and then, “will you teach me why you like it?” Nereida smiled to herself, and then gave her wife a deep kiss.

  “Do you trust me enough to be at my mercy?” she asked pyfully, gently touching her wife’s breasts as she did so.

  “A thousand times yes.”

  Not as good at knotting as her wife, it took longer for Nereida to make sure Ael’s arms were bound safely, so that the knot wouldn’t tighten and hurt her.

  “Beg for me to undo you, love, when you’ve had enough,” Nereida whispered fiercely, trailing fingers down her wife’s fit body. Ael whimpered, a lovely little sound that filled Nereida with need. She set about exploring, touching, tasting every inch of her wife, careful to avoid the scar on her midriff. Ael twisted in her bonds, trying to gain more, arching her back when pleasure threatened to overtake her. Nereida brought her wife as near to the edge of pleasure as she could, before she eased off, kissing the inside of her thigh.

  “I know you are close, love,” she said, bringing her fingers to py zy circles around where she had just kissed. “You just have to beg, and I will bring you the rest of the way.”

  “I won’t break so easily,” Ael panted, her tone pyful and teasing. “Think you can get me in just a round, my witch?”

  “So be it,” Nereida chuckled, setting herself to a second round, bringing her wife to the edge of pleasure once again. She took her time, making sure that she paid attention to every part of Ael’s body, even her feet, though that tickled her wife and undid some of her progress. “Care to surrender now, love?” she asked, teasing her fingers along Ael’s hips. “Or perhaps after I do this?” and she moved her hand toward the ribbon in Ael’s hair, undoing the complex braid as she perched atop her wife. The hair was spread out, wild, untamed.

  “I want you untamed,” Nereida said, looking down at her wife as she pyed with her breasts. “Beg me, and I will let you out of those restraints… and we can see which of us can bring the other apart first.”

  “If you let me out of these restraints, love, I will make sure I lose… because I will keep you on the edge as long as I can,” Ael replied, smirking. Nereida nearly came undone at just her wife’s words, the shiver of anticipation almost too much. She kissed Ael’s colrbone.

  “Can I undo you now, then, love? Will you beg for it?” Carefully she dragged her teeth along the skin at the base of Ael’s throat. The pirate made a pleasant little mewling noise before she shifted, spreading her legs wide in invitation.

  “Please, Nereida….”

  Not needing to be asked twice, Nereida used her tongue and fingers to make Ael come apart, the pirate crying out her name in ecstasy as she finally was undone. Nereida undid the knot, but before she could check to make sure her lover was alright, Ael grabbed her, flipping her on to her back and pinning her in one fluid motion. She used one hand to pin Nereida’s hands above her head, a smirk pying on her face. Nereida gasped in shock, her heart pounding as her body screamed its need for more.

  “I did say if you let me out, love, that I would keep you on the edge as long as possible.” She ran her free hand along the siren’s colrbone. Ael’s long hair hung down, cascading like a waterfall. Nereida struggled a little, grinning pyfully. Her much stronger, more athletic wife wouldn’t let her escape, and the thrill overtook her senses.

  “Do you think you can make me surrender again, Admiral?” she taunted. Ael chuckled, a deep, rumbling sound.

  “Count on it.”

  Ael was true to her word, and by the time the moon had reached its zenith, Nereida had surrendered to her love, begging and pleasing with her wife’s name on her lips and they were both completely spent. Ael’s worries seemed to have been washed away by their passion. They both fell asleep, tangled in each other, without clothing or bnket, beneath the starlight and the silently watching new moon.