Of Magic and Rum (Beyond a Contemporary Mythos)

Chapter 23

He did it. He found me—a mortal man without powers and only his mind, intuition, and strength to aid him. It’s remarkable, and not only can I not explain it, but I also had no doubts he’d succeed. There’s no way to rationalize that either. Then he took care of me, rushing me to the sea despite the frigid temperatures he knew could harm him. And when I opened my eyes, in complete sea nymph form, he gazed down at me like a prized, glittering jewel. No semblance of shock. No hints of distaste in his expression for my aquatic persona. Despite the cold seeping into his bones, he didn’t even appear in pain.

And now we sit on the sandy shoreline naked and devour one another with our gazes. There are so many destined unions among ethereal beings—soulmates, fated bonds, clandestine love that can withstand time and circumstance. But Jack is right. How would I know one way or the other if I have no idea how it’s supposed to feel? I don’t. But N?kk? I can say with absolute clarity that he’s not my mate.

Jack hovers over me, trailing the back of his hand down my cheek. “Give me your tail.”

The command gives me pause, and I blink at him.

The confusion must be evident in my expression because Jack smirks and kisses the tip of my nose. “I believe there were promises of tail play?”

A knot coils in my stomach, and I play a heated stare. I don’t know how much more perfect this man can be for me. Anything more, and I’d call him a liar for claiming to be merely human. Shifting my leg from his other side, I join my knees together and will the tail to return. My limbs fuse with a seam of shimmering blue light. The feet are the last to change, morphing into dark blue fins that I flap against the sand. “I can’t move much, beached like this.”

“Sounds like you’ll be at my mercy,” Jack whispers, coating his words with filth and silk.

A wave from the sea laps against my arm, the cerulean scales gleaming back to life. I curl my tail toward my chest, but Jack places his palm where my human knees would be and slowly shakes his head—left to right. My heart is racing like we haven’t done what’s about to transpire once before. As if we haven’t shared countless kisses and intimate moments. But this—this is different in so many ways. This is us going farther than lust and attraction alone.

“Lay on your stomach, love,” he says, coaxing me to turn and drumming his fingers against my tail’s scales.

I do as he asks, my breasts pressing to the wet sand. Turning my head to one side, I rest it on my hands, my tail’s fins involuntarily swaying in anticipation. An excited surge of nerves bubbles in my core, and I gasp when his callused fingertips trace down my spine. He reaches the spot where my hips meet the apex of my tail and spends extra time stroking me there. The central fin at the tail’s tip flicks skyward, a sensual coil tightening in my stomach.

No one has ever touched me like this—exploratory, appreciative, and seductive.

Jack gently drums his fingers across my scales, skirting to one of two smaller fins protruding from where the tops of my thighs would be. His hand flutters over it, sending shivers and trembles through my lower half. My fingers dig into the sand now, my face lifting, eyes pinched shut. He’s trailing his touch down the tail’s center, paying particular attention to the seam where he saw my legs joining.

Pleasure builds and builds, the two smaller fins near my ankles flapping frantically. When Jack reaches my main fin, tracing through the primary vein, I blank out and cry through a climax I never knew possible. My body quakes through the aftershock. Jack’s beard brushes the skin at my nape.

“Am I a first for that too?” Jack smiles against my skin after giving it a playful nip.

Seas below. Even his arrogance has netted me.

I answer him by hoisting my hips in the air, thumping into his gut, and arousing a satisfying grunt and chuckle.

“Now give me your legs, Anne.” Jack’s hands curl around my waist, and he leans back on his haunches, watching my legs materialize with sapphire shimmers and ribbons of suspended bubbles.

I’m on my hands and knees in front of him, my ass propped in the air, presenting myself to him. A masculine groan pulls from his throat, and he grasps each cheek, squeezing them. The tip of him pushes at my entrance, but unlike before, he takes his time sliding inside—the slowness of it blissfully excruciating. When he’s filled me completely, he stills, bending forward to trail kisses down the length of my spine. He scoops water into his palm and trickles it over my back. As each scale appears, my skin sends jolts of pleasuring stings around their edges, making me acutely aware of each.

He's thrusting now—rhythmic and claiming. I reach behind me for his hand to latch onto something real because, despite my chimerical existence, I’ve somehow been thrown off my axis. He interlocks his fingers with mine, keeping the other palm at my hip, pulling me on and off him, and kneading the dimple at my lower back.

The sea’s waves become choppier and unruly, matching my erratic heartbeat. I can hear the waves rolling toward the shoreline before it reaches us, and as if Jack somehow senses it too, he hoists me up, slamming my back to his chest. The water splashes against our sides—frothy, salty, and majestic. I keep the chill from settling into Jack’s skin, not daring to let it ruin a moment like this. With me writhing against him behind me, he tilts my chin up to meet his lips, kissing me so deeply I can feel the sensation in my toes. He presses our foreheads together as we work in tandem. His thumb dips into my mouth, his other fingers gripping my chin.

After nibbling on his fingertip, I let out a shattered gasp, the euphoria sneaking up on me, and I reach for the back of his head, fisting his hair. One of his burly bronzed arms wraps around me, his hand splayed at my stomach right above my sex, and he pushes me against him, keeping me deliciously captive in his grasp.

“Incredible,” Jack moans against my neck, still pumping in and out of me in languid motions. “I can feel the ocean through you.”

His words make my scales hum and blaze with vibrance. I turn to face him, smiling at the sight of him soaking wet, his hair falling in tendrils of wavy onyx over his eyes. “You haven’t even begun to feel it, pirate.” Placing one hand on his chest, I give him a light push, coaxing him to lie on his back.

Jack doesn’t fight me, willingly settling on his elbows, his muscular, tanned legs spread wide, waiting for me. He bites his bottom lip, caramel eyes roaming my face, breasts, and hair. I straddle him, positioning myself over him, and slowly sink, whimpering at the feeling of fullness the lower I get until finally, our hips meet. Jack growls, his head dips back, his toes digging into the sand. He grabs my hips, and I sway on top of him, pulling the thrumming heartbeat of the seas into my veins. Jack’s lips spasm, and he flares his eyes open, staring up at me as if to ask if what he’s feeling has to do with me.

Grinning, I press our chests together and kiss a trail over the hair on his jawline until I reach his ear. “You’re as much a part of the seas as I am, Jack. Only now can I formally introduce you.”

Jack grasps the back of my neck and kisses me, unleashing a masculine moan against my mouth. Another wave stirs, and we don’t pull away once it plows into us, soaking us to the bone. Jack finishes the kiss as the tide ebbs, water droplets still hanging on his lashes. His gaze drops to my mouth, tongue licking salt from his bottom lip, and then he’s flipped us in one swift motion. I’m beneath him, his body above mine, forearms caging my head. The seas drip onto my cheeks from his hair, and he drives into me—deep and all-consuming.

“You say you can talk to the ocean?” Jack rolls his hips, hitting against that sensitive spot, rubbing it just the right way. “You tell her—” he lowers his face, brushing his nose to the tip of mine and over my cheeks “—she has to share you now.”

The declaration makes me clench around him, and I can’t help but dig my fingernails into his back. There’s a path that neither of us would have to share with the seas—a version where we could live in and out of the waters as we please. But it’s a fever dream. He’s not of my world, and the only person who could make it possible, even if Jack chose to become a part of it, is eons away.

He's thrusting faster now, our eyes locked and never faltering, even when my back arches from the sand as blissful release overtakes me yet again. Jack still pumps into me through my climax, using his knee to hitch my thigh, going deeper. A tic forms in his cheek, his cock throbbing several times inside me. He goes to pull away, to expel himself anywhere but here, and I grab his ass, keeping him put.

Jack’s gaze searches my face, his lips parting to question my actions, but I press a finger to his mouth. “Trust me. Come undone inside me, Captain .”

Like many deities’ fates with others are spun by the universe, so are children. And I’ve yet to seek blessing for our union, let alone offspring from it.

This makes Jack’s gaze grow feral, and he crashes his lips against mine, pounding into me several more times before he finds his release. I pinch my knees at his ribs, grinning once he comes up for air.

Supporting his weight on one arm, he lets most of his lower half rest on top of me, and I love the heavy feel of it—safe and comforting. “And now, that was a first for me .”

It takes a moment for me to realize what he means. “You’ve never—ins?—”

Jack slips a gentle palm over my mouth. “I have not . The last thing I need is a bunch of random little Jacks running around that I didn’t know about.”

For whatever reason, the idea of Jack having children with other women makes me sad, but hearing it isn’t possible raises jubilance in the same instant.

Smiling, I part his hair from his eyes, securing it behind an ear. “But they’d be so cute.”

“Well, that’s a given.” Jack lifts his chin, the moonlight creating shadows over his features, making the sharpness more handsome. “Have you seen this jawline? The well-angled nose?” He keeps a straight face for several seconds but cracks a smile.

“I’m certain I have sand in places I never deemed possible.” A laugh bursts from my chest—fluttery and alive .

Jack grins and takes a handful of said sand, trickling it over my shoulder before lightly rubbing it against my skin. “You get used to it. It ironically makes your skin smoother. Besides, can’t you—” He snaps his fingers, wincing as some sand flies at his face.

Skirting my knee up his thigh, I take his hand in mine and trace the lines and patterns on his palm, laughing. “I have aquatic powers. That doesn’t include making sand disappear from crevices.”

“Noted. But in my defense, I’m quite new to all of this.” A warm smile edges Jack’s lips, and he lazily traces one of my nipples.

The thrum of the sea thunders in my ears, and despite how happy I’ve been since the catastrophe in Atlantis, I still can’t stomach the thought of my family searching for me with no idea where to look. Or worse, they don’t know if I’m alive. This sends a chilly current washing over me.

“Jack,” I beckon softly.

He must hear the change of tone in my voice because his gaze snaps to mine, a cinch forming in the skin between his eyes. “Yes?”

“I have another favor to ask of you.” Lifting his hand to my lips, I kiss each knuckle and trail the dark scattering of hair.

“The way you say that sounds like you think there are to be no more favors after this one.” Jack trails a finger down the length of my nose. “Ask away, Annie. Anything.”

“I wish—” I sit up, grasping Jack’s hand, but my eyes turn to the sea. “I wish to send a message to my family.”

Jack delicately touches my jaw and returns my gaze to him. “But how do you intend to do that? Parchment in a bottle? Tossing it into the waves and hoping it makes it where it needs to go?”

“Yes. But a charmed bottle.”

Jack scratches the back of his head. “I don’t quite follow. Spell it out for me as if I’m a child.”

Sighing, I sit up straight and take both of his hands. “There’s a sea witch. I can sense her grotto, which is not far away. She’d possess the power to enchant the bottle and guide it home.”

Jack’s head bobs like he’s mulling over my words. “A sea witch?”

“Yes.”

Jack points to the sea. “Underwater?”

“Also, yes.”

“And it’s—” Jack walks his fingers along where the sky meets the water “—on the way, so to speak?”

“Mostly.” A crab bumps my ankle, and I hold out my palm, letting it crawl onto it. “It’s a little off our path, so I hesitated to ask.”

Jack cups my cheek and kisses my head. “My sails are yours, Anne. And the crew will understand.”

Warmth pools in my chest, and I grin at Jack swinging his finger above the crab, which opens and closes its claws but never tries to clamp onto him. We simultaneously glance skyward at the moon’s position.

“Sunrise will be soon. I suppose we should sleep somewhere other than a sandy beach?” I lower my hand and encourage the crab home.

Jack lets out an overly dramatic sigh. “If we must.” He stands and helps me to my feet.

We dust the sand away from our bodies, dress in still very wet and cold clothes, and follow the sea’s shoreline back to The Revenge. When we board, I expect the ship to be quiet, with everyone except those taking the first watch asleep below deck. But it isn’t silent at all. Most of the crew crowd in a circle near the main mast, pointing down at something.

“What in the hell—” Jack squeezes my shoulder before shoving through the crowd. “Make way, make way. Captain on deck and all that.”

When Jack freezes and goes silent, I’m next to push through.

“Oh, Cap, you’re back,” Red says. “Where’s Anne?”

No sooner does he ask my whereabouts than I arrive and pause, much like Jack, at the sight of Truffles and an imp with broken-off horns playing together. It doesn’t pay the pirate crew much mind, enjoying its frivolous tackling with Jack’s cat, but it stops when Jack bends forward, the imp’s eyes as wide as scallops.

“Will someone please explain why this imp is on my ship?” Jack says in his imposing captain voice, and he doesn’t look away from the tiny creature. The imp backs up with its forked tail wrapping its body, claws twirling around its fingers.

“I caught him rummaging through a barrel of rice,” Glog answers, shaking his head and smiling.

“And why is he still on board?” Jack asks.

Mary tackles my side, hugging me and feeling every inch of my face. “Fuck, Anne. Don’t scare me like that.”

“Scare you ?” I elbow her ribs. “I’m not that easy to get rid of, immortality or not.”

Mary grins and bounces in place. “Cap, we decided to keep the little ugly cute thing around because he doesn’t pose a threat and could come in handy.”

“Handy?” Jack displays a hand toward it. “For what? Shimmying through our legs and tripping us? You all realize this creature belongs to the very same lunatic that kidnapped Anne?”

“This is N?kk’s imp?” I point at the fantastical creature.

And Jack points at me. “See?” He asks the crew. “Yes, it is .”

Truffles ignores the drama unfolding and licks the imp’s face, proceeding to clean him.

“If I—” The imp’s hooved feet turn inward, and it curls its tail over its hands repeatedly. “If I may speak?” His voice is meager and higher-pitched.

Jack sighs but gives a curt nod.

“I’ve wished to run from my master for a long time.” The imp frowns, pausing and dragging a hand over one of the horn stumps on its head. “Treated badly. They said a pirate crew is where one goes to escape. To be—free?” The imp’s eyes brighten with hope toward his would-be captain.

Jack beats a fist against his thigh. “And I suppose you have all voted on this already?”

“We have,” Duke chimes in, several crew members stepping out of the way to let him join us. “And it’s unanimous.”

“Of course, it bloody well is.” Jack snaps his gaze to Ragnar. “Even you?”

Ragnar shoots a glare at Mary. “I’ve been persuaded .”

“For the love of—” Jack pinches the bridge of his nose. “Anne? Are you alright with this?”

The imp gazes up at me with eyes to put a puppy to shame, his ears drooping toward his chin.

“He is pretty adorable, Jack.” I tilt my head.

Jack huffs a breath through his nose. “Fine. But he’s not staying in my quarters, and you lot are in charge of feeding, watering, or doing whatever the hell else an imp needs.” He turns away but swivels back to face them with a lifted finger. “And for God’s sake, give him a name. I’m not calling it imp .”

“Aye, aye, Cap,” Red says, at the cheery imp creature as he settles contentedly into Truffles’ fur behind him.

Jack holds his hand out to me. “Anne, my dear, shall we retire?”

I take it and let him lead me to his cabin, exhaustion weighing heavy on my body. We settle into his hammock, and I drift to sleep thinking about our newly recruited imp crewmate and mentally preparing myself to make a deal with a sea witch.