Chapter 1

She had hips that rolled like the ocean. A constant, unstoppable churning that was trying to drag him under. All he could do was hold on. She smiled down at him with one black eyebrow raised and a smirk on her face. She rolled her hips harder. Something inside her squeezed.

“Holy fuck!” he said through clenched teeth.

“It is kinda like that, isn’t it,” She laughed. Her laughter sent ripples through her whole body. The tremor pulsing through her inner muscles stole his breath.

“Where did you learn to do that?” he managed to say, his hands tightening against her hip bones, his fingers digging into the top of her plush bottom.

“Fortunes of a misspent youth,” she said with a small gasp of her own. “A lady can learn all kinds of interesting skills growing up in a circus.”

She kept up the constant rolling but added her thighs into the mix, slowly lifting herself up and dropping back down again in delayed, rhythmic bounces. Her smirk never left but her hazel eyes closed as her pleasure built. He started pulsing his hips to her rhythm and she groaned. “Yes. Just like that.”

She leaned forward and put her hands on his muscular chest, careful not to disrupt the intricate sigils she’d drawn over his heart. She bumped and ground her clit against his pubic bone. Her eyes closed as small waves of pleasure hit her. He watched her with awe. Her breasts were incredible. Each one was almost as big as her head, round and full, rippling hypnotically as she bounced on his hard cock. He leaned forward and caught one of her nipples in his mouth. She gasped again and opened her eyes. “Mmmm. Yessss.” she hissed, running one of her hands across the side of his handsome face and through his slightly unkempt hair. “Careful. Don’t mess up the spell.” she said, glancing down at the sigils over her own heart.

“Mm hmm,” he said with a small nod, his lips sucking and his tongue flicking as her nipple tightened in his mouth.

“Bite a little,” she said in a breathy exhalation. He did. She whimpered and bounced harder but not faster, her hips still rolling. He ached for her to speed up but she didn’t. She kept moving slow, steady, letting the pressure build.

“Why didn’t we do this years ago?” she groaned, moving her other breast to his waiting mouth.

“Yoo ere maa aa me.” He said around her nipple. She popped it free.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” she said, grinning.

“You were mad at me,” he chuckled.

Her eyes narrowed in playful anger. “Oh, yeah. I forgot.” She lifted herself all the way off of him, slowly, so that only the head of his cock was inside her and stayed right there, not moving. “Why was I mad again?”

“Because of Jack,” he said, running one finger up her stomach, admiring her smooth olive skin. She swatted his hand. He laughed. She glared. “What about Jack?” she asked pointedly.

“You didn’t want us to go? Or, rather, you didn’t want Jack to go with me.” he said with purposefully wide, innocent eyes.

“And what happened?” she asked, her voice edged.

“I got knocked out, stranded, and cursed.” His face screwed up in embarrassment and disgust.

She inched down a little bit on his cock, bringing him back to the moment and reminding him what they were doing. She wiggled her hips just enough to roll the head of his cock inside her entrance. “Soooooo... ?”

“You were right,” he huffed.

She abruptly sunk back down on him with a groan and started slowly rolling again. “I love it when you say that,” she smirked.

“I don’t know what I was thinking,” he admitted, running his hands back up her stomach to squeeze her full breasts.

She bounced and squeezed on him. “Keep going...”

“I’m an idiot?” he chuckled.

She moaned like he was talking dirty to her. “What else?”

One of his hands ran down between her legs, his thumb tucking between their bodies, through her trimmed dark hair and finding her clit. “I should have listened to you,” he said with over exaggerated earnesty. She leaned back to give him better access and began the rippling internal squeeze that had his toes curling.

“Yes, you should have,” she said, looking him right in the eye. “We could have been doing this a lot sooner.” He focused all his attention on that little nub at the top of her flushed pussy. She leaned back, her back arched, her hands braced on his knees. A faint keening began low in her chest and built in pitch and volume as he rolled his thumb in time with her slow, building pulses.

“Not ... that I’m complaining...” he managed to say, “But you never told me ... why we are doing this now?”

She pushed down on him harder, faster, her head thrown back in ecstasy, her thick tangles of black hair bouncing everywhere as she slammed his cock into her pussy. “Because...” she tried to say, but was swept away before she could finish. Her orgasm rolled over her in waves, the combination of his circling thumb and thrusting cock kept it going, her body tensing, her voice crying out until she ran out of breath. Another wave crashed into her. She gasped, shaking. She ground against him as hard as she could. She could feel him cumming inside her. He was holding her hips down against him as hard as he could, his knuckles white, his eyes clenched shut. She slumped against his chest, the two sigils painted on them joining. A faint, brief glow came from the markings, but neither of them noticed. His breath came in short bursts. She trembled as the aftershocks started. He ran his hands into her thick hair and stroked her head.

“Because Jack’s back,” she purred into his chest.

His eyes opened wide. “Holy fuck!”

“You sure know how to show a lady a good time, Mister Sterling,” she grinned, sprawled across the bed in all her naked glory. He made a face while he pulled on his breeches. “Just Will, please. Being called Mister Sterling makes me think I’m back on a ship.” She laughed and put on his tricorn hat from where it hung on the bedpost, pulled the sheets over her shoulders like a cape and sat up on her knees with an exaggeratedly rigid and pompous posture. “Yer gonna swab my deck ‘till it shines, Mister Sterling.”

Will gave her a sarcastic salute. “Aye aye Cap’n Bella. Right away, Cap’n Bella.”

She patted the bed. “Swabbing can wait. Sit down, I want to do this reading.”

He sat and looked down at the markings on his chest. “What’s all this for anyway?”

“Jack came back with another scheme. I’m sure you’re going to get roped in. I want to make sure it doesn’t go like last time. I care about both of you too much for that.” She pulled a velvet pouch out of her bag and opened it, dumping an oversized deck of cards into her hand.

“I’m not getting roped into anything. I have no reason to ever want to work with Jack again. I got screwed over bad last time. Cursed and left for dead, remember.” He shook his head emphatically, his brows furrowed.

“You’ve been cursed plenty of times.” Bella rolled her eyes and with a comically bad impression of Will’s baritone huffed. “It comes with the job.”

“Not ... like this.” He shook his head, a slightly pained expression on his face. “The Magistrate did a full dispelling on me as soon as I got back. It didn’t work. They still took my money though. Tight-assed, penny-pinching bastards, the lot of ‘em.”

“Really?” She said, setting her cards down on the velvet bag. “You sure you’re still cursed?”

He laughed. “Oh yeah. That’s why I retired. After that, every single expedition I went on turned into a disaster. None of the freelance captains will contract with me anymore. A few of them have given orders to draw down on me if I get within a hundred paces of their ships. Every other time I go get a drink, a brawl breaks out. At first I thought it was just bad luck, but I still win at dice and cards about as often as I used to. It’s more like I’m a chaos magnet now.”

“I never got the story of why you settled down. Most folks think it’s because you make more money planning other people’s adventures than going on your own.” Bella knew enough about curses to be concerned. It was painted all over her face. “Is that why you don’t come down to Merry Mary’s anymore?”

Will nodded. “Chance told me I was bad for business. I only go to The Captain’s Daughter these days.”

Bella’s eyes widened. “That place is a hell hole.”

Will grinned. “Yeah. I figured an extra stabbing or bar fight would be a drop in the bucket. Keeps me on my toes. Drunks really like picking fights with me these days.”

Bella laughed, bemused. “I thought you were just avoiding me.”

Will shook his head sadly. “I thought you probably wouldn’t want me around anyway. You were pretty upset last time we saw each other.”

She had the grace to look chagrined. “Not my finest hour.”

“Nor mine.” Will shrugged. “You were right. I never should have gone.”

“The cards don’t lie.” She tapped the deck and picked them up again, giving them a sifting shuffle. “Which is why we’re going to do this now. I’d rather you were forewarned this time.”

“What’s going on, anyway?” He said, crossing his legs and sitting across from her.

“Nu-uh. Thinking you know things can influence the reading. I’ll tell you after.” She fanned the cards. “Close your eyes. Think of yourself. Pick a card.

He pulled a card and turned it over. He’d drawn The Lovers. Will wagged his eyebrows at his naked fortune teller. She laughed. He watched her chest bounce with a slightly dumb grin on his face. “Calm down, lover boy,” she said covering her breasts with the fanned out cards. “That one is actually about protection. See how they’re beneath the angel? It’s also about communication. Look at how they’re looking at each other.”

“I don’t feel particularly protected these days. I do have a gifted tongue though.” he smirked.

“Oh, do you now?” Bella giggled. “Next time, we’ll see if that’s just a boast.”

His eyebrow raised. “Oh, so there’s going to be a next time?”

“Yes. You passed your audition.” She smiled like a cat with feathers in its mouth. “Now think of Jack. Draw another one.”

He pulled a card. “The Fool? Yeah, sounds about right”

Bella laughed. “It’s a card about potential. Beginnings. Journeys.”

Will’s face scrunched up in apprehension and disgust. “And that’s Jack’s card? I don’t think I like where this is going.”

“One more card.” She said. “Think of your relationship with Jack.”

He drew the last card. “The eight of swords.”

“Fuck.” Bella sighed and picked up the cards, shuffling them once and putting them back in their bag.

“What’s it mean?” Will asked.

“It means you have to go.” Bella said, perturbed. “Someone is going to try to hire you. You need to take the job.”

“No I don’t.” Will rolled to his side and stretched out on the bed. “I can stay right here. I have great work now. More clients than I can keep up with. For the first time ever, I feel kinda stable. And there’s this. I mean, with you. I don’t know what this is yet, but I like it. Why would I want to leave?”