"…you know what."
Her forehead against mine. Her breath on my lips. My cock against her entrance, the head parting her, the heat of her soaking through me. She was trembling. Not cold. Not afraid. The trembling of a woman holding herself still when her body wanted to move.
She reached between us. Wrapped her hand around me. Not pumping. Holding. Feeling the pulse of cultivation energy through the shaft, the throb that matched my heartbeat. Her fingers were wet from herself, slick, and she slid them down my length and back up and I made a sound I didn't plan.
"Not yet," she whispered.
She rubbed the head against her clit. Once. Her hips twitched. Twice. Her breath caught. She dragged me lower. Pressed me against her opening. The tip spreading her. The pressure of almost but not. I could feel the heat inside her from here, the slick walls wanting to pull me in, and my hips tried to push forward and she put her hand flat on my stomach.
"Not. Yet."
Five seconds. Ten. My arms shaking from holding myself up. Her thighs tight against my hips. The head of my cock parting her open but not entering, the ring of muscle resisting and yielding and resisting again. She was torturing us both and she knew it and her eyes were locked on mine and they were bright and fierce and wet.
"Now."
She pulled me in.
Slow. She made me go slow.
The stretch of her around me. She hadn't had me in days and her body gripped me like it was relearning. Tight. Tighter than the first time on the dinghy. I pushed in an inch and stopped. Her breath shuddered. Another inch. Her hands found my shoulders. Her nails dug in. Another inch and another and the wet resistance of her body accepting me one fraction at a time.
"Closer," she said. Her legs wrapped around my waist. Her ankles locked behind me. Her arms around my neck. Pulling me down onto her. Into her. Every inch of her body pressed against every inch of mine.
I bottomed out. Both of us still. The fullness. I could feel her heartbeat around me, the pulse of her body squeezing, the cultivation energy starting to flow. Her yin rushing into me, cool and sharp, lightning in my bloodstream. My yang pouring into her, and she gasped at the heat of it. Her eyes widened.
"That's- stronger than before."
"Three partners."
"Shut up about the partners." She pulled me tighter. "Move."
I moved. Slow. Long pulls, nearly out, then all the way back. She felt every inch. I felt every inch. The drag of her walls around me, the wet friction, the way she clenched at the tip and released as I pushed deep. Her breathing changed. Longer exhales. Her mouth open. Her eyes on mine the entire time and she didn't look away and she didn't close them and she didn't hide.
That was the difference. Every time before this, Nami had closed her eyes during sex. Squeezed them shut when she came. Turned her face away at the peak. This time she watched me. Let me watch her.
"Ah." Soft. Each thrust pushing it out of her. "Ah. Ah."
I put my mouth on her neck. She tilted her head to give me room. I could feel the pulse in her throat under my lips. Fast. Getting faster. Her hips started meeting mine, the rhythm building between us, her pelvis grinding against me on every downstroke.
The sound of us together. Wet. The slick friction of our bodies, the creak of the inn bed, her breathing getting shorter. I pulled back to watch her face. Her cheeks flushed. Her lips parted. The sweat on her collarbone catching the moonlight.
I slowed down. Pulled almost all the way out. She whined. Her heels dug into my ass, trying to pull me back.
"Don't you dare stop."
I pushed back in. All the way. One long stroke. She exhaled like she'd been punched. I held it. Deep. Grinding against her clit without pulling out. Slow circles. The pressure of our bodies together, my pelvis against hers, the friction concentrated on the spot that made her breath catch.
"Ah- that's-" She bit her lip. Her fingers found the sheets. Gripped. Her hips rolling up to meet my grinding, finding the angle that worked, and when she found it her eyes went wide and her mouth fell open and she ground against me harder. The bed creaked under the pressure of both of us pushing together.
I wanted to go harder. She could feel me holding back. Her legs tightened, pulling me deeper on the next thrust, and the angle shifted and hit something that made her abs contract.
"There-" Her voice cracking. "Right there, don't change the-"
I didn't change it. The same spot. The same angle. Her clit catching against me on every thrust, the friction of our bodies together. I drove into that spot and held the rhythm and she started unraveling under me. Her legs tightening around my waist. Her nails dragging down my back. Not scratching. Clawing. The pain mixed with the sensation of being inside her and I drove deeper and she made a sound that cracked in the middle.
Her hips lost their rhythm. Bucking. The controlled grind breaking into desperate jerks. Her hand found the back of my neck and pulled my face to hers and she kissed me with her mouth open and her teeth caught my lip and I tasted blood and her hips slammed up against mine.
"Kai- I'm- fuck-"
Her face. Her face when she came. I watched it happen. Her mouth open. Her brows pulling up. Her eyes going glassy, losing focus, the pupils blown wide. The muscles in her neck standing out. Her jaw clenching and then releasing and her whole expression crumpling into something that wasn't just pleasure. It was relief. Eight years of held breath leaving her body in one long shaking exhale.
"Ahhn-"
I came inside her. Couldn't hold it. Watching her face break open like that, the raw unguarded expression, the sound she made. My hips drove deep and stayed and the orgasm hit my spine and I buried my face in her neck and came hard enough that my vision went white at the edges.
We lay there. Still connected. Her legs still locked around me. Her chest heaving against mine. The sweat between us. The sound of breathing in a quiet room.
Her hand found the back of my head. Fingers in my hair. She held me against her neck. I could feel her swallowing. Her throat working.
Her mouth opened. I felt it against my ear. The shape of words forming.
She closed it. The words stayed inside.
I kissed her instead. She kissed me back. Long. Slow. Her mouth tasting like brandy and salt.
I was still inside her when I hardened again.
The cultivation energy. Three partners' worth of sex and the body it had built. The refractory period that would have been twenty minutes a month ago was nothing now. She felt me grow inside her and her eyes widened and then narrowed.
"Already?"
"The cultivation-"
"I said shut up about the cultivation." But she smiled. Small. Real. She pushed on my chest. "Sit up."
I sat up on the bed. Back against the headboard. She climbed into my lap. Facing me. Legs around my waist. Her arms draped over my shoulders. Chest to chest. Forehead to forehead. I was still inside her and the shift in angle made her breath hitch.
"This," she said. Grinding. Not bouncing. A slow roll of her hips. "I want this."
Chest against chest. Close enough that I could feel her heartbeat on my skin. Her breasts pressed flat against me, the nipples hard, the heat of her body everywhere. My hands on her back. Her ribs under my palms. The ridge of her spine.
She ground against me. Slow circles. The friction was different here. Less depth, more contact. Her clit pressing against my stomach on every forward roll. The wet slide of our bodies together. I could feel her everywhere. Inside, around, against. My hands explored her back. The bumps of her spine. The dip at the base where her ass began. The muscles in her sides flexing with each grind.
"Mm." Her face against my neck. Breathing me in. Her hips never stopped. The slow grinding rhythm that was building something between us, the cultivation energy thick and hot.
My yang poured into her. Fire. Her yin pulled into me and it was Nami's energy, the sharp cool electricity I'd felt since the first time. But stronger now. Amplified by the separation and the fight and the crying and the brandy and everything that had happened in three days. The energy crackled through my veins. I felt stronger. Denser. My muscles tightening, the bruises fading a shade, the bite wound itching as it healed.
She felt it too. The energy flowing into her. She made a sound against my neck, surprised, and her grinding deepened. Her hips rolling in wider circles. Taking more of me on each pass. The base of my cock pressing against her clit on the forward roll, the head dragging against the front wall on the back. She was using me. Finding the angles that worked. The slow, methodical grinding of a woman who'd figured out exactly what her body wanted and was going to take it.
"Nami."
"Mm." Not listening. Her hips didn't stop. Her face pressed into my neck. Her breath hot and fast against my skin. She was somewhere else. Somewhere between the grinding and the energy and the fact that she was free and I was here and nobody was counting and nobody was watching.
I held her. My arms around her back. My hands spread across her ribs. I could feel every muscle working. The core strength of her body as she rolled her hips, the flex of her thighs against mine. The room was quiet except for us. The wet sound of her grinding. The creak of the headboard. Her breathing and mine mixing together.
She tilted her hips. Found a new angle. The head of my cock pressed against the front wall inside her and she inhaled sharply and her grinding focused there. Small movements. Precise. Her body had learned me well enough to find what it needed.
"Nnh-" Muffled against my throat. Her teeth grazed my neck. Not biting. Resting there. Like she needed something in her mouth to keep the sounds in.
I put my hand in her hair. Pulled her head back gently. Kissed her throat. The underside of her jaw. The spot behind her ear where her pulse hammered. She whimpered. Her grinding stuttered. I kissed lower. Her collarbone. The top of her breast. Took her nipple in my mouth and sucked and her hips jerked hard enough to break the rhythm.
"Ah- that's not- I was trying to go slow-"
I sucked harder. She gave up on slow. Her grinding turned urgent. The wet squelch of our bodies louder now, her juices dripping down my shaft, pooling where we connected. Her arms tightened around my neck. Her forehead dropped to my shoulder. She was close. I could feel it in the way she clenched around me, rhythmic, involuntary.
Her grinding got faster. Her breathing ragged. Her fingers tangling in my hair. Pulling. The pain grounding me.
"I-" she said. Against my neck. "I-"
She couldn't finish it.
"I know," I said.
"Shut up. You don't know."
"I know."
She came. Quiet. The quietest orgasm she'd ever had with me. Just her body contracting around me, her arms crushing my neck, her face buried against my shoulder. Shaking. I felt the clench ripple through her, five times, six, and a sound that was barely a sound. A breath with a whisper buried in it.
I heard it.
She said it so quietly that if my ear hadn't been an inch from her mouth I would have missed it. One word. Three letters. Pressed into my skin like a secret she was planting there.
I came inside her. The orgasm rolled through both of us at the same time, the cultivation energy feedback loop catching and amplifying. Her clench triggered mine. Mine triggered another wave in her. She gasped. I groaned. The loop sustained for ten seconds that felt like a minute, both of us riding it, her hips still grinding, my hands pulling her tight against me.
We stayed there. Chest to chest. Breathing. Her forehead on my shoulder. My hands on her back. Still connected. The energy settling between us like water finding its level.
She didn't repeat what she'd said. I didn't ask her to.
"One more."
She said it like a dare. Pushed me flat on the bed. Climbed on top. Straddled me. Her hands on my chest, her knees on either side of my ribs, her hair falling around her face.
She was grinning.
Not the competitive grin. Not the calculation grin or the negotiation grin. A real one. Crooked. The kind that showed her canine tooth on the left side. She was grinning down at me and she was covered in sweat and her eyes were red from earlier and she had bite marks on her neck from my mouth and she was the most alive I'd ever seen her.
She reached behind her. Found me. I was hard again. She didn't ask about the cultivation this time. She positioned me and sank down. Fast. All at once. No teasing. She took me to the base and her head dropped back and she made a sound like the air had been punched out of her.
"Hah-"
She rode me.
Different from every time before. Not the controlled grinding of the dinghy. Not the possessive pace of the bench. Not the territorial riding she'd done after finding out about Kaya. This was joy. Pure. She was fucking me because she was free and she wanted to and nobody was watching and nobody was counting and the maps were destroyed and Arlong was on the ground and she was alive and I was alive and we were here.
She was laughing. Between the moans. Laughing and riding me and her breasts bouncing and her hair swinging and her hands flat on my chest for leverage.
"This-" PLAP. Her hips dropping hard. "-is-" PLAP. "-mine." PLAP PLAP PLAP. The rhythm accelerating. The wet slap of her ass on my thighs filling the room. The bed protesting. The headboard hitting the wall.
I grabbed her hips. Not to slow her. To help. Pulling her down on the upstroke, driving her harder onto me. She gasped at the added force. Her rhythm faltered and then found a new gear. Faster.
"Ah- ah- ah-" On every impact. The sounds getting louder. Building. Her fingernails scraping down my chest. Not marking. Just holding on.
"Nami."
"Hah-"
"Look at me."
She looked down. Her face flushed. Her mouth open. Her eyes wild and bright and there was nothing behind them except what was happening right now.
"Say my name," I said.
"Kai." Breathless. The rhythm not stopping. PLAP PLAP PLAP. "Kai. Kai. Kai-"
She came screaming.
Not figuratively. Literally. Her head snapped back and her back arched and her hands went flat on my chest and she screamed. Open-mouthed, ragged, a sound that started in her gut and tore through her throat and I could hear someone in the next room bang on the wall and neither of us gave a fuck.
Her body clamped around me. Tight enough to hurt. Her hips still grinding, involuntary, the orgasm taking her body and running it without her permission. Her thighs shaking against my ribs. The wet drip of her running down my cock and onto my thighs and the sheets.
I came inside her. Third time tonight. The orgasm dragged out of me by the vice grip of her body. My hands on her hips hard enough to bruise. I pulled her down onto me and held her there and filled her and the cultivation energy detonated between us. Her back arched further. A second wave hit her. She made a sound that wasn't a word or a moan or a scream. Just a sound. Raw. Animal. The loudest thing she'd ever been.
She collapsed onto me. Face in my chest. Her body still twitching. Small aftershock clenches around me. Her breath hot and wet against my skin.
We lay there.
The room was quiet except for breathing. The moonlight had moved from the bed to the floor. Somewhere outside, the last drunk was singing his way home.
Her finger traced the bite wound on my shoulder. The Arlong mark. Nojiko's stitching rough under her fingertip.
"I'm keeping you," she said. Into my chest.
"That was always the plan."
"Not a plan. A fact." Her finger moved to a bruise. Traced it. Moved to the next. "These are mine. The bruises. The bite. All of it. You got them for me. They're mine."
"Okay."
"And this." She put her hand flat on my chest. Over my heart. Her spot. The one she'd claimed at the wall. "This is mine."
"It's yours."
She was quiet for a minute. Her finger still tracing. Then she turned her head. Bit my shoulder. Hard. Not the bitten side. The other one. Her teeth sank in and I hissed and she didn't let go until she'd left a mark. Clear. Visible. Teeth-shaped.
She inspected her work. Satisfied.
"Binding agreement," she said.
She knew. She knew she'd stolen Nojiko's line. Her eyes flickered to mine. Checking for the reaction. The corner of her mouth. The canine tooth.
"Binding agreement," I said.
She grinned. Put her head back on my chest. Her hand over my heart. Her leg thrown over mine, possessive even in exhaustion. She was asleep in three minutes.
I lay there. Her weight on me. Her breathing evening out. The bite mark on my shoulder throbbing. Nojiko's stitching on the other side. Two marks. Two women. The same shoulder.
Complicated. And I was looking forward to it.