The Prince's Groom (Pirates of Flaundia #2) Page 2

  He licked his palm and put it to work, pulling and tugging on Thomas’s balls. “You like this?”

  “Yes!”

  Martin covered his mouth with his own, licking Thom’s lips and pushing his tongue in deep, mimicking the sex act he couldn’t wait to do.

  “Hmm,” Thomas moaned and brushed his palm over Martin’s head.

  He squeezed the cock tighter. If only he had hair for the other man to pull on. But Thomas caressing his smooth head would make him come just as well if he had hair.

  “How about after we have our morning fuck, we head out to the lagoon and bathe for a bit? After, we can take one of the canoes out and fish?” He spread a palm on Thomas’s right biceps, thumbing his nipple until it grew into a hard nub.

  “C-can’t…must get ready to leave…for home.” He pulled Martin in closer.

  “What?” He stilled his hands, staring at the younger man in shock.

  Releasing a few pants, Thomas opened his eyes and cupped Martin’s cheek. A trickle of sweat landed on the tip of Thom’s nose. “It’s time I return to Flaundia. I’ve been away for far too long.”

  “I know, but things haven’t died down enough.”

  Thomas propped a pillow behind his back and sat up. “Perhaps not for Chelsey, but they have for me. I came along to make sure Daisy was settled. Which she is. No one knows about my part in Humphrey’s demise.”

  He snorted. Thomas had no love for the former Lord Draco Humphrey. Humphrey had once been engaged to Daisy and was Chelsey’s sworn enemy. He had planned to marry Daisy for her fortune since he had been near bankruptcy as a result of Chelsey’s plunder of Humphrey’s ships in a quest for revenge. Chelsey had never forgotten Humphrey had arranged the merciless murders of her mother and uncle.

  Good riddance to bad rubbish. Humphrey had gotten what he deserved when Chelsey slit his throat and threw him overboard to be eaten by sharks. After all, he’d threatened to rape Daisy and kill her.

  He fisted his hand as he remembered how Humphrey had planned to get rid of Thomas as well, in order to gain his estate.

  “A month is not long enough,” he growled. “How are you going to explain your disappearance?”

  Thomas studied his lap and quirked his lips, his cock still somewhat hard.

  “Thom! Stop thinkin’ with your cock and listen to me.”

  “Um, sorry, I wasn’t thinking about…well, ahem.” Thomas coughed in his hand. “Chelsey came up with a plan to say I was held for ransom, but had paid off the pirates, seeing as I have enough money at my disposal to appease them. She has arranged for an unmarked ship to take me to a port near Flaundia. I’ll go to the authorities there and tell them once the ransom was paid, I was set free by Captain Dread. My reputation will be no worse. Perhaps there will be a parade to welcome me home.” He shrugged.

  “Oh, boyo, this isn’t a joke.” Martin scowled and rose from the bed.

  Thomas followed him and crossed his arms over his chest. “There’s bound to be questions, but I can handle them. You don’t have to worry about me giving away Chelsey and Daisy’s whereabouts or even mentioning you. You’re free to do whatever you like.”

  Needle’s yarns! He ground his teeth and spoke a few more choice words. “I thought we would have more time—”

  “Time?” Thomas flung his hands forward, like he was flicking something off them, and then he reached for his pants. “We’ve run out of time. I have responsibilities at home and people counting on me. I can’t throw it all away to go off with a….”

  He grabbed Thomas by the arms and shook him. “With what? A low-down dirty pirate?”

  “Martin! Let me go.”

  He stepped away, leaving handprints on the paleness of Thomas’s arms.

  “I didn’t mean—”

  Thomas fastened his pants with shaking hands. “Please don’t apologize. It’s better if I just go. You’re in a state right now, and we’re not thinking correctly.”

  “The hell if you’re walking out on me.” He cupped the back of Thomas’s head, and instead of giving him a kiss full of demand and possession, he kept it soft.

  Thomas sighed and joined in the kiss. He wrapped his arms around Martin’s hips, and, when Martin backed him up to the bed, his mouth drifted to the center of Martin’s throat.

  The moment they’d met a few short weeks ago, after they helped Chelsey and Daisy start their new life together, he’d have to have this lofty gent under him. He’d wanted nothing more than to pump his meaty dick in “his highness’s” virgin ass. He’d become addicted to the taste of Thomas’s mouth, and the young man’s strapping cock and balls fit perfectly in his hand. He wanted to shout for joy that he, and no other man, could make Thomas find release with such enduring passion. With so many years of sexual experience behind him, all of his encounters with his past lovers combined didn’t compare with how Thomas made him feel. The idea he might lose the best lover he’d ever had made his throat tighten and his stomach knot.

  “Tell me one thing,” Thomas whispered as he fisted Martin’s cock.

  “Anything,” he said. Without thinking, he rocked in Thomas’s hand. His head tilted back as Thomas rubbed his thumb over his wet slit.

  “Your name.”

  “You know my name.” He kissed Thomas again.

  Breaking the kiss, Thomas brushed his mouth on his cheek. “No, your first name. The one you were given when you were born.”

  He quickly released Thomas, and then trembled as the man continued to work his dick in an adept way that had him nearly climaxing.

  “My name’s Martin. No one will ever know me by any other.”

  Thomas did something then that shocked him to his core. He slapped him hard on his torso. He almost fell to the floor, but righted himself and landed up against the wall. If Thomas had been any other man, he would have clocked him in the face.

  “See!” Thomas pointed, curling his lips. “You can’t even trust me enough to give me your first name. How do you expect me to go on the run with you and give up everything I’ve worked so hard for?”

  “Thom, you knew when you came to my bed—”

  “When I came to your bed?” Thomas’s eyes widened, and he laughed hollowly. “That’s rich. You mean that night you plied me with whiskey. That night when, after we played cards, you pressed me up against the wall and forced your hands down the front of my pants? When you made me come all over myself? I didn’t know I was jumping in your ‘bed’ when you laid me on the table and shoved your body on mine as you pulled down my pants. Or when you rubbed your dick in between my buttocks until I came again.”

  He shrugged and scratched his chest. “Sounds about right, not that you were complainin’ at the time.”

  “It’s not the point! I never came to your bed willingly. You forced me to—”

  He stomped over to Thomas and pointed his finger in his face this time. “Now wait right there, me bucko. I never forced you to do anything. I sure as hell didn’t rape your virgin ass.”

  Thomas pursed his lips, and his face became an alarming shade of red. He tried to wrap an arm around him, but Thomas pushed him away. He moved to the other side of the bed and held up his hands. “Who said I was a virgin? You just assumed I was,” he snarled.

  “I know you probably had a lady or two—”

  “I’ve never been with a lady, a woman, or even a whore. See, you never even thought to ask if you were my first time with a man. You thought I was some inexperienced lad, as you still think me to be. For all you know, I might have someone, another man who cares for me, waiting for me at home.”

  He ground his teeth as his stomach tightened with thoughts of his Thomas fucking…nay, loving, another man.

  “Is that true, your lordship?” he spat out.

  “If it is, it’s none of your concern.”

  “None of my concern! I’m makin’ it my concern!” He stomped over to Thomas. Before the man could open the bedroom door, Martin slammed his hand on the wood, making it vibrate.

  Thomas backed away, breathing heavily. All the fight went out of Martin when he saw the fear in his eyes.

  “Thom….” He held out his hand slowly, but Thomas shook his head and turned to the side, snubbing him.

  He scratched his head and scanned the room. The bed had been torn asunder, and clothes were lying everywhere, evidence of the long, hot, and heady hours where they couldn’t get enough kissing and touching as they brought one another to peak after peak. If Thomas left him, he would never have such an amazing encounter again.

  But Thomas was right. What more did he have to offer?

  He sat on the bed and bent forward with his elbows on his knees as he stared at his feet. “I apologize, Thomas, I didn’t mean to scare you or buster you around.”

  “Buster?” Thomas asked.

  “Buster…um, it’s my way of sayin’ I’ve backed you in a corner. You make me lose my head sometimes.” He snorted. “You’ve become quite forceful since I met you.”

  “That’s the first time anyone has ever said that about me. At least one thing that came out of our relationship is I’ve grown a set of ….”

  “Balls?” he chuckled weakly.

  “Yes, at least that, if nothing else.”

  Thomas rubbed his knuckles on his head, and Martin coughed, hiding a sudden tickle growing in his throat. “When do you expect to leave?”

  Thomas dropped his hand and glanced out the window. “Around midnight. Chelsey thinks it’s better if I abscond when it’s dark.”

  “But when, Thom?” He stressed the question as his lover picked up his shirt from the other side of the bed.

  “Tonight.”

  “Shite,” he said softly and stood as Thomas came back around. He reached out but took his hand back when Thomas arched his eyebrows at the action. “There’s nothing I can say or do to make you stay longer?”

  “Longer? How much longer do you expect me to stay? I can’t, Martin. I do need to go home. That is….”

  “That’s what?” He landed his hands on Thomas’s shoulders, giving them a squeeze.

  “You can work for me, and we can keep our relationship a—”

  “A what? I’d be your secret lover? Screw that. And anyway, I’m a wanted man in Flaundia. I can’t remain there with you. Even if I were free, there would be no way I would hide what we have from those polite society types you admire. I won’t be your shame.”

  Thomas folded his arms and sighed softly. His bleak look made Martin’s chest hurt. He backed away and went over to the window. He didn’t know what was worse. Thomas leaving him, or wanting him to come away with him and hide their feelings for one another because a group of small-minded people thought it was wrong.

  “You must know how difficult this is for me.”

  He shrugged instead of facing Thomas. “So, you’re going to leave just like that. After all we’ve been to one another.”

  “Unless you can come up with a better solution to our problem, then I don’t have any other choice.”

  He turned, but he held back from storming across the room and pulling the man into an embrace. The moment they kissed, he would have him on the bed and naked in no time. But it still wouldn’t change Thomas’s decision.

  “It appears we’re at a stalemate, my friend.”

  “Friend?” Thomas shook his head and studied the ceiling.

  “Yeah, even after everything that’s happened, I can still call you my friend, right?”

  “So, that’s all we are to one another?” Thomas tilted his head. When he didn’t respond, Thomas picked up his jacket off the floor, wiped it, and folded it over his arm.

  “What more do you want me to say?” Martin held out his hands. For the first time in a long time, he was at a loss as to what to do.

  “There’s nothing you can say. And if we keep talking like this, we’re just going to run in circles around the issue. I’ll take my leave of you now. I need to wash up before I go down to breakfast. I’m sure you’ll want to do the same.”

  Martin snorted. “You know I don’t sit down all gentle-like for meals. I prefer to eat outside and watch the waves roll in.”

  “Oh yes, how can I forget? Another big difference between you and me.”

  Thomas was almost out of the room before Martin called out, “Promise me you’ll see me before you leave?”

  He hated how needy he sounded. But if Thomas left without giving him that promise, he would be lost to him forever. Thomas shrugged and gave him a sad smile before he left, his answer.

  ***

  “Thomas, please take care!” Daisy hugged Thomas while the crew readied the ship to leave.

  When he lifted her off her feet in his embrace, she giggled and hooked her arms around his shoulders. He held her face-to-face, to memorize her because it would be a long time until they saw one another again.

  “I’ll miss you. I’ll make certain to write you every week to tell you all the gossip,” he promised and set Daisy down. He swept a blonde curl away from her cheek. When she stared at him with her radiant smile and love in her eyes, he had to blink back tears.

  “I’ll make certain my princess writes you.” Chelsey walked over and hugged Daisy from behind. The tanned, dark-haired woman smiled and bussed Daisy’s cheek.

  They’re so happy and in love, he thought as he searched for Martin in the murky darkness.

  “Martin’s been missing since this afternoon. He said something about going to the other end of the island for supplies,” Chelsey offered and gave him an understanding nod.

  “Oh really?” He couldn’t think of anything else to say. Both women gazed at him in sympathy, as if they knew about the argument hours before.

  Chelsey went to talk to some of her men, and Daisy took her brother’s hand. “How I wish you would stay here with us. But I know this way of life I’ve chosen isn’t for you, even though your love remains behind.”

  “My love? Whatever are you talking about?”

  “Martin. I know about you two.” She laid her cheek on his arm.

  He closed his eyes, enjoying his sister’s comfort. Memories of walking on the beach and talking with Martin flashed through his head. Followed by thoughts of all the late nights where they kissed until their mouths were raw and their cocks sore from the rubbing and stroking.

  “I’m surprised you aren’t shocked about my preference with…well, you know.” He hoped he wasn’t blushing. His face heated.

  She released him and fisted her arms on her hips, angry in her own adorable way. “Perhaps it has come as somewhat of a shock, but look at who I love and gave my life up to be with.”

  “You say the word love so freely. What you and Chelsey have together is indeed that. What Martin and I had was mutual lust and nothing more.”

  “Oh, Thomas.” She shook her head, reaching for his hand but then a loud whistle tooted.

  “All right, boys, it’s about time this vessel sets sail,” Chelsey shouted.

  “I take it that’s your cue to leave?” He encircled Daisy in his arms again.

  “Yes. I miss you already!” she sobbed into his neck.

  He held his beloved sister, with his cheek on top of her head, until another whistle sounded.

  “Go now, dearest Daisy, and enjoy your new life. One day soon, I hope to come back for a visit.” He released his little sister and smiled but couldn’t stop his lips from trembling and sheepishly wiped his nose with his sleeve.

  “I love you, my wonderful brother.” She gave him one last hug and then joined her wife.

  Chelsey raised a hand. “Take care, de Fleurre. You’re always welcome back. As long as you don’t bring the law with you.” She winked.

  He nodded and stepped back as the two ladies stepped down the gangplank to the dock.

  He walked to the back of the ship to wave at both women and some of the islanders as the ship left the port. Daisy cried, and Chelsey held her with her face nestled next to Daisy’s ear, likely whispering tender words of love.

  And here I am without tender words or goodbyes from the one I want most of all. He scanned the shoreline, and then up at the cliffs in the darkness, trying to spot Martin. Even though he couldn’t make out any faces, he continued to search for the one familiar face he so longed to see.

  As the ship sailed away, and the island grew smaller in the distance, he turned away from the rail and descended into his cabin where he clamped a trembling hand on his mouth to smother the cries trying to escape. Weak with emotion, he stumbled over to a chair and hugged himself as tears of regret streamed down his face.

  ***

  Clouds covered the light of the full moon as a breeze danced around Martin’s body. He watched from the highest point on the island, as a ship vanished from view. His body shook, but he refused to cry. Tears had never made anything better. He’d learned the lesson a long time ago when his house burned to the ground with his parents inside.

  Sometime later, when his legs locked from strain, he knelt and stared up at the night sky. A bird shrieked in the distance, convenient cover for his bellows of sorrow and rage until his voice grew hoarse. He eventually lay on the ground in grief. Hours later, when he found control again, he visited the nearest pub and proceeded to drink enough whiskey to ensure he would pass out, with no dreams of a handsome, blue-eyed man to haunt him.

  CHAPTER THREE

  One year later…

  “Have I overslept?”

  Thomas peered at the naked man in his bed. “Not at all. I just wanted to get an early start.”

  William Stephens, his personal secretary, stretched and sat up. The sheet pooled around his lap as he reached over to put on his gold-rimmed glasses. He viewed William’s actions warmly through his mirror as he finished shaving.

  William got out of bed naked and joined him. His arms came around from behind, and he kissed Thomas’s shoulder. “Good morning, Mr. de Fleurre.”

  He popped a mint leaf in his mouth and placed one on William’s tongue. Both men chewed together and when Thomas swallowed, he turned his head, pressing his lips on William’s soft ones.