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“Your acting is getting worse, Admiral.” Varian purrs between the jaunting calls of the crew above decks. Their shouts follow them down creaking steps, a fleeting triumph of another successful capture.
A hard tug on the shackles binding his wrists wrings a smile out of him. So her royal navy wants to play rough today? He has plenty of barbs in supply to slip under her skin.
With a shake of his wrists, the short length of chain jangles noisily between them.
She stops dead, and he nearly bumps into the purple finery of her uniform before she sharply turns on her heel. “Quiet.”
So easy. Really, she doesn’t have the temperament for captaining, but daddy’s money goes a long way he supposes.
Varian leans forward, and to her credit, she remains stiff as a board as he whispers: “Make me.”
“Gladly.”
There’s a painful squeak as a cage door turns on rusted hinges as he’s yanked sideways into the cell with more force than he thought her slim frame was capable of. He stumbles forward, bending over as momentum nearly carries him to the ground. Feisty.
But this isn’t their usual rendezvous point. Their alcove rests farther in the bowels of the ship, hidden from prying eyes and laden with marks of their trysts. And a private entrance to the captain’s quarters.
The moldering cell around him has none of the homey drapery of their nest.
“Like it?” Rapunzel chimes as she saunters in behind him. “It’s a view you’re going to be very familiar with.”
He looks around, as if pondering the fine details of a painting until he comes to face her with a soft clink of his chains. “Mmmm…but I’m easily bored. However will I keep myself entertained?”
Picking up his chain once more, there’s the barest whisper of a sigh as her eyes cast downward a moment, before flashing back to her determined grin. “I’m sure you’ll manage.”
He cocks his head. “Maybe I’ll spend my time tormenting my jailer.”
The grip on his steel reigns tightens as she leads him toward a dangling inset chain. They’ve toyed with the idea of restraints before, but this wasn’t quite the intensity he had expected from her. He’d be lying though if he said the thought didn’t send a sharp frisson straight to his gut.
“That seems unwise. They might withhold food and water,” she says evenly.
When she pushes on his hip, he rolls up into her palm as he grinds his back into the wall, encouraging her follow him. “Oh, but then they would miss out on all of my entertainment.”
That seems to pique her interest as she sinks in close, pushing his bound wrists above his head, connecting them to the loose chain. “Oh?”
“And I assure you, I am very fun, as my many reviews can attest.” He jerks his shackles, and satisfied with his confinement, Rapunzel ghosts her lips over his jawline as her hand slips under his maroon vest. Exploring the gaps between his layers, searching the pockets he’s never let her see. For once, she was the one doing the infiltration, and the patter of her fingertips sends shivers wherever she touches.
“Reviews?” she whispers over his skin as she follows his pulse. “Just how many cell block tangos have you been putting on?”
“As many as it takes to—oh,” Her hand snakes over his stomach, and then his alchemical belt and he squirms. “Careful Admiral. I’m still a dangerous pirate.”
“You think so?” Pop, pop, pop. His vest comes undone in quick succession as her other hand figures out the clasps.
“I know so,” he murmurs, pressing against her more fervently. Desperate for contact as he strains against his hold.
Readily she meets his demand and more, pinning him to wall with her hips with a suddenness that almost brings stars to his eyes. As he reels, he hears a quiet “Hmm, I wonder…” before he’s brought front and center as her plush lips meet his with an audible chu.
Before he can blink she’s already sliding the tip of her tongue over his bottom lip, motioning to deepen the kiss as she curls a fist into his collar. Her assertiveness gets a startled “Mmm!” out of him as his mouth slips open. In moments her tongue is tracing the ridges of the cavern, twisting around him.
They stay like that, locked together until she breaks it off just as suddenly, leaving him aching for more as she steps away from him.
He chuckles. “If chaining me up was all it took to get you to loosen up Admiral, then I would have suggested it—“
“Shut up.”
He blinks. “…excuse me?”
“You…you’re not in any position to be making demands.”
His smile crumbles as her furrowed brow refuses to falter. “I think we’re past the role play at this point Rap—“
“Do not use my name.” She shakes a little on that one and he finally takes a moment to really look at where they’ve ended up. He straightens as best he can in his binds—he’s lighter. Shaking his hips, his belt is gone, the familiar weight of his hidden knives and alchemy concoctions missing.
Son of a bitch.
Fixing his best glare at her, his face curdles into a snarl as he speaks. “I’ll yell. Day and night. Scream if I have to. They’ll all know.”
“They already do.”
“And they still choose to follow you?”
“The rocks are a bigger threat. They understand and…we’re friends.”
“And what are we, then?”
She bites her lip, white knuckling her hands around his confiscated weapons. “A dalliance.”
A dalliance. How noble. He spits, getting the taste of blue-blood propriety out of his mouth as she turns to leave.
The cell slams shut and Rapunzel makes short work of the lock before dropping into a brisk pace as her polished boots click down the hall and up the stairs.
“Fuck you.” He mutters as trap door shuts.