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Ed rubbed the soft fabric of the blanket between his fingers as he watched Stede from the chaise. Their reconciliation was still fresh and a little raw, at least on Ed’s side, and he had been worried sick that he would have gotten Stede back just to lose him during the raid that Stede had idiotically insisted on captaining on his own. But back Stede was yet again, practically glowing with the success of his raid and the newfound confidence that Ed had to admit was pretty damn alluring.
What had Ed worried now, though, was that Stede was at the bookcases. Because part of the loot for the day had been books.
Stede had assured him that they had been acquired after the main loot had been taken care of, but Ed hadn’t given a flying fuck about that. Certainly not compared to the cringing anticipation of Stede finally telling Ed off for having thrown out his beloved collection. The emptiness of the ship when Stede returned had yet to be addressed and Ed had been half-waiting for the other shoe to drop the whole time. But it’d been nearly an hour since he had gifted Ed the blanket, he was finishing up placing the books in the center shelf to the left of the equally empty fireplace, and he hadn’t said a single word besides the “for you, my dear,” when he draped the blanket over Ed’s shoulders and the recounting of how well the crew had done during the raid. If Stede was going to chew him out or use passive aggression or fucking stab him or whatever for throwing all his shit out, Ed really wished he’d get on with it already.
Actually, y’know what, fuck it.
He carefully folded the blanket, set it down, and stood.
“I’m sorry.”
Stede cut off his chattering and glanced back while shifting the last book on the shelf. “Hmm?”
Shit, he had to say it again? “I’m sorry. For throwing them all out.”
“Oh, that? No worries, mate,” Stede said, as chipper as Ed had ever heard him. He stepped back and put his hands on his hips, admiring his meager bounty. “Just means that now I’ll have earned them all myself. Plus, now they’re treasure, like the orange we found.”
A good five pounds of weight lifted off Ed. He should have known. Stede finally turned around fully towards Ed, his face aglow with an eagerness that was one of Ed’s favorite things about him. The man was a fucking sun sometimes.
“That reminds me! I’ve been meaning to ask if you’d like me to teach you how to read and write.”
Ed’s breath caught and he blinked in surprise. No one had ever—
“No pressure, of course. But there’s plenty room now if you wanted to start your own library.”
His face was warm. Shit, all of him was warm. He wasn’t even wearing the blanket anymore. Stede’s small smile grew as Ed strode towards him.
“Plus, Lucius said you were songwri—”
Ed cut him off with a kiss—something still very new to them but that Ed knew without a shadow of a doubt he would never tire of. Especially if Stede kept making little noises like every time was a surprise gift.
One thing to be said of Stede’s newly plain wardrobe, besides how it showed off how solid Stede actually was: it made it much easier to get to skin. Stede let out an adorable little gasp when Ed hitched his shirt up to pull it off before tucking close for another kiss. Decades-old callouses meant that he couldn’t discern much as he ran his hands across Stede’s bare skin besides warmth, but he could feel the raised scars, one from Stede being gullible as fuck, the other from being clever as shit and besting Izzy yet again in swordplay.
Stede was so clever and stupid and well-read and earnest and kind and fucking forgiving—
Ed broke away with a quick peck and took in Stede’s flushed, pleased expression as Ed pressed him back against the bookcase.
“I’m going to suck you now.” Stede’s brow knitted. Shit. Gentlemen probably ask. “If that’s okay,” Ed backtracked.
“I’m sure it’s fine. Just, uh, what exactly is it you’re going to suck?”
So clever and so, so stupid. Being at gunpoint wouldn’t have been able to keep Ed’s grin at bay.
“Why don’t I show you?”
Stede watched Ed lower to his knees with an adorably confused expression that flipped to shock when Ed reached for the tie of his breeches.
“Oh my God. Really?”
“Why are you whispering?”
“I just—are you sure?”
“Absolutely. Never been more sure in my life.”
Getting Stede’s breeches down around his thighs revealed some of the palest skin Ed had ever seen. If Stede was indeed branching out from his gentleman ways, Ed was going to talk him into naked swimming and sunbathing like common folk at the earliest opportunity. Then again, too much sun might detract from the charming contrast of pale hips and legs with brown curls and pink-flushed prick.
Ed fit his right thumb against one of Stede’s scars as he pinned him against the bookshelf to keep him still. With his left, he cradled Stede sack as he leaned in to kiss along the stiffening shaft. Stede’s stomach shuddered under Ed’s hold to accompany his whine. He smelled of the usual sweat and musk, albeit much less offensively than anyone else Ed had done this with. And no one had had that lovely whiff of lavender.
It was surprisingly easy to take his time and be gentle. He had worried he would resort to being rough and hurried like he had with past partners, but every sense was filled with the undeniable awareness that this was Stede. No one had smelled like this, tasted so clean, sounded so sweet and startled, trembled in his hold.
A thick book thumping down next to Ed drew his attention up for the first time since starting. Stede had an arm out bracing himself against the shelf with his recent gains and another book was being precariously nudged towards the edge. Stede’s face, meanwhile, was tilted towards the ceiling, his other hand clasped over his mouth. Well no wonder he was so quiet. Ed was not putting this much effort into this to be cheated out of hearing the results. But given the earlier whispering, even without the hand, Stede would be holding back as much as possible. Ed glanced down at the book again. Well there was an idea. Hopefully if the book was worth looting, it was at least somewhat interesting. Ed pulled back and grabbed the book.
“Here.”
Stede’s eyes were glassy and unfocused when he looked down and Ed waited impatiently as he blinked away the daze.
“What?”
Ed waved the book. “Take it.”
“O-okay.” Stede held it against his chest like a pillow. “Do you...want to move off the floor? Your knee—”
A bit more ache than usual and the bite of buckle into his shin was a more than fair trade to make sure Stede couldn’t derail them if they moved. “No, here’s good. Here’s great. Read.”
That cute little confused expression again.
“Huh?”
“It’s not a manual or a kid’s story or something, is it?”
Stede’s eyebrows shot up and he looked at the spine. “Um, no, it’s—”
“Then read it. Aloud. Best you can.”
“As in do the voi—ah, fuck!”
Ed chuckled around his mouthful and watched Stede’s knuckles turn white with his grip on the book. There it was. It took Ed nudging the book again before Stede shakily opened it. Ed settled back in once he heard pages being flipped and closed his eyes to better take in the sensation of Stede on his tongue, against the soft parts of his mouth, the heavy breathing trying to steady out for speaking.
“A-and yet I wish but for the thing I—oh, God—the thing I have: My… my bounty—ah, fuck!”
The way he was reading made it sound like poetry. Or a script. Who made a giant fucking book of scripts? Who read a giant fucking book of scripts?
“My bounty is as—as boundless as the sssssea! M-my love as deep—”
The page-turning beforehand—Stede had fucking looked for this. Knew exactly what he was reading. Holy shit. Goddamn love poetry during a blowjob, the nerdy fucking sap.
“The more I give t-to thee, the more I—”
Ed pushed Stede firmer against the bookshelves to steady him, sucked him as deep and hard as he could, and hummed.
The cry he got in response was more rewarding than any loot.
“F-fuck, Ed, I’m about to—to climax!”
And how was Ed not supposed to laugh at hearing such fucking proper language? Happily, that seemed to push Stede right over the edge. Not so happily, just as the first spurt of jizz coated the back of Ed’s tongue, a corner of the heavy-as-fuck book fell smack into the edge of his shoulder, hitting the joint head on. It was a goddamn miracle Ed managed to not bite down with his flinch.
“Fuck! Sorry!”
Ed didn’t know whether it was impressive or insulting that Stede was coherent enough to apologize while still finishing out his load. He gave it another moment before swallowing and pulling away to rub at the new ache.
Ed cleared his throat and rasped, “You’re lucky that didn’t end in tragedy, mate.”
Stede frowned as he pulled his breeches back up, more’s the pity. He leaned forward to lift up Ed’s barely-there purple sleeve and check the invisible damage.
“The book’s not that heavy. It’s not even a complete volume of The Bard’s works.”
Christ, that whole book was one person?
“I meant I could have accidentally bitten you.”
There was a beat of silence and Ed looked up to see Stede looking almost as white as when they’d first met and he’d bled out recently. Almost as pale as his naked legs.
“Oh.”
“Just be more careful from now on, alright? I’ve a feeling Roach isn’t as good at sewing things back on as he is chopping them off.”
“Ed, stop talking.”
He had to laugh again at the thready quality of the command. Still a little squeamish, huh?
“So you don’t want to hear about this one time Fang—”
Hmm. Turned out he didn’t mind being the one cut off with a kiss.