Chapter Text
Vasco climbed the steps to the silver district in haste.
The Admiral had at long last seen fit to award him with a loyalty mission; one that would reunite him with the sea and with his ship.
A bottle of the finest brandy he could afford hung heavy in his pocket and there was only one person on whom he could rely on to help him complete his mission and set the world to rights.
A flutter took hold of his heart as he approached her green door, the lantern above lit and swaying gently in the night breeze.
Of late, he had come to see this woman, this leader of men, this indomitable force with new eyes. De Sardet had woven herself into his life, into his thoughts with alarming speed… a speed that rivalled that of the strongest winds that would accompany a hurricane.
He had thought that he had made his affections abundantly clear in the last few weeks since she had helped him rediscover his identity. Lingering touches upon her arm, a fond smile shared over drinks, a brush of her hair behind her ear … but whether she was simply as virginal as all ladies are meant to be of her station … or whether she was truly just blind to his advances, he had yet to decipher.
He was by no means a virgin himself– the life of a Naut was one where you took your pleasure, your passion whenever the opportunity presented itself, as from one voyage to the next, you never knew if the sea would call to you and claim you to it’s depths.
These months ashore, at her side, fighting and bleeding and very nearly dying on more occasions than he would care to admit – a small spark had ignited within his heart, and he was determined to reveal it to the source and set his wishes aflame.
He would tell her tonight – that he wished for more between them. He would take it slow, the current would twist and turn no doubt, but he would never rush her, never sail on waters that threatened to smash them both against the rocks.
He knocked once, then again and when no one answered, a disappointed frown settled itself on his lips. He reached for the doorknob, the brass cool even through his gloves and the door swung open.
‘’De Sardet?’’ he questions softly, hoping to see that she had merely fallen asleep in front of the hearth again, as she was prone to do after a long day of meetings and court machinations.
No fire blazed in the corner, the room was dark and empty except for a faint flicker of a candle on the mantel piece, which threatened to die out a merest puff of air near it.
A thud draws his attention to the ceiling, and he immediately palms his pistol.
He was no fool and knew that De Sardet could handle herself if she was danger; after all she had bested him on more than occasion when he had offered to spar with her.
To this day, his pride still stung upon revisiting those memories.
He makes his way towards the stairs but hesitates as he catches sight of his muddy boots; if she was indeed perfectly safe, she would not thank him for stepping black sludge into the finely woven, red plush carpets leading to her private chambers.
He removes them silently, all the while straining to listen for further sounds, any noises of distress or calls for aid, but he hears only the thrumming of his heart in his ears.
Carefully and with as much stealth as his legs could muster, he ascends the staircase, back trailing the wall, pistol in hand.
‘’Oh, devil take you!’’ He hears her spit, and a smile lifts the corner of his mouth. He knows this tone – one of sheer frustration, one she has directed towards him on many occasion.
‘’You cannot be serious, Lottie.’’ A man growls and Vasco hisses quietly beneath his breath, wondering who would dare enter her bedchambers at this time of night.
‘’Constantin, we’ve been over this.’’ A sigh flows from her lips and Vasco pauses as he hears her cousin growl in response.
‘’You would marry this man, this … this… pretentious, good-for-nothing bastard put forward by my father?!’’ he seethes and from the doorway Vasco freezes, the sudden urgency to announce his presence being stalled by the feeling of his heart hitting the floor.
‘’You know I have no choice. It is my duty, Constantin.’’
From the door which stands an arms width ajar, Vasco can see how the two circle one another at the far end of the room, the letters on her desk behind them in disarray, as if someone had thrown them down with rage and no concern as to where they landed.
Constantin was dressed in court finery as per usual, his doublet pristine, golden buttons shimming in the candlelight of the room, blonde hair and blue eyes magnifying the rage on his face as he waved a letter in De Sardets face.
‘’Do not utter that line Little Lottie, you have used it to the point of the words holding no meaning for me anymore. Duty be damned. I will not allow this!’’
‘’You speak as if though you have the power to stop it, Constantin. The power to go against your father, the King of Serene!’’
‘’I will not let you marry someone so far beneath you that he isn’t even worthy enough to lick the mud from your boots.’’
Vasco tuned to lean back against the wall, heart hammering in chest, eyes closed tightly against the thoughts that circled his head at the announcement that she was soon to be wed. He knew he was violating her trust, imposing himself on her private conversations - but he could not find it in himself to leave.
‘’And who is worthy then, dear, sweet cousin?’’ she snaps waspishly, and Vasco hears more of her letters fall to the floor, another thud which causes him to round the corner cautiously and witness something he couldn’t fully comprehend, despite seeing it with his own eyes.
De Sardet, the women he wished to call his tempest, had been backed into her desk and was now deeply and passionately being embraced by her cousin, the Prince D’Orsay.
Who seemed utterly intent on stealing every one of her breaths away with each movement of his lips upon hers.
‘’No. No one will ever be worthy of you. No one, except me.’’ The prince snarls quietly into her mouth, sucking on her lower lip and Vasco’s toes curl as he listens to De Sardet’s aroused whimper.
‘’Stop it, Constantin. We’ve… we’ve refrained from this… from …’’
‘’You mean we’ve suffered, and pined, and tormented ourselves for the last five years since we were nearly discovered as children. There is no one to catch us by surprise this time, Little Lottie.’’ Constantin roughly pulls her towards him, her legs parting and his tall, towering frame keeps her trapped between them as she is lifted and seated on the wood that creaks ominously under her weight.
Vasco is reeling – his thoughts shattered beyond repair as he continues to watch how his Tempest fists her fingers into the golden locks at the back of the prince’s head, how she presses even closer, her fingertips running down over his chest. The princes own large hand skims her thigh as he manoeuvres her short slip further up to her hips and her gasp is enough to turn Vasco’s cock rock hard instantaneously.
The prince leans his forehead against the woman he has trapped on the desk, his seeking fingers disappearing between her legs.
‘’I will never give you up, Lottie. Never. You are the one person in this world who I would turn it all to ash for. You cannot leave me.’’
Vasco is enraptured by the vision of the prince’s wrist thrusting in timely movements, how her head falls back and the two share heavy breaths as their mouths hover over one another, hot and wet with want.
De Sardet whimpers, groans and stutters through each movement and Vasco hears the familiar sounds of a woman slick with arousal, the squelch of lubrication smeared over long and insistent fingers, the heady musk suddenly filling the air on the night’s breeze from the open window behind them, travelling towards him at speed and the scent assaults his senses.
He should leave.
He should leave and return to the tavern and soak himself in enough ale to burn these images from his mind forever.
And yet…
Vasco hears the sound of a bodice being ripped and he sucks in a silent, sharp breath as her chest is exposed. Angular collarbones, a divot between her breasts, swells of roundness and hardened nipples which peaked in the cold of the night air and even more so when Constantin bends his head to run a circular swipe of his tongue over each excited nub.
‘’Oh, dear sweet cousin, I have missed the taste of you, the scent of you… the noises you make.’’
Vasco observes the swift movements of the prince’s doublet being discarded, the blatant disregard for how the golden buttons pop and scatter over the floor in his haste to remove it.
The Naut was no stranger to dalliances with men, having never had any singular interest in either sex, preferring them both equally. As his gaze travelled over Constantins form he was reluctant to admit that this man cast a spectacular figure.
Lean and lithe toned muscle from his chest to his back, slim hips with powerful thighs and standing to attention in his breeches, the man’s cock which would occasionally pulse as he continued to lave and suck on the woman’s breasts before him.
‘’Constantin… we cannot… it’s not right… you know this.’’ De Sardet moans but her half-hearted attempt to stop him simply makes the prince smirk against the flesh of her breast as he bites down, a red welt of teeth marks being left behind.
‘’So you have said since our summer shared so long ago. You were but sixteen the first time you confessed your feelings for me. Do you remember? Do you remember how you came to me in the dead of night, stole into my bed and whispered to me of your hopes and dreams for our future.’’
De Sardet growls sharply as she grabs her cousin by the collar, their mouths meeting harshly, tongue and teeth warring against each other.
‘’I remember, and I have relived those moments every day of my life. I also remember how you welcomed every warm body into bed with you, thereafter.’’ She pushes roughly against his chest with a sneer and the prince chuckles.
‘’Jealous, my fair cousin?’’ he grabs her wrists and pins them behind her, her breasts jutting out with each laboured breath in her anger.
‘’Do not flatter yourself.’’ She seethes but he releases his hold on her to remove his shirt, a flash of golden threads on his chest revealing themselves to Vasco, who swallows hungrily at the sight from the doorway.
‘’I know the sting of jealousy, Little Lottie. Do you think I haven’t noticed the eyes of every man linger upon you? Debauched thoughts loud enough to deafen any who are attuned to it? I would kill them all in an instant if I knew I didn’t have your heart.’’ He mutters somewhat petulantly and De Sardet scoffs but hastily retrieves the sound back into her lungs, as she is lifted by her thighs with rough hands and turned to face the window.
Vasco feels the heavy hanging weight of his own cock begging for release, begging for any sort of touch or a mere whisper of friction, and his hand drops without his permission as he continues to watch.
His Tempest is bent over her desk, long dark locks hanging over her left shoulder as her nipples brush the coarse pages of correspondence beneath her.
‘’No one has ever compared to you. To your warmth, to the way your cunt tightens around my cock when you find your pleasure. No one makes the sounds you do, breathes my name as you do when I fuck them, Little Lottie. No one but you will do.’’
Vasco stifles a moan with a fist, the other rubbing himself harshly through the many layers beneath his coat - as Constantin unclasps the latches of his breeches, his long and thick cock protruding, glistening and rising to his navel in need.
The sounds of her panting breaths as she looked over her shoulder, the way her eyes widened then shuttered half-way closed with lust - was almost enough to make the Naut spill himself into the material of his own underthing’s - but he pinches the head of his cock, desperate for this sweet torture to continue.
He wants to see more of her, he wants to learn every curve of her body before the night was through – now that he knew he had no hope in claiming her for himself.
‘’Tell me, Lottie, tell me….’’ Constantin whispers seductively into the shell of her ear, her rounded cheeks suddenly exposed to the room as her nightdress is bunched around her stomach with a firm hand.
A swipe of Constantin’s cock between her cheeks, the head shimmering as he leaked a teardrop of excitement over her creamy smooth skin – Vasco bit his finger, and the taste of blood filled his mouth.
‘’No.’’ De Sardet breathed firmly, her backside pushing against her cousins’ hips, her legs parting to make room for him.
‘’Tell me.’’ Constantin snarled, his long arm snaking round to her front and the legate cried out as her clit was roughly stroked, the head of his cock a hairs breadth away from entering her.
‘’I – ‘’ De Sardet reaches back, arms high in the air as she encircles his neck, the princes head lowering automatically - as if though this were a dance they have experienced together many times before - he captures her mouth in a messy, slick kiss.
‘’I love you, Constantin.’’ Her broken, pained admission tears away the last shreds of her resolve, and Vasco forgets to breath as the prince roughly thrusts inside her with a roar of approval, his hand on her throat, the other holding her close to his chest around her waist.
Constantin fucks her – in the way a man dying of thirst gulps greedily at the feel of rain on his tongue, in the way that air is breathed after being submerged for just that moment more than intended beneath the waves; the slapping of their flesh against each other ricochets around the room and Vasco is close to losing his mind at the sounds and sights before him.
‘’Do not spill your seed inside me, C-cousin… ‘’ she warns her prince as he bites down sharply into the crook of his neck, his breathing laboured, chest heaving and hips snapping against her.
‘’You never let me, even back then.’’ he groans almost pathetically but the words end with muffled laughter as he continues to rut into her, the feel of her no doubt robbing him of his senses, and Vasco has a fleeting thought of how he would be hard pressed to form full sentences, were he buried balls deep inside of this woman.
‘’F-For good reason, cousin.’’
‘’Do you not want to feel me, Lottie, s-spend myself inside of you, f-fill you up? I dream of doing so, so hard, so d-deep that you will drip with my desire … ah Gods! … for days down those delectable thighs of yours.’’ He pants in her ear and his hand grips the back of her neck before pushing her forwards, the rhythmic fucking causing the desk to bang loudly against the wall.
‘’Don’t you dare, Constantin.’’ De Sardet threatens as she attempts to dislodge herself, but her cousin lowers himself, arms encircling her hips, his chest trapping her to the table.
‘’I love you, Elisabet.’’ He whimpers and De Sardet ceases her struggle, removing one of his hands around her waist and kissing the calloused skin of his palm.
Vasco cannot tear his eyes away from the sight of how the muscles in the princes back pulled taut, the sudden stillness of his body, the awed, blissful look of pleasure that transformed his features as he emptied himself inside of his lover for the first time.
The Nauts release is violent, pulsing, shooting in spasmodic rhythms for the length of three heart beats - and when he finally deigns to draw breath again – he knows he has never experienced anything similar to this heady sensation nor will he ever again.
‘’I will never allow you to marry - my dear, sweet, beautiful cousin.’’ Constantin kisses his way down each knob of her spine before pulling out, the sound obscenely wet and uncivilized.
‘’Nor I you.’’ she promises, and the words pull a radiant smile from the prince behind her before she turns and pulls him back into her embrace.
Vasco slips quietly back down the stairs, retrieves his boots, and shuts the door softly behind him.
He stands before the same green door as he did a mere hour or so ago and his entire life, his vision of the future had changed. He laughs softly to himself as he espies a hole in his sock, his leather worn and beaten boots yet to adorn his feet.
He pulls his tricorne down firmly, the brim of his hat concealing his eyes from the odd few stragglers of the night, who had paused in their ministrations to watch the Naut wiggling his toes in front of the Legates abode.
He was glad of the chance to witness this tonight…glad that he had not turned his heart over to a mistress who was more tumultuous and dangerous than the sea.
Heading to the port, boots swinging in hand, he whistled a shanty to keep him company for the night, the sounds of his former tempest’s moans disappearing on the wind beneath the notes of the sea