To Save a Fallen Angel (The Fallen Angels series Book 2)

by Julianna Hughes

  She sighed against his lips, tilted her head, and opened her mouth. His tongue darted in, and he growled at the taste of her. Luc broke the contact and gazed once again into her fascinating eyes.

  “You have bewitched me,” he whispered.

  She grinned at him. “Then you’ve cast a spell over me as well.”

  She softly drew a line from his cheek to his chest, leaving a trail of burning flesh behind. Luc caught her hand when she reached his nipple and pressed her hand against his skin.

  “Ticklish?” she giggled against his lips.

  He smiled and shook his head, rubbing his lips over hers. “It felt too good. And I want this to last a little longer than our first time.”

  Peggy smiled back as she pulled her hand free. “So do I,” she whispered and sealed their lips together. Her tongue darted in this time and played with his.

  Luc’s body was aflame, burning so hot he feared he would incinerate her. But Peggy was no delicate rose. She had proven that over and over. Her heat matched his, and if they combusted, they would go up in flames together.

  He broke the kiss again, only this time Luc kissed her chin, and then nibbled once before charting a course lower, kissing and nibbling as he made his way down her neck to her collarbone. He played with the hollow of her neck, sucking and licking till she moaned deeply in her throat.

  He laughed with pure male pride, then resumed his trek down her chest to the fullness of her breasts. She arched her back, pressing them firmly against his lips. Silently begging him for more of the torture.

  And he gave it to her, settling his lips over one engorged nipple. He sucked it into his mouth, and swirled his tongue around it, then flicked it. A groan rumbled from her chest, and she cried out, “Luc.”

  Peggy was on fire. Her whole body teemed with desire, wanting. She needed Luc closer. Inside of her. She clutched him to her, groaning and pressing her breast into his mouth as he suckled her nipple. She had never experienced anything like this before.

  Their first coupling had been frantic, wild. There hadn’t been time for such explorations. Such pleasures. And she wanted more. Peggy wanted to feel every tantalizing, sensual sensation Luc was gifting her with.

  He sucked her nipple deep into his mouth, then released it as he ringed her nipple with his tongue. His mouth burned a path from her left breast to her right. Peggy mourned the loss, until his fingers replaced his lips, and he pinched her nipple, sending her skyward. She didn’t think she could take much more, but then his lips found her other nipple, and began to suckle it as his hand played a tune with the first one.

  Peggy’s whole body vibrated with desire, with longing, with a need so deep and consuming that she could not get close enough to the pleasure he was giving.

  “Luc!” she cried, begging for the deep release she had felt in his arms last night. “Please! Oh my God, Luc, please.”

  His lips left her breast and worked their way back up her chest, to her neck, and finally to her lips. He sealed their mouths together, playing with hers as he shifted away.

  “Luc?” she asked when he broke the kiss and rolled away from her.

  “I know, sweetheart, I know,” he said and his hand worked at the row of buttons on the placket of his pants.

  Her trembling fingers joined his. His hands were quivering as much as hers, and she smiled up into his beautiful blue eyes. Together they got enough of the buttons free that he could shimmy out of his pants.

  He joined her back on the bed and covered her with his body. The fire that had cooled but a degree or two while they worked to free him of his pants reignited to a full furnace of desire.

  He kissed her lips, her nose, and finally her eyes as he slid his legs over hers. She spread hers and welcomed him into the cradle of her legs, then wrapped them around his flanks. She squeezed and he resisted.

  “Luc,” she begged once again.

  He was breathing laboriously above her. Peggy opened her eyes and gazed into his.

  “I’m . . . I’m trying . . . I’m trying to go slow this time,” he stammered.

  “Next time,” she growled. “Next time we can . . . go slow,” she said and arched her hips upward, toward his straining cock. “We’ll go slow next time.”

  The evening sun was setting when Peggy felt Luc stir beside her. She opened her eyes and gazed into his. He smiled, and she began to laugh.

  “Hopefully we can do it better the next time,” he said and smiled in such a way that she felt warmed from the inside out.

  She laughed then said, “I thought we did it pretty good this time.”

  He laughed and she cuddled up next to him, cocooned by the warmth of his body. He pulled her around and settled her bottom against his groin. Spooned together as they were, she wondered if he wanted to make love to her again because her desire was once again beginning to flicker to life.

  Then he tucked her head under his chin and doused her budding desire. “We need to talk,” he said softly, his words vibrating through her head and piercing her heart.

  They did need to talk. Sacrificing an unknown stranger so she could have revenge against her father had made sense in England. But now that she knew Lucien Stoughton, sacrificing his life for her revenge was no longer something she could do. Especially now that they were married and she was fairly sure she was in love with him.

  “I know things are done differently on a pirate ship than they are done on a Royal Navy one, but how is it that you can go from being captain one minute and not the next?” he asked.

  It wasn’t the question she thought he was going to ask and was relieved by the reprieve. She huffed and shook her head, rejoicing in the feel of his strong, sure chin against her.

  “Pirate captains don’t buy their position like they do in the army. Or necessarily work their way up through the ranks to become a captain of a pirate ship. For the most part they are elected in a kind of vote by the members of the crew.”

  Peggy tried to turn her head so she could see him, but he gently turned her back around.

  “I gathered as much from what you told me when I first boarded the Coral Sea,” he replied, then asked. “But how is it that you’re the captain one day, and Joc is the next? I would think changing captains that often would cause chaos, even on a pirate’s ship.”

  Peggy felt a little deflated and like a failure. Despite not really wanting the job in the first place, she felt like she had let her papa and Eddie down by not earning the trust of the men. It was a little humiliating. No, it was very humiliating to know that she had lost the trust and support of the crew – the men she had more or less worked alongside of for the last eleven years.

  “Like I told you when you snuck on board my ship, pirates usually choose their captain by a kind of informal vote. And it is not like what most landlubbers think. It is not always the meanest, cruelest, strongest, or even the most experienced. Although, they do prefer someone who knows how to sail a ship.”

  He smiled and tweaked her nose, letting her know that he had got the joke about his abilities.

  She smiled back and then continued, “Pirate ships are a kind of floatin’ democracy. And a business enterprise, workin’ for the betterment of the crew. So most ships choose the man, or woman that can bring them the most booty.”

  He was silent for a several heartbeats, then asked, “Is that how you were made captain?”

  She snorted and shook her head. “Not entirely. My uncle Eddie wanted me to be the next captain and everyone knew it. He trained me to take over for him some day. And after he was murdered. . . ”

  Peggy choked. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “After he was murdered, Joc convinced the crew I was the best man for the job.” She took a deep breath and exhaled.

  “How’d he do that,” he asked then quickly added. “Not that you’re not the best man for the job. But why were you the best man for the job, and now you’re not?”

  Peggy took a big breath. She laughed and looked up at the ceiling. “I have a particu
lar skill set that is unique among the crew. And the Coral Sea isn’t your typical pirate ship. Or at least it hasn’t been for the last eight years. Not since my uncle Eddie was made her captain.”

  “Oh?” he asked.

  She smiled in memory of the first three years on board the Coral Sea. “You know that Uncle Eddie wasn’t the first Captain Peri?” she asked.

  He nodded his head against the top of her head.

  “Do you know how he ended up on the Coral Sea? How the three of us, Uncle Eddie, Joc, and I, came to be on the Coral Sea?”

  “No,” he said slowly. “I guess I never gave it much thought. I was told that your uncle wanted to be a gentleman pirate. I just assumed that since he worked for Sir Walter, it was somehow arranged through him.” He laughed. “Which I now know is not how things are done.”

  She shook her head and laughed. “Nooo, Sir Walter had nothing to do with how my uncle became Captain Peri.”

  He leaned around and looked at her. “I thought he created the Captain Peri persona for your uncle?”

  She looked up and gazed into his bright blue eyes. She loved looking at him like this. But it was distracting her, so she turned back around and settled more firmly into the cradle of his lap.

  “He did. And he didn’t,” she said. He shifted behind her. “What did Sir Walter tell you about the first Captain Peri?”

  “Not much,” he replied.

  She laughed. “Did he tell you that the first Peri was a woman?”

  He startled and she felt him lean over again. Peggy didn’t glance up this time, so she wouldn’t be distracted.

  “We never learned her real name, as she was already using the Captain Peri name by the time we met her. But she was a Scottish noblewoman who had been captured by Barbary pirates some years before. She lived in some sultan’s harem for about five years, until she escaped by stealing one of her master’s ships. Unwilling to go home, she began a life as a pirate. A very successful pirate until she was captured again. But this time by Sir Walter.”

  Luc settled behind her and nodded, quietly telling her to go on.

  “Anyway, a few years later, in 1801, we ran into her while fleeing Abukir when the British invaded to drive out Napoleon. A day out of Abukir our ship was attacked by the Coral Sea and Captain Peri.”

  “How old were you?” he asked.

  “Ten,” she answered as memories of her life before that day swam in her head.

  “Then you weren’t raised on a ship your whole life?”

  She could hear the confusion in his voice. Most people just assumed she had spent her whole life on a pirate ship. “No. The first eight years of my life were like most well-bred English ladies. My uncle has an estate in Cornwall. And another in Wales and one in Scotland. So, my early life was no different than most of the English gently-born women.”

  He sat and then pulled her up to sit between his legs while still cradling her in his arms.

  “What made your uncle decide to become a pirate?” he asked and she glanced over her shoulder and scowled. “A gentleman pirate,” he corrected.

  Peggy glared then turned around and scooted back until he grunted in pain. “Quit,” he snapped, then asked again, “what happened? Why did your uncle leave everything behind to become a privateer for King and Country?”

  She hesitated and took a breath. “He didn’t. Not at first.” She fidgeted until he clapped his hands on her hips and held her in place. Peggy took a breath and blew it out. “My uncle Eddie has a problem with gambling.” She glanced over her shoulder then looked away. “He had a problem with gambling,” she clarified. “And he lost everything that wasn’t entailed. Of course, I was too young to understand that at the time, but eventually Joc told me why we had to leave our home. They sold everything that wasn’t entailed and. . .”

  When she hesitated, Luc finished for her. “He took off to avoid the creditors.”

  Peggy nodded. “He has since paid off all his debts, and even bought back some of the properties he had to sell.”

  “From the money he earned as a pirate,” he guessed.

  Peggy shrugged as if she didn’t know, when in fact she had been the one to handle most of the transactions. Being good with finances was just another one of her unique abilities.

  “Anyway,” she said harshly, “we left England and traveled for two years. When I was ten, we went to Egypt because Uncle wanted to see the pyramids. And we had stopped in Abukir in March. Just days before Sir Ralph Abercomby landed with five thousand troops. The rest you can guess. Peri overtook our ship a day out of Abukir. When she threatened Uncle Eddie, I picked up one of the sailor’s cutlasses and challenged her to a fight.”

  Luc snorted. “I can well believe that.”

  She glanced over her shoulder and glared. “Apparently she liked my spirit and decided I would make a good apprentice. So she took, me, Eddie, and Joc under her wing, and began trainin’ us to be pirates. And to one day take her place as Captain Peri.”

  “And did you want to be the next Captain Peri?” he asked.

  Peggy hesitated. She started to tell him the same lie she had been telling her uncle and Joc for the last ten years. But she wasn’t trying to prove something to him. And Peggy didn’t want to continue the lie any longer.

  “No,” she whispered. “I loved all the excitement and intrigue of being a bloodthirsty pirate. But the truth is, what I did most of the time was sneak into places to steal military secrets and money from people while we were in port. Lady Peri ran away from her family when she was younger and became an actor. She taught me how to disguise myself as anyone. I’ve played an old beggar woman, a noblewoman, a man, and dozens of other parts, both in English and French. So I’m not so much a pirate as a damn good thief. And that is why I was made Captain Peri after my uncle’s murder. I’ve stolen more booty by stealth and theft than Lady Peri won by piracy. So the men didn’t choose me as captain for my skill as a pirate. They did so because I have made them wealthy men by my unique skills as a thief.”

  Chapter 28

  Peggy knew Luc wasn’t through asking questions. But he didn’t get a chance as the watch began beating to quarters.

  “Bloody ‘ell,” Peggy snapped. “We’re in port.” So a call to arms could only mean one thing. Soldiers were approaching the ship from the quay.

  Heavy boots pounded down the companionway, and then through the wardroom. Both Peggy and Luc had sprung from the bed as soon as the bells began to clang and were mostly dressed by the time someone began pounding on the door.

  Luc gave her a questioning look, and then rushed to the door at her nod. He threw the bolt and then jerked the door open. Joc was standing there with an intense look on his face.

  “Soldiers from the British frigate docked across from us are approachin’ on the quay. A full squad of heavily armed men. We’ve beat to quarter, and the men are at the ready,” he told her, then turned and fixed Luc with a hard gaze.

  “Why you tellin’ me?” Luc asked. “Aren’t ye the captain now?”

  Joc gave him an exasperated looked, and Peggy filled in for him. “No, husband. By order of the English War Department, Viscount Melville with the High Admiralty, and your Sir Walter with your Home Office, you are the captain of the Coral Sea.”

  “Bloody ‘ell,” her husband hissed.

  “Time to start earnin’ yer pay, landlubber,” Joc said. “Yer dress uniform is in zee wardrobe, Captain Peri. Get dressed and come meet yer guest, afore yer men start shootin’ these English dogs.” He then turned to Peggy. “Ye too, little one,” he said in a softer tone. “Curtain’s goin’ up on this little play of yers.”

  With that Joc turned and headed back to the deck. “Luc, are you ready to be the captain of this ship?” she asked.

  “Not bleedin’ likely,” he said and then turned toward the wardrobe. “And why begin the ruse now? Before we reach Tripoli?”

  Peggy gave him an exasperated glare. “Spies,” she reminded him. “I would not put it past your Sir Wa
lter to have paid one of the men we were talkin’ about earlier to be on board, on his orders. To keep track of my Uncle Eddie, and now us. Nor would I put it past Chevalier to have a man on board.”

  He seemed to be thinking that over and then nodded. “One of the four men you don’t trust.”

  She smirked at him. “You’re learnin’ landlubber.”

  He began pulling out the dress uniform that had been made for him. She was grateful that he was cooperating with her plan.

  He threw her a look, then began changing. “Wouldn’t any spies on board already know that I’m not the captain of this ship?”

  She nodded then answered him when she saw that his head was stuck in the uniform’s blouse. “Yes. But those British soldiers won’t take the word of a disgruntled crewman over that of the ship’s captain. Especially, when the first mate and the owner of the ship are tellin’ them that you’re the captain. Which means you need to look the part. And proper clothes are usually the best first defense in any lie.” She walked over to her desk, pulled out one of the drawers, and removed a packet of documents. Peggy waited until he had his head clear and was once again facing her. She held up the papers and nodded at them.

  “And if our word, and your clothes are not good enough, then by order of the High Admiralty, you, Lord Lucien Stoughton, are promoted to the rank of captain, and given command of the HMS Coral Sea.”

  He stopped long enough to contemplate the papers in her hand. She could see he wanted to say more, but he just shook his head and continued dressing.

  “Then I suggest, Lady Margaret Stoughton, that you do as your papa ordered, and get dressed as well. Because I doubt very much I can pull this ruse off without you by my side.”

  In less time than she thought possible, they were climbing the stairs to the quarterdeck. And what greeted them was a formidable sight. From the looks of it, every able-bodied man was at their station, armed to the teeth, and primed for a fight.