by Pam Godwin
“None that I’m aware of.”
“One less thing to worry about.” I picked along a narrow path, quickly navigating around brush and low-hanging trees. “We’ll head toward the hamlet and—”
“You’re trying so hard to be the captain of this expedition. It’s adorable.”
“Don’t mock me, Ashley Cutler. I am a captain.”
“Yes, but I outrank you.”
I cut him an incisive glare, which he returned with a teasing glint in his eyes.
“As I was saying…” My lips twitched. “We’ll stop at the hamlet for food and rest then make our way north.”
“North?”
“Harbour Island. Look!” I pointed at a shallow creek. “Barely enough water to wet the stone bed, but if we follow it, we’ll find the source.”
In favor of drinking water, he didn’t pursue the topic of Harbour Island. Three kilometers or more from whence we started, we located a freshwater pool attached to a small waterfall.
The water tasted so crisp and refreshing I submerged my entire body in it.
“I haven’t had a bath in…” I dunked my head and came up to find his face inches from mine. My breath stammered. “I don’t remember.”
“The next time I have access to soap, I’ll wash every inch of your body myself.”
I’d said those words to my husband the last time I saw him. How long ago was that? Three weeks? A month?
Too long.
Oh, the irony. I ran from that man for two years. And now, I missed him horribly.
My throat closed, my world stilling to a dismal, eye-opening view of my situation. For the first time since jumping from Jade’s bow, I was looking at the real chance of survival. That meant I had to consider the future.
I was married to a man I loved. I loved another man who didn’t know I was married. Choosing between them wasn’t an option. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. I’d rather drown beneath a burning ship.
Ashley wrapped his wet body around mine and pulled me close to all his tempting male heat. His lips fell upon my neck, kissing, nuzzling, and governing the rhythm of my pulse. I melted into the velvet blanket of his chest, so firm and hot, not a dream but real flesh and blood. My man. He belonged to me and no one else.
Heat tangled between my legs. His mouth ravished my skin. I sank into it, into him, and froze.
It felt wrong.
I felt like a fraud.
Pushing at his arms, I wrenched myself away and climbed out of the pool.
I had to tell him about Priest.
I needed to tell Priest about Ashley.
Unless Priest was dead.
A lump lodged in my throat. No, I couldn’t think that way. I would never give up on my husband’s life. He’d outsmarted and outlived every person who’d ever underestimated him.
“We should get moving.” Stomach in knots, I wrung the wetness from my curls and started walking west.
Water splashed behind me, and strong fingers caught my arm, swinging me around.
“I wasn’t trying to…” Ashley raked a hand through his wet hair, and his gaze dipped, roaming over my shredded garment, which was now soaked, transparent, and clinging to my body.
My nipples, the shadow of curls between my legs, everything was on display.
I cocked my head, trying to read him. Was he repulsed knowing another man had defiled me so despicably?
“I want you.” His throat worked for a moment, seeming to push forth words that wouldn’t come. His hand, still scrubbing over his hair, wilted to his nape. “God help me, how could I not? You’re painfully, inconceivably the most stunning woman I’ve ever seen. I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t want you in every way, right now, right there in the water, despite the horrors and abuse your body has endured over the past two weeks. I. Want. You. Selfishly and completely. I want to fuck every torment out of your mind and soul until I’m all that’s left.” He took a breath, his voice softening. “But I would never expect you to want me in that way so soon after…him.”
Something shifted in my chest, locking in place. “Ashley—”
“Be silent.” He held up a finger, glaring at me. “When I pulled you against me in the pool, I wasn’t trying to take from you. I love you. That goes beyond lust. It surpasses carnal pleasure. What I feel for you is deep and fierce and so strong, Bennett. I finally have you back and…” He pressed a fist against his chest. “My heart knows it. And my body knows it. So when I feel your beauty beneath my hands, I harden, thinking about you taking me where you’re deep and fierce and strong.” He straightened, his expression stony. “Damn it all, I’m not saying this decently. I was bred to be a damned gentleman, and I don’t know how to be gentle.”
“Right.” I blew out a breath, my pulse humming through my veins. “First of all, I love you, too. Second, you’ve never been gentle or decent with me. Never treated me like a fragile maiden. Don’t you dare start now.”
“Is there a third point?”
“No, I—”
He was on me before I could blink.
Ashley’s mouth collided with mine, his warm lips parting seductively with the drive of his urgent tongue. He was an assertive kisser before, but now, his passion felt reckless, desperate, as if every stroke was a command to forget, every lick an insistence that I heal.
I surrendered willingly, my body throbbing to give where it had been defiled, all those delicate parts aching to feel his fullness. By the time he let me breathe, I didn’t want air. I just wanted him.
“Fuck me, Ashley.” I palmed the thick, hard swelling in his breeches. “Fuck every torment out of my mind and soul until you’re all that’s left.”
A ragged groan tore from his throat, and he dropped his forehead to mine. “I will. I’ll bed you so often and thoroughly you’ll grow tired of looking at me. But not here. Not until I have control of our situation.” His hand shook as he gripped my fingers and slid them away from his erection. “You stand much in need of nourishment, proper clothing, and a closer inspection of the contusion on your head.” He glanced around at the surrounding wilderness. “We’ve moved some distance through the wood, whence we know not. We need our wits about us as we approach the other shore.”
I groaned, dropped my head to his chest, and sighed. “You’re right.”
After another long drink from the lagoon, we resumed our westerly expedition. Other than the chatter of birds in the canopies overhead, the walk was relatively quiet. Until he remembered what I’d said before our hunt for water.
“Harbour Island…” He plodded ahead of me, using a branch to clear away the foliage. “Tell me why you want to go there.”
“Um… Yes, about that… I haven’t been completely honest with you. The day you captured me—”
“You told your crew to wait for you there?”
My knees turned liquid, and I stumbled, catching myself on a tree limb.
“Are you well?” He glanced over his shoulder.
I glared at him.
His lips tilted into a gentle arc at one side, eyes gleaming. “You think I didn’t know that you organized that jump from your ship?”
My mouth opened and closed like a dying fish.
“Oh, Bennett.” His chuckle shivered through me. “I do love to stun you speechless.”
“How?”
“The pirate who pushed you…” He held out his hand, waiting for me to take it.
“Reynolds.” I stepped toward him and gripped his warm fingers. “Priest Farrell’s brother.”
“Yes, well, the poor fellow wore the most dreadful look as he shoved you over. I watched him through the glass, and I daresay there were tears in his eyes.”
“Overprotective idiot,” I muttered. “Exceptional quartermaster.”
“Not just him. When you fell, your entire crew held a collective, horrified breath. They mourned you so deeply I felt it across the water. It was really quite something.”
“Damn those blasted fools. They were supposed to cheer and behave
as if the mutiny was real.”
“They quickly pulled themselves together and put on a show of clapping and whistling. My lieutenants believed the ruse.”
“I can’t believe you knew this whole time.” I stepped over a fallen tree, keeping my senses locked on the distant waves. “Why did you let them go?”
“I only wanted you. From the moment you stood upon that gunwale, half-dressed and shouting profanities at His Majesty’s Ship, I couldn’t look away. I was completely taken with you. To hell with everything else.”
“Good lord, I had no idea.” I pushed a twig out of my way, studying him as we walked. “What else did you figure out about me?”
“What else are you keeping from me, you deceitful woman?”
Too much.
“I had some escape plans.” I peered up at him, dreading the conversation about Priest.
“Yes, your siren tactics were strikingly successful. Tore my heart out in pieces when you plundered it. Well done.”
“A much better scheme than the fake pregnancy.”
He twined his fingers around mine and held my gaze. No need to belabor the topic of my infertility. We’d already said all there was to say about that.
My first plan of escape was still out there somewhere, tirelessly hunting me.
As we made our way through the thick brushwood, my stomach tumbled. The sounds of the tide breaking on the western shore grew louder, closer.
I needed to tell him about Priest. I couldn’t put it off any longer. “Ashley…”
“Is that…?” He yanked my hand, dragging me behind him as he hurried through the woods. “Look!”
Following his gaze upward, I gasped at the sight of innumerable oranges. We’d stepped into a grove of citrus trees. Christ, this would feed a village. Unless they shared Priest’s strange affliction to the fruit.
Ashley plucked a ripe one from a low branch and quickly peeled it. After test sniffing a huge juicy wedge, he offered it to my lips, which I ate with a great appetite.
The overwhelming sweetness burst across my tongue, making me moan and nod for more. Within minutes, we greedily devoured four oranges between us.
He gathered as many as he could carry, gripped my hand, and resumed walking. The sustenance in his belly should have raised his spirits, but he seemed deeply reflective, sullen even.
“Ashley?”
“I need to talk to you about Priest Farrell.”
“What?” The hairs on my nape erected.
His feet slowed, his gaze fixed in the direction of the sea. “He’s not who you think he is.”
“What do you mean?” I glanced at the oranges he held, my throat tightening with suspicion. “Why are you mentioning him now?”
His head turned slightly, his face averted and suddenly pale. Then he went chillingly still. Distracted.
My nerves turned inside out.
“Do you see that?” Eyes wide, he stared off in the distance at something I couldn’t see.
“No, what are—?”
He clapped a hand over my mouth, and the oranges tumbled to the ground. With a hard look in my direction, he held a finger against his lips. My bones fused at the joints with fear.
Moving slowly, soundlessly, he crept away, angling his neck to see through the trees. Whatever alarmed him contracted his muscles, straining every sinew and tendon in his bare back.
Pulse racing, I leaned forward and squinted through the foliage. And gasped.
Was that a ship? The hazy silhouette of rigging and masts looked so far away, but not inconceivable if the shore lay beyond those trees.
The ground cover stirred behind me. The crunch of leaves, the snap of a twig… Footsteps.
Ashley spun toward me as I twisted to look back.
A fist cracked across my face, jarring my vision and hurling me to my knees. I thought I might pass out until Ashley’s enraged roar shattered my stunned fog.
I snapped my head up as two shaggy white men attacked him. They held his arms and neck, attempting to restrain his body. But he broke free and rushed forward, his expression seething with unleashed violence.
Halfway to me, the men leaped onto his back. He dragged them several more steps, his teeth bared and eyes locked on mine.
“Ashley!” I grabbed a heavy branch to use as a weapon and tried to stand. But my legs failed me, my entire body pulling downward if I were submerged in mud. My head didn’t feel right, and it messed with my coordination.
A few feet away, Ashley swung his fists and elbows, knocking off the men only to be attacked and overpowered again. They wrestled him to the ground, and his gaze stayed with me, his fight driven by one single purpose. I saw it in his eyes. His determination to protect me.
Then his attention jumped to something over my shoulder. His expression warped, transforming from a man into a savage animal as he bellowed and wrestled, attempting to crawl forward.
In a flash of steel, a blade caught me under the chin. My stomach plunged.
“I’ll take her head.” The unfamiliar English accent came from behind me, deeply male and decisively triumphant. “Move a single muscle and she dies.”
Ashley’s face went ghost white, his fingers digging into the dirt. Lying on his chest on the ground with two roguish brutes on his back, he had no choice but capitulate.
My lungs panted as I strained my range of sight to the side. In my periphery was the solid cupped hilt of a cutlass, held fast by a calloused seafarer’s hand.
Pirate.
As the blade pressed against my throat, I knew I’d lost my freedom the very day I’d gained it.
“State your purpose, pirate.” My voice splintered, and I coughed, fighting dizziness. “Who are you?”
“You don’t remember us?” The bearded bastard holding Ashley threw back his head and laughed. “I look forward to reminding you.”
Ashley stared at them, his eyes shining with recognition and horror. Then his entire demeanor hardened with raw, bone-chilling rage.
“The ship…” Without moving my neck, I flicked my gaze toward the shore, shaking with fresh outrage. “It’s HMS Blitz, isn’t it?”
“She’s Blitz, all right. But no longer His Majesty’s Ship.” The man with the cutlass gave me a nudge in the back. “On your feet. The captain’s not going to believe his eyes when he sees you.”
Captain Madwulf MacNally.
Nausea rose, roiling with dread.
I didn’t look at Ashley as I stumbled to stand. I couldn’t bear to see the misery, fury, grief—whatever must have been twisting his expression.
My captor held me up and helped me walk, for my head weighed too heavily on my shoulders. They used sashes and leather straps from their waists to bind our hands at our backs. Ashley was kept behind me, both of us escorted with pistols and blades. Weapons they’d pilfered from the armory on Ashley’s ship.
The march through the wilderness passed in a blurry fog. At some point, I emptied my stomach, losing every bite of orange I’d ingested. Consciousness floated away, pulling, but I hung onto it by a thread.
Soon the low-growing plants beneath my feet gave way to sand. Sunlight pierced shards of agony through my eyes as I took in the coastline. And there she sat, far off down the beach.
Blitz.
From stem to stern, the one-hundred-gun beauty stretched smooth and sleek, her hull, sheets, and masts in top order. She didn’t appear to have a scratch after last night’s attack on the flagship.
I dared a glance at Ashley behind me, but he wasn’t looking at her. He stared directly at me, his eyes glinting with bloodthirsty promises. Wordless vows to destroy everyone on this island.
Good because I was eager to shed some blood, too.
Perhaps, if I weren’t stumbling and dry-heaving and fighting double-vision, we might have been able to overpower our captors. But my weakness served to keep Ashley in line. If he tried to overpower the men holding him, the pirate at my back would kill me.
I needed to get my strength back and my head
in working order. Then I would figure out a plan.
The pirates shoved us forward. Onto the beach we went, staggering toward the ship for longer than I thought I could walk.
“How did you escape the hold?” I licked cracked lips, parched and overheated under the unbearable Caribbee sun. “Did you bribe the wardens?”
“Stop talking.” A boot slammed into my back, knocking me onto my face in the sand.
“Don’t touch her!” Ashley roared and charged toward me, yanking uselessly at the bindings at his back.
The cutlass reappeared beneath my chin, and he skidded to a stop.
One of the rogues removed his sweat-stained neckerchief and tied it around my head, gagging me. Another one laughed and followed suit, silencing Ashley, too.
And that was the end of conversation.
We trampled along the coastline in silence, each step carrying us toward Blitz. Ashley showed no remorse or reaction at seeing her anchored so close. Perhaps because she was still so far out of reach.
Eventually, we arrived at the farming hamlet. It comprised of small cottages strung along the tree line connected to pastures of livestock and crops. An ideal target for a pirate ship looking to pillage supplies, restock food stores, and rape farmers’ daughters before continuing on to bigger prizes.
I never claimed to be a decent pirate, but my crew and I followed some rigid rules of conduct. The Articles we’d drawn up on board Jade prohibited raids against unarmed persons, farmers, commoners—anyone who didn’t fall into the wealthy arsehole and king’s men categories. Jade had sailed past this hamlet a few times over the years, and not once had we considered attacking it.
But that was exactly why Blitz was here.
Amongst these farming families, Madwulf could muster another fifty males as reinforcements for his militia.
