Spotting my deliberate lack of speech, he pulled out of me, tugged me upright again, moved his hands beneath my bottom, and lifted me. I squealed and wrapped my legs around his waist as he carried me across the room to the large bed that lay against the wall.
It was my other prized possession along with the table in the meeting room. It had belonged to my parents before my mother had left my father, and the headboard was carved oak, while the mattress was the largest and softest I had ever seen.
Sam threw me onto it as if I were little more than a pile of blankets. I bounced and squealed, but he just laughed and climbed on, catching me as I flipped over and went to crawl away from him.
“Going somewhere?” He turned me onto my back and lay on top of me, pressing me into the mattress with his weight. His eyes burned into mine, excited, intense.
I pushed at his chest, breathless. “Oof. You’re as heavy as a horse.”
“Got a cock like one, too.” He kissed down my neck, fastened his mouth where my neck met my shoulder, and sucked.
“Sam!” I swatted his shoulder and pushed again, my heart hammering.
Growling, he caught my hands and pinned them both above my head with one of his own. Shifting so he lay a little to the side, half on me with his thigh between my legs, he pulled my leg over his hips, effectively wrapping me around him.
He exhaled a long sigh, stroking his big hand down my body, over my breasts. “I dreamed of this, Maddie. Of you wet and swollen for me. I imagined you crying out my name as I thrust into you, and listening to you screaming as you came.”
“Screaming?” I tried to shift beneath him, but he was too heavy. He rocked his hips, brushing his thigh between my legs, sending quivers through me, and I grunted irritably. “I’ve never screamed, and I’m not going to start now.”
His eyelids lowered to half-mast. “I’m going to make you scream, Maddie. I’m going to make you come again and again until you beg me to stop.”
I closed my eyes. “Sam, please...”
“Yes,” he whispered in my ear, “beg me.” Sliding his free hand over my hip, he moved it across my bottom and down to my folds, gathering some of the moisture there. Then, he trailed his fingers back up between the cheeks of my bottom.
My lips parted, and I opened my eyes to look into his. They shone like silver buttons in the moonlight that poured through the window.
He pressed his finger lightly against the puckered skin between my cheeks. I groaned.
“Tell me to stop,” he murmured, and lowered his head to tug a nipple with his lips.
I felt as if I was melting into a puddle. Everything was dissolving and I was becoming just a collection of nerve endings and sensations. Tom had never aroused me like this, never teased my body near to the edge of ecstasy. “Sam...”
“Tell me you want me to stop.” He pushed his finger a little way through the tight muscle. My clit throbbed, and I felt more moisture dampen my thighs.
I hadn’t expected this. I’d thought sex with him would be fun, like in the morning when I’d watched him with Liza—their coupling had looked light-hearted and pleasurable, removed enough from my own experiences to make me jealous.
But I hadn’t expected this level of passion from him—this dark desire that rose from him like scent, and clawed deep within me like an animal trying to get out. His hunger for me—and mine for him—fascinated and scared me at the same time. It was like fire, and I was afraid it was going to consume me.
“You’d said we’d make love,” I protested as he continued to tease me with his finger. I was certain this was turning into fucking.
“We are.” He nibbled my earlobe. “Tell me honestly that you have no feelings for me.” He lifted his head to wait for my answer, still stroking his finger in and out of my tight muscle.
I tilted my head away from him, conscious of his erection pressing against my stomach and the tension simmering between us.
“Madeleine?” He nuzzled my ear again. “Your husband was the one who was blind to your passion. I saw it the moment I walked into that tavern. It radiated from you, hot enough to singe my eyebrows.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You know what a volcano is, Maddie?”
I frowned. “A fiery mountain?”
“Yes. It can lie dormant for hundreds of years, but all that time the fire is burning deep inside until suddenly one day it erupts forth, spilling its heat and consuming everyone.”
He hummed a tune as he removed his finger, released my hands and shifted on top of me, and pressed the tip of his cock into my folds.
“What’s the song?” I whispered.
“‘Fire Down Below’,” he said. “That’s you, Maddie.” And he thrust forward, plunging his whole length inside me.
I shuddered and arched my spine, shocked again at the sensation of being filled to the brim. “Argh!”
He groaned, pushed my knees up to my chest, and moved his hips from side to side, burying himself even further into me, stretching me wide. He was going to split me in half.
Fire down below. Cheeky bastard. I’d show him some fire.
Turning my head so my mouth met his arm, I sank my teeth into his flesh and bit hard.
“Fuck!” He pushed up onto his hands, pulling my legs up so they wrapped around my waist, and then gave me a sound smack on my rump.
“Sam!” I squealed.
“Serves you right.”
Raising a hand, I slapped him across the face.
He laughed, caught my hands in his again, and linked his fingers with mine before he pinned them above my head.
“God, you’re so soft.” He looked down to watch the way my slick walls sucked his cock as he withdrew it. He sank back in, balls deep. “It’s like sinking into wet velvet.”
I flexed my fingers in his as he began to pound into me and tugged my hands to try and free them, but he refused to let me go. He was going to take me the way he wanted, and I realized I might as well let him get on with it. There was no point in fighting him any further. Desire was coiling inside my stomach, and I wanted to be carried away, to lose myself in him.
I let my thighs drop open, and released the final dregs of any remaining inhibitions as I abandoned myself to him.
“Oh, oh, ohhh...” I said, my exclamations growing louder with every thrust.
“Yes,” he said. “Let me hear you, Maddie. Fuck, you’re beautiful.”
I bit my lip, but I couldn’t stop the grunts of pleasure escaping my lips, and continue to ohhh and ahhh with increasing ferocity as he thrust away. I’d often thought there was something animalistic about the sexual act, but this was more than that—this was feral, ancient as the hills, powerful as all the midnight magic in the world, and I couldn’t fight what he was doing to me as he took me nearer and nearer to the dizzy heights of ecstasy.
“Sam... I can’t...” My voice turned to a wail. Tension was building inside me, as if I was a spring winding tighter and tighter, almost painful in its intensity. I couldn’t take it any longer. He was going to kill me with pleasure!
“Oh, Maddie.” He was thrusting so hard now that the beautiful oak headboard banged against the wall. “Oh, fuck. Come on.” He plunged into me, the slick sound of his cock sliding into my wet flesh filling the room.
“Sam... Oh, oh, oh!”
“Yes!”
“Sam...!” I yelled his name as everything clenched around him, the yell turning to a scream as intense pleasure tore through me, the like of which I had never experienced before.
Sam roared and pushed forward so hard I was sure he was trying to spear me to the bed, his body going rigid above mine as he came, spilling his seed into me. I could almost feel those jets of his life-giving fluid flooding me, and as the final dregs of pleasure faded away, I collapsed back onto the bed in tears, emotion overtaking everything else.
He shuddered, his hips jerking, and I blinked furiously to clear the tears, looking up at his fierce frown, loving that I
had finally been able to give him pleasure.
It was only as his eyes opened and he focused on my face that I became aware of the sound of cheering in the tavern below us.
My eyes widened. “Are they... Jesus, are they cheering us?”
He started to laugh. “You were very loud.”
“And you weren’t? You nearly drove the headboard through the wall.” I giggled, and his chuckle turned into a throaty laugh as whoops and cheers continues to echo throughout the tavern.
“Ouch, don’t laugh,” he scolded, withdrawing and lifting off me.
“Serves you right. I’m never going to walk again.” I closed my legs with a groan.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” He held up an arm so I could move closer to him.
Surprised that he hadn’t immediately sprung to his feet, I rolled toward him and let him fold me in his arms. “No you’re not.”
“No, I’m not, but it seemed polite to say so.” He kissed my forehead. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
I was a little tender, but it was absolutely worth it. “No,” I said shyly. “It was nice. Unexpected.”
He stroked my back, holding me tightly against him. “Better than before, with Tom?”
“Oh God, Sam, you are jesting with me? I don’t think he was even aware I was there half the time. It wouldn’t have mattered if it were me or any other woman, I’m sure.”
Sam looked up at the ceiling. “Don’t. It makes me angry.”
“I’m sorry.” I didn’t want to do that, not after what we’d shared, with my lips tender from his kisses and his seed still within me.
We could have made a child. The thought gave me a glow I would never have expected.
He yawned. “You’ve worn me out.”
“Four times in an hour, you promised me.”
He gave a short laugh. “Even the Prince of Pirates has his limits. That was pretty exceptional, Maddie.”
The glow continued to spread through me. “Was it?”
“It was. Now get some sleep. You deserve it.”
But I lay there for a long while, listening to him breathing, feeling his chest rising and falling beneath my hand, the moonlight lying across his body like a silver sheet.
Chapter Ten
I dozed, rousing again when Sam woke me at first light by kissing slowly down my body.
As the sky began to lighten, he proceeded to make love to me, with none of the frenzy of our previous session. I let him, content to hand my arousal over to him, and enjoyed the gentle, meandering journey toward orgasm and the tumble over the waterfall into ecstasy.
Afterward, I fell into a deep sleep, and I didn’t awake again until the sun was fully up.
I opened my eyes. Bars of sunlight were falling across my legs. The room was quiet and a little stuffy.
I turned onto my back and stretched out a hand, but found only the sheets. Sam had gone.
I looked up at the ceiling for a moment, my lips curving up as I remembered blissful moments from the night before. The memory of his tender touch and the fire his passion had lit inside me would remain with me always.
Then my eyes widened as I remembered our plan. I slid my hand from my hip up to my navel.
My jaw dropped, and I sat up hurriedly, looking down. The Sky Pearl had gone. The little silver bar that pierced the skin remained along with the tiny silver fitting that the pearl had rested in, but the jewel itself had vanished.
I turned onto my hands and knees and patted hastily around the bedclothes, but even as I did so, I knew it was pointless and I wouldn’t find it.
I sat on the edge of the bed, my heart thumping. How had he taken it? I vaguely recalled him circling his tongue around it when he’d kissed down my stomach, and the way he’d made me laugh as he’d taken it between his teeth and tugged it lightly. Had it come off then, or had he somehow managed to separate it from the fitting while I slept?
It was irrelevant—he’d stolen it, just as I’d asked him to.
Pushing myself up, I pulled on my chemise, then walked over to the window. Far out to sea, the Whydah’s sails were painted orange by the rising sun.
I rested my hand on my stomach. Tears pricked my eyes, but I blinked them away. This was the outcome I’d expected, and I would not cry over him. He’d given me something much more precious than the Sky Pearl—a feeling of being loved and wanted, and that meant much more to me than a tiny gem.
I dressed, making sure it looked as if I’d done so in a rushed manner, left my hair tumbling around my shoulders, and ran down the stairs.
A few of the girls were up, including Liza, and they cheered as I entered the tavern room.
“About time,” Liza said, giving me a saucy wink. “Black Sam Bellamy strikes again.”
“Don’t even mention that rogue’s name,” I snapped. “The bastard’s stolen something precious from me.”
“He has a tendency to do that,” Liza said, and I realized she was referring to my heart.
I rolled my eyes. “What he’s taken is much more precious than that. I’m going to see Henry Cook.”
“Oh,” Liza said, glancing at the men I’d only just spotted standing to one side. “Bit late for that.”
I raised an eyebrow at them. “What is it, gentlemen?”
“It’s Mr. Cook, ma’am,” one of his men said. “I’m afraid he’s dead.”
*
Heart racing, I followed his men back to his house where the rest of the council had gathered to investigate the murder of the town gaoler. His house was small, and I’d previously thought it dark and dismal, but now the curtains had been thrown back and daylight spilled across the carpet and the body lying on it, coating them both in gold.
“Do you have any suspects?” My heart pounded as I looked at the inert body. He’d clearly been shot, the puddle of blood oozing from beneath him to soak the carpet.
“It was Captain Sam,” a voice said from behind me.
I turned. Beth Cook sat in a chair to one side of the room. Her face was white, but for the first time since I’d known her, there was a sign of life in her usually-dull eyes.
“What makes you say that?” I said hoarsely.
“I saw him.” She lifted her chin and looked straight at me. “The sky was just growing light. Something awoke me, and I heard voices. As I came down the stairs, I heard a shot, and I turned the corner to see Sam standing over him, his pistol still smoking. He ran before I could say anything, but it was too late—Henry was dead.” She lifted a white kerchief to her eyes and dabbed them, although there was no sign of tears.
I stared at her. Sam had been with me at first light, but the kerchief in her hands bore the initial S. Sam had been there.
Had he gone there after he’d left me and shot Henry? If so, why had Beth said he’d been there at first light?
I glanced at her cheek. It bore a fresh bruise. When I looked at where the sides of her dress parted, I saw what the men there clearly had not—a spatter of blood across her white petticoats that she covered with her dress when she saw me look. That spatter would only have occurred if she’d been near Henry when the shot passed through him.
She’d killed her husband, I was sure of it, and Sam was willing to take the blame, the same way he’d been willing to take the pearl and lure unwanted attention away from me. Had he happened upon her standing over the body by chance, or had he approached her and told her he’d support her if she pulled the trigger? I would probably never know.
I met Beth’s gaze. She swallowed, and her gaze turned pleading. Had he told her to say he’d murdered Henry at first light, thus putting her fate in my hands?
My lips twitched. The clever bastard.
I nodded and turned to the men. “Mr. Bellamy was with me in the dark hours but left before first light. When I arose this morning, I discovered he had stolen something very precious to me—the Sky Pearl.”
All the men there exclaimed as one, including Cook’s men whom he’d clearly informed about the gem.
&
nbsp; “It’s gone?” one asked, distraught.
“Yes, and so has the Whydah. My guess is that Bellamy is on his way to Tortuga right now to sell it, or maybe even to Port Royal.” I tossed my hands in the air in disgust. “What a knave, what a rogue! I thought he loved me.”
I pressed my fingers to my lips, my sudden burst of emotion only half-faked.
“You are not the first to have fallen to his advances,” one of the men soothed. “He is a notorious scoundrel, and I am sorry a respectable woman such as yourself has had to discover the truth in such a manner.”
Keeping my gaze lowered, I let myself be led out into the sunshine. Behind me, I could hear them talking about organizing Cook’s burial. There would be no need for an investigation, one was saying—Bellamy was clearly to blame. Sam would receive a large bounty on his head for both the murder and the theft.
I stopped at the edge of the grass and looked down onto the beach, watching the wind whip the azure ocean into white-topped waves. The Whydah was a dot on the horizon, and would soon be gone.
I felt only lightness in my heart, though, and a sense of freedom. The absence of the Sky Pearl meant the Twisted Lime would remain mine. I had no need of fortunes, and I was happy in Nassau, running the tavern with my girls.
I rested my hand on my stomach again. Maybe Sam had fathered a child, maybe not. Time would tell. Until then, I’d treasure the memory of the way he’d loved me and keep it locked away in my heart where it could never be stolen.
One day I would see him again—of that I had no doubt. In spite of the bounty, he would find a way to come back to Nassau. He was a very resourceful man.
My lips curving, I walked down the bank and through the orchard to the tavern, breathing in the scent of the sea and the tang of oranges and limes, and humming the sea shanty, ‘Fire Down Below’.
*
The Prince’s Harem
Book 1: The New Princess
Book 2: The Unruly Princess
Book 3: The Seductive Princess
Book 4: The Reluctant Princess
Book 5: The Eternal Princess
*
About the Author
Fire Down Below Page 6
