by Paula Quinn
She scored her fingers down his sides, his hips, finally stopping on his muscled thighs. He dipped his face to hers, his eyes closed, his jaw clenched. Ecstasy. Aye, she felt it too, drenching her, threatening to overtake her.
She didn’t want it to be over, and neither did he. She looked at him, loving the sight of him above her, his hair falling about his handsome face, his playful mouth transformed into a dark, sensual smile that quickened her pulse.
She was in love with him. Whatever else she wanted in her life faded in importance. She was losing her heart to a pirate. No, it was already lost. She didn’t care. Not now, when his arm caught her up behind her back and he hefted her up off the grass. She tightened her thighs around him and arched her spine while he laved his tongue down her neck to her breast. Her tight nipple ached in his mouth as he sucked and teased her with his teeth.
Wrapping her arms around him, she clung to his neck while he sat up on his haunches. She wanted to tell him how she felt, but by his own admission, Alex Kidd had had many women. She was likely just another one. He didn’t love her. He loved sailing, and the sea, and rutting tavern wenches.
She closed her eyes and rolled them up at the titillating size of him driving her ever higher. When he arched her back and drank more from her breasts, she thought she might burst in colors of gold and red. She wanted to cry out, to scream with pleasure. She could do so and no one would hear them but the birds.
Squeezing her rump in his hands, he guided her over the length of his long, sleek cock, back down and then up again, until he took her to the brink of utter surrender.
But he wasn’t willing to end it just yet.
Lifting her off him as though she weighed nothing, he turned her around and then set her backward on his steel lance. For some reason, she remembered how he felt in her mouth. She grew wetter and his movements grew slicker. With her back pressed to his chest, he carried her on his thighs over waves of pleasure. She knew it wouldn’t take much more to surrender, and when he cupped her breast in one hand and her opening with the other, she looped her arms high over her head and let him take her to oblivion.
Behind her, he swept her hair away from her nape and bit her neck while he filled her to overflowing.
When it was over, she lay in his arms beneath swaying palms and a cloudless sky. She was certain, as the breeze brought with it the scent of wild orchids and tropical dew, that no matter how many men she met in her life, none would compare to him. No matter what other lands she visited after this, nothing would ever compare to the Islands.
“Was it difficult to leave this place, Alex?” she asked against him.
“Aye. I didn’t want to go, but me father had come fer me. I had no choice.”
“Did ye return then as soon as ye were able?”
“I returned a few times, with Sam and some of the others, but after a while I stopped comin’ back.”
“Why?” She closed her eyes against his chest and listened to his heartbeat.
“Because I wasn’t the lad who left.”
She kissed his skin and sat up to scan the lush, green landscape below, the waterfall to her right. He’d set them high upon a cliff where no one would happen upon them. She could scream his name until her lungs burst, and no one would hear. “This is paradise, Alex. Did it break yer heart to leave?”
He didn’t answer right away, and she looked down into his sable eyes. He smiled as if he couldn’t help it.
“’Twas hard. If ya stay, ’twill be hard fer ya. Ya will miss home so bad that at times ya’ll think ya’re goin’ mad. If ya develop a love fer the sea like I did, yar choice, though it be hard, will be simple. Ya’ll choose this life over them.”
He’d warned of this before. Was she willing to not return home? Mayhap never return? How bad would she get out here? What might she do that was so bad she wouldn’t be able to face her kin after doing it? She was raised in the faith. She didn’t think she would sacrifice her soul fer any lifestyle. If she ever felt she might be close to crossing any line, she would return to her mountains. Other than that, she came from a line of men who’d done things they would have preferred not to have done. She’d suffer no disapproval upon her return to Camlochlin.
Still, she thought she should know what soul-snatching demons lurked on the sea.
“What have ye done, Alex?” she asked him softly, turning to look at him rather than the glorious tropical scenery around her. He made her heart throb. He and nothing else. “What have ye done that has kept ye away from yer home?”
He looked deep into her eyes and lifted his fingers to her cheek. He stroked her with the backs of his knuckles, poring over her as though she were a map to some priceless treasure. Did he love her? He looked at her as if he did.
“Ya and Kyle speak of honor, but out at sea, there’s no place fer it. Ya have to find ways to survive, to live. I became a rogue. A dishonest, thievin’ rogue. I’ve killed more men than I can number, stole their ships, their goods. I’m afraid I won’t find equal measure against yar moral code.”
Would she hold him to the codes by which she was raised? Could she steal, kill for coin? Could she truly ever be a pirate?
She opened her mouth to tell him when she spotted a huge green lizard basking on a sunlit branch. “What in heavens is that thing?”
Alex looked up. “An iguana. ’Twill not harm ya.”
She would never get close enough to find out.
When someone’s shout boomed through the air behind the reptile, she nearly leaped out of Alex’s arms.
“Dey’ve landed, Alex!” Charlie rushed out of the trees behind the cliff. The iguana raced away, its long tail swishing as it ran. “Dey are lookin’ fer ya, brudda.”
Who was “they”? Trina thought as she scrambled for her clothes to cover herself. Her kin? Had they found her already? Her heart raced until she felt faint. Would her father try to harm Alex?
“What ship do they sail?” Alex asked while he yanked his breeches over his legs.
“Dee warship Excellence,” Charlie answered, his coal eyes flicking to Trina, then off her just as quickly.
“Captain Harris,” Alex identified, relieving her of the fear that her kin had arrived. He helped her to her feet once she was dressed and tugged her along, down the back of the cliff and back to the village.
When they arrived, everyone was scurrying to and fro like frightened children.
“Alan, I found him!” Charlie called out to another islander, who barked an order at two of the men running.
“Ya should be on yar way to distributin’ pistols. Move!”
Trina watched them fly away on bare feet. They weren’t running in fear, but to prepare.
Prepare for what? If she understood Charlie correctly, the Royal Navy had arrived. How were these peaceful islanders going to help Alex? Were they foolish enough to try to fight the queen’s navy?
“Alex,” Alan called out to him. “Yar crew is at dee ready.”
“What are we going to do?” she asked, turning to Alex.
“Not us, lass. Ya will be remainin’ with Charlie. I’ll come fer ya when ’tis over.”
“Nae!” she commanded. “Are ye mad to deny me to fight at yer side? My own brothers wouldna’ ask me to wait with the children.”
“Yar brothers don’t want to spend every day with ya until their last. They don’t see their brats in yar eyes and they haven’t considered givin’ up everything they ever thought made them happy fer ya.”
What? Did he mean it or was he just trying to get her to obey him? Either way, how could she argue when he made such claims? He brought a smile to her face while bringing tears to her eyes and palpitations to her heart.
After a brief kiss, so brief, in fact, that she had no time to recover from his declaration, he left her standing there with Charlie. Just Charlie. Everyone else was gone.
“Ye dinna’ truly mean to guard me, do ye, Charlie?” she asked with a playful smirk curling her lips and making her dimples flash.
> He returned her smile with a curious one of his own. “Ya don’t truly mean to disobey him after ya agreed?”
“I agreed to nothing and ye know it.”
His downcast eyes proved her correct, but his gaze didn’t remain lowered for long. “It don’t matter if ya agreed or not. Ya’re stayin’ here wit me like he said.”
In the end, Charlie proved a worthy opponent. He sang while she threatened him and laughed when she flirted. It took actual tears… tears… to make him cave.
She wasn’t a fool. She didn’t rush to the shore, ready to die for Alex. She clung close to the trees and hid.
The crew was there, including Kyle, standing at the ready behind Alex. “Didn’t think I’d see ya again so soon, Captain Harris,” she heard Alex call out. She kept her eye on him while he sauntered closer to the naval captain. She moved in, readying her arrow, until she stood at Kyle’s side. “What do ya want this time?”
Captain Harris was a tall man, with long limbs and a pointy nose that twitched like a rat at the scents around him. His dark gray eyes flicked beneath his hat to Alan and a group of island men holding their tar-dipped arrows close to a small fire in the sand. “I’m here,” he finally said, returning his gaze to Alex, “to collect the map to where your father hid the Quedagh Merchant.”
“What makes ya think I have such a map?”
Indeed, Trina wondered the same thing. He’d gotten the map only after going to Camlochlin. Who else knew her kin had the map? Alex and his crew had arrived in Skye with that Mr. Andersen who claimed to be a friend. But Alex had left him behind in Camlochlin. Did Mr. Andersen know where the ship was hidden? If so, why hadn’t he simply gone to the navy and told them himself? It didn’t make any sense. She looked around at the men surrounding Alex on the beach. They were loyal to him, weren’t they? Her eyes searched for Mr. Pierce. Why wasn’t he here at Alex’s side? He knew about the map. He knew where they were headed and could have corresponded their destination to the navy while they were in Portugal. But how could he do it if he loved Alex the way she genuinely believed he did?
“There is a spy among your men, Captain Kidd.” Harris told him smugly.
“Aye,” Alex admitted with a casual shrug. “So I’ve been told.” He turned to the men behind him and found her instead. Trina saw his skin go pale. He masked it well an instant later when he returned his attention, seemingly unshaken, to Harris. “Ya’re not a man of any values. Why don’t ya tell me the spy’s name?”
Harris laughed and then scrambled for his hat when the wind blew it off his head. “You will discover it soon enough. Surrender the map and I’ll let you live. You have my word.”
Alex grinned and spread his arms at his sides. “Ya’ll have to kill me to get it.”
“I’ll sink your ship,” Harris warned.
Alex shook his head. “Ya still won’t get it.”
When the English captain raked his gaze over the islanders, casting an unspoken threat, Alex moved toward him.
Weapons went up on both sides.
“Ya have an hour to leave this island,” Alex told him ignoring the naval soldiers before him. “If ya’re still here after that time, I will slaughter yar entire crew. I will leave ya alive to go back and bear witness to yar superiors of yar failure. Savvy, Captain Harris?”
Surprisingly, Harris nodded and turned back for his ship. Alex watched them go and then turned to her.
Trina knew he was angry with her for disobeying him again. Well, worse, she’d lied right to his face, promising to stay with Charlie. She thought she could speak with him about it later, but his eyes on her glinted with raw anger.
“Miss Grant, will ya continue to defy me at every turn?”
“That depends,” she answered him. “Will ye continue to treat me like a helpless child? Ye know how well I can shoot an arrow. Ye need my arm.”
He looked like he wanted to throttle her. She’d seen the same look on her father’s face many times when her mother frustrated him.
“When I need yar arm,” he said, reaching down to lift her off her feet and over his shoulder, “I’ll let ya know. Right now though, I want ya off this beach and ya will obey yar captain, savvy?”
She sighed against his back. Would he always be this pigheaded? “Savvy, Captain.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Trina sat around the fire that night, pondering what to do about Alex and his resistance to letting her do her duty as part of his crew. Her grandmere had fought alongside her grandsire. Her mother would have died at her father’s side against the English. What the hell was wrong with a woman against a man, or even a few of them? It was sweet of Alex not to want to watch her die, but insulting that he thought so little of her fighting skills.
They were almost done with supper when Mr. Pierce finally returned from wherever it was that he’d been all day. She watched him take his usual place directly at Alex’s right.
Alex stared at him for a moment that seemed to stretch on forever. “Where have ya been?”
“Can we discuss it in pri—”
“No!” Alex’s booming voice startled her. She looked at him in time to see him rising to his feet, clutching a cup of rum. “Kyle!” he commanded. “Walk with me. Ya also.” He crooked his index finger to Trina and she followed.
Pierce looked up at his friend, as surprised by his invitation as Kyle was. He said nothing as Alex left the circle, and went off with her and Kyle.
They walked along an overgrown path, lit by tall torches shoved into the ground. She knew where they were headed. The beach, where Alex was closest to the sea.
“So tell me again, MacGregor. What are yar suspicions about Sam? Yars too, Caitrina, if they be different from his.”
Was he truly giving thought to the possibility that his friend…? She turned to his profile and studied him. She saw the pain etched into his face. Pierce was his friend. She’d been cold not to understand earlier how deeply this would hurt him.
She hoped Kyle would discern to move slowly, not bombard him with all their misgivings at once. He needed to hear the evidence presented and form his own judgments.
“First and foremost,” Kyle began, “we believe him to be the brother of Captain David Pierce of the Royal Army.”
As she’d hoped, Kyle paused and proceeded with the right amount of hesitancy. But Alex didn’t wait for any further suspicions. He walked up to the rolling surf and looked out into the darkness.
“If he is, he never told me.” Alex turned around and looked behind him at the two of them. “He was not on the island all day.”
“I know, Captain,” Kyle told him. “I looked fer him.”
“I looked fer him too,” Alex admitted. “I looked fer him everywhere on the island.” He paused and turned back to the sea, his voice deepening with the pain of what he was saying. “If he wasn’t on the island, he had to be on a boat, and he wasn’t on ours.”
Trina wanted to go to him, to throw herself into his arms and promise she would never betray him or break his heart. She knew he believed himself to be a monster, one that couldn’t return home because of shame. But they didn’t know the pirate captain here. They only knew Alex, the lad whose laughter had never changed.
She moved toward him, repentant of disobeying him in front of Charlie. He deserved more than that. She didn’t fling herself into his arms when she reached him, but took his hand. “Whatever is true or not true aboot Mr. Pierce, one fact remains, Alex. Yer kin love ye and stand united with ye, and so do I.”
“As do I,” Kyle agreed, then added, “Stand with ye, that is.”
Alex looked at him first and grinned, enveloping his true emotions in charm and likability. But if Trina could almost read them, Kyle would find no trouble at all in doing so. She was glad her cousin wasn’t fooled by the captain’s air of constant control. It made Alex human.
When he looked at her though, the veil fell away, even against his will. His gaze softened on her, sending heat everywhere his eyes settled. “Ya love me
then?”
“What?” She smiled at him like he was mad. “What would possess ye to assume such a ridiculous—”
“Ya said me kin love me, as do ya.”
She cast him a mocking side glance. Neither of them took notice of Kyle’s leave. “Ye are wishful thinking, Captain. I’ve bewitched ye.”
In an instant she found herself swept up in his arms, his mouth pressed hard to hers. He kissed her senseless, until she transcended earth and time and ceased to feel anything but love for him. She adored him, would give up all for him, even her home and her kin, even her life.
All at once her senses came flooding back to her, like a tumultuous, rushing wave. Her heart raced wildly against both their chests. The scent of him, briny, sandy with a hint of almond, brushed across her nostrils and went straight to her head. Her touch over the tight sinew of his arms made his muscles tremble and her wild for more of him.
She drew back just an inch from his mouth. “Before I give in to ye again and say something I may regret.” Like I love ye madly and will follow ye to the ends of the earth even if ye break my heart and tell me ye dinna’ feel the same way. She bit her bottom lip and inched up his body. His embrace tightened. “I would have ye know that I regret my disobedience and I intend never to disobey ye again.”
He smiled at her, tempting her to tear his clothes from his body and to hell with it all. She breathed to clear her head.
“Of course, I will need yer help.” She pressed her mouth to his again and kissed him softly, briefly.
“Anything I can do, beauty.” He pulled her in closer.
“Ye can begin by never again telling me what I can and cannot do. I understand yer fears about me fighting, my sweet captain,” she said breathlessly against his teeth. “I will not put myself in unnecessary danger, but ye will find yerself less angry with me if ye just cease ordering me aboot.”
