The Pirate's Heart

by Bethany M. Sefchick

  Katherine shrugged, doing her best not to appear too eager. “But surely there is something I can do,” she tried again, eyeing his swollen cock with interest. It had felt so deliciously delightful when he had tasted her cunt. Would it feel just as good to him if she sucked his cock as she’d seen a woman do to a man once at a party back on Barbados?

  For the first time, Daniel looked uncertain. “That is too much, Duchess. There are some whores who will not even do that.”

  Her eyes burned into his as their gazes locked. “I will. I want to. And I insist.”

  Daniel shook his head. “No. Not yet.”

  “Yes,” she insisted. “I am no fragile flower, Jack. You made me scream earlier and I expect you will do so again before the night is over. But for now, it is my turn to make you scream.”

  Then, without waiting for his approval, Katherine pushed his legs apart and drew his cock into his mouth. When he let out a low hiss followed but a guttural groan, she knew she was doing this right. And that she would, indeed, make him scream.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Daniel was gone when Katherine awoke the next morning, though she had suspected he would be. Despite everything, he was still the captain, and she was still his prisoner – at least in the eyes of his crew. As the sun began to rise on a new day, it was time for him to attend to his duties once more.

  It took some doing getting out of bed as she was stiff and quite sore in places she had not known she could be. Then again, she and Daniel had mated nearly seven times in one way or another throughout the night. That would have been something of a feat for any whore, let alone a lady who had, until recently, been an innocent.

  Though Daniel had not taken anything but her cunt and her mouth last night, Katherine also still tingled with the knowledge that there was more he wished to do with her and to her. That alone was reason enough for her to emerge from the nest of pillows so that she might show him that she was ready for more whenever he saw fit to take her again. However, and wherever he saw fit to take her.

  For if nothing else, last night had taught Katherine that there was another side to herself. One she hadn’t even known existed but one that she quite liked. A part that was more than a bit adventurous and extremely wanton.

  In the few moments that she had allowed herself to luxuriate in the bed and think, Katherine had decided that Daniel had been correct last night when he said that she needed to claim her power and sexuality. That she could not remain in the middle because she had changed. They both had.

  The next few months would be difficult, especially during the time it would take them to arrange safe passage from the West Indies back to England. She would need to be strong to survive whatever was to come. If she remained undecided and fearful, she would be hurt. Or Daniel would. She could not live with herself if she lost him again so soon after his return to her life.

  Because she was running a bit late after all of her musings, Katherine simply snatched the scarlet gown from the floor and wiggled into it, no matter how wrinkled it was or how scandalous it might appear to the crew. She would, starting right this moment, do her best not to care about any of that. Thankfully, Daniel had not bound her to the bed that morning, so she was free to dress quickly and did not need to call upon Rupert for assistance. Katherine planned to attend the burials of the men killed in yesterday’s battle and hoped that she was not too late.

  Two of those deaths were on her hands. The least she owed those men was the respect of a proper send-off. At some point, those men had been some mother’s son. It was difficult to think of the men who had wanted to kill her yesterday as babes in a mother’s arms, but they likely had been. Even if they had been born in the worst sort of brothel or to mothers unable or unwilling to care for them, at one point in their lives, they had been innocent. Just as she had been until recently. That alone bound them together in a way she could not quite explain. Therefore, she owed them this last bit of respect.

  When Katherine finally emerged on the deck, she saw the crew already assembled and the sheet-clad bodies laid out before them. As quickly as she dared, she hurried over to Daniel’s side. A man she thought was named Davis was the first to see her and he quietly cleared a path amongst the men so that she could reach Daniel – or rather Jack – without being molested in any way.

  However, curious eyes still followed her as she pushed her way through the assembled men. Some feared her she supposed, likely because of what she had done yesterday and at least partly because of the ruby and diamond necklace still encircling her throat which bore the obvious marks of Daniel’s possession of her from the night before. Hungry eyes followed as well, eyes that took in her nearly exposed breasts and the low cut of her gown. Let them look. She did not care, not anymore. Or at least she was trying not to care.

  Once she reached Daniel’s side, Katherine dipped a small but proper curtsey, as she was certain his crew would expect at least that much deference from a female prisoner he had liked fucked many times over. Which in this case was true.

  “Captain,” she whispered.

  Daniel’s gaze raked over her hungrily and suddenly, he became Jack again right before her eyes. It was as if he put on a mask and Daniel suddenly went back into hiding. She could understand that, she supposed. To his men, he needed to be who he always was. It was only with her that he could be Daniel Montgomery again.

  “Duchess.” There was a sneer in his voice, but she heard the falseness of it as well. “I thought I’d worn you out last night in our bed. I wasn’t certain you could even walk this morning.” He said that loud enough for his men to hear. Likely they knew anyway that this man had fucked her many times over. She hadn’t exactly been quiet, her screams likely carrying a good distance through the ship.

  Katherine squared her shoulders and prepared to take on Midnight Jack once again. If he could keep up this ruse, then so could she. At least for the few more days it would take to reach Tortuga. “I killed two of these men, captain,” she snapped, doing her best to inject anger into her voice. “I owe them the respect of my presence at their funerals. That has nothing to do with what took place last evening.”

  Somewhere in the back, she could have sworn she heard someone whisper the words “Ain’t not get near that bitch for anything. She’d kill me soon as not.” However, Katherine could not be certain. Though if the crew did truly fear her, then so much the better. She did not want to have to injure anyone else. Though after last night with Daniel’s promise of a future together, she would be more likely to act in her own defense than she would have been before. Still, that did not mean she wished to hurt anyone without cause.

  Though, she was also not about to be foolish with her safety, and the dagger Daniel had gifted her with the night before was now strapped to her hip and mostly hidden beneath the folds of her gown. Given the way this crew was still salivating over her nearly exposed breasts, she doubted they noticed. She also likely had another week and a half to two weeks aboard The Darkness with these men before they reached Tortuga. If they were desperate enough for cunt or decided they wished to defy Daniel, then they might attempt something. Better to be prepared, just in case.

  Katherine wasn’t surprised when Daniel reached out and snatched up her wrist, using that same bit of red silk to bind her wrist to his. “Just in case, Duchess. Don’t want you getting any ideas about running. I still have plans for that luscious cunt of yours when we are finished here.”

  Somewhere behind them, one of the crew members snickered. If they had been alone, Katherine would have made some sort of smart remark or snappy comeback. Instead, she lowered her eyes. Better these men think her conflicted – lethal enough to kill if provoked but still a bit missish about fucking – than to know the truth of her.

  And that assessment wasn’t far from the truth. Katherine had only just decided to embrace the power she had first glimpsed within herself yesterday. Though Daniel had not said anything, she was certain she still had a long way to go before she became the woman
she truly wished to be.

  “Begin, reverend,” Daniel snapped, choosing to ignore the snicker as well.

  He had heard all of the bawdy jokes from this crew when he emerged from his cabin this morning, his body sore and aching from the battle yesterday and worn out from fucking Katherine throughout the night. Then, as now, he refused to rise to the bait his men dangled for him. It was none of their business what he did with Katherine in their cabin, though he did rather like that fact that she screamed so loudly. Her cries proved to the men that he was fucking her, that she was his. Hopefully, that would be enough to deter them from seeking her out and demanding their own relief with her delectable body.

  One by one, the reverend – who had at one time been a Catholic priest on Trinidad and now ministered to the souls of pirates, odd though it might seem – said prayers over the bodies of the dead, using his Bible to make the sign of the cross over the deceased before the bodies were slid into the ocean via one of the larger scuppers.

  Today, the ocean was calm and the winds favorable. The sun was high in the vivid blue sky, almost too bright for this early hour. He’d been at sea many days just like this in the past, days filled with the promise of something better. Today felt different.

  Today Daniel could feel the silk that held Katherine to his side, binding her to him, and yet, after last night, there was another bond that had forged between them. Today he felt as if a future, a real future without the fear of imminent death, was finally possible. A future away from this life.

  Like her, he could not return to the life he had known years ago, at least not exactly. Both his body and soul bore the scars of his new life, some deeper than others. But a life, a decent sort of life as a peer of England seemed possible for him now. So long as he had Katherine by his side.

  She had been the piece he had been missing for so long. Now that he had her, it was time to leave piracy behind forever. Time to take his fortune and go home. But where was home? England, he supposed. He was going to be a duke eventually, sooner more likely than later. But until then? Would the cold, damp of English soil be enough for a man like him? A man who had grown up in the heat and sun, with the wind in his hair and the sea at his back?

  Honestly, Daniel didn’t know. He wasn’t even certain he was still Daniel any longer. He was more Jack now than the gangly youth who had been snatched half-dead from the sea by pirates and put to work as a cabin boy after the ship he had been sailing on burned and sank into the sea.

  However, if he didn’t leave the West Indies, Daniel would likely end up like these men – dead and buried at sea in an unmarked watery grave. Or find himself at the end of a noose, for he would not lie to himself and pretend that there was no price on his head. Even with his letter of marque, there still was. Boucher would see him dead if no one else.

  He didn’t want that. Not for himself and not for Katherine. He finally had her back. More than that, he had her in his bed, her legs spread wide as she allowed him to fuck her as he pleased, with the promise of more pleasures to come.

  So where did that leave him?

  Daniel didn’t know. Until he did know, he had no choice but to stick to his plan to reach Tortuga and then travel on with Katherine, Ramsey, and Rupert to England. Once they were safe? Then, perhaps, he could choose a different path. But not until then.

  Beside him, Katherine stood ram-rod straight. She could likely feel the stares of his men, hear their snickers and the lewd comments they made about “the captain” fucking her senseless the night before. Yet she pretended she didn’t. Her spine did not bend and her body did not tremble. Instead, she stared straight ahead, the rubies and diamonds of the necklace she wore glittering at her throat in the bright morning sunlight.

  In short, she was magnificent. And he wanted her just as much now as he had last evening.

  He wanted her splayed out on his bed, her arse in the air as he prepared to mount her from behind so that he might rut with her like an animal. He wanted her body slick with sweat beneath his as his cock plunged into her arse, one of the pleasure toys that he had discovered in a brothel on Anguilla shoved into her cunt to increase her pleasure. He wanted her on her hands and knees in front of him, his cock in her mouth as she sucked him off.

  He wanted that pleasure and he wanted it now.

  But first, there was something else he had to do. A change of plans necessitated by information the pirate he had captured yesterday had passed on to Harcourt last evening during interrogation. If one could call it that. The last Jack had checked, his second mate seemed to be tending to the young pirate’s wounds like an old mother hen.

  When the last of the bodies finally slid into the sea, Daniel turned to face his crew, becoming Midnight Jack once more. “It is likely another week until we reach shore, men. Though I doubt that Boucher’s crew attempt another attack here on the open sea, we need to be on guard. Watches will be doubled until we reach Black Heart Cay where we will prepare for our run to Tortuga.”

  “Why Black Heart? Why not Mona?” Goddard asked irritably, obviously upset at this change in plans. “Mona is a safe haven for a time if we need to gather ourselves.”

  Daniel, no Jack this time, sneered angrily at the other man. “Because I am the captain here and my orders will not be questioned. That is why. Are you questioning my orders, Goddard? I will remind you that it will go badly for you if you are. I will also remind you that if you do not like how things are run aboard The Darkness, you are free to find another ship more to your liking. Starting now.”

  As Daniel had expected, Goddard made no immediate reply. The man was a coward that way.

  And Daniel did have his reasons for choosing Black Heart over Mona. Goddard and the rest of the crew did not need to know them, however.

  According to the young captive, whose name was Jim Farnsworth, Boucher had already bribed someone on Tortuga to ensure that his ship would be allowed to dock there once again. Such a matter had seemed a small and trivial thing to young Mr. Farnsworth, at least at first, but as Boucher had not been welcomed there in nearly nine months, his sudden keen interest to be allowed back into that particular port was now very noteworthy. And according to the youth, Boucher had made the bribe before he and his crew had ventured on to Barbados in an attempt to snatch Katherine. Indicating that Boucher had a plan – likely several of them – just in case something went awry.

  Meaning that Boucher the Butcher had every intention of delivering Katherine to Lord Wilds. Now, more so than ever, most likely.

  Unfortunately for Daniel, though, he hadn’t been to Tortuga himself in months and had no idea of the current state of affairs there. But he had an excellent source for such information. Daniel just had to find him first.

  Actually, Daniel’s source for information regarding current activity on Tortuga spent his afternoons fishing off the coast of Black Heart, which was really only a tiny jut of land that stuck up in the middle of the ocean and connected to nothing. However, it was close enough to the coast of Haiti, that a determined man – and Reginald was nothing if not determined – could make it to Black Heart and back to the safe land of Haiti in a day. At this time of year, Reginald would be there every day and likely with a head crammed full of information.

  But Goddard did not need to know that. Nor did the rest of the crew.

  Still, many of his men were becoming restless, especially after yesterday’s attack. Daniel could tell from the way they shifted and the way some of them mumbled in muted agreement with Goddard. He was losing them, losing their loyalty. Just as well that he was getting out. Since embarking on this quest to rescue Katherine, Daniel had lost his edge, not to mention some of his ruthlessness. If he remained in this life, he would die.

  “Black Heart, it is then,” Davis replied with what might have been false enthusiasm as he winked at Daniel. “And I’ll gut anyone that says otherwise. We’ll be underway in a trice, Captain!” There might as well have been a salute at the end of that sentence for as chipper as the first mate wa
s to deliver it, though the implied threat that came along with those words carried a good deal of weight as well.

  Daniel had no doubt that the first crewman to question Davis about the captain’s orders would find himself on the wrong end of a blade.

  Peter Davis was a man with a future as a captain. Perhaps it was time for Midnight Jack to take on a new face and The Darkness a new crew, maybe even once they reached Tortuga. It was something to consider anyway.

  But for now, Jack had more pressing matters to deal with – such as getting Katherine naked again.

  Chapter Sixteen

  A week and a day after Boucher’s attack on The Darkness, Katherine awoke to find the ship stationary, the lap of the waves against the hull different now than they had been. It was an unusual sensation, to be certain, but a welcome one. They were near Tortuga. Finally.

  If they were anchored, that meant that they were just off of Black Heart Cay, that speck of almost nothing which consisted mostly of thick, dense jungle and sharp, pointed rocks. Despite some of his crew’s lobbying efforts, Daniel had refused to change his course or his plan of action. After all, he needed information before the final run to Tortuga, and this was the most likely place to find that information, no matter how deserted the place appeared. Or so he said.

  However, with each insistence that the ship needed to stop at Black Heart and not Mona, Daniel swore to Katherine that he could tell that more and more of his crew were beginning to question his orders. They also whispered that he was not the man he had once been. Before Katherine had come into his life.

  That much was true enough and even she could see it.