The Pirate's Heart

by Bethany M. Sefchick

  Next to him, Daniel heard the tell-tell hiss of metal as Davis drew his cutlass while he sniffed the air. “I smell copper, Cap’n.”

  That meant blood. Daniel drew his own cutlass, impressed when Katherine unsheathed her dagger. He knew she would have preferred her bow from the other day, but such a weapon wasn’t practical here.

  “Stay alert.” Daniel had a very bad feeling about things.

  “There. In the sand.” Somehow, Katherine had spotted four tiny drops of what might have been blood in the pristine white sand.

  The dark splotches led from what also might have been a set of footprints back into the undergrowth. Except that it appeared as if someone had attempted to obliterate the footprints, possibly with a pair of boots. Though they had not been very successful in their attempt. Then again, if the sun had been rising at the correct angle, it might not have been possible to tell if the footprints had been wiped away or not. Either that or someone was in a hurry.

  Taking the lead, Daniel led the small group forward. He should have sent Katherine back to the skiff for her own safety, but as there were only three of them in the landing party that wasn’t exactly practical. Or safe. Also, given her proficiency with weaponry, she was more of an asset with him than hidden away elsewhere.

  Creeping forward, Daniel carefully parted the thick, jungle-like growth. The coppery smell was stronger here, and it looked as if some of the nearby branches had been damaged. The blood trail came and went, but where it was visible, it was evident that whoever had been injured had been losing a great deal of blood. If this was Reginald, it was unlikely that he had survived his injury.

  Finally, the little group emerged into a small clearing and Daniel, for all that he had witnessed and endured during his life as a pirate, nearly cast up his accounts where he stood. Sprawled on the ground was Reginald, his lifeless eyes staring blankly up to the sky. He had been gutted from the look of things, and Daniel moved to block Katherine’s view for this was something she had no need to see for herself. However, given the retching sound behind him, he had done so too late. She had seen the horror with her own eyes.

  Damn it all to bloody hell anyway!

  Behind him, Daniel could almost feel Davis’ head turning this way and that, scanning the small clearing for any sign of the murderer, but Daniel’s instincts said that the killer was already long gone. Whoever had done this both wanted Reginald found and also wanted to be far away from this stretch of beach when the discovery was made. Nor was this a fresh kill. Given the dried blood and the beginnings of blisters on Reginald’s upturned face, he had most likely been killed in the early hours of the day, possibly even as dawn was just breaking.

  Perhaps even moments after The Darkness had dropped anchor during the dark and early hours of the morning. While Daniel had been preoccupied with fucking Katherine’s tits as the sun crept toward the horizon, the perpetrator could have been off the ship to kill Reginald and back aboard again before anyone was the wiser. Daniel, especially, never would have known. Or even cared at that point.

  “Other pirates?” Davis asked finally when it was clear no one would be running out of the nearby shrubs to attack them.

  “Without question,” Daniel replied, breathing in deeply and allowing his mind to slowly fit the pieces of this particular puzzle together. “But not Boucher or Garcia. Nor any other that I am familiar with for that matter. This is not their style. Boucher would have strung him up and Garcia would have left him naked in the sun. Those are their trademarks. For one of our own to gut another is a step not many are willing to take.”

  “Then who?” Katherine asked as she returned to the clearing, having finished casting up her accounts behind some nearby shrubs. “Who would do such a thing?”

  Daniel’s eyes flicked around the clearing warily. “Someone who both does not want us to know what awaits us on Tortuga and who knew we were coming here rather than stopping at Mona to seek out information.”

  “Meaning a member of your own worthless crew, Cap’n.” That came from Davis.

  Daniel nodded grimly, his mind racing. “Goddard most likely or possibly Jennings. Either one could have done this. They knew of the plans and neither particularly care for the way I run my ship. They also had ample time this morning before we left the ship.”

  Katherine frowned, her face still as pale as death. “But why? What do they have to gain?”

  “Simple. All of the reward money for your safe return plus whatever price Boucher has put on your head. Which is, I must tell you, quite sizable indeed.” When Katherine gaped at him wide-eyed, Daniel shrugged. “You, Duchess, are the most valuable person floating around the West Indies at the moment. First, there is the price Lord Wilds put on your head, coupled with whatever reward your uncle is offering for your safe return. I’ve no idea what that specific amount is, as I don’t really care, but I will assume it is substantial. We must also assume that Boucher wants his revenge upon you as well for the deaths of his crewmen and is paying very well to make certain he receives it.”

  “Surely all of that, no matter how dramatic it sounds, does not make me more valuable than you or another wanted pirate,” she scoffed, some color finally returning to her cheeks. “After all, you are Midnight Jack. While I am someone of no consequence.”

  This time it was Davis who answered her. “You killed two of Boucher’s men, my lady, and there was already a very high price on your pretty head before you did so. Boucher will not take that killing lightly and has probably already offered a substantial reward for you, perhaps more than your uncle and Wilds combined.” His gaze flicked to Daniel. “If what Jack here says is true, the reward for your return if you are carrying a child, specifically Midnight Jack’s child, would be greater yet. That is something Boucher would quite easily use to his advantage without hesitation.”

  Katherine shook her head and Daniel could see the first flare of true panic rising in her eyes. “You are wrong. That is absurd!”

  Davis shrugged, but he did not waver in his assertion. “Perhaps, but even if it is absurd, you still wear The Pirate’s Blood about your neck. That alone is worth a pretty penny and there are many pirates willing to risk the curse to possess it, Boucher among them. You wore that pretty trinket the day of the attack on our ship. Boucher and his men saw it about your neck. They know you have it.”

  Daniel watched as Katherine’s delicate fingers caressed the large center ruby. “And they would kill me for it.”

  “Kill you. Take you prisoner. Or worse.” Davis sighed and once more looked around the clearing. “Either way, whoever possesses you stands to make a great deal of coin off of your back. One way or another.” His gaze lingered for a long moment on her bare tits. “And dressing like that, my lady? Well, forgive me for saying so, but that only makes you more tempting, even for those not always inclined toward females, like some of those aboard Jack’s ship.”

  “Told you so,” Daniel grumbled, but he wasn’t really upset with Katherine. He was, however, upset over Reginald’s death, and knew they could not linger here much longer. “Very well, then. There is danger about. Of that much, I am certain. We will need to be careful. Even more than before.”

  “What if whoever did this attacks you aboard the ship? I mean, if he truly is a member of your crew, that is.” Daniel could hear the fear in Katherine’s voice and he felt it himself deep in his bones.

  “They won’t,” Davis supplied quickly as if trying to calm her fears. “Jack here is a good captain and has earned the men’s loyalty and respect. Well, all but one or two, though that is the case with all ships and their captains. Other than refusing to share you with them, Jack doesn’t withhold much and even in this case… Well, the men know our captain does not share his women. Never has. Never will. You know that up front when you sign up to come aboard The Darkness as crew.”

  Daniel nodded, his mind already racing with new plans. “Davis is right. Whoever did this will not attack me on the ship, but they likely will coordinate with so
meone once we reach Tortuga. I also have to assume someone has betrayed me to Boucher. No one else has that much desire to see me dead or see you captured. Therefore, we proceed with caution.” He glanced at Davis. “Help me with Reginald, would you?”

  “Of course.” The other man did not hesitate.

  Together, the two men drug Reginald’s body back into the undergrowth.

  As Daniel had expected, Katherine was incredulous. “You can’t mean to leave him here! That is not right!”

  “We do mean and we must.” Daniel gripped her chin in his hand as he turned away from the body of his old friend. “The minute we take that man’s body aboard The Darkness, we tip our hand, Duchess. Whoever is working with Boucher will know that we have learned the truth – that there is a spy and a traitor in our midst, for there can be no other who killed him. Not when we are the only ship here. The traitor wants me to worry. I refuse to give them that satisfaction.” He looked back to the spot where the body lay. “If we say we could not find him? That there was no sign of him? The spy will believe we do not realize Reginald is dead and will thus assume he is safe and that I am none the wiser, giving him no cause to strike before we reach Tortuga.”

  “If he doesn’t suspect we know, he might tip his hand early, the mangy cur.” Davis was finishing rearranging the brush as he spoke. “If we discover the spy’s identity before we reach Tortuga, we have a chance of getting upper hand on Boucher. Or whoever is after you, should it not be The Butcher.”

  “My coin is on Boucher,” Daniel replied firmly, taking Katherine by the arm and propelling her back toward the beach where the skiff waited. “Just as my coin is on Goddard being the spy.”

  “You might be right.” Davis did not seem bothered by this development, which Daniel took as a good sign. He needed his first mate to be unflappable when faced with a challenge like this. Otherwise, who could say what might go amiss?

  The trip back to the ship was a somber one, but Daniel did his best to keep Katherine distracted. The sight of the dead man obviously bothered her, as he had suspected it would for any lady of good breeding.

  However, Daniel needed her to act as she normally would when they rejoined the crew, lest the spy realize something was wrong and vanish – or worse make an attempt on their lives – before he could be caught. The last thing Daniel needed was Katherine’s tears over Reginald alerting the traitor among them.

  As it happened, he needn’t have worried. His would-be pirate queen was far more astute about such things than he had given her credit for being.

  The moment the group emerged onto the ship’s deck from the skiff, Katherine began nettling him. She raged that his “informant” hadn’t even bothered to show up as expected and was likely sleeping off drink somewhere on another island. She asked how he expected to collect the ransom for her safe return when he could not even properly arrange a meeting with an old man. She also swore that she felt ill and that if she was with child, then it was his fault and that he would pay dearly.

  In short, she behaved exactly as one would expect a lady might when she was a prisoner of the notorious pirate, Midnight Jack, and having her cunt plundered by him at every opportunity in order to get a child on her. To Daniel’s mind, she was also beyond magnificent especially garbed as she was, and he could not resist playing along.

  “Do not test me, Duchess!” Daniel roared at Katherine after she made a rude comment about his fucking skills. “Lest I remind you again here and now exactly how proficient I am in that regard! And exactly how much you enjoy it!”

  “I should like to see you try!” she sneered back at him, her body flush with anger – and desire. “You might force me to dress as you command but you cannot force me to enjoy what you do to my body.”

  “Sounds like a challenge to me, Cap’n!” Hayes, who had been busy coiling ropes as they began to pull up anchor, called out. “Show her what for!”

  “I dare you.” Katherine’s eyes were fixed on his and Daniel heard both the challenge and the excitement in her voice.

  Growing up, Daniel had never known this side of her, but it seemed that, once garbed in pirate’s clothes, Katherine became someone else. But wasn’t the same true of him as well? Once he put on these clothes, he became Midnight Jack. He was no longer Daniel. The same was likely true for her as well, especially when garbed as a pirate queen.

  The Katherine that Daniel had known back on Barbados would never have done anything so scandalous as to suggest – even in an indirect way – that he should fuck her in public in front of nearly his entire crew. Taste her a bit and tempt her, yes. Perhaps indulge in front of a small group, as they had done before. But this sort of debauchery in the full light of day and in front of his entire crew? Never.

  However, this woman before him wasn’t the same Katherine he had known in his youth and Daniel himself? Well, he was not the young man who had set sail for England only to be captured by pirates, either. If he was different, why would she not be as well? And if this was what they both wanted, then why not indulge now? It was unlikely they would be able to carry on so wildly once they returned to the ducal estate in England. Should they live that long, of course.

  “With pleasure, Duchess,” Daniel hissed as he reached for her. “With pleasure.” When Katherine’s eyes flashed dangerously, he smiled wickedly. “My cock in your mouth. On your knees for me, Duchess. Now.”

  With that, he pushed her to her knees in the middle of everyone, his crew quickly crowding around them. Or at least it looked as if he pushed her down. In truth, Katherine had gone to her knees willingly, the little moan she made one of need and not of fear.

  Reaching down, Daniel freed his cock from his breeches and grabbed Katherine’s chin in the same motion so that he could force her mouth open. Or at least make it look as if he was doing so, for given her utter lack of resistance to him, she wanted this as much as he did. Though she was putting on a good show. A very good show, actually.

  As he slid his cock between her lush, plump lips, Daniel could not help but hiss out his pleasure. Despite her lack of skill, Katherine had a natural talent for sucking cock and as he slid his dick in and out of her mouth, she began to lap at him eagerly. Her hands came up, almost of their own volition, and cupped his balls lightly before she began to stroke him at his base.

  He grasped her head in both hands now as he began to thrust his hips, pumping his cock harder and faster into her mouth, so much so that he knew he was overwhelming her by the small mewling sounds that she made deep in her throat. Still, she sucked him harder, her tongue lapping at his tip before she slid it along his length as he pumped into her.

  Behind him, Daniel could hear his crew cheering. A part of his brain dimly registered that this was good, that this was what he needed to secure his crew’s loyalty for the remainder of the voyage, but in truth, all he could focus on was Katherine. The way she sucked him and lapped at him. The way she caressed his balls and pulled him as deeply into her throat as she could in this position.

  Suddenly, the urge to be deeper in her mouth, to feel his swollen cock bump the back of her throat, became so powerful that Daniel pushed forward, bending her backward, her tits falling free of the open shirt that she wore to the raucous cheers of his crew.

  But the shift in positions worked as he had hoped and now, arched as she was with her head thrown back, Katherine could take more of him, his cock nearly sliding all the way into her mouth. She took him so deeply that he swore his eyes would roll back into his head from the pleasure. There were simply no words to describe how his blood scorched like fire as she sucked him, her mouth so tight around him, so very much like her hot, sweet cunt.

  He thrust his hips faster, sweat beading on his brow as he fucked her mouth. Around his cock, she moaned, her fingers scrabbling against the hard wood of the deck as she surrendered to him – and to her desire. But this wasn’t enough. While taking her this way gave him incredible pleasure, he needed more, especially with Reginald’s death so fresh in his mind.
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  Daniel needed all of Katherine. He needed her body and soul.

  More importantly, he needed her surrender. Her complete and total surrender.

  An image popped into Daniel’s mind then, of her spread beneath him wearing nothing more than the Pirate’s Blood necklace, her legs spread wide for him as some of his men held her down as he fucked her hard and fast.

  “Do you want to play?” he asked her softly as he continued to thrust, aware that his cock was likely swelling in her mouth even more now. “It’s very dirty, Duchess. Very naked. Very public.”

  Katherine moaned again, louder this time as she looked up at him with pleading eyes. He could see her answer in those beautiful, lovely eyes. She wanted whatever he wanted.

  With a final, hard thrust, Daniel leaned down so that he was nearly bent double over Katherine. “Then trust me.”

  Her only response was to suck his cock harder than she ever had before. It was glorious. It was also all of the permission he needed.

  With a roar, Daniel withdrew his cock from his mouth and gestured towards his men. “Davis! Hayes! Over here and hold her down! I’ll plant my babe in this whore’s belly yet!”

  And as both men approached them, Daniel could see the excitement deep in Katherine’s gaze. She wasn’t afraid. She was welcoming this. Thank God. For if she had given even the slightest hint that she would refuse him, he would have stopped. Though he had no idea how he would have done so.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Katherine knew a brief flash of fear as two of Daniel’s crew approached them as he slowly withdrew his cock from her mouth. However, the fear didn’t last long. She had meant to goad him into fucking her, though she had assumed he would do so in private. Though this would do as well. Anything to bring her closer him. No matter how scandalous and open it left her.