The Pirate's Jewel

by Cheryl Howe

  The hard tip of his cock nudged against her opening and she came apart. Her body convulsed against the thumb he still pressed and circled against the center of her pleasure. He nipped at her leg and held her while she writhed. When her contractions slowed, he withdrew his hand.

  She could barely catch her breath to protest when he nudged his shoulder under her other leg. He pulled her down and entered her in a hard, deep thrust. “Is this what you want?”

  She felt the tension build again before it was fully released. His urgency flooded her with another wave of desire. His hands gripped her waist, pulling her down with each of his thrusts. She felt herself tumble toward ecstasy again when he suddenly stopped. He held himself buried deep inside her. She could feel his involuntary pulses. She opened her eyes, seeing a line of sweat trail down his taut neck, and the firm set of his jaw. He teetered on the brink of release.

  He moved to kiss her mouth, covering her completely with his body. The kiss was a gentle peck, nothing like the driving urgency to which he had just put an untimely halt. She closed her eyes and undulated her hips.

  He held her firmly to him, stilling her movements. “Look at me.”

  She opened her eyes. His blue gaze devoured her with its intensity. “You belong to me now—under the law of man and God, you belong to me. Say it.”

  She licked her lips. “I belong to you.” She reached up and touched his cheek. Her finger drifted to trace his lips. His tongue touched the tip of her finger, urging it into his mouth. He sucked the digit, sending shivers all the way down to the point where they connected.

  He closed his eyes and moved again, slow and deep. Her passion built swiftly and, after a few thorough strokes, her body clenched around him. She clung to his shoulders to keep from being sucked under by the pleasure wracking her.

  He thrust deeply once more and stiffened. He buried his head in her shoulder and moaned something unintelligible into her neck. She held him as he tensed in her arms. After he had exhausted himself, he collapsed against her. He must have kept some of his weight on his arms, because the pressure felt more comfortable than crushing. She snuggled closer to him, wrapping her arms around him.

  He rolled over to his side, taking her with him. He returned her embrace, hugging her tightly. At that moment, she felt closer to him than when their bodies had been linked together. He gradually eased his grip, but they clung to each other.

  Nolan kissed her ear and smoothed her hair. “Now, you’re truly my wife and no one can ever tear us apart.”

  ***

  Jewel watched Nolan from across the deck. Nothing had been resolved between them, but everything had changed. Even his appearance. He always wore his hair loose now, and he no longer bothered with his stern blue jacket. He fit every image of the lustful adventurer she had dreamed of as a girl—all the way down to his black knee-length boots and the gold hoop catching the light at his ear. His one concession to civilization was his clean-shaven face, and that only because his beard left her cheeks and less visible parts of her anatomy raw.

  She sighed, enjoying watching his powerful movements as he gave orders to his crew. They were truly man and wife. Nolan had proved that at every opportunity. She stifled a yawn. If she wanted to survive another long, sensuous night, she needed a nap. Despite their unresolved past, she wanted to survive. She wanted a long life with her husband.

  “Not getting enough sleep, chit?” drawled Wayland.

  She glanced to find the old pirate lurking behind her. His advice had gotten her into this mess in the first place…and she had never even thanked him. She gave him a mischievous wink. “I’m sleeping just fine, thank you very much.”

  Wayland closed the distance between them. “Then it must be your husband that’s making you look so frazzled.”

  To her surprise, she smiled instead of blushed. “Perhaps. And what have you to say for yourself? Were you put off by soap and water at an early age?”

  His good eye widened. “Gotten a little bite, have we? I guess you had to, to keep that one in line.” He nodded his head toward Nolan.

  Jewel tugged on his sleeve. “I’m just teasing you.”

  “I know better, but I can take your abuse. At least you’re smiling at me again.”

  Jewel shrugged and strolled along the deck. “Things haven’t been easy. I didn’t like the way you suggested Nolan and I get together, but I guess it worked.”

  Wayland followed but stopped her with a gentle touch on the arm before they’d gone far. The serious frown he wore gave her pause to turn and give him her full attention. “You’re happy, then?”

  Jewel’s reassuring smile faltered under his intense scrutiny. “Don’t look so glum about it. I thought that was what your devious mind wanted all along.”

  Wayland covered his heart with his palm as if gravely offended. “Devious? Has Nolan been planting the wrong ideas about old Wayland?”

  Jewel looked down at the deck, suddenly finding the way her hem brushed the top of her brown leather shoes fascinating. Nolan had suggested a lot of things, but none of them regarded Wayland. She glanced at him from the corner of her eye. “I’ve gotten smarter is all. You knew a lot more about my father and Nolan than you led on. You pushed us together when Nolan tried to keep his distance.”

  Wayland glanced out across the sea in an obvious attempt to avoid her gaze. For a moment, Jewel thought he was truly ashamed. That couldn’t be, though, because it went against everything she knew about him. He was an opportunist, pure and simple. She really had gotten smarter. People rarely seemed to be what they presented themselves as. How wrong had she been about her own father?

  “Wayland, why did Nolan kill my father?” The question that continued to plague her left her lips before she knew she meant to ask it.

  Wayland jerked his head up. Jewel winced at her own impulsiveness. Suddenly, she feared hearing the truth, and had the urge to recall her request.

  Wayland stuck his hands in his pockets. “He didn’t, really.”

  Jewel blinked, stunned by his answer. She grabbed Wayland’s arm and turned him toward her. “Say that again.”

  “It’s like this: Nolan didn’t want to kill Bellamy; he just wanted out of his crew.” Wayland stared over Jewel’s head, not looking her in the eye.

  She pulled on his sleeve, trying to force him to meet her gaze. “I already know that. I overheard their argument.”

  Wayland turned his face to her. His cold blue eye stared in her direction while his brown one drifted over her shoulder. “You probably seen the scar, too. It almost killed him. He got an awful infection. That’s why it didn’t heal up proper. I did everything I knew for that boy.”

  Jewel’s heart tumbled over itself at the idea of losing Nolan. They were talking about her father’s actual death, but the real torture came from the idea of losing Nolan before she’d even found him. “Go on. Get to the part about how Nolan didn’t really kill my father.”

  Wayland shifted. He paused, appearing to choose his words carefully. “It was mutiny. That’s all. Nolan made no bones about the fact that he didn’t want Bellamy as his captain. True enough, he was ready to leave before Bellamy put a knife in him, but after Nolan healed up, he wasn’t the same. The boy bided his time, and when Bellamy started chasing ships for women and rum over the ones with booty…well, some of the others got disgruntled. They sided with Nolan.”

  “So the whole crew mutinied against my father?”

  “Almost all. I stuck by his side for a while, but he’d been drunk going on a fortnight, and I just couldn’t see losing my own hide because he was a bleeding idiot.”

  Jewel swallowed hard. Though she had expected her sire’s character was less than sterling, no one had ever been so blunt about his shortcomings. “My father was an idiot?”

  Wayland slapped his leg. “I didn’t mean that. It was just my memories talking. Your father was a savvy one—but the life he chose started eating at him. He kept trying to drink more, fight more, and womanize more all to mak
e his unhappiness go away when all he really wanted was you.”

  Her old wound ached at Wayland’s words. “Did he tell you that? Did he talk about me?”

  Wayland brought his brown gaze to rest on her face. “No, chit. He didn’t. Bellamy wasn’t what you would call a kind man. He didn’t do right by you, and I don’t know if he ever would have. I do know he was empty inside.”

  Jewel shook her head. If Wayland was trying to make her feel sorry for her father, he was going about it the wrong way. She didn’t have a father, and the hard work her mother had endured to raise her had taken the woman from Jewel also. She rubbed her temples. “So you’re saying the crew killed my father, not Nolan.”

  Wayland sketched an invisible circle on the deck with his toe. “Nolan gave the order to kill Bellamy. But he did it in a decent way when the crew wanted to rip him limb from limb, slow and torturous. They wanted to make a sport out of it and wager to see how long it took him to die—and that’s no exaggeration. An unhappy crew of pirates is something you don’t want to reckon with.”

  “So Nolan had no choice?” If Jewel could believe that, her problems would be solved. She could bury the past once and for all.

  Wayland glanced over her shoulder again. She followed his gaze to where Nolan had climbed up the mainmast with his spyglass.

  “Nolan sparked the crew’s grumbling. No one had the ballocks to stand up to Bellamy ’cept him. He took those cutthroats in hand and they followed. Would still be following him if he hadn’t decided to go honest. He’s back where he belongs now.”

  Jewel watched Nolan jump to the deck and scan the area until he caught sight of her. Even from a distance, she could feel the intensity, the possessiveness of his gaze. He didn’t wave to acknowledge her. He didn’t have to. He smiled at her briefly, and then turned to give orders to a crew member. Jewel faced Wayland again. “How did my father die?”

  Wayland’s mouth became tight. “You don’t need to know that.”

  Jewel knew Nolan wasn’t a cold-blooded killer. If he were, he wouldn’t have let Jack and the rest of his crew go free. “Do you think Nolan did the right thing?”

  Wayland scoffed. “What does that have to do with anything? Right or wrong don’t come into our kind of life. And it sure didn’t keep me to my ripe old age.”

  “But you said he didn’t want to kill my father. He did what he had to do.”

  “That don’t make it right. But if that’s what you’re looking for, I guess Nolan would be your man. He’s got that useless sense of good and bad more than most.”

  Jewel smiled. “And you don’t?”

  Wayland gave her a lopsided grin, which was much more pleasant than his toothless smile. “I just might be learning in spite of myself.”

  She tilted her head and laughed. “Been around Nolan too long, huh?”

  “Nope, been around you.”

  Jewel narrowed her gaze, trying to surmise if he was teasing her. He glanced away, immediately hiding the rare show of sincerity. “Don’t listen to me. I’ve had way too much kill-devil in my day. I just wish Bellamy could have gotten to know you like I do. You would have given him a treat, you would have.” Wayland started to walk off.

  Jewel smiled, the closest thing to contentment she’d ever experienced in regard to her father. “You think I could have had the same effect on him as I’ve had on you?” she called out.

  He turned and walked backward for a few paces. “I certainly hope so.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  They reached the island shortly before dawn. The inkling of dread he’d thought he would experience the moment they slipped into the welcoming arms of the sheltered cove didn’t plague Nolan in the least. In fact, a certainty that the journey he’d begun at fourteen would soon come to its culmination, banished the last of his doubts.

  Nolan and Parker lowered the longboats in the hazy blue light. No one wanted to wait for daybreak. They were all too excited. If the rumors were true, there was enough treasure for everyone—and more important, enough to finance a war. At least a good portion of it.

  Nolan paused to feel the soft breeze caress his tired face. The island’s tropic scent drifted over the stale smell of sea and brine, always a welcome event. During the long passage here, Nolan had grown to trust his fledgling crew. In the months they had been together, they had all grown, especially Nolan himself. Finally he was his own man. Answering only to himself—not Bellamy, not to his father, and certainly not to a ghost.

  He took Jewel’s hand, kissed her knuckles. A firm grip on her arm in the event she slipped, he helped to establish a foot on the rope ladder’s first rung, and then held the lantern while she climbed steadily down. Parker waited below to settle her into the skiff. He wrapped his hands around her slight waist, supporting her transfer into the rocking boat. She glanced up at Nolan, and he smiled to reassure her. Jealousy no longer flashed its fangs at the slightest cause. The fear that he’d lose her to another man had stopped creeping into his thoughts, at least when it came to Parker.

  Nolan’s smile faded as Jewel looked toward the island. He wasn’t going to lose her to anyone, he told himself. He followed her gaze. The island was blanketed in shadows, the perfect home for a ghost.

  “You told her you love her yet?”

  Nolan turned abruptly to find Wayland breathing down his neck. “Haven’t you learned not to sneak up on people?”

  “I’ve been standing here the whole time. You haven’t told her, have you?”

  “Get in the boat if you want to go.”

  “You can’t take her for granted. You got to tell the girl how you feel. Women need more than a rough tumble to know their man loves them.” Wayland wedged himself between his captain and the rope ladder.

  Nolan took a whiff of the pirate and snapped his head back. “How much have you had to drink?”

  Wayland pushed him away. “I always smell like rum, and I’m damn proud of it. It’s a good tonic for the skin.”

  Nolan raised the lantern. “You don’t shave. No one can see your face.”

  “I can see yours well enough, and it’s got me wondering why you’re staring at the island like something is waiting there to eat you alive.”

  Nolan glanced at the island’s dark shape and tensed. Despite his earlier optimism, a bad feeling seeped around him like a graveyard mist. “You know why. Get in the boat and let’s get this over with.”

  Wayland shrugged. “All right, but you don’t sound like a man going to find a king’s ransom.”

  No? Nolan followed Wayland down the ladder. As soon as he had the treasure on board and they sailed away from this place, he’d shriek with happiness. He settled in the boat and took Jewel’s hand, letting the other men row.

  Maybe he should tell Jewel he loved her. He had never thought of it, because he didn’t know that he did. He definitely lusted after her, but love…he wasn’t sure the feeling existed. The only love he had known had been for his parents. The sensation had been cloying and repressive, always leaving him with more guilt than pleasure. He didn’t feel that way about Jewel. A little obsessive maybe, and there was guilt when he caused her to be unhappy. The tightness in his chest when he looked at her could be described as cloying, but…no. It wasn’t the same. Men weren’t expected to natter on about things like love. He had married her. That was enough.

  He lifted his head, and his heart stopped as the ghost came into view. Nolan shifted, sitting up straighter. No one else must have seen it, because they all still appeared half-asleep. He focused his gaze. A man dressed in tattered rags stood on the edge of the beach, waving his arms over his head in a desperate attempt to gain their attention. Nolan’s stomach lurched.

  My God, was he going mad? If anyone could accomplish making him so, it would certainly be Bellamy Leggett—dead or alive.

  Parker glanced at Nolan, his oars raised from the water. “There’s someone on the beach.”

  Jewel peered around the men blocking her view. Nolan’s gaze shot to Wayland, wh
o looked not the least bit surprised. Then, with the force of an unexpected blow from Bellamy’s solid fist, Nolan knew. He almost wished he had been going mad. Bellamy had topped himself in deception and manipulation. Nolan had been his pawn from the very beginning. “Son of a—”

  Jewel squeezed his fingers. He turned and glared at her. For the briefest, heart-stopping moment, he thought she had been part of her father’s diabolical plan. Her bewildered expression told him his suspicions were unfounded. They had used her even more cruelly than they had him, which only added to Nolan’s murderous fury.

  He pinned Wayland with a look that would have shoved him out of the boat if that had been possible. “This isn’t over. Far from it. It’s just begun.”

  Wayland appeared neither offended nor smug. Instead, he shrugged in detached resignation. “Tell that to him.”

  “To who?” Jewel asked. “Do you know that man on the beach?”

  The shore’s sudden approach saved Nolan from answering her question. Both he and Parker jumped out, having anxiously removed their boots the moment they entered the boat. They dragged the skiff to the beach.

  Bellamy Leggett stumbled in their direction. His clothing hung in tatters, but his pride and joy, his thick golden hair, had been recently brushed and hung past his shoulders. Gray streaks had begun to dull its sheen. The face that had terrorized Nolan’s dreams was clean-shaven, giving Nolan hope that either Bellamy had gotten dumber or himself, smarter.

  “Nolan, is that you? I knew you would come back for me. I knew you wouldn’t forsake me.”

  Parker paused to stare. Nolan fought the urge to applaud at Bellamy’s performance. He heard the gasp from the boat and realized Jewel had recognized her father. Nolan held himself in check, stiffly waiting for her reaction. He would let Bellamy make this game’s first move.

  Jewel climbed out of the boat. She trudged through the sand, oblivious of the surf soaking the hem of her gown. Bellamy stumbled toward her, blinking furiously, as if trying to clear tears from his eyes. From where Nolan stood, the man’s eyes were as dry as the sand itself.