“We spent those first days drunk on the gratification of what we’d done. We raided the galley and helped ourselves to the food we had been denied, and the rum that the officers had enjoyed while we drank water from the scuttlebutt that had gone putrid. We feasted like kings and imbibed until we were three sheets to the wind. But, as the revelry died down, we had to face the consequences of what we’d done. We could never return home, or risk being hanged for treason. Some of the men had families, but no means of supporting them now that they’d taken part in a mutiny. We never really called ourselves pirates, not at first. We were simply men seeking our fortune, righting the wrongs of what had been done to us. When talk of who would be our captain began, Rory was the one who put forth my name. The vote to elect me captain was unanimous.”
“You gave them what they needed to rise up and fight back. By killing that officer, you showed them they didn’t have to cower or be tread upon. Of course they made you their captain.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t see it that way. I was simply angry and desperate and had taken more than I could stomach from my superiors. But, I became their captain because it was the only way I could think of to get back to you. I had one simple plan—ravage as many Royal Navy ships as I could and earn myself the gold to establish a life somewhere else—someplace away from Jamaica and the Royal Navy and your father. I had every intention of returning to Falmouth and making off with you. I didn’t want to endanger you by writing, so I held on to the hope that you would wait.”
She lowered her eyes in shame, angry with herself now for giving in to Will when all she’d had to do was bide her time. His hand lifted her chin, and he gave her a pointed look.
“You were lied to. I cannot pretend it doesn’t infuriate me to know you were willing to marry him, but knowing you thought me dead makes it easier to stomach.”
“Word reached Falmouth five years ago that the Hannibal had gone down with the crew. No word of your survival reached us.”
“It wouldn’t have. We were the ones who sunk it, you see. We’d been pirating for a year by then, our holds filled with goods stolen from British merchantmen and navy vessels. But then, our mutiny came back to haunt us. We had elected not to slaughter the other officers, choosing instead to maroon them on an island in the Bahamas. They were eventually rescued by another navy vessel, and word quickly spread of what we’d done. The Caribbean Sea became a dangerous place for us, with all Royal Navy vessels ordered to retake the ship should they encounter us. So, when we came upon this schooner carrying tobacco and sugar cane out of the West Indies to England, we seized on the opportunity. We took this vessel for ourselves and sank the HMS Hannibal. I suppose the Admiralty didn’t want it known that a lowly group of seamen had defeated its officers and stolen one of its finest ships, so the tale of our loss in a storm was spread about. They refused to admit they’d been bested by us.”
“Of course not,” she said with a disdainful scoff.
“We’ve spent these past years making our fortune on the seas. Every man who has a family to support has found himself able to either send his wealth home his wife, or has brought their wives and children to live with us at Île Saint Marie.”
“Île Saint Marie?”
He smiled for the first time, a true smile. “It is an island off the eastern coast of Madagascar, and is known by some as simply ‘pirate island’. Its proximity to the Spice Route makes it the perfect base of operations. There are several pirate captains who have claimed territory there, including myself. We have our own compound of sorts, on a hill overlooking the most beautiful valley. You should see it, Bella … miles and miles of green palms and lush forest, clear lagoons with rushing waterfalls—my own home overlooks such a place. I … I had always planned to take you there.”
Arabella shifted even closer at the longing she heard in his voice, a subtle note underlying the gruff tones. He looked as hard and implacable as ever, but the boy who’d loved her was still in there somewhere. He still wanted her, even after she’d gotten engaged to Will, even after he’d been hurt and betrayed.
“You will,” she said, cupping his face and running her fingers along his smoothly shaved jaw. “Won’t you?”
He sat up, propping himself against the headboard. “Yes. That has always been my plan; to take you away to my piece of the island and … I don’t know, make some sort of life. I’m a wealthy man, but a wanted one, a criminal in the eyes of several nations. But I did it all for us, for you.”
She frowned, turning his head so he looked at her. “What has stopped you from coming until now? How do you know Will had something to do with your impressment?”
His jaw flexed and clenched tight, his nostrils flaring at the mention of his half-brother. “I wasn’t certain, not at first. But, hindsight will make a person aware of things they did not see before. I had always known Will wanted you. I’d have been a fool not to see the way he looked at you. He did not mask his desire or his envy well. I think he was counting on my not being able to purchase those shares in the shipping company so I could wed you.”
Arabella shook her head, still in disbelief at this revelation. “I never noticed. I was so wrapped up you, I only ever saw him as my friend.”
Drew scoffed. “Everyone else knew, your father included. I was a fool to think he would ever allow me to marry you whether I could support your or not. I now know the lengths he was willing to go to keep me from having you.”
“So … my father helped him? They did this to you together?”
He gave her a solemn look filled with pity. “I know you want to think your father is a good man …”
“I think he is a man who only considers his best interest,” she said with a shrug. “I do have affection for him, but the reality of my birth cannot be ignored. He took advantage of my mother’s position as his property, knowing she could not truly deny him. She was like any other slave until she had the wiles to earn her freedom, and mine.”
He gave her another smile, and she basked in the glow of it—like the sun appearing from behind clouds after a storm. “She was a brave woman, much like her daughter.”
She lowered her eyes in the face of his praise, knowing she hadn’t been as brave as she ought, or as smart. She’d been so blinded by grief she hadn’t seen Will’s manipulation for what it was.
“I did it,” he went on when she did not reply. “I gathered the money and purchased those shares. In my joy over having finally done it, I went to Will first. Even knowing that he coveted you, I thought he’d be happy for us. But, he grew very silent when I told him, and he had this odd look in his eye. What I thought to be mere shock then, I now know to have been cold calculation. He was already plotting to get rid of me. The following night, he invited me to a tavern to celebrate our impending betrothal. I planned to go to Greenhill in the morning and show Archibald that I was now ready to offer you the comfortable life you deserved. Only, I never got the chance. Will got me stinking drunk … so drunk that I was defenseless when the press gang set upon me in the alley outside the tavern. He had ducked back inside on some pretense or another, leaving me alone. I was overtaken and bound hand and foot, my head covered with a sack, and carried onto the HMS Hannibal along with several other men, including Rory. Your father had arranged it all … going to an acquaintance of his who was known for taking bribes in exchange for setting press gangs onto people that men of influence wished to be rid of. I learned that later, when I tortured it out of the Hannibal’s captain. It worked quite well, really. I suppose they thought that if I were away for years Will would have a chance to win you. That the Hannibal was reported as sunk must have seemed quite fortuitous for them.”
Arabella sighed, running both hands over her tousled hair. Her head spun as she took all this in, appalled at the cruelty of her father and Will. Truly, Archibald’s behavior did not surprise her, but Will … he had been one of Drew’s only friends in the world. Mrs. Throckmorton had hated the evidence of her husband’s affair with a black slave,
and had made it clear that Drew was not welcome in her home, even after his mother had died and left him an orphan.
Mr. Throckmorton had set him up in a house in Falmouth with a nanny to care for him until he came of age. He’d gone to school and become a carpenter’s apprentice, and despite the interference of his father’s wife, had managed to forge a tight bond with Will. Upon the death of his wife, Mr. Throckmorton had begun bringing Drew into his home for extended visits. It was during those times that Arabella had come to know both boys, finding in them her closest friends in the world. Will’s betrayal wounded her so deeply she could hardly stand it. How could he have been so cruel?
“Jealousy is a powerful emotion, Bella,” Drew said, as if having read her mind. “I know how it feels. When I began sending my spies into Falmouth in preparation for coming to retrieve you, I learned that he’d begun courting you, and the island was ablaze with talk of your eventual marriage. I didn’t want to believe it, but the accounts I heard, and then seeing you in that church with him … I was fit to kill you both then and there. But I loved you too much, even when it hurt, and I wanted my hands on him just as badly, so I stayed my hand. I’m glad I did, so I could come to see that envy blinded me to the truth.”
She braced her hands on his shoulders and slid into his lap, straddling him. She needed to be close to him, to feel connected to him after so much time apart.
“Oh, Drew, you must know I’d never have considered him if I thought for a moment that you were alive. I was just so lonely and wretched without you. And he was there, and he … he manipulated me most thoroughly.”
He braced both hands at her waist, smoothing them down to her hips and back up again. His cock swelled against her mons, full and thick.
“He took advantage of you, and I know that now. I won’t lie to you, Bella, knowing you were nearly his has not been easy to bear. I find even now that I wrestle with my fury over it. If it had been anyone else…”
She took hold of one of his hands and pressed it between her breasts, right against the fading remnants of the mark from his talisman and her heart. “I know. All I can do is ask you to forgive me, and tell you that I never wanted him as many times as it takes for you to believe it. I was always yours, Drew.”
“You still are mine,” he growled, raising both hands to cup and knead her breasts. “Don’t get it in your head that I’ll ever let you go now. You’re coming with me to Île Saint Marie, and I’ll never let you leave.”
Moaning, she undulated her hips to press closer to him, fitting her breasts more fully in his grasp as he toyed with her tender nipples. “I won’t want to leave. Not ever. I’ll be your captive for life if you’ll have me.”
He made a low hum of satisfaction, still toying with her breasts and seeming to enjoy himself immensely. “I’ll have you right now. I know it’s bad of me after such a rough first time, but … goddamn it, Bella. I can’t get enough of you. I never could.”
“Have me,” she urged, despite the lingering soreness. She didn’t care if it hurt, if he tore her apart. She wanted him. Needed him.
A wicked gleam flashed in his eyes as he lowered his hands to cup her buttocks, raising her up so he could fit his cock at her opening. “Ask me nicely like a good girl. Say, ‘Please fuck me, Captain.’”
She gasped when he surged his hips, giving him the barest inch of him and pausing. Gripping his shoulders, she ground against him, urging him deeper.
“Please fuck me, Captain. Oh!”
Her exclamation choked off on a strangled cry as he swiftly pressed her downward, spearing her on his cock. His head fell back against the headboard and the muscles in his arms bunched and rolled as he propelled her up and down his cock, his hips moving in time with hers so they danced together, as in tune with one another as they’d always been.
The sting of his invasion melted away as she stretched to accommodate him easier than before, this position allowing him in as deep as he could go. She clawed his chest, wild with desire as she gave herself over to primal lust and need. As she hurtled toward climax, Arabella clung to Drew, throwing her head back and surrendering to the storm as it washed over her, exulting in the fact that he was hers once more.
Chapter 7
That afternoon, when the sun was at its highest, Drew stood amongst his crew on the deck of The Sea Lion with Arabella at his side. His two prisoners knelt in irons, ready to face the justice of the crew and their captain.
After availing himself to the bounty of Arabella’s body twice more that morning, he had sent for a hot bath. While he was typically conservative with the ship’s stores of fresh water, he made an exception, knowing she would be sore after their frenzied coupling. He ought to be gentler with her, kissing and caressing her with the tender hands of a lover instead of the dominating ones of a pirate captain. But his fervor for her was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. It demanded utter annihilation—panting, sweating oblivion.
His Bella was as receptive to him as she’d always been, her carnal urges awakened and responding in kind to his dark urges. She only clung to him tighter when it was over, kissing his neck, his jaw, his lips. Her sweetness in the aftermath was his favorite part—something he’d never thought to experience again during those hellish days aboard the HMS Hannibal.
That time in his life was over. With this final act, he would put Archibald, Will, and their foul deeds behind him, and escape with Arabella to his private island paradise. His pirating days were far from over, for there was an entire crew of men relying on him, and oceans full of ships for the plunder. But he would strike out to sea secure in the knowledge that Arabella would always be his home, his place of refuge, the thing drawing him back to Île Saint Marie.
He had used an ewer of the hot, fresh water to bathe at the washstand, leaving her to soak in the copper hipbath he made occasional use of whenever there was enough water for it. For the first time, he delved into the hoard of riches he’d collected over the years just for her.
His Bella had been catered to as a lady all her life, but now she would be a queen. She bathed in waters scented with jasmine and clove, and slathered her skin with rose and almond oils. Once he had her on the island, he’d reserve a portion of his house staff to cater to her every whim.
He gave his queen her pick of gowns in rich fabrics taken from all over the world—India, Morocco, The Orient, Italy, Spain, and France. She chose a sari of green silk embroidered with gold beading from amongst his bounty taken from an East India Company ship, wrapping it around her body and allowing the long end of the garment to flow over one shoulder. She wore nothing beneath it, exposing the golden slope of one shoulder and her upper back, making his mouth water to bite and kiss that bare skin. She tried several pairs of slippers before finding some that fit, and allowed him to fasten a jade broach over her breast.
“Everything that is mine is now yours,” he said as he stood back to study her, much preferring her this way as opposed to trapped and constricted by stays and layers of petticoats. “I give you the world, my Bella.”
She had kissed him then, coming up on tiptoe and cupping his face. He’d fallen into the kiss with ardor, nearly forgetting the task he’d set for himself for the day. Now that he’d set things right with her, there were two treacherous snakes to be dealt with.
“Enough,” he had rasped, tearing his mouth away from hers. “If we go on this way, we’ll never leave this cabin. As much as I would like that, there is another matter for me to tend to. Then, we are going home, together.”
So, here they stood, now ready to mete out punishment for the misdeeds of the two men who had nearly torn them apart. Drew’s chest swelled with pride at the awe-filled stares Bella attracted. But nothing pleased him more than seeing Will’s dismay at the sight of her standing at Drew’s side, one arm around his waist and the sun shining down on her, turning her into some sort of heavenly vision. Drew draped a possessive arm over her shoulder, smirking at the way Will’s jaw ticked when his hand fell against Arabell
a’s breast. He left it there, and she seemed content to allow it.
“Brother, Archibald, today you stand before the crew of The Sea Lion to answer for your offenses against their captain. While nothing would please me more than tending to you myself, I never act without the leave of my crew.”
“String ‘em up, Cap’n!” shouted a man perched on the yardarm, a bit of rigging twined about his arm.
“Give ‘em a taste o’ the cat o’ nines!” cried another.
“Nay! Keelhaul the bastards!”
Archibald groaned and whimpered as cheers and shouts of agreement rang out through the crew, while Will remained as stone-faced and defiant as ever. His brother never broke his gaze, his chin jutting out in a show of rebellion.
Drew held one hand up for order, and the crew fell silent once again. “In due time, gents, in due time. First, my lady must be allowed to have her say, for these men not only betrayed me, they also wounded her.”
Sounds of dissent and scorn rippled over the deck, a few men even going so far as to spit on Archibald, his cabin boy delivering a swift kick to Will’s ribs. Will doubled over but did not fall, shoulders heaving as he struggled to catch his breath.
Rory stepped forward, one fist raised as he roused the men to chant, “Bella! Bella! Bella!”
Arabella glanced about with startled eyes as the men took up the call, her name echoing through the air with the force of nearly one hundred male voices.
Bracing a hand at the small of her back, Drew lowered his head to whisper in her ear. “They love and accept you, because you belong to me. By harming you, they have harmed me, and the men won’t stand for it. Speak your mind, Bella. The men will listen and take it into account in their judgment.”
She met his eyes and nodded her understanding, then lifted the hem of her sari and stepped forward, her head held high like the regal creature she was. Staring down her nose at her father, she looked upon him as if she found him a pitiful creature.
Pirates, Passion and Plunder Page 9