“Who told you that?” Cole growls.
“Hank. My ex-fiancé.”
Cole’s fists clench, his eyes harden. He cups my jaw. “He has no notion what he is talking about. Just your kiss made me want to rip your silly garment apart.”
Heat flushes through me. Is he right? Could Hank be wrong? Suddenly, I want nothing more than to prove Hank wrong—no, to prove myself wrong. To show myself that a real, kinky pirate is turned on by me.
Our eyes lock, and all the breath is sucked out of my lungs.
“How did you first fall in love?” I say to distract him. “That’s question number one.”
His lips press into a thin line, his eyes darkening. “She was a passenger on the ship I served on. She was older than me. I was just a boy. She taught me things—many things. About my body, about the art of submission and domination. About the art of patience. And the limits between pain and pleasure that can be stretched and pushed. She—” He sat in silence for a while before continuing. “She made me who I am. This is how I fell in love. Through my body.”
I imagine a small cabin in a ship, Cole—young and dark eyed—with an older woman tying his hands. The image makes me sick. I stretch my arm to him and cup his jaw. His eyes darken even more, and he just opens his mouth to say something when someone knocks at the door. A middle-aged man with bushy sideburns sticks his head into the room.
“Cap’n, a ship on the horizon, south-southwest. Heading right at us. Can’t see what he’s flying.”
Cole frowns. “I’m coming, Jenkins.”
Jenkins disappears, but Cole calls after him, “Did you employ Lisa?”
I gasp, angry. Did we not just establish that I wasn’t a whore? Jenkins ogles me. “I do not think I had the pleasure.”
Cole frowns and stands up, finds his trousers and puts them on. “Someone else, then?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Told you!” I cry out. “I traveled through time.”
Cole pulls on his shirt, then his boots, without taking his eyes off me.
“We shall see. Stay here while I’m dealing with the ship.”
Chapter 5
Lisa
I sit for a moment and stare at the door behind which Cole disappeared. A ship is following us? Are we in danger?
I stand up and walk to the window, and even I can see the silhouette of a ship on the horizon—three rows of sails, black against the glowing orange and red of the dying sunset. What adventure had Adonis sent me on?
Speaking of which, the necklace is still here somewhere, and I’m alone. My hands shake a little. Will he be gone long?
I must look for it. But where do I start?
The massive desk is littered with books and maps. There’s a quill in a little ink jar and an abacus. One book is open, and there’s a sort of table where names are written next to a list of loot, along with who got what share. The table looks clean and precise, and it’s clear payments were made directly after the raids. Cole was a fair captain, it seems.
My heart warms at the thought. He’s a kind man, I knew it.
I go through the desk drawers and find boxes with gunpowder, guns, knives. In one there’s an old bible and a small wooden cross on a simple string. I take it in my hands and turn it over. There’s an engraving that reads, “To Cole from Mother” and small heap of folded envelopes with the same address on them: Blackwood Family, Water Lane, Bristol.
All sealed. None sent.
I brush my fingers against Cole’s sharp, precise handwriting. My heart squeezes at the thought that he must be missing his family if he wrote to them, if he still sends them support.
He has a soul, and a heart.
My chest fills with lightness, my stomach with the fluttering wings of hummingbirds. Oh no. I’m starting to feel more than I’m supposed to. I’m about to leave him; now is not the time to fall for a pirate from another century!
I need to find the necklace. I shut the drawer, turn and catch something with my hand. A dark object flies through the air, falls on the floor and shatters, spilling black ink everywhere.
I freeze, and angry bird’s squawks fill the room. I look in the far corner and see a tall iron cage covered with a white sheet. No, no, no, someone will hear it. I dash there and lift the sheet up.
It’s a large green parrot with a bright-yellow feathers around its beak. One wing is clearly broken because it hangs at an awkward angle. Although the break healed, and the bird can lead a good life as a pet, it would never have survived in the wild this way.
“Shhh,” I put my finger to my lips. “Please, sweetie, go to sleep. I’m sorry I woke you up.”
But it continues to squawk, and I look around helplessly. “Chut, Chut, Chut,” the parrot squawks. “Chut up.”
I stare at it. “Did you just tell me to shut up?”
“Chut up.”
A smile spreads my lips. A talking parrot! I’ve had a couple of canaries and cockatiels, the miniature cockatoos, stay in my hotel over the last couple of years, and I know what to prepare for with birds. I think this is an Amazon parrot, one of the most talkative.
“Okay, okay,” I say. “Shutting up.”
I continue watching the bird, and it calms down and studies me. It’s very pretty and cute. And I can’t believe Cole taught it to speak. Or did he buy it like this? Curiosity burns me. A pirate and a parrot. I wonder if the bird likes to sit on Cole’s shoulder.
“What’s your name?” I ask.
“Cap’n Bluebeard. Cap’n Bluebeard. I am not a pirate, but I long to be,” it sings, and I recognize the famous pirate shanty I heard in the museum. “Sailing by the stars across the seven seas…”
I clasp my hands on my chest in awe.
“I am not a pirate, but I long to be,” it goes on. “Sailing by the stars across the seven seas…”
“Oh my goodness, did Cole teach you that?”
“Cole da Black.” Captain Bluebeard scratches his beak with his foot.
“Aren’t you clever, Cap’n Bluebeard. Well done. Okay, go to sleep now. You didn’t see anything.” I take the sheet to cover the cage. “I need to keep searching for the treasure.”
“Treasure,” he says. “Chut up.”
I stop and look at the bird. “Do you know where it is?”
“Treasure. Chest. I am not a pirate, but I long to be…”
I look at the wall by the desk, and there are several chests of different sizes. I walk to the first, my hands shaking as I open it. Clothes, furs, textiles. The scent from the second one hits me in the face, an explosion of spices and exotic aromas. There are bottles of rum, little purses and jars with spices, tea, coffee, bottles with oil, and pieces of sandalwood along with other aromatic woods I don’t recognize.
“Treasure,” Captain Bluebeard says. “Chest.”
“Okay, this is treasure, but it’s not the one I’m after. I need a jade necklace.”
I go to the next chest, but that one is locked. The chest standing next to it is, too. I look around for the key but can’t see anything.
“Captain Bluebeard? Where are the keys?”
“Treasure. Chut up.”
“The keys. Do you know?”
“Chut. Up. Up. Up.”
I frown and look up. There’s nothing but the mirror attached to the ceiling.
“Up?” I say.
“Up,” he confirms and looks at the mirror, as well.
“Oh!” I get on the bed, stand up, and look closer at the mirror. There’s a gap between it and the ceiling. I gasp. I’m not tall enough to see what’s in the gap, but I reach up and run my hand along the back of the mirror. It’s big and rectangular and uneven. I search one side—nothing. The other side—nothing. Then, on the third side, my hand encounters something metal—a bunch of keys. My pulse drumming in my ears, I pull, but they don’t move. They must be stuck on something. I move them around, rattle them, but they won’t come loose. I feel with the other hand and find a hook. It feels like a complete circle, excep
t there’s a tiny gap. I push the key ring through the gap and pull the keys free.
Not believing my luck, I jump off the bed and do a happy dance.
“Okay, maybe it’s too early for that. I have no idea if the key is going to fit.”
“Treasure,” Captain Bluebeard says.
“Yes, treasure.” I sink to the chest and try the keys. Finally, after several nerve-wracking attempts, it opens.
I gasp again.
What I see there isn’t treasure. There are flogs, birch switches, harnesses, wooden dildos, a string with quite large wooden balls… I shut the lid as though a disease is about to jump out at me. My cheeks burn, and my body heat spikes. My breath rushing in and out, I quickly turn the key and close the lid, but my mind fills with images of Cole using all those things. On me. My nipples harden, my breasts swell, my inner muscles clench in sweet anticipation.
Oh God. Do I like kink?
I turn to Captain Bluebeard. “I hope you didn’t mean that this was the treasure.”
“Treasure. I am not a pirate, but I long to be…”
“You need to learn a new repertoire, my friend.”
I move to the next chest and pray I won’t find more of those things. A couple of minutes more of fiddling with the keys, and finally I unlock it. When I lift the lid, my breath catches. Treasure. The chest is only half full, but there are gold and silver coins, pearls, gemstones, earrings, necklaces… The jade necklace.
I can go home.
I am still as a statue, looking at it, not believing that I’m really seeing it. Then slowly, as though afraid to spook it, I take it in my hands. It buzzes slightly, just like the one I held back at the museum. And somehow I know it’ll work.
Am I ready? Just put it on, and I’ll never need to see Cole again. No mirrors, no kink, no riding crops, no talking parrots. No ships chasing us.
Us. My stomach drops.
I don’t want to leave Cole yet. I actually want to stay and spend time with him and experience this ride—the wildest ride of my life, I’m sure. And to show to myself that I’m not boring in bed.
Because I’ve had enough. Enough of following the rules and being a good girl. It’s time to be naughty. And there’s no better person to be bad with than with Cole the Black.
I put the necklace back, lock the chest, and turn around to put the keys back behind the mirror.
But a tall dark figure at the door makes me stop breathing.
“What did you do?” Cole’s eyes are a black storm, and its fury is focused on me.
Chapter 6
Cole
Rage thunders in me as I watch her sorry face. Lisa is holding the keys to my chests. She is asking to be punished, is she not? She does not reply to my question, just gapes at me.
“What. Did. You. Do?” I say, barely stopping myself from taking her by the shoulders and shaking the answer out of her.
But it’s Captain Bluebeard that answers. “Treasure,” he says. “Chut up.”
“Ah, the secret treasure. I can certainly see that you did not help.” I throw an angry glance at him.
“I—I’m sorry, Cole,” Lisa says. “I did look for the necklace, but I didn’t take it.”
I cross the distance between us and take the keys out of her hands, then put them on my belt.
“Forgive me, humble lady, but I have lost the ability to believe you,” I say, looking around. She broke my ink jar, and the black stain spreads across the floor with the rocking of the ship. “You dishonored our agreement. You will pay for this.”
She swallows and pales a little.
“But I didn’t dishonor our agreement. I didn’t put the necklace on.”
She is right. Despite her misconduct with the necklace, she did not put it on and disappear, although she could have. I walk to her and study her beautiful face, her eyes amber in the warm light of the candles. I still do not believe her ridiculous story of time travel, but I do wonder how she got onboard. Did she sneak aboard last night when we were docked in Nassau? Does the ship pursuing us aim to retrieve her and the necklace. Why did she not take it?
“Why did you stay, then?”
Her mouth opens slightly. We are so close I can smell her delicious scent. A few more inches and I can claim her mouth.
“Because…” she says. “You still owe me the answers to two questions.”
“You seductive vixen,” I rumble and kiss her, unable to resist her proximity. It is as though she is the coast and I am a wave, and I have no other option but to crash into her.
She meets my mouth readily, willingly. Her hunger demands me as much as mine demands her. I sink into the delicious warmth of her mouth, kissing, probing, taking. I’m already hard, and I know if I continue for another minute, I won’t be able to stop.
And I need to find the spyglass. I need to command the ship now that we seem to be under pursuit. I stop and put my forehead against hers, breathing deeply to regain my senses.
“Did you find anything else besides the treasure?” I ask.
I lean back and see her already flushed face redden even further.
“I found other stuff…” she admits.
“Anything you liked? Anything you wanted to try?”
She inhales sharply, her lips swelling a little.
“There was a bottle of rum that looked good,” she says.
I growl a little. “I do not mean rum. And you are perfectly aware of it.”
She’s quiet and bites her lower lip.
“No matter, darling.” I turn and walk to the table. “You already answered with your expression. I intend to try all of what you’ve seen on you, and you will love it.”
I open one of the drawers where my nautical instruments lie. There it is, the spyglass I keep for extreme situations like this.
“Lo and behold, you did not steal or break my spyglass.” I take it in my hand. “We might have a chance yet.”
“Where did you find Captain Bluebeard?” she asks.
I turn to her and raise one brow. “He was on one of the ships we raided. The poor bastard had his wing broken, so it was either toss him into the sea or take him on. He is the best entertainment on the ship, sings us shanties. The crew is quite fond of him. Has a good voice.”
She smiles. “He does. You’re very kind to him.”
I shrug one shoulder. “I have done little. I only let him stay, that is all.”
“And what about those letters,” she says. “Why did you never send them?”
Anger rises in me like a wave in a storm. “Did you go through my personal correspondence?”
“No. I just saw them. I didn’t read them, of course. I just saw the address on them.”
“No one gave you permission to look through my possessions.”
“This is the second question, Cole. Remember, I stayed for this. Answer me. Why did you never send those letters to your family?”
My fist clenches so tightly around the metal tube of the spyglass, I am afraid it might break. I forcefully relax my fingers. She could not ask a worse question—there is no question I want to answer less than this one.
“Why, Cole?” she presses.
Oh, little minx.
“Because my mother had twelve children when I left. My father was a shadow of a man. I did not want to burden them with yet another duty, to spend time reading my letters. Because once they read them, they might feel they need to protect their pirate son from the British Empire. There is a price on my head. What if someone came to them and tried to find out something about me? Worse—what if they couldn’t avoid telling my pursuers the truth? My mother would never forgive herself, nor would my father.”
Her eyes widen and dampen with tears. Is she feeling for me?
The thought is more disturbing than her question. No. All women want from me is physical pleasure. Cole the Black, who can satisfy a woman’s most forbidden desires. That is all I am good for. That is what Duchess Chestwitch showed me.
The whole reason I chose piracy w
as to avoid becoming a shell of a man, like my father. Hard labor to provide for twelve children and a wife, no matter how much he loved them, was what had made him like that. That is why I do not want to love. That is why I do not want a woman to be responsible for. Because I will either end up like my father or she will use me up and toss me aside as Duchess Chestwitch did.
The spyglass in one hand, I grab Lisa with the other and drag her outside after me. “You’ve asked me enough questions. Distracted me enough. I must get a better look at the ship pursuing us, and I do not trust you. You will come with me.”
“Wait, what? Come where?”
“To the crow’s nest.”
She struggles and makes me stop. “No! Cole, please. I’m afraid of the heights.”
I turn her to face me and look into her eyes. “I cannot allow you to stay here alone, and I cannot leave you with my men because you look like a freshly cooked dinner. I will not let harm come to you. This is your fault, my darling. Had you kept your word, I’d have more faith in you. But I should have never trusted you in the first place.”
Lisa
When we walk out of the cabin, it’s already dark. The sky is full of stars that are scattered like tiny snowflakes. The scent of sun-baked wood, tar, and sea envelops me. Then male sweat and rum.
Oh, the deck is real. And those men barking commands, tugging the ropes and manning the sails are real. I look for the electric lights of a city on the coast, but everything around us is black, except for the stars, and the moon, which shines brightly and casts a glimmering road across the ocean towards the horizon.
Above us, white sails flap on a weak breeze.
Everything looks so real, and I abandon any tiny lingering doubt that I’ve traveled back in time. As I walk among the sailors, they follow me—curious, hungry, surprised, dangerous… A wave of prickles goes through my hands and arms. It looks like I’m the only woman on a ship full of pirates, and suddenly my tiny denim shorts and transparent T-shirt feel indecent, like I’m not wearing anything at all.
And then Cole stops in front of the tallest mast and looks up. There, in the darkness, on the very top, is the circular little platform.
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