Resisting a smile, Sterling looked in my eyes as he answered, “I do.”
Faron looked at me. “Do you commit to the same, Miss Charlie?”
Shrugging my shoulders, I giggled with glee, “I do.”
“All right then, Bentley. Take this lady as your wife.” He jabbed Sterling’s side with his elbow. “Maybe you’ll be easier to deal with once you finally get some sweetness.”
After laughing at Faron, Sterling kissed me.
The crew cheered, but as our kiss went on they all started to walk away. Mary and Faron stayed near, and once the crowd was well out of range I heard Faron tease her, “Don’t you go getting any ideas there, Miss Mary.”
She laughed, “I know, blah blah blah, the sea is your bride.”
As they walked away I heard him tell her, “You’re my favorite mistress, though.”
The sun had set into the sea, and as the darkness coated the sky above us, the rum on Sterling’s breath and the passion on his lips surrounded me like a wave rolling ashore. I never wanted this moment to end.
Eventually, he pulled away from my kiss and said, “I love you, Charlie Bentley.”
“Oh yes, that is truly my name now. I love it and I love you, too. Forevermore.”
“Good. Now, let’s go for a walk.”
“A walk? Is that all you want from me, Mister Bentley?” I poked his nose.
“What more would a gentlemen like me ask of a proper lady on a night like this?” He jested as he reached for my hand.
As he kissed my knuckles, I sighed, “Lead the way, my love. I will follow you wherever you go.”
“I know you will, and that’s what worries me about you.” He grinned then led me towards the trees lining the southern end of the shore. The full moon night became brighter with each step leading us away from the burning firelight of our camp. Following along the narrow shoreline, I admired the way the ocean reflected the dazzling glow of the night sky. After a while, we headed up a path through the trees. Eyeing the way the moonlight shone through the branches that canopied the sandy walkway, I said, “This reminds me of the first time you snuck me out.”
“I told you I was going to take you places, beauty.” He slapped my arse and shooed me towards a clearing.
The scene before me completely took my breath away. The glistening sand we stood on rolled into the clear water of a slow moving stream, and a small tumbling cascade fell into a deep pool, glowing a mystical shade of blue. To the right of the stream was a cliff that seemed to be on the edge of the earth, and beyond I could see where the darkened ocean met the gleaming night sky.
Once I caught my breath, I grabbed onto Sterling’s arm and sighed, “You never mentioned that you were skilled enough to navigate your way to heaven.”
Brushing off his shoulder, he boasted, “Ah, well, you know I don’t like to brag.”
The light was so bright I could clearly see his handsome face as he chuckled at his own joke. I laughed too and reminded him I married him because he was funny. As he took his tattered coat off and threw it on the ground he smirked. “And all this time I thought you were after my loot.”
Then he wrapped his arms around me and laid me down on his coat. He bit at my neck as he teased me some more. Before long we were all tangled together with our weapons scattered around us. His shirt was off and his body was hot on top of me. The weather was warm but he was hotter, and the heat of his mouth ran down my neck like molten lava leaving a fiery burn in its wake. Yet, as he started to take my dress off, my breath began to shudder and my body shied away.
Trying to slow his breathing, he looked at me and asked, “Are you going to attack me for trying this?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “No, no. Of course not. This is what I want.”
He flashed a playfully surly grin. “Good, cause I’m not waiting any longer.”
And there it went. He pulled my dress right over my head and looked me up and down as if he wanted to eat me. I felt so awkward and vulnerable laying beneath him, wearing nothing but the pearls on my neck and the flowers in my hair. I tried to shelter my bareness by hiding my face in my hands, but he grabbed my wrist and moved my arms above my head and rumbled his demand, “There’ll be no hiding tonight. You’re beautiful, you’re mine, and I want all of you.”
I nodded my head to agree. He began undoing his breeches. I started to panic. After having my hand on that thing behind the tavern on Tortuga, I was worried this was going to hurt. Pushing my knees together, I shook my head no. Sliding his hands down the inside of my thighs, he pulled them apart and said yes. I took a deep breath and tried to relax as he pushed his way inside me.
It did hurt. Oh, it hurt like hell. Even though he moved slowly it felt like he was forcing his way through me. I scrunched my face and bit on my lip to control my discomfort, but that dirty dog looked to be having the time of his life. Closing my eyes, I wondered how the tavern whores could do this every night. I told him he was hurting me. He didn’t respond. I pushed my hands against his chest but he didn’t stop.
Even though he didn’t say a word, as he continued moving in and out of me his body spoke to mine. The sensation of him inside me lightened, and his movements told me everything was fine. I was his and I was beautiful. He wanted all of me and he finally had me. As my tension released, my heart ignited with a smoldering heat that burned across my chest with heavenly warmth. I loved him with all of my heart, and I wanted more.
His fists were on the ground near my shoulders and the long muscles of his powerful arms were flexed. I admired the strength his broad shoulders expressed and how the muscles of his chest were hard beneath his beautiful tattoo. Any control I had over my breath came unglued. The humming of my voice was entirely unfamiliar. As for the rugged flare of his breath, it was earthy and powerful like thunder. He was like a tidal wave of passion covering me with love, against me, into me, all over me, silky, liquid and hot.
Grabbing my waist, he pushed deeper inside. Senses came alive that I never knew I had. His kiss engulfed my spirit and my body completely surrendered to his hands. Up and down my sides and all over, everywhere, he caressed my arms and my breasts, my face and my hair. He wrapped his hand in a fist and pulled at my hair. I was all his. Melting into the fluid illusion claiming me in his grip, I grabbed at his arms, I could feel all his scars, and I kissed on his shoulders.
Just when I thought my heart would explode with the love I felt for him, those mystic green eyes then locked on my face. As my spirit connected with his heartfelt gaze, he flashed his sideways smile. The crooked side of his teeth had never been saucier and his eyes had never seemed so majestic. This was heaven, and he knew it, too. As a sheet of clouds rolled over the moon he covered me like the darkness of night, pushed deep inside and squeezed me tight. My breath stuttered with the rumble of his release. He then collapsed his weight on top of me and laughed, “Damn, woman, see what you do to me?”
X
Sitting against a palm stalk at sunset—with pink and orange colored clouds dancing over the aqua shades of the sea—I daydreamed about the night I had with Sterling. The morning was just as wonderful, maybe even better, but short-lived. He had plans to go hunting and being the sweaty and sticky after-sex mess I was, I was more than happy to bathe in the stream with Mary and Kathleen while the men were away. So now, here I sat, clean and well rested as the men hauled the boar they had hunted to the fire pit.
While sharpening my knives I snickered to myself about the way they insulted each other as they worked. Beside me, Mary was quite busy whittling a hole in the top of a coconut. I was intrigued by her project, but the sight of her blade triggered my memory. “By the way, I wanted to compliment you on that stunning knife toss during the battle. You saved Faron’s life.”
Without removing her eyes from her work, she snarled, “Ah, you can bet your biggest potato that we already argued about that. He was rather upset that I joined the invasion without his consent, and when I reminded him that he was damn lucky I did,
that blaggard old oaf insisted he was about to take the man himself.”
My shoulders deflated with empathy for her frustrations, but before I could say a foul thing about the pompous old pirate captain, she hooted about how her knife plunged into the coconut, “I got through! Now a little rum and we’ll be living like royalty.”
She carefully added some rum to the milk and then topped off the tasty drink with a few spices and a squeeze of lime. Smiling with pride over her accomplishment, she handed me the one she finished and began to work on another for herself.
While she prepared her own drink, we watched the men at work. They were building their intricate fire pit and gutting the boars at such a distance, we couldn’t hear all the words they spoke about the wet logs they planned to slow cook the seasoned meat on, but Faron’s outrageous claims over the perfection of his strategic log placements over the fire were clearly amplified. Though he insisted his boucans were the best in the West Indies, Sterling playfully tamed his conceit. “Nah, nah, nah, Flynn. I’ve been cooking meat like this since you were in Ireland crying to your mother. I don’t need your novice advisories.”
“Ah, mate, it isn’t about quantity, but quality. Same as how you’ve been sticking it to Pete’s mother longer than I have, but she likes how I do it better.”
“Leave my mother out of this, Flynn,” Pete snorted while rubbing spices into the raw pork.
Starting the fire, Sterling laughed, “Don’t worry, Petey, I never touched your mother. She’s so horrible in sight that I only used her as inspiration to paint my last Jolly Roger.”
Patting the wet log he placed over the pit, Faron shivered, “Scares the wits out of the bravest of sailors, she does. Not a day goes by that I don’t regret what I did with her.”
As they continued to natter at each other, Mary and I laughed ourselves silly with our coconut rum until the sun set into the sea.
We continued in this way for the weeks to follow. Sterling spent his days hunting, cooking the meat, and careening the ship, so I spent most of my time with Mary. With Pablo on her shoulder and Marvelous at our feet, we ate fruit from the trees, and drank our coconut rum. Giggling and gossiping like women, we worked to perfect our fighting methods to keep us as tough as the men who wouldn’t let us help with their work. Mary’s already impressive knife throwing improved greatly over the days, and I could feel my muscles strengthening as we practiced sword fighting and boxing. Kathleen spent a little time with us as well, but since Lawrence had asked her to marry him, she was spending all the time she could with him.
And at night, Sterling was all mine. I had never been so close to anyone in my life. We laughed as much as we loved, and I loved having him all over me as much as I enjoyed talking with him by the fire. I could not thank God enough for bringing us together this way.
Once the meat was cured and Endless Horizon was clear of barnacles, Captain Flynn announced that we’d be leaving for Jamaica at dawn. After his unnecessarily lengthy speech, Mary and I headed to the woods to throw our knives. Soon enough, Sterling came to get me. As he drew near, Mary jested, “Go stand by that tree and put this lime on your head, Bentley. I think I’m good enough to pierce it.”
Sterling chuckled as he grabbed me by the arm. “I need my eyes for navigating, Marty, but I’ll let Lynden know you’re in need of a target.”
He started to pull me along with him but I slapped his hand off of me. “Have you no manners, Sterling Bentley? Can’t you ask me if I would like to join you instead of dragging me along like a cave strumpet?”
Without letting loose of my arm, he laughed, “It never crossed my mind. Get ready to disappear until sunrise.”
It was still early in the day so I gathered enough fruit and meat to get us through until morning and wrapped it up in my sash.
We walked along the narrow shoreline of the island’s southern beach for at least an hour and eventually ended up crossing through an overgrown field of shrubs. Stomping over the low lying bushes, I began to worry about those terrible boars. “Sterling. What if one of those rotten beasties comes after us?”
While hacking through a bigger hedge with his cutlass, he asserted, “Then we’ll have bacon for breakfast.”
Once again I was comforted by his confidence.
Holding back the spikey twigs of a taller bush, he waved his hand to welcome me through. As I passed him I asked, “Are you afraid of anything?”
Letting loose of the brush, he grabbed at my behind and teased, “ I’m afraid of you when you’re angry.”
We finally decided to post up under a shade tree at the western end of a long sandy shore. There was a nice rock to lean against and the other side of the canopy hung over a pretty little pool. The sun shone on the bay before us, intensifying the beauty of the glistening shades of aqua, and the southern horizon was framed by two other tree covered islands. Setting my things down next to the rock, I asked Sterling, “How long do you think it would take to swim there?”
He had already laid his coat down, but as he removed his waistcoat he said, “Take your shoes off and we’ll go find out.”
After tying knots in my dress so it wouldn’t get tangled around my legs, I followed him out into the sea.
It had been at least nine years since I last had my feet in the ocean, but as the cool, bubbly wake rolled up on my legs the same sensations I felt as a child rushed through me. Grabbing onto Sterling’s arm, I said, “Touching the ocean always makes me feel small. Like a tiny speck of dust. Yet, at the same time, it reminds me how I am a piece of the creator of this masterpiece.”
Tugging me out into the ocean with him, he said, “Aye. The sea is like a pathway to the entire world and that’s one of the reasons I like it so much. Now come here, beauty. I’m going to teach you to swim like a mermaid.”
I squeaked with excitement.
Standing waist deep in the teal water with him, I adored the way the rippling crests of sheer liquid reflected the rays of sunlight on the glittery sand below our feet. The way the warm water wrapped around my body seemed to have a sensual feel to it, and the sight of my man dunking under and resurfacing right next to me soaking wet intensified the sensation. Beads of water ran down his golden skin, capturing the brightness of the sun. His wet hair looked much darker than usual, which contrasted the lightness of his eyes in the most enticing way.
Catching me ogling over him, he winked. “Are you ready?”
“Ready as I can be.”
Grabbing my hands, he told me to kick my feet.
All of my sensual thoughts washed away in the wake I created with my terrible splashing. I felt like a graceless buffoon trying to stay afloat. Sterling didn’t make me feel any better with all the jokes he cracked about my efforts. Though he seemed to find great pleasure in teasing me, he was also quite supportive and had me swimming on my own in no time at all.
Swimming a sloppy circle around him, I splashed at him. “Are you ready to race to that island across the bay?”
“Hell no. It would take hours to swim there and I’d end up having to carry you on my back. But I will race you to the shade since you’re getting red out here in the sun.”
He swam ahead of me so fast I had no hope of keeping up. Paddling like a dying dog into the shady little cove under the tree, I was out of breath and tired as could be when I found him lying on a rock pretending to sleep because I took so long.
Under the canopy of the tree, we played in the shade for a while. As I splashed around, attempting to improve my swimming, he started teaching himself how to do backflips by jumping from off the rock into the pond. Apparently, too many of his opponents had escaped him that way and he wanted to add the trick to his fight tactics. As the day went on, laughing and relaxing, I found that the time I spent with Sterling reminded me of the fun I had with Isaiah when I was a child.
Eventually returning to our little rock in the shade, I sat down on Sterling’s coat while he practiced his backflip on land. With the coolness of my wet dress relieving me from t
he heat, I chewed on a savory slab of boar meat as I laughed at his failures and cheered for his progress. After he made a few solid landings, I clapped. “Wonderful! It is quite impressive watching your big ol’ body twist through the air like that.”
Landing smoothly on his feet, he flashed me with a cocky smile. “Ah, well that’s enough for now.” He went to dip in the pond to rinse the sweat and dirt off of his body.
Cool and clean, he sat down next to me in the shade.
Enjoying the look of him, with his wet hair hanging loose over his big, suntanned shoulders, I felt my cheeks redden as I handed him some meat and a lime. “You know, I think this is the best day I have ever had. I feel like the lovers of the island. Oh, or even like Adam and Eve before the serpent showed up in the Garden of Eden.”
Slicing his lime open with his knife, he responded, “Aye, those salty ol’ blokes couldn’t even make that nice time last a whole page afore they ruined it.”
I laughed. “I know. Every time I read that scene I wish it would last longer because I enjoy the serenity so much. Let me see your Bible so we can read it while we are here.”
He pulled out his book. The sight before me sent an icy chill up my spine. It was chopped nearly in half. Quickly remembering we were not in Eden and the serpent certainly roamed free in this world, I gasped, “This is how you survived the blow of Deouex’s sword. I thought for sure he was going to slash you through.”
Sterling smiled with humorous pride. “You saw that? I thought he had me, too. Did you see me punch him afterwards?”
As he rambled on about how he has won a great many sword fights with his fist fighting skills, I inspected the damaged book, I said, “God’s word was your shield, Sterling.”
Tarnished Persuasion (Justified Treason, Book 2): Endless Horizon Pirate Stories Page 23