“Yes…you.”
Lianna reached her peak and screamed, disintegrating into white-hot heat. Burning pleasure rippled through her again and again. She shuddered then seized as Zane groaned, reaching his own apex, his body jerking and spilling into her.
Outside, the thunder rolled.
For a long moment, she lay still with Zane in the pool of bedding, melded together in their shared intimacy and glistening sweat. The air pressed warm around them. The fog from their breath on the window panes faded. Rain came in heavy sheets, pelting at the glass. The ship rocked, creaking noisily from the tempering winds and angry waves.
Lianna rolled to her back to face Zane, wholly content, satiated, and complete. Even as she quivered down to Earth, she couldn’t rein in her heart. It soared from her reach. She was sure she rushed headlong for a heartbreak, for she wasn’t slated for anything more. He didn’t mean what he said. He didn’t mean that she belonged to him. ’Twas just the heat of the moment. Still, at the risk of never feeling like this again, never feeling this desired, this happy, she would savor the evening for all it was worth. Whatever may become of her tomorrow.
Zane propped himself on his elbow. He bathed in her sweet fairness, smitten by the freckles that lightly dusted her pink sunburned nose. Her smile, though, couldn’t hide her apprehension. It saddened him she might think she had made a mistake and regret letting him in. She mustn’t feel he merely burned off animalistic steam. Every sensuous touch, every dire kiss, he indulged with her as he never had with any other woman.
“You have bestowed upon me tonight a most precious gift, Lianna. I will cherish it my whole miserable life.”
“I, too, shall carry this night in my heart.” This time her smile reflected winsome contentment. And it pleased him.
She began tracing the lines to his tattoo again. “It’s beautiful,” she admired.
The tickling of her fingernails sent chills down his spine. “Got it in Madagascar. It signifies rebirth from the ashes of death.”
“Does that mean something specific to you?” She followed the bird’s tail down his breastplate. Her skimming fingers loosened the tight rusty grip of ages past.
He exhaled heavily, rolling to his back with his hands tucked under his head. “Aye.” She had touched a tender nerve. In that one hesitant word, he had piqued her interest.
“And?” She pressed him further.
“I was ten years old when a group of men came to my small village looking for the able-bodied to serve as seamen. They offered handsome payments to all who joined. But they had no intentions of hiring the men who stepped forward. Those runners were dealing in a more…lucrative business.”
“Oh?” Her forehead crinkled and her eyebrows shot up in dubious suspicion. No, ’twas plain that she was not blind to the cruelties of humankind like so many other maidens, maidens carefully sheltered from the real world.
“In the middle of the night, I was abducted from my bed along with several other young boys from the village. We were bound, whipped, and blindfolded, then boarded on to a boat. Soon after, we docked in a port bustling with slave traders. That’s when I met Blade. He, too, had been taken from his home. ’Twas at this wretched God-forsaken port we were sold like livestock. I never saw my family again.”
Zane paused. He had never told anyone of how he became property of the sea. Not that it was necessarily a secret, just that he didn’t talk about it. He cast a glance at Lianna. Her dewy eyes were weary with sadness, her lush mouth frowning. He reached up to rub his thumb across her lower lip. She took his hand and placed a soft kiss in his palm.
“Blade and I were bought by a merchant,” he continued, “that sailed between Europe and the Barbary Coast running spice, ivory, muslin, and the occasional slave. ’Twas ironic being as he had a ship full of them at his disposal. Unfortunately, that was exactly how we were treated. Disposable. Boys were cheap to come by. If a lad became indocile, couldn’t or was too slow to learn sea faring, or even if a hapless boy fell ill, he would be considered lucky to be sold off at the next port. But more often, the captain would cut his losses and toss the miserable wretch into the sea.”
The appalling notion played across her face in her sorrowful stare. But she couldn’t possibly imagine the horrors they withstood. He would spare her the more horrid details of starvation, abuse and the tortures, the barbaric tortures.
She peered down at him, fondling his hair with slender fingers. “’Twas do or die,” he said. “Those that endured had to become skilled to the craft, seasoned to injury, to survive. Blade and I, we became brothers in our suffering.”
“How awful.” She reached down to touch the small bruise he knew had formed on his cheekbone from her earlier blow. He caught a glimpse of guilt flicker across her sullen gaze before she looked back at him. He let a smile slip, unashamed. Let her suffer just a bit. A reflex reaction to her weakness.
“After a few years, the Royal Navy intercepted us, arresting the captain on violating trade embargos. Our salvation was short-lived. The young men were gang-pressed into naval service. We went from one tyranny to another, faring only slightly better. We were hammered into soldiers, fought like soldiers, but were denied the soldier’s benefits, pay and honor.
“As fate would have it, an opportunity arose during a deadly skirmish.”
“A mutiny.”
He cut his gaze to Lianna. “If you like.” She sympathetically nodded. He had to give her credit for her perception. “I have been a man of enterprise ever since.”
“An affluent and highly regarded one, I’ve heard.”
He laughed softly. “That depends on whom you speak with.”
“Never mind the source. I’ve my own first hand knowledge to frame my opinion.” She rubbed the back of her hand down his cheek.
Craning his neck up, he stole a kiss.
Lightning crashed. The ominous flash lit the thrashing ocean. Howling winds slapped frothy waves against the brig, sending sprays of the sea across the windows and tossing the Rissa about the toiling sea. In the captain’s cabin, Lianna looked up to watch the lanterns swing precariously on their hooks, watched as the room moved with the shifting shadows. The tempest stirred a carnal urge in her that reared its randy head.
She returned to his kiss, deepened it further in her desire. She could feel him smile as she crawled on top of him. Abandoning his mouth, she swept her tongue down the length of his body. She made bold lazy circles around his belly button. A tender jab of her tongue into his navel garnered a soft moan from him. His whole body stiffened as she took his girth into her hands, running her tongue up his length, and tracing around his darkening crown before taking him into her mouth. She gloried at the sight of the muscles in his neck, face and thighs cording with tension as she drew upon him. Taking control of his pleasure gave her an unbelievable, unbridled rush of power. She was exhilarated in knowing his ruttish groans were because of her.
“No. No more of your torments.” He swiftly flipped her over. Pinning her underneath him, he drove himself in. With every buck of the ship, they rocked, and he delved into her until they expired in a spent, sanguine felicity.
*****
Lying with Lianna wrapped in his arms, Zane tried coping with a strange feeling, a feeling of falling, of vertigo. Although he sensed he was caught in an intense whirlpool, he soaked in serenity. But if this was love, well, he had no room for it. He couldn’t betray his real mistress. What woman would embrace or tolerate being second in a sea captain’s life? Nay, ’twas no good. No good for him, no good for Lianna. Yet he could never turn her away. Not now. He made a silent affirmation to protect her at whatever cost.
“Capt’n!” The knock at the door startled them and Lianna flinched in his arms.
Zane groaned. “Go away!”
“Capt’n!” Jason’s voice called again from behind the door, “It’s Henri. He’s been hurt.”
Zane sat up bolt right.
“Hurt bad.”
He scrambled from the bed. “Hold on!” H
e stuffed himself into his breeches. “What do you mean hurt bad?” He swung open the door. Jason stood soaked in the hall, pale as a ghost. “Out with it, son!”
“We were on deck,” the boy rambled on. “Securin’ the riggin’. One of the sails came loose. The wind is so bad and the sail just broke loose. Henri was knocked down and slid straight into a hook.”
Zane squinched his face at the thought. “A grappling hook?”
The lad nodded, water dripping from the tips of his matted hair.
“Is he in the galley?”
Jason nodded again.
“Where’s Blade?” Zane shoved his feet into his boots.
“With Henri.”
Zane shot a look over his shoulder at Lianna, wrapped in his sheet. It pained him to see her there; her hair draped down around her shoulders, the way the sheet clung to the roundness of her breasts, the rosy glow of her angelic face. Damn if he didn’t crave her.
“Stay put,” he ordered.
She gave him an emphatic nod. “They need you. Go.”
*****
The moment the door closed, Lianna bounded to her feet and dressed. Like hell was she staying put. Slipping into her shoes, a glint of gold under the bed caught her eye. Immediately she recognized it to be The Serpent. She plucked it from the floor. It twirled from its golden chain. The medallion must have fallen from Zane’s pocket. “We can’t have you just lying about, can we?”
Though many of the lanterns had been extinguished during the storm, Lianna made her way down to the ship’s galley without stumbling once, or getting lost. She silently thanked her lucky stars for small miracles. The noisy kitchen sweltered with the many men jostling around the table where Henri sat.
“Ow! Ye killin’ me! Zane! Git this lunatic away from me!”
“Quit your squawking.” Blade gingerly moved the hook around Henri’s leg, examining its difficulty in removal.
“Just shoot me! Put me outta me misery.” Henri howled again. “I’m comin’ home, Lord! I’m comin’ home!”
“Hush up, Henri. You’re worse than a wee girl,” Zane snapped.
Lianna pushed her way through to the table. The better view lent her a ghastly sight. “Oh.” She put her hand to her mouth.
The hook embedded deep into Henri’s beefy calf. Streams of blood trickled down in crooked paths pooling on the wooden table. A set of gruesome surgeons’ knives were set out next his leg. The dulled instruments were different lengths with varying degrees of uses for gouging, splicing and amputating. Poor Henri was indeed in a sad state of affairs.
She picked up a damp rag, wetted it in the bowl of cool water on the table and dabbed at Henri’s forehead. The room went silent. All eyes were upon her. She must have been a sight with hair disheveled and skin flushed like a ripe strawberry. She didn’t care. She felt positively alive.
Blade winked at Zane, and Zane cocked an eyebrow. She tried not to smile at their silent repartee.
“I thought I told you to stay put.”
“A silly notion.” She dismissed the evident annoyance that worked in Zane’s lower jaw. “How are you doing, Henri?”
“A mere flesh wound, lassie.” He wore a brave new face. “Doesn’t hurt a bit.”
Blade snorted at the absurdity. “Glad to hear that, you old fool.” He shoved a piece of plank at Henri’s mouth. “Bite down on this.”
Worry lines creased his leathery face as he looked from Blade to Lianna. His little beard bows drooped and tangled in his messy, scraggly fuzz. She returned with a sympathetic smile, patting him on his arm. “You’ll be fine,” she said.
Lianna hoped she presented the welcome distraction Blade needed. He quickly twisted and yanked the hook from Henri’s leg in one swift movement. Her squeamish stomach lurched with the hideous rip of metal tearing through flesh.
Henri wailed between clenched teeth chomping deep into the wood. Zane held him by the shoulders lest the little man try to grab a surgeon knife to gut Blade in his own attempt at surgery.
“With any luck, your leg won’t become infected and I won’t have to amputate.” Blade shook the hook at the struggling gruff man. “And that’s too bad,” he said. “I could use the practice.”
Handing the hook to the pale-faced Jason, he itched at the scruffy hair growing in under his bottom lip. “Course, I could’ve sworn I heard someone whistling in the wind this evening.” He shook his head and grinned. “Bad omen, Henri. Bad omen.”
Lianna rubbed at his arm soothingly. “Don’t listen to him. He’s baiting you. Aren’t you Blade?”
Blade casually shrugged. “Perhaps.”
“I’m so proud of you, Henri.” She hoped Henri would regain composure. “You are so courageous.”
Despite her attempts, he coughed out the board and let loose a parade of obscenities.
“Watch your tongue.” Blade laughed and he uncorked a bottle of rum. “There’s a lady present.” He wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his arm, took a swig, and handed the rum to Henri.
“Sorry, Ma’am.” Henri took deep gulps from the bottle as if he’d been dying of thirst, dribbling alcohol down his jowls.
“’Tis bloody nothing,” she quipped.
Zane leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. Lianna locked eyes with him as she took Henri’s hand, giving him a reassuring squeeze.
*****
Sadie stood in a dim corner of the galley, thoroughly disgusted by the display of bantering and mollycoddling. The whole room looked at Lianna like she was some revered princess. These men were supposed to be fierce cutthroats and cruel pirates. Instead, they acted like sappy nick ninnies with ridiculous grins. She had to get out of there, find some real men, fiendish men, before she relived her dinner.
Before slipping out the door, she saw the pride in Zane’s expression as he stared at the little trollop. It sickened her all the more.
“That woman,” she sneered, “has got to go.”
CHAPTER 12
Morning brought mists that hung low and thick, lending no visibility to sky or sea. A lull in the winds left the Rissa floating nigh at a standstill well before dawn. The eerie silence that had befallen the waters was excruciating. Even the ship’s crew whispered amongst themselves with growing superstitious unrest as to their apparent misfortune.
“This is a critical situation, Zane.” Blade leaned his hip against the port banister of the quarterdeck, sharpening his gully knife on a small whetstone.
“Aye. We don’t have wind soon, Bennington will be at our stern sooner than we’d like.” Zane stared into the gray fog. “We should have been docked by now.”
Blade shaved the hair on the back of his arm with his knife, checking its sharpness. “What will you do once we get to Port Royal?”
“Go directly to Abbott with The Serpent and collect our dues, of course.”
“I meant with Lianna.”
Stiffening, Zane kicked at the railing bottom with the tip of his worn boot. “Arrange her safe passage home.”
“Ah.” Blade returned to dragging the knife edge across the stone. “Is that what she wants?”
“Doesn’t matter what she wants. ’Tis what’s best.”
“For her? Or you?”
Zane turned to glare at his friend. “You know blasted well a lady like her has no place on a ship like this.” He spoke blunt and true.
Blade’s dimples appeared as he pointed his knife tip to the blue bruise under Zane’s eye. “Looks like she does a decent job caring for herself.”
Zane let out an irritable sigh. “You yourself know the constant dangers of the sea, to say nothing of if we were captured. Her neck would not be spared at the gallows just because she is of the fairer sex.”
“And yet it was okay for Sadie.”
“’Tis because of Sadie,” he snapped. “She proved it so.”
“Why is it there is no place for Lianna on shore? Is she not worthy enough to consider your retirement?”
How would I ever manage? Most of Zane�
��s life had been spent sailing the oceans. He was not inclined to become a landsman, let alone, support another. The weight of his responsibility to her would be much too great. But then he knew he was lying to himself. He could see to an entire ship of men and carry a hefty obligation to them. They trusted him with their lives and livelihoods. So why not for a wif—a woman? With Lianna, he feared he would fall far short. That just wouldn’t do. ’Twould not be fair to either of them. He resented her for making him feel this way, this fear of keeping her, this fear of letting her go. He despised cowards.
“I am destined for the sea.” He slowly scanned the fog for some relief from the conversation.
“Oh, here we go.” Blade shook his head in disgust. “Only you have cursed yourself to this life. Only you. And in some twisted way, you’ve cursed her as well.”
“Bah. Here’s paltry invention. She has free will to do as she chooses.”
“Certainly. If your coupling last night meant nothing to her as it apparently does to you.”
Zane closed his eyes in frustration. His mate had a way of rooting out the truth, forcing Zane to analyze and question every moral dilemma. He thought of Lianna, that gem of a woman still asleep in his cabin, thought of her warmth, of her inviting lips and twinkling eyes, and of the feel of her beating heart against his hand. Alone or apart, that woman invaded his soul.
He took in a short, deep breath and faced Blade. “She’s come to mean more to me than anyone I’ve ever known. Still, that doesn’t change the fact she must find her own way. I will not allow her to stay in harm’s course because of silly matters of the heart.”
“You must find yourself valiant to just let Lianna go. ’Tis a pity to bring her into your soul for suffering, then push her away.” Blade clucked his tongue. “No compromising yourself, but, by all means, sacrifice her.”
“End of discussion.”
“Stubborn bastard.”
*****
“I’m tellin’ ye, we be cursed,” John grumbled to two ship mates.
Sadie watched the three crewmen gathered at the foremast cleaning their muskets. Their unease was obvious in their rigid spines and slow distracted efforts. She pushed her mop along, nearing the grubby men. She thought it facetious, the relegation to swabbing the ship’s deck. But she supposed she had asked for it. She’d get what she came for, eventually. For now, she should get a little closer to better hear what the buccaneers were saying.
Romancing the Pirate 01 - Blood and Treasure Page 16