The Pirate's Heart

by Bethany M. Sefchick

  They were safe and it was time for Daniel and Katherine to go home and begin their new lives. They would take as many of the loyal crew with them as they could. Most of the crew, however, simply wished to see England and would then look for other work that would return them to the West Indies once they made port across the ocean.

  These men were pirates at heart, after all, and were always looking for adventure. Some of the men, however, had come from Europe originally and wished to return there for a brief visit before returning to life at sea. In return for crewing the ship, Daniel had promised those making the voyage a generous share of the booty that the ship still held.

  It had been Katherine’s suggestion to offer the crew who didn’t wish to make the journey a portion of the loot from the cargo hold as well, mostly in exchange for the loyalty they had shown during the voyage from Barbados. It was a suggestion that had endeared her to the crew even more.

  Not that it mattered what the other men took, really, for Daniel had taken most of his vast fortune back to England when he had avenged The Night Hawk’s death and made amends with his father several years ago. Whatever his ship now held, he was more than happy to part with.

  After all, he had the most important treasure with him now – Katherine. For she was his world and without her, he would be lost.

  “But I didn’t die, Jack. I am here, alive and well.” Katherine still didn’t dare call him Daniel, at least for the most part. They had agreed that they would keep the secret of Midnight Jack, along with the secret of Rupert’s true identity, until they reached English soil.

  “You killed a man, Duchess. Again,” he reminded her as he removed his jacket, less fearful of attack now than he had been before, though Hayes and a few other men still stood watch and would continue to do so in shifts until it was time to depart. After all, Jack had promised his men all of the cunt, arse, tit, and cock they liked and far be it from him to keep his men from indulging as they liked. Even if it was only for one night.

  “He would have killed me first,” she countered as she stepped toward him and helped him remove his shirt. There was still some dried blood on the sleeve and she tossed it aside, not liking the reminder of the battle, even though her own arm now bore a similar bandage. “Or you. I could not allow that.”

  “Why?” Daniel knew that he was important to Katherine, but in what manner? They had yet to admit to anything more than the sexual between them.

  Katherine sighed as she ran her hands down over his bare chest, her fingers flexing as she did so. When she finally looked up at him, her lashes were damp and he knew she had been crying. “Because I love you, Daniel Montgomery. Or Midnight Jack. Or whoever you are at heart. I loved you as a child and I love you now as a woman. Your woman. Which is what I want to be. Yours. Always.”

  For a long moment, Daniel drank in the sight of Katherine. She was here. She lived and breathed. She loved him. Him, a broken man who was more pirate than peer. She knew him, knew his heart and what he had done. And yet she still loved him. And tonight? He would fuck her with abandon for she was truly his now. Always and forever. For she held his heart as well.

  “As I love you, Lady Katherine Sedgewick, my fierce pirate queen.” Daniel drew her close to him so that he could nibble at her neck, the same spot where he had marked her as his in the alley. “I have loved you from the first moment I saw you. I came back from the dead for you. And I will never let you go, for I do not share what is mine.”

  Then, with skilled fingers, Daniel drew Katherine’s shirt from her body so that he could suckle at her tits, drinking in every cry that she made as he did so.

  “Do you have any idea how it excites me when men look at your naked tits, Duchess?” he asked. “How hard it makes me to know that I possess what they can only look at and dream of touching?”

  “I don’t,” she gasped, “But I want to know.” She arched up into him, her body craving this, needing the release after the day they had endured.

  “It makes me want to do unspeakable things to you, Duchess,” Jack purred as he stripped away her breeches before undoing his own, both of their boots gone the moment they entered the cabin.

  “What kind of unspeakable things?” She let out another tiny gasp as he latched on to her already sensitive nipple and began to suckle and bite as the men had a few days ago.

  Daniel pulled back and began to nuzzle her neck, his hands cradling her hips against his. “I want to spread you out before my men and fuck you again, Duchess. I want them to watch. I want them to watch me take your arse with my cock as I spank you, watch as your delightful tits sway with each thrust as you cry out and beg me to fuck you harder.”

  “What else?” she asked as he pushed her legs apart so that he could settle between them as he backed her against the wall. “What else do you want to do with me?”

  “I want you to ride me as you did the other night. I want to see you splayed over my hips, your tits bouncing as I thrust up into you. I want to take your cunt with a dildo in your ass so that you might know the feeling of being filled in both of your delightful holes. I want you bound to my bed and at my mercy so I can spend all night making you release for me until you are begging me to fuck you. And I will. With you on your hands and knees as I rut with you like an animal to ensure that your belly grows big with my child. And when you have swollen with the babe, I will rut with you again, fucking your tits until you scream and then emptying myself inside of you, knowing that you are mine and mine alone. That you will never belong to another for as long as I live. For I love you too much to ever let you go.”

  “Oh, Jack,” she breathed, but Daniel cut her off quickly with a hard kiss before his fingers dove into her cunt to tease out her growing wetness.

  “Daniel,” he corrected. “From this point on, I am Daniel to you. Only call me Jack when there are others about. When we are alone? It is my name I want to hear on your lips, do you understand?”

  “Daniel,” she agreed as he slid a second finger inside of her, followed quickly by a third and began to fuck her hard and fast with his hand. “Oh, God! Yes, Daniel! Yes. Harder.”

  Katherine’s head thrashed about as Daniel drove his fingers into her cunt. He wanted her extremely wet because he planned to spend the entire night fucking her until they both collapsed from exhaustion.

  She was his. They were free of the evils that had chased them across the West Indies. And she would be his duchess when they returned to England. But first and foremost, she would always be his pirate queen.

  “Mine, Katherine,” Daniel hissed in Katherine’s ear as he quickly withdrew his hand only to replace it with his cock in the next moment. “You are mine as is the babe you will carry one day soon. Forever.”

  “Forever yours,” Katherine agreed eagerly as she cried out in pleasure as Daniel’s cock filled her once again.

  Pressed against the wall as she was, she felt him deeper than before and she wrapped her legs around his waist so that she might ride him, allowing him to drive into her as deep as he wished. But it wasn’t deep enough and Daniel seemed to know that.

  Pulling them away from the wall, he cradled her in his arms as he dropped them both to the floor before withdrawing from her body. She whimpered at the loss of him inside of her but when he placed her on all fours and widened her legs so that he might mount her from behind, she felt her heart begin to race in her chest and her blood begin to quicken.

  Then he was there, his cock thrusting into her hard and fast as he pressed her chest to the floor, one hand on her tits and the other on her hip. “I am going to ride you, Duchess,” Daniel growled into her ear. “And I will make you scream my name. My real name. And when I am done? We will do this again. We will do this all night, Duchess. For you are mine.”

  Katherine wanted to respond, to tell him that she wanted those very same things, but she never had the chance. For then Daniel was driving his thick, swollen cock deep into her cunt again and she screamed his name. His real name, which seemed to please
him immensely.

  But he didn’t relent. Instead, he gripped her arms with his hands, pinning her to him and he rode her hard and fast, his cock thrusting in and out of her cunt faster than she had imagined possible.

  Katherine’s body felt as if it was on fire, her skin blazing hot as Daniel used her for his pleasure. But he gave her pleasure in return, just as he always did. He bit the tender skin at the back of her neck and he toyed with her still-swollen nipples, pulling hard on the tips until she screamed and her legs began to quake.

  When he spanked her as he had the night on deck, Katherine felt her inner sheath clench hard and fast, making Daniel chuckle.

  “That’s it, Duchess,” he coaxed. “Own this. Claim your power. Claim what you want just as I do.” He bit her shoulder hard, making her cry out again. “I am claiming you as mine, Katherine. I need you to do the same.”

  When he spanked her again, this time, Katherine pressed herself back into his waiting hand. “More,” she demanded. “Harder.”

  “As you wish, Duchess.”

  The next slap of Daniel’s hand on Katherine’s ass was likely harder than he intended it to be, but Katherine reveled in it. They were both barely hanging on to their last shreds of civility and with each hard thrust of his cock into her cunt, they were spinning closer and closer to the edge of reason.

  “What do you want, Duchess?” Daniel asked again as he continued to spank her. Not as hard not, but steady so that she bucked and thrashed wildly beneath him as his cock still plunged into her.

  “I want more, Daniel!” she cried out, surprising herself. “I want all of you! All that you will give me! All that you want to do to me! But most of all, I just want you!”

  Those words sent Daniel into a lust-filled frenzy and he made no pretense of being a gentleman now. His hips slapped against Katherine’s arse as he fucked her, her face pressed hard into the carpet and her hips titled high so that he could drive in as deeply as possible.

  Beneath him, Katherine cried out his name and moaned in pain-tinged pleasure as Daniel ravished her body with a crazed frenzy that surprised both of them. It was when he pulled hard on her tits, however, that Katherine screamed his name, just as Daniel promised she would before her world splintered into a thousand pieces.

  With Daniel’s cock buried deep inside of her and his name once more on her lips, Katherine came hard and fast, her body nearly flying apart from the pleasure. Daniel did the same, Katherine’s own name a hoarse cry that seemed to be ripped from his throat as he spilled his seed inside of her, claiming her as his. Forever. Just as she claimed him in return.

  Epilogue

  Three years later

  England

  “You must stop fretting over Robert for a bit, Duchess. He is in Mary’s more than capable care, and I dare say that she needs the practice caring for a babe. What with her about to become a mother to a viscount soon, God willing.”

  “He is my son. You are his father. We are hardly the sedate and retiring type. Of course, I worry.” Katherine gave a derisive snort as if that should explain everything.

  Daniel laughed, the sound richer now than it had been on The Darkness.

  The Darkness.

  How she missed that ship.

  Oh, Daniel still owned the ship, but it was a merchant vessel now, all traces of her former life as a pirate’s pride stripped away. Or at least most of them. The door that connected the captain’s quarters to a secret hallway via the private privy was still there. That was something both she and Daniel had insisted upon when the ship had been refurbished into a private vessel

  Just in case. One could never be too careful, especially when one had once been known as Midnight Jack and she a would-be pirate queen.

  “Still, he is in good hands, Duchess. The danger is long gone these days. Wilds is dead, and Boucher is still in my debt.” Katherine felt Daniel behind her as his already erect cock pressed hard into her arse. She had come to adore arse fucking rather quickly, especially when she had first learned she was with child and every part of her, especially her cunt, had been so very sensitive. “Now, please. Come away from the window. We have things to do before our guests arrive this evening.”

  Knowing that her husband was right, Katherine pulled away from the window that overlooked the gardens far below. “It is simply that I worry.” She pulled Daniel’s hands around her and used them to cradle her stomach, which was only slightly swollen – four months at best guess – with their next child. “But you are correct. Mary needs the practice. Especially if her babe is anything like her husband. Former pirates make excellent husbands, but they do tend to possess wild streaks that can be difficult to curb.”

  “Something that I happen to know you both love and adore about me,” Daniel teased back.

  “As if there was ever any doubt. I waited six years for you to come back to me,” Katherine signed, leaning back against her husband.

  “I told you. I came back from the dead for you, Duchess, and I would do so again. I love you. Never forget that.”

  “As I love you, Daniel.” It felt good to be able to say her husband’s name, his true name, aloud and without fear, though that had taken some getting used to. Just as this life had.

  Some days, like today, it was difficult for Katherine to believe that she had been in England for a little under three years now and had been wed to Daniel for a bit longer than that. A few weeks after The Darkness had set sail for England, it had become evident to Katherine and to Dr. Wells that she was increasing – and quickly. Meaning Daniel had likely gotten her with child the first night they had fucked.

  Refusing to allow his child – be it a son or a daughter – to be called a bastard, the ship’s reverend had wed Daniel and Katherine aboard the ship as the crossed the Atlantic so that they were already man and wife by the time they made port in England. That they had wed without the Morton betrothal ring had upset Daniel’s father but he quickly got over his disappointment when a few short months later, Katherine had presented him with a new heir to the dukedom

  Which had been extremely fortuitous since the old man had passed away not long after they had returned, making Daniel the new Duke of Morton. It was a position he did not particularly want, but one that he took on as his duty. There were a great many people who relied upon him. Not only Katherine herself and their child, but many of the former crewmembers of The Darkness who had chosen to settle in England rather than return to the sea.

  However, Daniel refused to cling to tradition as fiercely as his father had, which was something Katherine was extremely grateful for nearly every day of her life.

  Which was why on this damp and chilly afternoon, as the newly minted Lady Mary Abney, Viscountess Rutherford – who had once masqueraded as a cabin boy named Rupert – kept watch over little Robert along with her father, Baron Paul Ramsey – a former ship’s cook – Katherine once more found herself clad in tight leather breeches, an unbuttoned shirt with her tits unbound and her feet clad in knee-high boots. And around her neck, as always these days, was the Pirate’s Blood necklace.

  She wore it constantly and its presence around her neck helped to spur the rumors that the new Duke and Duchess of Morton were not quite as respectable as they appeared, since it was rumored that the necklace was not only cursed but had once been owned by a fierce pirate queen who was so mysterious as to be legendary. Which, of course, made people wonder how Katherine had come to own the necklace and what she had done to make it hers.

  The more they were out in Society, the more the rumors flared, so Katherine and Daniel had largely withdrawn from that life, something that suited both of them just fine. Mingling with the peerage after the lives they had led was difficult and sometimes painful, a fact they had quickly discovered the first time someone hinted that Katherine had chosen to wed Daniel for his loftier title over the elderly Earl of Wiltshire, the gentleman with whom her uncle had been trying to arrange a match.

  Despite the fact that they were members of the peera
ge now, neither Katherine nor Daniel could give up who they were at heart – so they did not try. Instead, they traipsed about Westwind, the ducal estate, as they pleased. Most of the time, they did their best to look and act respectable enough, though it was not uncommon for a servant to come across them fucking in a corner of the house or in a field somewhere.

  On days like today, however – which were really more numerous than not – when she and Daniel were about to hold a grand masked ball for all of Daniel’s old “West Indies friends and associates” as he termed the pirates who often made the journey to their estate just outside of Plymouth, then Katherine dressed as she had aboard The Darkness – like the pirate queen she would always be at heart.

  “We can cancel tonight if you like.” Daniel nuzzled her neck as his hands came up to cup her tits, which were already swollen and sensitive. “If you are not up to things, that is.”

  “Cancel?” Katherine snorted indignantly. “Not bloody likely!” She turned in Daniel’s arms and flashed him her best pirate queen smile. “After all, I’ve been looking forward to a bit of public fucking for a week now.” She looped her arms around her husband’s neck. “You did make certain the bed was placed in the center of the ballroom, didn’t you?”

  To her delight, Daniel returned her wicked grin with one of his own. “Yes, and with all of the ties and what not that you so enjoy.” He shook his head. “I thought I was kidnapping a lady. How was I to know I was really kidnapping a pirate queen instead?”

  Katherine kissed him lightly. “You couldn’t know. Just as I couldn’t know that it was actually a pirate that held my heart. And always had.”

  “I love you, Katherine, my pirate queen.” Slowly, Daniel reached down to undo his wife’s breeches. That was one of the things she adored about him. He was always ready for a quick fuck.

  “Just as I love you, Daniel. My pirate. My Midnight Jack. Two parts of a whole.” While she spoke, she had been busy undoing the placket of his breeches as well so that she could free his cock. It sprang free of its confines, already hard and throbbing.