Page 126 of Storm over the Caribbean
A long moment of silence stretched between us. Then…
Maybe it was just a play of the shadows. But italmostlooked as if his eyes softened. Somehow that didn’t lessen the fervour glowing in his eyes in the least. Quite the contrary, in fact.
“My littleifrit…” he murmured, his eyes boring into my very soul, “Please. Come here. Mount me.”
A shiver went down my spine.
“Well…” Eyes sparkling, I slowly, torturously slowly, advanced upon him. “Who am I to refuse when you ask me to beaboveyou?”
His little finger twitched. As did the muscle in his cheek.
Two muscles at once? I almost feel honoured by—
That was when he launched himself forward. In a blink, his iron grip had closed around my upper arms and lifted me bodily up into the air. A moment later, I came down on top of him, skin on skin. Beneath me, I could feel his hard muscles flex. One in particular.
I felt my mouth dry.
“W-we really shouldn’t.”
I couldn’t even pretend to sound convincing anymore. My voice was soft and breathy.
“I know.” His deep, dark, fathomless eyes bored into me. Reaching up, he tore the last scrap of clothing off of me. “But we’re still going to.”
And the world started to spin.
Later that night—much, much, later—we quietly lay together, snuggled against each other, watching the sparkling stars through the threadbare fabric of the tent.
“So…what now?” I whispered, turning over to gaze at him. “What do we do tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow?” Two icy eyes met mine. “There is nothing much we can do until we get a chance to slip away or get control of a boat. So we lie low. We bide our time. And, most of all, we pretend as best we can that we are pirates.”
***
“Grraah!” With a squelching sound, Karim ripped his knife out of his enemy’s throat and dropped the carcass to the deck. “Bloody pirates!”
The captain eyed the blood-spattered corpse. “Um…I’d have to agree. Extremely bloody.”
“Have we taken control over the entire ship?” the bodyguard demanded.
“Aye, everything but the crow’s nest. There’s still one of them cowering up there.”
“Get him down! Or do you want someone to put a bullet in your head from up there?”
The captain paled. “Aye aye, Sir! Right away, Sir! I’ll—”
Suddenly, a cannon shot sounded in the distance. Everyone turned to face the newcomers, ready for a fight—but the moment they saw the British flags fluttering above a fleet of very simplistically designed, completely undecorated ships, the whole crew breathed a sigh of relief.
“Those are Mr Ambrose’s ships!”
“The reinforcements!”
“Nowthey arrive?”
“Better now than never.” Wiping his sabre on a rag, Karim gestured to one of the sailors. “Signal them! Tell the captain to come aboard, and have them fish any pirates that survived out of the water!”
“Aye aye, Sir!”
Ten minutes later, the commander of the newly arrived fleet had climbed into a dinghy and was on his way to the other ship. Judging by the surly expression on his face, he didn’t very much like being ordered around—but that expression vanished the moment he climbed over the railing and spotted Karim. Immediately, he saluted and gestured for his men to do the same.
