Page 17 of Her Perfect Pirate
“Is that a tribute?”the captain asked, turning towards Mrs.Adams.
“We found ourselves with too many goats and thought you might like one,” Jack replied.
“Does its keeper come with it?”The captain’s eyes roved over Rebecca as she had known they would.
As Captain Boukman had known they would.
As her husband had known they would.Yet Sharkhead had personally put her into the longboat despite the fate that awaited her.
It wasn’t that Rebecca was unwilling to do her part as a crew member of theGhost.She had the machete, currently strapped by a piece of rope to her thigh.She had a burning rage that she was anxious to unleash upon the cotton and sugar and rum the ship was carrying as currency.She wanted to see these slavers begging for forgiveness—and she couldn’t wait to tell them they would never have it.
But it was one thing to join the fight and another to walk onto the deck of theWhimsy,where their longboat group of twenty would have to face a crew of seventy-five men.
If they lost this battle—if theWhimsysailed away while theGhostengaged with the other two slavers—then Rebecca would be at the mercy of this captain and his men, who were already looking at her like she was the cheapest whore in New Orleans.
She didn’t know why Sharkhead had allowed Captain Boukman to send her away, but she knew that if she made it back to theGhost, she would never permit herself to be in this position again.
In the meantime, Rebecca was going to play the hand she was dealt, whether she liked it or not.
Curving her lips as if to smile, she replied to the captain, “I can stay for a cup of tea, at least.”
The man gulped.His voice suddenly reedy, he barked to his first mate, “Give these men a bit of grog and show them around.”To Rebecca, he jerked his head.“This way, then.”
Once again, she resisted the urge to turn her head back in search of theGhost.She wouldn’t be able to see Sharkhead anyway.If he was watching through the telescope, maybe he was wondering why she was disappearing with the captain.Maybe he was realizing what a coward he had been not to insist that Captain Boukman permit her to remain on ship.
Whatever he was doing, it wasnotfiring at the slavers.Which meant Rebecca had to bide her time, even as she followed the captain into his whitewashed cabin.She tied Mrs.Adams to the railing just outside his door.He shut it without locking it.
Rebecca had been seduced by a wide variety of men in her lifetime.Fellow servants who sweetened the experience by swiping a glass of wine from the dinner table or picking wildflowers from the side of the road.The senator’s son, who had stolen her away for entire nights and offered her liquor, chocolates, even silk petticoats as proof of his love.Sharkhead hadn’t presented her with any gifts yet, but he bestowed her with his attention, always making sure she was comfortable, always making sure she was engaged.
This captain didn’t offer any seduction at all.One moment, she was looking around his cabin, noting the bed with a mattress, the window that was cracked open to let in a breeze, and the leather-bound Bible sitting on the center of his desk.
The next moment, he had undone his trousers and whipped out his cock.
It was small, of course, but alarming enough that Rebecca’s fingers twitched towards the machete under her petticoat.
“Turn around.”He grabbed her wrists before she even had a chance to comply and marched her to the wall, hands above her head, breasts against the wainscoting.He pulled up her skirts so that her arse was bare to him and the room.
He didn’t notice the machete.
Mouth dry, heart hammering, Rebecca considered her options.She could go along with it.She could tell herself she was in control, that this was all part ofherplan to weaken theWhimsyso they could be sure it was captured.
Or she could stop letting Captain Boukman determine her fate.He was supposed to have ordered cannon fire as soon as they landed on theWhimsy.They had been on board for at least a quarter hour now.If he didn’t give the order soon, he never would.And even if he had ordered her onto the ship as some kind of twisted revenge on Sharkhead, nineteen other crew members were on board, too.
Rebecca didn’t care to sacrifice her dignity just because Captain Boukman was taking his damn time to order the cannon fire.
And so, as theWhimsy’s captain lunged forward to stick his cock up her body, Rebecca grabbed the shaft of her machete, whirled around, and aimed her blade at the offending body part.
Swing big.
The cock fell to the ground.
The captain screamed.
And, only seconds later, the ocean resounded with bursts of cannon fire.
Rebecca scuttled around the captain, who had landed on the ground and was both writhing in pain and reaching out as if to seize her ankles.She untied the rope around her thigh to free the machete.Someone banged on the door, crying, “Pirates!”so she opened it and stuck her weapon into the man’s stomach before he could blink.
Parts of his guts came out with her blade.Rebecca’s stomach turned, but she didn’t let it stop her.These were men who were willing to trade sugar for a person’s life.To chain hundreds of people into a hold and watch them die of dysentery.To rape women and girls without an ounce of remorse.
