Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

As the crew dispersed, Callista waved Connor to follow her down to the second deck where the cabins were. She flung open a door to a room next to her own.

“Here, not spacious, but better than a hammock in the crews cabin I’ll warrant,” she said.

The room was more or less square with a window in the curved, rear wall. The bunk ran along the side and a desk and chair took up the other wall. A locker sat at the foot of the bunk. The furniture was plain and sturdy but a damned sight better accommodation than he currently had.

“It is thankee. And thank ye for yer support. I’ll not let ye down.”

“You’d better not,” she ran her eyes over him and turned away. “I’ll leave you to get settled in,” she said, reaching for the door.

He grabbed her arm and drew her around into the curve of his other arm.

“I think we’ve some unfinished business Callista.” His voice was soft and gravelly as he brought her closer against him with his arm. Her hands came to rest on his chest as she looked up at him from beneath her cursed hat. He knocked it off her head with a casual swipe and cupped his hand on her jaw. He bent his head to kiss her. Something he’d been fantasising about for weeks now.

Her in drawn breath was audible as he touched his lips lightly to her jaw and neck tasting the salt on her skin and getting a waft of her natural scent. He groaned in delight as his body tightened with lust, and he moved his head to find her lips. He wondered vaguely if she would resist and what he would do if she did.

His lips found hers and pressed gently, moving with an exploratory slowness. Tingles rushed outwards from the contact, and heat suffused his body, stiffening his cock further. He pulled her closer, delighting in the feel of her softness against him, her breasts squashed against his chest, the curve of her waist within his arm, the soft, warm skin of her face and neck beneath his fingers.

He deepened the kiss as she responded, more tentatively than he would have expected given her apparent boldness. He had expected a lioness, one who would tear and devour him with her fierce passion, not this hesitant exploration. Perhaps she wasn’t as experienced as she made out?

He tempered his approach, gentling her, and then he felt it, the loosening of her body against his and a moan in her throat as she gave into whatever she had been trying to hold in check.

She kissed him back fiercely, her tongue and her lips devouring him like she was that lioness sating herself on a long fought for meal. He responded in kind, tightening his hold on her and giving her every bit of his pent-up desire. She wasn’t the only one moaning and panting when she broke the kiss and stared up at him from eyes with pupils so blown the blue had almost disappeared.

“I told you I’d fuck you,” he said hoarsely, clamping a hand to her bum and pushing her hard against him, rubbing his raging erection blatantly against her belly.

She gasped and uttered a sound part way between a groan and a growl.

A knock on the door elicited another growl, this time of frustration, as a voice from the other side of the door said, “Captain are you in there? You’re needed on deck.”

He let her go reluctantly as she tidied herself hastily and picked up her hat.

“Coming!” she said turning towards the door. He grabbed her again and murmured softly. “You will be later!”

She choked on a laugh and slapped his arm, shaking her head, and headed out the door.

Connor rearranged his aching cock, not too displeased with that first kiss. Yes, Callista Montmayne was a woman who knew what she wanted, and she wanted him. He’d have her soon and then, then the balance of power would shift. Women couldn’t bed a man without losing a bit of themselves, a bit of their heart. Even Callista Montamayne wasn’t immune to that. No woman was. He’d make her feel better than she ever had in her life. She wouldn’t be able to resist him.

Connor went back to the crew’s cabin to collect his things, meagre as they were, and set about making the cabin his own. When he had done all he could, and she still wasn’t back, he headed up on deck to find her, but there was no sign of her.

He bethought himself of his promise to seek out McTavish, and he headed up to the bow of the boat and found the big man still there, staring out at the sea, buffeted by the wind and braced on the rail against the pitch of the prow.

He fetched out his flask of grog and offered him some. McTavish glanced up and took the flask, raising it to his lips. He handed it back in silence and Connor wondered what he could say. The man was clearly hurting. It was a mystery to him what the fellow could see in one as rough and broken as Jenni Wade, but then when did love ever make sense? It was why he’d steered pretty much clear of it.

“Congratulations,” said McTavish after a bit.

“Thankee.”

McTavish rubbed his face wearily. “She’s a hellion,” he said. Connor didn’t think he was talking of the captain, though he could well be. Callista was in her way as much of a handful as Jenni Wade.

“Aye,” he responded leaning his arms on the rail beside the bigger man, their shoulders barely brushing.

“The lass is hurting, and Furness will only hurt her more if she lets him. Why are women such fools for bad men?”

Connor pursed his lips. Since he’d profited from that circumstance most of his life, he hadn’t paused to consider it. But it seemed McTavish didn’t need an answer from him.

“I suppose it’s like my mam, used to say, they can’t resist the idea of fixing ‘em.” he sighed and rubbed his face again. Connor offered him more grog which he took.

Connor wondered if it wasn’t McTavish who couldn’t resist the idea of trying to fix Jenni. For a more broken wench he’d not met in a while. Which made him wonder just how broken Callista was.

Being raised on a pirate ship wasn’t exactly the sort of upbringing that would lend itself to producing a young lady of balanced and modest temperament. There was nothing modest or balanced about Callista. She was all fire and light, energy and determination, anger and vengeance. It was what fascinated him, drew him like a magnet. That and her lovely face, luscious blonde hair, long legs, delicious bottom, slender waist and generous breasts. Despite her mannish clothing, she was all woman underneath, and he couldn’t wait to see what she looked like naked. Couldn’t wait to touch and taste and kiss every inch of her...

He swallowed a groan. It was becoming a habit. He couldn’t think about her without growing a cockstand as stiff as a poker. His balls ached. If he couldn’t have her soon, he was going to explode. He felt itchy with unslaked desire, edgy, restless and irritable.

“I’m a blockheid, like they say, but I canna help it” said McTavish breaking through his thoughts. The pain in the man’s voice elicited some sympathy from Connor, who patted him on the shoulder and offered more grog. “She’s such a wee lass and so fierce! So strong! Because she’s had to be.”

“Does she know how you feel?”

“Nae. I’m too scairt to tell her. She’ll likely lop me ball’s off for even tryin’.” He sighed. “All I want to do is gather her up in me arms and hold her, ye ken? Hold her till she stops fightin’. But if I tried, she’d likely come at me with a knife or that wee axe of hers.”

“You mean to say, big fellow like you couldn’t disarm her?”

“Course I could, but I might hurt her. I’d never do that. She’s hurtin’ so it breaks me heart just to look at her.” He wiped his eyes and sniffed.

“Ye know,” said Connor leaning on the rail, “in my experience if ye tell a woman how ye feel she’ll respond really well. Women can’t resist a man who’s open about his feelings. My advice? Get her alone and tell her how ye feel. If I had anything to bet, I put money on ye getting a positive response.”

As he said it, he wondered if he’d ever have occasion to take his own advice. He’d used that tactic to get a woman to open her legs for him a time or two, but he’d not been sincere. What would happen if ye ever was?

“Ye think?” the hope in the other man’s voice made him smile.

“I do.”

“Well thank ye,” McTavish wrung his hand with both his big paws. “I’ll give it a go.”

“That’s the dandy. Here have some more grog.” He passed the flask again and McTavish took another swig, handed back the empty flask and slapped the rail. He wandered off, slightly unsteady on his feet, but that could just be the roll of the deck as they crested a slight swell.

Connor stayed by the rail for a few more minutes taking in the spray and the play of the sun sparkling on the water. It was another perfect day out here in the wide ocean, and he realised with a sudden quickening of his pulse how much he loved it.

The freedom, the fresh air the space. It was exhilarating. The wind gusted, making the sails behind and before him flap and crack, the sky was a perfect blue with the odd puff of fluffy white cloud, the sea a deep blue green with white crests. As he stood there, he caught a glimpse of a fin off to the starboard side and then as he stared, a body arced up out of the water and plunged back in with a splash. What kind of creature is it? Two more did the same thing as he watched.

“Dolphins off the starboard bow!” came a voice from above in the crow’s nest, where the lookout stood. A number of people rushed to the starboard side of the ship and pointed, exclaiming. Among them Callista, who fought her way to his side grinning.

“Beautiful, aren’t they?” she said.

He nodded. “What are they again?”

“Dolphins. The most graceful creatures and very playful. They often come round the ship and swim along-side as if they are escorting us.” She leaned on the rail watching the creatures with wrapt gaze, and he couldn’t take his eyes off her. She drew him like a lodestone. He could no more resist her than a moth could resist a flame.

His fingers snaked out to touch the back of her hand and slide under her cuff to touch her wrist, finding the soft flesh where her pulse beat, he stroked gently with his fingertips. Distracted she looked down and then up at his face. He smiled and drew an answering smile from her. It was a moment. Something pulsed between them, warm, and unspoken. His whole body throbbed with the heat of it.

He swallowed against the sudden tightness in his throat. His groin was on fire, the urge to take her in his arms and kiss her again and be damned to who was watching, seized him.

As if sensing his urge, she dragged her eyes away from his back to the dolphins, and he jerked back to reality and the fact that they were not alone on the deck but surrounded by others still pointing and exclaiming over the dolphins.

He ran his fingertips from her wrist to her palm, and he saw her lip’s part and heard her indrawn breath as her palm trembled under his touch.

“You’re killing me Irish,” she murmured under her breath, still not looking at him.

“Good, because you’ve already murdered me and chucked away the body.” he said hoarsely. “For God’s sake Callista, I have to have you.”

She bit her lip and he groaned, unable to keep it in. Glancing sideways at him, she said, “come to my cabin at ten bells tonight. Everyone but the night watch will be asleep, I’ll tell Dev not to sleep outside my door tonight. We need to be discreet; you do know that don’t you?”

“Aye,” he swallowed.

“Good, till then stay away from me.” She shoved herself away from the rail with an obvious effort and disappeared through the crowd still pressing for a look at the dolphins. He stayed put for several minutes trying to bring his raging cockstand under control.

Eventually he moved away from the rail and went to check out the keys on the chatelaine she had given him. He would need to get the register from her too, so that he could keep account of the stores inventory. But mindful of the instruction to stay away from her, he contented himself with working out which key belonged to what storeroom and what each room contained. His inspection took him several hours and served to distract him from the unbearable itch of desire in his blood.