Page 18 of Pirate's Intent
ChapterSix
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TERRIFYING FACES SWARMEDin front of her, their voices taunting and lewd. Each and every one undressed her with their eyes. Made her feel filthy. There was no getting away. She had to face this, Hannah would have said.
Just act the part, she preached to herself. Play dumb.
“’Tis a high price for a wench who cannot speak or even see straight,” one hollered.
Just keep playing dumb.
“Who needs her to talk?” another called out. “Just her pretty little mouth around my cock is worth the price!”
God save her.
She could do this.
She had to do this.
“And no need to see straight.” Another chortled. “I’ll steer her along just fine.” He grabbed his crotch. “Right onto my main mast!”
She kept her head down and willed cowardly tears away, but it did no good. They started falling before Big Devil grabbed her by the hair and forced her to her knees. Unable to hold back, she screamed.
And screamed.
Over and over until Thomas’s voice grew louder than the roars of the crowd.
Louder than her own screams.
“Wake up, Rose.” Big Devil’s painful grasp became Thomas’s tender touch. “It is just a nightmare.” He shook her gently. “Wake up.”
Torn from pure hell, she opened her eyes to daylight and Thomas’s cabin. She was wrapped in his strong arms. He stroked her hair, trying to soothe her, murmuring again and again that it was just a nightmare.
She was safe.
Rose blinked away tears and remained where she was at first, trying to make sense of her surroundings. She was not about to be used roughly by Big Devil but wrapped up in Thomas’s warm arms.
“Are you well,” he eventually murmured.
“I am,” she whispered, finally finding her voice. She tilted her head back and looked at him. “Thank you.”
His eyes were the color of sunlit moss in the current lighting, and his voice husky as his gaze lingered on hers. “How are you feeling? Rested?”
“Very,” she murmured.
Her gaze dropped to his lips. She remembered how they felt against hers like it was yesterday. How tender, coaxing, then arousing. With a heavy swallow, she, at last, pulled away because she didn’t trust herself to stay where she was.
How quickly she went from the terror of being used to the need to be taken.
She stretched and yawned before she realized her nightmare might very well be pursuing them. “What did I miss? Is everything all right?”
“Everything is fine for now.” He gestured at a plate with apples and dried meat then a chamber pot in the corner. “Dress and see to your needs. We sail into port soon.”
“Are we safe then?”
“Safe enough for now,” he said. “Safer still once we get off this ship.”
As she discovered a short time later when she went on deck, they were not quite as safe as he’d led her to believe. There were pirates about on land.
