Page 29 of Pirate's Intent
“I have been ready to leave this life for some time,” he said. “All of us on this ship have. So when Luke and I told them and his crew what we intended, everyone agreed to be part of the fight to save you. Part of facing the inevitable...” He looked out the window. “A new life.”
“What does that mean?” she whispered. Her eyes drifted as his hands wandered over her shoulders and skimmed her small waist. “What does a new life mean for you, Thomas?”
“It means this.” He set the scroll the British captain had given him on the desk. “Freedom from...freedom.”
She eyed it for a moment then him, still mulling things over. “If you knew of our plight, why not attack our ship before it ever made it south?”
“Because you were already Blackbeard's,” he reminded. “Had we attacked your ship and fled north, you and your sister would never have been safe any more than the rest of us. Not with Blackbeard’s long reach. It was best to follow pirate code as much as we could.”
“So for the same reason you carried the imitation brooch,” she murmured. “Ensuring Big Devil would not follow either.”
“Yes.” He caressed her soft cheek. “Anything to ensure your safety.”
She considered that for a moment before she responded. “Something has been weighing on my mind...something I have to ask.”
When he looked at her in question, she continued. “Did you know of my situation in Yorktown after John died? That I stayed on with his family, rather than return to my uncle? It was unorthodox, but times were especially troubling at the plantation, and they were kind enough to let me stay. When Uncle fled, we had no choice but to go with him.”
“I knew,” he murmured. “Or I would have come sooner, Rose.”
“Would you have?” Cautious hope lit her eyes. “Truly?” She swallowed hard. “Or are you just saying that to soothe my heart? Because I know you misunderstood mine and John's marriage. That it hurt you.” Her voice grew emotional. “Truth told, I've a romantic side that likes to think you would have come for me. Yet a logical side that would have loathed it. Because it would have meant your certain death for piracy.”
He understood the dreamer in her but also understood how her uncle's cruelty in her youth shaped her. How the need to escape and be safe had become an inherent part of her nature. Not only that, but he had given ample thought to this and only ever came to one conclusion.
Never more serious, he cupped her cheeks and made sure her eyes stayed with his. “Even if it meant losing you to my foul nature, I would have come for you, Rose.” He shook his head. “And I would not have been caught because that would have just put you back in your uncle's lecherous hands.”
“It would have indeed,” she whispered, her eyes misty. “You truly are my hero in every sense of the word. You always have been.”
If that were the case, he would have murdered her uncle long ago, but that was irrelevant now. What mattered was this moment. Her. Them. He brushed his lips across hers, then kissed her with everything he felt. What had come before, what literally followed in their wake, and what lay ahead.
The start of something new...perhaps.
He knew he should explain his intentions to her, but all he wanted to do was feel her,loveher, so he propped her on his desk, shoved her dress up, freed himself, and thrust deep.
“Thomas,” she gasped, her head falling back.
“Hmm?” He trailed his lips down her soft skin, hiked her legs higher, and rolled his hips, eliciting a throaty groan from her.
“We should,” she began, then gasped when he thrust deeper, harder.
He kissed every surface he could find, then laid her back on his desk and kept thrusting. Taking. Needing. All she could give him. Now and possibly far into the future.
“Where are we going,” she whimpered, her voice strangled with pleasure as he rode her. She arched her back, her eyes half-mast, her words moaned. “What is next?”
“Weare next.” He thrust until she began shaking and trembling. Until her eyes rolled back in her head. Entrenched in the feel of her sheath clamping down on him, he braced his hands on either side of her, thrust one last time, and roared with release.
Then finally, as they struggled to catch their breath, he murmured in her ear words he hoped she longed to hear. “We are going home.”
ChapterTwelve
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“WE COULD DO IT,” SHEargued, determined to make Thomas see things her way. “There are plenty of opportunities in other colonies.” She nodded. “Plymouth is prospering. We could go there and start anew in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.” Her eyes met his, hopeful. “You and I, Hannah, and even Luke could do well there. We could start a new life.”
She knew she was dreaming, but that didn’t stop her from continuing to do so. Not for a moment. Not when everything she wanted was so close...if but in a dream.
“This is not a story in one of your books, Rose.” He shook his head. “Life in the north is not easy. Winters are hard, summers are fleeting.”
“But there is plenty of work,” she countered. “Commerce is flourishing. You could boat-build, or take to fishing or whaling. Or perhaps try your hand at timber and fur trading.” She fanned her face in the oppressive August heat. “And a fleeting summer would not be such a bad thing.” Fresh hope lit her eyes. “The four of us could marry, just pretend, of course, sail to Plymouth and start a new life.”
