Ned

I never believed I would see any of the myths’ effects in person.

But the first thing I realized when pirates took over our ship as that all the other sailors who’d grown up with stories of pirate depravity reacted instantly, fear overcoming any hesitancy to fight back.

I, however, was fascinated by the pirates, and found myself staring at them from my seat in the crow’s nest rather than leaping into the fray.

They had done a good job of coming upon us unawares. It was a clear day, but one with a good wind in our sails, so by all rights, we should have simply outpaced the clipper that took us down.

That, and the fact that I was the one in the nest when they signaled made me feel responsible for what happened.

I spent as much time up there as I possibly could now that I had gotten over my fear of heights. But I hadn’t learned all the signals, so I waved to a powder monkey to come up—one of the young boys who, during battle, ran gunpowder to the cannons, and did other ship work requiring someone young and nimble boys. I called him to climb the ropes and explain to me what the other ship was trying to tell us when I saw it approaching off our starboard bow.

I called down to the crewmen on deck once I knew that, as I had been trained to do. I had the boy relay the news of the ship to the captain.

But they signaled their distress—they were flying a British flag upside down. I think that part, them claiming to be British, more than almost anything else they did, outraged me the most. More than making their ship look more beaten and battered than it was. More even than firing upon us when we were coming to help.

Of course, they were trying to fool us. They were turned so we could see the ship’s name through the spyglass.

But as we drew near, they began to turn, and as soon as we got close enough to make out the words Neptune’s Jewel, the other sailors aboard The Felicity knew exactly who they were. The pirate ship was well-known in the area—and we probably should have been on the lookout for them. But no one had told me that. So it wasn’t entirely my fault.

But by the time we read their name, it was already too late. They’d fired a volley of cannons and we were taking on water.

They ran the Jolly Roger up the flagpole and boarded us more quickly than I would have assumed possible. I was still up in the crow’s nest, and for several seconds, I froze as they swarmed aboard The Felicity.

Their sun-darkened skin and long, intricate braids marked them out as different from most of the sailors aboard our ship. They carried wickedly sharp, curved knives that they gripped in their teeth as they climbed the ropes and sails, leaving the ship crippled.

Worse was when they turned on the men I had come to care for more than my own family. The ones who fought back were in the most danger. I saw at least a few sliced by those sharp knives and tossed overboard, into the water below. When I saw the first Felicity sailor go over, I snapped out of my stupor and made my way swiftly down the ropes to join the battle below.

At least our sailors gave as good as they got. For every one of The Felicity’s men who died, at least one of the pirates did, too.

But in the end, we were no match for them.

And quickly enough, they stopped killing us, instead rounding us up on the deck.

When the captain of the pirate ship bellowed out for his men to hold their blades, and for his ship to hold its fire, we all paused, surprised. Everything I ever heard of pirates involve them killing almost everyone aboard. I’d fully expected to die.

This captain had another plan, apparently. His pirates shoved us to our knees, the wooden deck leaving splinters in our clothes, shredding the fabric.

“By now, you know you are all bound for the bottom of the ocean,” the captain said, striding back and forth in front of us. I kept my face turned down toward the deck, unwilling to look the barbarous villain in the eyes.

“And we will be taking anything you have.” His hand flapped beside his pants leg as he gestured to someone behind us. “Our quartermaster is belowdecks with yours, taking stock. We will take anything we can use ourselves, the rest we will trade or sell.”

He reached the end of the line of Felicity sailors and spun on his heel to saunter down the line in the other direction. His boots were tall and a gleaming, black leather. His buff-colored pants ballooned out a little over the tops of them, and he hit the side of them with that scimitar of his. “That will hold true for the sailors, as well.” Tap, tap. “We will be taking stock of you over the next few days, as well as your supplies.” Step, step. Tap, tap, tap. Turn. “Those of you we can use, we will.” Tap, tap, tap. Step. Step. “The rest of you, we will sell or trade, as necessary.” I could hear the smile in his voice.

This time, he stopped before he got to the end of the line, right in front of me. He reached out with the tip of the sword and pressed it against my chin, very gently, using the flat side to get my attention. “Understand what I’m saying?”

I tilted my chin up, but I kept my eyes cast down.

“Look at me when I’m talking to you, sailor.” The knife pressed deeper into my chin and I could feel the skin almost start to give. I turned my face up toward his and finally brought my eyes to meet his gaze.

We both froze.

He was beautiful.

Everything about him, from his bronze skin to his deep brown eyes to his full, sensuous lips held me spellbound, as if he were one of the ocean Sirens from old George’s stories.

He didn’t move for a long time, either, his gaze glued to my face, as if memorizing every tiny feature.

When he finally spoke again, his voice had turned gruff. “Well, then.” He cleared his throat. “That will be enough information for now. Everyone on a pirate ship works. We had to leave a number of our normal crew behind for a short time, so we expect you to do your share.”

His men gave each other significant glances during this speech. I wondered what had caused them to leave enough of their crew behind that they had to take on hours.

I also wondered why the captain kept staring at me so intently.

“You think you can turn these scurvy, useless sailors into true seamen?” another man snarled as he walked by. “Not one of them is worth any of the om—”

“That’ll be enough from you,” the captain interrupted him. “You can go back aboard the Neptune’s Jewel and prepare a welcome appropriate for our new guests.”

The subordinate glared at his captain with real hatred in his eyes, and I couldn’t help but wonder what had passed between them to make them loathe each other so.

But as that man left, my attention was quickly drawn back to the mesmerizing pirate captain. “After you finish your first job,” he said, “you will be taken aboard Neptune’s Jewel and shown to your new berth.” He spun away and moved out of my line of vision. I swallowed in relief.

“Your first job,” announced the man I assumed was probably the second mate, or maybe the quartermaster, “will be to transfer The Felicity’s stores over to the Neptune’s Jewel. That kind of cargo shift in the middle of the ocean might not be as easy as you’d expect. But we know what we’re doing, and we will talk you through it.”

“Seems like they could leave some of the stuff aboard The Felicity,” George muttered to me.

Suddenly, the pirate captain was leaning down between the two of us. “Oh, some of my men will stay behind to crew The Felicity after we’ve taken what we need aboard the Neptune’s Jewel. Don’t you worry about that.”

His breath against my cheek, especially coming from behind me out of nowhere as it had, sent a shiver down my back. He walked back around us and moved to the plank that connected our two ships. As stepped up atop it, however, he turned around and pointed that scimitar of his at me. “Take him to my cabin,” the captain ordered, and a strange thrill went through me—somewhere between terror and excitement. “I have questions for him.”

And then he was gone, aboard his own ship, and I was left with what I believed was only a terrified, sinking feeling in my stomach.

But there wasn’t time to be frightened yet, not really. Not when we had The Felicity to unload. I would do my best not to worry about what that beautiful captain might want to do to me in his cabin.

But I couldn’t help thinking of some of George’s more outrageous stories as I went to work heaving crates and barrels from one ship to the other.

And again, my cock grew hard in pants.

Apparently terrified wasn’t the only way I was feeling.