Annaline, surprisingly, found herself reacting to the man. She wasn't supposed to, it was forbidden, it was preposterous, it was unthinkable, it was...... until she caught the smell of him. Not like the others, the ones that had dragged her from her ship, her father's ship going to the New World. No, the others had been dirty, smelly creatures, their hands stripping the covers from her bed, pawing at her like animals, binding her arms behind her back and blindfolding her before she had awakened from her siesta. And before she knew it, she was dumped in the longboat, rowed over to the pirate vessel and found herself standing on his ship, his deck, staring up into his deep sea-green eyes beneath a shock of sun-bleached hair, her eyes feeling his gaze.
The others, they were animals; she still felt their hands on her. But this one...oh, he was different. God in heaven, but he was different. He gave orders they were not to be disturbed. He lifted her up in his arms and strode aft to the great cabin of the vessel.
He laid her down on the window seat under the broad expanse of glass of the stern windows. Two of them had been lifted to let in the sea breeze and the gentle rocking and quiet hiss of the water under the stern of the vessel calmed her jangled nerves quite a bit. Her arms were still bound behind her as she lay on the cushioned seat.
Calling for water, he washed her face, and shoulders and her chest down to the edge of her bodice. She flushed with embarrassment and tried to hold her face away from him. No man had ever touched her there before, no man would have dared.
This man dared.
She imagined this man daring to do many things.
He lifted her to her feet, untied her bonds in the back.
"I'm glad you are, at least, a little more civilized..."
Her words were cut off in mid-sentence, as he clapped leather manacles on her wrists and effortlessly lifted and clipped them to an overhead beam.
She was speechless. What was this? The strength in his hands was something she had never felt before, and a part of her mind that she didn't recognize observed his hands, clean, long and slender fingers with surprising strength while they were on her wrists. Her knees were suddenly weak. Now she needed the support of the manacles to remain standing.
She didn't understand this, she must have been in the sun too long, she wasn't accustomed to it, she was too hot. Yes, that was it, it must be, she had sunstroke.
But the cabin was relatively cool, and she had never fainted before in her life. Oh this was so strange to her. She found herself wanting him to come near to her again.
Why, she did not know. But she did know she was lying to herself. Oh, but she did.
"Your skin is flushed. Are you all right?"
"I think I may be too hot."
The very edge of one corner of his mouth lifted a fraction in a slight smile. He knew she had no idea of the double-entendre.
"We shall have to attend to that, then shan't we?" His voice was low, smooth, well-modulated and even. And as he spoke, he took a dagger from his waist, and slowly, to her astonishment, (and to her mystification at her reaction, an intense quivering in her stomach), he slowly, bit by bit, began to cut her clothing from her body, until she stood in only shift and corset. Her breasts, pushed up proud of the corset, caught his eye, and she lowered her eyes, blushing at his gaze.
He sheathed the weapon. "That should be a bit cooler."
"Ahh ... thank you ..." Her voice trailed off, the training of politeness of a young woman in aristocratic England applying even in this situation. Oh, she must be insane! She was of good and noble family, her father minister to the King. This ruffian had just ripped her clothes from her body, and she was thanking him? She had never in her life been seen by a man in her underclothes. Not even her father had ever seen her in such a state.
"My name, in the unlikely case you are interested, is Justaine. But as I am the captain of this vessel, you will call me Captain."
"I will call you anything I plea ..."
The door burst open. A woman rushed into the room. Buxom, dark-haired and dressed in the clothing of a barmaid, her corset was unlaced and she was therefore a loose woman.
"Where is she? Justaine, where is she?" Her accent was that of the Highlands and Annaline was suddenly afraid. She knew the Highlanders to be a savage people. Her father had told her so.
"Lorna, you will calm down, and you will calm down now."
"But they said you carried her in here, the rich one was in your arms."
He laughed. "As far as that goes, that's true."
"I'll scratch her eyes out."
He smiled at the girl and touched her cheek. "Now Lorna, do as I say."
"But Justaine ..."
Justaine smiled wider, his teeth having something of the wolf in them. "Trust me, my dear. This will be much worse than what you have in mind. Now kneel in front of her."
Lorna looked back at him with questions in her eyes, but she had trusted him with her life after he had saved her father from ruin, and there was nothing she would not do for him.
"Now open her bodice."
Lorna's hands reached up to the white material, laced tightly to hold in the full softness of her untouched breasts and ripped through it.
Annaline gasped at the sudden violence ... and then her breasts were free. Her breath caught in her throat. She had never been so ... exposed, so ... she could hardly even think the word ... naked. And in front of him, oh no.
"Now Lorna."