The Buccaneer(14)
“Ship’s storage, she won’t need them,” he answered and turned his attention back to the sea.
Bones snickered as he walked away, his smile showing the gaping hole where his two front teeth should have been.
“What are you smiling at, Bones?” a man as fat as Bones was skinny and with a thatch of bright red hair asked.
The captain wants the lady’s trunks in storage. She won’t be needing them,” he said, poking Jolly in his protruding belly.
Jolly scratched at the stubble on his chin. “She don’t look the captain’s type.”
“The captain don’t have a type. If he wants a woman, he takes her.”
Jolly shook a chubby finger in Bones’ face. “You know damn well the captain don’t force no women.”
“He don’t have to,” Bones said proudly of his captain’s prowess with the ladies.
“Yeah, they all fall under his spell sooner or later,” Jolly agreed.
Bones looked about him, checking to see if anyone could overhear their conversation. “It’s his eyes,” he whispered.
Jolly stared at him as if he were daft. “His eyes?”
“He’s got that look that’s real evil. That’s why he’s called Lucifer. But the look affects the women differently. They get captured by it and soon they’re wanting him like mad.”
Jolly leaned closer to Bones. “Do you think we could learn to give that look? To women, I mean.”
Bones thought for only a moment. “It’s sure worth a try. Especially if it works and women start falling all over us.”
“That would be a welcome change,” Jolly said with a hearty laugh.
“We’ll watch his eyes and practice,” Bones suggested, trying to squint his wide eyes into the evil look he so often saw the captain wear.
Jolly followed his lead, squinting his eyes and causing his full cheeks to bulge.
“Problem, men?”
Bones and Jolly jumped, startled by the captain’s stern voice behind them. Both turned at the same time, a definite mistake since Jolly’s belly bumped Bones and knocked him on his backside.
“Get to work,” the captain ordered. “And save the nonsense for later.”
Both men stared at him as he walked away and shivered at the sight of the thin pale, crisscrossed scars that marred his entire back.
Jolly held his hand out to Bones to help him up. “I think we should forget the look.”
Bones agreed with a nod. “Evil, ain’t it?”
“Worse than evil,” Jolly whispered. “He’s got demons inside him, he does.”
Bones and Jolly watched Lucifer walk toward the quarterdeck. They then looked at each other, nodded and walked in opposite direction.
Lucian stood outside his cabin door. All his hard work, his carefully laid plans, had finally brought him to this. He would have his revenge though it would not be through rape that he achieved it.
Matching her innocence with his experience in pleasure would be all that was necessary to reach his objective. In her naiveté she would hand his father to him on a silver platter.
His hand reached out, grabbed the latch and without hesitation he walked into the cabin.
The sunlight played off her pale skin, pure white and blemish free. Lucian stopped in his tracks at the end of the bed, his breath caught in his throat. She was gorgeous. Her five foot four height complimented her every shape and curve. And her hair. . .
God, he thought only angels possessed hair of that shimmering moonbeam color. Long and silky, it fell over her shoulders, allowing just so much of her breasts to peek through. And they were perfect in size, the type a man could cup gently in his hand and feast upon.
A narrow waist gave way to round hips and a firm backside that molded into shapely limbs. He couldn’t help but smile, wicked though it was, at the pearls that lay across her firm derriere tantalizing her delicate skin.
His eyes hastily made their way to her face and he was captured by it. Her wintergreen eyes were warm and sensuously stunning, especially framed by brows arched like raven wings, yet so extreme in color. Her soft cheeks were flushed pink and her lips were tinged with moisture. Lucian felt a shiver run down his spine as he thought of her small tongue that had probably only moments before slipped across them, staining them with a glistening wetness.
“I’m ready, Captain. Don’t be naughty and keep me waiting.”
Lucian wasn’t certain he heard her correctly.
“Well, do hurry, sir. It has been a week since I’ve last had a man fill me and I find myself. . . aching.”
His look grew menacing, but Catherine continued the charade. She sat up, the pearls rolling down to lie over her breasts and stomach shielding her. “Are you having a problem?”