Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 163328 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 817(@200wpm)___ 653(@250wpm)___ 544(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163328 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 817(@200wpm)___ 653(@250wpm)___ 544(@300wpm)
“Maneuver into a windward position and hold the weather gage. If you approach aggressively with the wind, you’ll blind them with smoke as you take out the rigging.”
He quickly explained the advantages and risks of a tactic he’d used in his battles against the Spanish.
My mind reeled at the sheer perfection of it. “You have an exalted natural mental ability, my lord.”
“Thank you, Captain.”
“Pass along the details of the maneuver to Jobah, if you please. And remind me to properly thank you later. With my mouth. While on my knees.”
“Gladly.” His gaze smoldered, dipping to the sharp rise of my breasts in the corset.
We pivoted, parting ways to prepare the crew for our attack.
The fight passed swiftly and flawlessly. The slave ship was caught in the thick billowing draft of smoke, her canvas afire, and her gunners far too blinded to thwart Jade’s approach.
By the time I hoisted our red flag with the intention to board, my crew was already flinging grappling hooks and storming onto the enemy ship. I threw myself into the throng, flanked by Priest and Ashley with our cutlasses raised.
The slave traders resisted with swords, coming at us in a clash of steel. The deck shuddered beneath the stomp of boots, and the scent of battle encompassed me. Gunpowder, blood, sweat, death. It infused me with a sense of purpose.
With every stab of my cutlass, I lay my heart naked. With every vile life that I took, I felt replete.
I was a pirate captain, a rebel queen of the sea, fighting against the conformities of society and the oppressive laws of man.
Slashing and thrusting, I hacked down every slave trader in my path. In my periphery, Priest and Ashley maintained a protective circle around me. I couldn’t fault them for that. I was protecting them, too.
At last, the pained cries of our enemies fell quiet. My crew stood amid the dead bodies, chests heaving, and blades dripping with blood. I searched the corpses and found no familiar faces.
“We’re all accounted for?” I bent at the waist, trying to catch my breath.
“Aye, Captain.” Jobah wiped his dagger on his trousers.
“To the hold, then! Get those men out of irons! Make haste!”
As if I could magically sense them, my gaze shifted to the starboard bow. Priest and Ashley leaned against the gunwale, watching me. Both had traded their shirts for cuts and bruises. Muscles layered upon muscles, flawlessly honed, beneath soot and sweat.
The battle looked good on them. More than good.
I strolled toward them, picking my way through the bodies and dodging the low-burning fire of a fallen sail. Reaching Priest first, I dragged his whiskered face to mine and kissed him hungrily, needing his closeness. I needed them both, needed to taste their breaths, their proof of life, upon my tongue.
My hand found Ashley’s beside me, and he drew us to him. With a grip in my hair and his other on Priest’s neck, he kissed us, one after the other, deeply, openly, without shame or quarter.
I loved them more because they loved each other. What we had was rare. We were magic. No one understood it, and nothing could touch it. I would protect it with my life.
At length, the kiss melted into peaceful smiles, and we turned toward the bow, facing the shoreline of St. Christopher in the distance.
Sugar cane stretched inland beyond the sand, and amid those fields were enslaved men and women, working their bodies to the bone.
“We’re going to free them.” Ashley pulled me close and kissed my head.
“I believe you.”
“The three of us together cannot be stopped.” A savage glint lit in Priest’s eyes. “We’re an exquisite force of destruction.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Love prevailed, not in the windless calm of life, but in the ruin.