First Comes Desire. Tina Donahue

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СКАЧАТЬ hate him, but wanted him nonetheless. As he did her. His cock strained against his breeches, craving her inner heat. The reverend’s courageous and honorable daughter would bring him endless pleasure. He had yet to touch her, but already she belonged to him, no other.

      She pivoted. Her braid swung, its dark color making her complexion seem even paler. In the future, he wanted her clothed in nothing except her glorious mane and two jewels he’d have her wear. Hopefully, she wouldn’t fight him too much on his fantasy.

      She pulled Peter toward the Lady Lark. At her endless words and flailing hand, the boy wilted. He’d met his match in her, but he wasn’t yet a man.

      The sorry souls who were men had paid the price for their drunkenness, the situation past control.

      “Captain.” Henry Wells staggered across the sand, lost his balance, and toppled over. “What in the hell is going on?”

      Reeves hauled the pirate to his feet. “You’re going to hang.”

      Henry wailed.

      One of Diana’s men grabbed Tristan’s arm. He made no move to fight. Yet. “My book, if you please.” He inclined his head to Homer’s tale. “I would never forgive myself if I left my mother’s most prized possession behind.”

      The man squinted at the cover. “That the Good Book?”

      Even from where he stood, Tristan could read the title. His captor could not, no different from other illiterate mariners. “It remained with her till the very end.”

      The man’s rough features softened. “Mine died in Newgate.”

      “A terrible place.” Tristan’s mother had spent much of her brief life in the prison. During his visits to her, he’d endured the stench from too much humanity caged like animals, and had been horrified at the prisoners’ endless screams. They convinced him never to exist in filth, nor let anything or anyone steal his self-respect and hope. He would live and die clean. He’d always be free. “When I’m there myself and surely when I hang, I want her book with me.”

      The man trudged through sand to fetch it.

      In the confusion and activity, no one watched Tristan. Inside a mangrove stand a doubloon flashed, the gold coin reflecting the firelight. The coin glinted repeatedly, spelling out James Sullivan’s message.

      Good man. Tristan suspected James hadn’t kept a proper watch because he’d helped Peter collect the crew’s water. Upon their return, the boy had probably stumbled unknowing into camp while James, who was far more experienced, had held back.

      Tristan inclined his head to where Diana had pulled Peter.

      The coin flashed in answer. James understood what to do.

      Tristan’s captor strode back. He shoved the volume beneath Tristan’s arm and led him across the sand.

      To the promise of freedom and the reverend’s wondrous daughter, Diana Fletcher.

      * * * *

      Despite a chair in the great cabin, Peter sat on the floor, legs pulled to his chest like a common pirate, not the proper boy Diana loved and had raised. Holding back sorrow, she stepped around him to get a better look at his back. He shifted, hiding it. She hurried to his other side. He twisted away.

      She stilled. “Please let me see your injuries.”

      “Ain’t got none.” He scooted back and slumped against the wall. “Them’s scars.”

      Good Lord. This wasn’t what she’d expected from their reunion. Peter should have been weeping, clinging to her as a frightened young boy would, grateful for his rescue.

      She sank next to him, wearier than she’d ever been. “Why did you run off to sea?”

      He shrugged.

      “Talk to me, please.”

      “Why? Won’t change nothing.”

      “Anything. I want us to be like we were before, sharing our woes and happiness.”

      “Ain’t going to happen. I’m a man now.”

      She wasn’t certain whether to laugh, cry, or rail at him. “Even men talk.”

      He muttered an oath.

      Diana fought for calm. “Please?”

      “Very well, have it your way. You was having trouble enough getting food for yourself, much less me, so I had no other choice except to run away, all right?”

      She slumped. “I would have starved before you went without. Surely you must know that.”

      “Why do you think I left? I wanted you to have enough.”

      “Oh, Peter.” She threw her arms around him and prayed for a kind response.

      He finally hugged her.

      Diana’s sorrow broke free, tears rolling down her cheeks. He’d suffered cruel beatings, most likely starved, and God knew what else because he’d looked out for her. “I had Father’s old room rented a week after you left, and then I had tenants in the others. There was enough for both of us, even some money left to educate you properly. I kept telling you I’d see to your welfare.”

      He released her and squirmed away. “I can take care of meself.”

      “No, you can’t and it’s myself.” She swiped away tears. “You’re with me now so you don’t have to pretend to be uneducated like the crew. Once we return to England, everything will be better than it had been. I promise.”

      “I ain’t going. I have to stay with me captain.”

      She resisted shaking him. “Are you mad? He beat you.”

      “Did not. He never laid a finger on me.”

      “Then who did? One of his filthy crew?”

      “None of them touched me, neither. It was just a whipping. If me captain can take it, I can too.” He pushed to his feet and crossed the room.

      Diana followed. “Are you saying your captain was also whipped? You can’t possibly believe it. The man put your life at risk. He abducted you.”

      “Did not. He ain’t never been mean to me excepting for when it comes to his books.”

      She recalled Homer’s Iliad on Tristan’s lap. A large volume and a gentleman’s read, or a brute’s weapon. “He beat you with his books?”

      Peter laughed.

      She kept herself from shouting. “Stop that at once. If he beat you, I want to know.”

      “I’ve been trying to tell you. He forces me to learn Latin, Spanish, history, and no end of boring things even when I told him I have no use for it.”

      Good heavens, Peter was more deluded about Tristan than she’d guessed or he’d СКАЧАТЬ