I jabbed.
Our blades met midair with a clang.
“I could teach you how to do that, Redella Jerningham.”
Spatters of blood dotted the white, wrist-length gloves I’d slipped on this morning, when the world still made sense. I raised the blade like an axe and brought it down with all the force I could muster.
Russian Jack stepped slightly to the side and my silver met the deck in a purposeful crack. Splinters scattered like birds from a gunshot. “With proper form, you’d be deadly.”
I thrust the blade again, feeling full well the weight of the steel in my burning muscles. Russian Jack didn’t have to move much to dodge my attempted blows, but dodge them he did. Expertly. It was as though we were embroiled in a masquerade dance, and the night was coming to an end.
My chest heaved and my face throbbed as I stumbled forward. The probing eyes of the men who’d overtaken The Scarlet Rose, those who had stood idly by as Sully was murdered, followed my every move.
I willed my sword to rise for just one more blow. With quivering arms, I managed to heft the blade over my shoulder. My breath came faster and none of us aboard knew what would come next.
“You killed my love,” I managed through clenched teeth.
Russian Jack leveled his blade at my exposed middle. I didn’t look away from his direct stare, even though the tip of his sword met my breast. “My dear girl, you have yet to discover what love truly is.”
I sucked in a deep breath and arced the blade in what should have been a death blow. My heart slapped wildly inside my chest, like a bird’s flailing attempts to escape a creeping housecat. Russian Jack’s handsome face never changed expression. Before I could end his life, he flicked his wrist in a movement so subtle, it would have gone unseen should I have averted my glance. Sully’s blade flew from my sweaty palm and tumbled overboard, through the remnants of the fog and into the frothing sea that lapped at the hull of The Scarlet Rose.
I stared at my empty hands to the tune of quiet laughter from the pirates as Russian Jack sheathed his cutlass. The weight of his stare was heavy on my face and I lifted my chin to meet it. The sails creaked and slapped as The Scarlet Rose rode the waves and a passing shadow of pelicans, hunting for a meal, clouded us momentarily.
Russian Jack, unlike his crew, wasn’t laughing. Those green eyes burned with an intensity that turned them from their saltwater shade to almost black.
I shivered helplessly as he closed the space between us. Before I could move, he took me into his arms.
“Love,” he growled. “By God’s Blood I’ll show you love.”
Chapter Four
Swansea, Wales
And you did, Jacky,” I whispered into his shoulder. “That time with you was—”
He growled in response. That low, soft growl that not just anyone got to hear. I’d come to know it well. “Aye, it was.”
The chilled ocean breeze kissed my skin and sent a shiver up my spine. Or maybe it was being in Jack’s arms again that did it. “I thought I would never feel you again. I still can’t believe you’re here.”
“Where else would I be? My wife was set to marry another man. I couldn’t stand idly by.”
“You were sentenced to death? Were you not?”
“Aye, I was.”
“How did you escape death’s clutches?”
Jack stroked my arm with long fingers. “Come now, where were we in our reminiscence? I believe I was just about to win your heart—”
•
He held me in his arms on the deck of The Scarlet Rose, the notorious pirate Russian Jack. My fiancé’s body lay at our feet, devoid of any life. And I wasn’t sad.
“Marry me.”
My insides turned to mush and my knees threatened to give way. Jack held me at arm’s length. “Say you’ll marry me, Redella. But I shan’t call you Redella. You’ll be Red. My Red.”
He even knows what I like to be called. I tried to stifle the brewing feelings of attraction and see the man for what he was. A brutal killer. I steeled my jaw. “You’re a murdering savage, Russian Jack. I won’t marry you.”
A thick course of laughter rose from the pirates as they unloaded our goods onto the black-masted ship that materialized in the mist next to us. A Jolly Roger fluttered in the thick, salty air.
Jack paid them no mind.
“You have guts the like of which I’ve never seen. I can’t teach that. But I can teach you the rest.” The ocean stopped lapping as Russian Jack erased the space between us. With one strong hand, he cupped the side of my face. My eyes shut on their own as our lips met.
Like a quilt on a winter’s day, Jack’s kiss brought an immediate warmth to my body against a cold I’d not known was there. My hands were drawn to his muscular chest as we stood together, frozen in that moment. He stroked my cheek with his thumb and sent spasms through my core, something I’d never felt before. Jack broke from our kiss but kept his face close. So close that his breath warmed my cheeks.
“Marry me, Red. Command my fleet as my equal. My partner in every way.” He brushed the tip of my nose with a kiss. “You’ll want for nothing. Together, we’ll be rich beyond our wildest dreams.”
My thoughts were a tempest. This morning, I’d had nothing more to look forward to than being touched by an arrogant ass of a man who thought he was entitled to my heart. And my bed.
But this man—this pirate—
He stared at me with those eyes that threatened to look straight through me. Something told me that Russian Jack was at my mercy, just as much as I was at his. And we both knew it. Spasms quaked through my core again and left me aching. Wanting. Craving something I’d never had—something Russian Jack could give.
Dried blood cracked on my cheek and the slash mark, though not too terribly deep, stung. However, it was something else that lit my veins on fire.
An entire new world, never anything I had before considered, unfolded before me. Jack’s words sent my insides aflutter.
