Falling For The First Mate

Prologue

There is no way to escape a pirate ship.

Evanora Lockett’s eyes skimmed the cabin in which she was trapped, but she did not allow herself to fear. Instead, she counted the walls and windows, four and three, just like the rooms of a house with stable foundations. She tried not to think of the bolted door, and found that with a clear mind she could calm herself down. An inhale with the rise of the sea, an exhale alongside its fall.

Silently she waited for the door to creak open behind her.  The floor rocked from side to side, the gentle churning of the sea below lulling her into a false sense of security. Inhale at rise, exhale at fall. She survived on the brief moments of uncertainty she knew preceded chaos.

Then someone breathed heavily upon the back of her neck and she froze.

As her hairs stood on end in single file, doubts surfaced in her mind. She had always been told that it was safer to attach a noose to your neck and leap from the gallows than to step aboard a vessel like this one. Pirates were a fate worse than poison, worse than drowning, or so the stories said. Yet she had never believed the stories. And here she was, defiant and standing in the presence of the beautiful danger.

The man behind her was far too close. Close enough that her late mother would have tutted in disapproval. Close enough that her brother would put a sword to his throat. Close enough to make Evanora shudder at the heat of his breath, the touch of his hardened hands.

He lifted them to her waist, trailing warm fingers across her sides. She did not stop him.

Leaning into him was improper, unladylike, that much she knew, but it was the least of her worries. There were serious consequences of fraternising with pirates. Closing her eyes, she saw a crimson gallows scorched on the back of her eyelids. Death would be her penalty, but she didn’t care. She didn’t care.

Slowly, the pirate ran his hands from her waist up to her arms, igniting her skin in pleasurable ripples as he touched her, and continued to her shoulders.  There, he drew her hair over her collar bone, leaving her neck bare and anticipation swelling within her as he bought his lips down on her skin.

“Come away with me,” he murmured, voice low as his mouth moved against her. He circled her in his arms. Like the room, there was no escape. Like before, she was not afraid. Inhale with the rise of his chest, exhale with the fall. “Leave it all behind, and run.”

Her heart began to pound and her vision blurred at the edges, crumbling like the burnt pages of a novel. Her resolve crumbled too; the invitation to elope was music to her ears and everything else faded in comparison. Turning around, she faced the pirate for the first time.

He didn’t allow her a moment to answer. Before she could see his face, he slid his hands deeply into her hair and crushed his lips to hers.

Evanora gasped.

And woke up.

“You alright, Nora? Nightmares again?”  Her brother, Terrian, mumbled drowsily from across the room where he stood working.

Evanora nodded her head, heart still pounding. It was always safer to lie than to explain; gasps of fear were far less suspicious than gasps of pleasure. This wasn’t the first time she had risen from sleep in this manner and her brother, though he meant well, would never understand.

“Pirates again? I'm telling you, the sooner we get out of this cursed port the better.” Terrian scoffed. He took the gem-encrusted dagger he was sharpening and flicked it around his wrist expertly.. “Don’t worry, Nora. They’ll never get to you.”

Evanora didn’t answer. Instead, she buried her face beneath her pillow to disguise her frustration. She didn’t want Terrian to worry. She didn’t want Terrian to know that his words, though meant to encourage, were the very last things she wanted to hear.

They’ll never get to you.

He was right, of course.

But that was the problem.