Pistons and Pistols (15 page)

The professor cocked his head at her question, but didn’t answer.

“I suspect,” Rose continued, “that it will turn out to be nothing more than an elaborate plot by your men to seek higher wages. But in order to prove it, one of us will have to make the journey below to see what all the fuss is about.”

Everyone tried to speak at the same time. Rose raised her hand, at which her crew fell silent.

“I shall go,” she said.

The ensuing uproar was predictable. Rose waited until everyone had her simultaneous say. While it was difficult to pick apart the various pleas and warnings, Rose did her best to seem as though she heard each woman’s worry. As soon as they realized she wouldn’t be talked out of it, they fell quiet again.

The professor, however, grinned wide. “You’re quite serious, aren’t you?”

Rose tipped her head in reassurance. “Someone needs to find out what is going on down there. I trust my crew, but I would never ask them to do something I wouldn’t.”

“Marvelous philosophy,” he said. “I would go myself, but I have a medical condition that prevents my crawling into small places. I tried to get Thaddeus to go, but he said…well…what was it you said?”

The manservant admitted, “I said no, sir.”

“That was it.” The professor clapped then rubbed his hands together. “Well then, there you have it. In the face of the fear of full-grown men, the fairer sex steps up to take the reins. You find the cause and I’ll give you as much coal as your ship can carry. And you will give me back my shares. Have we a deal?”

Rose smiled, pleased by the offer. “Yes, we have a deal.”

“Excellent! In the morning I will have Thaddeus ready some lanterns and—”

“Tonight,” Rose interjected.

The professor paused, looking quite confused by her statement. “Excuse me?”

“Captain?” Dot asked. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

Rose eyed the woman into silence. “I shall go tonight. The quicker we get this done, the quicker we’ll be out of your hair.”

The professor nodded. “Very well then. Tonight it is. I will say that, ghost or not, that last man ran into something down there. Let us pray, for your sake, that whatever it was, it’s long gone.”

Rose, not normally a praying woman, found herself moved to the act.

Chapter 11

All Hands on Her Deck

In which we have a moment to enjoy ourselves before hitting the dirt

Climbing the rope ladder to her ship, Rose pondered her choice to go in another’s stead. She supposed she’d volunteered because she wanted to show everyone she was still in charge. Maybe delegating the job would have been just as effective, but something told her that if she could manage this, it would refresh the crew’s respect for her.

The professor wasn’t the only one with but a slight respect from his employees.

Why did no one want to obey her? Wasn’t she a fair captain? A gracious host? Rose thought of Bill and how everyone under him respected him. No, that wasn’t right. They didn’t respect him. They were afraid of him because he was a cruel man, and that’s how he would always be remembered. As a cruel man and nothing more. Rose would rather never be obeyed again then to be thought of as that cruel.

Just as she crested the side of the ship, Click greeted her with his usual smile.

“What kept you, my captain?” he asked.

“Click!” she shouted in surprise. “I told you not to sneak up on me like that.” Rose took his hand, pulling herself on deck. She made a straight line for her cabin, but Click caught her by the arm, delaying her course.

“What is going on?”

“I don’t have time to explain.” She yanked her arm from his grasp. “Where is Maggie?”

“In her loft, tending to the birds. My captain, what troubles you?” The tenderness of his voice brought her to a stop. Click stepped behind her, wrapping his arms about her waist as he said, “You are not well.”

How he knew when something weighed on her, she could never hope to guess. Rose closed her eyes, wishing she didn’t have to tell him what was happening, but as a member of her crew, he had every right to know. She told him. As soon as she announced that she would be the one to enter the mines, he spun her about to look her in the eye.

“My captain,” he said, his eyes begging for her submission. “Let me go in your stead. This is too dangerous. You know I would slay the wildest beast to keep you safe.”

“I know, and that’s why I have to do this. Alone.”

He shook his head. “No, you don’t. You don’t have to prove yourself to them. No matter what you believe, the crew reveres you enough as it is.”

“Then why do they never heed me?” She felt like a whining child.

“Because it is their very nature, my captain. You packed this ship with women who wouldn’t listen to anyone else in their lives. Not their husbands, their families, their friends. Not society, nor the priests, nor the law. What makes you think you are so different? Why should they heed you?”

Rose was pained by this exposure, by his words striking the raw nerve of her worries. “Because I’m the captain.”

“Then be their captain, but not their master.”

She lowered her head to his chest, defeated by his logic. Rose had most certainly hired a crew of outcasts. It was up to her to find a way to make these strong-headed women at least consider her commands before breaking them.

“Let me go,” Click said again.

“No. Besides, it’s bound to be nothing.”

“Then why return here?”

Rose went silent.

Click sighed as he rubbed gentle circles on her back. “You’ve come to set your affairs in order. Haven’t you?”

She nodded into his chest.

“I thought it was bound to be nothing?” he asked.

“Just in case there is something down there,” she said. “I want to be sure things are arranged.”

“There’s no need for that. You will pull through fine.”

“I hope so.”

“I know so.” Click’s hand wandered down her back until he had a handful of ass.

Rose lifted away to stare at him. “Don’t be rude.”

“Rude? I had no intention of being rude.” His smile spread. “I have every intention of being most excellent.”

“Not now, Click.” She wormed free from his clutch, only to find he was holding her from behind again.

“And why not?” He pulled her to him, sliding his hands up her stomach, taking a firm hold of her breasts. “You said yourself there might be something down there. We might never get another chance.”

“Click,” she gasped, trying to control her lust in the face of his naked desire. “I swear all you ever want to do is fuck.”

He lowered his mouth to her blouse, suckling, nibbling and kissing along the length of her shoulders and neck through the thin fabric. “That’s not true. Sometimes I like to just fuck. But right now I wish to make love to you.” He ground his ever-ready cock against her ass as he kissed the nape of her neck, her favorite spot.

She shuddered under his lips, but kept her legs pressed together tight. “We can’t. Not here.”

“Of course we can, my captain.” He ground his erection against her harder. “After all, it’s your ship.”

“But Maggie—”

“Will know better than to interrupt. Or maybe she will enjoy the show? Yes? Like the boy on the island. I think you liked that. Do you? Does it make you wet to know someone might watch us make love?”

His words echoed not just in her ears, but in her soul, lighting a roaring fire that only his touch could quench.

Rose reached behind her to push Click’s cock away, much to his whimpering disappointment. She turned around to face him, wrapping her arms around his neck before she kissed him full on the mouth. As always, he tasted like an exotic blend of fruit and smoke and wildflowers, a flavor she had grown to treasure. Rose pulled away from the kiss to stare up at her lover. A rock-hard wild man, ready to please her anytime she wished. How she had lucked into him, she would never know.

Rose backed away a few steps, working her breeches open until they dropped to the deck. She stepped out of them then perched against the railing of her ship with her bare ass hanging off the side. Lifting a leg wide, she ran her fingers across her pussy, beckoning him inside. “Make love to me then.”

Bearing a wicked grin, he was out of his breeches in a moment and in her with a single thrust. She gasped as he entered her, his feeling more than familiar. It was welcome. As he moved in her, a slow and pleasing rhythm, Rose wondered about his words. He wanted to make love to her, with her, but could the wild man in him ever love her?

Click caught her mouth with his, rolling his tongue against hers as he continued to pump her pussy with a beautiful tenderness. He trailed his kisses down her neck, biting and teasing her exposed flesh as he went. His attention to her body crushed her rambling thoughts. Rose wrapped her lifted leg around his waist, at which he took her by the ass, supporting her full weight, allowing her to raise and wrap her other leg around him. Rose rode him, stroke for stroke, driving his cock as deep as he could go.

“Do you think anyone from town can see you?” he asked in furious whisper. “Maybe some lonely man is touching himself as he watches your lover take you. What do you think of that?”

The very idea of it drove her insane with want. “Faster. Fuck me faster so he can see. Make me scream so he can hear me.”

He obeyed, bouncing her on his hardness while she squealed with every thrust. Click gasped in his appraisal of her shouts. “My captain…you are so beautiful…when you scream for me.”

Rose kissed him again, taking any further appreciations into her mouth. She moaned into the kiss as he slid his fingers across her backside, then shouted in surprise as he snuck his fingers between the globes of her ass to touch her most private place. Click stopped his thrusts as Rose pulled back to stare down at him. He smiled, almost shy, then brushed his fingers against her again. Rose didn’t shout this time. She groaned, with pleasure.

She had but one experience with someone at her backside before, and it wasn’t one she had been eager to repeat. Although she had made it very clear to Click that he was never, ever, under any circumstances to touch her there, he had somehow worked up the nerve to disobey her. To her surprise, and delight, it felt good. Really good. Perhaps it was because he was so gentle, just brushing her skin with his wonderful fingers, rather than ramming his cock inside without warning.

Or perhaps it was because she knew he did it only to please her, and that made it feel all the better.

“Click,” she groaned as she lowered herself onto him. “Touch me there again.”

“Yes, my captain.”

She rode his cock, wild and passionate, as he toyed with her backside—touching, tickling, rubbing his huge fingers along the puckered ring. Click grunted, growled and grew even harder as if the whole thing turned him on as much as it did her.

Then his finger pushed against her, pressing into her until he was one knuckle deep.

“Yes,” Rose hissed.

Where there was pain once, many years ago, now there was only pleasure. A strange new pleasure she had never suspected could arise from such an act. Rose lifted her face to his, her eyes wide with interest. He questioned her with a sly grin and a raised eyebrow. She nodded, so Click pushed deeper, matching his invasion of her backside by continuing his attention on her pussy.

Rose was shouting his name before she even realized she was coming. Her orgasm was sudden, heart stopping and wonderful. Jumping against him as if he were a bucking stallion, Rose tensed from crown to sole, drawing his single finger and thick cock even deeper as she came. Click’s pleasure arrived with hers, surely excited by her tight grip on him, and perhaps even by her joy at his act. When finished, Click lowered Rose onto trembling legs, but didn’t let her free from his arms.

“Click,” she gasped against his neck. “That was better than I ever thought it could be. I’m sorry I kept you from it.”

“My captain,” he said. “It is always an honor to delight you.”

Rose kissed him again. “Do you suppose anyone heard us?”

“It would surprise me if they didn’t. You were unusually loud.”