Cash Remington and the Rum Run (Sexy Dreadfuls Book 2) (2 page)

A
HUGE TENTACLE, DARK
green and covered with white suction cups, lashes out of the water and crashes down on the boat holding Finn and Goat. Goat turns into nothing more than a mass of blood and meat floating atop the water as the tentacle drags Finn beneath the waves. He doesn’t even get the chance to scream.

“Row faster!” I yell as two more tentacles rise from the deep. They’re thicker than oak trunks and flail about, searching for their next meal.

Scab rows for all he’s worth as the tentacles whip over our heads.

“Duck!” I dive on top of the girl as one of the large appendages sweeps over the boat. It smells of rot and death. Inside the suction cups are barbed hooks. It sweeps over us again, and I catch a glimpse of a severed head stuck on one of the barbs, the face rotted to mush as the tentacle slowly feasts on it.

Scab leans back, his arms still working feverishly at the oars to escape a hellish fate. The girl murmurs something, but I can’t make it out. My crew is yelling from the ship, screaming at us to go faster as more tentacles rise from the sea and snake through the water.

Finally, our boat bumps into my ship. Pete tosses down the rope ladder. I look from the pale waif to the chest and back again. I can’t carry both.

“Save me.” Her eyelids flutter open, and her otherworldly blue eyes seem to see straight through me.

I stare at the chest, the gold hidden inside begging me to choose it instead of the girl. A tentacle slaps the water close to us, sending the boat rocking and bumping into the hull. There’s no time to hesitate as larger bubbles begin to burst along the roiling surface of the water. More tentacles shoot up and splash us with ocean spray as the Kraken makes its way to the surface. I reach for the chest.

But then her delicate lips part and she breathes out a single word. “Please.”

Her light eyes look nowhere else but at me, as if she knows who I am and what I want. If I hadn’t already felt her legs, I’d think she was some sort of mermaid temptress. A deep roar makes the water tremble, the very depths of the sea quaking as the beast approaches.

“Fuck.” I grab the girl and throw her over my shoulder. “Gravy, the chest. Hold it tight. Both of you follow close behind.”

Scab smashes his oar against a groping tentacle and shrieks as it wraps around his torso. Despite the yells at my back, I climb the rope ladder, my muscled arms making quick work of it even as the girl lies draped across me. Once at the top, I hand her off to Pete.

“Oh, nice, Captain.” He leers.

Fury leaps in my chest, and I glower at him. “Put her in my cabin. Don’t fucking touch her other than to lay her down, or I’ll gut you like the rotten fish you are.”

His eyes—even the wooden one—widen. “Aye, Cap’n.”

Gravy, the chest tucked under his arm, has managed to free Scab from the suction cups.

“Come on boys, faster!” I yell down at them.

Scab climbs, and Gravy grips the ladder. The tentacles find what they’re looking for—the wrecked ship. They wrap around it, affixing to the crippled vessel like a spider cocooning a hapless fly.

Scab makes it to the top and flops onto the deck. My men crowd around, some of the greener ones saying prayers and whispering in disbelief at the monster in the water.

Gravy is halfway up when the Kraken breaks the surface, its gaping maw open, the thousands of fangs glinting like knives in the bright sun. It swallows the wreck whole, as one of its giant eyes flicks this way and that.

The massive black pupil stops, seizing on my ship. A tentacle breaks loose from the wreck and cuts through the water. Gravy screams as it grabs his leg.

“Take my hand!” I reach down and encircle his wrist.

The Kraken yanks, but I won’t let go. I almost go over the side, but my men grip my legs and waist.

“Hand me the chest.” I reach for it even as Gravy’s hold starts to slip. The men squeeze onto my legs as I dangle off the edge, trying to hang on to Gravy, trying harder to save the treasure.

He stares up at me, mortal terror writ large on his face. “Captain?” The slight hint of betrayal I hear in his voice doesn’t change my goal in the slightest.

The gold will keep my men and me on the water and full up on food, rum, and women for quite some time. I can find another deckhand as good as Gravy—likely better—on our next visit to port.

I reach farther, my men grunting with the strain. The treasure is almost within my reach. “Give it to me!” I graze the edge of the chest. I almost have it when the Kraken pulls in earnest.

Gravy is dragged beneath the waves, the chest with him. The men haul me back onto the deck. I get to my knees and see Gravy whipped up into the air. He still has the chest, but it flies open, coins glittering in the sun.

“Fuck!” I slam my hand onto the rail as my treasure is scattered, thrown to the abyss or swallowed by the beast.

Gravy’s scream pierces the air and then is quickly snuffed out when he lands in the Kraken’s fetid mouth. The enormous eye scours my ship once more, and I brace for the worst. Nothing on earth or in the heavens above can stop the Kraken. I stare into its eye, all the way to its black twisted heart. My men quake in terror, but I square my shoulders. I fear nothing, the hellish Kraken included. Looking death in the eye, I kick my chin up, daring it to challenge me back. The eye blinks, the lid moving quickly, and the pupil beneath narrowing before expanding to full black again.

Instead of attacking, the tentacles ease out of sight. The creature, apparently sated from my three men and the destroyed ship, sinks below the surface.

The water settles, the sun shines, and no one but my crew and I know of the terror that lurks beneath the waves.

CHAPTER THREE

I
SET COURSE FOR
Port Royal. The men seem almost jubilant, relief clear in their easy movements, their lack of intensity. Meeting Death and walking away can do that to a man.

I can’t allow such lax attitudes on my ship. I stare them down, hell in my eyes and fire on my tongue. Maybe I’m angry at losing the chest, but I don’t care. These deck hands are the worst—murderers, rapists, and deserters. They live the pirate life because they have no other choice. And I intend to work them as I see fit.

I turn the helm and set it so the rudder sends us toward home. “Scab! Get over here.”

He runs up the steps to the quarter deck, his good eye giving a wary glint. Scab is the best of the worst, the one sailor on my crew who I trust with the helm when I’m occupied.

“Keep course heading south.” I whip off my hat and my navy kerchief and wipe my face. Salt and sweat come away on the fabric as my hair rustles in the breeze.

“Aye.” Scab nods and takes the helm.

I survey the sea dogs who all but wear my collars. Hard workers—and loyal—but only because they fear me. I intend to keep it that way. The Kraken is just one of the many beasts that lurk beneath the deeper waters of the Caribbean. There is no time to let up, to get lax, to do anything but exactly what I tell them to do.

“Listen up, you lot of salty cunts!” My gravelly voice stops them in their tracks, and I eye each one of them in turn. “If I so much as
think
one of you is going soft, you’ll meet the same fate as Gravy. You hear me, you lily-livered squabs?”

“Aye aye, Captain!” They yell and ready the mainsail to catch the full brunt of the wind.

We’ll sail all night to get back to port. There, we’ll load up with rum and other forbidden goods to take to the British colonies scattered throughout these waters. But first, we’ll get our fill of drink and whores.

I intend to get a head start on the women. Smoothing a hand through my hair, I hustle down the stairs to the main deck. The door to my quarters is shut tight, and inside lies the only treasure I managed to save from the wreck. I smile when I think of how soft her skin will be under my rough hands, how tight her pussy will be around my cock.

Opening the door slowly, I spy her sitting on the bed. Her back is to me, and she holds something up to the light through the cabin windows. A sweet scent wafts across my nose—her scent—and my cock strains against my trousers. If she tastes half as good as she smells, I’m in for a treat. Her damp hair cascades down her back in a white waterfall, and I already know how perfect it will look with my hands in it as her head bobs up and down on my shaft.

She hears me and stows whatever she was looking at.

“What have you there, lass?”

She turns, her bright blue eyes widened with fright. “Nothing.”

I take the few steps to the bed, unhook my scabbard and sword, and reach for my belt.

She glances down and cringes back against the cabin windows. “Please don’t.”

She’s so small. I could easily pin her and take everything I want. But she’s no three-penny harlot. She’s something more. I see it in her eyes, hear it in her voice.

“Have you never been with a man before?” I ask and reach for the hem of her dress, the light yellow lace reminding me of a civilized past I’d given up years ago.

“N-no.” She shakes her head, and her lip trembles.

I unbutton my pants and pull out my cock, stroking it as I study the curves of her small breasts. She clenches her eyes shut.

“Open your eyes.”

“N-no, please.” Her voice shakes.

I ease my hand up and down my stiff length, and I want nothing more than to hold her down and fuck her raw. But her trembling form speaks to something in me beneath the layers of salt and the years of dirty deeds.

“I’ll make you a deal.” I keep stroking, imagining it’s her pussy around my cock instead of my hand.

Her eyes flutter open and she holds my gaze, never lowering it. “What deal?”

I stay my hand even though my balls are fizzing and demanding release. “I swear I won’t touch you.”

She lets out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

“Not so fast, my lovely. I’ll need something in return.” I smirk as her face falls.

She draws her knees up and wraps her arms around them. “What?”

“I won’t touch you,
if
you show me what’s beneath that dress. Take it all off for me, slowly.”

“No!” She tries to meld herself into the cabin wall at her back, but there’s nowhere to go. Wood boards and tiny windows offer her no reprieve from me. I take what I want. And right now, I want her.

I shrug. “If that’s how you want to play it.” Reaching down, I grab her ankle and yank her down onto the bed.

She screams, so I slap my hand over her mouth and use my other to yank her dress up to her hips. Her thighs are soft and warm, and my cock demands I seat myself as deep inside her as possible.

Tears well in her light eyes and roll down her porcelain skin.

“I’ll give you one more chance, pretty one. Either you strip and let me look upon your body while I relieve myself of this,” I thrust my cock against her thigh, “or I’ll take your maidenhead.”

She squeaks as I stare down at her. I want to take her. My black heart demands I shove inside her, but something else stays my hand. The conscience I thought I’d drowned long ago tells me not to hurt her. Not until she begs me to.

“Nod if you agree to my terms.” I surge my hips up, my cock making contact with a soft thatch of hair on her pussy.

She tries to jerk away from me, but I’m six feet, five inches of weathered pirate. She’s going nowhere. Slowly, she settles and nods.

I lean closer to her face, taking in her sweet scent. “I wish you would have refused, my lovely. I bet your pussy is tighter than a closed fist and hotter than the furnaces of Hades.”

Another set of tears well in her enchanting eyes. I rise off her and back up a step. “Now, strip.”

She sits up and wipes her tears with her lace sleeve. But they don’t stop falling. She doesn’t look at me as she reaches behind her back and unbuttons the bodice. I stroke myself, my cock so hard it hurts. Once the buttons are unhooked, she pulls the sleeves off and presses the dress to her chest. Her skin is almost effervescent, so fair that I doubt the sun has ever graced it. I lick my lips.

“Keep going, lovely. All of you.” I have to slow my hand or I’ll come on the floor instead of her body. I may not touch her, but I’ll sure as fuck make my mark.

She takes a deep breath and shoves the dress down. Her breasts are small, not quite a handful, and the light pink nipples are upturned and hard. I force myself to stay put, though I want them in my mouth. Standing, she shucks the dress to her feet and crosses her arms over her perfect tits.

I growl, the animal inside me needing more from her. So much more. “The pantalets. Take them off.”

Another tear rolls down her cheek, shimmering like gossamer on the wings of a fairy.

“Please.” She bites her lip, and I almost lose it.

“Do it now or I’m going to ram my cock so deep inside you, you’ll be sore for a week.”

She shudders and reaches to the ribbon at her slim waist. With a pull, the material shrouding her pussy falls to the cabin floor.

“Jesus Christ.” My cock jerks as I drink her in. Pale golden curls grace her pink pussy, and her legs are slender and perfect. I’ve never seen a more beautiful woman, or one that I wanted to dirty up so badly. “My hands belong on you, lovely. My cock belongs buried in your mouth, your cunt, your ass.”

She recoils, but the bed is right behind her, so she sits, her perky tits bouncing and driving me insane with the need to bite them.

“I’m a man of my word.”
Rarely.
I advance so I’m standing in front of her, my cock at eye level. This time she looks straight at it, watching as I stroke myself. “Lie back and spread your legs.”

She sniffles and does as she’s told, reclining on my bed and opening her knees the slightest bit.

I stand at her feet so I can look on her entire body at once. “Wider,” I grunt as my balls draw up close to me.