Take Me Forever (4 page)

“No,” Mercy screamed as a large hand covered her mouth and
another hand ripped her dress almost completely off her.

Cain heard a woman’s scream and quickly realized what was
happening.
 
He raced to his cabin to find
the door open and Mercy gone.
 
He heard a
commotion and turned to find one of his crewmen about to defile Mercy.
 
Quickly, Cain intervened.
 
He grabbed the man by the shoulders and threw
him aside.
 
He scooped up Mercy and took
her back to his cabin and locked the door behind him.
 

Then, he went back to the man who attacked her and showed
him the wrath of the Captain.
 
Cain drew
his sword and ran it into the man’s stomach before shoving the remains into the
sea.
 

“Let this be a warning to the rest of you.
 
I have a woman aboard and she is not to be
touched.
 
She could be worth a fortune to
us.
 
She will be ransomed back to her
family and so no one is to help her try to escape or there will be dire
consequences,” Cain bellowed to his crew.

After his speech Cain went to his cabin to check on
Mercy.
 
She was still crying when he
entered.
 
“I’m sorry that man attacked
you.
 
You must be so scared.
 
Did he hurt you?”
 
Cain asked as he came to her side.

Mercy sobbed as Cain took a blanket from the bed and covered
her exposed creamy flesh.
 
Her dress was
completely ruined.
 
He went over to his
sea chest and took out one of his white shirts and tossed it to her.
 

“You can wear this if you want.
 
I do not have any lady’s clothing
aboard.
 
I am glad I stopped him before
he could defile you.
 
If that is going to
be done, I want the pleasure of that for myself.
 
I will post a guard outside your door from
now on when I am not in here with you.
 
There is a basin over there if you want to wash yourself.
 
I will give you some privacy and check on you
later,” Cain said as he quickly left the room before his own sexual urges
overtook his senses.

For the next few days, Cain kept his distance form Mercedes.
 
He would bring her a food tray and return
later in the evening to see if she needed anything.
 
She could tell by looking into his eyes that
he was becoming more lustful for her with every passing day.
 
She was grateful that he was keeping his
word, but she didn’t know how much longer he could keep away from her.
 
She knew that once he came for her, there
would be no stopping him.

Mercy had restless nights.
 
She dreamt the same recurring dream.
 
In her dreams, Mercy would be whisked away to a magical place with a
waterfall secluded by lots of trees.
 
Always in her dreams a man would approach her, but she could never see
the man’s face.
 
All she knew was that he
was the one she was destined to be with.

After her dreams persisted for a few nights longer, she
finally saw the man’s face.
 
It was
Cain’s face she saw.
 
It can’t be him!
 
I must
be crazy,
she thought.
 
During her
long lonely days, she thought about her dreams and tried to interpret what they
meant.
 
She assumed she was seeing Cain’s
face because he was her captor and she feared him, but he was her rescuer.
 

However, in her dreams Cain was not a man to be feared at
all.
 
In fact, he was a man that she
longed to love and cherish for all eternity.
 
She couldn’t let herself be driven by her dreams.
 
Cain was a vile man and deserved to be
punished for taking her against her will.

Mercy was not the only one having strange dreams.
 
Ever since Mercy entered his life, Cain was
being tortured by restless nights.
 
He
wanted her.
 
He knew she had to remain a
virgin in order to get any size ransom or reward for her depending on how he
chose to pursue it.
 
There was just
something about her and he couldn’t keep his mind off of her.
 
He was finding it harder and harder to keep
bringing her food and resisting her beauty wearing nothing but his own shirt.

One afternoon when Cain came to retrieve her food tray he
said, “We will be stopping tonight for supplies at a small port.
 
I am going to give my men a few hours of
shore time.
 
If you like, I can have
something picked up for you to wear.
 
I
am sure you are tired of wearing that dirty old shirt of mine.”

“Yes, thank-you,” Mercy replied quietly as if she could care
less one way or the other because she was already thinking about how she could
escape when they landed.

“When we land, I will leave your guard in place outside in
case you get any crazy ideas about escaping.”
 
Cain moved closer to her so that his mouth was almost touching her ear
and whispered, “I can’t let you escape me.”
 

With a slam of the door, he was gone.
 
Mercy’s body was still trembling by his
seductive whisper in her ear.
 
She
gathered her thoughts over the next few hours and began plotting her
escape.
 
She felt the ship begin to slow
and assumed they would be landing soon.
 
She went to the door and watching as the crew began preparing to
land.
 
Just as Cain had promised, a man
was standing guard outside the door.
 
She
watched as the men exited onto the gangplank including Cain.
 
She noticed the man that was guarding her
seemed to be Cain’s most loyal seaman, Luke McKay.
 
She felt relieved that Cain had left him
because he might be her only chance of escaping.

Gathering her courage, Mercy knocked on the door to get
Luke’s attention.
 
Luke opened the door
and stood in the doorway.
 
“What is
it?”
 
He growled.

“I don’t feel well.
 
Can
you please get me some water or something to eat,” Mercy asked sweetly.

“Captain warned me that you would try some funny
business.
 
He will be back soon and you
can ask him yourself,” Luke grumbled as he slammed the door and returned to his
position beside it.

Mercy threw herself on the bed as she realized there would
be no escaping her fate.
 
An hour later,
Mercy heard the door open.
 
Luke entered,
placed a package on the table, and left just as quickly as he had entered.

She went to the table and opened the package.
 
Inside, she found a stunning royal blue
velvet dress.
 
She hurriedly tried on the
dress and it was a perfect fit.
 
It
looked like it had been made especially for her.
 
Also in the package, she found a brush, some
blue ribbon, and a pair of blue velvet shoes.
 
The shoes were a little big, but at least they covered her feet.
 
She took the brush and combed her tangled
hair and then tied it up with the ribbon.

She didn’t know why she was going to so much trouble to fix
herself up for the pirate.
 
She knew it
would only entice him more.
 
She looked
at his worn shirt on the bed and smiled.
 
She could still wear it to sleep in she supposed as she picked it up and
smelled his musky scent on it.
 
What am I doing?
 
Mercy thought as she took off the dress and
put Cain’s shirt on again.
 
She couldn’t
believe she was developing a soft spot for him.
 
He was her captor for goodness sakes!
 
It was her dreams.
 
It had to be
what was making her mind think this way.
 

As she tossed and turned during the night, she was awakened
by laughter.
 
Suddenly, a woman was
thrown into the bed with her with Cain following suit.
 
He was kissing and pawing at the woman, and
she was responding like a lady of the night.
 
Apparently, they did not know the bed was occupied by Mercy.

Just as she was about to announce her presence, Cain glanced
over and saw her staring at him with a disgusted look upon her face.
 
Mercy could tell by Cain’s behavior that he
was drunk out of his mind.
 
He was acting
the same way he did the night he kidnapped her.
 
The woman was still unaware of her presence as Cain picked her up and
carried her out of the cabin.

Mercy was shocked at what she just witnessed.
 
She couldn’t believe that he would have the
audacity to bring another woman into the same room with her.
 
She was jealous.
 
She had no idea why, but she was jealous.

Moments later, Cain came back into the cabin alone.
 
He looked at her with wanting eyes.
 
She knew she could not stop what was about to
happen, and a part of her didn’t want to stop it.
 
He took off all of his clothes and stood at
the end of the bed.
 
She stared in
silence.

“I can’t hold back any longer.
 
I want you and I will have you now,” Cain
slurred as he climbed into bed with her.

“But, but, what about the money?” Mercy stammered nervously.

“I have a feeling this will be well worth the loss of a few
coins,” he replied as he began pawing at her.

“No.
 
Please stop,”
she begged.

As he looked into her pleading eyes, Cain came to his senses
and stopped his sexual assault.
 
He knew
he wouldn’t remember anything in the morning due to his drunken state of mind
and he definitely wanted to remember taking her virginity.
 
Cain wrapped his strong arms around her and
whispered, “Soon,” as he passed out.

At least for tonight she was safe.
 
She watched him sleeping peacefully and part
of her felt safe wrapped in his arms.
 
Sleeping, he was nothing to be frightened of.
 
She could see beneath his scruffy exterior
there was a man with a soft heart.
 
She
touched his stubbly beard and caressed his cheek.
 
She thought he would look extremely handsome
without that awful beard and his matted hair was in desperate need of a comb.

She had her back to him as he arose and donned his
trousers.
 
He walked over to the basin
and splashed some water on his face.
 
Cain
noticed in the mirror that his hair looked different.
 
It had been brushed.
 
The
woman must have done it last night.
 
Funny, I don’t remember a damn thing from last night,
he thought.

“What did you do to me last night woman?”

Startling her by his tone she answered, “I only brushed
through your hair.
 
It looks much
better.”

“If I want my hair combed, I’ll do it my damned self,” he
defended.

“Perhaps you should consider shaving that ragged beard off
too,” Mercy stated knowing she was pressing her luck with him.

“What?
 
Who are you to
tell me how I’m supposed to look?”
 
Cain
yelled.

“I just thought…,” she trailed off.

“You thought what?
 
You don’t like the way I look, so you thought you could change my
appearance.
 
Who do you think you
are?
 
You are my captive and don’t forget
it,” he yelled as he stomped out of the cabin after grabbing his shirt and
boots.

Mercy couldn’t believe how he was acting.
 
She knew she shouldn’t test her boundaries
with him.
 
He could easily ravish her,
kill her, and dump her body overboard and no one would ever know what had
happened to her.
 
Perhaps she should try
a different approach and kill him with kindness before he snapped and really
killed her.

Hours later, Mercy washed off in the basin and dressed
herself in her new blue dress.
 
She brushed
her hair several times to get out all of the tangles leaving it silky and
smooth.
 
She pulled it up and laced
ribbon through it.
 
She left a few
strands hanging loosely in her face and on her neck.
 

When Cain returned, he stared in silence at her beauty.
 
She was gorgeous.
 
He let out a low groan and pulled her into
his arms.

“If you keep looking like that, I know I will steal your
innocence,” he whispered as he kissed her neck.

Mercy froze in his arms.
 
She had never experienced the sensations she was feeling at this
moment.
 
She was enjoying these new
sensations.
 
Her lips yearned for his
kiss.
 
She softly groaned as he dipped
his hand inside her dress and squeezed her breasts.
 
The woman inside her was eager to surface as
she moaned louder getting his attention.