The Cursed Doubloon (9 page)

“It’s not much of a beard yet,” he said with a smile. “It’s just stubble really. Do you like it?”

“Yes, I do actually. It’s quite masculine.”

“Was I not masculine before?”

“Oh, enough you,” I grinned. “You always have to challenge me don’t you?”

“Yes, but you like to be challenged.”

“I do.”

He stood and pulled the bandana off of his head, his face growing serious, and I took an unsteady step backward. I don’t know what made me do that really, it wasn’t purposeful. His manful presence in front of me and the look in his eyes made me feel woozy, like the looks of him alone could knock me off of my feet within seconds.

He took note of my odd movements. “What’s wrong?” he asked, his face morphing into a look of concern.

“Um, nothing. Nothing’s wrong.”

“Are you afraid?”

“No,” I scoffed. “Of course I’m not afraid.”

“Then why would you move away from me?”

“I, I don’t know.”

“I can tell when you’re not being honest with me.”

“I
am
being honest. I’m most certainly not afraid of you.” He took a step toward me and my foot moved once again. “Oh, bloody hell!” I yelled.

Ladarius laughed. “What is it? You’re acting so strangely, as if you are afraid of my approach.”

“I’m not afraid . . . I’m, I’m nervous.”

“Nervous?” His laughter subsided and he nodded with understanding, his lips curving into a content smile. “So, I make you nervous?”

“Very.”

“Well I would say that’s a good thing. Although, I don’t want you running away from me.”

“I won’t run away from you, I can promise you that.”

“That’s good to know. And since you like a challenge maybe your next one can be to stay still as I approach you.”

“Uh, yes. Okay.”

His boots quietly echoed off the walls of the tiny cabin as he walked the few steps it took to rest in front of me. “You won that challenge,” he said.

“Yes, well, as you know, I like a challenge and I like beating them.”

“What else do you like?” he asked, his deep voice barely above a whisper.

His words stopped me from speaking. He was so close yet I couldn’t bring myself to touch him. His attractiveness literally paralyzed me, left me jailed inside of my own body with my desires. I had kissed him many times in our relationship and every time I felt lightheaded and excited. But tonight, I was overwhelmingly overtaken by his presence. My appetite for his body crippled me. I wanted to devour him.

“Well, are you going to say anything my Grace?”

“I, I can’t really find the words I wish to speak.”

A smile pulled at the corner of his mouth. “There’s not much time before we will leave this place. Will you take a swim with me?”

“A swim? At this hour?”

“Yes, I’m quite dirty as you can tell. And don’t worry, I will keep you warm.”

“Alright,” I nodded pleasantly. “Let’s go take a swim.”

Hand in hand we waded into the sea while the sounds of my father’s crew scurrying around on deck disturbed the night air. The cold water stung at the tips of my toes and soaked into the bottom of my dress like it usually did when I swam late with Ladarius. He looked handsome with his hair tousled from the removal of his bandana and his gold hoop dangling from his ear, he himself dressed in nothing but his trousers.

I shivered as the water reached my chest. “It’s very cold this evening. I should move around a bit more to get warm.”

“Would you like to race me to that rock?” he asked, pointing to a tiny slab poking out of the surface.

“That sounds like a nice challenge. Although you’ll most likely win I’m sure.”

“Yes, you’re probably right.”

“Hey,” I chuckled while splashing a handful of water at him. “There’s no need to agree with me so quickly. I am a fine swimmer, just not as fine as you.”

“I am fine, aren’t I?”

I shook my head and rolled my eyes with a smile. “I can’t tell you how glad I am to have you and your wittiness back. Now, get ready to race.” He nodded and waited for my count. “Three . . . two . . . one . . . go!” I took off with a splash, swimming as quickly as I could toward our goal while working hard to pull the weight of my ocean-drenched dress behind me. After a moment I realized Ladarius was nowhere around. Did he go under water? I stopped and treaded along, looking around to spot him. “Ladarius? Where are you?”

“I’m over here,” he called out, laughter filling his voice. He was very far behind.

I pushed my hands through the water in his direction. “What’s wrong? Are you trying to trick me or something?”

“No, I can assure you I’m not. I just realized I have never tried swimming with two legs before. Thankfully I can still touch bottom where I’m at. Swimming like a human is actually quite hard.” I couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, that’s nice,” he laughed in return. “Make fun of the poor merman who’s only had legs for a few day’s time.”

When I reached his side I worked at hiding my smile. “What exactly did you do when you began to swim?”

“I’m
not
telling
you
; you’ll just make fun of me some more.”

“Oh, the unfortunate merman with the handsome face and the body of a god can’t take a little joke?”

“Body of a god?” he repeated while pulling me against him with pride. “You think that of me, do you? Don’t you think you’re going a little too far?”

“No, not at all. You’re the fittest man I’ve seen in my lifetime. Your body is amazing, like you were chiseled from fine stone . . .” My words trailed off quietly as I realized how easily I was going on about his attractiveness. I didn’t know what it was when I was in the water with him but I was so much more at ease, much more comfortable flirting and getting close. My only reasoning was that most of my relationship with him had taken place in the water. When he was a merman I always knew he could never possibly make love to me so it was easier to become comfortable in my advancements toward him. But when he stood before me as a man I shivered even more with desire. In my room earlier that night I knew he could consume me at that very moment. I became like a school girl, shy and awkward. That’s not what I wanted at all.

“Chiseled from fine stone?” he went on, trying to continue the conversation past my sudden quietness. “That can’t be true, or else I would be sinking in the water as we speak.”

“Well that
is
technically what you’re doing, isn’t it? You didn’t make it very far in our race.” I tried using humor to overcome the tension that was forming inside of me but it was useless. All I could think about was how I was pressed up against his body, a man’s body, no longer with a heavy tail swishing in the water below us. His trousers were tight and slicked against him and I could feel everything about his manliness through the layers of my dress. My blood was boiling.

“What is wrong, my Grace? You’re not even looking at me.”

I hadn’t realized it but my eyes were cast down at the water, avoiding his stare. “Oh, no, nothing’s wrong,” I said, meeting his gaze.

“It saddens me that you are so afraid to be with me.”

“I’m not afraid to be with you.”

His eyes formed into two sad-looking orbs of gorgeous color. “Then what is it?”

“I’m, I’m just nervous. But in a good way, not bad.”

“Why are you nervous? I’m just holding you and laughing with you. Nothing more.”

“But I want there to be more.”

A smile tugged at his mouth’s corner. “You do?”

“Absolutely. I’m just so used to you being a merman. I never thought we would be able to physically be together. And now here we are, you with the body of a complete man. I’m overwhelmed.”

“Overwhelmed?”

“Yes, overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with . . . lust.”

“Lust?” he said, his eyebrows rising with surprise. “Wow. Well, you should feel how
I
feel then.”

“And how do you feel?” I asked, pulling myself more tightly against him.

“Well, why don’t I show you instead of telling you?” Without waiting for my answer he kissed me deeply, his tongue parting my lips and dancing with mine. I became like putty in his hands. His fingers traced along the backside of my body, exploring what they could through my heavy attire. I wished in that moment that I was naked so I could feel the strong grasp of his hands directly on my skin.

“Gracie!” my father’s voice echoed from the ship. “We be pullin’ anchor shortly!”

“Oh lord,” I said, breaking away from our kiss. “When will we
not
be interrupted by that man’s screaming?”

“I guess that means we need to get back on board.”

I glanced over at the rock we had tried to swim to earlier. “I have a challenge,” I said, looking back at Ladarius’s handsome face.

He smiled through labored breaths. “I never said
I
liked challenges.”

“You’ll like this one.”

“Oh you think I will? Okay then, let’s hear it.”

“I still want to race to the rock. I want to see if I can beat you wearing this heavy dress.”

“But I have no idea how to swim with legs.”

“Then I shall give you a quick lesson.”

“And what exactly is at stake here if I lose?”

“Hmm,” I pondered aloud. “Well, if you lose you will go sleep below with the crew tonight.”

“And if I win?”

“
If
you win then you will sleep with me.”

His head dropped with a laugh of shyness. “Will I actually be falling asleep with you or can I take ‘sleeping’ to mean something else entirely?”

“Well maybe you need to win so you can find out.”

“Are you going to
let
me win? Because that’s cheating. And I do believe it would bruise my ego a bit, you letting me win because I am now a poor swimmer.”

“You are not a poor swimmer; you are the strongest swimmer I know. Now, you’ll use your arms in the same way as you did before but you must match your legs to the same motion. So when you open your arms to take the stroke you’ll open your legs as well and push them closed when you close your arms back down to your sides. Here, I’ll show you . . .” I tried my best to show him but it was a little hard to see, especially with all the fabric surrounding my body.

“I thought that was what I did but it didn’t exactly work out for me.”

“You’re probably not used to two separate parts moving below you. Try it again.”

He kicked off of the sandy floor and treaded slowly along the top of the water. “Like this?”

“Yes, it looks like you’ve figured it out!”

“But I’ll never win the challenge going at this pace.”

“Well, try holding your breath and swimming below the surface.”

He took in a deep breath and then sunk down, disappearing from view. A few seconds passed and he was still swimming, or at least I
hoped
he was swimming and not drowning. To my delight his head finally popped up far from where I was. “My goodness, Ladarius! You got all the way over there?”

“Ha, that I did! I guess I
can
swim with legs; I just do it better below the surface. That’s what I’m used to, after all.”

“Then I guess you are ready to race me then?”

“Yes, I am. Would you like me to give you a head start?”

“Oh, you are rather sure of yourself now, aren’t you?”

“I know when I am good at something.”

My chest tightened at his remark. “I’m sure you do. And no I don’t need a head start; that would be cheating. Besides, don’t you want me to
lose
this race?”

“Don’t worry. I have complete faith in you that you
will
lose this race.”

“Because you’re assuming I want you to sleep with me in my quarters?”

“No, because I am much faster than you and I will win. Whether you want me to or not.”

His cockiness was infuriating, and irresistible. I pulled my shoulders back and drew in a breath of air for the count. “Okay then. Let’s see what you can do. Three . . . two . . . one . . . go!” I kicked off through the water and worked my arms as hard as I could, trying to get to our destination in a respectable time. I actually didn’t want to win—I wanted more than anything for him to be with me in my room that night—but at the same time I wanted to beat him at the challenge to prove how much of a strong swimmer I was.

“Are you going to get here anytime soon?”

I stopped my strokes and looked ahead at the rock in front of me. There Ladarius was with a casual smile across his face and his arm draped over its small surface.

“Are you serious?” I huffed through tired breaths. “You’re there already?”

“That seems to be the situation, yes. And that also means I won the challenge.”

“You know, I wonder if you even had any trouble swimming in the first place.”

“Well I guess you’ll never know, will you?”

“No,” I smiled. “I guess not.”

“Gracie!” my father yelled once again. “Gracie, we be leavin’ handsomely!”

“Ugh, that man. Alright Father! Be there in a moment!”

Ladarius left the rock and swam in my direction. “I would ask if you would like to race me back to shore but I don’t want to leave you stranded in the water all by yourself.”

“Well aren’t you the arrogant one . . .”

“Ha! Only because you seem to enjoy it.”

“I do not!” I happily argued. “I live on a ship amongst a whole crew of arrogant men and I can’t stand them one bit. What makes
you
any different?”

He reached me in the water and encircled his arms around my waist. “Do you feel anything when I touch you, Grace?”

My stomach fluttered, his closeness igniting the familiar warmth deep within my loins that he was always responsible for. “Yes,” I breathed against him.

“
That’s
what makes me different from the arrogant men on your ship. If they were to ever touch you, heaven forbid, then you would push away from them and most likely throw yourself overboard.”

“You are right about that,” I chuckled.

“But when
I
touch you,” he continued, “you don’t push away from me at all. In fact, you are
drawn
to me, like a little moth that is seduced by the dancing flame of a flickering candle.”

His words, though presumptuous, were true. I
was
drawn to him; I
was
seduced by him. Everything he did affected me in ways I never felt before. Even when he just stood in front of me without touching me I was entranced by everything about him, like in my room earlier that night.

“Everything you said is true,” I agreed willingly. “I am more drawn to you than any other man on this earth. So much so that it rattles my nerves.”

His face displayed the smile of a man who had heard what he wanted to hear. “Good,” he said with a confident nod. “My feet can touch the bottom now, so let me carry you out of this water and keep you warm like I had promised I would do. I wouldn’t want you to catch a cold.” His arm left my waist and he leaned down, scooping me up into his possession. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he slowly brought us out of the water, sucking myself to the warmth of his skin, delighting in the feeling of being against his shirtless body.

The ship was already moving away from the rock wall that had been hiding us from sight as we made it back on board. Ladarius joined the crew while I retired to my room to get out from the weight of my dripping attire. Once dry, I rummaged through what little clothes I had and found my gowns for sleeping. The first one, though thick and comfortable, wasn’t very appealing to the eye. The other was perfect for when we were sailing in places with humid nights: thin and gauzy. It was chilly where we were and I had been wearing my thicker gown when I slept, but tonight I wanted the delicate transparency of the thin one so Ladarius could see the fine outline of my figure and the darkening on my breasts. I slipped my selection over my head and let it fall down the length of my body.