Chapter 1: A Meeting and A Promise.
Captain Bastian stepped out of his cabin and onto the deck of his brand new ship. When he had it commissioned, the pseudonym he had thought up split second at the time had made him chuckle. The thought of it now made a smile form on his lips. The fictional Admiral Iesamake Ladycome had paid in gold and set out extra for the shipbuilders silence.
His long ebony hair was tied back and ruffled as the wind whipped through it. His sculpted face lifted as the wind licked at his handsome features. He hadn’t felt this good in years. He breathed in the salty air and calmed, heaving out a slow, sure breath.
As he descended the steps onto the main deck, he slowed and stared at the strange, hunched over lump of something scrubbing the wood. The petite man was out of place among the older, weather worn crewmembers that had registered for this two week voyage. He seemed too clean, too young and too eager scrubbing the already gleaming deck. Bastians mind began to form questions.
She could feel him looking at her! His gaze caused her heart to beat faster and she grew nervous. For the first time since her journey began, she felt like she might be in trouble. Sophie blanched as two black boots came into view. Thank God he can’t really see my face, she thought. She kept scrubbing, dutifully. If he EVER found out there was a woman on his ship I would surely get put in the brig... or worse. Please don’t ask me questions. Please, please, please, she silently begged.
“What’s your name, boy?” Bastians eyes narrowed, a spark of suspicion and curiosity in his dark eyes. His voice was not loud and booming as she had expected. Instead, it was a perfectly normal volume, but had the authority and condescension of a man sure of himself. Maybe too sure of himself.
Sophie’s voice came out low and somewhat hushed as she tried to mimic the masculinity that she thought the role required. “It’s... uh... Samuel, Sir.”
His gaze lingered on the slender form. The baggy shirt hung lifelessly. Too big for such a body. The pants, he noted were also too big and were pinned in the back. What is this thing doing on my ship, he thought.
“Samuel, is it?” He took a step closer, his boots leaving wet imprints on the freshly scrubbed deck. The smell of the sea and his musky male scent drifted around her like a heavy gale eager to drop.
“You seem much too... delicate for this kind of work. Are you sure you’re cut out for this? It’s a lot of manual labor, and you’re sharing space with these hardened criminals and degenerates. We don’t want you corrupted at TOO young an age, do we?” Bastian’s lips curled up into an overly amused smile, revealing some gold capped teeth.
Sophie glanced up quickly. He looks like a predator, she thought. Ugh, just keep telling yourself it’s worth it, Sophie. It’s worth it.
She could feel the heat rise in her face as she continued to scrub. Keeping her expression face down and hidden, and her bound chest down toward the ground as she answered in her male gruff. “Yes, Captain Sir. I’m a hardworking hand, Sir. I may look delicate but I tell you Sir, I can manage just well I can.”
“Can you now?” A slow, deliberate question leaves his lips as he bends down, quickly grabs the back of Sophie’s shirt, and hauls her up onto her feet. Without warning, he reaches out and grabs her chin. He tilts her face from side to side. Noticing the dirt and plainness of her boyish face.
She had prepared for this. At port, before she had registered for this journey, she bought men’s clothes and a small rucksack. She filled it with a second set of clothes, a small shave kit, a journal and some food stuffs. She dirtied up her already brown hair with dust and set a good amount of the hair over her face. Her jaw she covered with soot to look like stubble. She thought it looked believable, from a distance. She silently thanked Mother Nature for the cloudy day. No one gave her a second glance as she signed her mark in the logbook.
From THIS close up however, she was asking for a miracle.
Bastian studied her face. The hair covered quite a bit of it and despite the soot on the cheeks and chin, the face was too young to even grow an adequate beard. The eyes, to the Captain’s surprise and detriment, were quite beautiful. A shade of dirty green with gold flecks surrounding the black inner circle. The more he looked, the more he grew wanting. He had been with men before, but never a man this young, and never one so feminine looking. A wicked smile appeared on his face.
“Perhaps you have... OTHER talents that may be of use to me,” he purred. “And I intend to put every single one of them to good use aboard MY ship.”
Sophie’s head jerked out of his grasp and she again avoided his gaze. If he kept looking at her like that, she would be found out. Talents? She thought. This man has NO idea what game he’s playing.
Bastian’s face fell and he cocked his head to the side. “My, my... what a pretty little thing you are,” he mused, bringing his thumb back up to her face to run along the soft edge of her jaw, smearing the soot beneath. “But tell me, why so shy? A hard worker like you should be proud to show their face to their Captain.”
As the tension between them grew and Sophie's body visibly stiffened. Bastian’s grip tightened. His eyes reflected the wanton hunger within. Sophie could feel his intention radiating off him and setting her skin into goosebumps. She steeled herself. It was all she could do to keep from shaking.
She grit her teeth and answered in a low growl. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re about, Captain. I’m just a simple cabin boy aboard YOUR ship and will serve my Captain as best I can.” Her chin still burned with the trail he had run with his thumb, but if she was going to earn her freedom she had to stand her ground. Her back and neck were soaking with sweat from the anxiety running through her. Her ability to stand on her own two legs growing weaker by the second. Her heart beat fast and her nipples perked under their binding causing a small pinch that made her flinch slightly.
A throaty laugh escaped Bastian as he continued to observe the 'boy'. “You’re a feisty one, aren’t you?” He moved in closer so that his breath warmed and moistened her ear. “I do so enjoy breaking in the spirited ones.”
A shiver ran through Sophie as she remembered all the information she had collected on this ‘Captain’. In reality, he was a pirate. A very boisterous, lascivious, insatiable man, who’s conquests included every bar maid from five miles around and the occasional tradesman’s daughter. He reeked havoc in the taverns and whore houses at every port and his debauchery, apparently, knew no end. He was known to have a voracious appetite for both sexes it seemed.
She knew her information was good because she had paid for it. Truth was always more accurate when gold was involved.
Bastian backed away slightly and faced the 'boy' once more. “Serve me as best you can, you say? I wonder, just how ‘thorough’ your service can be, my little Mouse.” His hand jutted out to grab a fistful of Sophie’s sweat soaked shirt at the shoulder. His breath coming hard and fast as the light scent of the newly acquired clothes filled his nostrils. His blood burned and his pants began to tighten. He studied Sophie’s ‘stubble’ with narrowed eyes.
“There’s something about you that is... different,” he mused. His hand trailing down from the hallow of her neck, almost to the binding that hid the full breasts beneath. Now itching and crying to be let free.
His fingertips brushed the collar of the loose shirt. “I’m very talented at revealing secrets, my little Mouse.” His finger dipping lower.
Her chest rose and fell dramatically. Her back was killing her as she tried to keep her posture bowed over. She could feel her nostrils flair and her legs tremble as she fought for control of her body. If she flinched, or made a move to escape, it would be over.
His fingers moved dangerously close to her cleavage. Even bound as tight as she was and in the loose shirt it was hard to hide herself. If I can just stay here, hold my ground, maybe I can convince him I have nothing to hide.
“Captain, there’s nothing...., ”
A sudden shout from the bow draws the attention away from the uncomfortably thick bubble growing around them. Temporarily distracting the Captain from his pursuits.
Bastian’s eyes flash with irritation at the interruption, his fingers hovering dangerously close to her bindings. He snaps his head toward the commotion and snarls. “What the bloody hell is going on over there? Do you even know what the fuck you’re doing?”
He steps away as he turns to his Skipper and sends a look of frustration at him. “Patterson! Was there a class of infants that signed for this voyage?”
Patterson turned, eyes wide, shaking his head violently. “No, Capn’. Sorry Capn’!”
Bastion’s gaze shot back to the 'boy'. One large step in his polished black boots and he was back in front of her. His breath at her neck, his whiskered stubble brushing her skin and giving her goosebumps. Shocking her enough so that her teeth chattered. “We’re not finished, my little Mouse.”
Sophie placed her tongue between her teeth to keep them from clicking together. Her deep breaths stuttered from the tension coursing through her body.
“I’ll be keeping watch on you,” he breathed against her skin. “Make no mistake. Very close indeed.” He pulls back and runs over her body with his lustful gaze one last time before turning and rushing over to solve the ruckus among the other crewmen.
As soon as he was out of sight, she dropped to her knees. Her whole body shook. The nerves in her body were shot. Her breathing eventually slowed as she breathed in the cool, salty air, and she took up her brush again, recommitting to her task.
If she was smart, which she was, she would lay as low as possible. Hide in the shadows of the ship. Stay out of sight and mind her own business.
Even then there was no guarantee the domineering Captain would keep a distance. From what she had heard from many of the dock workers she had bribed, the Captain was obsessive when he found something, or someone, he wanted. If this had been any other time, any other place, Sophie would've thrilled at the idea that the game was on. And if she was the mouse, then the Captain was the Cat that needed to be outwitted.
She kept her head down for the remainder of the day, and even though she couldn’t hear him, she could feel his eyes on her. Burning into her, trying to see through her. Waiting for the right time to pounce.
