Seeing her so comfortable with the bloodthirsty pirates drinking and shouting , should have caused captain Bradley to feel revolted . But he did not . He could only imagine the kind of life she must have had to bring her to this .
Nothing was the same as it had been mere days ago, and now he was not even sure he regretted the change, he wanted the chance to know this pirate woman , to find out what made her who she was , and he knew she would do her best to stop him from figuring it out .
He turned his gaze again to the beach and the merrymaking in progress there, Thorne had engaged one of her men in a fancy sword fight , and with much laughter and cheering , the men continued to cheer to the both facing off, Mostly to the helpless sailor , She was beating the breeches of him with one hand and the other behind her and Daniel could tell she wasn't hald trying.
Smiling to himself he saw her disarm her opponent easily . The man , laughing uproariously, threw himself to his knees in front of her , begging playfully for "mercy" , the other pirates suggested rudely that she should not grant it , but she merely laughed and raised the man to his feet with a strong right arm .
Down on the beach Lynnette was enjoying herself immensely, the men were flushed with victory, as , to tell the truth , as was she. The fancy battle just ended had exhilarated her , causing her blood to sing , although she was not out of breath from such a small exercise. The rum she had consumed was making her feel warm, and she grabbed a passing bottle for another drink .
Here on No-Name Island, she and her men were as safe as they were ever likely to be, so she felt that a couple of victory toast would not get her into trouble . It was rare for Lynnette to allow her guard to drop even a little, for one slip on her part could bring death and destruction to all of her men. Again , she did not like to be incapacitated when among large groups where other pirates gathered, for there was always someone who thought it would be a good job to make her his bedmate for the evening.
She was very cautious in such matters. But these men , the crew of the Maiden's Revenge, were as close to a family as Lynnette could have anymore, She trusted each and everyone of her men as far as she dared trust anyone, If she wanted to imbibe tonight, no one on her little island would harm her .
She prefered to trust her self only to herself , having learned long ago that no one , not even the most reliable person could keep her safe as she herself could do .
He was still there, long after his tired body told him he should make use of the oh-so-inviting bed. He couldn't tear his gaze from her, Laughing, eating, relaxed, Captain Thorne was a vision to behold, and he couldn't control himself, he wanted her more than any woman he had ever seen before, Unbidden images of her naked , and writhing on his bed , kept coming to torture him. Daniel's blood raced in his veins , raised to a point that got his tight breeches to become uncomfortable, How could he survive the upcoming months, with her so close yet unbearably unreachable?