Jewel of the Sea [Black Sails]

Chapter Fifteen

(Charles)

Alira was like the sea. She could be merciless, cruel and deadly like the hellacious squalls at sea. There were also times where she could be gentle, peaceful and docile like the still waters on calm days with just enough of a breeze to keep you moving. And just like the sea, I felt a sense of belonging, familiarity and peace when I was with her. She was wild and untamable, completely unpredictable like the sea and it put me at ease.

Everything about her drew me in, she was absolutely intoxicating. She could kill without batting an eye yet there were brief fleeting moments where I saw a softer much more vulnerable side to her though they were few and far between and usually coupled with her combative nature and inability to express herself.

While I was away, there was a time where I thought I'd died, fallen in battle. I felt life leave me and in those final fleeting moments, I saw her face in my mind's eye, heard her voice in my head reminding me if I ever lost again she'd never forgive me and somewhere in the recesses of my mind I could remember the feel of her soft skin against my own. I woke in a shallow grave, clinging to life with sheer willpower and my need to have her, to make her mine. It was this sole desire that penetrated my mind and brought me back from death's cold embrace...and back to Nassau.

I looked down at the surprisingly quiet girl in my arms. Her cheeks were red and she looked ready to flee the moment I gave her the smallest amount of space. Always allowing herself to be controlled by her fight or flight at all times. My gaze fell on the bandages on her hands, to the blood seeping through the tightly wound cloth as I carried her through the fort to find a quiet secluded room to tend to her wounds. As I made my way through the fort I could feel the gaze of every man who'd joined me as they stared at the beautiful siren in my arms. Their gazes revealed they were beginning to question me already, my judgement. Most of them thought I'd done all of this for a woman, they weren't wrong about that but they were wrong about her. They were all underestimating Alira, looking only at her current appearance failing to see every hard-defined muscle underneath and her bright jade eyes and the darkness within, the eyes of a killer. Mistaking her as a common tart, would be their downfall. They'd learn one day.

"W-what are you doing?" Alira's lilting voice snapped exaggerating her accent a little as she suddenly grew nervous the moment we stepped inside the inner fort.

"We should change those." I indicated her bloody bandages while trying to resist the urge to smile as she tensed in my arms, her fight or flight instinct on high alert.

"They're fine." She grumbled as she shifted in my arms trying to wriggle free from my hold growing anxious the further we wound into the fort.

"What are you so nervous about, little girl?" I smirked.

A faint rosy blush spread across her cheeks. "Don't call me that!" She swatted at me angrily.

"Afraid I'll have my way with you?" I asked causing her blush to spread and her heart to race revealed by the pulsating vein in her neck.

Her breath hitched in her throat as I stepped into a large bedchamber. The moment I kicked the door shut behind me her mesmerizing jade eyes grew large with terror. Although Alira was truly a fearsome being I didn't want to cross blades with, she was also innocent and naïve in many things and very fun to tease. As I set her on the bed covered in fine silks and furs, releasing her from my hold, I held back a chuckle as she agilely rolled away from me, flipping to her feet on the opposite side of the bed shooting me a lethal look that made my heart stutter in my chest. Despite her girlish appearance in the skirt and corset she'd told me I'd never see her in again, she still looked like a warrior princess ready to take my head.