The Pirate Prince (Pirate's Booty Series, Book Five) (14 page)

“Don’t come near me,” he ordered, “or I swear I will jump overboard and take her with me.”

“Halt,” Rajak cried out as his men moved toward his brother.

Mohan tightened his grip on Azara and laughed harshly, the sound sending shivers down her back. Kalari had halted as Rajak had ordered, but now he began to creep forward a step at a time.

“Halt,” Mohan cried. “You heard what Rajak said.” He was backing up toward the opposite rail, his gaze pinned on Kalari.

“Rajak, tell him to stop.” Mohan looked back at his brother, but Rajak was gone. Mohan looked from side to side, trying to get a glimpse of him. “I swear I’ll throw her overboard if you don’t release me and my ship.”

“No!” a voice said quietly from right behind them. Rajak took hold of Azara’s arm and swung her around him so his body acted as a shield for her. He gave his brother a pitying glance. “It’s over, Mohan.”

Mohan’s gaze darted frantically from his brother to Kalari. Desperately, he threw himself at one of the pirates and snatched a cutlass from his hands. Leaping on the distant rail, his hand entangled in snarl of tackle, and he turned to face them, defiant and unrepentant. Suddenly, a swell rocked the two ships, breaking the ropes that held them tied together.
The Black Swan
rolled deep in the wave’s trough. Mohan’s grip on the tackle loosened. He wavered there a split second before he toppled backwards in the up wash of the next wave. Just that quickly, he disappeared from sight.

They searched for nearly an hour when they finally had to admit that he was gone.

“I’m sorry, Rajak,” Azara said quietly. “He was your brother.”

“I try to tell myself that,” Rajak said. “but he was the devil’s spawn from the first breath he drew.”

He looked at Azara, his eye’s alight with all he felt for her then he drew her into his arms. Her head fell naturally against his shoulder.

“He was the son of Lajila, my father’s favorite wife. My father held him special for that reason and so did the rest of us, bending to his every whim and tantrum. We must all accept our blame in the man he became.”

“You would not have become such a man,” Azara answered with fierce loyalty.

Rajak laughed and held her closer.

“I cannot feel bad for all that’s occurred,” he said softly. “Otherwise, I would not have come to love you. If all had gone as planned, you would have belonged to Mohan. I would have had my throne, but I couldn’t have had you, my brother’s wife.” His arms tightened around her. He leaned his head down and trailed a line of soft kisses along her brow. “I would have been in agony every day of my life.”

Azara giggled. “You wouldn’t have been lonely. You would have had your fine harem, with any woman you wanted. We would barely have spoken to each other, observing all the nuances of our laws between relatives. You would never even have thought about me.”

“True,” Rajak said on a sigh. “It’s best it all worked as it did.”

“Soon you will have your own harem and I may be forgotten anyway,” she murmured and her eyes filled with tears at the thought.

“Never,” he vowed, gripping her tightly. “I swear by Allah that I shall have no other wife than you and never shall I have a harem.”

Her tearful expression changed, became luminous. “Such is not the way of our people.”

“Who says we must do as our forefathers did on some ocassions? On this, I pledge there shall be no other woman, save you.” He pressed his lips to her mouth ardently then released her and, taking her hand, pulled her toward the stairs.

“Come, Princess Azara, soon to be wife of Shah Rajak Jehan, ruler of the Peacock Throne. We have work to be done. I wish to have many children in my old age and if I’m to have no other wives or concubines, I think we should start at once.”

Azara laughed, a delightful sound to his ears. Lights sparkled in her eyes as she gave him a quick kiss and lightly ran up the stairs. In their room, she pushed him onto the bed. From above deck came the sound of music, senuous and melodic as one of her serving women played a sitar. Azara smiled and he discovered a charming little dimple. He wanted to kiss it, but she clearly had something else in mind. She moved to the music, her arms telling the eternal story of love and passion. With every movement, she removed a piece of her garments until she was finally nude before him. Still, she danced, increasing her movements with the tempo of the music.

Light played over her skin like a whirling kaleidoscope, touching first a breast then a hip, her belly and her breasts again until Rajak was hard with desire. Finally, the dance stopped although the music played on. She knelt before him, her hands gently moving the folds of his garment aside so she had access to his stiff cock. She took him into her mouth, her tongue sliding over him, suckling, drawing his very essence from him. When she rose, her eyes held all the wisdom of a woman in love, a woman who knows she’s loved as well.

Rajak shed his clothes and reached for her.

About the Author

Temple Hogan is the author of over twenty print books, historical, contemporary and mysteries written under the name of Peggy Hanchar. She has nine e-books out at the moment with more to come. Temple lives on a lake in Michigan with her husband, three cats and Gizz, a precocious Shih Tzu. She belongs to the Grand Rapids Region Writer Group.

Temple loves to talk to her readers and can be found at TempleHogan.blogspot.com.

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