And a Bottle of Rum

8

A/N: A bit of action on Lamanta. Alex and Kara's wedding night, which is definitely NOT SAFE FOR WORK! Enjoy!

Kara was lying on her stomach in tall grass, her crew in similar positions all around her and with Alex and Winn at her sides. They had, by the grace of Our Lord, managed to come ashore without being discovered and had climbed a hill to give them a vantage point to overlook the village.

With a sigh of relief, the pirate noted that, while one of the crop silos was burnt out, the others and the homes of the villagers seemed mostly intact. She eased her telescope out of her coat pocket and opened it to bring it to her eye and scan the scene before her.

"It seems like you were correct, Captain Danvers. I'm counting about forty men with muskets, encamped. I assume there is a small compliment left on Dauntless." She passed the telescope to Alex. "Do you see your father?"

The brunette shook her head. "I do not." She viewed the men below again. "But I do see his first officer, Captain Graves. No doubt he has orders to follow. He has always been afraid of the Admiral."

Kara chuckled. "Is there no one in the Navy who has a backbone other than you and John?"

Winn snorted a little laugh and winked at Alex. "Shark."

The former Navy Captain scowled playfully. "Hush!" She looked back at the village again. "Wait... I see the Admiral. He has just emerged from one of the houses. He does NOT look happy."

Alex passed the telescope back to her wife and Kara watched unhappily as Admiral Danvers backhanded one of the villagers, who was trying to offer him some refreshment. A growl sounded low in her chest and she made to rise from the grass, but Winn held her down with a firm hand between her shoulder blades. "Not yet," he said pointedly.

The captain nodded and let out a long breath. "We need to get closer. We should go back down the hill and around to the east to circle the village. The men on guard are relaxed. We can take them down one by one."

But Alex gasped and put her hand on Kara's arm as she saw the Admiral draw his sword and run one of the villagers through. "Oh, my dear Lord," she said, upset threading through her. "We must go, NOW!"

The pirates moved silently back down the hill and, obeying hand signals from Kara, quickly moved to surround the village, taking out the guards one by one until only a small core group was left at its center.

Kara separated from her crew and crept deeper into the village to crouch behind a pigsty, wrinkling her nose at its pungent aroma, but eyes fastened fully on Admiral Danvers.

"WHERE ARE THEY?!" The admiral grabbed a child and pulled him close to hold a dagger to his throat. "You will tell me what I want to know, or I will kill him!"

One of the villagers moved forward and dropped to his knees. "Sir! Please! Do not hurt my son! We have not seen the Cutlass for weeks, nor has Captain Zorel been here, I swear!"

The admiral's hand twitched and Kara's pistol lifted but she cursed as she realized she was too far away. She crept forward again but the admiral wasn't in the mood for waiting and was about to slit the child's throat when the pirate saw her wife suddenly step out from behind an outhouse, hands raised. "FATHER! NO!"

"No," Kara gasped, freezing to the spot. "Alex."

Admiral Danvers slowly lowered his dagger, and a brazen smirk crossed his lips. "Alexandra," he purred, pushing the boy away from him and moving closer to his daughter. "How wonderful to see you, Child." Then he lifted his pistol and pointed it at her head. "COME OUT, CAPTAIN ZOREL. I KNOW YOU'RE HERE."

"Leave my wife out of this," Alex growled. "You know you're here for me, Father. You know you're here because you cannot stand knowing that a child of yours is unnatural!"

Danvers chuckled. "On the contrary, Alexandra, you are no child of mine. You are the child of another man. I am merely here to bring a crew of filthy pirates, including your..." His mouth lifted into a sneer. "WIFE... to justice."

Kara watched in horror as Alex's face morphed into the picture of shock, then pain… then impassiveness. "You are not my father?" The Shark's eyes grew cold and dark then and she re-squared her shoulders, lifting her chin defiantly. "I have never had better news in my life, ADMIRAL. I no longer need to be ashamed."

"Ungrateful BITCH!" Danvers roared as he backhanded her, but Alex stood her ground and merely brought her eyes back to his to chuckle softly.

"Is that all you have?" Then she swung her fist and hit him right back, solidly breaking his nose. "I am NOT afraid of you, Sir."

Kara was frozen somewhere between terror and laughter and then her feet were carrying her forward again. Danvers wiped blood off his face with his sleeve and then spat at Alex's feet. "You will regret that, Child." He lifted his pistol again and pointed it between her eyes.

Alex stood straight and proud, then took a step toward him, looking him dead in the eyes. "I am not a child. I am a woman... I am a captain... and I am a pirate." She watched the Admiral's finger tighten on the pistol's trigger and then suddenly swung one hand, knocking the gun upward so its single shot fired straight up into the air. "WINN! NOW!"

There was a loud roar and the crew of the Devil's Cutlass, led by First Mate Schott, poured into the center of the village, engaging the startled Navy men and scaring them witless before they could barely raise their muskets.

Admiral Danvers bellowed out his fury, dropping the pistol and going for his dagger at the same time as Alex went for hers at the small of her back. They circled each other slowly, knives held in front of them and eyes locked.

"Alex!" Kara yelled as she drew closer, pistol raised, but the brunette just held up her hand.

"Stay back, Captain Zorel. He's mine." Her lips drew back as she growled out her anger. "You BASTARD," she spat. "Just like Maxwell Lord. Sitting in your ivory tower, not giving a DAMN about people who are just trying to survive. Killing as you see fit. Taking... USING. You are a MURDERER, Sir!" Alex lunged at him and swiped her blade's edge along his forearm, cutting through his coat sleeve and shirt to draw a thin line of blood.

Danvers hissed in pain and looked at the cut. Then, teeth bared, he slid his coat off and tossed it aside. "Better to be in my position than yours," he scoffed. "A spinster with nothing to show for her whole life and career but a pair of leather britches and a whore for a lover."

Alex's eyes narrowed. "Do not speak about her that way."

Danvers laughed loudly. "Look at her, Alexandra. She is NOTHING. NOTHING but a filthy, roguish criminal with a talented tongue. You call me a murderer? How many lives has SHE taken?"

"Many," Kara said, stepping closer. "My first when I was just fourteen years old. But I would never run an innocent villager through for information he obviously did NOT have. I have killed in battle and I have killed out of necessity, but I have NEVER killed for sport."

The admiral shook his head. "I care not for your words, Pirate. I will see to it that you swing by the end of this day." Then he looked back at Alex. "You still have a chance, Alexandra. Give up this pirate... this life... and come back to England. I can still find a suitor for you there."

There were hundreds of things Alex wanted to say to him in that moment, a million reasons on her tongue why she would NEVER leave Kara but instead, she simply shook her head. "FUCK. YOU."

Danvers' face morphed into fury and all Kara could do was watch as he lunged forward with his dagger again and crashed into Alex's body. His momentum and greater weight carried them both awkwardly to the ground with him on top, and the brunette cried out in pain as his weapon embedded itself firmly in her side, grinding against a rib. She waited for his killing thrust but frowned then as she felt warm moisture and opened her eyes to find the Admiral staring at her... his eyes slowly growing lifeless as his blood spilled down over her hand... the hand that had shoved her dagger up through his throat, his tongue and into the roof of his mouth.

For a long moment, there was silence as the Cutlass' crew, the Navy men and the Lamanta villagers looked on in shock but then Kara was on her knees at Alex's side, rolling the admiral off her and cupping her cheek gently as she applied pressure to her wound with her other hand. "Alex," she whispered. "It's over."

The brunette coughed a little and winced, blinking heavily. "Kara, I think that I am leaking," she deadpanned with warmth and love in her eyes that made tears rise in her wife's.

"Maybe just a tad," the pirate replied with a loving smile of her own. Then Winn was next to her, moving Kara's hand and pressing down on the wound with his own shirt to impede Alex's bleeding.

"Bring me a flame from the fire!" he exclaimed. Vasquez appeared next to him with a flaming stick, and he pulled his own thin dagger to heat it until its blade was glowing orange. Then he looked at Alex and leaned down to kiss her forehead. "I will not lie, My Friend, this will hurt like hell."

She nodded. "Do it." She grasped Kara's hand as the pirate put a leather belt between her teeth. Then Alex was biting down, then screaming, screaming, screaming... and then...

Xx

Captain Graves and the surviving Navy crew made it back to the Dauntless, carrying the body of Admiral Danvers and the other men who had not been so lucky. The dead were all buried at sea and then Graves ordered their return to Port Royal to spin a story where the Admiral had NOT almost burned an entire village to the ground in a desperate attempt at revenge against a woman (who wasn't even his real daughter) and her pirate lover.

After half a moment's consideration, and a promise from the Captains and First Mate that they would keep the real story to themselves, Graves had let the Devil's Cutlass and her crew go free.

Xx

Kara was lying with her wife on a comfortable, straw-filled mattress, spooned against her back and holding her gently. Alex had woken a while after Winn's treatment, and Kara had carried her into one of the village houses to make her more comfortable. She was no longer bleeding, and her face was beginning to regain some of its normal color. Its pallor had worried Kara greatly for a short time.

"I'm sorry, I know I disobeyed orders," the brunette said quietly. "But when I saw his hand move to hurt that little boy, I could not just wait and do nothing."

Kara kissed her bare shoulder and sighed softly. "You did what was right." She squeezed her eyes shut. "But when he pointed his pistol between your eyes, I was more afraid than I have ever been in my life."

"I knew what to do," Alex replied. "I was trained in hand-to-hand combat in the Navy, my Love." She shrugged a little. "But the admiral didn't even consider that. He underestimated me my whole life, Kara... as though I was only playing pretend in the Navy... and it was his downfall in the end. He did not even consider for one moment that I would be able to take his life."

"I am SO proud of you," the blonde captain whispered. "What you did here today will never be forgotten by the people of Lamanta. Nor by me."

Alex slowly turned and pressed chest to chest with her wife. They lay there for a while in the quiet warmth, trading gentle kisses and murmured words. But then Alex's face grew pensive, and she frowned unhappily. "Kara, I think I must return to the Carolina Colony. I must speak with my mother."

Her wife was quiet for a long moment but then she nodded. "I will miss you, while you are gone."

"Will not you come with me?" Alex asked in surprise. "It is your home too."

"North Carolina has not been my home for a long time," the blonde replied. "My family think me long dead, and I would not fit in there with them. But if you wish for me to come with you, I will most definitely come. I just was not sure if..." She trailed off and looked away. "If you would want your mother to meet me."

"Kara Zorel, look at me," the older woman said softly, waiting until the blue eyes she adored met hers again. "Do you think that I do not want to shout our love from every rooftop in Wilmington and Raleigh and Charlotte combined?" She kissed Kara's lips again. "I am SO PROUD to be your wife, your lover, your friend… and I will tell my mother that when you meet her."

Kara grinned happily. "Thank you, My Love."

The brunette nodded but then she grew serious again. "I need to ask my mother who my father truly is. I've spent thirty-one years of my life feeling out of place and desperately trying to win the love of a man who would not and could not love me. I need to know, Kara."

"Of course," the blonde replied. "I understand. We will set course for Wilmington as soon as we return to the Cutlass." She ran her fingertips over the bandage surrounding her wife's rib cage and then gently caressed her soft, warm skin. "I love you more than life."

"And I you," Alex replied, yawning softly and relaxing into her love's arms. "Forever."

Xx

For a few days, Alex left their cabin on the Cutlass for only short walks along the deck or to sit, taking the sea air. Her wound remained clean, thanks to Winn's gentle ministrations and after a week, she was strong enough to take up some more strenuous duties. Now, only a couple of days away from Wilmington, North Carolina, she was almost back to full strength.

The brunette was coiling rope and humming an old sailor's tune when Vasquez approached her, somewhat hesitantly. "Captain Danvers, may I speak with you?" she asked.

"Of course, Susan," Alex replied with a smile. "How might I be of service?"

The woman looked down and shook her head slightly. "I fear… I fear that I have broken Winn's heart with a refusal of his marriage proposal."

The captain's eyebrows lifted. "You refused him? Do not you love him?"

Vasquez smiled. "I do love him," she replied. "But…" Her eyes moved to a school of fish leaping from the cold sea and glinting in the sunlight. "Marriage is a big step that should not be taken lightly."

"I most certainly agree," Alex chuckled. "But Winn is a good man. What is it that you fear?"

"I am not afraid," the Latina replied with a frown, squaring her shoulders.

"Of course you are not," the captain deadpanned. "Susan Vasquez fears nothing."

There was quiet between them for a moment but then Vasquez' shoulders lowered. "How did you know that you wanted to marry Kara?"

Alex's lips pursed into a little grin. "A number of ways," she replied. "But honestly, Susie, the thought of not being with her terrifies me more than anything. She is my heart." She reached out and touched the Latina's chest. "Is Winn yours?"

"Yes," Vasquez whispered, covering Alex's hand with her own.

"Then think you not that you have your answer? Or dare I say, his answer?" She gently squeezed the younger woman's shoulder and then lifted her chin teasingly. "Do not keep him in misery for tooooo long."

Vasquez grinned at that. "Thank you, Captain Danvers." She turned then and, with a swagger born of years of pirating, cross the deck to her lover who was talking to Kara about some loose nails in the lower deck planking. She stepped right up to them and put her hand on Kara's shoulder. "Excuse me, Captain Zorel," she said firmly. Then she wrapped her arms around Winn's neck and kissed him solidly. "Aye, I will marry you." And with a grin and a little caress of his cheek, strolled away, leaving both Kara and her first mate with their mouths hanging open.

"Well then," Kara finally said with a little chuckle as she clapped her best friend on the back. "Good news indeed. Congratulations."

"YES!" the man exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air and then spinning in a circle. "At last!"

Xx

Kara groaned softly as Alex's mouth closed around her nipple, worrying the pebbled flesh between her teeth as she traced her wife's ribs with her fingertips. "I'm sorry," the blonde murmured. "That we had to wait so long for our wedding night."

Kara rolled them over, grinding her thigh down into Alex's sex as she caught her breasts between the webs of her thumbs and forefingers, and tested their weight. She swirled her tongue over them and then nibbled gently, smiling as the older woman's fingers laced into her hair to play absently with the beads of her braids. "It's already worth the wait," Alex breathed. "You feel so amazing."

Kara pressed her thigh down hard again, making her wife gasp and then laugh softly. "You feel like molten silk," she purred. "Do you want me, My Love? Do you want my touch?"

Alex groaned as teasing fingertips ran slowly up her inner thigh. But then she was overcome and pressed upwards to roll Kara back over and bite roughly down on her neck. She suckled her pulse point, moaning soft vibrations against the tender skin. "I NEED you inside me," she growled and when she pulled back, Kara gasped at the wanton passion in her eyes.

"Alex" she said softly, cupping her wife's cheek. "Nothing would make me happier. Please give yourself to me."

A slow blink later and Alex's eyes were pure joy. "I am the luckiest woman on the Lord's green Earth." She ducked her head and ran the very tip of her tongue across Kara's lips then dipped between them into her mouth to kiss her deeply.

The younger woman's hands roamed down her wife's back, skirting along the bumps of her spine and then lower to grasp the fullness of her rear and pull her closer. Alex glided higher against her, spreading molten fire along stomach muscles etched from marble, that contracted and released under the sensation as she straddled them slowly and rocked down.

Kara's eyes closed as warm hands covered her breasts again, teasing them with feather-light touches and then broad strokes of tongue. Her face was flushed pink, and she moaned softly as she reached up to grasp Alex's breasts and anchor herself to the moment, lest she float away on a haze of erotic sensation.

"I love you," Alex breathed as she spread her legs wider to let Kara touch her. Her knees pressed down into the mattress on either side of Kara's waist, and she slowly thrusted her hips to take long fingers inside her. "You make me whole, Kara."

The blonde sat up, easing her wife a little lower into her lap as she rubbed her fingertips along the smooth walls inside her. "I love you too, My Heart."

"Oh…" Alex gasped as her wife's other hand found her most intimate bundle of nerves and teased it with feather-light caresses. Her arms wrapped around Kara's neck and she pressed against her chest as she lifted and lowered her hips in a slow rhythm that had her gasping for breath after only a few moments. Their pace quickened and she felt the initial irregular spasms of release as she buried her face in her wife's shoulder, wanting this moment to last forever. "Kara… I'm… I'm… so… c-clo…" But then her wife's fingertips were pressing firmly, swirling around her so quickly and pushing into her so deeply that she wasn't sure where she ended, and Kara began. "Oooohhhh…. GOD!"

Then she was coming… so forcefully that it made steel of her arched spine, slackened her jaw and allowed her to bare her heart and soul to any angel that would listen… on a long, helpless cry of her wife's name.

When it had finally faded, she leaned limply against Kara's chest with her chin on her strong shoulder, eyes closed and breathing still ragged as the younger woman slowly caressed her and then leaned back to bring them both to the soft mattress. Kara wrapped her up tightly in her arms and kissed her forehead. 'You were so beautiful in your pleasure," the blonde whispered reverently.

"I think…" Alex swallowed against her throat's hoarseness. "I think I have died and gone to heaven and if so, I have died a VERY happy pirate."

The blonde captain laughed softly. "I'm glad I could please you." Then she sighed softly as her wife's hand slipped between her thighs to touch her experimentally.

"You are so wet," Alex chuckled and Kara just grinned.

"How could I not be after witnessing a most erotic scene as your climax?"

The brunette nodded. "Do you like to watch, Kara?" She eased back from her wife and, as the blonde slowly swallowed and nodded in return, knelt in front of her. "What do you want to see?"

"You…" Kara whispered. "Touching yourself."

A slow smile spread across Alex's face as she parted her knees and slowly caressed her nipples with her left hand as she eased her right hand between her thighs. She gathered some of her moisture on her fingertips and then leaned closer to her wife to paint her lips with it. Kara groaned and licked them, the heady taste sending her arousal notches higher.

"You may watch me, Captain, but you cannot touch me," Alex said.

Kara nodded, blue eyes bright as she lay back against the pillows and fisted her hands at her sides. "Show me," she commanded softly. Then her eyes widened as Alex's hands slowly trailed down her own breasts, pausing a moment to stroke and tease nipples that were so hard, they were almost painful. Her hands wandered down over her ribcage and sides to her stomach where she circled her navel, then gently grasped her fingers into her own course down as she thrusted her hips forward and moaned softly.

Kara made a little sound of need, but she stayed still, her eyes moving between her wife's eyes and her exploring fingers. "Fuck," she whispered, eyes growing half-lidded as the throbbing between her thighs insisted that she do something to relieve it. But she stayed still and just waited patiently as her lover smiled at her.

"So good," Alex said, licking her lips slowly. "So good at obeying orders. You will be rewarded for that."

And then the brunette's hand was between her own legs, eyes closing as her fingertips rubbed through her soaked folds, making her gasp a little as she brushed her clit.

"Oh…" Kara said, her eyes astonished as she watched. "It's… you're… stunning, Alex…"

And then Alex was pushing her fingers inside herself, slowly thrusting and then pulling back out to run over her clit… then back inside again, her eyes closed and voice moaning as she pleasured herself.

The blonde growled a little and her hands opened and closed fitfully as she ached to touch her wife. The brunette captain chuckled softly and then whimpered as she caressed her breasts again. "Kara?" she said then.

"Yes?" the blonde replied hoarsely.

"I said you couldn't touch me. I didn't say you couldn't touch yourself."

And then Kara was suddenly on her knees, barely inches from her wife and staring into her eyes as her fingers found her own swollen flesh and explored. "You… wreck… me…" she gasped out as her hips thrust forward and thighs quivered. "You make me… want to… rip open my own chest… and offer you my beating heart. I love you… so much, Alexandra Danvers."

And then Alex was on her back, her face between her wife's parted thighs. She sealed her lips and tongue around Kara's sex even as her hand continued to work frantically between her own legs. The blonde cried out and fell forward, hands grasping onto her wife's hips and hair spilling over her stomach as she thrusted helplessly against her mouth. "Alex… oh God… Alex," she chanted, and then, with a final nip of her wife's lips and broad, swirling stroke of her tongue she soared into a climax that slammed her so hard, she clenched down on Alex's hips, leaving bruising fingermarks behind as she hunched over her and shuddered uncontrollably. "Alex… Alex… Alex…" she whispered then as her hips slowed their frantic pace. She leaned down on shaking arms, dropping open-mouthed kisses on her wife's stomach as Alex's hand finally pushed her into a second perfect orgasm.

After a moment, Kara moved off her wife and flopped herself around to lie next to her with her arm thrown across her face. "Oh my dear God," she moaned. "That was…" She found she was at a loss for words and just laughed softly.

"BEST SEX EVER," Alex replied with a grin. She rolled onto her side and snuggled against her wife, letting her hand caress the damp skin between her breasts and noting that she was still trembling. "Kara, are you quite well, my Love?"

"Aye," the pirate replied, blinking heavily. "But I think… I think…" She yawned and closed her eyes… and her breathing slowly evened out, making Alex chuckle softly and just press closer.

"Sleep, My Heart. I'll be here when you wake up."