Chapter 2 I'm Revealed

• He caught me by the shoulders and turned to throw me backward on his little bunk in the corner. Though it didn’t hurt, it startled me enough it took a moment to react.
• Catching my breath, I did. I scrambled up it and hugged my knees protectively to my chest. Suddenly very afraid of what he might do to me. "Please."
• What am I even asking for?
• Mercy? There’s not a shred of it in his eyes. I had a feeling there’d be perilously little of it coming.
• I was right.
• "It's too late." He ruthlessly caught my ankles and drug them to the foot of the bed. Pulling his belt loose to cinch around one ankle and tie to the bed post.
• ***
• He walked around it while I struggled in panic, yanking at it.
• Looking furtively from him to the post and trying to gauge how much time I had before he reached my other arm and I’d be fully bound.
• He gathered a fistful of rope and tied my other leg rather than heading for my free arm as I’d expected.
• While he tightened it so firmly around my ankle that the rough rope scraped me, he said in a harsh voice. "If you'd have come clean when I asked, like a woman with integrity, I'd have locked you in here and kept you safe. But you chose to lie like the little fiend you are. So, I'll teach you precisely why you don't lie to a dangerous man."
• He means to a pirate Captain, doesn’t he? I was breathing quickly. Panting in my scramble to yank free. I jerked at my leg trying to resist his grip, but he held on with the firmness of a vice.
• As utterly unrelenting as the look on his face.
• "No. Don't." I breathed. "I'll scream."
• I’ll summon everyone down here to stop him.
• He shrugged. "I wouldn't recommend it. What do you think my men will do once they know there's a warm, wet woman on this ship?" He eyed my body. Unable to discern a shape under the garb.
• He plucked my shirt from my head and sent a wash of waving brown, shoulder-length hair spilling over the bedding around my face. Hair I’d kept so carefully tucked into my huge hat.
• "Good. You’re a grown woman." His eyes slipped over me with interest.
• "No!" I grasped at the hope of deterring him. "I'm a young 'un, Cap. Swear. Not of my first bleed."
• Perhaps he’ll leave me be if he thinks me a child. Though I wondered if a pirate truly gave two shits about such things.
• He gave me another contemptuous glance. “The devil you are.”
• ***
• Then he ripped my shirt open. Sending buttons scattering over the cabin floor. Exposing the bindings over my breasts.
• To hide what I am.
• Collecting a cutlery knife he turned it flat against my sternum.
• "Don't move." He cautioned. He slit the bindings and to my horror my bountiful breasts burst from the bindings. Dusky brown nipples bouncing upright for his attention.
• And his gaze feasted on them. He reached down and pinched one.
• I objected and lurched up.
• He paused to cut the excess rope from my ankle and used another chunk to hook my wrist to the corner post despite my struggles. He leaned his weight over me. Pinning me into the reed mattress, while he knotted the rough rope.
• I only had one hand left and I intended to fight.
• "Don't bother." He roughly wound the remainder of the rope.
• But I was already twisting to try to get my other wrist free.
• So, he wasted no time to tie that one too.
• "Have it your way. I like a helpless woman." Then he began ripping my clothes open. "Let's see what you have under here."