It’s newsletter time, which means…

Rackety Kate and the Pirates

Chapter 9

Harlot Heaven

The story so far:

Having arrived at Sweet Sisters Isle, Kate is finding it difficult to fight the buzz of magic in her blood, let alone cope with Jack’s distracting, sexy presence or the sight of Duka mastering the Duchess. To her surprise, Jack gives her the choice as to what they do next. And she thought he only had one thing on his mind…

The path through the jungle was as lovely as everything else on Sweet Sisters Isle, deeply shaded, the deep, fine sand pleasantly cool between Kate’s bare toes. Every now and then it narrowed, and she had the guilty pleasure of watching the flex of Jack’s muscular buttocks, swinging along in front of her.

Great ass, observed the husky-voiced Harlot. Biteable.

The air shimmered at the edges of Kate’s vision, as if a large dragon-fly had just whisked out of existence. She jerked around, but there was nothing to be seen, only the feathery fronds of jungle plants-and what was that? An orchid?

Smiling, Kate reached out to stroke her fingertips over the thick, creamy petals. The lilac coloured throat emitted a low mewl of pleasure.

“Aaargh!” She jumped back, and Jack’s arms slid around her waist from behind, reassuringly strong and solid.

“Relax, Kate,” a deep voice purred in her ear. It’s just the magic.”

“But it made a noise!”

“So what? It likes you.” He nuzzled her cheek. “You’re a vortex for the magic. It’s drawn to you. I can see it swirling all over your head and shoulders. Rather like a halo.” He gave a decidedly devilish chuckle. “One I intend to tarnish, good and proper.”

Before Kate could think of a suitably scathing reply, he took her hand, lacing their fingers together, tugging her along. “C’mon, just a little further.”

A narrow path branched upward and Jack took it at a rapid pace, his hand strong in hers.

The air grew warm and steamy and the chuckle of water falling on stone filled the air. The vegetation grew positively luxuriant - rampant vines looped over silky tree trunks, flowers bloomed profusely, everywhere she looked, in every possible shade of pastel, gleaming in iridescent tones from cream to violet and back again. And it smelled - God, it smelled absolutely divine!

Despite herself, Kate’s eyes filled with tears. When she saw Jack had turned to stare, she dashed a hand across her eyes. “Don’t say it,” she snarled. “I’m a sentimental fool.”

Jack said nothing, but he bent his handsome head and pressed a gentle kiss to her brow. Then he ushered her through a tumbledown arch made of honey-gold stone.

All the breath punched out of Kate’s lungs.

They stood on the lip of a pool of clear water, as green as jade. It lay like a jewel in the dappled sunlight, tendrils of steam drifting above the surface in slow arabesques. For all the world, it looked as though a team of ancient Greek sculptors had completed half the coping and then become bored and wandered off, leaving the rest to Nature. Marble steps descended into the translucent depths, and a statue of a gracefully bending maiden emptied an urn into the pool, the long stream of falling water as smooth and beautiful as the finest Venetian glass. Rather to Kate’s surprise, the maiden was decorously clad in a flowing tunic that left one stone shoulder bare.

“Do you like it?” Jack smiled at her and for a moment, Kate thought she could glimpse the boy in the man.

She could only nod, lost for words, her eyes still stinging with an emotion she didn’t understand.

A warm palm rubbed gentle circles over her spine. “You need this, pretty Kate. Think of it as the gift of the Sweet Sisters - peace, at least for a little while.”

“P-peace?”

Want more? You can read all of Kate and see more pirates on the Rackety Kate page.

Want even more than that? Join my newsletter - see below.

Subscribers to my newsletter get to interfere with Kate’s love life. Sign up to join the fun!

One lucky commenter in June will win an autographed copy of A Red Hot New Year, four sizzling stories to ring in the New Year, including my contribution, Coming on Strong!

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting. You will only see this message once, I promise!