Clockworks and Corsets Read online

  “Keep quiet,” he whispered. He ground his cock against her body, dry humping her while they stood in the open afternoon. “He is close. And he wants you so badly. I don’t know if I can hold him off. How about it, my captain? Would you like to see this wild animal? This beast you have brought out?”

  Rose nodded. She closed her eyes when his growl met her ears again.

  Once more, Click’s hand disappeared from her mouth, this time leaving her body entirely. Rose wondered what he was up to. She didn’t have to wonder for long. The undeniable click of buttons and familiar rustle of fabric rose from behind her. His free hand wandered to her breeches, working the closure with one-handed expertise until an impatient Rose joined him to finish the job. When she bent to push her pants and soaked bloomers to the jungle floor, she felt the tip of his cock brush her sex. His hand landed square on her back. When she tried to stand, he held her down, bent double with her palms in the dirt and her ass in the air.

  “He wants you, my captain,” Click said. He growled again.

  She smiled at his game, keeping her mouth shut to play along.

  “Will you take him?” he asked.

  Remaining silent, she nodded.

  “Good girl,” he said. Grabbing her by the hips, he pushed forward.

  Rose wanted to shout in delight. Click pulled out of her, then pushed in again, growling and grunting like some out of control beast. She pushed against him, meeting him thrust for thrust, longing to scream, to moan. Instead, she turned her groans inward, dreaming a stream of obscenities while he took her. The glen filled with the sounds of slick sex, the slap of Click’s balls against her wet pussy, the flat smack of his hands on her ass as he had her entirely for his pleasure.

  Click was much more masterful than he had been with her in the past. Perhaps it was the danger of outdoor sex, or the return to his native soil. He rode her heavy, grunting commands at her to stand taller, squat lower, for her to keep still so he could pummel her pussy, or for her to hump faster while he remained motionless. It was as though he was the captain and she just a common wench. To her surprise, Rose loved every second of it. She whimpered, trembling under his towering bulk, letting him have his way with her.

  Soon, she felt him tense within her, his orgasm approaching quicker than usual. Rose dipped her hand to her pussy, rubbing her clit hard, seeking her satisfaction before he could finish. This was also a first in her history with Click, yet one she found to be an exciting race instead of the worrisome battle it had always been with Bill. She circled her clit in quick bursts while she squeezed Click’s cock within her pussy.

  “Rose!” Click shouted. He pushed into her once more. His balls lifted against her hand. His cock jumped in a passionate spasm.

  The very sound of her name from his lips proved too much for her. She rose to full height and cried aloud, screaming his name into the jungle while her orgasm ripped through her. Click wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tightly to him, adorning her depths with his endless desire. The world twisted, dipping in fantastic colors when he came with her and she seized around him, melting together into one orgasmic being. They froze for a moment, linked by their amorous union, paired in their desire, passion, and heat.

  It was several moments before either of them remembered to breathe.

  “Click,” she said between gasps. “You never call me Rose.”

  He silenced her with a slim finger, nuzzling his face into her neck. “The jungle makes a man wild. A wild man like me, it makes an animal. It was the animal that was so vulgar, so impatient, too quick...” He paused as if it hurt him to say the words.

  “Don’t,” she whispered. “I loved it.”

  Click kissed her neck before he cleared his throat to add, “Click will always love you slow and true. And he will always call you his captain. For you are the captain of his soul.”

  Rose was both warmed and worried by his words. On the one hand, she enjoyed the commanding yet tender relationship they shared. But this new Click, this animal, was someone she wanted to see again—to feel again and soon, if she had her way. “How can a woman like me trap and keep such a creature?”

  Hugging her tighter, Click smiled against her neck.

  “The beast will follow his prey anywhere she goes,” he said. “You’ll have to tread far more carefully now that he has your scent. He is ardent, and his passion is devoted to you now. If you will have him, he will stay.”

  “Oh, I’ll have him.” Rose wiggled her naked ass against his groin.

  “Captain!” Jax’s voice drifted into the glen.

  “Looks like we are out of time, my captain,” Click said.

  Rose sighed when he slipped free from her. She bent to pull up her pants again, shouting, “Coming!”

  “Again so soon?” Click ran his fingers over her soaked pussy with a laugh. Rose shivered at his contact. She pushed back to welcome his wandering touch. Click’s laughter shifted to a groan. He slipped his fingers past her lips, deeper into her sweetness. She squealed. He growled.

  “Be quick!” Jax shouted. “We found something new!”

  With much excitement, tinged by even more regret, they scrambled to dress and ran to join the others.

  “What’s the big deal?” Rose demanded when they returned.

  “Words,” Jax said.

  “Words?” Click echoed.

  “The little fish found writing,” Jax said.

  “Where?” Rose asked.

  Gabriella motioned to a series of faint lines. “These markings here, above the frame.”

  “Big deal,” the tinker said, nonchalantly. “I saw them when we first got here, but you don’t hear me shouting on about it.”

  Rose turned to narrow her eyes at the tinker. “You saw this?”

  “Aye, Captain,” Jayne said.

  “Why didn’t you tell us?” Rose asked through clenched teeth.

  Jayne sat up and shrugged. “Because it’s just a bunch of nonsense.”

  “So,” Gabriella said. “What is it?”

  “Latin,” the tinker said.

  “I can see that,” Gabriella said. “I’m just not very good with the language. What does it say?”

  Jayne sighed. “Ostendo Nonnullus Mos.”

  “Which means?” Rose asked.

  “Roughly translated?” Jayne asked. “Show some manners.” With that, she returned to her sprawled position.

  “I see why she kept it to herself,” Magpie said.

  “Indeed,” Click said. “Not a lot of help there.”

  “Words are never of good use,” Jax said. “Only action will get us inside. Boom.”

  Rose was inclined to agree with her. In fact, almost every head nodded in agreement. The young Gabriella looked like she felt differently on the matter. She stroked her chin, tilting her head from side to side while she eyed the door.

  “Something’s missing,” she said.

  “Yeah,” Magpie agreed with a nod. “Like a handle.”

  The crew chuckled.

  “No,” Gabriella said. “I mean here.” She pointed to the face of the beast and the marble slab beneath. “Something was between the two. In this space.”

  “I’ve been giving that some thought,” Jayne said. “I think that’s where the opening mechanism was. I hypothesize that Loco dismantled it when he fled the island.”

  Rose sighed. She returned to her place in front of Click. “When were you planning on sharing this hypothesis with the rest of us?” She motioned to her shoulders and the native returned to kneading them.

  Jayne rolled her eyes. “I thought I just did.”

  Rose bit her tongue. This was becoming tiresome.

  Gabriella shook her head as she said, “No, I don’t think that’s it.” She dropped to her knees.

  “Guppy?” Rose asked.

  Gabriella ignored her. Instead, she ran her hands through the thick wildlife at the base of the door. “Ah ha!” She stood again, holding out a large, rusty metal ring.

  “What
is it?” Rose asked, joining Gabriella’s side.

  “A knocker,” the young girl said.

  “You’re joking,” Jayne said, and then laughed. “As if it would be that simple.”

  Gabriella shrugged. She turned back to the door, held the ring aloft and pushed it into the demon’s mouth. The rung snapped into place with a loud click. Gabriella looked over her shoulder, past Rose, to smile at the tinker.

  “Tell me this is just a joke,” Jayne begged.

  Gabriella lifted the ring. She brought it down once, twice, three times against the marble pad. Each time the ring connected with the marble, a hollow, ominous knock echoed through the jungle. Rose held her breath, suspecting she wasn’t the only one, and waited. And waited. And waited.

  After a full thirty seconds of counting heartbeats while exchanging furtive glances, the crew heaved a simultaneous, disappointed sigh.

  “I told you so,” Jayne said.

  No sooner had the tinker spoken than a great rumble rolled from the door. The trees shook. The ground shivered. Rose grabbed a surprised Gabriella by the shoulders, lurching away from the door. Vines snapped. Tree roots shattered. A wave of birds crested across the clearing in search of safer climes.

  When the shuddering and shaking was over, the door stood wide open.

  “A knock!” Jayne shouted. “Why would he set it up to open with just a knock?”

  “You have to admit, it was a very polite knock.”

  Every woman turned to Click, because the voice they just heard was distinctly male. Although it sounded like the kind of lighthearted observation the native would make, it lacked his strange accent.

  “Wasn’t me, loves,” Click said, answering their unspoken question.

  They each turned back to the open maw.

  “Please, come in,” the stranger said.

  Chapter 4

  Loyalty and Liberty

  In which we meet our host, and make an unexpected friend.

  Within moments of the mysterious voice beckoning them inside, Jax and Magpie whipped out a pair of matching sabers. The captain suddenly sported a blunderbuss of impressive size, while her cabin boy bore a dagger. Jayne held aloft a small weapon that was obviously her own design—a foot long tube of metal covered in wires and cogs with a barrel full of sharp shards of scrap metal.

  It took a moment for Gabriella to realize that she was the only one empty handed.

  The crew of the Widow fell into an arc formation around the unarmed Gabriella with the captain at the front. They held this arrangement for a few moments before the captain nodded at Jax.

  “Come out, with hands where we can see them!” Jax shouted.

  “Please,” the stranger begged from beyond the dark opening. “Lower your weapons and come inside. No harm will come to you. I promise, I’m unarmed.”

  “Likely story,” Jax whispered. “Mysterious voice beckons us into the dark. No, thank you.”

  “Does he think we’re stupid?” Jayne asked in a low voice.

  Gabriella didn’t think the voice sounded mysterious at all. She thought it sounded warm, inviting, and somehow familiar. It was the kind of voice she could listen to for a very long time, growing neither bored nor tired of it. This thought made her smile. She noticed that she wasn’t the only one smiling. Click grinned wide, as though he was enjoying the whole thing. Who knew what the heathen thought of the proceedings? Gabriella never understood the native’s weird ways.

  “Who are you?” the captain called out.

  “I should probably ask the same of you,” the stranger answered.

  “What do you want?” Jax asked.

  “Again,” the stranger said, “I believe that is my rightful question.”

  “Where are you?” the captain asked.

  “I’m where you want to be,” the stranger said.

  The captain closed her eyes. Gabriella could only guess that she was weighing her options. What choice did they have?

  “You can either lower your weapons,” the man said, “and come in, or I can close the door, leaving you locked outside. You’re free to try to get inside for another forty-seven minutes, nineteen seconds and ten milliseconds, or you can join me now. Which will it be?”

  The two parties were at an impasse. The crew was unwilling to trust the stranger enough to lower their weapons, while the stranger was unwilling to join them in the clearing. Surely the man would close the door again. Gabriella knew a simple knock wouldn’t reopen it this time. The entire trip would have been a waste, the crew would lose yet another job, and even worse than that, Gabriella would have to go home. Unwilling to face that fate just yet, she knew she had to do something desperate.

  Drawing a deep breath, Gabriella ducked between the shoulders of Jax and Click, pushing her way past the crew, daring to step away from the safety of the group. She made her way toward the opening, intent on showing the rest of the crew what she already suspected—that the stranger wasn’t going to harm them. Gasps and shouts rose from behind her.

  “Guppy!” the captain shouted over the crew’s outburst. “Stop right there, little missy. That’s an order.”

  Gabriella came to a halt just outside the opening. She narrowed her eyes at the wide doorway, silently begging the stranger for help. When none seemed on its way, she turned to the crew again, swallowing hard before she said, “Captain, I don’t think he means us any harm.”

  Keeping her gun trained on the dark passage, the captain locked eyes with Gabriella. “Get back over here. Now.”

  Gabriella didn’t want to get back over there. She wanted to dash down to the opening, find the owner of the voice, and continue her fabulous adventure. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to disobey her captain. “I know it sounds crazy, sir, but I feel like we can trust him.”

  “Jax trusts no one,” Jax said.

  “I think she’s right,” Click said.

  “You think everyone is right,” Jax snapped.

  “I do not,” Click argued. “I just think our stranger has an honest voice.”

  Strengthened by the upsurge of partial unity, Gabriella tried again. “Captain, please. We might not find another way in. He promised not to hurt us.”

  “Kid’s got a point, Cap,” Magpie said. “He does sound sort of, I don’t know, polite?”

  A ghost of a grin flickered across the captain’s lips for a moment before she gave Gabriella a single, short nod. “Lower your weapons.” She lowered her own gun. She motioned for Click to sheath his blade.

  “Captain, I don’t think—” Jax said.

  “I said lower your weapons,” the captain repeated.

  Jax did so with a grunt. She glared at Gabriella.

  “Excellent,” the stranger said. “Now that we’re planning on acting like civilized beings, perhaps you would like to join me for a cup of tea?”

  The captain motioned the crew forward. They stepped into the opening. When they crossed the threshold, the door rumbled back to its closed position. Jax tried to prop it open with her blade, but the weight of the door snapped the tempered steel in two before it swallowed the last of the daylight. Now they stood in the cool of the darkness, one weapon less than before.

  “Don’t worry,” the stranger said. “You are free to leave at any time. Just say the word and I’ll reopen it for you.”

  “Then open again,” Jax growled.

  “So soon?” He chuckled softly. “No. I don’t think your captain is ready to go just yet. Now, let your eyes adjust and come to the end of the hall when you are ready. I shall be waiting for you.”

  “Adjust?” Magpie scoffed. “To what? The blackness or the total darkness?”

  After a few moments, Gabriella realized it wasn’t total darkness at all. A soft glow along the walls lit what appeared to be a hallway. She ran her fingers over the spongy, damp glow

  “Phosphorescent moss,” Jayne explained.

  “Captain,” Jax said. “Are you sure this is wisest course of actions?”

  The captain seemed t
o ignore the question. Instead, she strode with her head held high to the hallway’s end. She looked over her shoulder at the crew. “Shall I collect Ruby’s money alone?”

  The crew quickly fell in line behind her.

  The hallway emptied into a foyer, complete with an umbrella stand and boot scraper, both of which were rusted with age. A small bench stood in one corner, looking like a single touch would cause its collapse. Another closed door lay across from the entrance. Before the captain could reach it, the door gave a click. It swung wide, welcoming the party further inside. They followed through to a receiving room.

  Here, the furniture was also tattered. Dilapidated curtains hung from bricked up windows. The carpet was bald in arching paths around the room. Aside from the wear and tear, the room itself was very neat, lit by the glow of a roaring fireplace. Gabriella looked around in wonder. This was not what she’d expected to find in the middle of the wild jungle.

  Then again, nothing could have prepared her for what she saw next.

  Standing beside the fireplace, with one arm propped against the mantle and the other hand thrust into his jacket pocket, was the handsomest man Gabriella had seen in her life. He was tall, even taller than Click. An amber wave of short locks spilled from his crown, giving him the appearance of a halo in the low light of the room. Flickering shadows danced across his regal face, showing pale marble features, he had a broad, prominent brow, a stout, bold chin, and a commanding, yet still quite kissable mouth. The handsomest thing about the man was his eyes. The color of polished copper, the man’s eyes shone bright and friendly, with a hint of the mysterious and mischievous echoing from deep within. Gabriella thought they were the kind of eyes that could pierce a woman to her very soul.

  Gabriella looked down at her filthy brown uniform. She worried at the grime under her unkempt nails. She was a mess. What she wouldn’t give for one of her finer dresses right now. To have her hair done in a proper way. Her nails buffed to a shine. She hated to think it, but her mother was right. One never got a second chance at first impressions. Even in the tropical wild!