Apocalyptic Pirates 4, page 9
“Interesting is one word for them.” I grinned. “Seriously, though. I have to stop and pinch myself at least once a day that I’ve managed to luck out so hard. All four of them are just fantastic people to be around. If a little… nerve-wracking.”
“I see that.” Ray smiled. “You’re a lucky feller, Drew. Now then. While Valerie’s helping your girl Shannon, what can I do to make myself useful?”
By now, I knew better than to protest that he should just sit back and take things easy.
“Well,” I said. “There should be some buckets in one of the closets in the kitchen, if they haven’t been thrown all over. We can get to work cleaning up the deck.”
“Sure thing.” Ray nodded.
Ray and I went below to grab the buckets, and while Dia was getting stitched up, the two of us worked on getting the boat free from dragon blood. Ray sluiced down the deck, and I went around with a bucket of soapy water and a rag to try and get it out of all the nooks and crannies that it had managed to find its way into.
I didn’t know what hard work was until I scrubbed potentially radioactive dragon blood out of my yacht’s mainsail. My arm and back were absolutely wrecked by the time I was done, and I really wanted to jump in the ocean to cool off.
Once Dia’s arm was fixed up, we had to figure out a way to get the dragon corpse off the yacht.
It was clear that sheer brute strength wasn’t going to be enough to heave several thousand pounds of dragon over the edge of the boat, but Ray managed to figure out a way to unscrew a section of the guard rail, and with that taken down, the job got a lot easier. We managed to drag the end of the carcass around to the gap in the guard rail. Ally went back to the ship’s wheel, and once we’d all grabbed tight onto something steady, she swung the yacht around in a sharp turn. The abrupt movement sent the corpse skating across the deck, and it slid with an enormous splash through the gap in the rail and into the ocean.
Ray cheered, and even though I was covered in sweat and my shoulders were screaming, his enthusiasm was too powerful for me not to join in.
We tossed a few more buckets of seawater over the spot where the dragon had been, and with that done, it was as though the whole thing had never happened.
“Well, I’m beat.” Dia sank down onto the deck and threw her forearm over her eyes.
“Same,” Letty sighed. “I’m thinking it’s sunbathing time.”
“I’ll join you,” Shannon added. “I’ll just go below and get my sunglasses.”
“There’s more iced tea in the fridge,” Letty called to the Indian woman as she went below. “Could you bring it out with some glasses? There are still plenty that aren’t broken.”
“Will do!” Shannon called back.
“Iced tea?” Valerie looked around at the women in bemusement. “Sunbathing?”
“Come and join us,” Dia called. “There’s more than enough space and iced tea to go around.”
“Well, I don’t know about that.” Valerie hesitated.
“Here.” Letty jumped to her feet. “I’ll go down and get you a chair. We’ve got a folding recliner and a deck chair that’ll be nicer for you to sit on.”
Valerie started to object, but Letty was already halfway down the hatch.
“You’re allowed to relax,” Dia told the older woman. “You’ve damn well earned it.”
“And we’ve got plenty of sunblock, do not worry!” Ally hollered in a tone that proved she saw this as the most important detail.
I smiled at the memory of her little speech about the importance of sunblock that we’d shared one balmy apocalypse day somewhere in Georgia.
The last few weeks really hadn’t all been bad.
“I just don’t like sitting idle.” Valerie was wringing her hands. She looked uncomfortable.
I had an idea.
I went down the hatch and rummaged in one of the closets where we were storing the supplies that we’d received in trades.
“What are you looking for?” Letty asked as she came out of the lounge with Shannon.
Shannon had found her sunglasses, and they were pushed up onto her head. She went into the kitchen and came back with a tray holding a jug of iced tea and a stacked tower of glasses.
“All that fishing equipment we got in a trade a while ago.” I pulled the duffel bag out from the back of the closet. It was full of lines, nets, weights, tackle, and all kinds of things that I hadn’t really known much about. “Ray and Valerie might not feel like sunbathing, but I reckon they’d like the idea of sitting on the deck and fishing for a while.”
“Oh, Drew,” Letty said with a smile. “That’s perfect.”
“They’ll love that,” Shannon confirmed.
“Well, I hope so.” I picked up the duffel bag, and the three of us went back up on deck.
Letty began unfolding the chairs, and I put the bag down at Ray’s feet.
“What you got there?” he asked with raised eyebrows.
“Fishing equipment,” I said.
“Fishing?” Ray’s face lit up for a moment, and then he halted himself.
“We traded for it a while back,” I explained. “But none of us really know how to use it. How about you fish for us?”
Ray and Valerie grinned at each other.
“Now, that,” Valerie said. “That we can do.”
Letty finished setting up the chairs, and the old couple settled themselves down with twin sighs of satisfaction.
“How come y’all ended up on Providencia, then?” Letty asked.
“Short answer: work.” Ray began looking through the duffel bag and taking out various bits and pieces of fishing equipment and handing them to Valerie. “We’ve worked all over, though. Lived and worked in Alaska for a good few years, then went to Newfoundland for a bit, then we decided we’d seen enough of the cold.”
“It wasn’t good for Ray’s joints,” Valerie put in as she began fixing together an assortment of fiberglass tubes that quickly took shape as a fishing rod. “Decided we should go somewhere warmer.”
“It wasn’t just me, woman,” Ray chided her with a gentle smile. “Your lungs weren’t sounding so great. Weren’t no way you would have lasted another Canadian winter.”
“So we came down south.” Valerie ran a length of fishing line down the rod, clipped on the spool, and then tied on one of the weights that Ray handed to her. “We’ve been on Providencia for almost five years now.”
“You never thought about retiring?” Ally had propped herself on her elbows to listen to the couple’s story.
“No way, Jose.” Ray chuckled softly. “We ain’t the retiring type.”
“What would we do in retirement?” Valerie passed the assembled fishing rod to Ray, and he flicked the line over his shoulder and then out into the clear blue ocean waters where it landed with a tiny plop.
“You could relax,” Shannon suggested. “Slow down a bit. Not have to fight so hard for everything.”
Ray and Valerie looked at each other and shrugged with identical smiles on their faces.
“Life is a struggle, chicklet,” Valerie said gently. “It don’t stop once you hit seventy.”
“And retirement?” Ray shook his head. “The only place I could consider retiring to would be a ranch or farm. And there ain’t no way our savings would stretch to something like that.”
“It’s lovely for some folks, I know it’s true, but it just ain’t how we want to spend the rest of our lives.” Valerie had finished assembling the second fishing rod, and she threw her line into the ocean with a practiced hand that showed she’d done this kind of thing many times before. “It ain’t easy working all the time. But nothing ever is. And this suits us better than the La-Z-Boy and TV dinner life.”
“I can’t picture either of you in a La-Z-Boy,” Letty chuckled.
“There you go,” Valerie said.
“We’ve been together a long time now.” Ray patted Valerie’s arm with his free hand. “We figured out what the important stuff is to us.”
“Have you ever had a TV dinner, though?” Dia questioned with a seriousness that was so intense I couldn’t be sure if she was joking or not. “One of the good ones, I mean.”
The old couple chuckled.
“You just wait ‘til you taste the fish we’re gonna catch you for dinner tonight,” Ray told her. “Then you’ll forget all about TV dinners.”
“The things Ray can do with a red snapper are downright indecent,” Valerie said with a twinkle in her eye.
“Oh, hush, you.” Ray shook his head at her.
“You’re not going to cook,” Letty protested. “You’re already catching the fish, surely you ain’t about to cook it as well.”
“Letty’s already tried to convert me from TV dinners,” Dia explained with a grin at the Southern woman. “I have to say, she’s doing a good job.”
“Oh, my.” Valerie looked up quickly. “Oh, we’re not treading on your toes, are we, chicklet?”
“No, no,” Letty rushed to reassure the older woman. “It ain’t nothin’ like that. I just feel you’re already doing enough as it is.”
“You got no clue how much Ray loves cooking his fish,” Valerie said with a smile.
“It’s true,” Ray chimed in. “I do love cooking me some fish.”
“I just feel bad,” Letty said with her brow wrinkled.
“Now who’s not able to sit down and take things slow?” Valerie said with a twinkle in her eye.
“Oh, okay.” Letty threw up her hands with a smile. “You got me there. Besides, I have to admit, I do hate preparin’ fish. All them fiddly little bones are a right pain to pick out.”
“It all works out nicely then, don’t it?” Ray smiled and leaned forward with the fishing rod grasped tightly in his old hands. “I reckon we’ll have some juicy old fellers ready to bite any moment now.”
I half-wanted to stay there long enough to see them catch something, but there was another chore I wanted to get out of the way first.
I climbed down below and went into the bedroom. There was a roll-out storage drawer underneath the bed, and it was full of extra bedding. I looked through the contents and began picking out blankets and spare pillow cases.
Ideally there would have been an inflatable mattress or something similar that we could give to Ray and Valerie so they had somewhere to spend the night. But as well stocked as the yacht was, it looked like its former owner had forgotten to pack an air mattress or anything like that.
I rocked back on my heels and tried to think of the best argument I could use to convince Ray and Valerie to take the bed. It was going to be a hard sell. The old couple were so determined to stay as self-reliant and independent as possible.
I admired them both. Their courage and devotion to each other was something rare and heartwarming. But I was damned if I was going to let them refuse to take the bed. They were stubborn, but they’d find that I could be even more stubborn.
A quick step sounded on the floor behind me, and then something brushed the back of my neck.
Chapter 7
My body moved on instinct.
My hand darted up to grab the thing that had touched me. I pivoted and swung around, and the movement sent the intruder sprawling onto the bed.
“Well, hey, Drew,” Ally gasped. “I didn’t think you’d be that eager.”
“Ally!” I was on top of her with my fingers still latched tightly around her wrists. “You surprised me.”
“What, little old me?” Ally wriggled underneath me in a movement that I suspected was a deliberate move to set her breasts jiggling in an extremely distracting way. “I didn’t think I could do that.”
“You always surprise me,” I murmured.
Ally’s light-green eyes stared into mine. She fluttered her eyelashes, and her rosy full lips parted as her chest rose and fell with her breath. The soft, pale piles of her cleavage pressed against my chest.
I tucked a wayward strand of her red hair behind her ear. She closed her eyes and leaned into my hand until my palm was cupping her cheek. My fingers slid down her face, over the tip of her perfect nose to the gorgeous pout of her pink lips, to the soft line of her jaw, to the perfect arch of her long neck and the shadows in the dip of her collarbones.
“Drew,” Ally sighed in longing.
My fingers caressed the soft space where her button-up blouse fell open wide enough for me to see the black lacy bra she wore. Then I reached inside her shirt and ran my fingers over the black lace cups.
“You’re wearing too many clothes,” I told her in a low voice.
“So are you,” she responded.
“Maybe we should change that.” I dipped my face close to hers.
Ally’s pupils were wide with desire. She licked her lips and nudged her nose against mine. Our mouths brushed against each other in a teasing dance, and then Ally put her hand along my jaw and pulled my lips down to engulf hers.
The kiss sent fiery sparks of lust tingling all through my body. My cock throbbed, and my heart was pounding in my chest. The softness of Ally’s mouth was delicious. She tasted of sweet, iced tea and the faintest salty tang of sweat, and the combination of flavors made a maddening cocktail inside my mouth.
“Ally,” I groaned.
My fingers worked at the buttons of her blouse, and I almost dragged the material down off her shoulders. A button pinged off somewhere, but Ally didn’t seem to care, and she tossed the blouse carelessly onto the floor.
The promise of Ally’s breasts was right there and taunting me. I slid my hands under her torso and found the clasp that kept her bra fastened. With a flick of my fingers, I unhooked her bra, pulled it off, and threw it aside.
Ally’s perfect breasts popped out, so I buried my face in them and inhaled the intoxicating perfume of Ally’s body.
“Mmm,” Ally moaned. “Touch me, Drew.”
“Do you like this?” I growled, and I covered her breasts with my hands and rolled her nipples between my finger and thumb.
“Yes,” she gasped. “Yes, yes.”
“And what about this?” I bent my head and took one breast into my mouth. Her nipples were tight pink buds, and as I suckled on one of Ally’s breasts, I squeezed her other nipple between my fingers.
“Oh, goooddd, Drew,” Ally moaned.
She arched her back to offer herself to me, and she moaned as I licked her nipples with my tongue and worked them with my lips. I bit them gently, and Ally let out a little mewl of pleasure.
“You like that, don’t you?” I murmured.
My hands slid down over Ally’s smooth stomach and tugged at the hips of the tight dress pants she wore.
“Oh, god, I love it,” Ally panted. “I love it when you touch me like that, Drew.”
I unbuttoned her pants, and Ally shuddered in pleasure as my fingers grazed her lower stomach. I slowly slid the pants down over her legs, and then I traced my way back up and glided my hands up over her calves and in between her thighs.
“Fuck, Ally.” The redhead’s black lace panties were soaked with her pussy juices, and I couldn’t stop the groan of pleasure that fell out of me as I eased the lace down over her hips and caught sight of her gleaming lips. “You’re so fucking wet, Ally… sooo fucking wet.”
“I’m wet for you, Drew,” she whispered. “You always make me so fucking wet.”
I covered her pussy with my hand and felt the heat and excited wetness radiating off of her.
Ally writhed on the bed. Her cheeks were flushed pink, and her lips were parted in desire. Her nipples were fully erect, and they were blushed the same excited pink as her rosy lips and dripping wet pussy.
“Touch me, Drew,” she begged. “I want you inside of me.”
“Say please,” I ordered her with a wicked smirk. I pulled her legs open and propped her ankles up on my shoulders so I could get a good view of everything that Ally was offering up to me.
“Nuh-uh.” Ally closed her eyes and sighed. There was a smile hovering on the edges of her mouth, and her breasts rose and fell in a way that she knew I would find unbelievably tempting. But she wasn’t going to give in fully– not yet, at least.
“You’re not going to say please?” I began to kiss my way down her legs.
I traced a trail of featherlight kisses down her calf, and then inside her thighs. I paused just outside her glistening entrance. Her pussy begged me to continue, but I managed to control myself.
“Drewwwww,” Ally begged.
“What do you say?” I murmured.
I slid my hands under Ally’s gorgeous ass and pushed her knees back and open. I planted a kiss on the innermost part of her thigh, and for a second, the tip of my tongue darted out and licked some of her delicious juices.
“Oh, god!” Ally arched her back, and her hands clenched into fists in the white bedsheets. “Please, Drew, please eat me.”
“Your wish is my command,” I murmured, and I buried my face in her pussy.
Ally moaned as my tongue worked its magic. I dug my fingers into her ass cheeks, and kept her thighs pinned wide open. I traced circles and shapes and all kinds of love messages into Ally’s dripping wet cavern, and as I tongued her swollen clit, I felt the rest of her pussy contract and throb as I pushed her closer to the finish.
Ally wound her fingers into my hair, and when my tongue found a particularly sensitive spot, she jerked and gasped so strongly that I was sure she had pulled out a clump of hair. But even if she had, it was worth it for the orgasm that I could feel building in her body.
“I’m cumming,” Ally panted. “I’m cumming, I’m cumming. Ohhhhh– Dreeewwww–”
And with one final, deliberate flick of my tongue, she came.
A fresh flood of her juices gushed into my mouth. Her body shook with the power of the orgasm I’d given her, and she arched her back and dug her fingers into my scalp. She gasped out my name, and the sight of her so overtaken and captured by the pleasure I’d just given her was almost enough to make me cum in my pants right there and then.
“Oh, godddd,” Ally sighed. “I feel like I’m floating.”
“I’m glad you’re pleased,” I told her with a slow smile.
