Skull and Dagger

“I will see a noose around your neck for this!” Annabelle announced primly, throwing one of her shoes at Frank as hard as she could.

“For *ow* what?” he demanded when the shoe hit him squarely in the head. “Gettin’ *ow* beat up by *ow* you?” He frowned for a second. “Wait a minute…that was three ‘ow’s… Just how many shoes do you have, sugar?”

The mystery went unsolved as his feet quickly slipped out from under him, along with the sheet, and before he knew what was happening, Annabelle had him pinned down beneath her, the dagger chained to the bed at his throat.

“Do I win?” she said excitedly, practically bouncing up and down in her victory.

“You wouldn’t,” he gestured to the dagger with a confident little smirk.

“Wouldn’t I?” Unconsciously, she licked her lips. After all her frustrated attempts, she finally had him trapped and completely at her mercy…so why did all her thoughts suddenly revolve around how good he felt beneath her?

He let out a little moan at the unintentional sensuousness of her gesture. He could feel himself hardening beneath her. Fortunately, the sheer volume of her skirts meant that she couldn’t feel it.

“Do you have any idea how long I’ve wanted to get you exactly like this?” she said with a sly little smile. Her body slowly leaned further into his. “I told you I would escape, and I’m never wrong…”

“And where exactly are you gonna escape to?” he countered, eyebrow raised.

She bit her lip for a second. She really hadn’t thought much beyond the ‘wrestle Frank to the ground’ stage. In fact, she wasn’t even doing that part too well. She’d kind of let the dagger slip away from his throat and was just enjoying lying there on top of him and…what was wrong with her?

“Captain!” a breathless voice gasped from the doorway of Frank's cabin. The young pirate dashed over to Annabelle's room when he saw that Frank wasn’t there.
“Captain,” he repeated in relief, “there’s a ship - right off the bow.” His face turned a bit red when he saw what the captain and his ‘guest’ had apparently been doing. “Er, uh…pardon me, Miss Sutton…” He looked nervously down at the floorboards.

“A ship?” Frank leapt instantly to his feet, slipping from Annabelle's grasp.

“Hey,” she protested weakly. She wasn’t quite sure if he was able to evade her clutches because she really hadn’t holding him that hard or because he hadn’t been trying before…or perhaps an odd combination of both.

“Where are Gerard and Quinn?” Frank was instantly in his own room, fastening his sword to his belt and removing a small pistol from his desk drawer.

“Gerard's on deck, and…er…” The sailor really didn’t want to have to report that the second mate was drunk while on duty.

“That’s fine,” Frank insisted, rushing out the door. He turned back for one last second, however. “Stay here with ‘Belle,” he ordered. “Anything happens, you’re not to let any harm come to her.”

“Right, sir,” he agreed nervously, eyeing the ‘hostage’ warily. He had no doubt that she would knock him out the instant Frank left the room.

“Good man,” Frank nodded before dashing up to the deck.

The young man turned and gulped just before the heel of Annabelle's shoe came down on the back of his head. As he drifted off into unconsciousness, his last thought was:

Told you so.