“Unfortunately,” Vasco continued, “I cannot maintain control of yer friend there while giving you a good seeing-to. Ye excite me too much.”
Jess’s eyebrows rose at that. Other than returning his kisses, she hadn’t done a damned thing that could have been described as exciting him. She certainly hadn’t caressed or even touched him other than to hold on for dear life as he ravished her. That realization actually made her feel a little better. At least she hadn’t been an active participant in her ruination, and ruin it would be if she became the girlfriend of a vampire pirate who sailed around the high seas feeding on her fellow mortals.
Unfortunately, that looked like where this was headed, Jess acknowledged. She wasn’t seeing a way out here. She apparently had the self-control of a gnat. All the man had to do was touch her and she melted like butter in the skillet. This was bad.
“Well,” Vasco said on a sigh. “I suppose I had best remove yer cousin and take her above for Cristo to look after.”
Jess frowned, unsure whether that was a good thing or not. It would keep Allison from being fed on by Vasco, but what about Cristo? Would he—?
“And then I will deal with Ildaria before I return to you,” Vasco said, eyeing her solemnly as he reminded her, “It was my original plan before you distracted me with your tuzzy-muzzy and jugs, and it was a good one. It is better if I handle her first. Then I can grope for trout in your river again without worrying about anything I left undone.”
“Grope for . . . ?” Jess echoed with bewilderment.
Vasco grinned at her confusion. “I will show you when I return,” he promised with a wink, and then slapped her behind and released her to walk to the door. He opened it, and then paused to peer back at her and suddenly smiled. “You are pretty as a picture.”
Jess was just softening at the compliment when he added, “But I want you naked in bed when I get back. I plan to fuck you for four days straight at least and in every hole. Clothes will just get in the way.”
Jess groaned and dropped her face into her hands with despair. The man had no couth at all. How could someone she found so damned repugnant intellectually make her body burn and weep for his attention?
How could she find a vampire sexy? He drank blood! Feeding off mortals like they were little better than cows. He was a monster, and she found his kisses and caresses irresistible? What was wrong with her? she wondered, and shame immediately claimed Jess. Fortunately, she was saved from suffering it for too long when the sound of the door closing reached her ears.
Lifting her head abruptly, Jess saw that Vasco had left, and sagged with relief before turning toward the bed. “Allison, we have to . . .”
Her words trailed off into silence. Allison was gone.
Three
Jess tied a knot in the end of the strip of cloth she’d ripped from the bedsheet and considered her handiwork grimly. During a fevered search of the room after Vasco left, she’d found an inflatable life jacket in an armoire next to the bed. The presence of the life jacket had rather surprised her. It was the last thing she’d expected to find on a pirate ship full of vampires, but then who said vampires had to know how to swim? Even vampire pirates?
At any rate, the life jacket was uninflated, folded neatly, and packaged in a square bag made of very thick but clear plastic. It was about the size of a ream of paper, but much lighter, and it had a small handle on the top. Jess had threaded the strip of cloth through the handle and now had some really ugly neckwear. On the other hand, she was hoping her efforts would keep the packaged life vest out of her way while she climbed out of the ship. She was also hoping it would prevent her accidentally dropping and losing it as she jumped into the ocean.
That was her plan. Jess had thought long and hard about what to do . . . well, really, she’d thought short and hard about it. Time wasn’t exactly her friend at the moment. But anyway, she’d decided that escape was her only option here. She had to get off this ship before Vasco returned and she ended up in bed with him, and probably, eventually, a dead, soulless, bloodsucking pirate. Her very soul was at stake here.
Aside from that, Jess was really the only hope any of the other tourists on this ship had. She hoped to get off the ship, swim to shore, get help, and send them out to the ship to save everyone else.
It was possible her plan would fail miserably, of course. She might drown, be eaten by a shark, a whale, or a giant squid. Or she might get to shore and be locked up as completely insane when she started babbling about vampire pirates and such. She might also make it to shore, get help, and get back to the ship only to find that the tourists had all been slaughtered in her absence and fed to the sharks. But Jess was hoping her absence would save them. She was hoping that when Vasco discovered she was missing, he would set out to search for her and leave the tourists alone for as long as it took for her to get them help. Because hopefully he would stay away from the room long enough that she’d be able to get a good distance away before he noticed her absence.
There was a lot of hoping in this plan, Jess acknowledged grimly, and walked to the porthole she was going to try to leave the ship through. She’d decided that slipping out of the room and trying to jump over the side of the ship wouldn’t work. There were too many crewmembers who might see her jump, and they’d just fish her out and lock her in the cabin. She needed to escape without being seen and hopefully have enough time between her jumping and their realizing she’d jumped ship that they couldn’t find her easily and fish her out. The porthole was her best bet. If it was a porthole. Jess wasn’t sure. It was rectangular rather than round, although the corners were rounded. It was bigger than the other portholes in the room that were actually round, but it was still quite snug, and if she got out at all, it would be a tight squeeze.
Sighing, Jess stepped up on the captain’s chair that she’d set before the porthole and quickly unsnapped the four locks on the window and swung it open. She took the time to stick out her head and look around, to be sure no one would be able to see her leaving. Not spotting anyone hanging over the side of the ship looking her way, she pulled her head back in, and then slid one arm out instead. Her head followed, and then she eased the inflatable life jacket out to dangle from her neck before she tried to squeeze her other arm out. It was a tight fit, and Jess was pretty sure she scraped a good deal of skin off her left arm forcing it through, but eventually she had it out and was standing on the chair with her head and shoulders out of the porthole. Her breasts came next, but they weren’t too much trouble. They were a good size, but more malleable than arm bones were, and she was able to squeeze and pull them out. Once that was done, Jess just had to get the rest of her out. Mouth tightening, she placed her hands flat on the wood hull on either side of the window and began to push.
Yeah, getting out was easier said than done, she soon learned, and wondered if this was how babies felt during birth. It seemed to take forever, was painful, and Jess felt like she was skinning herself alive, but she finally managed to force enough of herself out of the hole that gravity took over and dragged the rest of her out. Fortunately, Jess had the good sense to push herself away from the ship and grab ahold of her neckwear as she tumbled out. It saved her hitting her head on the ship hull, and losing her life jacket.
Jess hit the water hard, and almost gasped as she was enveloped by the cold liquid, but managed at the last minute to remember to keep her mouth shut. She sank a lot deeper than she’d expected, and was gasping for breath when she resurfaced, but immediately turned in the choppy waves, looking for the ship. The boat was moving much more quickly than she’d realized, Jess acknowledged as she saw that it was already several boat lengths away. No one had heard the splash of her entering the water and was peering back at her pointing and shouting the alarm, but then she hadn’t expected there to be. The reggae music that had been playing since sunset would have covered any sound she’d made.
Sighing her relief, Jess did her best to tread water with one hand while unsnapping the flap on the bag holding the inflatable life jacket with the other. It was trickier than she’d expected in the choppy water, and she went under once or twice for a brief moment, but eventually managed to get it open and get the life jacket out. Fortunately, it wasn’t one of those newfangled ones that inflated as soon as water hit it. She was able to get it on, and get it buckled in place without problem, and then pulled the lanyard to make it inflate once it was in place.
That task done, Jess turned in the water, searching for land. Her heart sank when she saw how far away the lights of shore were. Six or seven miles hadn’t sounded that far when Cristo and Vasco had mentioned the number. She’d run marathons that long for charity and managed it. But six or seven miles certainly looked a good distance at sea. Of course, some time had passed since Cristo had guessed at how far out they were and, judging by how rough the water was, the wind had definitely picked up. She might be seven or eight miles out now. Maybe even nine.
Well, Jess thought, far away or not, she had no choice unless she wanted to wait around for Vasco to discover that she was missing, search the ship for her, and then turn around to come look for her and carry her off to be his vampire bride.
“No thanks,” Jess muttered, and struck out for shore.
She’d read once that the average person could swim about three miles per hour. She was not an average swimmer. Jess figured she had a good four-hour swim ahead of her. Maybe even five . . . plenty of time for a shark to find and dine on her.
“Well, that was a waste of time,” Zanipolo grumbled, dropping into a chair at the table the maître d’ had led them to.
Raffaele waited until the server had handed them each a menu and left before saying, “I would not say it was a waste of time. We at least now know the rogues are not on staff here.”
“Then where are they?” Santo asked grimly.
Raffaele shook his head. He had no idea, but he was quite certain they weren’t at this resort. They’d walked over every inch of the place, including the kitchens, and every room marked Employees Only, as well as the other restaurants. Although they hadn’t stopped to order anything at any of those restaurants; they’d merely entered, given the staff a quick once-over, and left once certain that there were no immortals on staff. This was the last restaurant and the last spot they’d had left to look.