Free A Captive of Chance by Zoe Blake Page A

mock severity. It was a beautiful sight to watch a woman enjoy her food, particularly this woman. The way her small mouth closed over the spoon. Her appreciative moans each time the flavorful stew slid down her throat. The pale pink flush that spread across her caramel skin as the warm food replenished her.
    Belle was aware of his scrutiny, repeatedly adjusting the linen to cover her shoulders as much as possible. At least it gave her something to focus on. The last thing she wanted to do was look at the man eating his own portion of stew with gusto across from her. It really was not fair that so handsome and well-spoken a man should be a pirate!
    In her opinion, people should resemble their natures, but there again, she ran into trouble with Chance. There was no question he was selfish, ruthless and arrogant. Everything she assumed a pirate would be. Yet, she could not say he was blood-thirsty or overly cruel, which she had also assumed would be the nature of a pirate. It did not escape her attention that he let the crew of the ship she was traveling on continue with their journey unharmed. It was obvious he was rather charming.
    True he had taken her captive, but was her fate now worse than it had been before? She was on her way to a joyless marriage with a seventy year old man. While Chance had yet to mention asking for a ransom, Belle assumed he would demand one from her father. She would insist it covered her companion, Marina, as well. It would be only a matter of weeks before she could return to her beloved island home. Given her now soiled state, her father would not be able to force her into another marriage.
    There were of course the punishments. Belle blushed at the recollection. Shaking her head no, she refused to think about the punishments or her body’s embarrassing reaction to them.
    “You have been quite pensive and are now shaking your head no. Is the stew not to your liking?” asked Chance. He had been having a pleasant time reading the play of emotion as one after the other crossed her comely face.
    Her blush deepened at even the possibility he could have guessed the direction of her wayward thoughts. “The stew is very fine,” she responded softly. “Can I ask what has become of Marina?” she beseeched, wanting to take advantage of his unusually still mood.
    “At this moment, I believe she is enjoying some very fine rum and two of my finest men,” he pleasantly replied.
    “But you can’t mean… you don’t mean to say…” Belle could not finish.
    Chance leaned over the table to stare directly into her shocked eyes. “Your sweet, innocent companion is apparently more sassy than sweet and very much not an innocent even before my men got to her.”
    There were virtually no, what society would call, respectable women on the tiny island in the Azores from where she hailed who were willing to take the sea voyage from sunny warm shores to cold, dank England. So her father had to be content with a respectable looking one. As such, Belle was hardly shocked she was not a maiden, but the idea of her bedding two pirates was beyond what she could comprehend. Belle could barely handle the one!
    Chance pushed their plates aside and poured them both a draft of wine. “No more talk of your companion. Let us have a game. Do you play chess?”
    “Why yes, I do.”
    “Try not to look so shocked that a pirate does as well,” he said as he rose to get the board, tweaking her cheek as he passed. Belle took a long sip of wine to steady her nerves. Yes, it was obvious the man was charming!
    Setting up the board between them, he said with a twinkle in his eye, “Let me explain the rules of pirate chess.”
    “Pirate chess?”
    “Yes, every time you forfeit a piece, you must also forfeit coin.”
    “But I have no coin, you have taken it all.”
    “Hmmm… well that is a dilemma,” he said, seeming to stroke his chin in deep thought. “Well, we will just have to come up with something else for you to