Seizing Rain (Seas of Seduction Book 1) Read online

  My fight instincts kick in and I use what little energy I have to save myself. I kick, scratch, punch, bite, scream. Every part of me bucks, tenses and flails in an attempt to make this stop but it’s no use.

  They overpower me so easily I’m naked in less than two minutes and they’re both rubbing me with soap until satisfied that I’m clean.

  “It’s been so fucking long since I had cunt,” Roger rumbles, slapping my bare mound with so much force my knees buckle from the pain.

  Blue-Eyes drops me as I slide from his arms but he uses this moment to pull down his jeans, showing me his hardened flesh.

  “Suck it,” he demands as I look up at him and my anger overrides my fear.

  “Suck what?” I reply, shifting away from him, my defiant gaze staring right at it as my body curls into a ball. “I’ve seen maggots bigger.”

  Roger laughs as though this is hilarious but it stops with a gasping choke as a hand wraps around his throat. All I can see is an arm, tense and bulging. For a moment I feel hope that I’m about to be saved but then that thought comes crashing down.

  Blue-Eyes steps away from me with raised hands. “Captain… we were just… she wouldn’t shower.”

  “We didn’t mean anything,” Roger chokes, his voice so strained it can hardly be heard over the sound of the rushing water.

  I see a glint out of the corner of my eye when a blade is flipped from a black handle in a strong, tattooed hand. My heart hammers. This is their captain. Does he know I’m here? Will he save me?

  I daren’t look.

  “What did I say?” His voice is dark, dangerous, gravelly, growly… possessive. It’s the kind of voice that would drop panties in a world where it wasn’t evil. The sound of it makes me ill.

  “She’s off-limits.” Blue-Eyes’s dick softens as he looks at the knife. I see fear swimming in them as my mind processes his words. The captain does know I’m here if he ordered me as off-limits. “We just thought… it’s not like she’s a virgin.”

  “You’re new,” the captain replies with deceptive calmness.

  “Exactly, I didn’t think,” Blue-Eyes pleads, raising his hands. “Roger said…”

  The captain lunges and I watch as the blade in his hand folds in on itself as it comes into contact with Blue-Eyes’s stomach. Blue turns and vomits as he realises he’s not dead or dying.

  “I’ll let you off with a warning, you break my order again, I’ll gut you like a fish and feed you to the sharks.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain,” Blue-Eyes mumbles, wiping his mouth on his wrist. “Forgive me.”

  “Forgiveness is earned. Clean her room and get back to work.”

  Blue nods and stumbles past us all.

  “You.” The captain turns on Roger who is out of sight. “Know better.”

  “I know, Captain. I’m just so desperate for pussy it’s been…” He grunts with a slap. Did the captain just slap him?

  “You know better.”

  “Aye, Captain, I do.”

  “What to do, Roger?”

  “I’ll scrub this mess…”

  The captain slaps him again and I dare to peek up, hoping to catch a glimpse of this small ray of justice. “You’ll sleep up top, on watch, two months. You fuck up again I’ll have your finger. Touch her, I’ll have the hand you touch her with and choke you with it.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  “Fuck off out of my sight.” His rumbling voice echoes as Roger races from the room.

  I cower further into the shower, under the spray as booted feet clomp back to me. My body shakes more violently with each nearing step. He has a knife that he could very easily use on me.

  “You’re safe from them,” he speaks, looking down at me as I bury my face in my knees. “Shower and dress. I’ll be waiting outside.”

  I don’t look up until I hear him walk away. At the last moment he adds, “You have ten minutes. I have shit to do.”

  I don’t hesitate to stand and yank the curtain across when the door closes. I grab the soap from the side and squirt some into my palm, scrubbing extra hard to rid my body of the feel of them.

  If the captain hadn’t come when he did… I dread to think.

  I wash my hair using the same soap and quickly wrap myself in the folded towel. It’s large and stiff but it’s clean and it’ll do.

  I move to the sink and steal a tube of toothpaste, using it on my finger.

  My clothes and sneakers remain discarded on the floor so I ball them up, wondering if I should just pull them on. I don’t want to wear the nightgown but I also don’t want to wear these dirty clothes.

  The door opens, making me shriek and clutch the towel around my body. I turn my head to the side and squeeze my eyes shut.

  “You’re done?” he asks. “You look done.”

  I gulp and peer at his black boots through tiny slits. “I don’t have anything clean to put on.”

  He stares at me silently. “Is this the fucking Hamptons?”

  I shake my head, no.

  “Put this on.” He tosses the red satin at my face as I stare at his feet. “Now.”

  Startled, I yank it over my head after giving him my back. The towel drops as the satin does, covering me to mid-thigh but leaving little to the imagination.

  He mutters a curse under his breath.

  “Why am I here?” I ask softly. “What do you want from me?”

  “I want to bend you over on this tiled floor and fuck you so hard your knees and palms bleed,” he admits and my eyes squeeze shut again as I wrap my arms around myself. “Don’t ask questions or I’ll make that a reality.”

  He led me back to my clean room and closed the door, leaving me to inhale the new antiseptic smell. An hour later bedding and food was brought to me. I ate the broth the best I could and wrapped my satin-clad, freezing body in one of the sheets, feeling like a cocoon.

  His order meant that I won’t be raped now hopefully, well not by anybody but him.

  I just wish I knew what he wanted, besides using my body for sex. Surely if I was here for that he’d have taken it already?

  Sleep came but only because of exhaustion, and it fled the second the sun rose.

  I wrap myself tighter in the bedding, my teeth chattering and my body trembling.

  The door makes a racket and breakfast is brought in by a younger man this time, he can’t be older than seventeen. He leers at me, leaning back against the door after placing the tray on the end of my bed.

  “What?” I snap, wondering if I can take him.

  He smirks as though I amuse him then he says something in a language I don’t understand, maybe Russian. I pick up a couple of words but can’t decipher anything beyond the word time.

  His eyes soften and he takes a step towards me as I prod my porridge with a shiny metal spoon. I hold it up like a weapon as though I can do anything with it. Maybe I could scoop out his eye? That mental imagery instantly puts me off my porridge.

  “Come,” he snaps, pointing at my food and motioning for me to eat. “Quick, quick.”

  I spoon some of the sweet, gloopy mixture into my mouth and swallow with difficulty.

  He looks at the watch on his wrist and sighs.

  I rush it, swallowing the remaining few scoops as quickly as I can. I should be warier of the food but at this point I just need to eat.

  “Come,” he snaps again, taking the bowl from my hands.

  “Don’t come near me,” I yell when he reaches for me.

  He raises his hands and steps backwards.

  I wrap my body and head in the bedsheet and stand, keeping everything covered the best I can, looking like a little white riding hood ready to walk into a trap.

  He nods and steps to the side where an older, haggard-looking woman who can’t be past forty but looks sixty, sneers at me. She looks me up and down before stomping away while bellowing, “EDWARD!”

  Great, I thought maybe I’d found a saviour but she frightens me more than the men. There was a look of hatred in
her eyes that penetrated my very soul.

  The boy ushers me on, saying, “Quick, quick,” over and over again until we’re at the top of the stairs and I can smell the salty sea breeze and feel it over my bare feet.

  I wish I’d grabbed my sneakers yesterday.

  Why didn’t I grab my sneakers?

  I rationalise that I was in shock and not thinking straight.

  “TWIT TWOO!” a man cries as some wolf-whistle and holler as I’m led past them and up another set of stairs around a huge-looking glass and metal room that overlooks the ship. I can’t even begin to describe how large this thing is. It’s some kind of war ship with guns, a rickety-looking helicopter sits on a helipad in the far distance. Men walk by carrying equipment, guns, bags, pieces of metal. I hear some talking about fixing something in the berthing quarter, whatever that is.

  I try to take it all in as I rise up the cold, sharp steps. There’s nothing on the horizon, not a ship, nor land.

  Where the hell am I?

  Tears blur my vision. I want to be strong but how do you find strength at a time like this? There’s no hope.

  I’m naked, in satin, on a ship full of men likely miles away from anywhere that could help me.

  When we enter the room at the top of the stairs, I keep my eyes down as we pass a group of men crowding around a table.

  I recognise the captain’s voice so I look away. I look away from them all. It’s stupid and likely too late but I just can’t stare into the eyes of my captives again. It makes it all too real and any chance I have of getting through this alive and unharmed I will take.

  “What the fuck, Jose? Why is the prisoner out of her fucking cage, you retarded fuck?” Clunk yells, getting closer to us as the men stop what they’re doing to look at us.

  The young guy who rushed me here holds up his hands and babbles in a language nobody seems to understand. Finally, as the captain and Clunk get closer he yells, “Geoffrey! Geoffrey!”

  “What the fuck does Geoffrey want with her?” Clunk sighs and shakes his head. “She’s not fucking tied or anything, you inbred little bastard.” He slaps the lad upside his head. “Piss off and learn some bloody English.”

  “Geoffrey,” the boy cries, his tone one of explanation.

  “Yeah, we know, you dumb shit, fuck off and clean the showers or something.” Clunk throws him out and looks at me with a roll of his eyes. “What you want me to do with her, Captain?” He looks at my bare feet and my arms automatically tighten around my body. “Shit, she ain’t got shoes on neither.”

  So much bad grammar.

  “Eyes back to the fucking table,” Captain yells, moving towards us.

  I look down at my painted toes, counting the sparkly bits in the pink, wishing I was at home getting ready to rub it off and replace it with the shimmering mermaid sheen I bought last week.

  “Did he touch you?” Captain asks.

  I shake my head, no.

  “Good.” He turns so suddenly I startle back a step, fearful that he might hit me. His movement was jerky and aggressive. “Let me make this clear now to all of you fuckers. If anybody touches her or harms her in any way there won’t be a warning. I’ll cut off your fucking fingers and toss them in the sea. Understood?”

  A dull and collective, “Aye,” sounds through the room.

  Why is he helping me?

  Is that what he’s doing?

  I don’t trust him. I’ll never trust him or his intentions.

  “Am I fucking understood?”

  “AYE, AYE, CAPTAIN!” they cry, a chorus of loud male voices.

  “Spread the fucking word.” He clicks his fingers at Clunk. “Take her to Geoffrey. Tell him to keep her fucking secure and safe until I’m done.” When Clunk grips my arm through the sheet. “She’s ninety pounds, Clunk. You don’t need to fucking handle her, where can she go?”

  “I’m more worried about what she can do.” He’s referring to his nose.

  Captain laughs, his voice deep and warm now in comparison to a moment ago. “Don’t worry, she didn’t make you prettier.”

  Clunk grumbles under his breath and gives me a gentle push in the direction of the door we just came through.

  “Who’s Geoffrey?” I dare to ask.

  “The sociopathic scientist.”

  Sociopathic scientist?

  “He’s in his lab.”

  “Lab?”

  “Don’t ask fucking questions. Left my woman back home to escape this bullshit. Don’t want to see you, don’t want to fucking hear you.”

  I mentally seal my lips as we go back to the deck and he takes me around the base of the bridge I now know it’s called from listening to Clunk tell a guy where to go to find somebody.

  This ship has so many levels it’s so confusing and the size of the guns is ridiculous. I really hope they don’t plan on any battles at sea while I’m on here.

  A short while later we’re in a room that has windows overlooking the ocean. It has massive air vents and cupboards full of sealed chemical fluids and powders.

  I wonder how this room would fair in choppy weather and I’m now grateful my prison is far from here.

  “She’s here! Good, good,” a man wearing big safety glasses and a plastic hair net declares happily. “Leave her, Clump, you may go.”

  “It’s Clunk.”

  “Sure.” The scientist flaps a long white sleeve at him before pushing it up to his elbow. “Bye now.”

  I watch Clunk’s back as he leaves and wonder what madness is about to unfurl now.

  The scientist pushes his glasses to rest on top of his head and smiles at me with red grooves on the bridge of his nose.

  He’s less scary looking than the others in a handsome nerdy kind of way. His hair is slicked back with wax that has dried a funny blue colour against his black hair. Eyes the colour of roasted almonds look me up and down in a doctorly way.

  “Are you hurt?”

  I shake my head.

  “I’m sure you’re terrified, if you like I have something that will help with the nerves?”

  “No, thank you, I’m still reeling from the effects of the last thing you forced on me.”

  He cringes and his glasses drop back down. “An unfortunate occurrence I assure you. Are there many side effects?”

  “I wouldn’t know.” I fold my arms tighter. “I was in shock too.”

  “Of course, of course.” He licks his bow-shaped lips. “Are you thirsty? Would you like some juice?”

  I don’t respond. I don’t want to owe anybody any favours.

  “I have my own stash of orange juice that the others don’t know about.” Excitement twinkles in his eyes. “If I have your word that you won’t waste it, I’ll gladly share some with you. The sugar should help with the shock you’re likely still feeling.”

  Nodding once, I let him guide me to a chair and watch as he moves to a small fridge that has a “Non-Toxic” label on the front. Within are a few chocolate bars and some obscure bottles. One of which he snags and carefully pours into two glasses.

  I gulp mine down greedily after giving it a sniff. It tastes divine.

  “It’s good, yes? I make it myself. Don’t worry, it has nothing hidden. Well, I sneaked in a few extra vitamins but the normal kind that you get from Asda.”

  I don’t even care if this drink kills me. I wish I’d savoured it.

  “Why am I down here?” I ask softly, not wanting to anger the man who likely has the chemicals needed to make me bald in seconds.

  “Truly? I felt badly for you and thought you wouldn’t mind getting out of that hell hole for a while.”

  His admission shocks me.

  “Though don’t take that as me admitting I don’t agree with my captain. I fully support his choices and our missions. I just don’t agree with keeping an innocent human being locked away in such confines. Solitary confinement is a killer in itself.” He motions to his lab. “I’m not working on anything that you could use against me in a court of law. Not includin
g coke but that’s purely to keep us afloat.”

  “What?”

  “Never mind.” He flaps his too-long sleeve at me this time and moves back to his worktop. “I’m going to be candid. See that man in the corner?”

  I didn’t but now I do, he’s reading a book, ignoring everything we’re saying, his blond hair is pulled back into a bun and his dark eyes hold my gaze.

  “He can’t speak a word, he’s mute, which makes him a good listener and watcher. Try anything funny, he’ll end your life with or without the captain’s approval. I’m offering you a branch of trust.”

  I just realised that I am in a place with many instruments and tools that could be used to aid my escape.

  “Even if you do manage to use something to gain access to the upper deck, there’s nowhere for you to go.” It’s as though he read my mind. “You don’t look to be a foolish woman so I’ll give you a final piece of advice. Stay on the captain’s good side and when he has what he wants, he will release you. This is not our first rodeo. Is that what they say? Rodeo?”

  I nod and gulp. “I’ll behave.”

  “Good.” I can see all of his teeth with his next smile. “In that case, I’m Geoffrey.”

  I take his hand. “I’m Rain.”

  “Rain?”

  Shifting, I reply, “My mother is a bit of a hippie.”

  “Ah.” He chuckles a kind sound and for a moment I forget where I am. Well, almost. It’s the first time since arriving that I haven’t felt on guard. “How fitting. Rain is taken to water.” His chuckle becomes a full-on laugh. “Sorry, I shouldn’t laugh. It’s just funny how things work out. Maybe if she called you Sun or Daisy we’d be in a different place?”

  Ignoring him, I look around again, jolting when he tosses a pair of safety goggles at me and they clatter on the floor.

  “That sheet just won’t do,” he murmurs, moving to a door by the man who is reading his novel but glancing at us. I watch him step into the closet and switch on the light before rummaging through whatever he can find. He returns with a small pair of white trousers, a thin vest and a lab coat much like his own. “No shoes but, these will help a little.” He holds up the shoe protectors.