Laura Martin - The Pirate Hunter

Mia could feel the warmth of his body as it brushed against hers and couldn’t help but remember the feel of his chest underneath her hands.

‘Stop it,’ she muttered to herself.

Will stopped suddenly, causing her to careen into him. She suspected normally he would be able to withstand the force of a small woman travelling at such a slow speed, but in his weakened state his knees buckled and he fell to the ground. Mia tried to pull her arm from his, but was too slow. She felt her feet stumble, followed by the inevitable fall towards the ground.

She landed squarely on top of him, her nose touching his.

‘Ooof…’ he said quietly.

Stunned, Mia couldn’t move for an instant. She could feel the hard muscles of his chest pushing against her breasts. Their legs were tangled together and their lips so close that just a small twitch and they would be kissing. She tried not to notice how his hips were pushed up against hers, but couldn’t deny the heat that rose through her body in response to his closeness.

‘Mia,’ he murmured. ‘My angel.’

The Caribbean: over seven thousand islands, with lush interiors, golden sandy beaches and clear blue seas, inhabited by people with an eclectic mix of cultures and backgrounds. When I visited the Caribbean for the first time on my honeymoon in 2013 I, like so many others before me, fell in love immediately. Each and every island I explored had its own unique ambience, traditions and history, but one thing united them all: piracy.

Between the mid-sixteenth and early nineteenth centuries the Caribbean was not a safe place to live—especially if you earned your living at sea. Pirate attacks on merchant ships were common, and devastating town raids were also a constant threat for those living on the Caribbean islands. As the eighteenth century dawned the issue of piracy did not go unnoticed by the European political and military leaders, and there was a push to clean up the Caribbean. The number of Spanish and English Naval ships posted to the area dramatically increased and slowly many of the pirates were hunted down. By the mid-eighteenth century there were only a few pirates left capable of evading the British Navy. This time of change seemed the perfect backdrop for THE PIRATE HUNTER.

In the process of my research I became fascinated by the people who lived in the Caribbean; on the one hand they were surrounded by natural beauty, but on the other they were constantly under threat from piracy. Therefore I think it is important to say that, although the characters and events portrayed in THE PIRATE HUNTER are completely fictional, I have endeavoured to depict the setting and atmosphere as accurately as possible, to give a true sense of the Caribbean at the time.

The Pirate

Hunter

Laura Martin

www.millsandboon.co.uk

LAURA MARTINwas born and bred on the South Coast of England into a family of two loving parents and a spirited older sister. Books were a feature of her life from early on. One of her earliest memories involves sitting with the family on a rainy Sunday afternoon, listening to the exploits of a clumsy but lovable stuffed bear and his assorted cuddly friends.

Laura’s first ambition was to be a doctor, and in 2006 she went off to Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’s Medical School in London to study medicine. It was whilst she was earning her degree that she discovered her love of writing. In between ward rounds and lectures Laura would scribble down ideas to work on later that evening and dream of being an author.

In 2012 Laura married her high school sweetheart, and together they settled down in Cambridgeshire. It was around this time that Laura started focussing on the Romance genre, and found what she had always suspected to be true: she was a romantic at heart. Laura now spends her time writing Historical Romances when not working as a doctor.

In her spare moments Laura loves to lose herself in a book, and has been known to read from cover to cover in a day when the story is particularly gripping. She also loves to travel with her husband, especially enjoying visiting historical sites and far-flung shores.

This is Laura Martin’s fabulous, swashbuckling debut novel for Mills & Boon ®Historical Romance!

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For Luke, my spider-catching, dinner-making, crocodile-fighting, modern-day hero.

Contents

Cover

Introduction

Author Note

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Epilogue

Copyright

Chapter One

‘Secure the rigging.’ The Captain’s voice was half carried away by the wind, his orders sounding like an exaggerated whisper.

Will slipped across the treacherous deck as the ship rolled from side to side, trying desperately to keep his feet, knowing one mistake would be all it took to plunge him into the stormy sea.

‘More hands to the wheel,’ the First Mate shouted.

Will was close by. He struggled up the few steps and grabbed hold of an empty spoke, immediately feeling the power of the sea beneath them.

‘Hard to starboard.’

He responded immediately, throwing his body weight against the wheel with the two other men. The wheel barely budged. He dug his heels in and pushed against the sturdy spokes until he thought the muscles in his arms would burst.

‘Merciful Lord,’ the First Mate whispered.

Will looked up and knew he was about to die. They were heading into the biggest wave he’d ever seen and they were side on. There was no way a single man was going to survive this.

‘Brace yourselves men,’ the Captain shouted. ‘Brace for impact.’

Will gripped the wheel tightly and watched as the wave began its descent. Thousands of tons of water against one insignificant little ship.

When the water hit, the force knocked all the breath out of him. His hands slipped from the wheel and he was tossed into the blackness as if he were nothing more than a rag doll. His lungs burned as his body screamed for air, but Will knew one single inhalation would be the death of him. Instead he tried to orientate himself, allowing his body’s natural compass to turn him the right way up before swimming for the surface. He broke through and immediately sucked the vital oxygen his body so sorely needed into his lungs before being buffeted by another wave and disappearing once again under the water.

He struggled back to the surface and started kicking off his shoes, knowing the extra weight could be the difference between survival and a watery grave. A good distance away he could see the boat, resting at an unnatural angle and sinking lower into the water every second. Nearby men were screaming in fear and shouting for help—most of the sailors could not swim despite a lifetime spent in such close proximity to the water. One man was only a few feet from him, panicking and thrashing around. Will knew if he got too close the man could take him down with him, but he couldn’t leave a fellow human being in such fear. He grabbed a piece of driftwood and swam the few strokes over to the drowning man.