"The Pirate and the Merqueen" >>>
Off the coast of Jamaica, 1678…
Kelrillia, the stunningly beautiful high queen of the merpeople, ran her tongue around her lips as she smiled. Her teeth were small and had the true iridescence of pearls, each one very pointed. “Careful your wee choppers dinna cut that pretty pink ribbon,” Will Burton whispered, one corner of his mouth going up.
He passed her a big goblet of Madiera, wary of Kelrillia’s silvery blue claws which were showing a bit from their sheaths. “And, here, have some mussels drizzled with lime butter, scallops poached in white wine and this rice cooked in the ink of baby squids. Mister Clary made these delights special, as I asked him, just for you.” He winked. “They be all the most delicious o’ aphrodisiac foods, me gorgeous sea sirena.”
Kelrillia pouted her lips. Then, she swiftly quaffed the wine. Her kelp green eyes snapped with anger. She leaned forward like a female moray eel sticking her nose out of her coral nitch, looking as if she was going to bite. The queen of all the merpeople was very formidable, as big as Will.
Will moved back a bit. “Mayhap, a bit o’ this sweet, but also most pleasantly tart blood orange?” He passed her a crystal dish containing wedges of bright salmon colored fruit.
“No! No! NO! I don’t want any!”
“You be most testy tonight, me magnificent queen.”
“Will, I’m very upset!” Her long dark green eyes flashed seductively. She wound a spiral of her vivid red hair around her forefinger.
“You have never change, your Splendidness!,” Will remarked.
Kerillia raised her arm, twirling it rapidly. Thunder claps sounded over the dark waves and lightning split the night sky. “Give me back my necklace, you miserable thief!”
Will’s dark gray eyes were sad and soft. “I lost it, to me great, great shame.”
“What? How dare you be so careless! That was an heirloom of my family, eons old, made with the rarest pink and black pearls, aquamarines and emeralds!”
Accidents happen all the time, me lovely, even to the most meticulous o’ pirates..”
Kerillia scowled and more thunder threatened, followed by fiercely rolling clouds. She tossed her head. “I don’t believe you lost it! Still… There are other necklaces…”
“Oh?…”
“Yes, wonderful necklaces, bewitched by my uncle Manannan.”
“Bewitched?”
Kelrillia laughed. “I know a little magic has never stopped you!”
“Where are they?”
Kelrillia smirked. “Your greed is showing, my beautiful rogue! They’re Hidden in the sea, where you’ll never find them! Of course, my maids make other pieces of jewelry which we sell to mortals, tinkley necklaces and bracelets of little value, but they are rather pretty and get us coins we can use when we grow legs ashore…”
More thunder. Will looked up at the charging black clouds edged with brightness. “Mayhap, we should go to me cabin rather than sitting here on deck.”
“No, no, any walls make me very uncomfortable. You know that!”
“Aye, I knows, but a storm at sea makes any sailor uncomfortable, too... I came to you loyally when I heared the dolphins singing! I knew you wanted to visit me and I knew I could nay refuse.”
Kelrillia crossed her legs, smirking. “Excellent. I’m so glad I taught you the dolphin’s language of melody, Will.”
“The language of the sea turtles been harder to learn.”
“That ridiculous clicking and clacking! But, you have a most marvelous gift for tongues, my thrilling and devilishly handsome pirate!”
Will made a half bow. “It dinna bothers me to admit you scares me mightily, your Majesty.”
Kelrillia laughed, full throated and joyously. “I adore your respect! Most humans consider mermaids to be only lissome fishy whores!”
“Verra, verra foolish o’ them!”
Kelrillia giggled. “Yes, they find out differently if they have any dealings with us!”
“The females o’ the merfolk be some o’ the most powerful female sorceresses I ever comed across.”
“What? You dare to name us sorceresses?”
“Dinna deny it, me queen. ‘T is nay becoming!”
Kelrillia flirted her magnificent eyes again. “I let you get away with more crass speech than I have ever allowed another man! You can easily row us to the sand. Then, you will walk, carry me through the shallow water.”
“So you won’t get wet and start that bothersome painful business o’ growing a tail again?”
Kelrillia ran a finger around the edge of Will’s neck. Her claws emerged fully their sheaths as she raised her upper lip from her teeth. “The pink sand is as cool, soft and fine as face powder,” she purred. It was almost a growl.
“Nay possible. We be far from those blushing Bahamian beaches.”
“If I say the sand is pink it will be so, --- if only for tonight!” Kelrillia’s eyes snapped, dangerously. Then, she softened. “You are the most singularly spectacular man I’ve ever met, Will! I remember our nights together as we frolicked, the moonlight touching our bodies so gently, so lovingly!”
“Unforgettable times, me Splendor, positive unforgettable...” --- Copyright 2026, by Sorelle Sucere.
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