The Admiral

Arden Lexington

Ox carries James into my cabin with some help from Hobb and Azizi. With all these large men in here, my cabin suddenly feels tiny.

“Take off all his wet clothes first,” Doc orders them as they sit him in my bed and begin to take off his clothes.

The young boy is in Thomas’s cabin where they’re working on warming him up. I won’t let anyone else touch James. He’s mine.

Jack puts more coal into my stove and eyes me as I start to take off my many layers.

“Jack, tell Eve to take us into warmer waters,” I order.

Jack nods and rushes out, eyes lowering as I get to my shirt.

“Admiral, are you sure you can trust this man?” Doc looks at me riddled with concern, and rightly so.

I have no idea what’s gotten into me, but the need to do this consumes me entirely. “Out,” I nod to the door as I kick off my boots and send them flying across the room.

Ox, Hobb, and Azizi leave without a word, looking rather unimpressed by the situation. It’s their job to protect me, and I’m about to strip down to warm up a strange man they’ve just fished out of a boat.

“Admiral, you said you knew this man?”

“I do Doc, it’s alright. We were in the Academy together for a time.” I can see Doc isn’t convinced, but the old man knows me well enough that when my mind is made up there’s little anyone can say or do to change it. He just watches me as I pull a large wool blanket from a cupboard and unfold it.

“I’ll come check on you every few minutes,” Doc looks back at James who lies naked in my bed, only covered by a thin sheet. He finally leaves and closes the door.

I hold the woolen blanket close to my chest as I creep over closer to James. For a moment I study his ruggedly handsome face. No longer a boy, he looks the same as I remember, just more masculine and much, much bigger.

I snap myself out of my little gawking session, wrap the blanket around my back and climb on top of him, making sure to keep the sheet that covers his manhood in place. As I straddle him, I move his blue hands onto his stomach, lay myself down on his cold chest, and cover us both with the blanket.

For the longest time I hold my breath to listen to his, it’s so shallow that I’m suddenly second-guessing being on top like this. His heart is beating so slowly that I’m surprised Doc felt anything at all.

I close my eyes and run my hand over where his heart would be. Doc said to massage the chest to improve blood flow.

As I lay there listening to his breathing, I think back on the first time I saw James. He underestimated me just like the others did, but he was the first to call himself out on it when I started excelling at everything the Academy threw at us. The Academy is a school for a very selective few who show promise in leadership and skills that would make them efficient pirate hunter-killers.

What nobody knew, is that I had already spent years on a Fleet ship learning everything I needed to know about how to be a leader of men.

I remember seeing James on the rooftop of the main building as the carriage approached. I don’t know how he managed to climb up there, there was no roof access but to scale up the walls themselves. He had much longer hair back then, I thought he was a girl until he stood up and I saw his silhouette.

Phillip Morris was my guardian at the time and he brought me to the Academy with one promise.

“Arden, if the instructors here approve of your skill, you’ll have the chance to avenge your parents’ deaths.”

This is what I've been training for. Ever since my parents were killed I made the choice to hunt down the pirates that killed them. If they were already dead, I’d kill as many as it took and use their blood to fill the gaping hole they made in my being when they took my family from me.

It was up to me how far I would go. The other students there were amazing, yes, but their motivation was just to be the best for the sake of being the best. Mine was deeper than that, and that took me right to the top. To fulfill the true purpose of The Admiral, and by then I was already trusted with more secrets the Fleet had to offer than any of these plebians.

I’m not sure when I fell asleep, but at some point, I felt James move his hands from out between us. For a while after that he didn’t move, and neither did I. For a long moment, I thought it was his heart pounding away like a drum, and I was relieved to think his condition was improving until I quickly realized it was mine hammering away.

As I lie still, I feel James’ fingertips on my back, his now warm hand slowly sliding itself up under my shirt. He flattens it out and I feel just how big that hand is as it covers half of my back. His body shifts a little and he goes still.

I lie still and hold my breath as I feel his other hand come out from under the blanket and weave his fingers through my hair to cup the back of my head. He holds me firmly, as if making sure I’m real.

When his breathing evens out and the weight of his hand lightens, I dare to lift my head and find him sleeping. As I look at his face, I notice his features have more life in them. It’s worked, he’s warming up, and those now pink lips are more kissable than ever.

It’s at that moment Doc quietly opens the door and looks inside. He looks at me and raises his brows. I motion for him to come in and he slowly creeps over to check on James.

As I go to climb off James, his eyes open and lock onto mine. His hand seems to grip onto my hip as if pleading for me to stay. Doc quickly puts himself between us and I can breathe again. When I finally manage to climb down I see the way his fingertips almost mourn for the lost contact. And then my eyes dart to his manhood standing erect under that thin sheet.

“That’s a very good sign,” Doc says and I cover my mouth to hide a smirk. I hurry to look for my boots so I can get the hell out of there.

“Oh, very good,” Doc says listening to James’ heartbeat and breathing with a stethoscope.

“Arden...?” I hear James’s whisper and I freeze in my tracks as I tiptoe toward the door.

Without a second thought, Doc knows exactly what to say and do, “There’s no one here by that name, son. Lie back and rest.”

As Doc continues to talk to James I quietly slip out.

That’s the only downside about being The Admiral; I don’t exist.

Arden Lexington doesn’t exist.

Not anymore.