Not without an encounter

Brenan’s lips tingled from his too brief contact with Red. “Damn-it!” He swore out loud as Davy’s horse carried him further and further from Red’s cottage. He wanted to ride back onto the sandy shore and sweep her into his arms, and kiss her the way she deserved to be kissed. Brenan went over the details of the extraordinary past twelve hours, mentally ticking off his mistakes as he recalled the events. During that first walk on the beach he had sounded like an idiot when Red first told him what she had told Cindy. It was the first time since he was a boy that any woman said something that made his heart race. While it was nice to have earned Red’s approval, the rest of the time he spent with Red had turned out to be surprisingly disappointing. In spite of everything they had said and done, Brennan knew he hadn't made the emotional connection he had hoped to with Red. Maybe it was for the best, he decided after several minutes of glum contemplation.

The last thing his crew needed was to have unreasonable expectations of him; better that they had a understanding of what type of man he really was. “I should of set the record straight right away.” Brenan told Davy’s horse “If I’d taken Cindy up on her offer, they both would have known what type of man I am.” The memory of the young blonde’s teasing smile just before she dove made his pants tighten uncomfortably. It was pretty standard for officers to bed sailors, Brenan knew that, Cindy knew that, hell even Red said it would happen. The very least he could have done is had her give his cock the same treatment as the “sea cock”. If he had, then he wouldn’t of had to make up that stupid reason for turning the blonde knockout down.

Not that having a thing for Red was so unbelievable, she was still one of the most desirable woman Brenan knew. But he had screwed that up too; even after the private time they shared he still hadn't been able to tell Red how he really felt. Last night he spent several hours sitting inches from her body, under the bright stars and moons of Pandora. He could have pulled her into his arms told her how he felt and kissed her the way she deserved to be kissed. Would she have let him make love to her the way he really wanted to love her? Probably, he decided, Red had always been a passionate woman when he knew her on the Kranderkill; out here on the beach she couldn’t have many opportunities to scratch that itch. If he had been honest with her, he was sure she would have responded enthusiastically, instead he had said nothing and the tension between them was as intense as ever..

He had spent the night in a beachside cottage with two of the most attractive women on the whole island. Both of them had a history of pleasing multiple men in the past, but isolated miles from the nearest cock for the past four years. “And I spent the night on the floor.” He was talking to Davy’s horse again he noted with irritation. All because of that stupid fantasy of a man that Red had painted in Cindy’s mind. He should have been able to spend the night in at least one of their beds and maybe even both. Instead he spent the night on the floor and now he was riding away from them with a primed cannon stiffer than either of his two six pounders.

He rode in silence. He should have been using the time to work out his plans for the ship in Davy’s shipyards, he needed supplies and more crew, but instead his thoughts returned again and again to yesterday's emotional encounter and the way Red looked when they kissed each other goodbye for Cindy’s sake.

The ride back to Freeport was as long and uncomfortable as the ride out to Red’s place and his backside was sore when he finally reached the shoreline just a few miles or two from where the trail ended.

“Help!” Brenan heard the faint cry for help coming up from the rock shore below him. From his vantage point Brenan could see a circle of nasty looking men surrounding a pair of smaller men. What he was witnessing couldn’t really be described as a fight.

Once when he was still on the Veertor continent Brenan watched as a pack of feral dogs harried a six-legged Pandor-cow separated from her herd. The dog's constant slashing and biting tore at the cow’s flesh until at last the peaceful herbivore, numb from combined effect of the multiple wounds, dropped to its knees and was swarmed under by the fierce dogs. At least in that fight the doomed Pandor-cow had the advantage of size, the six men who were beating on the two men both outnumbered them and outweighed them.

As Brenan watched, the men were lifted to their feet again and again and then punched and kicked until the stumbling pair collapsed again. The entire ride from Red’s house Brenan had been chiding himself for being a hero, the smart move was to ride on and get back to his ship. However, the sight of the vicious cruelty unfolding just forty paces from where he sat brought back similar memories from his time in the Veer army.