Traveler by Ashley Bourgeois

her gaze away from him, trying to ignore the sting where she sat.  “Then leave me here,” she whispered.  “I already feel like this is a world I fit into more than the one I left.  Even if this is just a hallucination.”  She trembled and wrapped her arms around herself.  “So just go.”
    “A hallucination? This is no hallucination, girl! This place is just as real as the world you left behind.  Only, it is a hell of a lot more dangerous than you realize.  Do you really think that those pirates pulled you out of the ocean from the goodness of their hearts? Hardly! They are pirates!  The first chance they get they are going to sell you to the highest bidder for a bit of gold.”  He shook his head, staring at the foolish girl.  “I doubt that your most cherished goal in life has always been to be a used-up and broken down whore.”
    She laughed a little bitterly.  “And so you spank me to try to get a point across.  A man who’s clearly more than a librarian, who appears in this world that exists in a book.  I’ll take my chances with the pirates.”  She glanced at him.  “I’d rather stay here than go home.  Even if it is to be sold.  At least I’ll be here...and not there.”  It was the truth.  Her step-father, once he found out she was missing, would not  be pleased. And then this spanking would be the least of her worries.
    Crouching down beside her, he looked her in the eye.  “My private life was never any of your business, and still isn’t, despite the situation you’ve put yourself in.  I told you not to read the book.  I warned you repeatedly...but you didn’t listen.  And now you are just being stubborn and childish.  Well...unfortunately for you...you don’t always get what you want.” Before she could say anything, he swiftly hit several pressure points and watched dispassionately as she slumped to the floor, unconscious and unable to object.
    Picking Aislin up, the tall man tossed her limp body over his shoulder.  He muttered briefly under his breath, his power flaring slightly around the two of them.  There...now, no one would even know they were there.  Keeping to the shadows, he carried her up to the deck, taking care not to brush against any of the pirates as they bustled about with their duties.  Reaching the railing, he glanced around carefully before tossing the unconscious girl into the ocean below, soon following behind her.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 8
     
     
    Aislin woke with a start in her bathtub.  The water was cold now, and her fingers were pruny.  What in the name of God had just happened to her?  The only thing that even made her remember that the experience was real was the stinging still in her bottom.  She looked down at herself and let out a sound of surprise as she saw she was still wearing the dress.  It was real, then.   Oh my God, it was all real.  Damn that librarian!  Who did he think he was?  Infuriated, and righteously so, she climbed out of the tub, dressing hurriedly in jeans and a tee shirt, tying her hair on the top of her head and putting on her boots.  Then, she booted up her computer.  She would find out where this librarian lived, and then she’d make his life a living hell.
    Google revealed very quickly the address of the librarian’s house, close to the school.  She needed to confront him but first, she needed to do some discovering.  And if that meant breaking in and searching for herself, then so be it.  She had been gone a full night, and it was already approaching noon the following day.  How had she lost so much time?  She waited at the bus stop for the next bus to come by and then waited for the bus to take her to the stop closest to the librarian’s house, her mind set and determined on only one thing; answers.
    It didn’t take long to get to the his home, which was a relief.  His house looked typical of the ones in Phoenix, a sandstone, one story, probably nicer on the inside than they