Page 23 of A Pirate's Pleasure

“Did he, though?”

I blew out a sigh. “Yes. Are you happy now?”

“Extremely happy.” Lief’s grin said it was the truth. “I assume by this point you’d worked out what he was?”

I nodded. “I didn’t know they could take on a human form. Why would I? I thought he was just a sailor. He was most insistent that I had to stay, told me that his kind mate for life, that I’d forged an unbreakable bond with him that would last a lifetime. That either I accepted it or he’d hunt me down and make me regret my decision in ways I couldn’t even begin to imagine.”

Lief laughed. “And there you were thinking it was nothing but a quick, meaningless fuck. What did you do?”

“I ran. We ran, but he followed, and he could fly. He kept up with the ship for miles, no matter what I threw at him—wind, rain, hail, lightning bolts.”

“How did you lose him in the end?”

I sighed. “I’m not sure we ever did, really, if the birds are any indication. I think he’s been tracking us for weeks and just waiting for the right moment. The plan was to lie low in Glimmerfield for a couple of weeks. The assumption was that he’d either get bored, or make a move, and if he did, we’d be ready for him.”

Lief grimaced. “And then I came along.”

“And then you came along,” I agreed.

“You know,” Lief said with a slight smile, “if you’d told me you had an obsessive harpy on your tail, that would have been far more effective at making me leave you alone than telling me you couldn’t help.”

“Would it?”

Lief gave a slight shrug. “Maybe. Maybe not. It wasn’t like I had a lot of options open to me. Do you think I wanted to beg you for help?”

“I don’t remember any begging.”

He smirked. “You must have missed it.” Lief tapped his fingers on his knee in a restless motion, the way he always did when he was thinking. “So… you think the birds are spies for your harpy lover?”

“Don’t call him that. It was one night. I never had any plans to see him again.”

“Don’t be cruel,” Lief teased. “He loves you. He adores you. He wants you all to himself. Perhaps you should just give in to the inevitable. Sacrifice yourself for the good of your crew. Whitby seems a stand-up sort of guy. I’m sure he’d make a wonderful captain in your stead. Oh, wait,” he said. “Did you not tell your harpy that there’s nothing in the world you’d give up The Navarino for? No man. No fortune. Nothing.” The words were tinged with bitterness, reigniting arguments past, and with them old wounds.

There was nothing I could say to that. Nothing he’d want to hear, anyway, or that would matter a jot when it was eight years too late. So instead, I concentrated on his question about the birds. “We’ve had sightings of Lucretius, and each time a flock of birds has preceded it. The assumption is that he uses them to track us down, to track me down.”

“Which I presume makes stopping for supplies risky?” Lief asked. “Another thing it seems to have slipped your mind to mention.”

“I’m not in the habit of running things by people.”

Lief rolled his eyes. “Of course you’re not, Captain Chase. Heaven forbid you should ever be required to do that.” He lay back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. A few seconds went by before he started laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

“This. Us.”

“I’m missing the joke.”

He sat back up again, his eyes alight with merriment. “I’m on the run from the authorities accused of a murder I didn’t commit, who’d like nothing better than to see me hang for it. You’re being pursued by a harpy who either wants to hump you or kill you. Or possibly hump you and then kill you. And we both might starve to death before either of those things can happen.”

“And you think that’s funny?” Despite my words, my lips were curling up at the corners of their own accord.

Lief flopped back on the bed again. “I think if I didn’t laugh about it, I’d probably cry.”

He had a point. He’d always been better at seeing the funny side of situations than I was.

Chapter Ten

Zephyr