Page 49 of A Pirate's Pleasure

I sat up straighter, my interest piqued. “Celebrate? Sounds interesting.”

Lief perched on the end of the bed, far enough away that if I made another lunge for him, he could evade. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, but I needed to get you alone first. You know what it’s like here, even when people pretend they’re not listening, they are.”

“They’re pirates,” I said. “What do you expect? We’re opportunists. Information is our currency.”

“Treasure is your currency,” Lief drawled.

A tilt of my head conceded his point. “That as well. But information often leads to treasure. Therefore, they’re the same. Speaking of which, there’s apparently a merchant ship sailing from Emdor Harbor to Redwood Port next week. Supposedly, it’s packed with all manner of shiny trinkets. We sail next week in the hope of being the first to find it. Tell me you’ll come.” I moved closer to him. “We’ll take it and then I’ll make love to you on a bed of treasure.”

“Sounds painful,” Lief said. “If there’s one thing that sex doesn’t require, it’s sharp edges.”

“Fine,” I conceded. “I’ll lie on the treasure and you can ride me until…”

“Stop,” Lief said, the instruction accompanied by a hand on my chest. “You’re not letting me get a word in edgeways. You don’t need to do that anymore.”

“Do what?”

“Rob people. Spend weeks at sea. Bully and threaten. Keep a crew under control. You don’t need to do any of it.” The look of excitement was back on his face. It was just a shame that the words he spoke weren’t making any sense. “I had visitors yesterday,” he said. “They were looking for me. Well, they were looking for my mother, but when they found out about her passing, they found me instead. My uncle has passed away, and with no wife and no children, his entire inheritance passes to me as the only living relative. He has an enormous house in Silkdrift, Zeph. And a fortune to go along with it. All I have to do is sign a couple of documents and it’s all mine.”

I stared at him, taking in the gleam in his eye, and the fact that he could barely sit still. “You’re going to turn it down, of course.”

Lief’s laugh said I’d made some sort of joke. When I didn’t laugh along with him, he quickly sobered. “Why would I do that?”

“Your mother did everything she could to keep you and her away from your uncle. Have you forgotten that? She said he was poison. That wealth wasn’t worth all the crap that came with it. She gave it all up and brought you here to protect you from it.”

Lief’s jaw tightened in a sure sign that he didn’t appreciate the lesson in what his mother had wanted from life. Well, tough. Someone obviously needed to remind him. He raised his chin. “It was my uncle she wanted to get away from. He’s dead, which means he’s no longer a problem.” He entwined his fingers with mine, his expression softening. “We’ve got a big house, Zeph. More money than we could ever spend, and servants.”

“We?”

He smiled, his fingers squeezing mine. “Of course, we. What’s mine is yours.”

“You expect me to go and live in a big house with you, and do what, exactly?”

Lief shrugged. “I don’t know. I can’t say as I know what rich people spend their days doing, but I guess we’ll find out. Together. If I sign the documents today, we could leave tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” My voice was dull. It provided a stark contrast to Lief’s excitement. Although, that excitement was rapidly giving way to confusion as he struggled to work out why I didn’t share his joy.

“Yes, tomorrow.”

“Don’t sign it,” I said. “You’re going back to a world your mother worked hard to keep you away from. What do you think she’d have to say about it?”

Lief’s eyes narrowed, and he let go of my hand. “Don’t use my dead mother against me.”

“I’m not, I’m…” I ran a hand through my hair in frustration and vowed to speak with my head rather than my heart. “I’m just trying to make you be less hasty about this. To think things through.”

“What’s there to think about? I can stay here and have nothing, or I can go to Silkdrift and have a house, and a fortune, and a…” He laughed. “Oh, I forgot to mention that. The inheritance comes with a title. I’ll be Lord Cooper. Did you ever think you’d see the day?”

“No,” I said truthfully.

“How soon can you be ready?” Lief asked.

I stared at him, my heart already feeling far too big for my chest, like it was being squeezed in an iron fist. “I can’t come with you. I have a ship. I have a crew. I have an agreement with Livingston to uphold.”

“But you don’t need any of that anymore. You don’t need to spend your days scratching around for treasure.”

“You think it’s just about the treasure?”

“Isn’t it?”