Page 54 of A Pirate's Pleasure

I pulled the bowl of water I’d requisitioned from West closer to me and dipped the cloth into it.

Zephyr tried to tug his wrists back out of my grasp. “West can do it. It’s why I have him on the ship.”

I refused to let go, lifting my head from my study of the wounds to hold Zephyr’s gaze. “I want to do it.”

“Why?”

“Because.”

“That’s not an answer, Lief.”

I sighed. I knew it wasn’t, but how were you supposed to explain something to someone else when you didn’t wholly understand it yourself? Of course, it would make far more sense to have the person who had medical knowledge deal with it, but I was running on emotion rather than sense, and Zephyr could like it or he could lump it. “I wanted to talk to you alone.”

“About?”

I wiped the cloth gently over one of the sorest looking parts of Zephyr’s right wrist. It wasn’t gentle enough that he didn’t let out a pained hiss. “Sorry.” Concentrating on cleaning his wounds was good. It provided the perfect excuse not to have to look at him.

“Lief?”

I turned his wrist over and administered the same care to the other side, the manacle having dug into his wrist at several points. It must have been paining him for some time. Any longer and infection would probably have set in.

“Good talk,” Zephyr finally said when I stayed silent. “I’m glad we had it. Everything’s much clearer now.”

My lips twitched as I smoothed the ointment West had given me over the wrist I’d cleaned. “I don’t know how to broach the subject.”

“Just do what you normally do,” Zephyr said.

“Which is?”

“Say whatever’s on your mind with little thought to tact and diplomacy.”

“Thanks,” I said drily.

“It’s true.”

I wound a bandage round his wrist, securing it before tackling the other wrist. “It might have been true of the old Lief.”

“You haven’t changed.”

I struggled with the words for a moment, unable to decide whether he’d intended them as a criticism or a compliment. “I’m sorry we didn’t find you sooner.”

“You found me. That’s all that matters. You found me when I didn’t even know if you’d be looking.”

My head whipped up at that. “Of course, we were looking.”

Zephyr’s smile was wry. “I know my men, and I know it wouldn’t have been that straightforward, so whatever you did, whatever you said to convince them, thank you.”

I dipped my head, my cheeks burning as I went through the same process for the second wrist as I had the first. “You were with him a long time.”

“Just ask what you want to ask, Lief.”

I winced, my fingers trembling slightly as I secured the second bandage. “Did he…?”

“Touch me?” My nod was decidedly jerky and the pause before Zephyr answered felt like a lifetime. “Only a kiss or two,” Zephyr said. “Which wasn’t pleasant by any means, but was bearable and was better than the alternative.”

With the bandages complete, I sat back and stared at him. “He didn’t take you to bed?”

“No.”