Page 79 of A Pirate's Pleasure

Three months later

The ship was your typical merchant ship, which meant that most loot gained from it would be in the form of things to be sold when we next returned to Glimmerfield. The captain was a big, bullish man with tanned skin and a dark beard, his expression one that said he might have agreed to be boarded by pirates, but that regret of that decision had already set in. That attitude made him a powder keg ready to blow.

It was for that reason that I made a beeline for him as I cast another glance over to where the sailor was still lashed to the mast, his back bloody and crisscrossed with whip marks, our arrival not having been a moment too soon going by the sorry state of him. It was likely that if we hadn’t boarded the ship when we had, they would have whipped him to death. The captain gave me a murderous glare as I halted in front of him. “You don’t appear too happy to see us, Captain. A more suspicious man than me might take exception to that.”

The corner of his mouth lifted in a sneer. “We should have shot at you.” The shuffle of feet that met his statement from both passengers and crew said they didn’t agree, none of them displaying the same combative attitude. They were happy just to get it over and done with and be rid of us as soon as possible.

“Perhaps,” I said, “but you didn’t and it’s too late now.” I leaned forward slightly, lowering my voice as if I meant my words solely for him, even if, in reality, they were loud enough for everyone to hear. “If you had, let me tell you what would have happened. Lots of noise. Lots of smoke. Lots of damage. Definitely to your ship. Possibly to mine. And then we would have boarded, anyway. So by agreeing, you saved an awful lot of time and fuss. Well done, Captain. I commend you for the wisdom of your decision.”

The captain’s gaze strayed to the silent man at my right shoulder. I turned, too, trying to view him as someone else might. I doubted the captain was contemplating how sexy he was. Not when he struck me as a man who’d been married for many years with eight children to prove his virility. Aloof definitely. Lief was the only man I’d ever met who could give me a run for my money in that regard. Could he tell that Lief’s time as a pirate had been relatively short? I doubted it. Lief looked like he belonged, his assimilation to life at sea having happened remarkably fast.

“I’m confused,” the captain said, the furrows in his brow backing up his statement. “Which one of you is in charge?”

I turned to Lief with a raised eyebrow. “Do you want to take that question?”

“Sure.” He pretended to ponder it for a moment while I did my best not to smile. Whitby often commented that I smiled a lot more these days, but I knew he said those things just to wind me up, like his remarks about sturdier gallows that could withstand the impact of a single pesky bird creature without collapsing.

Lief jerked a thumb my way. “He’s in charge.”

“You flatter me,” I said.

“I’m the one who keeps him in check,” he said with a smile. “The one tasked with curbing his volatility and violence.”

“It’s true,” I said, playing along. “I do tend to have a habit of getting carried away.” I scanned the line of people, most of them looking far less comfortable with the situation than they had moments before. “A temper is a cross that some of us have to bear. I’m sensing you might know a bit about that, Captain.” It took all the willpower I had not to let my gaze drift back to the bound sailor still suffering in silence.

“You should take deep breaths,” Lief offered helpfully. “In through the nose, out through the mouth.”

Henderson paused in his carrying of a crate to be transported to The Navarino to let out a loud snort. They’d grown used to the new way of doing things, most of them finding great amusement in Lief and mine’s double act.

The captain looked between the two of us and then deliberately hawked up a mouthful of phlegm and released it on the deck at my feet. “Pirate scum,” he said, his voice not only holding a challenge but full of venom.

Lief let out a hearty sigh. “I do hate it when people bandy around terms like that. Pirates, yes. I don’t suppose we can deny that, what with the ship, and the”—he waved a hand to illustrate his attire—“other things, but scum… that’s just so unnecessarily mean.” He turned his head my way, those blue eyes of his even more beautiful in the sunlight. “He called me scum.”

I knew a cue when I heard it. I curled my fingers, tendrils of magic seeping from them to turn the air red. The captain’s eyes went wide, and he swallowed.

“Oh, did I forget to mention he had magic?” Lief asked. He tapped a finger against his temple in a self-chastising action. “I’m so forgetful sometimes.” He huffed out a breath. “And now you’ve gone and made him angry.”

I lifted my hand, a sudden gust of wind catching the captain square in the chest, and driving him across the deck until his back met the railing and he could go no farther. I put more power into it, the wind lifting him off his feet until he balanced precariously, one more push enough to send him over and into the sea below, which in these waters just happened to be shark-infested.

I stalked over to stand in front of him, Lief following but at a much more leisurely pace. “Apologize,” I said, “for calling the love of my life scum.”

The captain attempted to wriggle free, but the hold I had on him was too strong. Eventually, he gave up, his face red from his exertions. “Perhaps a few sharks nibbling on your toes would loosen your tongue.” I hefted him slightly higher, the captain letting out a cry of alarm.

“Please don’t,” he said. “I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry. I meant nothing by it. It’s just what people say, isn’t it?”

“What people?” Lief asked, having finally completed his stroll to reach us.

“Bad people. Rude people. Terrible people. People that don’t think before they speak.” The captain was talking so fast it was a struggle to keep up with him.

“People like you?” I could hear the thin thread of amusement in Lief’s voice, but I doubted it was evident to anyone who didn’t know him as well as I did.

“Yes, like me.” The captain managed a nod.

Lief smiled. “Well… thank you for your apology.” He waved his hand, and I lowered the captain until I was sure he was no longer in danger of pitching over the railing before dropping him the rest of the way. Despite the “oof” he landed with, he still looked relieved. He didn’t rise from his seated position. Perhaps he wasn’t sure if his legs would hold him if he did.

I crouched in front of him. “A piece of advice for you…” My gaze strayed back to the crew member, the absolute mess made of his back looking no better than it had when we’d first arrived. “Be more circumspect with your punishments. If we come across your ship again and find someone in that state, I won’t hesitate to feed you to the sharks, and I’m sure your crew would thank us for it.”

When he had the good sense to look guilty, I stood, both Lief and I walking away from him without so much as a glance back, safe in the knowledge that we had successfully nipped any attempt at rebellion in the bud. Hopefully, we might have scared him enough to think twice about being so heavy-handed with his punishments, because even if he hadn’t been the one to wield the whip, he must have stood by and let it happen. And they said pirates were the ones who behaved like animals. Not in my experience, and I liked to think that Lief witnessing that for himself was part of the reason he’d changed his mind.