Page 59 of A Pirate's Pleasure

Something clenched in my chest. Something of the past. The vestiges of a dream I’d once had that could never come true. “He’s not a pirate, and he never will be. It’s not what he wants from life.”

“So…” Whitby dragged the word out like he required extra thinking time before finishing the sentence. “If he’s not going to join us, and you’re planning on returning him to his ancestral home, what is it the two of you are doing, exactly?”

While it might have been a valid question, and accompanied by nothing but concern, that didn’t mean it didn’t get my back up. “I don’t think that’s any of your business.”

Whitby held his hands up in a placatory gesture. “You’re right. I just don’t want you getting hurt. Either of you.”

“We won’t. We both know where we stand.” The words rang hollow, though, and I expected Whitby could tell. Thankfully, he had more sense than to call me on it.

“I expect you’ll find Lief in the galley,” Whitby said. “There’s a game going on.”

“A game?”

“Cards.”

“And they let Lief play?”

Whitby’s amusement had returned now we’d moved away from the more serious topic of conversation. “Why wouldn’t they?”

“Because he cheats, that’s why. He’ll have half the pack secreted about his person before they know it. Back in the day, he was well known for hustling in The Black Skull.”

Whitby’s grin grew wider. “Guess you should have tied him down, then.”

“He’d only gnaw through the ropes.” Whitby’s snort of surprised laughter followed me as I headed below deck and toward the galley.

Raucous sounds met my ears even before I turned the corner and stepped into the galley. Four men, Lief among their number, were sitting around a table in front of a small audience of watching pirates. Newton was one of his opponents, as were Fenton and Rishley. Each man had a stash of coins and jewelry in front of him—ship rules stating that nothing was off the table as a wager as long as it had value. Lief’s pile of winnings was noticeably larger than the others. Funny that.

All heads turned my way as I stepped inside, the joviality draining from the room once they saw who it was. All except for Lief, that was, who grinned up at me like he hadn’t even noticed the abrupt change in atmosphere. “Look, Zeph.” He pointed to the small stash in front of him. “Look how far beginner’s luck has gotten me. I’m sure it will run out soon, though.”

“Beginner’s luck?” I questioned.

“Yeah,” Lief said without so much as a twitch as he looked to his opponents. “I didn’t even know the rules, did I?”

“We had to explain them three times,” Newton said, his expression saying that even he found it hard to believe that Lief could be such an ignoramus about a simple game. “You should have seen how badly he did on the first few hands. Nearly lost everything.”

“He’s doing alright now, though,” Fenton said, his body language and facial expression speaking of bemusement. “Never seen anyone’s luck change so fast.”

I had, but only this man’s luck. As teenagers, we’d chuckled over how gullible people could be, especially when they were pirates who should have known better than to trust Lief just because he was young and fresh-faced.

“Make this the last hand,” I said. “I need to talk to you.”

Rishley groaned. “Oh, come on, you’ve got to give us a chance to win our stuff back.” He realized too late to take the words back who he was pleading with. He cleared his throat, his cheeks tinged with pink as he muttered “sorry, Cap’n” under his breath.

No surprise that Lief won the hand, adding even more coin and jewels to his pile, which went straight into his pockets as he did what he was told for a change, and rose from the table. Although, there was an argument for them being my pockets, given he was wearing my clothes, Lief having helped himself to everything in my cabin while I’d been gone.

I stepped outside the door to wait, leaving Lief fielding friendly jibes about a rematch, and about how they’d wipe the floor with him next time. While Whitby might have told me Lief had wormed his way into my crew’s affections, hearing about it and seeing it were very different. Newton had gone from wanting to throw him overboard to being happy to sit with him and play games. But then that was Lief all over. Out of the two of us, he’d always been the one able to turn on the charm when it was required.

We didn’t talk until we got back to the cabin and the door was firmly closed in our wake, Lief turning to me with a glint in his eye. “Don’t give me a hard time, Zeph.”

“Why would I give you a hard time?” I purred. “Oh, you mean because if they find out you’re cheating, we’re all stuck on a ship together with no dry land in sight. Is that why?”

Lief wrapped his arms around my neck and tugged me close. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You could just admit that you missed me, that you woke up and didn’t know what to do with yourself without me being here, that—”

I shut him up by kissing him. It was the easiest and quickest way to stop Lief from talking. It also provided the perfect distraction to slide my hand inside his shirt—my shirt—and pull out the card he had hidden. “Must have fallen down there,” I said, flicking the ace of hearts onto the bed between kisses.

“Must have,” he agreed.

We kissed more as I also liberated a pair of kings, one tucked in the waistband of his trousers, and the other under his armpit. “Any more?” I asked.

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