Page 24 of The Pirate and His Siren

“A deal?”

“Aye, a pirate’s bet.” I know that will intrigue her. She’s been getting better atShips and Bounty, wanting to play with anyone whenever she can.

“I bet it’s real. You bet it’s fake. We’ll give ourselves a break. Time apart. Then we’ll meet back at The Broiled Crab on this day, three months from now. If it was all but a spell, I’ll give you my captain’s hat and coat.” Ever since that day, I covered her up and she took my hat off my head, I knew she’d been eyeing them every time we were in the cabin.

I hold out my hand to shake on our deal. Luarna hesitates but eventually takes it, and I jerk her to me. “Let it be known I don’t play fair, lass.” I kiss her mouth.

I’m branding my kiss onto her so she won’t forget me.

It would be too easy to fuck her like she wants to prove it is just sex between us and not love. But I’m showing her that this kiss holds a promise of a love that’s real. And she’ll remember these lips on hers when she’s lying alone in bed at night or wherever a siren sleeps in the sea.

Or if she’s kissing another male—she better not—I’ll behunting down each of the bastards. Their kisses will pale in comparison to mine.

I draw back, my hand still entangled in her hair, and I tilt her head, making her pupils dilate further.

“When we see each other again, this between us picks up as if we were never apart,” I growl in her ear before releasing her.

She smooths her hands over her clothes and clears her throat before locking her eyes with mine. “I agree with these terms.”

In the dark of night, we stand on the upper deck. I grab her and kiss her hard enough to make her toes curl. Once again, reminding her of who she belonged to.

She steps back, breathless but determined.

Luarna gives me one last look that nearly breaks my heart. But I know what we have, and she needs to realize it for herself. She climbs over the railing and jumps, the splash of her entering the water barely making a sound.

Footsteps sound behind me, and Roberts draws up beside me, clapping a hand on my shoulder. “You let her go?”

“See, I can’t be under her compulsion if I did.”

“It’s not just that, Captain. The men and I can tell you’ve fallen for her.”

“Aye, I don’t want to let her go. Every fiber in my being screams at me to keep her, no matter the cost. But I feel if I keep her here when she doesn’t believe our love is real, she’ll grow to resent me.”

“I’ve seen the way she looks at you. She’ll never feel that.”

“Aye, but she’s too stubborn. She’s a siren, as free as the sea, but a tough mistress to control at times. She needs tosee and realize for herself that she’s meant to be mine. Luarna will be back.”

“How do you know, Captain?”

“Because I’m her mate. She’ll come to realize it too.”

“Now what?”

“We wait for her to come back to me. In the meantime, we look at renovatingDeadly Destinyto be a land and water vessel.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

LUARNA

As I swim through the Bay of Udira back to Sieren, Kynan’s words continue to plague me.Am I really in love?

Kynan’s right. He doesn’t fight fair. That last kiss still lingers on my lips, my fingertips lightly tracing over them.

I haven’t been apart from him since the day we met. Well, except when I ran from him, but he’d convinced me to go with him soon after. Had I already begun falling for him then?

Three months doesn’t seem like a long time apart, yet why does my heart ache at the idea of being apart from Kynan for that long?

But who can I talk to about this? My mother will scoff and say it’s merpeople nonsense.

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