Page 19 of Scourge of the Shores
Robert jerked back. “What was that for?”
Danna pointed a finger at his face. “I can handle meself, Jaymes. I ain’t needin’ ye steppin’ in like I’m some helpless wench. Ye made me look weak before the Pirate Kings.”
He sighed before grabbing her arm and pulling her a little closer, ensuring her other hand couldn’t reach a flintlock or dagger. “They would’ve shot you dead at the moment you said ‘No’ without waiting for an explanation. Trust me when I tell you, I saved your life.” He let go of her and stepped back, glancing at Ervin and Scotty well behind her, who had stiffened at their exchange.
Robert nodded to them to indicate everything was fine, but Ervin’s hand lingered on his flintlock.
Danna’s voice yanked Robert’s attention back to her. “Why would ye do that?”
“As a thank you for not putting a bullet in my head last night or letting Captain Ervin do the same this morning.” He peered at Ervin, who tightened his grip on the flintlock while watching them with an icy glare. Ervin seemed highly protective of Danna, more so than Scotty, and he decided to test a sudden assumption. “I don’t think your lover likes me very much.”
“Aye, well, if we were, ye’d not be livin’ to ask twice.”
Robert smirked, dragging his thumb across his lips. “Could’ve fooled me,” he drawled, carefully masking the satisfaction curling in his gut.
She punched him as her response—this time in the cheek.
His head snapped to the side, the sharp taste of iron coating his tongue. She hit like a cannonball. He let her grab his jaw and jerk his head to face her, resisting the reflex to strike back.
“And me love life ain’t no concern of yers, Jaymes. That’s twice now ye’ve run yer mouth on it. Make it thrice, and it’ll be the last thing rollin’ off yer tongue.” She shoved his head backward before storming off.
The bitter iron taste ran between his teeth. Robert couldn’t take his eyes off her swinging hips until she passed by Scotty and Ervin, who snarled at him.
Robert wiped his mouth, flashing a wolfish grin.
“Easy, pirate.” Ervin pulled his flintlock from his belt.
“He ain’t worth the lead, Lucas. Save yer shot for Cain,” Danna said as she glanced back at Robert. “We need to get home, figure out how to get ‘em off our island.”
Ervin’s glare never wavered. “Aye, Captain.”
Robert pressed his tongue to the cut on his inner cheek to stem the slow trickle of blood. If there ever was a woman who was meant for him, it was a woman like Danna. Fierce, independent, and resolute—qualities that both infuriated and captivated him.
CHAPTER 5
The Shared Determination
The flames of the hut’s hearth warmed Danna’s cheek. She rolled in her low-slung cot and glanced up at her mother’s bed across the narrow space. Sleep eluded her as she ran through all the repairs in her mind. Her foot bounced in restless agitation under the lightweight blanket her Ma had made for her before Cain attacked.
“The pirates could be here half a year,” she muttered. The sudden thirst for water cracked her lips. “At least Robert wasn’t deceivin’ me.”
She shut her eyes and pinched her lips. “Jaymes, not Robert,” she corrected herself. His bare, sweaty chest lingered in memory. His scent of ocean and spiced rum lingered like a lure she couldn’t follow.
Her stomach churned beneath a tight torso. She gripped the blanket until her fingers ached.
“Get out of me mind,” she told the vision of Robert leaning against the table in the main hall and listing off all the major aspects they shared. He was even right about never kissing a man. There had been no time for romance between trying to safeguard food, babes, and ships from a sea dragon. She was a Chadwick, too. That alone kept the island men at bay. But Robert had called her beautiful. But not like Ma. Not in the soft way a mother speaks to her daughter. But as a man. A Pirate King. And he’d said it like it was a fact, not a pretty lie.
She rubbed her temples, but in that moment, she thought of Lucas Ervin. Lucas had always been there. The steady weight beside her, never too close, never too far. He’d kissed her wounds as a child. Held her when they buried her father. Shadowed her steps in the night. Watched over her. Protected her. Never once had he called her beautiful. She felt safe in his arms, though. Yet, Robert dared to state they were obviously lovers.
“Ugh,” Danna gagged at the memory. It surprised her, though, as she wondered what she gagged at—the thought of Lucas in her bed or Robert’s second attempt at gathering details of her love life, or lack thereof. She rolled to her other side, away from the fire.
“Jaymes, not Robert,” she mumbled. She rolled toward the fire. Her eyes scanned the flames as their tendrils reached for breath before retreating, satisfied.
“They could be here half a year,” she repeated in a whisper. Robert’s face formed in her mind again. His broad, stubbled jaw, piercing cobalt eyes tinged with dark brown, and sculpted chest, beneath a loose white linen shirt, made her sigh and clench her teeth.
“He’d leave anyway,” she told herself and refused any more imaginings of the man, instead trying to focus on Lucas, as if that was any better. She closed her eyes and tried to envision kissing him and sweeping her fingers through his thick blonde locks, but the image never formed.
She took a sweeping breath and opened her eyes. There was no time for that anyway, as she said before. Cain would be back.
