Page 51 of Surfaces
I smacked his shoulder lightly. "You've worked closely with Gorgono."
"A pirate doesn't get to choose his customers, Majesty. Not anymore than a Queen gets to choose her subjects."
“Touché."
He did have a point. Perhaps what I didn't like was the fact that they had seemed a bit friendly. But I could hardly be less than friendly in public to this politician who clearly hated me. Still, I wasn’t fully satisfied. Valdez was too full of clever answers for me to really believe him.
"Other than hair dye, what has our wonderful mayor gotten from you?" I asked with wide-eyed innocence, laying it on a bit thick.
Valdez threw back his head and laughed until I reached up and tugged on a lock of his light pink hair. Then his eyes grew hooded as he gazed down at me. “You like hair-pulling, Avia?”
Immediately, I let go of his locks, but my traitorous fingers couldn’t help smoothing them down when his floral scent drifted through the water. “No.”
“Liar.”
“Stop with the distractions and tell me what Gorgono buys from you.”
“Can’t say. Pirate’s code.”
“Pirates have a code?”
“Oh yes. Steal. Cheat. Lie. And never ever, under any circumstances succumb to torture. Otherwise we’ll be locked into a trunk and tossed into a volcano.”
“Torture! I hardly think a question constitutes torture.”
“Have you seen the way your eyes grow luminescent and round when you stare up at me? Definitely the worst torture imaginable,” Valdez whispered, bending down low and placing a kiss on my cheek.
With a second kiss, one edging a bit closer to my lips, he murmured. “And these lips. Watching them without being able to kiss them is definitely akin to being stretched on the rack.”
Warm giddiness spiraled up through my belly and heated me up. My fingers curled into Valdez’s hair, playing with the tips at the nape of his neck. His fingers slunk lower, from my waist to my ass, and he pulled me tighter against him.
“How do you know what it’s like to be stretched on a rack?”
“How do you think I got so tall?” he asked.
“You’re full of shite.”
“But you love it.” His lips hovered just over mine, daring me to close that gap between us, daring me to give in to his seduction.
I leaned forward, our breath mingling, our lips about to brush.
“Majesty, may I cut in?” a deep voice asked, destroying the moment as solidly as if someone had dropped an anchor on my toe.
I pulled back from Valdez, who cursed, as we both turned to see Watkins floating next to us, a hand extended.
The shark shifter’s fin protruded from his back, making him as intimidating as ever, but tonight I noticed all the things that had drawn me to him upon our first meeting—his air of mysterious confidence, his guts as he came up and interrupted another competitor, that cut of his jaw that was sharp as glass. And the muscles. Lots of muscles.
“She’s busy,” Valdez responded curtly, clearly annoyed that our kiss had been interrupted.
“Please,” Watkins was politely earnest, his normal sneer completely erased for the moment.
I glanced between the two, uncertain what to do. I was making no headway with Valdez, and I did have questions for Watkins—questions like what the sard got into him today? Did he really intend to try to start over? Did he even think that was possible after all the vitriol that had passed between us?
“Hasn’t your favorite gotten enough attention?” Valdez growled, latching on tighter to my rear.
Amusement slid through my belly. I grew warm and then quite turned on as I realized that Valdez was jealous.
My nipples tightened at the very thought that he didn’t want to give me up. I let my hand play with the bottoms of his pink hair, let my fingernails drag softly over the skin on the back of his neck, as I asked, “I don’t know, have you gotten enough attention, my favorite?”
