Page 11 of Trapped By Claws
He laughed heartily. "I can't guarantee that, darling, now can I?"
"Listen." I scrubbed my hand across my face. "Thank you for helping me with the sea monster. But I don't owe you a thing, understand?"
He grinned as he swam alongside the ship. "One might say saving your life counts as you owing me something of my choosing. Unless you've got a reason that you wouldn't owe me."
"I wouldn't have needed help if you hadn't been toying with me." I gulped in another burning breath. My knees felt like they were about to give out. "And I did try to save your otter."
"Yes, you did, clever girl." That smile of his went crooked again and made my stomach twist. He tapped his hand to hisbrow. "Of course, all this would have been entirely unnecessary if you'd just let me carry you in my arms to your ship."
"Not going to happen."
"Fair enough. I might not have been able to resist the temptation to keep you." That sharp, hungry look of his intensified. Then he shook his head. Somehow his curls were still dry and perfect, half covering his eyes. "I wish you all the best in the search to find your sister. Perhaps we'll meet again soon, and I'll carry you off yet."
With that, he dove down.
I started to draw back when a sharp chirping and trilling sounded at the hull. Glancing back down, I couldn't resist the smile that sprang to my lips.
Tagger bobbed in the waves on his back, the other end of the rope in his hands. It must have come free from the stone spire and fallen out of the sea monster's mouth.
Quirking my mouth up, I dragged the ragged end of the rope toward Tagger. The magic woven into the rope sprang to life, sending up a bright yet musty scent of salt, straw, flax, and leather. It glowed for a moment as the strands combined once more, allowing the rope to become whole.
"Thank you," I said with a small smile. "You actually are cute. And I guess you are loyal. I can't fault you for that."
Tagger chattered, his long, white whiskers twitching. Then he dove beneath the waves. Corvin's shadowy form remained below as if waiting. As the otter neared him, he lingered a moment longer.
Was he watching me?
I shouldn't be looking at him. It wasn't as if I wanted to encourage him in this sort of behavior. He'd been entirely inappropriate.
And I wasn't interested in that sort of thing.
So why couldn't I stop staring?
And why did the skin along the back of my neck prickle and my arms goosebump?
I tried to swallow. The salt water had left my throat aching and sore, and the struggle had drained my body of its strength.
That's why I had to lean here and stare down at the sea.
And he remained there for two breaths longer until he at last turned and whisked down into the darkness below.
Salt's bane.
What was wrong with me?
I forced myself to step back, my knees still shaky. Water sluiced off my body in rivulets as I staggered across the deck to the staircase and my cabin.
Not a thing had changed onboard the ship in my absence. A few of the dwarves tended to their posts farther up on the ship and below deck, though clearly no one was really watching the sea. Thank the Creator nothing had tried to attack us. Whatever charms they used for safety had their complete confidence.
With the relative quiet and calm and the early autumn sun, there wasn't as much for the dwarven sailors to do when it wasn't their shift to run in the wheels. Most were probably resting, including the sentry in the crow's nest.
I sighed. No one really noticed anything I did unless it involved food, which was a blessing and a curse.
I washed up, then changed into a clean dark-blue dress with an apron. It was almost the middle of the afternoon.
Mik, the ship's cook, greeted me with a firm nod and a rough grunt. He wasn't much for talking. But he had been pleased to have someone else onboard to help with the meals. Especially when it came to chopping the vegetables and deboning the fish. He'd laughed at me the first time I'd asked for tweezers to pluck the pin bones, but then he'd gruffly acknowledged I hadn't done half bad.
That and requests for specific types of stews or dishes were the highest of compliments I got.
