Page 8 of Her Perfect Pirate
“And a goat,” old Julio said.
Rebecca didn’t know whether to thank or resent the navigator for backing up the story.
The captain swung around, hands out, to see everyone’s reactions.“And so you have all been celebrating Sharkhead’s nuptials in my absence?”
“Saved most of the celebrating for when you came back, Captain,” replied Liberty.
“She’s been mighty helpful with the mess,” added Cook.
Captain Boukman revolved on the spot, taking in everyone around him.When his eyes landed on Rebecca again, they were no less greedy or invasive than they had been moments ago.Yet there was a distance to them, and after a moment, he smiled.
“Well then, congratulations are in order!I never thought I’d see Chow with a woman!”The captain stepped forward and clapped a hand on Sharkhead’s shoulder.This time, he kept it there, and even from where Rebecca stood, she could see his fingers hook into Sharkhead’s flesh.“Let the celebrations wait no longer.Take your bride into my cabin and enjoy some private time.The rest of us will have rum waiting when you are done.”
If Sharkhead had been a tomato before, he was now a blazing evening sun.“Now?Surely we need to—”
“I insist.”Captain Boukman’s fingers guided Sharkhead across the deck towards his private quarters.When they reached Rebecca, he grabbed her by the arm, too.His grip was not kind, and up close, she could see something false in his smile.
He was nothing like the mythic captain she had imagined.
“Come on, men.It’s bad luck to send a groom and bride to their chambers without a little ribbing!”he cajoled, and suddenly the whole crew surrounded them.Next thing she knew, Rebecca was pushed inside the captain’s cabin.
Sharkhead stumbled in after her, and the door swung shut.
Leaving her alone with this man who had just talked himself into being her husband.
Chowwasafuckingidiot.
There was no other explanation for how he found himself trapped in the captain’s cabin with Rebecca.An idiot who should have just kept his mouth shut.
Behind him, the crew was growing raucous as Captain Boukman led them in an old pub song about a husband and wife on their first night.The doorknob grew slick from the sweat of Chow’s palm.On either side of him, the carved wooden shelves with their ledgers and instruments and charts loomed as if they might collapse on top of him.
And in front of him stood Rebecca, hands braced against the captain’s desk as if that alone prevented her from falling into the ocean.
“What now?”she asked.Her voice was just as silken as when he had first met her, undisturbed by what had just unfolded.She looked him straight in the eye, and damned if there wasn’t a hint of a challenge curving that thick lower lip of hers.
That didn’t make Chow any less of an idiot.“We don’t have to…”
He said it softly, yet in almost the same moment, something small and sharp jabbed through the keyhole into his upper thigh and from the other side of the door, Captain Boukman jeered, “No wonder you didn’t have a wife ’til now.Don’t keep her waiting!”
Which meant they were being observed.
He crossed the cabin to stand close to her.Too close.Now he could see the dark shadows beneath her eyes and smell the oil in her long hair.She was a pretty woman, and he wanted her, but that didn’t make her his.“I didn’t mean to put you in this position.”
“Oh?What did you think would happen?”
He should have kept his mouth shut and let her reap the consequences of her own actions.“I didn’t want Captain to abuse you.”
“I’ve been handling men like the captain since my tits began to show.”
The men behind the door broke into another song, this one about a sailor with too long of a prick and the various prostitutes he tried to swive.
“It seems I would have ended up in this cabin either way.”Rebecca released the desk, her palms spreading wide in the air.Chow breathed in her scent again and realized he was feeling drunk.“What are you going to do with me?”
“I’m not going to do anything with you,” he growled—barely remembering to keep his voice low enough for privacy.“I’m not that kind of man.”
Her eyebrows jumped.“It’s true then, what they say?You’re a virgin?”
Chow had heard that whisper.He had nothing against virgins, either.Yet the accusation felt like a sharp knife held against his balls.“I’m not a virgin.”
