Page 3 of Paid to the Pirate

“So what you’re saying is, if we pay you what you want tonight, you won’t attack tomorrow.”

I bit back a smirk at Mrs. Penningham’s blunt tongue.

Can’t put it off any longer,I thought.

Taking a deep breath, I pushed the kitchen door wide and slid out into the main room of the inn, now crammed with vile pirates alongside our peaceful townsfolk.

“I’m sure we can come to an arrangement,” Mr. Clayton grumbled. “Gold, I’m assuming, though you’ll find little of it here. We’ve had good years of indigo and tobacco crops recently…”

Nervous, I tuned out Mr. Clayton as I began serving flagons and tankards of ale haphazardly, ensuring the room had enough to go around, regardless of whose glass was empty or who’d ordered more. Spirits could raise tempers or soothe them, depending, but I wouldn’t question Mrs. Penningham’s orders.

No one paid me any mind as Mr. Clayton and the pirate emissary held the room. Rounding a particularly crowded table, I caught sight of Colton from the corner of my eye, though I still couldn’t see him fully.He’s a towering beast of a man.Justlookingat him made my stomach flip, and that wasn’t all. Inside my chest, something tightened.

Run,said a voice in my head.Run away from this dangerous stranger.

His hair reached just to his ears -- not long enough to tie back, yet not short enough to stay out of his way, as if he’d neglected to cut it in a timely manner or couldn’t decide whether to keep it long or short. Colt tossed his head, once, flinging back the hair from his eyes, his face.

Coming to the other side of the small table, I stood directly, unwillingly, in the pirate captain’s line of vision. Already in possession of a tankard of ale he must have swiped from another patron, he lifted it to his lips, smiling and drinking deeply. But when he saw me, our gazes locked.

Colton’s eyes widened and he froze. He had the momentary appearance of someone who’d seen a ghost, but it was there and quickly gone. In that moment, it was as if time stood still and the rest of the room faded away. His cold, near-black eyes banished any hope of Colton being a “gentleman pirate,” as some were called who extorted tribute, rather than attacking. I began to sweat in a very unladylike manner.

Run,repeated the voice in my head.You should have run when you had the chance.Following their captain’s lead, I felt the eyes of the crew upon me and thought I heard someone swear beneath their breath,“well, I’ll be…”

Finally, Colton moved, striking out a hand to silence the increasing whispers of his crew. Slowly, he placed his tankard back on the wooden table. Still, he didn’t stopstaring.

I studied his face -- long, but not overly so. His features were sharp, his eyes hooded and dark. To be fair, it was a pleasing face. His full lips turned just a hair upwards, as if they resisted a smirk. Arguably, he could be called quite handsome.

That cruel gaze seemed to pin me to the floor, but Colt’s resumption of movement worked as a strange release on some of my own limbs, as if they mimicked his. My hand flew to my collarbone, rubbing in a familiar, anxious habit.

“Change of terms,” Colton said, speaking for the first time. Those pitiless eyes bore into mine. “I want the girl.”

Chapter 2

Charlotte

My heart stopped and my blood ran cold. No mistake could be made about whom Colton spoke. Everyone turned in my direction.

But… he can’t mean me.

“The girl?” Mrs. Penningham asked, voice quaking in a manner I’d never before heard from her throat.

“Her. Miss Charlotte,” Colton said, narrowing his eyes. “Unless she calls herself something else now.”

He knows my name.A tremor ran down my spine to hear it spoken on the pirate captain’s cruel lips.How does he know?

“Are you saying you want Miss Charlotte instead of our bumper crop?” Mr. Clayton asked, incredulous. “That if we give her to you, your men won’t attack tomorrow?”

Colton’s severe expression remained unchanged as he replied, “I’m saying that if you hand her over right now, my men won’t slaughter all of you this instant and burn this fledgling village to the ground.”

Mrs. Penningham,bless her,stood in front of me, blocking me from the pirates. “We will do no such thing,” she swore. “What could you possibly want with our Charlotte? Nothing good, I’m sure. Do you think we’d hand her over to you to be… to be…mistreated?”

My cheeks grew hot as I knew exactly what she implied -- and so did the crowd present. I was positive everyone, patron or pirate, now pictured somethingunspeakably indecent -- be it my naked flesh or worse, Colton’s touch despoiling me back in his captain’s quarters.

My hand flew to my décolleté again, rubbing, and I noticed my skin had turned as pink as my gown. Far too fine for work at the inn, I couldn’t refuse wearing the dress at Daniel’s request. It was a gift, after all, and the iridescent blush-and-coral silk busk was like nothing else this side of the Atlantic.

Serves me right,I thought, cursing myself. I’d paraded around in the eye-catching gown all day. Suddenly, I couldn’t shake from my mind that its color resembled the pinks of… other parts.I should have worn that brown, smocked dress.

As if he could read my mind, Colton’s mouth quirked upwards. I gulped.

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