“I’m fine,” I say.
“That’s not what I asked.”
I don’t bother trying to stop the irritation dripping from my voice when I answer. What is his obsession with me eating?
“Yes,Captain. I ate.”
Items clunk as he sets them down on the table, emptying his pockets and vest. I try not to watch him, averting my eyes anywhere else, and settling on the intricate pattern of the rug under the desk.
My feet stay planted in this spot as the noises break the silence. Walking farther into his room feels too…intimate. While I need to work hard to make him think I trust him, intimacy is not part of that. No matter how good-looking he is, how much my body involuntarily responds to his actions, I will never fake intimacy to convince him to trust me.
I won’t do that to Dane.
“In here you can call me Weston.” His voice rumbles through the room, and the statement takes me off guard. Why the sudden revocation of formality, and why only here? Manipulating where I sleep, throwing me off so I am uncomfortable, then trying to make things more personal between us. It’s all part of the game to get me to let my guard down.
“I’ll stop calling you Captain when you stop calling me princess.”
He chuckles. “That won’t happen, princess.”
“Well then,Captainit is.”
“Whatever you want, princess.”
Folding my arms, I strain to see what is on the desk when I’m distracted by the singing of a blade being unsheathed.
So there is a weapon in here.
Abandoning the desk for another time, I look toward Weston’s back and immediately see the cause of the sound.
My dagger.
The blade catches the light as he slides it beneath the pillow on the bed, then moves to untie the laces of his vest.
He just made a crucial mistake, showing me where he keeps my dagger. All he’s done is give me a better chance and more motivation to get it back. I need to wait for the right time, which definitely isn’t tonight, not after I already tried to escape once today. I know everyone, especially Weston, will be waiting for me to do it again, and I need to keep him guessing.
He hangs his vest inside the armoire next to the bed, and I look around the room, alarm rising in my chest.
“Where are you going to sleep?” I ask as I look around the room again, willing new furniture to appear.
He looks toward me, his expression unreadable, and holds my gaze as he points to the bed right next to him.
“Where’s my bed?”
Unfazed by my question, his eyes refusing to leave mine, his hand flicks as he points to the other side.
No, absolutely not.
I will not be sharing a bed with Weston. A room was bad enough, but a bed?
“I’ll go back to the brig.” I turn on my heel and head straight for the door.
“You aren’t going back to the brig. You can sleep on the floor here if you’re that desperate to prove a point. Or you could actually get some sleep.”
I turn back toward the room and feel my body grow heavy as I take in the huge pillows and fluffy bedding. It reminds me ofmy bed back in Blackwood, and I long to curl up in soft sheets and just sleep.
But my bed doesn’t come with an evil captain sleeping an arm’s length away.
“I won’t touch you, princess.” His face stays blank, and my insides start to squirm.
