This bloody, beautiful idiot...
Silver's brows knit, and he stirred, a moan of pain escaping his lips. Sighing, Hawk rose, unstoppering the bottle of fresh water LeBaron had left. He spilled some of it on a handkerchief, pressing the wet cloth to Silver's forehead.
Oh, but if the ache of his regret could somehow return the boy's lost limb!
"You never should have gotten mixed up with me," he murmured. "Everyone I care about I destroy. I'll destroy you, too. I've already..."
His thought hung incomplete in the air. Ruiz had been right, though. Silver was his responsibility, now. Whatever the consequences of that might be.
Hawk soon came to rue the day he'd found Silver's cheerful disposition an annoyance. The Silver that woke up on his windowsill had lost far more than just a leg, it seemed.
"The crew of theOrcatakes care of her own," Hawk had told him, hovering awkwardly. "You'll always have a place here. Treasure or no."
But Silver had just nodded, staring silently out at the sea, blue eyes bright in the reflection of the sun off the waves.
"Will you come to shore?" Hawk asked quietly when they finally made port at Port Royal.
Silver gave a soft, broken laugh under his breath. "How?"
"I'll take you."
Silver's mouth twisted, and he turned his face away. "The last thing you need is to be burdened with an invalid."
Hawk bit back an argument, forced down his growing annoyance. He sat down on the side of the bed. "I'll take care of you," he said again quietly.
"To what end, Captain? I'm completely useless to you now. Useless and crippled, and I gave up all my beautiful hair. That asshole shark should have eaten all of me."
"Hey." Hawk reached out to catch hold of his jaw, turning him to look at him. He forced himself to ignore the ridiculous things Silver was saying and focus on what was most important. "I don't ever want to hear you say that. You're far from useless. You're the one who saw that signal from the prisoners, you gave us a way to get the guns from theHecate. You saved Hank from a gruesome death and sacrificed your own well-being in the process. And last but not least, you brought me the secret to finding the greatest treasure on the seven seas.”
Silver dropped his eyes, swallowing visibly. "You made me so happy on theHecate," he whispered. "When I showed you what I saw. When you..."
On the Hecate? Oh.
Suddenly, the memory came back in a flash. How he'd been so excited, so relieved at the prospect of a way out. The spontaneous kiss of thanks he'd pressed to Silver's lips.
Was that what it would take to calm the boy's turbulence?
He brushed his thumb against Silver's lips, which parted to a soft intake of breath under his touch. Those impossibly blue eyes looked up at him, filled with both hope and fear at once, and an undeniable longing.
Damn him if he didn't want it, too.
Hawk closed the distance between them before he could think longer, crushing his lips to Silver's sweetness, drawing him close. Silver's soft whimper sent a hot pulse of arousal through him, and it was all he could do to keep the boy's injury in mind, to not press him back into his makeshift bed and take everything he wanted. "You're not useless, and you never will be," he growled. "No more talk of sharks."
"They're assholes anyway," Silver breathed, arching up to kiss him again.
7
An Intimate Reward
Thro' Time's long ages I shall wait
To lead the victims to their fate;
With callous heart, to hidden rocks decoy,
And lure, in seraph-strains, unpitying, to destroy.
? Anne Bannerman
