Losing himself in the pleasure of Silver's body was, Hawk reflected, the perfect way to wake up. There were things to be seen to, of course. Food, water, the men. The king's ransom in gold on the other beach. But laying tangled in Silver's embrace with his seed cooling on his lover's stomach, part of Hawk very much wanted not to bother with any of those things ever again.
Hawk trailed lazy, indulgent kisses down the swan-like length of Silver's neck, pausing to lick a bead of sweat that had pooled at the hollow of his throat. He could spend the whole day worshipping this delectable body, he thought, circling one perky nipple with his fingertips. The tawny expanse of Silver's skin was always incredibly kissable, but looking down the length of his body, glistening with the streaks of Hawk's spend, was giving Hawk some very tempting ideas of how to spend the rest of the day.
"You look good with my pearl jewelry, sexy," he purred, stroking his fingers through the slick ropes of his seed on Silver's belly.
"Land pearls are strange," Silver said, sounding confused. "How do you put them in your hair?"
Hawk stared at him in confusion. "Your..."
“Has anyone seen... Oh.” The smoke-roughened voice of their intruder could belong to no other than Henry Pane, barging into their tent unbidden.
“What?!” Hawk exploded.
“My shirt?”
“No one has seen your shirt since the goddamn Bronze Age!” If Hawk could murder a fellow Port Royal captain with impunity, he would. But Elizabeth would have his balls, he reminded himself, if they actually survived. “And why the hell would you be looking for it here?”
“I thought the bloody cat might have dragged it in. She’s a damn thief you know.”
“I’ll have her keelhauled,” Hawk snarled, waving Pane away. “Now get the fuck out!”
Pane's eyes narrowed. "Don't you think,Captain, that you should be thinking about something other than getting your dick wet? Last I checked there's a mountain of Portuguese gold on that beach, and you've yet to provide us a way to get it - or ourselves - back to Port Royal."
Hawk glared at Silver, as if daring him to agree. His lover merely gave him one of his familiar, brilliant grins, gleaming with innocence.
But before Hawk was obliged to throttle anyone a cry went up from the beach. "Sails!"
A ship. Hawk grabbed for his sword belt and was out of the tent without waiting for his companions to follow in various stages of undress. He snatched the spyglass from Ruiz, finding the spot of white on the horizon, straining to identify her. Was it the Portuguese, chasing their treasure ship?
"She's not flying any colors, Captain," Ruiz said beside him. "Which means..."
"Pirates." Hawk thrust the spyglass back at him, turning to Silver as he joined them, pulling a shirt on over his head. "Who else did you tell about the treasure?"
The damn kid looked like a kicked puppy at the accusation. "No one! Who else would I tell other than you?"
"Then someone must have overheard us! How the hell else would they know about the gold?"
Beside Ruiz, Hank lowered the spyglass. "Who the fuck captains theRose of the Sea?"
"I don't really give a fuck," Hawk replied, before raising his voice. "To arms! I want every able-bodied man over the ridge and on that beach! We defend that gold or die trying!"
Whether or not Silverfin was included in the call for menable-bodied, he made tracks over the ridge, falling in line with the others as they gathered the treasure and began to drag it back from the beach, hopefully out of range of the guns of whatever ship thought it could take his hard-won treasure. Before their untimely deaths, the Portuguese had been kind enough to recover a handful of their cannons from the sea, which more of the men set to loading, positioning on the beach under Hawk's orders.
"You shouldn't be here," Hawk growled at Silverfin, catching his arm in passing. "I can't protect youandthe gold."
"I can protect myself," Silverfin insisted, trying not to become irritated at Hawk's lack of faith. "I killed that shark, didn't I?"
"It's not like killing a shark. Or taking a prize. You don't even have a sword!"
Silverfin retreated back to claim an abandoned Portuguese sword belt, trying not to think about the fate of its previous owner. He drew the blade, checking the balance; it wasn't nearly as light or fine as the mer-blades forged from magma heat deep in the trenches of the sea, but it would do. "Try me."
"Fine," Hawk snapped back. "But stay behind the treeline with the gold. And don't blame me if you lose another limb!"
TheRose of the Seasailed into the cove almost leisurely, dropping the remainder of its sails as it turned about to point a full barrage of cannons at them. Silverfin, crouched behind a Portuguese chest in the trees, bracing himself for the worst. Then, after several long moments of tension so thick the air faintly vibrated with them a longboat appeared from the other side of the ship, flying a white flag.
"Stand your ground but hold your fire!" Hawk yelled to the men on the beach. Then, as the longboat drew nearer, Silverfin caught sight of a flash of sunlight off a curtain of fiery hair. Hope and betrayal both leapt in his chest in tandem. Because beside the woman stood the familiar and dear form of his sister, and Hawk’s partner Elizabeth, clearly in charge of the operation.
Mara was rescuing them. He ought to be overjoyed. But she’d given them his secret. Why did he feel so betrayed?
