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She wasn’t sure how to climb into the small circle, until Morgan came up behind her and helped her in. She stood to one side as he squeezed himself in next to her, and she could feel his body bulging against her hip.
Her face flaming at the closeness of their bodies, she averted her gaze to the deck far below while he moved away from her.
The ship rocked and she grabbed the small rail that ran around the tight circular space. “How does Lou do this every day?” she whispered.
Morgan stepped out of her line of vision. “How can he not?”
Mesmerized, she stared off into the far horizon where the fading light of day met the waves of the ocean. The two of them blended together into the most wonderful symphony of harmonious color. “It’s beautiful.”
“Yes, it is,” Morgan breathed in a strange tone that made her take a look at him. It was then she realized he wasn’t talking about the sea.
Suddenly shy, Serenity looked back at the horizon. “Have you spent much time up here?” she asked in an effort to keep herself from noticing how handsome his face was, how dark the fading sun made his eyes.
The red highlights in his loose hair. Hair she was sure was soft and…
“I haven’t been up here in a long time,” he said, removing the spyglass from where he’d clipped it to his waistband.
After extending it, he handed it to her.
Then his arms surrounded her as he held it up for her to see. “Look through here,” he directed.
Serenity tried to focus on the sea, but all she really noticed was how pleasant he smelled, how warm his chest was against her back.
“I can see Jake,” she said as she swung the spyglass over to theDeath Queen. “Captain Hayes’s crew doesn’t seem to mind his leadership at all. They actually look…dare I say, happy?”
Morgan smiled at her shock. “No doubt it’s because Jake tossed the captain’s daughter overboard as soon as he took over.”
Frowning, she looked at him over her shoulder. “He didwhat?”
“The lash. I’m sure he tossed it overboard as soon as he took over. Jake has never been one to whip his men into shape, if you’ll pardon my cliché.”
“Oh,” she said. “My brother wrote an article about such discipline. One of the captains he interviewed said it was the only way to keep order on board a ship. That it was no different than locking people in the stocks.”
“Jake showed me there’s better ways of dealing with your men. When it comes to finding punishment to fit the crime, I doubt Solomon himself could have equaled Black Jack’s justice.”
She gave an odd half laugh. “Who wouldn’t obey Black Jack Rhys? I’m sure he just kills whoever offends him and tosses him overboard.”
“Don’t be so harsh, Serenity. Jake has a lot of reasons to act the way he does.”
“Such as?”
Morgan sighed as he remembered some of the childhood stories Jake had imparted to him over the years. Terrible stories that defied belief. “His own mother tried to poison him twice when he was a boy to get rid of him. When that didn’t work, she sold him off for two bits to a tavern owner who wanted someone to clean out slop jars and spittoons.”
“What?”
He nodded, his heart heavy for his friend. “His mother was a prostitute who didn’t take kindly to the fact he didn’t die. She did things and allowed things to happen to him you can’t even begin to imagine in your worst nightmare. If you find any kindness in him at all, I assure you it is there by way of a full miracle.”
Serenity looked back at Jake as he directed men to swab the decks of theDeath Queen. “What of his father?”
“No one has any idea who his father is.”
“Is that why he became a pirate?”
“I suppose. He once told me that if he was going to be accused of being the devil’s own, then he would give people a reason to believe it.”
Serenity shook her head in pity. “What made him stop pirating?”
He smiled. “A woman.”
