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No matter how short-lived it was. Even if it was a selfish wish.
“I can think of something,” he said, noticing the close attention she paid his words. “While my ship is in the garage, can I ride around on yours?”
She went mute.
Not a canned denial—just silence.
He kept hearing her mouth open with an answer, but she retracted each breath. Caligher’s spirits lifted, a new boldness overtaking his senses. Maybe the advice his friend had given was correct. Maybe his senses were on the mark.
Adistraction, she’d said.
He wet his lips. “Lucca?”
“Hmm?” The scratch in her voice stroked something indecent in his core.
“Since I know you’re going to say no to the last question”—she quickly exhaled a sigh of relief—“can I trade it for another question?”
“What’s the question?” she asked.
“Are you attracted to me?”
A heartbeat passed.
“Yes… God, yes, I am.”
Heat flickered over his nerves like the gentlest warm rain. Something warmer beamed inside.This feeling—he never wanted it to end.
“Will you ever let me in?” he asked.
Her silence was at its loudest. He listened to her breaths, the pulse he imagined hammering at her throat. He could hear it growing louder and faster in the dim static of the audio feed.
A wicked thought pushed itself into his mind.
“You know, Lucca, I’m starting to wonder ifyou’reinvolved in something bad. Maybe that’s why you’re keeping to yourself.”
Her pulse took off. His ears were trained tothump-thump—thump-thumpof it and he knew he was right. Something suspicious—something wonderfully suspicious—was housed inside that ship.
He didn’t give her a chance to formulate a response. Whatever denial she had prepared was bleeding out in her silence. He said, “Imagine if you were an infamous pirate, like Astyanax…”
He let those words sit, slowly piling on top of her nervousness.What is she hiding?He was so very curious.
“…and you’ve been spending your time with a bounty hunter pretending not to be one of my bounties. Do you have another name somewhere down my list? An alias?”
“I’m not a pirate, Cal… And my name is really Lucca.”
“You sound so affronted!” He laughed, rolling on his stomach so he could stare up at the Selkie. What did that name mean, anyway? What in the pits was aSelkie?“You don’t even want to pretend? We could make up other names for each other.”
“Cal,” she said testily. Okay, fuck that, he needed to hear her say his name, and only his name, forever.
“What’s wrong, Lucca? Did I strike a nerve?”
On that note, what was aLucca?
She fumed silently.
Ah, stars, she huffed and it had to be the most adorable thing he had ever heard. He could picture her in her sheets, her face turning warm as she thought up some adorable comeback that would be ready three days too late. Once again he stifled the urge to jump on her ship.
“Still doesn’t make sense,” he said.
