AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He shrugged. “Maybe tomorrow. I’m enjoying the day off. You’re welcome to stay with me, if you’d like.”
He pulled me down on the bed with him, wrapping an arm around me in a playful hug. I rolled my eyes at him.
“And just what do you think you’re doing?” I asked.
“Seducing you,” he said hollowly.
He lifted a finger to my face, gently dragging it down my cheek. I raised an eyebrow at him, questioning the way he was ridiculously biting his lip. He stopped, reaching for my wrist. He put two fingers against my pulse. His eyebrows matted, but then relaxed as he broke into a devious smile.
“Why do you keep doing that?” I asked, pulling away and looking at my wrist.
He stared at me for a long moment. “You really have no idea, do you?”
“That’s why I’m asking.”
“No, not the pulse.”
He held my gaze, his eyes suddenly burning through mine. Something in the color of his eyes trapped me like a rush of cold water, and I suddenly jolted from the gaze like I needed fresh air.
“I have to run the kitchen,” I said. “I should be going back.”
He let me stand to my feet, watching me as I straightened my hair and dress.
“I’m curious to know why you’re determined to feed a crew that’s holding you hostage,” Luc asked. “Has a nerve of sympathy pinched you? Or affection, perhaps?”
I stopped. Luc sat upright, his elbow against his knee.
“The crew has been rather attentive to you,” he continued. “Rather odd considering they kidnapped you. Even stranger considering that women aboard pirate ships is incredible bad luck.”
I shrugged, straightening my spine. “I’m simply a likable person.”
“Yeesss.” He drug out the word in a thoughtful hiss. “The first mate and captain seem to think so as well.”
I stayed silent, not knowing how to answer.
“You know,” he said, tapping his chin with his finger, “I don’t know what I find more amusing: the fact that the captain and his first mate are both fighting over you, or the fact that you have no idea why they’re doing it.”
I laughed. “Fighting over— Ha! You’ve lost your mind.”
“You haven’t noticed? The way the captain insists on keeping you to himself in his own chambers? The way the first mate stares at you across the table with a longing look in his eyes? Don’t tell me you hadn’t noticed.”
It would have been a lie to say I hadn’t noticed anything at all in the way the crew treated me. Adrian was constantly upset whenever I spent time with Luc or Henrik, and Henrik had been mostly level-headed but far too kind for a man with so much to lose. I had never felt like a prisoner at all, honestly.
“Oh, little dove,” Luc said, grinning. “You truly have no idea what power you own, do you?”
“I’ve simply inherited my mother’s charm and my father’s warmth,” I said. “It attracts many people to me, and it always has. But I would hardly say that Adrian or Henrik has romantic feelings for me.”
He leaned back, chuckling darkly. “Romantic isn’t the word I was thinking of.”
“What other word would you use?”
“Something a bit more…tainted, perhaps?”
Luc’s eyes darkened, suggestive in nature. Heat crawled up my neck.
“What a foolish conversation,” I said. “I’ll be in the kitchen doingyourjob if you care to feel guilty enough to do something about it.”
Feeling awkward and flushed, I went toward the door, putting my hand on the knob.
