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I went to bed a little later than usual. I was exhausted, but I’d been having trouble sleeping lately. I slept in the same bed as Brandon, though neither of us liked it much. For one thing I woke him up a few times, just to make sure he was all right. I was sure I read somewhere that when a person had a head injury, they should be awakened often during the night.
He disagreed strenuously. In fact, every time I woke him up, he got pissy about it and called me a variety of unpleasant names. Finally, he plastered himself to the wall, and dared me to wake him again. He made some unrealistic threats about what he’d do if I did.
In a fit of pique, I turned on my side away from him and scooted so close to the edge I damn near fell out of bed no less than three times during the rest of the night. And his scent still wrapped itself around me and held on way too tight. I had a raging erection when I woke sometime before dawn, and knew I’d never get back to sleep. I got up and went out on deck for a while to try and get rid of it.
The wind was freshening from the north and very cold. We had turned to go in a northwesterly direction, and we were rounding the coastline of Cardmon and leaving the Southern Sea to come into the Lumian Sea, a route which would eventually take us to my home to Gilead. The deck was quiet, with only faint murmurings from the men on the rigging above. There was no moon, and only the lanterns on deck to light the way. I leaned against the rail and looked out at the faint lights of Cardmon, far in the distance. Light carried a long distance at sea, and on a dark night like this one, each light was like a beacon.
I’d never sought the seafaring life, but had come to it anyway, some ten years ago. My father was an old Navy man, a younger son, who had chosen the life for himself, instead of going another route. Most younger sons became priests, or if that held no appeal, their fathers bought them a commission in the Army or Navy. Some of them married noble omegas, had children and waited around to see if their fathers and older brothers contracted some illness or other or had an accident and died. Some even went abroad to another country to seek their fortunes, while others became members of a pack and ruled over a piece of family land their fathers bought for them or that one of them had inherited. Such was the case with Brandon’s pack, all of whom were younger sons, except for Harrison. Lex and Brandon had inherited their fathers’ titles unexpectedly, but until Lex married an omega prince and became a Regent over him, he ruled only over a small property belonging to his family in Morovia. The rest of the pack still lived there.
Yes, I had kept tabs as well as I could on what had happened to that family. It was only years later that I was able to though. When I’d first been captured by pirates, I used to dream of being able to one day take my revenge on that entire family, but especially Brandon, because he had hurt me the most.
At first, I’d been badly treated in captivity. The captain, an older man named Captain Smeet, had been holding me for ransom, once he discovered I was not only a second lieutenant but an earl. But before he could send his messages to my father, he was killed by another set of pirates, led by the notorious Gold Tooth Jack. When I was brought up on deck with the other prisoners, I think he’d planned to either ransom or kill me, but when one of the deckhands from the captured ship ran forward with a huge knife he’d hidden on himself and tried to stab Gold Tooth Jack with it, I’d cried out a warning. Jack had turned in time to save himself and slit the man’s throat for his trouble, and he’d been very grateful to me for the warning, which gave him time to react.
In actuality, I’d only been startled by the violent attack and hadn’t strictly meant to give any outcry at all, let alone a warning. Still, there was no need to pass that information on to Jack, and so he had been most grateful to me, and he had not only spared my life, but had given me my freedom. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anywhere to go. We were in the South Lumian Seas at the time, and the nearest port had been in Cardmon, where there were warrants for Jack along with an order to shoot on sight. All things considered, we wouldn’t be heading to Cardmon anytime soon.
I can’t say I was disappointed. Once I got over my fear of the pirates, I learned they weren’t a bad sort—if you discounted the whole hijacking ships and their crews thing. Gold Tooth Jack was a good captain, and a jovial companion as long as he never completely sobered up. He took me under his wing when he found out why I’d been on the Navy ship to begin with.
Since I had nothing better to look forward to at home, I stayed with Gold Tooth and his pirate ship. I’m sorry to say it gave me pleasure at first to think of my parents grieving for me at home. Not to mention my soft-hearted Brandon. What can I say? I was young and hurt and very vindictive. Eventually I became Jack’s first mate. Over the course of the next six years, I had learned a great deal and come to love the sea. Gold Tooth Jack was still a pirate, through and through, but one day off the coast of Crillia, we were caught in a storm and Gold Tooth was swept overboard in heavy seas. We were unable to recover him, though we made a valiant effort, and I seized the opportunity to take over the ship as captain, once I was sure he was gone.
Things changed once I took over. Unlike Jack and some other captains, I didn’t see a need to kill everyone on board the ships we captured, for example. We robbed them, held some for ransom, and then put them on their lifeboats. Sometimes we salvaged the ships and sometimes we sank them. It all depended on potential profit. And soon, we were all wealthy men. I didn’t see the point of killing anyone we didn’t have to, and I absolutely refused to allow the rape of female passengers aboard the ships we captured. One had to have certain standards, after all, meager though mine were.
My crew said I had manners like a Lord, which indeed, I used to be. In time, I came to earn the nickname Pirate Lord, but I took on the name Captain Jack Devane the same as our former captain. I had taken his name because I thought it was as good as any, and I wanted no reminders of my own family. I kept the name of the ship, too—the Fancy Lady.
The wind suddenly blasted me out of the north, and I decided it was time to go below. The idea of Brandon in my bed, all warm and smelling so sweet didn’t hurt either. If I could pry him off the wall, I might just cuddle him. He’d hate that. And I smiled thinking of his reaction all the way back down to my quarters.
Chapter Five
Brandon
When Roxbury came back to bed, he snuggled close to my back and put his cold feet up against my legs. I didn’t give him the satisfaction of a response. At least not until he rammed his big dick against my ass and ground it against me. He knew I wasn’t speaking to him, so it was definitely done on purpose.
“Am I crowding you, sweetheart? Just say the word and I’ll give you more room. No? All right then, if you insist. I am a little chilled from being up on deck. It’s gorgeous up there tonight—such a shame you can’t see for yourself, but alas, it’s against my orders.”
I growled at him, and I could feel his smile behind my back. Arrogant ass. I had every intention of showing him how much attention I paid to his “orders,” first thing in the morning when I would take my morning walk around deck.
He patted my ass familiarly. “I can’t have you falling around again on deck, you know. Such a pity.”
“Will you please shut the hell up, so I can get some sleep? And get the hell off me. How dare you?”
He moved away about a quarter of an inch and sighed deeply. “Dearie, you wound me. I don’t know how you expect me to go to sleep when your scent is so strong. I wasn’t going to mention it, but I do have to defend myself. Perhaps tonight you could take a good bath? I’ll be happy to assist you. Get in all those little hard-to-reach spots.”
“Go to hell, Roxbury.”
“Already been there, love, when the people I loved the most turned their backs on me. I don’t recommend it.”
When I woke the next morning, Roxbury was gone. He’d left somehow without waking me, though I suspected the wine he’d given me might have been dosed with sleeping powders. I had a dull headache to prove it. I got up and went over to the pitcher of water I’d seen him use by the door and poured some in the bowl to freshen up. It was cold by this time, but marginally better than nothing. Then I went over to a large sea chest by his desk and rummaged through his clothes to find something to fit me. I found everything except for boots, but having bare feet wasn’t always a bad idea on deck. Especially when seas were rough, like they seemed to be today making the boat pitch occasionally like going over a steep hill in a carriage and letting the horses have their heads as they careened down the other side.
I glanced out the porthole and saw nothing but gray—a dull, ashen sky met the sea and blended in, with only the choppy, rolling whitecaps to relieve the monotony. It looked cold and dreary, and I went back to the sea chest to find a jacket and a seaman’s black, knit cap. I put it on, pushing my long hair up inside and I barely recognized myself as I caught a glimpse in Roxbury’s shaving mirror, angled over the pitcher and bowl, set down inside a shallow wooden rail nailed to a small table by the wall to keep it from sliding.
My face looked pale and my cheekbones could have cut glass. I looked as if I’d been ill, and I wondered again if the baron hadn’t managed to cast some kind of slow, wasting spell on me in his bloody castle, high in the cold, Crillian Mountains.
I turned away and saw a loaf of bread on Roxbury’s desk, next to two boiled eggs. Beside it was a note.
Though I promised bread and water, I decided you needed a bit more to regain your strength. Eat these eggs. (Imagine the magic word “please” if that helps convince you. You’re far too skinny) and if this helps, I took the eggs away from Jacobs and made him eat salt pork instead.
I smiled to myself as I read his note—not the skinny part, but the part about Jacobs—and I sat down to eat the eggs and most of the loaf of bread. Feeling better, I buttoned up my jacket and went up on deck for my morning walk.
