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“In my sea chest, in a compartment next to my clothes.”
“Go get it, Jacobs and bring it to me.” Jacobs nodded and started to walk away. “Oh, and Jacobs,” I called after him. He turned toward me, and I smiled at him. “If you ever threaten my captive with that knife of yours again, I’ll take it from you, cut out your liver with it and feed it to you. Are we clear?”
“Aye sir,” he murmured, blanching as he scurried away below decks. Jacobs was a beta and loved to feel superior to Alphas—especially handsome, wealthy Alphas like Brandon. I had to remind him of his place from time to time. Speaking of reminding people of their places…
“The gold is a good start, but it’s not nearly enough. I think your cousin Harrison will be willing to cough up quite a bit more for your safe return. Lexington will no doubt chip in, too, to get you back in one piece.” I leered at him. “More or less in one piece, that is.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“Why yes, I believe I am. I beg your pardon. Was I not clear enough?”
He blushed, but not like most people who get an ugly red stain coming up from their necks. No, Brandon’s cheeks just became an insufferably pretty shade of pink. Coupled with the blond in his curls and those innocent eyes, he was like an angel who’d just been told a dirty joke. Gods, what a pain in my ass.
“I thought you told Jacobs not to threaten me.”
“He can’t. But I have no qualms about doing it myself. And make no mistake, they’re not threats. They’re promises.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Roxbury. I demand that you leave this ship alone and let us go on our way.”
“Demand all you like, dearie, but it’s not happening. You’re not in charge here. Wrap your mind around that if you can. And stop calling me by that old name—there’s a new Earl long since, I’m sure. I disappeared, you know. Presumed dead.”
“What do I call you then?”
“Captain Devane, at your service.” I gave him a showy little bow, even sweeping off my hat.
He blushed again. He was going to have to stop doing that, or I wouldn’t be responsible for what happened. “But I don’t understand. We heard you were captured and killed by pirates in the Southern Seas.”
“Don’t believe everything you hear.”
Jacobs came back on deck with the small sea chest, and I flipped it open, rummaged around and soon drew out a small bag of gold. “Excellent. Now go along with Jacobs and don’t dawdle. He’ll show you to your new accommodations.”
I gave him a little push toward my first mate, and the most extraordinary thing happened. He seemed to trip over his own feet and would have faceplanted on the deck if I hadn’t caught him around his slim waist. I looked down at him at the same time he looked up at me, and we were close enough to kiss. He smelled mouthwatering, like sweet cinnamon apples, just like I remembered from the old days. It was undoubtedly pheromones, though that should have been impossible. No Alpha should recognize the pheromones coming off another Alpha, and none had ever before had such a strong scent to me. Only omegas with their fragrant pheromones were able to give me such an immediate erection. Ordinarily, that is.
But suddenly, holding Brandon’s warm body so close to mine, his sweetly familiar scent drifting up to me on the night breeze, and I was right back at school again, ten years ago. I had such strong feelings for this other Alpha male that they scared me to death, and I had no idea what to do with them.
I pushed Brandon roughly away, and he staggered backward, again almost falling, but catching himself against the rail. I ignored the little pang it gave my heart.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I yelled at him, because I thought I’d hurt him, and because he was already confusing me within minutes of seeing him again. “Why do you keep falling around like a drunkard?” I leaned closer to sniff his breath. “Is that it? Have you been drinking all alone tonight in your cabin? Or did you have company? How very unlike you to enjoy yourself.”
He opened his mouth to reply, but he was too close, and his sweet breath hitting my nostrils almost overcame me. My own knees grew weak as he gave me an injured look, and I growled again to disguise it.
“Why are you acting like this?” he said, mere inches from my mouth. “We used to be such good friends.”
“Friends?” I shouted at him, full of bitter regret, even as the words burst out of me. “I’ve never been your friend, and you’ve certainly never been one to me. I told you once what I thought about your so-called fucking friendship.”
Not thinking straight, I hurled him away from me and over toward Jacobs. As strong and athletic as Brandon was—as he’d always been—it shouldn’t have fazed him in the least. It shouldn’t have made him lose his balance and fall headlong toward Jacobs, who stepped out of the way and never lifted so much as a finger to save him. Brandon threw out his right arm to catch himself, but it crumpled underneath him like a matchstick, and he gave a soft little cry of pain that broke my heart. Overbalanced, he crashed into the railing and then flipped over it neatly, disappearing right in front of me.
It was like a circus act. One second, he was there, and the next he was gone. The whole thing had taken five seconds and all I could do was give a hoarse shout of complete and utter shock and horror.
With a sickening sense of blind panic, I leaped after him over the railing without a moment’s hesitation. I knew he could swim—we’d often splashed around in the ponds at school—but those ponds were vastly different to the black, wild sea beneath us. I could lose him when I’d just managed to get hold of him again.
My head broke the shockingly cold waves just a few feet away from the ship, and I glanced frantically around for him. I heard a lot of noisy splashing some feet away and saw him flailing his arms in a panic as his head slipped beneath the waves. The two ships were side by side and the sudden shift of one or the other could drag him too far down for me to reach, so I dove frantically after him and got an arm around his neck and shoulders, pulling him around to his back and up to the surface. I started trying to tow him to safety.
But he fought me, not liking it in the least. He was no longer thinking logically, I believed, but becoming hysterical, trying desperately to dislodge me and get me off him. I had to stop him, or he’d take us both to the bottom. I tried shouting at him and even shaking him, but it was no use. He’d drown us both if I didn’t get control of this.
I did the only thing I could do, and that was to hit him on the chin with my fist to knock him out. The second I did, he went limp in my arms, so I pulled him closer and struck out with one arm, kicking hard for the life preserver someone had the good sense to throw over to us, trying not to think about the fathoms of black ocean that lay beneath us. Not to mention what kind of creatures might be swimming in those murky depths.
I grasped the preserver tightly with one arm and held fast to Brandon with the other. A few hectic moments and a lot of shouting later, we were pulled up by my crew, both of us dripping torrents of water from our sodden clothing.
