Chapter 24 #2
He thumbed her nipple just to make her twitch in his arms.
“Sure we can.” He pinched it between his thumb and index finger, letting the rest of his splayed fingertips caress the underside of her soft, creamy mound. “We’ll figure it out.”
She always responds to me.
He knew it too. He knew she was overcome by whatever had hooked inside them when she was in his presence as much as he was.
Even now, her nipple had already hardened under his attention.
Her breathing was shaking, heavy. She even leaned against him, like her back instinctively sought his body and the warmth he emitted.
So, if she still wanted him, why wouldn’t she come to him?
“I don’t want to leave my ship.”
She broke the trance he was becoming undone by as she turned and folded her arms across her chest. She was escaping his hand that he’d slipped inside her tights so he could run his palm against her stomach to go lower.
He didn’t know if she’d done it to be defiant or to hide those taut little nipples that were stabbing against her tunic. His gaze often slipped to them, his hands itching to touch them like they beckoned him.
“Then stay on it,” he bit, his nose crinkling as he placed his hand back against the safe to cage her in again. “Don’t come onto the ships we raid.”
“You’re starting to piss me off with this, Alister.” He noted the glare she gave him behind cold eyes. “Stop making me feel like I’m not worthy to help.”
“And you’re pissing me off by coming to this ship but not mine!” He gripped the edge of the safe with such strength, he feared he’d crush the metal under his fists.
“Why do you even care?”
“Because you could get hurt, Rosetta. You could be targeted and–”
“That’s not what I mean!” She stamped her foot like she was ready to have a childish tantrum. “I already know that. I mean, why do you care which ship we’re on?”
“Because you’re making me feel like you don’t want me, lass!” He ran one of his hands over the top of his head to brush his hair back in frustration. He couldn’t believe he was admitting this. “You’re making me chase you like you don’t give a shit.”
Alister didn’t chase any woman.
They flock to me in ports! They were hungry to have him. Maybe his coin, too, but regardless! All he had to do was crook his finger at a woman and she would be in his lap.
But Rosetta wasn’t fawning over him, nor tripping over her feet just to have him.
He watched her brows twitch, her folded arms loosening. “But it’s obvious that I do.”
He damn well knew that each time he was with her.
The way her hands would explore him made tremors roll through his body like he’d never been touched before, was starving for the attention.
She’d place them everywhere, his chest, his arms, every scar on his body, like she enjoyed the feeling of them.
She’d cup his face, stroke his hair, make him feel handsome when most others made him feel like a hideous villain.
She’d grip his hair like she wanted to forever get tangled in it – she even asked him if he would let her plait it, like she wanted to play with it.
None of this stopped him from feeling the way he did when he was away from her, on his ship, alone, hoping she might come to him, as if she might ache for him like he did for her.
Then she didn’t.
He felt like he was the only one who needed it, rather than just wanting it.
“You honestly think staying on your ship and avoiding me is being obvious?” he sneered, grabbing her around the neck with one hand so she couldn’t look away from the intensity of his gaze.
He wasn’t gripping her tightly, but his aggression was there, a reaction to the way he felt provoked.
“Because I have no idea what you truly want, what you’re after. ”
When she squinted her eyes with suspicion at his words, he pulled her closer, so they were merely a breath’s distance away. He didn’t appreciate that his mind immediately dropped to her pouty lips, like he wanted to take them with his own now that they were such a short distance apart.
The only reason he didn’t lean in was because of the spiteful expression on her face. His thumb seemed to have a mind of its own, though, as it brushed her jawline in a caress.
“Don’t look at me like that. You’ve lied to me and deceived me more times than I know. How am I to discern the truth?”
What was her truth? Did she want him like it seemed she did when he was touching her, or didn’t she by the fact that she never sought him out for more? He’d once wanted her pining for it, so why was it him instead?
She’s got my sail ropes in knots.
Her lips thinned into worried lines, and her eyes averted from him. His own widened.
I knew it... He didn’t like the way his chest swirled with a dark emotion. She’s been lying to me.
What about? He didn’t know, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to. His mind seized on the fact that she’d been sailing with him for a month and may not have truly wanted him, but something else he had.
Is it the Raider’s trove? Was she planning on trying to steal it from him all along? He released the intimate hold he had on her throat, surprised she trusted him enough to let him, and dropped his arm.
“Fine, Rosetta.” He gave a low chuckle to mask the darker emotions he felt. “You stay on your ship while you point it the other way, because I’m not changing my course.”
Not with how close he was to what could be the goal he’d been seeking for years. How quickly he’d come to this decision didn’t surprise him. He was just disappointed because he wasn’t done with her, but at least it was on his terms.
“Alister, wait.” She reached forward to grab his wrist gently in both hands.
He gave her a grin to show her just how little it bothered him that he’d part from her.
Seeing his expression, and the fact he was pulling his arm away from her as he backed up, she gave a sigh. She folded her arms and turned her head to the side to dismiss him.
He reached around her to grab the pouch of coins from the safe, his chest brushing up against the backs of her arms. It brought him closer to her, and he took in once again the smell of gardenias. He hated to admit that it would be one of the many things he’d miss about her.
When he held the pouch, he stepped back from her. He turned while tossing it in the air, waiting for her to tell him they were supposed to split it, and then he would unfortunately have to tell her he didn’t care.
“I’m afraid to leave my ship,” she muttered quickly.
Well, that was unexpected.
He halted but didn’t turn from the door that was only a step away. “You say that, and yet, here you are.”
“Have you not noticed it’s never my original crew that helps to raid?”
His brow crinkled as he frowned in thought. No, he’d never noticed that, but that’s because he didn’t truly care about her crew. They were her responsibility.
He looked at her out of the corner of his good eye over his shoulder. “What do you mean?”
“I only ever send the men who were prisoners off my ship. I’m afraid that if we move too many of those I trust, they will try to take over my ship while we’re gone, and your men are too distracted on the boat we’re raiding to help.”
He finally turned around and realised her dismissive posture had never been dismissive to begin with. It was defensive, as though she felt vulnerable telling him and didn’t like it. It was more obvious as she spoke, her shoulders turning inwards.
“I don’t trust them yet, and there are too many of them to get to know quickly. Over two-thirds of my men are people I don’t know, Alister. That’s why I’ve never come to you.”
He’d like to believe her but... “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”
“When have you asked?” She folded her arms tighter and refused to look at him, her eyes narrowing at the floor.
“What happens on my ship is none of your concern, nor is it your issue. My fears could be unfounded, and I might have nothing to worry about, but currently, I have them. I haven’t told anyone this; I don’t want people to think I’m paranoid or crazy. I get enough of that bullshit already.”
Her fears were justifiable. Her new crew were all criminals, and she had no idea the crimes they’d committed, or how terrible they could be.
“You know I’ll assist you if they try.”
He looked down at the pouch in his hand with uncertainty. Did she truly have such little faith in him to think he wouldn’t? Did Rosetta think he was that much of a dick to the woman he was sleeping with?
“And sink the Laughing Siren at the same time?” She brought her eyes to him so he could see they were crinkled with something he’d never seen from her: fear.
“I know I said I’d rather see her at the bottom of the ocean, but that was before I sailed her.
I don’t want to give her up now that I have her.
” She started nibbling on the inner corner of her lips, more so on the bottom one.
“I’m also worried they’ll kill us before we even get the chance to take it back from them. ”
“If you’re so afraid to leave, why are you here now?”
“I know you want to keep me safe for some stupid reason, but if I do that, they will see it as a sign of weakness. They’ll think I’m incapable of being a captain willing to cut throats.
” She narrowed her eyes and held his with a fierce gaze.
“Do you know what it’s like for a crew to tell you that you’re ‘too soft’ to be captain?
Do you know how many throats I’ve had to cut to stop that word from spreading, not because it has nothing to do with my capabilities, but because I’m a woman? ”
No, because Alister had never been soft. However, he didn’t like the possibility of it being mentioned. Derek just telling him there was the potential of it had Alister practically stringing him up by his tunic.
Alister finally came towards her with his brows furrowed further, his lips pressed tight together. “That’s why you do it? You’ve been doing this even when you were on the Howling Death.” More lies?
She lifted her finger to point at him.
“No, I didn’t. After the pirate hunters, I stayed on your ship like you told me to until I thought the fighting was done.” She poked him in the chest. “I didn’t mean for you to get sliced that day.”
“And yet, I still got cut.” He chuckled, his anger lessening with every word out of her pretty little mouth.
She’d been afraid and just didn’t want him to know. He’d gained her trust in many ways, but apparently, nothing deep within her mind. She’d never sought comfort from him, and he’d never tried to give it to her. Why should she have told him the truth?
“Do you think I want to get hurt? There was a reason I tricked my way onto your ship, Alister.”
Once more, she folded her arms and turned her head to the side like she was dismissing him, and he now saw it for what it really was: someone trying to hide that they felt vulnerable.
How many times has she done this in front of me? So many he couldn’t count, and yet he’d always fallen for the trick and dismissed her in return, rather than reaching out to her.
“I can’t fight men like you. Men bigger and better than me,” she admitted with shame, her shoulders slumping forward. He almost took it as a compliment.
“Aye, you’re right, Rosetta.” He could tell she didn’t appreciate him agreeing with her by her hands tightening into fists, but he was already opening his mouth. “You’re too smart to fight a battle you know you can’t win.”
She brought her gaze to him, just as he carelessly dropped the pouch of coins from his hand. He heard it open and spill against the ground.
“Instead, you wrap your finger around men like me to get your way.”
He crossed the small space between them and reached down to grab her by the backs of her thighs. She let out a strange, adorable squeak when he forced her to hold onto his shoulders when he picked her up.
He held her legs around his waist. She was above him, and he looked up at her with that sense-stealing breath of distance between them.
“You’re far more dangerous, lass.”
His words were rewarded with a small smile, her hair curtained around his face as she leaned over him. “At least you have the brains to realise that.”
Apparently, he was an idiot in other ways, though.
She brought her hands up to hold the sides of his jaw and crashed her lips down onto his.
Shit. I almost walked away from her... again.
And what for? Because she wouldn’t come to his ship? Because he was too unseeing to realise she’d been afraid?
He held her to him as he kissed her, allowing her to remain above him since she locked her ankles around his torso. It seemed she enjoyed towering over his massive frame for once.
“Don’t think you’re going to get away with the shit you just pulled,” she said between kisses.
Alister winced. He could only imagine what that meant. “Then don’t leave me in the dark.”
She pulled her face away from his to give him an obvious glare. There wasn’t any real sharpness to it, though. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re mighty arrogant? You could at least say you’re sorry.”
“That word isn’t in my vocabulary.”
Her glare deepened, and he grinned. He stepped forward until his legs found a desk, then he lowered her back onto the polished wooden surface, its contents slipping off to hit the timber floor.
He lay over her and brought his teeth to her throat to nip it roughly, his tongue trailing over her tender flesh.
“Wait!” she half-giggled, half-yelled. “We can’t do this here.”
“Oh aye, we are.” He started turning her over when she released her hold on his waist to bring her legs between them. She was trying to force them apart – unsuccessfully. Alister laid her front against the desk. “Just like that first time.”
When he’d had her over his dinner table: the time that had started all this.
Because I still want her as much as I did then.
“And if you continue to come onto the ships we raid...” he told her, his lips drawing a sensual line over the crook of her shoulder and neck. The way her skin prickled with goosebumps made him grin.
Then he shoved one hand up to grab a fistful of long hair and yank her head back. The other pulled on the ties of her tights so he could slide them down to the middle of her thighs.
“Then this is what is going to happen every time.”
When she did exactly what she did last time, grinding her hips back against him, Alister let out a chuckle. Impatient wench.
“Would you like a knife to stab me with?” Alister asked while reaching down to unbutton his breeches as raw excitement thrummed through him. “Or would you prefer your pistol again?”