Chapter 13
Rosetta woke slowly in very dim light, the sun just touching the horizon, calling to her.
She let her eyes lazily peek open to stare at the tunic-covered chest her cheek was currently squished on top of. Then her gaze drifted across Alister’s sleeping cabin that held his desk on one side, a dining table in another corner, and his bed just a metre below them.
This room wasn’t as big as her navigation room and looked worn and untidy. It had always been darker, since the windows were aged and stained with time and grime.
Her gaze returned to him, sleeping on his back, an arm crossed behind his head with the other around her. His hand was curled over her hip, and it gave her the opportunity to examine the ring he’d showed her.
How did he convince me to do this?
Currently, their legs were entangled, each with a knee between the other’s, and Rosetta was half lying on top of him. Although she was completely inside the hammock they were in, he had a leg hanging outside it.
It had been no easy feat getting inside it together.
He’d needed to get in before her, and she had to jump on top of him. He’d covered his precious groin but told her he didn’t care if she kneed and elbowed him otherwise, as long as she got in and made herself comfortable.
She didn’t think she would be able to sleep properly with her dress on, but she’d managed to drift off rather quickly.
How am I supposed to get out without waking him? Maybe this had been his way of making sure she couldn’t escape like she usually did when she woke before him.
Then again, he looked rather content and comfortable. She was as well. It was a cocoon of warmth and strength. Even though he looked as though he was about to fall out, she knew he wouldn’t.
Tentatively, she raised her hand to brush her fingertips over the eyelashes of his blind eye.
The hand on her side shot forward like it usually did when she touched his face when he was sleeping. He rarely ever woke, but it meant she’d never been able to pull that eye patch off before.
Eventually his arm fell away, but she watched his eyelids flicker open, showing her both of them. She thought, because she’d touched it directly, that might be the reason he woke this time.
“Hey, lass,” he greeted with a rumbling voice filled with groggy sleep. Her stomach quivered in response to its husky sound. “It’s too early for me to deal with your shit.”
Then he shoved her head against his chest. He also kicked the leg hanging from the hammock, so it started to swing, as if to rock them. He laid his head back once more and closed his eyes.
“Go back to sleep.”
“If you keep me here against my will,” she whispered, “you’ll regret it.”
“Will I now?” he asked with humour, his lips quirking upward.
He brought his leg into the hammock and turned over, curling his arms around her head and upper back to hold onto her. His embrace was warm, cushioned by relaxed and squishy muscles surrounding her.
She let him sleep just a little longer, waiting for his breaths to turn light and even. He looks so soft when he’s asleep. Boyish, even. It was a shame she was about to ruin that.
She bit his chest hard, making him flinch back awake.
“Shit, Rosetta!” He grabbed her hair and yanked her head back. “What the hell is your problem?”
“Told you you’d regret it.”
He rolled back over, putting them into the position they’d been in when she’d first woken up.
“You’re bloody right about that.”
“Does that mean you’re awake now?”
“Oh, aye! Not really how I wanted to wake up, but sure, I’m awake.”
She let out a loud giggle. “Good, because I wasn’t going to lie here bored.”
“Well, you could have touched my dick instead of biting me. Both would have woken me just the same.”
She’d known he was hard, since it had been pressing against her all morning. She thought biting him might make him go soft, and she’d been hoping for that. Rosetta had been recovering, and their moment of intimacy had made that harder. She still felt twinges, which should be gone by midday.
“Maybe next time,” she teased, letting a playful smile fill her face.
His grumpy face turned grumpier. “Nay, because this is the first time I’ve gotten you into my hammock. When we’re back out at sea, you’re not going to come to my ship.”
Rosetta shook her head, knowing she needed to save the morning she’d basically destroyed.
“I trust my crew now. If the few who don’t want to sail with me don’t return today, I’ll know those who do want me as their captain. I’ll be more comfortable moving between our ships from now on.”
His brows knitted together, his eyes moving over her face to inspect it, as though trying to see if she was lying.
“Is that one of the reasons you wanted to make port?”
“Mhm.” She nodded for emphasis. “If the men return, I shouldn’t have to worry about them anymore.”
“Does that mean you’ll sleep in my ship with me sometimes?”
She pointed to the bed beneath them.
“Never in that. It feels like a block of bricks.” She reached up to play with the ties of his tunic with a little pout. “But I guess I didn’t mind being in the hammock with you. It’s very warm.”
“Aye, lass.” He chuckled with a grin. “That’ll do.”
Rosetta didn’t like the way she felt when she stared at his face for too long; strange emotions bubbled up into her throat.
Instead of letting herself melt in them, she tried to direct herself away by either averting her gaze or starting a conversation.
So, when it happened while lying with him, she reached up and brushed her fingertips over his eyebrow.
“How did you lose your sight? It doesn’t look like the blade really cut your eye.”
“Nay. It only just nicked it, but it, uh, got infected. With no doctor on board, there was no way to save my sight as it slowly got blurrier and blurrier. I woke up one morning and all I saw was black. We just focused on trying to make sure it stayed intact.” He placed his hand over the side of his face.
“The pain was excruciating. I thought it was going to pop right out of my skull.”
She lifted his tunic to look at the scars crossing over his abdomen. “Healed all your scars the same way, huh? How’s that working out for you, Alister ‘One Eye’ Paine?”
“I believe there should be a captain in there somewhere.”
“Nay, lad. Only good captains get to be called one.”
“That’s it!” He started to push her. “Time for you to get the hell out of my bed, you foul wench.”
She held onto it with a death grip, but he was moving himself on purpose, so he eventually fell onto the bed below.
“That’s one way to do it,” she said, curling her chin over the edge to look down at him.
“You’re lucky I’m in a good mood this morning. Otherwise, you’d be regretting this.”
“Oh yeah,” she scoffed, her tone mocking. “You’re a real ray of sunshine.”
“Aye, and you’re a fucking sunflower.”
She gave a laugh until she realised she didn’t really understand what he meant. She decided not to dwell on it.
As he crawled to get to his feet and find his boots, Rosetta rolled out of the hammock to put her own on. Then Alister approached her with his hand out flat. “Need my eye patch.”
“Oh.” Rosetta averted her gaze. “I, um, lost it?”
“What do you mean, you lost it?”
She turned her gaze back to him and nearly cringed.
“Oops?” She watched his eyes widen in horror. “Don’t you have another?”
“Not one as good! It’s the only comfortable one I had.”
“You don’t need it.” She tried to smile reassuringly for him, using the same words from last night. “You look fine without it.”
“That’s because you’re pretty, Rosetta! You don’t know what it’s like.
” He shoved his hand through her hair, gliding over her cheek and then back to cup her head.
He brought her closer. “It’s never been about what I look like; I don’t give a shit what people think.
I just hate the way they stare at it, the pity I receive! ”
She didn’t know what made her gasp.
The fact that he was angry? The way he grabbed her, aggressive but tender? The compliment he’d given? Or was it the real reason why he’d never shown her before?
“What more do you want me to say? I’m sorry.”
His lips pursed together in annoyance.
“I know when you lost it.” He bit out a curse she couldn’t distinguish. “It was when we were in the shrouds. So it’s really my fault.”
“Sure is!” She grinned, making him snap his head to her with a scowl. “Anyway, we’ve got ships to get ready.”
He grumbled and went to the drawer of his desk. He pulled out a different black eye patch, one that laid against his eye rather than giving it room by being convex.
They parted so she could go back to her own ship.
After calling out for Naeem a handful of times and finding he still hadn’t returned, she let out a long groan of frustration.
He’s supposed to be helping me with the ship!
She stomped her way back across the deck and down the gangplank, ready to kick his ass when she saw him.
When she found one of Alister’s men on the boardwalk, she grabbed him by the scruff and pulled him closer. “Tell that captain of yours if he goes looking for me that I had to go to find Naeem.”
“Ah.” He held his hands up in surrender. “He’s not here at the moment.”
That made her frown. She let go of his tunic.
“Where did he go?”
The man gave a shrug. “Not sure. Said he’ll be a few hours.”
Well, good. It gave her a few hours as well; hopefully, she’d beat him back. She didn’t want to hear him berate her because she wasn’t getting her ship together.
She stopped by the leatherworker first, needing to buy a few things she hadn’t the previous day.
I forgot I need gloves. Winter was coming; she hated holding the wheel of her ship and having her hands freeze.
She’d been planning to run off and do it while Naeem got her ship and crew started anyway.
Plus, she had an extra errand she was hoping to slip in as well.
“How long until it’s ready?”
“For you, Rosetta? Give me an hour.”