Chapter 18
Alister was jolted awake by someone loudly bashing at his cabin door.
Since he’d fallen asleep in the middle of the bed, when he quickly sat up because of the noise, his face was covered by his hammock.
He thought he’d find Rosetta next to him. Then he remembered she hated his bed and refused to sleep in it. He often woke with this sensation.
I should have moved us to my hammock. She would have stayed with him then, and he’d come to like her waking in his arms.
He slapped the hammock out of his way as he crawled forward to sit on the edge of his bed, palming his forehead with both his hands.
I haven’t felt this hungover in years. Not since the death of his father, to be precise. It hadn’t helped that he’d been the holder of the pistol that shot him, even though his father had asked Alister for the mercy of a quick death.
Afterwards, he had drunk himself into a state that night, guzzling booze until he was numb. The splitting headache he had now, alongside a mouth so dry his tongue felt like sandpaper, told him he’d drunk far too much.
“Stop bashing!” he yelled at the door when the person wouldn’t cease. He knew it must not be Pierre or Derek, because either one of them would have just waltzed in by now. “I’m getting up!”
It quietened immediately.
Looking around the brightness in his cabin, he knew it must be mid-morning. He’d gotten up later than he should have.
He reached for his breeches to put them on. Despite how much moving made his head throb, he also reached for one boot at a time, lifting his leg into the air to shove his foot inside.
He had duties to perform.
Just as he was about to reach for his tunic, the door burst open and Pierre ran inside.
“Bloody hell!” He grabbed the empty bottle next to the bed and threw it at the wall, making his first mate nearly jump out of his boots. Alister hated being woken, and definitely hated it more when he was disturbed right afterwards. “What do you all want?”
He’d told the men yesterday they wouldn’t be moving for a day or two to give them a break. They should all be resting, not waking him up so violently. They’d put him in a sour mood. After last night, he should have woken up elated and satisfied.
Rosetta had been like a dream.
She’d given him everything he wanted, as long as he didn’t go too hard. She hadn’t pleaded for him to stop, hadn’t said she was too tired, hadn’t started to pass out. She’d taken all of him and returned it with just as much fiery passion.
Pierre’s breaths were huffed, as though he’d run to Alister’s door.
“It’s gone,” he said, shaking his head in disbelief.
His brows furrowed. “What’s gone?”
“Alister...” Pierre ran his hand over his blond hair, his face torn like he was filled with unimaginable anxiety. It was even pale. “Their ship is gone!”
His eyes widened. “What?”
Despite being partially undressed, he ran straight for the door, pushing him out of the way as he burst into eye-piercing sunlight. He turned his head from side to side, searching the horizon, and couldn’t see the Laughing Siren.
He stumbled back a step like he’d been punched in the gut. She’s gone...
Rosetta had finally sailed away from Alister.
Fuck... He placed his hand on top of his head. Why?
Why did Rosetta leave? But last night... It couldn’t have been because she was bored of him.
The woman who had ridden him, moaned beneath him all night, had definitely not been a woman tired of sleeping with him.
His hand fell away when understanding crashed into him. It had been a goodbye.
She’d been intending to leave and wanted to give him something as a sweet memory. She’d gotten him drunk on purpose, so he wouldn’t wake while she left.
As much as her leaving upset him, there was one other problem...
“Our supplies!” he roared, turning to Pierre with so much fury, it spooked even him.
Rosetta had most of their supplies.
“Look down there!” someone shouted, pointing down the side of his ship and into the water.
Alister ran to look over the railing, his hands slapping against it when he got there. His hair whisked forward over his shoulders as he looked down.
Next to a rowboat attached by rope to the side of the hull were barrels. Inside the boat were crates, chickens in their cages, and her goat Reginald that unhappily bleated up at them. There were at least ten barrels floating next to it.
She gave us our supplies. She’d done as she promised.
It made him feel worse. She really intended for this to be it, leaving in the middle of the night without saying a word and giving him no reason to chase after her.
How long has she been planning this? Until we got to this location?
He turned back to his cabin, quickly making his way to the safe to check it. When he opened the door, he could see a stack of ten coins at the very front that he hadn’t put there.
She knew I’d check to see if she stole from me. He could see she hadn’t. Those ten coins were an obvious message. Cheeky bitch.
Unable to help himself, he went back outside, as if he needed to double check that her ship really was gone. A vacant horizon greeted him. He’d been hoping it would suddenly appear.
“Why did no one wake me earlier?”
It was mid-morning, for crying out loud! They couldn’t have left more than a few hours ago, and he might have seen her on the horizon, would have known which way she’d gone.
“The hatch was locked,” someone told him.
Most of his crew was on the main deck, wondering just as much as he at what had happened.
“So was our room,” Derek added. “Been trying to get out of it for hours.”
“Then how the hell did you all get free?”
Rosetta had locked them all in except for Alister.
Someone from the back raised their hand. “I was asleep in the crow’s nest.” She must not have known.
Alister greeted his eyes with his own and the man turned away at the expression he was wearing.
She fucking left. She’d left him, and Alister didn’t like the way it felt, didn’t like that her ship wasn’t next to his, that he didn’t know where she was.
He ran his hand down his face in frustration.
Shit! He covered his blind eye with his hand, heading for his room once more so he could finish dressing. He couldn’t believe he’d greeted his crew without a shirt or his eye patch. He quickly donned them both.
“What do you want to do?” Pierre asked when he emerged, glaring out at the world with a vengeance.
“Nothing,” he spat.
Rosetta had left. She was done with him. He wouldn’t chase after a woman who didn’t want him anymore, despite how much he wanted to.
“But Alister.” Pierre reached forward and put his hand on his shoulder to turn him.
He had to clench his hands into tight fists to stop himself from punching or backhanding the man. Rage had settled in, and he refused to take out his anger on his own men.
“What?”
“You like her.”
Humour crinkled his eyes as a bellow of a laugh fell from him. “Nay, I don’t. I liked taking her hole.” He shook his head, his laughter turning dark. “Why would I like a devious, hot-headed, annoying, cunt of a fucking woman?”
She never listened to me. Never did what she was told. She got under his skin so much he yelled at her all the time.
That lying nature of hers made her dangerous.
He had to constantly be vigilant around her. He never knew what was truth and what was lie, which is why she’d probably gotten him so plastered he couldn’t have figured out she was planning to leave.
I should have known. Now that she was gone, the signs were obvious.
She was a whore. Not in her past – he didn’t care about that. But she would have freely taken other men in Tortaya despite being with Alister. She would have cheated him out of his fun before he was ready.
He opened his mouth to continue badmouthing her, wanting to vent his anger, but he eventually closed it.
If he truly felt this way, that there were parts of her he should truly and utterly hate, then why did he still want to go after her?
He should hate her, despise her even. So why didn’t a single shred of the emotion hit him?
“Shit, lad.” His eyes widened further than they ever had. He stumbled back a step, as though he’d been punched in the gut once more. “You’re right. I like her.”
It had never been about what she could give him, do for him. Alister liked her.
The way she looked was stunning. It was those blue eyes that bewitched him, how they changed between lightness and darkness, reminding him of the different depths of the ocean.
Her freckles were wild. They splattered across her face like mud to make her appear dirty in a wicked way that often got him excited. Her nose was small, making her appear cute. Her lips were plump, soft, and so pouted he’d been addicted to kissing them.
Her body was a sin – curved but toned from years of hard work. The way the soft parts had squished in his meaty hands had felt sublime. His thumbs had constantly wanted to press into her muscles in small, appreciative massages.
Even just her brown hair, often messy and knotted, had tantalised him. He’d liked it slipping across his skin.
There had been something about the way she smelt that near felled him every time he was close to her. The perfume that made him feel comforted had just been a pleasant addition.
The way she talked was crude. She spoke like a man, and it gave him freedom to never hold his own tongue. He didn’t have to watch what he said, how he said it, like he would have with a fancy woman.
There was a deep yell she’d do when calling out commands to her men that had been ugly, but he’d always grinned because it made them listen. She would demand obedience, and she’d get it.
And that laugh... That horrible laugh that made her sound like an animal being strangled to death. It somehow made his stomach tighten in want whenever he heard it.
But it was her personality that ran circles around him that had drawn him in. He never knew which way was up or down.
He respected her as a captain, was proud of the brutal pirate she was... because she was just like him.
She was smart, cunning, and had tricked him so many times, it put him to shame. She was so strong, in every aspect, that she didn’t need his help with anything. She knew what she needed to do, even if it was to step back and let others do the work for her.
He’d thought it was the sex, her pussy, and he’d wanted the way it scrambled his mind, yet it had never been this good with others.
It was because it was with her, with Rosetta, who was wild, playful, and sometimes even defiant because she knew it made him more crazed. She stroked his mind and body to such a feverish degree that he’d often felt burned.
She’s like the sea. Untameable. Uncontrollable. Something that looked pretty but was deeper and darker than he would ever be able to see or touch.
Alister had wanted to drown in her, had been trying to do just that. He’d wanted to be swallowed by everything she could give him, not understanding it had been all of her.
He had been lost in those crashing waves constantly throwing his resolve around.
It was the risk, the freedom, the strange adventure he’d gone on with her, not just with their ships, but the secret battle they’d shared.
She was like the sea, and just like the ocean waters, he wanted to dominate her, even though he knew he never could. He wanted to control her, even knowing it was impossible. He could never command her, and like the waves and the wind, he had to steady himself through her force.
He finally understood why he couldn’t seem to get enough of her. It’s because he never would have.
Something had been growing inside him, something he had thought was physical but had actually been an emotion deep down that he didn’t understand.
He still didn’t understand.
To come to this realisation now... His face crumpled and his shoulders sagged in what he thought might be grief.
She left me. Him. She had cast him to the side like he was nothing. But Alister didn’t know how to navigate sadness, and he instead turned it to anger. She left me!
How dare she fucking leave! Without a word, without a reason why.
Without giving him the chance to change her mind.
That woman wants me. He knew it deep down to his very bones. If she hadn’t given him a sweet goodbye, he might have thought differently. I will have her back.
Alister stomped his way to the quarterdeck railing to greet his men. “How would you all feel if I chased after her?”
He wanted to more than anything, a need even greater than finding Dustin’s trove, but he wouldn’t send his men on a wild goose chase without their permission.
One of them cupped his mouth to make his voice louder. “We’d call you an idiot if you didn’t.”
A menacing chuckle broke from his chest.
“Aye, then. Let’s go find the lass. Bring those supplies onto the ship and weigh the anchors!” As much as he wanted to let his men rest, knowing they were tired and probably just as hungover as him, he wasn’t going to let her get far. “Hoist the sails! Let’s get this ship moving!”
Moving to stand behind the helm, he narrowed his eyes on the horizon, determined to see her ship.
“Where’s our heading?” Pierre asked, coming up beside him as they waited for the crew to unfurl the sails.
“She’ll go to somewhere she’s familiar with.”
“Tortaya?”
“Aye, Tortaya.” He looked at Pierre out of the corner of his eye. “She won’t expect that I’ll go after her.”
“She probably left because she cares for you and got scared.”
That could be a real possibility, one he hadn’t considered. Did I realise too late that I care for her? He wondered if Pierre was right.
He hadn’t shown her he might reciprocate her feelings. If he hadn’t been so ignorant, so arrogant, so bloody stupid, would Rosetta still be here?
But she didn’t tell him, either. She chose to run away like a coward.
Then again, Alister could only imagine how he might have reacted if she’d told him how she felt before he realised what he felt himself. I would have immediately rejected her. Then she would have left anyway, probably in shame or embarrassment, and he would have still realised this far too late.
But I would have watched her sail away. He would have realised and been able to go after her before she was truly gone.
The anchors were pulled from the water, the sails unfurled. He needed to steer his ship as it started moving.
It took him longer than it should have to realise... one of his rings was missing.