Chapter 15 So Many Gay Pirates #2
“That’s a good dad,” Brody says. His commentary is surely being heard by everyone, but it doesn’t seem like anyone is reacting to it.
Matteo is just staring at the two of us silently.
“I asked you a question, Matteo,” Captain Crawford says. “I have watched you disrespect my son on two occasions, and I have held back because you are Rodri’s boy, but I want an answer from you.”
“I don’t have to answer you. Vincent has made his decision, and I’ve made mine,” he says before walking away.
“Matteo, I want to speak with you!” my father calls out.
Matteo shakes his head and steps off the ship, ignoring my father.
“He can’t do that, right? That was against pirate rules, wasn’t it?” Brody asks Michael.
My father steps in front of the two of us, looking quite solemn.
Shit, I’m so scared of what he’s gonna say right now. My heart is beating so fast.
Sivan takes my hand in his, interlocking our fingers.
Looking down at our hands, then back up to us, my father asks, “Have you two considered everything that goes along with combining crews? And are you sure this is what you want?”
He’s asking us about crews? He’s not even asking about us sleeping together? I’m so confused.
“We have,” I say. “We propose to patrol the seas in between the north and the south. We would like twenty-five crew members from each crew, along with an additional twenty-five from each, on reserve for special circumstances.”
“One more thing,” Sivan says. “We would also like to disclose our relationship to the crew members that are joining us, so they have a choice to refuse before agreeing.”
“Why would that be necessary?” Captain Crawford asks.
“With the way that Matteo responded to our relationship, we don’t want to chance other crew members sharing the same view as his,” Sivan explains. “We only want people to join us if they aren’t bothered by our relationship.”
“I’m surprised you would worry about that,” my father says. “The crew wouldn’t care who is sleeping with who. Do you two think you’re the only pirates sleeping together?”
“Told you there were probably a ton of gay pirates,” Brody says to Michael.
“Brody,” my father says turning toward him. “Do you always think out loud? We’re having a serious discussion here and you can’t be quiet for five minutes.”
Michael laughs. “Why do you think his father sent me here with him, instead of coming himself?”
Brody’s mouth drops open at that. “Excuse me. Is it such a punishment to be here with your husband? This is why no one else wants to work with you. You’re so judgy all the time.”
“You two are married?” Lyndon asks, pointing at the two.
“Been married for five years,” Brody says. “But Michael is gonna be sleeping on the couch tonight if you’re interested.”
Michael shakes his head at him. “I’ll sleep with the cats. Don’t threaten me with a night free of your snoring.”
“Captains,” Rooster says. “May I have permission to speak freely?”
I have no idea what Rooster is going to say, but I hope it’s not anything shitty. Lyndon squeezes his hand and gives him a smile. Oh, wait, are they together?
My father nods. “Everyone else here is speaking freely, go ahead.”
“Being in a long-distance relationship is extremely hard, and we don’t want to watch Vincent and Sivan suffer the way that we have.
We would like to offer our assistance with getting them acclimated to captaincy.
Of course, we will need to see where things go with, you know, the other situation, but when things are settled, we’d like to help them. ”
“More gay pirates,” Brody says with a smile.
I had no idea they were sleeping together, but it makes sense. Their clothes were all wrinkled, and I’m pretty sure Captain Crawford made a comment about it earlier.
Sivan squeezes my hand and kisses the side of my head. His father raises his eyebrows and smiles, nodding slowly.
“I can’t speak for Ray, but you have my permission to assist as needed, Rooster. Also, we can discuss a different arrangement if you two are in need of more time together. Let’s save that for later.”
“I agree, Lyndon,” Captain Crawford says. “Nothing is more important than being with the person you love. Neither of us would stand in the way of that.”
“These are good dads. They’re even good to their crew,” Brody says.
Michael nods. “As nice as this all is, we do need to sign the official paperwork, so we can be on our way. I have a date with my cats tonight, and I haven’t even told them about it. They may be too busy to watch TV with me.”
Brody gives him a shrug. “Guess we’ll see when we get home.”
The eight of us head down toward the office to sign our papers, and I’m feeling extremely relieved.
I can’t believe I was so afraid to tell our fathers, and afraid of what other people would think.
I’ve been such a coward because of the way Matteo responded to our relationship.
I let one person’s views make me afraid—how very stupid of me.
We’re holding hands, following behind Lyndon and Rooster. The ship is freshly painted, so the smell is a bit strong down here. The smell lets me know that this is real, though.
We turn the corner and walk into the office. It’s big, just as big as my father’s office. The room has a large wooden table in the center, and there are papers stacked neatly on it.
Lyndon separates the papers into two piles.
“Are you two sure this is what you want? You’ll be the first co-captains that I’ve ever heard of. Are you sure you can make it work?” Captain Crawford asks.
“I’m sure, Captain,” I say.
Sivan nods. “Me too.”
“I don’t know, Ray,” my father says in a playful voice. “I want to give them what they want, but we haven’t even discussed it.”
Captain Crawford laughs. “Yeah, right. We’ve only been discussing it non-stop for the past two days. I wonder if they think they hid their relationship from us over the past week, too?”
My father smirks. “Yeah, the lube on Sivan’s nightstand and the clothes on the floor, definitely went unnoticed.”
“Oh, or when Vincent causally rubbed Sivan’s cheek.” Captain Crawford grazes my father’s cheek with the back of his hand, and the two laugh uproariously. “Yeah, you guys were really fooling us,” Captain Crawford says.
“This is the best thing I’ve ever been a part of,” Brody says. “I’m so happy my dad assigned this to me.”
I’m happy his dad assigned it to him, too.
Having another couple here made me feel less afraid somehow.
Now I see that I had nothing to worry about, but at the end of the day, I’m grateful they were here.
I wish things had gone differently with Matteo, though.
Whether my dad adopted him or not, he’s still my brother.
Our fathers sign the papers that are required, and Sivan and I do the same.
Michael stamps a seal from inside his pocket on them and gathers the papers in his hand.
“Now, you’ve agreed to be responsible for each other, and you’ve agreed to honor the treaty, so all that’s left is for you to have your official ceremony. Which happens on Friday, correct?”
“Yes,” I say. “You two can come if you want.”
“Thank you for the invitation, but we can’t do that. It’s not personal, because we like you, but we have a job to do, and we can’t mix friendship with business. As a detective, my judgement begins to get clouded if I start to get involved in people’s personal lives.”
Brody smiles at us and adds, “But if you ever decide to get married, send us an invitation and we’ll definitely come to that.”
Michael shakes his head at him. “You’re going to get us in a lot of trouble one of these days.
We might not be allowed to do that. Before we go, I won’t stick my nose where it doesn’t belong, but I will say, I would be very careful with Matteo.
I won’t say any more about it, but given how nice you all are, I just wanted to offer that. ”
· · ·
Sivan and I decided to spend the night on his father’s ship after we finished the inspections.
We thought after everything that happened, we’d want to spend the night on one of our new ships, but without any of our stuff moved in yet, it felt kind of strange.
Also, as my father pointed out, without a crew there, anyone from Captain Slicer’s crew could easily board us in the middle of the night while we’re asleep.
We just finished brushing our teeth, and I’m waiting in bed for Sivan to finish up a phone call with his dad.
Sivan told me earlier that he and his dad have a feeling that Matteo is planning to defect.
But I can’t see that happening after everything my dad has done for him.
Besides, where would he go? I agree that he’s been a real asshole, but I can’t see him defecting.
“Alright. We’ll meet you guys there at eleven,” Sivan says on the phone, just before he ends the call. “Tattoos at eleven. I’m excited for them. Are you?” he asks me.
“I am! I wasn’t looking forward to them until we decided on a way to make them work for us. Now, I can’t wait.”
Sivan flips the lights off and lies in bed next to me. I tuck beside him, laying my head on his bare chest. “Today was such a crazy day,” I say, lightly tracing the muscles on his abs. “I can’t believe our dads knew we were together this whole time.”
He kisses the top of my head. “Yeah, and I can’t believe they actually agreed to let us join crews.”
“I’m so happy… I just, I wish my dad hadn’t texted Matteo to meet us on the ship. I wanted to try talking to him one more time.”
“It’s actually better that your dad texted him. I think he did that for you. He needed you to make the decision with Matteo there, so you wouldn’t regret it later on. It makes sense,” he says running his fingers along my arm.
“Once he started talking, I was pretty sure you were gonna punch him.”
“Well, he was acting like a little prick to you. Besides, he got a little too close to what’s mine. I didn’t like it,” he says.
My phone starts to vibrate on the nightstand, and when I grab it, I see that it’s a number I don’t recognize, so I just ignore it and send it to voicemail. No one that I know would ever call me, especially not at this time. It’s already 1:00am.
I flop back on the pillow, and Sivan climbs on top of me. He’s so damn gorgeous, and his hot hard body is pressed against mine. He kisses my forehead, then each cheek, and finally kisses my lips. “Hey,” he says softly, rubbing my cheek with his thumb.
“Hey,” I say, lifting my head to give him a quick kiss.
“Vincent, I am so happy with you. I’m so lucky that you want to be with me.” He presses his forehead against mine. “And I…am so in love with you.”
I swallow hard, trying to find the right words to say. Hearing my best friend who’s never believed in love, say those words to me, is the best feeling I’ve ever felt. “I am crazy in love with you, too.”
Sivan kisses me deeper than before, and the connection I feel when his tongue touches mine is more than physical—I need him on a spiritual level. I feel the love I have for him in every part of my soul. There is nothing I won’t do for him.
“I don’t know if you really understand what you’ve done to me,” he says. “Love has made me crazy, possessive, and desperate. I crave your touch; I thirst only for the taste of you.” He runs his finger down my chest. “The things I want to do to you…”
“Show me.”