Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 144411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
“He does seem like a good lad,” I tell her. “Very polite.”
“Aye and we all take turns schooling them too. Ramsay’s especially taken a liking to Henry.”
“I can see that,” I comment, remembering the look on Ramsay’s face when Aerik was threatening to kill him.
“So,” she says, drawing out the word as she fixes her green eyes on me. “What are your plans for the near future? Since you don’t seem to be a hostage anymore.”
I run my fingers over the tooth on my necklace. “I don’t know. To be true with you, I’ve never felt this free in my whole entire life, and yet…”
“And yet you feel a calling to this ship. You feel a calling to the captain.”
I can’t help but nod, wishing I could tell her the whole story. “I do. But…I had a family and a life before I met Prince Aerik. A life that I haven’t been a part of in ten years. I’d like to go visit it while I can.”
“I’m sure Bones will take you there.”
I weigh that. “I think he would. Eventually. But what if I end up going where he can’t follow?”
“Then it sounds like you’re going to have to make a choice when that time comes.”
Yes, but it’s a choice that I can never come back from. If I get the spell reversed and my fins back from Edonia, I won’t ever be able to live on land again. I won’t have legs. I’ll have to live under the sea and even though Ramsay can survive under there for a short time, I would never make any human—any creature—live that way in order to be with me. It would be cruel. Plus, to take Ramsay away from his ship, I could never. And he’d never choose that either.
You don’t even know if he’d choose you at all, I remind myself. There’s no point even entertaining the idea. Just because you bedded him a couple of times and he’s had some of your blood doesn’t mean the two of you are destined for something more than lust. Besides, he has a thing for witches and perhaps it’s no accident that the gorgeous Nerissa is caged in his quarters and you’re the one sleeping alone.
Suddenly I spot a movement of orange fur on the deck and I’m grateful for the distraction.
“Skip!” I call out to the feline who is padding along the base of the rail.
“Oh that cat never listens to anyone,” Sam says under her breath.
But Skip looks at me, meows, and then starts sauntering over in that easy way of his. He’s starting to remind me of Ramsay, self-assured and inclined to make you wait.
“Well I’ll be,” Sam says as Skip comes right under my hands and I lightly rake my nails over his back.
“Animals love me,” I tell her, beaming, running my hand up the cat’s silky tail.
“And that includes the captain,” she says.
My heart skips a beat in my chest and I clear my throat, feeling something light growing inside me. “The captain loves his crew and he loves his ship.”
“And he’s capable of loving more things than that. Even a former hostage, former princess, former thorn in his side.”
I roll my eyes and jab her lightly with my elbow, which makes her giggle.
Suddenly laughter peals out from the lads and we look over to see that Ramsay has carved what looks like a very giant phallic object out of the wood. They’re all laughing as he holds it up, Lucas and Henry the guffawing loudest of all, while Thane just shakes his head in disappointment.
“Oh, dear,” Sam says tiredly with a shake of her head. She gets off the box and then pulls me up to my feet beside her, holding my hand in hers as she leads me to the men and boys.
“You do all realize that you’re showing off a giant cock in the company of a princess,” Sam says as we stop below them and she holds up my arm, gesturing to me with flourish.
“Aye but she’s a princess in her undergarments,” Henry giggles at me.
Ramsay’s mouth drops. “Henry,” he admonishes him, trying not to laugh. “It’s impolite to point that out to a royal.”
Thane lets out a dry snort. “I wager the princess is no longer phased by such things,” he says. “Every time I see her, she’s one step closer to becoming a pirate. You best get her to come to our side, brother, or it will be harder to return her to proper society.”
I lock eyes with Ramsay at that and he holds my gaze and I’m momentarily sucked into the storm in the dusky blue.
Do you want me on your side? I think. Are we even on the same side?
I can’t read his eyes in response. But I know when he looks at me like this, with such intensity, he’s seeing all of me, even the parts I’m used to hiding. And whether it’s something I’m ashamed of or not, he sees it.