Page 15 of Of Magic and Rum
Pure rage and confusion dance in those emerald eyes.
Leaning in, I press a forearm above her head, the same way Mary had, but she reacts much differently tome. “You think I don’t know what’s happening on my own ship, lovely?”
“Then why didn’t you say somethingsooner?” She asks through gritted teeth, neck flushing pink and bottom lip quivering.
I blanch. “What? And spoil the surprise? You being a woman was fairly obvious. Thank your mother for those curves.”
She says nothing, her throat bobbing and her body tilting away the best she can with a wooden barrel pressed to her lower back behind her.
“You see, gents,” I bark over my shoulder before flicking the woman’s hat off, revealing luscious long red tendrils. My throat tightens, my limbs going heavy, but I quickly recover. “We have another woman on board.”
Thisis the woman from the tavern—the one Vane had been speaking with when we first arrived. This is working out far better than I had previously planned.
Gasps, maniacal laughter, and catcalls float across the deck from the crew behind us.
The rage in the woman’s eyes morphs into an inferno, and she lifts a defiant chin. “You can’t just hand me over.”
“Can’t I?” I reposition, making my face dip closer to hers. “Out of the two of us—” Using my thumb, I point it to her and then myself. “—who’s stealing a free ride on the other’s ship?”
Her jaw tightens, and she forces her eyes away from me, saying nothing because shecan’t.
“Precisely. So, Miss—” Using a finger on her cheek, I coax her attention back to me. “I’m sure you know my name by now, but if I may, what’s yours?”
She sucks a sharp breath through her petite nose. “Anne Bonny.”
A chill settles over my skin. Not quite so “someone walked over my grave” but more along the lines of “a sensual fingernail grazing my spine” type of sensation. I wince but shake it off, focusing on the task at hand.
“Well, Anne, my dear, if you don’t wish to be marooned on the next island we come across, and that would be merciful versus tossing you overboard—” I pause to watch the tick in her cheek before continuing. “—then you’ll do what I say.”
Her hand edges toward the dagger hugging her hip, and I slap it, not losing eye contact with her.
“You’re a vile human being,” she seethes, those mouse-like nostrils flaring.
I’ve been calledfarworse.
Smirking, I rub some of her hair between two fingers, surprised by how soft it is considering it’s been shoved under a hat for lord knows how long. “A sentiment you share regarding pirates with most of the world.”
“You thought I was referring to you being a pirate, did you?” Her eyes are unfaltering, challenging me with a heated stare.
It lights my veins onfire. Anne Bonny is a powder keg.
I let only a deep chuckle rumble from my chest before turning away from her. “Let’s give the crew the good news.”
The sound of her fingers brushing her shirt, reaching for that goddamned dagger, resonates in my ear, and I slap her knuckles again.
“Try that again, and I may just have to lop your pretty little hand off.” I drag a hand over her wrist, threatening where I’d make the cut.
She snaps it away with a grimace, rolls her shoulders, and lets them slump.
“Crew, we have a vote to make,” I make my voice boom loud enough for the whole ship to hear. “I propose we give Vane Anne here as a peace offering. Now, before you vote no, hear this—” Raising a finger, I prepare to bring it home. “Vane already has an interest in this woman. Propositioned her at the tavern in Nassau, and the saucy redhead turned himdown.”
I inferredallof this from the haughty way Vane had left Anne’s table and the extra cork up his ass when he saw me. Given Anne’s light growl behind me, I hit the target on the nose.
“This be an easy one,” one man says, raising his hand.
The rest of the crew echoes his movement.
“One to save the few, eh?” A man jokes.
