Page 16 of Take No Prisoners
The hairs raised on the back of his hand, and a spark jolted between his fingers and the captain's arm.
"Oy!" The captain stepped back, rubbing the fresh burn mark. "He did that to me on the naval vessel, too. You're saying he's using my magic against me?"
"It's the opposite of your magic. He's using your magic to call lightning."
"Like Hannah." The captain looked pleased, though he still absently rubbed the spot where Niall had burned him. "Do you think we could train him to use all the elements?"
"Coryn's counting on it," Vadim said. "We need to beat her to it, or we won't have an empire to save."
While the captain locked Vadim back in his crate, Niall shivered at the easy way General Coryn's name rolled off Vadim's tongue. The death weaver had been working with her for years. He'd turned Niall's parents over to her and watched them hang.
"Do you trust him?" Niall asked the captain as they walked in the opposite direction they'd come, further into the hold.
Captain Efren turned to him with a frown and a shrug. He continued down a narrow hall into a wider space where sail hammocks hung to either side of a steel door. "There are no empty sails for sleeping until the day. You're welcome to my bunk until I return in the morning. I'll be sailing tonight."
"You mentioned sharing, earlier." Niall wished he'd been awake enough, and forward enough, to suggest what he now wanted: a nice tumble until they were both exhausted.
"We can take different shifts, aye."
Niall may have missed his first chance, but he would take this one. He cocked his head to the side, letting his spill of brown hair cover one eye in a way some men found appealing. "What if you found me in your bed tomorrow morning when you returned from duty?"
The captain studied the ceiling, as though judging the distance between the sails. In Niall's opinion, there wasn't enough room to hang another sail where it wouldn't interfere with the well-stacked cargo.
"I would tell you to get your lazy ass up and make yourself useful on deck," the captain finally said.
Niall's chest ached from disappointment, but he didn't let it stop him from giving the captain a coquettish smile and a wink. "You might change your mind in the morning."
Gods, he was such a fool to think a line like that would work on a pirate captain who looked like an angel, but the tinge of pink visible above Captain Efren's beard gave him hope.
Chapter 5
Efren
"You might change your mind in the morning."
Efren had changed his mind at least ten times while he navigated the moonlit waters. He wished he could retract his flippant statement about sharing his bunk with Niall, but it was too late. It had been too long since he had flirted with anyone, if he could call it that, or since anyone had flirted with him. Niall had definitely been flirting, and Efren was out of practice.
With a cargo hold full of sailors and all the sails filled with pirates now that Stan and Tovey were fighting instead of sharing, Niall was either sharing Efren's bunk at night or sleeping in the hold during the day, which got damned hot the further north they sailed. Olivia was already sharing her sail with the two children. There was nowhere else to put Niall, unless he wanted a crate next to Vadim's. That seemed cruel and unnecessary for a man who'd done nothing wrong beyond trying to save two children from a sinking ship.
Efren checked the ship's progress against the stars and steered them toward Aquarion. Then, he had too much time to wonder what Niall had meant. Did he want Efren to fall into bed with him after Olivia relieved him of duty? Or was it a jest? Or was Efren so out of practice that he'd misunderstood completely?
No, Niall had been flirting, with his head tilted so his hair covered one eye as he licked his full lips. Efren wanted to see those lips wrapped around his cock, but the young man deserved better than an old pirate captain with a broken heart.
Olivia startled him when she appeared at his side. He'd missed the sunrise while he'd been lost in thought.
"You look like you've been worrying over something all night."
The two children ran ahead of her, racing to the railing to feel the spray of the waves. The seas were choppy from the wind, but the sky was still clear above them and as far as the eye could see.
"Do you have any chores for the young man in my bunk?" he asked.
Olivia grinned. "I can think of a few things you should do with him, if that's what you mean. He looked completely smitten with you."
"When?" This was news to Efren.
"When you first told him to jump to the ship. Again yesterday evening when he came on deck to watch the sunset. That's what he claimed he was doing, but we're headed north, and he spent far more time watching you."
Efren shook his head and hardened his resolve. Niall was good looking, but Efren didn't have time for a relationship, and he didn't do tumbles. Not anymore.
