Page 95 of Take No Prisoners
"I told Vadim it could go wrong if his pirate captain attacked us." Klaus's gaze turned wolfish. "So, what's going on between you and high and mighty Captain Efren, anyway?"
"High and mighty?"
"He seems like an insufferable goody-two-shoes, especially when Vadim talks about their past."
"He's kind," Niall began. "He could have let Vadim's ship sink with us as casualties of war, but he gave us time to escape."
"He's hot." Klaus winked. "The entire crew knows you've slept with him. Out with it. I want all the details. Did you find someone else while I was gone, or was he your first?"
Niall's face burned. Klaus had always been more experienced and adventurous, even before he'd taken his first job at the pleasure house. He was also Niall's closest friend and knew all his secrets. "My first."
"Any good?"
Klaus's usual response to a question about his bed partner's prowess had been, "Not good enough to tie me down."
Instead, Niall answered, "I'm not looking for anyone else, if that's what you mean."
Klaus's eyes widened. "That's it? He's the one for you?"
"If he'll have me, yes." Niall felt dizzy from all the blood rushing to his head and neck, and he couldn't meet Klaus's intense gaze anymore. "I think he's still hung up on Vadim."
"Vadim." Klaus snorted. "If he knew half of Vadim's thoughts about him, he wouldn't be. Vadim thinks the good captain's moral compass is wound a little too tight."
"So what if it is?" Niall didn't see that as a bad thing. It meant Efren would always want to do what's right.
"Vadim needs a man who can overlook a little rule-bending from time to time."
"Someone like you?" Niall risked a look at Klaus.
It was the seeker's turn to redden across the bridge of his nose. "Maybe. We've got to get out of here, first."
"What time is it?" Niall asked.
"Midnight?" Klaus hopped up on his knees to look out the port hole. "I can't see the right stars to know."
"We should try to sleep."
"You can take the cot, if you want."
"I'm used to sleeping on the floor." Niall thought back to the makeshift bed on the floor of the pottery shop. "Well, I was. Now, I might be spoiled."
Klaus lay on the cot, his legs stretched over the edge of the mattress at an angle because the cot was too short for his frame.
On the floor, Niall slid underneath and used its anchors to the side of the ship to hold him in place.
It seemed like only minutes had passed before Klaus was shaking his shoulder. "Wake up!"
Niall had removed a cuff sometime in his sleep, which had allowed him to lay flat on his back. He regretted being so comfortable the moment his forehead banged against the underside of the cot. "Ow."
"We've slowed down to approach the island. There's a narrow inlet, the only approach to the beach. It's too shallow and narrow to approach any time but high tide. Vadim says they'll be waiting for us in the open water. He wants you to disable the ship once it's entered the inlet. That will make it impossible for other ships to pass until they've cleared the wreckage."
From the gray light shining through the port window, it was almost dawn. "When is high tide?"
"Vadim says it will be around mid-morning, ten or so."
"We have time to sleep, then."
Klaus laughed. "I thought I was the sleepyhead. Our breakfast just arrived."
