Page 11 of Tell No Tales
Tovey glanced at Vadim and quickened his pace toward the door.
Klaus dared his own gander at Vadim. "What's going on?"
Vadim placed his hands on the tabletop and stared at him with an unreadable gaze. "It's come to my attention you broke the sail bed last night."
Oh, gods. Klaus's pulse pounded in his ears. Vadim angry was one thing. Vadim cold and calm was worse. "I'm not your sailor anymore, Captain."
"No one said you were."
"Then why are you speaking to me like you're about to take away my rations for a day?"
"I'm speaking to you as the twenty-seven-year-old adult I know you to be."
Mentioning his age was completely unnecessary. Vadim did it whenever he felt Klaus was behaving like a brat, which was often, Klaus had to admit. Like now, Klaus was holding his breath, waiting for Vadim to ask the question he didn't know how to answer. Why had he tried to rip the sail down, and then asked Niall to help him when he wasn't strong enough to do it himself?
"May I have your word you won't cut the sail or make any other attempt to sabotage my bed?"
Not the question he'd expected. "Sabotage? That's harsh."
Klaus had wanted to sleep with Vadim. Hell, he'd done everything he could think of short of throwing himself at the guy to get him to have sex. And now Vadim thought he'd sabotaged his sail bed.
Vadim cleared his throat. "Answer the question."
"You have my word."
Vadim glanced around the empty galley. Codger Tim was the only sailor remaining. His scowl only deepened the creases in his grizzled face. The way he banged the pots and pans together while cleaning them told Klaus he wanted them to have this conversation somewhere else.
"If you want to share my bed," Vadim whispered, "the sail is big enough for both of us. With the way Stan has it anchored, it can't twist and trap you inside."
Klaus swallowed hard. Vadim knew too many of his fucking secrets. Sharing thoughts with the death weaver through their life link had guaranteed that.
"What do you mean, share your bed?" Was Vadim hinting he wanted something more? Klaus hated not knowing. Vadim had been far easier to understand when Klaus could hear his thoughts, too.
"Like last night. Back-to-back."
Klaus's shoulders sagged with disappointment, and he tried to hold in his sigh. "Another night of blue balls, then. I think I'll stick to my mattress, thank you very much."
"I have nothing against," the knot in Vadim's throat bobbed as he swallowed, "what you did last night."
"Nothing, as in you wanted no part in it."
Vadim's eyes blinked shut. He looked like he was counting backward from ten, something Klaus knew he did sometimes, thanks to their months of shared thoughts. Vadim had done it repeatedly while healing Klaus's throat after the wind weavers had gotten ahold of him onStarlight Specter. Had he done it in anger, or because Klaus was nearly naked after their swim? It was the first time Vadim had seemed slightly human to him. He'd been angry, yes, but he'd also been kind enough to suggest the bath instead of dousing Klaus with a bucket of cold seawater on deck.
Gods, since when did Klaus's mouth go dry wondering if a man liked him?
"I never said that." Vadim's whisper was so soft, Klaus almost missed it for all the banging and clanging from Tim.
"Maybe we should talk about this in our cabin." Klaus glanced over his shoulder at Tim, who glared back at him and clanged two clean pots together before shoving them into the cupboard.
"That's a good idea."
Vadim hopped to his feet, and his bench squawked to rival Tim's pans. Klaus half-expected Vadim to reach for him when they were even with each other, but Vadim slid his hands into his jacket pockets instead. His hair fluttered in his wake.
Gods, he was still one of the most handsome men Klaus had ever seen, even with his scars. No, the scar over his eye made him even more attractive, in Klaus's opinion, especially since he knew how it came to be there, and what Vadim had suffered when he'd received it. He and Vadim were survivors, likely the only thing they had in common.
Klaus didn't want a relationship with Vadim. He needed to purge Vadim from his thoughts so he could fixate on someone, anyone else. As they walked the short distance past the sail beds to their crate cabin, he tried to think of ways to bring it up, but nothing came to mind.
Fuck. Nothing he could say would convince Vadim to sleep with him. He was going to fail again, and then he'd end up sleeping alone on the mattress.
