Page 100 of Another Damned Pirate

She was silent for a beat before turning to take in the ship. “How did you learn about all this?” She waved a hand, encompassing the vessel and crew. “Were you like the Patron Saint of Sailors before you ended up here?”

An unexpected chuckle shook my chest. “No, but I’ve always had ties to the sea. My mother was Haliae, a goddess of the sea.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think I’ve heard of her.”

“She made it a point to go unnoticed.”

“So, that’s where the glowing eyes and healing powers came from?” She smirked up at me. “What about your dad? Was he a human?”

A little of my humor drained away. “He was a titan.”

Her head ticked the tiniest bit. “I thought titans were gods, too. I mean, that’s how I learned it in school.”

“They are.”

“Wouldn’t that make you… a god? Not a demigod?”

I took a moment to let my gaze drift out across the water toward those looming clouds. After so much time had passed, one would think the embarrassment and disgrace that came with being disowned would fade. I’d managed to bury it long ago, but it was still there, and now it came roaring back.

“When I was cast out and cursed to this place, my father disowned me. An act that included stripping me of the power I’d been born with, at least from his side. What remains is from my mom’s side.”

“Have you heard from her since you came here?”

I shook my head.

Never moved in front of me, rolled up on her toes, and kissed me softly on the lips. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” I smiled down at her. “Everything that has happened led me right here.” I cupped her face in my hands. “And there is nowhere else I would rather be.” With that, I gave in to the urge to kiss her again, taking her lips with mine.

I couldn’t get enough of the taste of her, the scent of her, the feel of her skin against mine. If I’d known then what awaited me when my sentence was handed down all those years ago, I would have welcomed my banishment with open arms.

I would have counted the years, days, and hours waiting for her.

Only now, there was a chance she would leave when she realized she shared my powers, and I wasn’t ready to lose her again.

34

NEVER

Hook’s kiss started out sweet, but by the time his hand snaked into my hair, tugging at the roots even as he pulled me closer, there was a growing desperation in it.

A throat cleared from somewhere behind me. I tried to ignore it, wanting more of that kiss, more of Hook, but my world turned into a tilt-a-whirl in the seconds that followed.

Before I fully understood what was happening, he’d whipped me around behind him and Leo was leaping over the railing on the bridge and landing at his side. Together, they created a massive wall of man that was equal parts hot and fucking frustrating.

“What the hell?” I asked, not at all impressed.

The voice that responded didn’t come from either of them. It wasn’t a voice I recognized at all, and I had to balance on my tiptoes to see over Hook’s shoulder to get eyes on the guy.

Whoever he was, he didn’t look like much of a threat. He was smaller than Hook and Leo by a couple of inches, sporting a stone-gray Henley and a pair of jeans that looked like they were tailored to fit.

It kind of looked like he just stepped through a door from my world.

He was handsome too, if a girl went for the silver fox thing, but it was the power emanating from him that had me circling around Hook to get a better look.

“Ah, there she is,” he said, with a warmth that damned near had me smiling back at him.

Hook’s head whipped around. “Get behind me.”

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