“I don’t give a damn what she wears; she can lay about there all day for all I fucking care.”
Sassi leaned back, shifting her weight onto her back foot. Any discomfort or contrition left her when she angled her head to glare at him. “So, you’re happy to ogle her in a bikini, but the sight of me turned your stomach?”
Jockey hissed. “Oh, son, you’ve got trouble on the high seas now.”
His first-mate slapped his back then took the pitcher from Sassi and scurried away up the stairs to the wheelhouse with the juice. “She’s not crew.”
“Right, so she’s a lady,” she said and exhaled. “I can’t believe this. You’re really going to go up there and leer with the other guys. You’re going to jeer and drool… Well, Captain, don’t you think for a second that you’ll be getting yourself off in me thinking of her.”
She tried to take a sure step past him, but he got in front of her and grabbed her arms. “You too long before the mast, Waif? I don’t fucking drool over women. You’ve got your own rules. You cover up ‘cause I don’t want the dogs on our crew seeing what’s mine. I don’t give a fuck if they line up to jerk off over her naked tits. She’s nothing. You and your body belong to me.”
Thrusting her fists to her hips, she elevated her stubborn chin. “I wasn’t yours that first day,” she said. “The day you came down to shout at me on the forecastle. I wasn’t yours then.”
If they were going by when they’d had sex, she wasn’t his the second time she’d tried sunbathing either; the day he’d sent Fidget down to retrieve her. But, if they judged his ownership from the minute he knew he wanted her, it had started below decks at breakfast on day one.
Pulling her to him, he loved the way her breath rushed from her lungs when he was forceful. “The captain’s wife does not serve like a maid.”
“It’s my duty to play hostess,” she said.
After what she’d said last night when they were on the Dreamboat, he wasn’t sure her motivation was as simple as that. “Listen here,” he said, grabbing her chin to pull her face nearer to his. “She is not better than you. You are not her servant.”
“I didn’t say that—”
“She’s wearing your clothes and I’ll bet your shades too. You’re squeezing oranges for her and asking me for champagne, are you kidding me? Waif…”
He didn’t want to keep kicking her and waited for her to concede.
Eventually, she exhaled. “Okay, fine, but, what do you want me to do? She’s not comfortable on Eros yet.”
“She’s comfortable. Soon as a woman’s happy to get that naked around a bunch of mangy dogs like we are on this crew, she’s comfortable.”
Hopefully Sassi was thinking about the first time she’d stripped off in front of the crew. Peering over her head, he saw Gumdrop sitting up and turning toward them like she might be trying to seek out her slave.
If that woman needed to be reminded of her place on this ship, Swain was happy to oblige. Scooping his hand around the back of Sassi’s head, he turned them to give Gumdrop a profile view of the full-on kiss he planted on his girl’s mouth.
Their guest might think she had rights around here, but they only lasted as long as he let them.
When Sassi was suitably dazed, he grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the stairs. “Come on,” he said.
“Where are we going?” Yep, she was dazed alright, these stairs only led to the wheelhouse, unless she planned to climb the mainmast. “Wait, no, I can’t go in there.”
She must have figured it out, but he wasn’t deterred. “You’re on watch with me, Waif. That’s an order.”
“They’ll think I’m jealous, that I want to keep an eye on you.”
He stopped at the top of the stairs to face her. “Let one of them say that out loud,” he said, pushing his fingers over her hair that was massed in a mess on top of her head. “I get annoyed when they’re around because I don’t like sharing you with other men.” Her uncertainty vanished and her lips parted as they always did when she was surprised. “Even your time. I don’t like them breathing the air you breathe… It does something to my skin, makes it crawl to think of any man anywhere even close to you.”
Swain didn’t wait for her to respond. He guided her forward to ease her into the wheelhouse in front of him. “You’re relieved, Tune,” he said. “Swing you go help Fidget with his duties.”
There was no doubt in his mind that the men had been doing exactly what Sassi had said they would be doing: drooling over Gumdrop. Tune and Swing shuffled out.
Jockey’s eyes darted between them, his brows lowered. “You relieving me too, Cap’n?”
“No, you stay,” Swain said.
If he didn’t have a chaperone, he might be tempted to take advantage of being alone with his girl, given that the ship wasn’t actually in motion. They were in open water, which was why he insisted on someone being on watch at all times. But, he wouldn’t be much good at his job if he was distracted by his female.
Sassi bounded over to take hold of the wheel. “Will you let me drive?”
Swain was right behind her. “Sure,” he said, putting a hand on top to make sure she didn’t turn it. “Soon as you show me your license. What tonnage you qualified to handle?”
Though she scowled at him, he couldn’t stop the corner of his lips from curling. “I don’t know,” she said, scratching his stomach with a fingernail. “How much do you weigh? I guess with the mass of your ego you must edge into the tons.”
Jockey laughed. Swain swept his arms around her, trapping her between him and the wheel. The wench was still smiling like she was so proud of herself. He bared his teeth before kissing her and picking her up to carry her over the hatch that led to his cabin below.
In their cabin that morning, Sassi had asked about the ladder that was attached to the wall between the head and closet doors. She’d been intrigued when he told her it led up to the wheelhouse. If she ever wanted to climb up and visit him, he’d welcome the surprise.
“Sit up here,” he said, sliding her onto the raised wheelhouse settee, a three-sided rectangular booth with a central table. “Stay there.”
Nodding sideways to Jockey, he indicated he should join him at the long chart table behind the settee. “We’re gonna lose two days to this,” Jockey said to him. “Think we’ll make it up?”
“What’s the latest weather?” he asked, noticing that Sassi had her elbows hooked over the back of the settee. Her cheek rested on her arm and she was just gazing at him. “What, Waif?”
“Nothing,” she sighed. Swain couldn’t tell if she was mocking him with her dreamy stare or not. “Ignore me. Keep going.”
Yeah, he hadn’t managed to do that from the second she’d set foot aboard, even when they weren’t on the same deck. “Wind,” Swain said, drawing his eyes away from her to drag them to Jockey who was doing a bad job of hiding his grin.
“Behind us all the way unless there’s a shift,” Jockey said. “We’ve got a lot of planning to do for the dive.”
Swain couldn’t concentrate with the feel of Sassi’s proximity making his skin prickle. Shoving away from the chart table, he went around to lift one of the settee seats to reveal a compartment beneath.
Pulling out a laminated sheet and a length of mousing line, he slammed both down in front of her. “Here, Waif, practice.”
She picked up the sheet and actually lit up when she saw it was an instruction sheet for a bunch of knots. Grabbing the line, she crossed her legs and concentrated on the sheet.
Thank God for that.
If she was doing something with her hands, she wouldn’t be gawping at him. Just like Fidget, she was easier to deal with if he gave her a task. “Right,” he said, dropping his hands to the chart table opposite Jockey. “What were we talking about?” But his first-mate wouldn’t stop smirking. “In the mood for some keelhauling?”
Laughing, Jockey, squeezed his lips together in a crappy attempt to calm himself. “Bout time, son. It’s about
time.”
“Baby, I can’t do this one,” Sassi declared, her voice laced with concentration when she lifted the laminate over her head in one hand and the rope in the other.
He noted which one it was and grabbed the line to untangle it. “It’s easier to practice this one with two lengths, Waif,” he said. Within seconds he’d tied the knot and handed it back to her.
She examined it for a moment. “It’s not two on the sheet.”
Swain took it back from her and untied it. Tugging his pocket knife from his belt, he split the line and tied it again to show her. “You need one if you want to make a loop. But, for practice, you can use two… Trust me, wife,” he said, and handed over the line.
“Thank you,” she said, grinning at him and going back to her practice.
The curve of her creamy neck distracted him. The loose strands and sections of her soft hair that had slipped from the knot on her head were creating lines and waves on her smooth skin that he wanted to go over and sweep aside. She tasted so sweet back there, and when he kissed that arc where her neck disappeared into her shoulder, she breathed out a little whimper that…
Clearing his throat, Swain closed his eyes, and shook his head, amazed that he’d lost himself to ideas of seducing his cook when he was supposed to be busy being captain in his wheelhouse.
“Can we get to work?” Swain asked Jockey who was still fixated on him and wearing that stupid smirk.
“You know what that knot’s called, lass?” Jockey called out to her without answering his captain.
Swain hadn’t thought about what he was doing when he was tying it, he’d just gone through the motions. But, he knew where his first-mate was going before he’d explained it to the waif. It didn’t matter that he glared, Jockey’s amusement grew and he carried on regardless.
“No,” she responded, examining the knot.
“That’s a true lover’s knot,” Jockey said, enjoying this situation way too much.
“And Jock will be on emergency rations the rest of the trip,” Swain said.
He didn’t need a knot or his friend’s mocking expression to tell him he was falling for the tenacious cook he’d hired at the last minute. Sassi made him want to protect and perform at his best.
Swain had never cared about what people thought about him or his masculinity. He’d never cared about machismo. But he’d seen the way she looked at him when he took control. She’d told him flat out that he made her feel safe, and for as long as he had her, he wouldn’t let her down.
FIFTEEN
“You are a difficult woman to get alone.”
Sassi had been sitting on deck in her favorite spot for probably near half an hour, staring down at the knot that Swain had tied that day.
She didn’t know exactly how long she’d been there. Her watch was lost somewhere up the sleeve of Swain’s hoodie that she’d stolen from the back of his seat before coming outside.
If she was going to be interrupted by anyone, she’d have expected it to be her lover. But, Swain wasn’t the man approaching her. Clive was the one sauntering up to her, hands in his pockets, looking humble and yet proud both at once.
“Am I?” she asked.
He held her sunglasses toward her. “Yes, you are. Your crew stick close to you.”
Taking the glasses, she tucked them up her sleeve with her knot. “You needed to get me alone to return my sunglasses to me?”
He smiled and turned his back to the stern to lean on the handrail and look down at where she was sitting on a bollard that had rope around it.
“No, that was just the excuse I came up with to use if anyone caught us talking.”
The hair on the back of her neck prickled. “Caught us? Why would you care about that? We’re talking. That’s it. That’s all we’re doing. All we’re going to do.”
Best to head off any presumptuousness at the pass. Hence, her firm tone.
Clive just smiled like he’d got her message. “Yes, but I wanted the excuse in case anyone asked what we were talking about.” He folded his arms and grew serious. “I want to offer you a job.”
“A job?” Typical she should be desperate for one for so long and then two cropped up at once. “I have a job.”
“Yes, but this is temporary, isn’t it?” he said. As she got nervous, he got smug. “You’re not really married to the captain. Tune filled us in. It’s something you told the more gullible crew members to justify your affair. This isn’t permanent security for you and I can offer that. I’ll pay you a thousand dollars a week.”
Smirking, she was pleased he made the decision so easy. “I make more than that here.”
“Whatever you make, I’ll double it.” It would take just ten weeks to pay off Dario if she gave him every cent. She’d be out of the deadline, but maybe she could buy some extra weeks, or if she proved herself, she could ask Clive for an advance. “Money is no object. Whitney likes you and she’s used to getting what she wants. Good help isn’t easy to find.”
“And that’s what you want me to do? Help you?” she asked because it was always best to be explicit.
“Your desserts are exquisite. Entrees could use some work, but training someone with the basic skills is easier than training a novice. You could expand your role as you see fit. But, it would offer you security. A permanent role. You could build up a nest egg.”
Because one day Whitney would get bored with her and she’d be dumped like Clive had been last night. The couple must have forgotten about that at some point and made up because Gumdrop, as the crew had taken to calling her behind her back, was wearing her diamond again.
“I can’t believe this,” she said because she really hadn’t seen it coming. “I can’t believe you’re offering me a job.”
And such amazing pay, but she didn’t say that part aloud.
“So, you’ll do it?” he asked, shifting in a display of optimism. “Whitney will be pleased. You can leave with us in the morning. Pack your things and—”
“No,” she said, leaving her perch to stand up. “It’s an incredibly generous offer and I appreciate you making it. But, my place is here.”
“I can straighten things out with your captain. He’ll understand when he sees what a package I can offer you, stability, benefits.”
Once upon a time, that would’ve been an offer too good to pass up. But, Sassi wasn’t even tempted to consider it. “There’s more to life than stability and benefits,” she said.
Stuart would think she was insane for rejecting the offer that could solve so many of their problems… and maybe she was.
“Like what? If you’re playing hardball—”
“No,” she said, sighing out a smile that betrayed how at peace she was with her decision, knowing it was the right one. “There’s such a thing as loyalty… as devotion. It might not last forever, but I am loyal to my crew and I’m devoted to my captain.” Her heart felt strong and in this anonymous moment, she could accept the truth, even just for a few seconds. “I am devoted to him. Eros feels like a home and to someone like me, who hasn’t had one of those for so long, that means more than any amount of money. Thank you again, but there isn’t any place else in the world I want to be.”
His incredulous expression told her he didn’t get it. “The offer will remain open, if you want to rethink, you can change your mind and decide to come with us any time. I’ll see you in the morning before—”
“No, you won’t. Dreamboat was loaded already. There are donuts, pancakes, fruit salad, juice, and yogurt in the galley ready for your breakfast in the morning. Captain Swain wanted you ready to get underway before sunrise to give you maximum time to get back to shore. I won’t see you in the morning, he’ll have you gone before I leave his bed.”
“It’s an insane decision to stay with a man like that just for sex,” he said, blustering like he really didn’t get it.
It was okay that he didn’t, she didn’t want him to. “I’m with him for more than sex and I don’t have to justify my dec
ision to you,” she said and shook his hand. “Bon voyage.”
Leaving Clive on the deck, even though he probably had more to say, she headed to the mess.
Down the stairs behind the dinner table in the rec area, there was a booth in the far corner and that was where her people were. Sassi loitered by the mess door, trying to get Swain’s attention without making it obvious to the others. It didn’t take long for him to notice her and make excuses.
As her captain approached, Sassi heard Clive’s cabin door close in the passageway behind her. Good. She hoped he’d stay there all night and avoid possible confrontations with her crew. His superior attitude had rubbed them all the wrong way.
“Waif?” Swain asked and put a hand on her shoulder. “Something wrong?”
She made herself smile to allay his worries. “No, I just came to tell you that if anyone’s hungry, there’s food in the fridge and cookies in the cabinet. I’m going to bed.”
His frown didn’t lessen as he bobbed his head and examined her. “Want me to join you?”
“Yes,” she said, grabbing for his tee-shirt. “But, just whenever you’re ready. Finish your game.”
“Okay,” he said and ducked to kiss her quick.
Clutching him tighter, she moved in against him before he could turn away. “Can I make a request?”
“I just said I’d come to bed and you said—”
“Not a sex request, I… I know you want the Dreamboat to get underway before dawn.”
“Yeah.”
“Can they leave before I have to make breakfast? Their galley is loaded, there’s nothing else I need to do for them.”
The blackness that grew in his eyes made them seem hollow. “What happened? I saw that fucker walk outta here. I figured he was going to bed. Did he make a pass at you? I’ll cut his lines now, toss him in the drink and let him swim after his precious Dreamboat.”
She had to cool Swain’s jets before he overreacted. “He didn’t make a pass at me. He…”
Sweet Seas Page 14
