“You don’t have to,” Jockey said. “We need a cook.”
“You have Raise,” she said.
“We’ll deal with that,” Foist said.
“You pack everything you need, we’ll get you aboard,” Jockey said.
Swing and Fidget were bristling with excitement. Sassi didn’t understand where the confusion was coming from. How could they be excited when Swain had made his wishes clear to her?
“Jockey, he told me not to come,” she said. “I can’t disobey orders.”
Except he’d also told her that he wasn’t her captain anymore. If he wasn’t her captain, he was her lover… and she’d never shied from standing up to her lover. Who was he to tell her she couldn’t decide what she wanted now?
Sassi had never been surer of anything than she was of her love for the captain, the crew, and Eros too. Waiting four months meant wasting time, valuable time they could be spending together. Determination began to take the place of her melancholy.
“Oh, orders… we’ll figure this out,” Jockey said. “That boy thinks he knows better than anyone. He’s always looking out for us. Maybe this is a decision we should take out of his hands.”
Because if they tried to talk him around, their captain would circumvent them, and make sure she didn’t set foot on Eros. But, Sassi wasn’t going to let her captain, or her lover get away.
A plan began to formulate. Since he’d dumped her, Sassi had been lost, without direction or ambition. Now, she had both, and was enlivened. Swain had told her to be sure of what she wanted, and Sassi was damn sure she didn’t need four months to figure it out.
She licked her lips. “He can’t know I’m on board,” she said, her gaze dancing over the men. “We have to be at least a day out.”
Excitement buzzed and fizzed, filling the room. “Too far to turn around,” Tune said and she nodded.
“You love the captain,” Fidget said, wearing a broad grin. “I knew you loved the captain.”
“Of course I love him, honey,” she said. “Now you guys go back to the ship and prepare… I already put my orders in, and my uniforms are there. Let him put all of my things in the cargo hold if he has to, don’t raise his suspicion. Just don’t let him toss anything that’s mine overboard.” Sassi didn’t think Swain would do that, but just in case. “Can one of you come here the night before we cast off?”
“We’ll stow you and your kit aboard,” Hector said. “Keep the cap’n busy.”
She nodded. “You have to go now. Don’t make him suspicious. Work hard for him.” They started to go for the door, a hubbub of enthusiasm and anticipation humming around them. “Guys…” They stopped and she smiled. “Thank you.”
For a minute there, she’d really been going to let her captain get his way. Sassi hadn’t wanted to stay behind, but thought she had no choice. Her crew, once again, had been watching her back.
“Hey, we don’t leave a shipmate behind,” Foist said.
She waved at Jockey, who was at the front of the group. “Give me the ring.”
Sassi made her way through the men who fanned out to make a path for her to get to the first-mate.
Everyone was grinning, and Jockey started to comply, but hesitated. “Maybe we should let the cap’n have a chance to ask you right.”
“The captain already married us in the mess, remember,” she said, going over to take the ring.
It was a perfect fit. She was amazed at just how beautiful it was.
“Cap’n’s going to go nuts,” Tune said, as elated as the men around him.
Oh yes, he would.
Her wonderful, grumpy, arrogant captain would be incensed that she’d gone against his orders and snuck on board his vessel. He’d be more pissed when he found out his crew was in cahoots with her and even angrier when he saw she was wearing his ring.
But, Captain Swain knew what he was getting into with her. She had never pulled her punches. From the minute they’d met, she’d been headstrong and even when she feared he might be the type to hurt her, she’d held her pepper spray and fought her corner, always ready to defend herself.
Swain would be mad… for a minute… Then he’d realize he had his woman on board, that she was pledging her life and love to him, and that she’d never been more certain of anything.
Facing his wrath would be worth it. Sassi was used to his moods and his outbursts, just as he was used to her attitude and her sass. He’d said he loved her and it was her turn to prove the strength of her feelings for him.
THIRTY-TWO
Gathering his crew around the chart table, Swain prepared to start his briefing. They’d cast off early that morning and were underway on a course for the salvage site, making good time for the first day.
The crew had been insistent about putting Eros through her paces and forging on full steam ahead. As captain, he liked the attitude. But, as a man, he was conscious of how many nautical miles were stretching between himself and his lady.
Except, damn, she wasn’t his lady, and he couldn’t let himself spend the next four months thinking that she was or that she even might be.
Swain had all the usual faces on his crew and two additional men on his team for this extended trip. Gunther and Anch were good guys who’d worked hard on other vessels in his fleet in the past. He needed all the manpower he could muster on this job. He planned to work hard, to keep his mind and his body as active as possible. Away from thoughts of the wench he’d left on land who’d go about her life without him. Who could move on without him.
He’d be lying to himself if he claimed not to have concerns that she might have changed her mind by the time this voyage was over. But, if she did, he’d have to accept that. He’d set this course. It was on him to ride it out.
But, those worries were nothing to the thoughts of how he’d feel if she needed him and he wasn’t there. Dario Correa had been a piece of work, and wouldn’t roll over and go quietly. If Correa saw another in, found another way to hurt Sassi, then he’d take it, and Swain wouldn’t be there for her.
These thoughts were exactly why Swain wanted to stay busy. By all accounts, Gunther and Anch were hard workers. Swain was looking forward to seeing what they could do and how committed they were.
With everyone now settled and oriented, he’d brought them all together to brief the new pair on the site they’d been to before and what the client wanted them to bring back.
Everything was going well. Everyone was engaged and asking questions until Anch suddenly swore. “Fuck! What I gotta do to get me a piece of that ass?”
Swain thought Anch might be crazy. He looked up from the file he’d put on the tabletop display. The others were all staring through the wheelhouse windows toward the bow.
Swing guffawed louder than the other crewmen’s laughter and jeering. “You keep your hard-on to yourself, Anch. That there’s the captain’s wife.”
Shock made Swain pivot to follow their line of vision. Goddamn, motherfuck. Swing wasn’t wrong. Sassi was on his fucking forecastle in her damn black Swain Salvage bikini, gazing out over the bow.
“Fuck,” he hissed then spun on his first-mate. They’d never had a stowaway before. “How the fuck did she…” Jockey’s smirk made him suspicious. “Jock…”
His first-mate shrugged. “That lass got the bit in her teeth. We didn’t stand a chance. Said she’d chain herself to the bow and come as a bare-breasted figurehead if we didn’t let her ride below decks.”
Swain pointed at his engineer. “Come about. We’re taking her home.”
They were near a full day into their journey, and they’d lose another one taking her back. So much was beginning to make sense, like his crew’s desire to build speed and why no one had wanted lunch.
He’d never had a crew refuse chow before. Swain had thought it was some kind of protest that they weren’t being treated to Sassi’s food, now he realized they’d all been in on the scheme.
Jockey confirmed his suspicions with his next statement, “Well,
see, that’s a problem ‘cause Raise got himself reassigned on the Artemis.”
“You’re fucking with the roster without my say so?” Swain asked.
This was a day of fucking firsts and his blood was starting to boil.
Jockey opened his arms in a wider shrug. “I got your wife’s authorization,” his first-mate said.
Swain could tell his oldest friend was loving this. “She is not my fucking wife.”
Jockey just outright grinned. “According to her, she’s gonna be… and there is nobody here who can do chow like our lass.”
“I vote for Shortcake,” Foist said and put up his hand. “All in favor.”
Every man said aye, even the new guys who’d never tasted her cooking. “Mutiny?” Swain asked, shocked by them all. “We’re not a day into the job!”
His crew was snickering and fraying his nerves. “Better go make nice with the new captain,” Tune said, laying his hands on the chart table. “You’re sharing a berth with her after all.”
“Yeah, that one was a deal breaker,” Jockey said, waving a finger at Tune.
“How does that work? If she’s in charge now, can she order you to eat her pussy?” Hector asked and the men laughed.
Fuck. Swain ran a hand into his hair and turned to look again at the woman now lying on the forecastle soaking up the rays. “I should toss her ass over,” he mumbled to himself.
Jockey came up beside him and hooked a hand onto his shoulder. “She gives the crew something pretty to look at.”
“Aye, they can all stop looking,” Swain said and twisted to glare at them. “You can all stop looking.” Resigning himself to the fact that she was here and not going anywhere, he took a deep breath. “Crew don’t get to enjoy the captain’s wife.”
“Thought she wasn’t your wife,” Anch said.
He sighed. “She’s fucking gonna be.”
The men cheered as Swain stomped toward the wheelhouse door. Sassi shouldn’t be here, she was supposed to be pursuing her dreams and fixing her life, enjoying her freedom.
Instead, she’d chosen to stowaway on his ship and take over his crew. She’d have some explaining to do, but he’d enjoy disciplining the siren who just couldn’t seem to manage to follow orders in the spirit they were given. But, in this minute, he was fucking damn grateful for her defiance.
From the second he’d left her apartment, he’d craved her.
Four months was a long time. Too long. That she’d gone so far as to stowaway inspired him. Sassi didn’t want to be parted from him and he couldn’t be away from her. She’d followed her heart, just like he told her to, and it had brought her straight to him.
thank you for sharing this adventure!
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Also by Scarlett Finn
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STANDALONE CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
MAESTRO’S MUSE
GETTING TRICKY
REMEMBER WHEN…
THIRTEEN
HEIR’S AFFAIR
SWEET SEAS
EXILE
HIDE & SEEK
KISS CHASE
THE BRANDED SERIES
BRANDED
SCARRED
MARKED
THE KINDRED SERIES
RAVEN
SWALLOW
CUCKOO
SWIFT
FALCON
FINCH
THE EXPLICIT SERIES
EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION
EXPLICIT DETAIL
EXPLICIT MEMORY
RISQUE SERIES
TAKE A RISK
RISK IT ALL
GAME OF RISK
HARROW DUET
FIGHTING FATE
FIGHTING BACK
MISTAKE DUET
MISTAKE ME NOT
SLEIGHT MISTAKE
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Sweet Seas Page 30
