Should he leave her?
As if reading his thoughts, Alice grabbed his hand and pulled. “Come. She’ll be fine.”
Ethan held his place for a moment, still looking at his sleeping friend, and hated the idea that she might wake wanting to know where he was—or worse, needing him for something. Though he’d never said it, he felt indebted to the vampire for the help she’d provided thus far, and he wanted to repay that kindness.
Besides, she did expect him to watch over her, being the white knight and all. White knights didn’t simply up and leave their post and abandon their charge. “I’m not sure I ought to,” he finally said, voice full of regret. “I should stay with her.”
Alice let go of him and put her hands on her hips. “I thought you liked us.”
Katherine nudged her friend with her hip. “I told you they were together,” she said. “That kiss she planted wasn’t an act.”
“No. I mean, but even so,” Alice stammered. She caught herself before saying something Ethan didn’t follow and looked at her friend and arched her eyebrows. “We’re employed?”
Katherine sighed. “Right.” She then turned to Ethan who looked at them both inquisitively. “Your wife will be fine, Master Ethan, but we would be remiss in our duties as hostesses to not insist on entertaining you the rest of the evening.”
“Duties?” Ethan said, scratching his head. “Oh, right. I paid you.”
Katherine nodded. “Come. Surely you can spare an hour or two of your time.”
Ethan smiled, and he wanted to, but again, his gaze drifted back to Zoey. It wasn’t just that he felt indebted to her. He just didn’t want to go. Then a thought struck him, one that he hadn’t considered before that moment. He had no desire to be around anyone else but her, and even if he had employed the two girls to lavish him with attention earlier, in the end, he only wanted the attention of one woman: Zoey.
“No, I—”
“Master Ethan,” Alice cut in. “We’re not looking to make you an adulterer. But we’re not ones not to earn our keep, either. Now come. We’ll only be a few rooms away. If she needs you, I promise, you can promptly attend her needs.”
Ethan balked some more, but in the end, he realized Zoey was as passed out as they came, and given that he wasn’t tired in the least, he figured he might as well do something to pass the time. “Okay, dear Katherine, I suppose I could kill an hour or two.”
“Lovely,” she replied, taking his hand and pulling him out the door. “I guarantee we’ll keep you well entertained.”
Ethan nodded and swept the hall with his hand. “Then lead the way.”
The girls did, taking him down the corridor, which hooked right at the end, and after a short stint, they stopped at the end where a set of narrow, steep stairs led up into the attic.
“What’s up there?” Ethan asked as Alice started up.
“Our room,” she said. She paused after a few steps and twisted enough so she could look at him over her shoulder. “We’re proper ladies, so you know, even if we do keep the tavern,” she said. “Don’t get any ideas.”
“I wouldn’t,” Ethan said. Though his tone was even and unassuming, a worry settled in his heart. The last time he’d spent a night with a woman in this world saw him turned into a midnight snack. Were they creatures of the dark, too, luring men to their deaths? Hopefully not. Surely, not. Zoey would’ve sensed it right away, wouldn’t she? And certainly employing such girls would be bad for business, he reasoned.
“Ethan?”
Ethan jumped off the train to his runaway thoughts and snapped back into the moment.
Katherine, a few steps up, waved for him to follow. “You’re not getting any improper thoughts, are you?”
“No,” he said.
“Good,” she said before she hurried up the stairs.
Ethan followed and entered the attic. The area wasn’t terribly wide, but it was long, with slanted wood walls on both sides, while the far wall was made from rough stone. An oil lamp hung from one of the crossbeams, giving the area ample illumination. At the opposite end sat a pair of low-lying beds with brass frames, each having their own foot chests nearby. A circular table took up a sizeable portion of the middle. On it sat a few metal plates and a simple vase with a handful of lilies that could use a little water.
“Come and sit,” Alice said, motioning to one of the stools at the table as she set her lantern down.
Ethan did, cringing reflexively as the floorboards creaked underfoot.
“Everything around here does that,” Katherine said. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Gotcha,” Ethan replied, dropping onto one of the stools. He sat there for a few moments as the two girls kicked off their shoes before joining him at the table.
“Want a drink?” Alice asked, offering him the bottle.
Ethan took it and brought the bottle to his lips. The port tasted rich against his tongue with strong notes of plum. He savored it for as long as he could before passing the bottle back to Alice. “What did you two lovely ladies have in mind when you said you didn’t want to waste the night?”
“We thought that a strong, adventurous man who takes on ettins would have all sorts of fun things to do,” Alice said after a brief glance to Katherine.
“Sounds as if you two have been talking,” Ethan said.
“We’re best friends. What else would we do?” Katherine replied, taking the bottle from Alice and helping herself to the port.
“I don’t know,” Ethan said. “But I’d love to find out.”
Katherine raised her eyebrow. “Would you, now?”
Alice giggled and brushed her red hair back over her ears. “How about a game of Bold & Meek?”
“With only three of us?” Katherine asked.
“Sure, why not?”
“Not sure it’ll last long enough.”
“Then we’ll play again, silly,” Alice said, laughing. “And again and again and again if need be.”
“Would either of you ladies mind tell me what I’m about to get myself into?” Ethan asked.
Katherine took a drink from the bottle and passed it to Alice before explaining. “We each take turns issuing one another challenges. So, if it’s my turn, I might press you to eat a cricket or smack a bull on its ass. If you do it, you get ten points. If you don’t, I have to do the same. If I do, I get fifteen points. If I don’t, I lose ten. First person to a hundred wins the match.”
“If I’m hearing this correctly, the idea is to dare someone to do something you think they won’t do, but you are willing to do?” Ethan asked, thinking it sounded simple enough but wanting to be sure he’d followed along correctly—eight INT and all.
“You’ve got it,” she said, eagerness in both her eyes and voice. “Shall we, then?”
“We shall.”
“What say we play for pennies?” Alice added.
And there it was, he thought. They wanted coin, probably lots of it. He sized the pair up for a few seconds, quickly realizing that this was far from their first time at the game. In fact, if he had to bet on it, he’d wager the two frequently worked rich men in such a way, no doubt tag-teaming a mark, which would be easy if they were both in on the take.
That said, he had crowns to spare and decided to cap his losses at a few shillings. That, he figured, was perfectly reasonable as an entertainment expense, especially since he’d done well at cards earlier.
“Okay. Pennies it is, but I’d hate to take all your money,” Ethan said as he dug through his coin pouch and set a penny on the table. “But if I must, I must. Who goes first?”
Both girls did the same, and Katherine was the one who answered. “You can if you like,” she said.
“Okay,” Ethan said. He looked around the room, trying to think of something both fun and mildly embarrassing to kick things off with and bring the ice—break the ice, he quickly corrected. Stupid eight points of INT. “Alice, are you bold enough to sing a song as loudly as you can with your bare ass out the wi
ndow?”
Katherine, who’d been taking a drink at the time, laughed so hard she ended up spewing half of what she had across the table. “Master Ethan,” she said, wiping her mouth. “You get right to it, don’t you?”
Ethan gave her a wry grin and shrugged. “I have my moments.” He then turned to Alice. “Well, my good Alice. Are you bold? Or are you meek?”
Alice narrowed her green eyes, though her glare was one of the most flirtatious he’d ever seen. Her words, however, weren’t directed at him, but at her best friend. “Tell me, Katherine,” she said. “Should I play to take his money or to watch him make an ass out of himself?”
“You do what you like, dear,” she replied. “But if I were you, I’d love to see what happens when his rump is exposed for all of the night’s vagrants to see.”
“As would I,” she said. The grin that spread across her face would’ve been the envy of any devil, and she nodded to the window. “I’m afraid, Master Ethan, I’m far too meek for such a challenge. Are you bold enough, I wonder?”
Ethan frowned. He hadn’t expected her to turn it down, and at first, he didn’t think it would be a big deal for him to moon the world. However, that was before they seemed especially keen on him doing such a thing, not to mention painting an uncertain picture as to what those in the street might do. He sucked in a breath and held it for a few counts, unsure which course to take. However, it didn’t take him long to make up his mind.
Old Ethan would’ve passed, coming up with some lame excuse not to. That was the Ethan too scared to ask the girl who lived across the hall on a date—or hell, talk to her for more than a few seconds at best or tell her his name was Ethan, not Evan. New Ethan, the ettin-slaying Ethan, wasn’t about to let some barmaid call him out like that.
“Hail to the king, baby,” he said with his best Ash Williams impersonation he could muster. “It’s on.”
Ethan strutted over to the window, pulled it open, and spun around to see both Katherine and Alice watching with no small amounts of giggles and whispers being shared between them. Without a sliver of hesitation, Ethan unbuckled his belt and let his trousers fall before backing up to the window and letting his ass kiss the warm, salty air. He ended up shifting slightly to get a little more comfortable but quickly stopped when he realized he really didn’t want to inadvertently end up with a splinter or two in his butt cheeks.
“Now sing,” Katherine said flatly.
Ethan cleared his throat and belted out the lyrics to the only appropriate song he could think of for this place, “Yo Ho!” from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. He actually knew every line, having ridden it at least a hundred times one summer when his family went to Disney, and he was ten. That said, he only got through half of the second stanza when someone yelled from the streets below.
“Sirens almighty! Shut it bilge sucker!”
Following the sharp rebuke came an even sharper sting against his right ass cheek. Ethan yelped and jumped forward. Still, with his trousers around his ankles, he twisted to present the wounded buttocks to the light so he could inspect the damage. The skin wasn’t broken, but there was a hefty welt.
“I guess that’s fifteen points to Master Ethan,” Alice said with another giggle.
“Does that mean I can pull my pants up?” Ethan asked, trying to play it cool but probably failing miserably.
“If you like,” Katherine said. “Either way, I believe it’s Alice’s turn.”
“Oh, it is?” she said with an unexpected squeal of delight. Her eyes darted between Ethan and Katherine, and she tapped her nails rapidly on the table as she made cute little mulling noises. Finally, her gaze fell on Katherine. “You know, love,” she said while toying with a simple pendant—a toying, Ethan knew, no doubt, was designed to draw attention to her ample breasts. “I do believe I owe you from the last time we played.”
Katherine cocked her head. “Are you sure you want to take this game to the next level?”
“What did you say before? ‘Play for keeps,’ I believe,” Alice said.
Ethan had no idea what they were referencing, but his imagination ran wild with all the things he hoped it could be. Those hopes seemed to come to practical fruition when Alice faced him and issued her challenge.
“Master Ethan,” she said. “Are you bold enough to be blindfolded without your pants for the next ten minutes?”
Ethan grinned, not because he had somehow lost his mind to a wave of horniness (which was tempting, admittedly), but because her challenge confirmed his suspicions: they were sharks looking for a meal. Sex may have been hinted at, but it wasn’t on the menu. It was a ploy, nothing more.
That said, he felt confident with both his newly picked Natural Gambler perk and innate high luck, he could come out on top—or at the very least, make an enjoyable loss out of it all.
“I believe, Miss Alice,” Ethan said, pretending to think about it longer than he did to keep them guessing, “I will take you up on the challenge. So yes, I am quite bold enough for that, my dear. Quite bold indeed.”
Alice motioned for him to sit, which he did. Once settled in the chair, she flashed him a smile that would launch a thousand ships, and he gave her one in return. Alice took a long silk scarf that had been draped across one of the footlockers and tied it around his eyes. She did so in a slow but graceful manner, one that told Ethan that this was only the tip of the iceberg for her when it came to such skills and again reaffirmed in his mind what they thought of him: a mark.
But did he care? Not in the least. He reminded himself of the amount of money he was willing to lose should things spiral out of control and went along with it. Soft hands gently took his wrists and eased them downward. The lightness to it all and the enjoyment in his heart, however, disappeared in a flash when a thick rope cinched around his wrists and pinned them to the chair.
Ethan pulled against the bindings. “What the hell are—”
A delicate finger pressed against his lips, firm but not malicious, and Katherine’s voice whispered in his ear. “It’s my turn,” she said. “Are you bold enough to stay like this for the rest of the game?”
“If I’m not, then I get to tie you up, is that right?” Ethan said, considering the options.
“You get to challenge the same,” she said. “But seeing how you’re blindfolded, I doubt you’ll enjoy it as much as I will.”
Her soft hands caressed the side of his face, and though in his heart, Ethan knew she was working him over for the long haul, he couldn’t help but relish her touch over the next few seconds.
But only for a few seconds.
Something didn’t feel right, and it wasn’t his mind reminding him that the two barmaids wanted coin. What was it? Danger? No, that wasn’t it, he decided. These two were as harmless as they came, skill at playing to a man’s lust aside.
He furrowed his brow, wracking his meager eight INT, wishing to God Almighty he had invested a little more in smarts during his time with Madam Nataliya. He was about to give up when it wasn’t his brains that popped the answer, but his heart.
Zoey.
Ethan held his breath.
Was that it?
If it was, why? She’d made it perfectly clear what his role was with her—his only role. She wanted him as nothing more than a personal blood doll. Well, helping to get a gem aside, but mostly being a doll, right?
What else could it be? Worry?
The creases in Ethan’s brow deepened as he tossed that in his mind. What did a vampire have to worry about? Nothing, as far as he could tell, at least not there. But then he realized she’d been left alone, drunk as a skunk. Helpless. Vulnerable.
Maybe that was it. It had to be.
Ethan frowned. No, not worry. Or rather, not only worry.
He did worry about her. But a longing had settled in his heart, one that only just then had made itself known, and he realized he’d have liked the night a thousand times more if she’d been a part of it.
He wanted more with her.
>
A lot more.
Moreover, he didn’t want it with anyone else.
Ethan slipped one hand free of the rope and used it to tear the blindfold from his face. The two barmaids looked at him with confusion. “I’m sorry, ladies,” he said. “It’s been a lovely evening, honest, but I have to go.”
Alice frowned. “But…”
“No, I do,” Ethan said. “Another time, perhaps? My penny is yours.”
Katherine sighed heavily, apparently realizing things had come to an abrupt end. To his surprise, a sweet, longing smile spread across her face. “Returning to your wife?”
“Yes. I mean, no,” he said. “Returning, yes. But she’s not my wife.”
“She should be,” Katherine replied. “In the morning, I’ll tell her that myself. I can count on zero fingers the number of men who’ve left us as you’re about to.”
“I don’t doubt that one bit,” Ethan said, tipping his head toward them both.
“Do us a favor, at least?” asked Alice.
“Of course.”
“Don’t tell your friend,” she said. “I want him to think he got his money’s worth.”
Ethan tilted his head, unsure if he’d heard correctly. “Money’s worth?”
“Your friend gave us half a crown each,” she explained, though it wasn’t much of one.
“But only to entertain you,” Katherine quickly added. “Properly, I should add. We’re not whores.”
Lines of worry formed across Ethan’s brow. “Friend?” he asked. “What friend? You mean Maii?”
“Is that the fellow’s name in the black coat?” Alice replied. “He looked like a Christopher to me.”
“I thought he was more of a Charles,” said Katherine.
“Charles? He looks nothing like a Charles.”
“As if he looks like a Christopher.”
“Ladies,” Ethan barked, a little more forcefully than he intended. “Are you saying the guy with the coat gave you money?”
“Yes,” Alice said. “Have the bats made a home in your noggin? I could’ve sworn to the patron saint mother I said that not even a moment ago.”
The Pirate (Captains & Cannons Book 1) Page 17
