Against Dark Tides (Beneath Black Sails, #2)

by Clare Sager

“Because it was never just the job. Wanting you and”—a shiver lifted the hairs on his forearms—“and letting myself have you—Vee, it wasn’t whatever it takes to get the job done.”

“So,” he said, a half-smile tugging on his lips, “you guess your way through life?” She grinned and shrugged. “An educated guess, sometimes. An informed guess, most of the time. But I can’t know everything, I can’t have every piece of information or predict every possibility.” Her expression grew gentler. “You have to do the best with what you’ve got. That’s all anyone can do.”

“Of course I did,” he murmured, voice rumbling through her, grey eyes more intense, more vulnerable than their steely colour. “I’ll always come for you.”

Knigh Blackwood might have excellent self-control, but his hair refused to obey orders.

“I’m afraid you’re stuck with me.” A grin lifted one corner of his mouth. “You see, no one else will have me. And”—he bit his lip again, the lopsided smile gone—“I missed you.”

This peace had been hard-won. It had taken rescue from a gibbet, fleeing a country and its Navy, fighting their way through a ship-killer of a storm, battling warships, kidnapping, and escaping the kraken—twice.