Through Dark Storms (Beneath Black Sails, #4)

by Clare Sager

“I’ll let you in on a little secret, Vee”—he lowered his voice—“it’s not work I’m interested in.”

He would make her pay for forcing him to wait like this. In the horrible time she was missing, he’d found a deliciously smutty book in her cabin and it had given him several intriguing ideas.

Knigh shook his head. “Thirty minutes.” “Twenty will do.” Her voice came out breathy. “No”—he squeezed her hand—“I definitely need thirty.” He wanted to make her cry out his name as many times as possible. “At least.”

Sometimes duty was a complete bastard.

“You don’t feel trapped, Love?”

“On land or the seven seas, there’s no place I’d rather be.”

“I love you,” she breathed between kisses and gasps.

“A compass rose over my heart.”

“A key for my north.”

“It’s a promise in ink and blood that I’ll always come back to you.”

“I was so afraid,”

“So close to despair. I got this to remind myself of hope, of respair, of all I would do to get back to you. No sea too wide. No cost too high. No risk too great.”

“Even burning everything in yourself to bring me back from the brink.”

“A promise that I’m yours.”

“Oh, yes, I did. I found that smutty book of yours, Vee”—his finger slid against her, stealing her breath—“and I read it cover to cover.” He circled her once, twice. “I found it quite informative.”

“I could spend the rest of time doing this.”

“I felt that.” He drove into her again, harder this time. “I felt it.” He exhaled, shaky. “Felt you.”

“I love you.” His voice grated,

They came together, apart, bound in the grip of each other’s rapture, in her lightning and his sunshine, and their obliterating waves.

“I wanted to do more.” He stroked her hair, her temple, the edge of her cheek. “I don’t think I could’ve survived more.” Her voice sounded very far away.

“Next time, Love. There’s always next time.” “Always.”

“Hmm,” he hummed. “Just like I’ll always love you.” His voice lapped over her in a warm wave.

“What the hells have you done?” His hands fisted at his sides. “Again.”

“I see you in there,” Vee murmured, “stewing over it all, considering keeping it all inside until it crushes you. Don’t.”

“Please don’t.” Her thumb grazed his cheek, cool, comforting. “You’ve only just fought your way out from under one rockfall of feelings, I’m begging you not to bury yourself under another.”

“I think your pirate lady is good for you. I dare say this life is good for you, too—better for you than that one, certainly.”

“I’m the parent, and I should’ve kept you safe—heart as well as body, whatever your age.”

“But I’ll be a much, much better captain with someone at my side. Someone with years of naval experience. Someone who’s far more sensible than I am but still knows how to take a calculated risk. Someone who doesn’t disappear into their gift when directing wind and wave.”

“It would be my great honour and privilege to serve you as captain and accept your votes, but it’s one I can only accept if I stand with Blackwood and your votes are for us both as co-captains.”

“We get the picture. I think we can get this over with nice and quick.” He gave her a gentle shove aft. “Go busy yourself with that fine specimen while we all vote for you.”

“I meant everything I said out there. I want you at my side, not above or below me.” “Shame.”

They moored at the western end of Borikén Port.

Billy wished them luck, and Is, perhaps on a moment of impulse, tiptoed and planted a kiss on his mouth. “Is,” he said, eyes wide, but she only gave him an impish smile and smoothed her skirts.

Peace. Good gods, that was a joke. He couldn’t even broker peace amongst his own family. “Is,” he said, voice a low warning.

“Aye, after you’d sent how many other pirate hunters after me? And look whose side he’s on now. Your star pirate hunter, defected from your leadership. I wonder what the others think.” Mercia flinched. Actually flinched. A direct hit.

It was Is taking a step forward, reaching into the pocket of her skirts, pulling out gleaming wood and metal. A pistol. Billy’s missing pistol. The world froze.

Oh shit

I want you here, beside me, where I can rely on you.

“You cry. You feel. This isn’t weak. This is living. This is loving.”

“Mercia’s treachery at Borikén yesterday has made it clear: there is no turning back to the old ways, to our old lives. And my mother agreed.”

“I’m beginning to understand you hating it when Perry’s right. Can’t I just keep you to myself forever, away from everyone and anything that might hurt you?”

“And I promised Mama.” “And if there’s one thing I know about Knigh Blackwood: he doesn’t break promises.”

“I’ll let you in on a secret,” she whispered. “It’s one of the many, many things I love about him.”

“Meet Fararin and Lettice Archer—the people who led you here.”

That gesture. Her distant, often-drifting gaze. Was she blind?

They loved each other. They were a team. They were—“Co-captains.” Just like they’d read in the Copper Drake. Chest warm, eyes burning, he blinked up at their show of togetherness.

“They were the co-captains. The Copper Drake is theirs.”

They lingered there and swam the reef before barely clambering from the sea to make love in the lapping surf. As they rinsed off the sand and sex, Vee pointed out that the beach looked west and would give a great view of the sunset. He didn’t say it, but in his mind he’d already started referring to it as their cove. Here, they weren’t co-captains or the heroes of Nassau or leaders the council looked to more often than not. They were simply a couple in love.

“I wonder when Captain FitzRoy will be back,” she said at last, folding up her empty leaf. “Do you think he’s all right out there?” If Is didn’t spend every moment she wasn’t working with Billy, he would’ve worried at the question. Even so, it made his nose wrinkle. “Are you really worried about him?” “He’s your ally, isn’t he?”

“People…” She pursed her lips. “As well as a specific person. Yes.” “And would that be a specific person beginning with B, by any chance?”

“You know it is and if you make me say it, I will swat you like the irritating fly you are, Knighton.”