A Pirate's Conquest by Vivienne Cox

Author:Vivienne Cox
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Independent
Published: 2020-05-10T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

James Thomas awoke to the feel of a very warm body curled against him. As feelings went it was pleasant, and quite novel. He had rarely slept with a lover, rarely had the luxury of a bed wide enough or time long enough to indulge such hedonism.

He lay quite still, enjoying the lazy luxury, until he realised that the world was moving around him, so he was on a ship of some kind, and that the figure nestled so closely up to him was without doubt a man. He frowned, but memory was elusive. Port Wiley. He’d been in Port Wiley, yes that was it. Looking for Alexander Cruise…

His eyes blinked open as the floodgates of memory parted to let a hundred images into his mind. O’Connell laughing, the boy risking all to help, the moment he had seen Alexander Cruise standing in that ruin of a church. Capture, escape. The cycle repeated. And finally the long night on the beach, and the fever overwhelming him as he was brought on board Alexander’s precious Siren .

He shivered, and the slight movement awoke the man next to him.

“James?”

Alexander Cruise. Holding him. A thousand complex emotions collided, resolving into a low groan as he tried to move. The arms slipped from around him, and the bed creaked as his companion sat up.

“Jamie!”

There was such alarm in the one word, that Thomas could have laughed. Awkwardly, and not without a low gasp, he shifted onto his back. The dark eyes of his fever-dream were narrowed in consternation. Thomas wanted to sooth the frown away, but his arm was too heavy to lift. Instead he smiled. “Hello, Alexander.”

A hand touched his forehead. It felt warm against his skin. “The fever’s gone.”

“I remember you talking to me.” Blinking slowly, Thomas finally found the strength and lifted a hand. Alexander took it in his own, one thumb rubbing slowly back and forth.

“How d’ye feel?”

“Fine. Sleepy.” Bone weary, the thought of moving was quite unnerving.

“Drink something, then sleep for another hour or so.” Gracefully, perfectly at ease with his nakedness, Alexander stepped onto the floor and went to Thomas’s side of the bed. “Come, it’s just water.”

Blissful, glorious, water. It stirred another memory. “You drowned me!”

“What? Oh, no. You remember that? We were tryin’ to get the fever down.”

“I thought you were a merman.” He sighed as Alexander helped him sit, holding the cup so he could drink.

“A merman?” The cup waited until he was ready, then tilted once more to his lips. “I hope I was a good one.”

“Lovely.” Alexander was grinning down at him, and he almost laughed, though it translated as a slight twist of his lips.

Sipping slowly, he looked around. The cabin was quite large, with a tall window that was letting in the first glimmers of early morning light. Through the shadows he could make out that he was lying in a proper bed: wide, with curtains all about, linen sheets, blankets and a thick eiderdown folded at its foot. All of it undoubtedly pilfered.

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