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“They come to me.Beg me.” He took another slug of baijiu.

“Like theyijiI ran into in the bathroom who wanted to warn me off you.”

“A yiji?” He frowned. “I never sleep with hired professionals.”

“Well, she remembered you. Seemed a little bitter.”

“It was all a long time ago.”

“What? Last month?”

“I haven’t been on this side of the world in decades, and even if I had… I haven’t slept with anyone, married or not, in almost a year.”

“What?” My head jerked up, shock stilling me. Croygen wouldn’t go a day without sex unless we were at sea. Sex was his gift, and by the number of women who used to plead at the ship to sail away with him, most might think he was an incubus.

That was just Croygen.

He oozed dominance, sensual confidence, and naughty energy, which everyone wanted firsthand knowledge of. He charmed and seduced, and would fully dominate once he had them in bed.

“That surprise you?” His dark eyes went down to mine.

“Yes.” I suddenly was very aware of my position, down on my knees between his legs. I couldn’t stop the thought, the impulse to unzip his pants, bow my head, and take him into my mouth, seeing desire fill his dark eyes, feel his fingers twine in my hair, gripping so hard as I sucked him down further. To be the one who made him come, to have the power to bring the illustrious Croygen to ecstasy.

As if he could see every thought going through my head, his nose flared, his jaw straining, hands rolling tight against the bottle.

“Kat,” Croygen said my name so low, mixed with warning, need, and a question.

Fear overtook the desire scorching up my bones, and I leaped to my feet. I turned my back on him, busying myself with the items on the tray, not doing anything but moving them around like chess pieces.

“Get some herbs on that, and you should heal quickly.” I spoke so evenly that I sounded like a robot. Clearing my throat, I grabbed what I needed before turning back around again, keeping my focus off his face. Spreading a healing paste over the wound, I covered it in a bandage, moving away from him as fast as I could.

What was wrong with me? In all the centuries I have lived, no man in the world made me feel as unsettled, unsure, and vulnerable as I did around him. He always had, even during the time I spent away from him. He was always there, under my skin, driving me forward. Preparing me. My devil and my angel. My villain and my hero.

“So, how about you?” His deep voice scratched up my back.

“What about me?” I twisted to face him, guarded and cold.

He held out the liquor bottle to me, waiting for me to take it before he continued.

“I told you, so it’s only fair you tell me when the last time was for you?” He watched me guzzle down the liquor. I was about to crawl out of my skin.

“Think that’s appropriate to ask?” I was trying to keep a boundary between us, even if another part of me wanted to burn it to dust. “Aren’t I just the little girl you watched grow up on your ship?”

“Except you haven’t been a girl in centuries, Kitty-Kat.”

I glowered at him, but I didn’t seem to mind him calling me that, though it felt vastly different from how Killian used it.

“If you’re grown enough to become the notorious Puss in Boots, the pirate who drops men to their knees with her pussy…”

Just him saying the word had my core pulsing, like it was conditioned to react to his voice, to know he was calling it. I downed more of the strong, floral-tasting liquor, needing this moment to not feel so out of control, my head already spinning from the potency of it.

“Come on, truth for a truth.”

“Is that what we’re doing?” I tipped my head, the alcohol giving me more confidence. “Fine. Truth for a truth, then.” I strolled closer to him, handing the bottle back. “No matter what.”

“You sure you’re ready for that?” He leaned back against the headboard, his bare torso still damp from the rain. Why did he have to be so unbearably hot? And why did he feel like my weakness, forgetting everything I had trained for and planned for years.

“I should ask the same of you?” I grabbed the dumplings and dropped them on the bed, sitting as far as I could from him.