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I lost all thought. The only thing speaking was need.

All I wanted was him sinking inside me. Claiming and destroying me at once.

“Captain?” Scot’s voice broke through the darkness, and Croygen leaped away from me. “Oh shite, sorry.” Scot appeared, his expression telling me he saw more than he wanted to. “I’ll come back.”

“No, what did you need?” Croygen moved back further, clearing his throat, sounding cool and unaffected.

“Tsai wants to confirm which port for the morning.”

“Yes.” Croygen nodded. “Tell her I’ll be right there.”

Scot nodded, his gaze jumping between us, a slight smirk on his face before he turned and left.

Tension filled the space he kept putting between us, expanding the silence. Desire still clung to the clouds, but regret danced on the tide.

His brow crinkled, his wet hair almost hiding his face.

“That was wrong of me.” He spoke like he was some professor and I was a pupil. “I wasn’t in my right mind. It won’t happen again.” He swiped up his sword, striding away, not looking back.

I watched him disappear into the darkness, almost becoming it. Rain pattered my face as I tried to rein in all the emotions colliding.

Anger. Hurt. Disappointment.

No… relief. It had to be.

Because he was right, it was a mistake.

A mistake I didn’t slice his throat when I had the chance.

Chapter 19

Croygen

I stomped across the deck and sheathed my sword. My fists were so tight at my sides that my knuckles popped.

What the hell did I just do? What was I seconds from doing?

There was no doubt if Scot hadn’t stepped in, I would be fucking Katrina against the railing right now, not thinking about the consequences.

I never used to care about those things, but Katrina was different. She wasn’t some woman I could bed and walk away from with no strings attached.

I almost screwed everything up, and 99 percent of me wanted to turn back around, strip her bare, and push inside her, already sensing she could take me to my knees.

But it was wrong. I shouldn’t look, touch, or feel that way about her.

“Fuuuuck!” I bellowed up at the sky, rain trickling down as the storm skated by, moving on. My body throbbed with anger, desire, and confusion, but what mostly pissed me off was the sense of peace I felt when I was near her. A calmness that felt reckless and turbulent. It made no sense. Everything in me was agitated and feral, but deep in my gut was a serenity, as if Kat could pinpoint exactly what I needed, what was plaguing me, easing the pressure inside like a bloodletting.

I had needed the fight to forget about Annabeth’s disease, to push away all the unknowns of our mission, and get lost in the bloodlust and battle.

And fuck, it feltsogood dueling with her. The sword to my throat had my cock hard as a rock, experiencing the power she held, the moment she could take my life, and the moment I could take hers. She could actually challenge me, which hadn’t happened in a long time. The girl was a force. Strong, confident, and sexy as hell. She enticed me like no other, and fighting her was better than sex with most of the women I had been with.

That’s what scared the shit out of me.

Rotty’s daughter should be the last person I should feel anything for. And when she learned the truth about that fateful night?

I grunted, my fingers digging into my eyes, trying to regain some sensibility and draw the blood in my dick back to my brain.

Pirates didn’t live by many codes of conduct. We had minimal rules, and most could be broken. There were a few we took seriously. And fucking your first mate’s daughter had to be on the list.