Page 42 of Broken Hearted
He gave me a handsome, half-cocked grin. “We are.”
“And why does that make you smile?” I questioned.
He laughed. “What can I say? I like a little element of danger.”
I don’t know why I found that sexy, but it was.
Reaching out, I grasped his hand. “Seriously though, thank you. This will save so many people.” I thought of my sisters, my parents, our people, the Summer and Spring Court refugees. The fate of the entire world of Faerie was quite literally resting on this one mission.
He laid his hand over mine and bore into my gaze. “You saved me from being married to a witch for the rest of my life. There is nothing you could ask that I would deny.”
Kiss me, I thought wildly and then cleared my throat nervously, batting away the intrusive thought.
Giving him a small smile, I pulled my hand back. But I wasn’t able to separate my gaze from him quite so easily.
As I peered into his eyes, my mind started to whirl. Adrien was handsome, and sweet, and very capable at things like sailing. Would kissing him really be a bad thing? I couldn’t deny that I was curious to see if anything would happen. But there were some truths that perhaps I wasn’t ready to face yet.
We were locked in a stare and as I watched him, he licked his lips to wet them. Oh, stars, was he thinking the same thing? My stomach flipped over, and the urge to close the distance between us became almost unbearable.
Maybe I should just do it, I thought to myself.Just lean forward and kiss him.
Assuming he wanted to be kissed. But hewasstaring at my lips.
I held my breath in anticipation as I leaned forward, and then came a loud bang on the door, causing us both to jump.
“Chow time, Cap’n,” a sailor shouted, and I exhaled the breath I’d been holding.
Adrien looked annoyed at the interruption but nodded.
“Hungry?” he asked.
“Starved,” I confirmed.
After a surprisingly good meal of charred corn, honey biscuits, and fresh grilled fish with lemon, Adrien returned above deck and I remained in the captain’s quarters, feeling sleepy and sluggish even though it was still early evening. It had been a long few days and Adrien told me that if we sailed all night, we would reach the edge of the belly of the sea by morning.
I slipped into my nightdress that I’d packed and was asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.
Chapter Fourteen
Ahand pressed over my mouth, and my eyes flew open at the same time as I gave a muffled shout. The bedroom lamp had been lit, and I was staring into Adrien’s terrified teal eyes.
My heart knocked in my chest as screams and a thump sounded from somewhere above. But it wasn’t until my gaze fell to the green dampener rune on Adrien’s bare chest that I felt a genuine terror of my own.
“Pirates have taken over the ship, and slit half my crew’s throats. They got a rune on me before I could help. Can you use your magic to save the rest of my men? Are you powerful enough?”
Was I powerful enough?He hadnoidea.
He peeled his fingers away from my mouth, and I growled. “I’ll kill every last pirate I lay eyes on.”
“I was really hoping you would say that,” he said, sounding relieved.
I reached over the edge of the bed and pulled out my faestone dagger. “And you can help,” I told him. “Are you ready for it this time?” I asked, remembering how he’d reacted the last time my faestone dagger had come so close to his heart.
He nodded and brandished his chest.
Another scream and a thump above us. Were those bodies? Oh, stars, we had no time.
I swiped the blade over the rune and leaped out of bed, not caring that I was in only my nightgown. I needed to get up there before another man lost his life.
