by Lisa Kessler
She pressed slow, hot kisses down his chest, enjoying the salty, clean taste of his skin. Following the thin trail of dark hair starting below his navel, she knelt in front of him while drinking in the hunger on his face as he looked at her.
Without breaking eye contact, she stroked his erection and took him into the warmth of her mouth. John growled, rocking his hips forward as her lips glided along the length of his shaft. She ran her fingernails up his thighs and around to his ass, encouraging his slow, steady thrusts.
God, she’d never wanted a man so badly in her entire life. Feeling him tremble under her touch filled her with a heady blend of power and desire. She sucked gently as she drew him free of her mouth, and he gripped her arms, pulling her up and fusing her lips to his. His hands moved possessively over her naked body before he lifted her off the ground. She wrapped her legs around his waist, moaning as he entered her in one thrust.
Time stopped the moment their bodies connected. Their kiss became frenzied, desperate, and hungry, feeding on each other, breathing the other into their lungs. She clung to him as he laid them both back onto her bed.
He stared down into her eyes. “You are so beautiful.”
She grinned, pulling him back to her. “Kiss me, you sexy pirate.”
“Aye,” he growled as he plundered her mouth.
His hand ran along her side, moving between them as he rubbed her sweet spot in time with his hips. The delicious ache for release combined with the yearning for the pleasure to never end. He teased her faster until he sailed her right over the edge, her orgasm slamming into her as her inner muscles clenched tight around him.
He gasped her name and exploded deep inside of her. Damn, her name had never sounded so sexy. As her pulse settled, she ran her hands down his back, over the scars left behind from vicious lifetimes past.
This would be their lifetime, together, a life of love and adventure.
He rested his head on her chest, his voice a throaty whisper. “Move in with me.” He lifted his head, gaze locked on her face. “I don’t want to miss another moment.”
The corner of her mouth quirked. “I think I need to show you something first.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
John followed Harmony down the dock, marveling at how natural it felt to hold her hand. He shuddered to think how close he’d come to losing her forever. Never again.
She led him to a sailboat in dire need of paint and refinishing and then turned around. “Meet Pandora. She’s a Hudson Force 50.”
His eyes widened as he drank in the joy on her face. “You bought a boat.”
“I did everything we counsel our clients against.” She counted them off on her fingers. “Made emotional buying decisions, depleted my savings on a purchase, cashed in stocks in spite of the tax ramifications, and planned to sail until my wallet was empty.” She grinned, no sign of regret or buyer’s remorse in her eyes. “She needs lots of work, and it would be tough to sail her alone, but the Sea Dog inspired me. She’s mine free and clear.”
He stepped onto the deck, staring up at the sixty-foot main mast. “Can I help you restore her?”
“I would love that.” She took his hand, and he shifted his focus to her face. “The hull is solid, and the mast and boons checked out. It’s mostly cosmetic work.”
“I know an amazing carpenter.” His heart was already racing with the thought of restoring the vessel with her.
“Come on, I’ll show you around.” She started to tug him toward the deck when someone called her name from the dock.
“Ms. Andrews?”
They both turned.
Harmony squinted into the setting sun and frowned. “Detective Harris? How did you find us?”
“Your neighbor mentioned you’ve been spending a lot of time down here lately,” the officer replied. “I figured it was worth a try.”
Her name seemed familiar, but John couldn’t place it.
“I’m sorry to intrude, but we need to talk.” The female detective wore her dark hair back in a tight bun and a weapon on each hip.
Harmony frowned. “Did you recover the stolen stuff from my apartment?”
Now John realized where he’d heard the name. This was the detective who had come to Harmony’s apartment after Bale and his crew broke in and tossed the place.
“No.” She glanced at John and added, “It’s about your brother.”
“Max? What happened?”
The detective came closer, her voice taking on a slow, empathetic tone that signaled bad news. “We should probably sit down. Alone.”
“No.” Her hand slid into John’s. “I want John with me. Is Max okay? Was there a car accident?”
“No car accident.” Her gaze shifted to John and then back to Harmony. “He’s been taken to Mercy Hospital in critical condition.”
…
“Oh, God.” Harmony gasped, struggling to wrap her head around the information. “What happened? Will he be all right?”
“His injuries are life-threatening. I don’t have any information beyond that.” The detective cleared her throat. “I’m going to need to gather information from you in order to assist the investigation.”
John’s hand rested on the small of her back, steadying her as tears stung her eyes. “There’s got to be a mistake. He was just over at my place a few hours ago. I don’t understand.”
“We received an anonymous tip.” Sympathy lined her eyes. “He was attacked in his apartment.”
Harmony shook her head. “Attacked?” Her voice broke. “Are you saying someone tried to kill my brother?”
Detective Harris clasped her hands in front of her. “Do you know if he had any enemies?”
“No. Everyone loves Max.” Her chest constricted. “I need to see him.”
“Of course.” Detective Harris glanced at her phone and lifted her eyes. “Just one more question. Does he have any acquaintances with first or last names that start with S?”
“No. Not that I know of, but he was in college, I probably don’t know all his friends.”
“Why would an S be of importance?” John stiffened beside her, his voice tight. “Was there a cut shaped like an S?”
Detective Harris narrowed her eyes. “Why would you ask that?”
“Because this isn’t the first homicide in Savannah that left behind a body with an S carved into it.” He slid his arm around Harmony’s waist, holding her a little tighter. “I follow crime in the local paper.”
Harmony’s stomach twisted. “Did a serial killer attack my brother?”
“It’s much too early to make assumptions,” Detective Harris replied, narrowing her eyes at John. “I’m going to need to know where both of you were two hours ago.”
Harmony had lost all track of time, but John answered. “We were together at Harmony’s apartment. I came over shortly after her brother left this afternoon.”
“Then I brought John here to see my boat.” Harmony stared at the dock. The color had drained from everything around her, leaving her in a monochrome world.
“All right.” The detective made a note in her phone and looked up. “Do you need a ride to the hospital?”
“I can take her,” John offered.
The detective nodded, her gaze moving from one to the other. “I’ll be in touch with an update soon.” Her expression softened. “I’m so sorry.”
Detective Harris held out her business card, but Harmony couldn’t bring herself to take it.
John reached for the card. “Thank you, detective.”
Detective Harris nodded. “Call me anytime if you can think of anyone who might have wanted to harm him.”
“We will,” John answered.
The detective’s footsteps faded as she walked down the dock. John took out his keys and helped Harmony back to the car. The initial numbness and shock faded as panic filled the void.
“I need to get to Max.”
He nodded and opened the car door for her. “And I need to call Colton and get a cou
ple of the crew over to keep watch.”
She blinked and turned to face him. “You think the attack on my brother is connected to that damned box, don’t you?”
“Aye.” He sighed, staring at his hands. “Trumain was a member of the Serpent Society, and when they take a life in sacrifice for their cause, they carve an S into the flesh as an offering to God.”
“Why would they go after Max?” Her voice wobbled. “Why didn’t they take me?”
John shrugged, taking her hand. “Maybe they did come for you, but your brother was at your place, so they waited.”
She swallowed a lump in her throat. “And then you showed up.”
“Exactly.” He nodded slowly. “Once they knew he was your brother, they must’ve known it would hurt you. He became the sacrifice.”
“For what? If Max…” God, she couldn’t say the word. “This won’t get them the box.”
“The Old Testament promises them an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. We took Trumain from them, so they tried to take your brother from you.” His eyes shone in the dim cabin light. “I thought the night in the Bonaventure Cemetery was the end of the Pandora’s box story. Bale’s team cleaned up the Bonaventure after the fight. There was no evidence of Trumain’s death or your partner, Tuck, left for the Serpents to find.”
He cursed under his breath, staring up at the heavens. “I should’ve been with you. There must’ve been another Serpent Society member there that night. Watching. We killed many of them during the fight to retrieve the Grail, but maybe there are more of them than we realized.”
“If I’d never stolen the damned thing in the first place, none of this ever would have happened.” Hindsight was going to drive her insane. “I need to see my brother.”
John got them to the hospital in record time. She marched directly to the information desk and found out her brother was in the critical care unit. Fear twisted in her stomach. Max couldn’t die. She wouldn’t let it happen.
John followed her to the fifth floor and stood beside her while the doctors explained his condition in cold, clinical terms.
Harmony frowned. “But he’ll be all right, won’t he?”
Dr. Stanton stared through the door at her brother. “The next twenty-four hours will be critical. The head trauma combined with the severe blood loss could have deprived the brain of oxygen. Until he’s conscious, we can’t be sure.”
The nursing staff brought them chairs, and Harmony moved hers next to Max’s bed. His face was bruised, his head bandaged, and underneath the hospital gown were hundreds of stitches. The fanatics had carved the S into his abdomen. The police had received an anonymous tip from someone who heard a scuffle.
Seeing him lying still in a hospital bed brought back memories of the first time she’d nearly lost her brother. She stroked his hair back from his forehead and pressed a gentle kiss to one of the bruises.
“I’m so sorry, Max. You have to get better, okay?”
The next few hours passed in a blur of nurses and doctors, but through it all, John remained at her side. He brought her food, a pillow, and never complained. Vaguely she recalled seeing Colton and Drake stopping by while she dozed in the chair, but otherwise all her waking attention was on Max.
She squinted as the sunrise greeted her through the cracks in the miniblinds. Stretching, she looked over at John. “You don’t need to stay here.”
His arms were crossed, his eyes red and swollen, but he shook his head. “I’m fine.”
She glanced at her brother and back to John. “This—this is your future with me.”
One corner of his mouth quirked up. “This is not my first dance with mortality, and it won’t be my last. I’ve already made my peace with that.”
“But I haven’t.” She rubbed her eyes, wishing she could wipe away the exhaustion as easily. “What if this isn’t the future I want?”
He rested his elbows on his knees and sighed. “I told you how I felt.” He lifted his gaze, meeting her eyes. “I love you, and I will love you long after you’re gone. Don’t ask me to stop.”
“That’s not what I’m saying.” She turned toward her brother and took a slow breath before glancing back at John. “I want to drink from the Grail.”
…
John frowned, straightening in his chair. He didn’t know where this change of heart was coming from. “Your brother is going to open his eyes, love, and if you’ve swallowed the water from the Lord’s cup, you’ll have to lie to him when he starts to notice you’re not aging. You’ll be forced to watch him fade away. You said you couldn’t do that.”
She looked up at the ceiling, blinking back tears that tore at his heart. “Don’t you see?” She leveled her gaze on his face. “I love you, too, John. And if I can escape ever lying in a hospital bed like this, I’m going to take it.”
Her voice caught, her attention immediately shifting to her brother. “Max?”
“Harmony?” His voice was raw but clear. He blinked his eyes open. “What happened?”
She kissed her brother’s hand. “Someone attacked you. But we’re going to find them. They’ll never touch you again.”
The nurses and doctors came into the room, shooing them out while they made their evaluations. John took her hand, walking her toward the cafeteria for coffee. “He’s going to be all right.”
“Looks like it.” She nodded and squeezed his hand. “That doesn’t change my decision.”
He stopped and lifted her chin to meet his eyes. “You don’t have to do this for me. I’ve made my choice.”
“I wouldn’t be doing it for you. It would be for me.” She searched his eyes. “I’ll do whatever it takes to convince the crew I’m worthy. That’s my choice.”
“And what about your brother, love?”
“I’m not lying to Max or leaving him.”
He frowned, shaking his head. “I don’t understand.”
“I trust my brother. He’d never betray me.”
John sighed. “You’d become part of my crew. It’s more than just your secret, Harmony.”
She rolled her eyes, and he caught a trace of the wild woman he’d fallen in love with. “There’s no way in over two hundred years, with ten immortal pirate crew members, that one of them never shared their secret with someone.”
John’s jaw went slack at the thought. “You’re wrong.”
“Am I?” She shook her head. “I’d believe you haven’t told anyone, and maybe Drake, but there’s no way Greyson hasn’t blabbed it to someone once or twice over too many beers. Think about it. Even if one of your crew told someone, who would believe them?”
John tugged at his chin. Could she be right? He glanced down the hall toward her brother’s room. “So you’re saying even if Max told someone, no one would believe him.”
“Exactly. And then I won’t have to miss out on any of my brother’s life just because I chose to skip aging.”
Could it really be so simple? “The others won’t like it.”
“They don’t need to know, John. Partners first, crew second.”
This was a dangerous precedent. He’d never lied to the crew. He shook his head. “We have to tell the crew if Max knows the truth about the Grail. I won’t lie to them.”
“All right.” She started walking again, leaving him to catch up. Once he matched her stride, she glanced over at him. “You realize this might open the door to more of them telling your secret.”
He chuckled and took her hand. “Who would believe them, right?”
But the truth was far less certain. And the reality taunted him from the shadows. If the crew rejected his petition to allow Harmony a sip from the cup, would he steal it?
In a fucking heartbeat.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Most of the crew were milling around the deck, but they were still waiting on one. Captain Flynn surprised John by asking him to wait for his arrival before placing John’s motion before the crew. It wasn’t like Flynn to be concerned about crew business.
Real estate deals filled his sails now.
After a week of discussions, John was finally at peace with Harmony’s decision to drink from the cup, and tonight, they’d present their petition to the crew. He’d already confessed to Colton that Harmony intended to tell her brother the truth when the time came to fake her death to the rest of the world.
And the quartermaster surprised him by agreeing with Harmony’s initial assumption. Who could he tell? Maybe the crew would accept her terms after all.
Drake approached Harmony with a warm smile. “I hope John called this meeting to vote another member onto our crew.”
Harmony nudged John. “You didn’t tell them?”
“No. I’d rather only have to tell them once.”
She glanced at Drake with a shrug. “No spoilers, I guess.”
Drake clapped John’s shoulder. “If there’s a vote, she’s got mine.”
Before John could respond, Flynn crossed the gangplank. Although this version of the Sea Dog was Colton’s ship, the captain still commanded attention. The crew quieted, and Ian Flynn stepped into the center of the deck. His narrowed gaze scanned the crew and stopped on Harmony. He smirked at John and turned to the others.
“Before our boatswain makes his case for adding a thief to our crew, I have an item to discuss first.” He took a dramatic pause before continuing. “It appears Agent Bale has been reprimanded for the clusterfuck over Pandora’s box. Since he previously cut off our mutually beneficial partnership to pirate on his department’s behalf, I propose we approach the Digi Robins group.” His blue eyes landed on Harmony. “Perhaps our newest member might reach out to her contacts.”
John ran his tongue along his teeth, struggling to think before he spoke. He should’ve foreseen the captain’s next move. While Flynn had been wary about working with Agent Bale in the beginning, apparently the million in gold bars, coupled with the rise in crew morale over the chance to plunder under the guise of helping to protect America, had won him over to partnership opportunities.