Victory

“Perry, you should have seen him—poor thing had no idea what was going on.” Vice threw back her head and laughed again. She was aboard The Morrigan, pacing her friend’s small cabin.

Her skin still tingled with excitement—no, not tingled, buzzed. “I wish I could have stayed to see when he realised who I was. I bet that would have broken his expressionless mask. Gods, it would have been too much.”

Perry was sitting on her bunk, arms folded. She raised an eyebrow, but the corner of her mouth quirked, spoiling the effect of disapproval. “Good thing you didn’t. However much he was under the spell of your charm, I doubt he’d have hesitated to grab the notorious Lady Vice. Particularly not as she’d delivered herself so neatly into his lap.” Her mouth flattened, and she cocked her head.

Beside her, Barnacle, the ship’s cat, lay curled up. She opened one green eye at Perry, then closed it with a huff. The little grey cat was always on Vice’s side.

“Oh, I wasn’t in his lap—more’s the pity.” She grinned and winked, shrugging off the pink satin gown.

Now that would have been an achievement—bedding the very pirate hunter sent after her. And one so very handsome. Those shoulders, that chest, that height—at close to six feet herself, thanks to the fae blood, she was taller than a lot of men. Knigh Blackwood stood a good few inches past that, almost dwarfing her. Yes, he was a fine specimen.

“I would ask if he was good-looking, but your expression says it all.” Perry sighed, shaking her head. “Besides the fact he’s got a pretty face, did you learn anything actually useful on your mission?”

Vice looked up from untying her petticoats. “What?”

“You know—the whole reason you took the risk of going up there? To get information about this pirate hunter. I can’t see that his looks are going to help us evade him.”

“Oh, that”—Vice waved a hand and let the first petticoat fall—“well, he was easy to fool, I know that much. And”—that impressive figure straining against his dress uniform—she cleared her throat—“I wouldn’t want to face him one-on-one in a fair fight, so let’s not do that, right?”

Huffing, Perry stooped and grabbed the discarded clothes. “I don’t think you understand, so I’m going to split this out into simpler terms and ask again. You risked your life by going up to the Governor’s mansion—a building full of naval officers—while there’s a sizeable bounty on your head, when deLacy has seen you and knows full-well what you look like—”