“I was twenty when it happened. This house wasn’t the same without her.” Ashley idly stroked my collarbone. “So I left. Joined the Royal Navy, much to the despair of my parents.”

“And me. I demanded he stay.” Priest lifted on an elbow and curved a hand around my waist. “We fought about it. Beat the hell out of each other right here in this room.” He cut his eyes to Ashley, narrowing them to slits. “He fucked me that night. It was our first time…” His nostrils widened. “The prick fucked me and walked out. I didn’t see him again for a year.”

I looked down, my chest aching and heart raw. That seemed to be a habit of Ashley’s. The first time he’d fucked me, he’d left. Though he hadn’t made it past the door of his cabin.

“You must have kept in touch over the years,” I said.

“We wrote to each other.” Exhaling, Priest rolled onto his back. “Without Ashley, I had no job here. Over the following year, I hopped from ship to ship, doing various work, making my way to the West Indies, and looking for my father. That’s how I found a brother I didn’t know I had.”

“Reynolds.” I smiled.

“Aye. We joined a pirate crew. Ashley called upon me between wars. Sometimes we met here. Other times, we reconnected in ports along the Western Ocean. Those infrequent visits were all he offered me.”

Until Nassau, when Ashley wrote Priest out of his life completely.

“During those times,” Ashley said, “it was more important than ever that we kept our distance. You were making a notorious name for yourself, Priest. And I was an officer in the navy and—”

“You were my best friend.”

Priest had every right to be furious. He’d been rejected by both Ashley and me. Yet, as he lay beside me, his fingers absently twisting through my hair, he seemed content. Peaceful.

It became suddenly apparent why he had a sheer lack of interest in hoarding spoils and ships from his plundering at sea. He had all the wealth he could ever need right here.

All he truly wanted, what he needed, was someone he could take care of. And perhaps someone to do the same for him.

“You told me on your ship,” I said to Ashley. “that it had been two years since you bedded anyone. It was Priest, wasn’t it? In Nassau? He was the last person you were with?”

“Yes.”

“And before that?”

“I don’t recall. Commanding His Majesty’s Ship and fighting in wars didn’t allow time for such affairs. Meanwhile, Priest spent the past fourteen years fucking every skirt that crossed his path.”

“Until I met Bennett.” Priest cocked a brow, its sharp downward tilt highlighting the languid dip of his eyes. “There will never be another woman for me.”