A Pirate's Dream by Marie Hall

you enjoy Daniel’s company?” he asked in a voice grown scratchy, not sure why he’d even mentioned the legger’s name. “Do you need more legger interaction, Nimue?”
    He held his breath, awaiting her answer, which was swift to come.
    “No. I think I enjoy this type of interaction much more.”

Chapter 8
    I t’d been a month since her journey to the moors, and Nimue couldn’t stop smiling into the vanity mirror.
    Things had changed between her and Sircco lately—not quickly, and not easily—but rather than ignore her, he now seemed to seek her out. He asked her questions and, even on occasion, offered up tidbits on Talia’s life.
    And even though Stygia’s snarly attitude hadn’t let up in the slightest, only a blind fool would not have seen that Sircco, King of the Seren Seas, was intrigued by his little captive.
    Fluffing out her hair, she twirled, running her hands down the silky fabric of her slitted gown. Showing off such an expanse of thigh felt naughty, especially here, where the folk viewed her legs as a repulsive piece of flesh, but it’d not escaped her notice that Sircco glanced down at them more and more often.
    She had great legs, muscular but not too much so. They were solidly built and yet femininely delicate. She was proud of who she was, and whether any of them down here felt as she did, it mattered naught to her.
    Pinching her cheeks to bring out the pink in her pale, washed-out flesh, she inhaled deeply. Maiven had invited her over to harvest more snails this morning.
    Not that Maiven really needed the help, but Nimue suspected her great-mother enjoyed her company as much as Nimue enjoyed hers. Grabbing a shawl, as the waters had become cooler as of late, she then wrapped it snugly about her shoulders and headed out of the door. She immediately bumped into a hard, firm chest. Sircco’s fingers latched onto her biceps, curling around them. Not exactly gentle, he wasn’t hurting her, either. His thumbs traced idly down the crosshatch pattern of her annelid-silk shawl.
    “You are up.” His baritone voice made her want to squirm. It made her breasts tingle and her knees go weak.
    His hair had grown slightly longer in the time since she’d been below the water. And there was always one annoying curl he kept slapping out of his eyes. If she were braver, she would have reached up to push it aside.
    But she wasn’t brave, so she curled her hand into a fist and gave him a tight smile, hating that her stomach suddenly felt twisted with knots.
    “Yes, I am up.”
    A bright gleam entered his exotic bronze eyes full of rolling waves. “Good. I have a surprise for you in my study, I’d like for you to see it.”
    She felt slightly breathless when his warm palm crept an inch higher upon her arm as one of his fingers accidentally grazed her left breast. Clearing her throat, she attempted to speak through the muddle her brain had become.
    “I would love to see it. But,” she said when he began dragging her toward the staircase, “I promised great-mother I’d spend time with her this morning. Can I see it after dinner, perhaps?”
    The waves suddenly swelled and thick clouds full of dancing light filled his gaze. “Yes, of course,” he said, but she heard the disappointment in those words.
    A hermit crab scuttled off his crown, down his arm, and onto hers. It had freaked her out a little the first time one of them had done that. Jian had been none too pleased to share his legger with another and had hissed a violent stream of bubbles at it. But this time, her little sea dragon merely vibrated his ear fins at the interloper climbing up the side of her neck. Its chitinous little feet tapped a discordant rhythm as it climbed up before settling against her cheek and giving her a rub with its shell.
    Sircco grinned. “Orion likes you.”
    Thinning her lips as she tried to refrain from laughing so hard that she knocked the little beastie off, she nodded. “I’m not sure what it is about yours and