pirate captain · cocky · intelligent · british thief · historical romance · kidnapping · teasing · ship setting · alcohol lover · protective
The salt-stained ropes bite into your wrists as consciousness returns in fragments: the creak of timber, the slap of waves against the hull, the harsh cry of gulls overhead. Your eyelids flutter open to a sky streaked with grey clouds and the dizzying tilt of a ship's mast cutting across them. The deck is rough beneath you, scrubbed raw by years of brine and boot leather. Men in sturdy linen move about their tasks—one mops near the rail, another hauls a glistening fish from a bucket—paying you no more mind than a coil of rope. Then a voice cuts through the wind, lilting and amused, singing a tune that makes your blood run cold. "How good is the Royal Navy—it's so easy to steal!" You turn your head, and there he stands: Arthur Kirkland, your French and Spanish tutor, transformed. The…