Free Alphas of Black Fortune Complete Series by Scarlett Rhone Page A

catching her by the waist, so quickly that all she could do was grab his arms. They were nearly nose to nose, and his fingers gripped her tightly, but she held his eyes and didn’t flinch. Those exotic, changing eyes, fierce even beneath the jagged fall of his dark hair, his face hard and smooth at once. She could feel the muscles in his arms flexing tightly, burning beneath her hands.
    “It’s been months,” he said softly, looking into her eyes. “And you have been as much a prisoner on this ship as I.”
    “I need the treasure,” she whispered, breathless.
    “I will help you get it.”
    She searched his eyes, tried to find the truth through the wildness blazing in their depths, but knew even as she did that she could not betray Kelly. He may not have loved her, but he had saved her. She’d seen the desperation in his eyes when he spoke of reuniting with the lost members of his family, his den. It had looked not unlike the desperation she saw now in Reza’s eyes. Both of these men longed for home so powerfully. Cressida had never had much of a home to long for, and all the homes she’d known had come with the weight of unwilling dependence.
    “I want you,” she told Reza as they gazed into each other’s eyes. “But I will not betray him when it comes to the jewel.” She swallowed, throat suddenly tight. “But you can have me, Reza, if you mean everything you say…”
     

Chapter 3
    The longer he touched Cressida, the more Reza’s entire body felt as if it was on fire. When she looked at him and said those words, I want you , he bit down on a growl of desire so powerful it nearly overwhelmed him. He could tell that she was conflicted, though, and that she was frightened. He’d been watching her over the months, watching as she struggled with what she now knew of them, struggled with understanding it and accepting it. He’d watched too as she wavered, when her smiles were more for Captain Kelly or more for him. He’d watched her heart tear in half and he could do nothing. Even as she stood now in his hands and offered herself to him, he knew that one half of her heart was still above, in the captain’s quarters.
    He had considered killing himself, more than once. At ends, overwhelmed both by the presence of all the bears and by the certainty that they were going to destroy his people, however inadvertently, he’d thought about just diving into the sea and letting it drag him down. But it was not in his nature to give up, or he’d have been dead a long time ago. No, his nature told him to fight tooth and claw for what he wanted, and to defend the things and people he loved most. And he loved Cressida Avery.
    He’d resisted it at first. Then told himself that she was the only woman aboard the ship and the last one he’d been with, after a very long drought, so of course he wanted her again. But the more he watched her charm the crew, work just as hard as anyone, and demand treatment equal to her own worth…the more he began to realize, with dread, that it was more than simply wanting her. And moreover, his current predicament was far larger and more dangerous than the unrequited love of a seafaring madwoman.
    Home. Home . It was forever on his mind, haunting him in dreams and awake. At once a hope and a horror. He had no way of knowing what would greet him on the shores of his island. In truth, he could not tell Cressida exactly what she wanted to know, because he had no idea himself. The secrets of the jewel had never been his.
    He pulled Cressida even closer and kissed her, unable to let her go without at least one kiss, though he half expected her to try and stab him for it. It was a pleasant surprise when she didn’t, when she kissed him back instead, and he found himself backing her up against the wall when her fingers worked their way into his hair.
    “Do you choose me?” he asked, lips still against hers, as he slid a leg between her thighs.
    “Yes,” she gasped.
    He let out a growl of