Free The Pirate's Wish by Cassandra Rose Clarke

like something must’ve kicked up his curse. Probably from some of the crew leering at me all night.
    “I don’t need your help,” I hissed at him, dragging him over to the railing. The sea was a churn of black and stars.
    “I’m not here for you,” he said. “Though you really should be more careful. Those men aren’t… they aren’t honorable.”
    I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. “You think I’ve never been on a ship full of drunk pirates before?”
    “They could still overpower you–”
    “I thought you weren’t out here for me.”
    He didn’t say nothing, just turned his face toward the sea. I stalked away from him. Fine. Let him slash at any asshole who tried to grab at me. Get us tossed into the ocean, he would.
    I huddled up near the fire some crewman had got going for warmth. Esjar was sitting over by the fore mast, playing a tune on this beat-up old Qilari guitar. I glanced over my shoulder at Naji – he was watching me, one hand on his sword hilt. Conspicuous as hell. But at least he’d see what I was about to do.
    I walked over to the mast. “Hey, ice boy,” I said.
    He stopped playing and looked up at me. “Hey, sun girl.”
    I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. I ain’t never been any good at flirting, but Esjar looked at me with these heavy-lidded eyes and said, “See you’re still wearing my gloves.”
    “Oh.” I held up my hand to show him, even though he’d obviously already noticed. “Yeah. You’re right, I needed ’em.”
    He laughed and started plucking out a Confederation tune on his guitar. I didn’t say nothing – I wasn’t too keen on letting him know who I was, since the Hariri clan almost certainly still had a watch out for my head, despite all the time that had passed – but I did sit down beside him. His fingers moved deft and sure over the guitar strings.
    Naji was still watching us.
    I was sweating underneath my cloak and the cold sea air, nervous. Esjar finished up his song and set the guitar off to the side.
    “So what’s your story?” he asked me. I was surprised; for all our conversations, we’d never really talked about ourselves before.
    “Ain’t got one.”
    Esjar kinda smiled at that, but he didn’t ask no more questions. We sat side by side for a few minutes, not talking. I scooted closer to him. He put his hand on my knee.
    “I don’t got much of a story, either,” he said.
    We sat in another few moments of awkward silence while I tried to figure out what my next move should be. I was aware of Naji standing at the railing, turned sideways to us, like he was watching us out of the corner of his eye. I was about to ask Esjar if he wanted to go down below, but then a couple of crewman struck up an old Empire song, bright and cheerful.
    “Hey, sun girl, you know this one?” Esjar asked.
    “Sure do. It’s got a dance that goes with it. I can show you if you want.” When Esjar nodded, I stood up and held out my hands. He laughed and grabbed both of them and I pulled him to his feet.
    I looked over at Naji, trying to be casual about it. He was frowning at us.
    Least your head ain’t hurting no more, I thought bitterly.
    I led Esjar to the center of the deck and showed him the basic steps. In truth, I didn’t know the dance all that well – I’d watched people do it whenever I made port in Lisirra with Mama and Papa, and I’d followed along with the steps once or twice. But I knew enough to show Esjar: mirrored steps, back, right, forward, swinging your hips all the while. He took to it quickly enough, and we swung over the deck, laughing and whirling while the rest of the crew stomped out a beat.
    When the song ended, the crew burst into applause, and Esjar pulled me into him and kissed me.
    It surprised me, but I liked it, too, and I kissed back, tasting the sea salt on his lips. Part of me wanted to see how Naji was reacting, but part of me just wanted to kiss Esjar until the sun came up.
    We pulled apart. I