“You’re just after touching mine.”
“Yes. But I didn’t look.”
“You did.”
Kit glared. “Move onto your stomach before you injure yourself.”
Nick obeyed, only because he thought Kit might explode if he let his gaze trail lower once more. On his stomach, Kit’sweight above him felt heavier than before. Not at all threatening, but Nick’s awareness of him heightened. He was very aware of the two knees pressing against either side of his hips. Very aware that he would have rather liked their positions in reverse.
A gloved hand was planted on the mattress next to Nick’s head. He felt the other hovering in the air above his injured back, and with it, the mood shifted away from amorous.
“I will reapply the salve.”
“It’s just some bruising,” Nick murmured, trying to lessen it in any way he could.
“I’ll brew painkillers so you may sleep too.”
“I’ll sleep fine. Do your work in here.”
Kit made a sorry sound. “I have to keep watch on board while we travel the river.”
Nick refused more painkillers anyway, not wanting to be unaware while Kit was out of sight.
Chapter Seventeen
Nick woke with a heightened feeling of wrongness. There was another person breathing in the room, the rhythm not Kit’s. A reedy, woody aroma permeated the air.
Intruder.
It wasn’t another night terror. An ominous black shape in the corner of the room, slowly advancing and growing in size with each step. Nick could move.
He sat up, turning. The stove’s dying embers cast a soft glow on a lean and short kit planted in the centre of the room, dressed all in black. A single glimpse of his face brought no recognition.
Nick’s sheets fell away from his chest, and a burst of trapped ochre and musk wafted up. The strange kit scrunched his nose and rocked back on his heels. “I guess that answers my question,” he murmured under his breath.
“This is the captain’s room. Invite only,” Nick said.
Indecision flashed across the kit’s face. Then, “I’m here to rescue you.”
Nick slid to the edge of the bed, planting his feet onto the polished wooden floor. “Oh yeah? Lead the way,” he said. He wasaware of his thin shirt, the loose trousers on his bottom half, the vulnerability of having just been jarred from a drugged sleep and having no idea how long this man had been in the room with him while he was unaware. When had Kit left? Seconds ago? Minutes? Hours?
The kit sprang forwards. Nick swept his hand to the bedside table, catching the bowl of salve. It hurled towards the kit’s face, who broke his lunge to duck. In the time it took the kit to rebound, Nick had opened the door and slammed it shut behind him. He raced down the hall, cursing under his breath to find himself unfamiliar with the layout of this new ship.
He lucked upon the stairs and darted up them. He heard his pursuer flying down the hall after him.
Nick skidded outside. No lookout. No man at the helm. The rigging was empty—no kits on the sails.
Bar one.
A tail brushed the back of Nick’s head. He jumped around to see Mini sitting cross-legged on the roof of the cabin leading below deck. “Go with them,” Mini said.
There wasn’t time to ask for details. Those steps were moments away from the door. Nick could call out. He could raise the alarm. He couldn’t, he knew, overpower the kit even though he looked physically smaller. “Is Kit?”
Mini nodded.
“Are you?”
The small kit sprang out of the doorway, and Mini slid away without being seen.
