Shank gave her a smile—one of his small, secretive ones that made her insides constrict. “So where am I going?”
“Casey taught me that people aren’t always what they seem. Now I’m hypersexual, and I use sex to try and break through that shell and get to the real person inside. But it’s not the same. Claire might have wanted you weak, but you aren’t.”
Shank nodded, but Allie disliked how his gaze slid away. She reached out and caught his hand. “You aren’t weak,” she repeated.
“No, but I tried to make myself weak for her,” he finally said.
Allie drew in a breath. She had not seen that coming. She wanted to deny it, but Shank said it with such honesty that she knew he spoke some part of the truth, even if she didn’t believe for a moment he would have allowed Claire to destroy him that way. “It’s not in your nature. You would have put your foot down.”
“I guess it was too bad for her that I couldn’t change when I wanted to.” Shank pulled her close, and Allie snuggled against his side. “I wasn’t what she really wanted, just like you weren’t what Jacqs really wanted, although I think he would have tried. God, when he kept trying to get your attention, I was so damn jealous I almost threw him out an air lock.”
“Which would have been stupid. First, you would have been charged with murder. Second, Jacqs ended up being almost likable, and killing him would have been bad, and finally, I wouldn’t have slept with him if he was the last man in the universe. Why the hell would you be jealous of him?” Allie hadn’t ever given Jacqs a second look, although she had filed at least a half-dozen harassment complaints against him.
“He could see your strength. The others on the ship just saw you, but even though you were younger than the women Jacqs usually chased, he saw what I did. He saw that strength you carry. I was so determined to keep him away until I had managed to really—”
“Really what?” Allie asked when Shank stopped midsentence.
“Really show you what I have to offer,” he finished. “I wanted you to see that I could handle your strength, and I wanted to do it before you noticed he had his good points.”
“Like a lack of manners and a total disregard for the word ‘no’?”
“More like an honesty you would have appreciated and a respect for strength that would have allowed you to be strong.”
“I’m not feeling very strong right now,” Allie said softly. Reacting so dramatically to sex play had thrown her, and she was locked in a room on a pirate ship, and she felt vaguely like she had a mild hangover or a low-grade fever.
“But you are,” Shank said firmly. “That’s why my mother will eventually stop hating you. Wichiyena respect strong women, and they will understand why I’ve given you my loyalty.”
“Wichiyena, your people.”
“My immediate family is the Lacroixs. My people as a whole are Sioux. Wichiyena is one tribe, a series of families all closely aligned through generational links and alliances. The Wichiyena are a small alliance. The largest of the alliances is the Hunkpapha,” he said, and he seemed to swallow the middle of the word. Allie was definitely not going to try to say that. “Very few of them are pirates, but they do a lot of trading between pirates and standard space.”
Allie narrowed her eyes as something occurred to her. “Command would kill to know even a fraction of this, wouldn’t they?”
“Oh hell yes,” Shank agreed. “All they can do is pick off a few of the nonfamily ships, and trust me, none of us lose any sleep over that. The people who grow up on nice safe planets and then decide to become pirates for the profits—they’re all crazy sons of bitches.”
“Like Claire,” Allie said. She could feel a slow, burning hate for the woman.
“Yeah,” Shank agreed. “She is a little bat-shit insane, and she loves her money and her toys. If my guess is right, and she’s guarding that ship my mother is sending us to steal, this is not going to be easy. She’s going to have all sorts of security measures deckside.”
“I’m fine with that as long as I get to shoot her,” Allie said. Shank went silent. “Or not,” Allie added. “If you’re not comfortable with her being dead, I can avoid killing her, unless she starts trying to reclaim you. If she puts one finger on you, I think I have a right to shove her body into the cold of space.”
“You’re jealous.” Shank sounded supremely amused.
“I’m pissed. There’s a difference.”
“You’re jealous and pissed.”
Allie sighed. “Maybe,” she conceded.
“You don’t need to be.” Shank ran his fingers through her short hair, and Allie shivered.
“She had this dynamic relationship with you. She got to tie you down, and I hate her for doing that, and for understanding this dynamic stuff better than I do.”
Shank kissed her on the line of her jaw. “She was more confident, not more right. And I was too young at the time to know the difference. I do now.” His kisses trailed down her neck, and Allie pressed into them. She slipped her hand behind his neck and pulled him close, and that was when the door chime rang.
“Shit,” Shank cursed, the warm air of his breath skimming over her skin and making all the small hairs stand up.
“We could ignore them,” Allie said, and she was only half joking.
