Cash [Pyrate's Treasure 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (2 page)

Like the king, she was dressed for an evening at the theater, not a casual beach vacation. Her pale-blue bustier emphasized a generous cleavage. Her silky ankle-length skirt was black, while the shawl covering her shoulders was a rainbow of swirling pastel colors. She wore several gold necklaces of varying lengths. The shortest laid at the base of her throat while the longest reached to her waist.

When her gaze met his, Cash’s cock surged to painfully hard attention while his heart turned over in his chest. He gasped when he realized where he had seen her before. Visions of this woman had come to him in his dreams, both sleeping and awake, since he had been fifteen years old.

Over the last six months she had come to him more often, and the past few weeks it had been every night. The visions were, by turn, gently comforting, warmly loving, and sexually frustrating. They left him loving the unknown woman a little more, though he had no clue as to his mate’s identity.

Her eyes widened as she continued to stare into his eyes. Her lips parted as if she gasped a breath before they turned up in a warm smile. It was as if she knew exactly who he was and what they would be to one another. Could it be that he was not the only one having dreams?

“Mine,” he growled from deep in his chest. He took a step forward, all thoughts of protocol, manners, and any other subject beyond that of claiming his mate swept from his mind like a sheet of tissue paper in a Force 5 hurricane.

Before he could take a second step, Silver’s arm slammed across his chest like an iron bar. “Steady, cousin. That’s Zoe, the king’s woman. You can’t just grab her up and claim her here and now.”

“She’s my mate,” Cash whined softly, his cock throbbing with each strong beat of his heart.

“But she’s his wife,” Silver pointed out, sounding sympathetic.

Cash watched without blinking as the woman broke their locked gaze so she could gracefully descend the stairs. When she reached the king’s side, her gaze returned to his. The lonely, empty feeling that had started in his chest during puberty was replaced by a warm fullness he had never felt before.

The king wrapped his hand around her waist and pulled her closer to his side as he introduced her to Goldie. Cash fought the urge to leap across the distance separating them, rip the man’s arm off his body, and beat him to death with it. That woman was
his
mate. The king needed to keep his hands to himself.

As if the woman felt his anger, she glanced his way and met his troubled gaze. His eyes then widened in surprise when a gentle woman’s voice silently assured him there was nothing romantic between her and the king.

It didn’t matter, he grumped silently. She was
his
mate, and he didn’t share. Even with a king.

The woman gave him a look before turning away to whisper something in the king’s ear. Luka met his deepening frown with a raised eyebrow and cocky grin, as if daring Cash to challenge him. Cash took another half step before Silver stepped in front of him to block him from moving any further.

“Hold it together before you get yourself killed,” Silver whispered out of the side of his mouth.

In minutes, Goldie had given her formal “welcome to the island” speech. Then she suggested they head into the village on the other side of the island so their guests could freshen up and settle in.

The group began to walk along the beach trail that led toward one of the few gates in the fence that separated the town from the rest of the island. The king and Goldie led the way with Silver and Cash bringing up the rear.

“Go talk to her,” Silver urged, elbowing Cash sharply when the woman began to lag behind the king’s men. Her stiletto heels sank into the loose sand with each step she took.

“I can’t,” Cash admitted after nearly a minute of silence.

He could not take his eyes off the woman’s curvy, sexy backside as she walked just a few feet in front of him. His heartbeat thundered so loud in his ears he could barely hear the sounds of evening that filled the woods.

“Why not?” Silver whispered.

Before Cash could come up with an excuse his cousin would not scoff at, the woman cried out in surprise and began to fall. The men on either side of her did not have a chance to twitch in her direction before Cash leapt and jerked the woman back. He then scooped her into his arms and held her securely against his chest.

She did not fight him. Instead, she wrapped her arms around his neck and looked up at him. Her smile reached from his eyes all the way down to his cock, taking possession of everything in its path.

He was holding his mate. That was all that mattered. His mate was safe and in his arms. He could not take his eyes off her delicate, exotically beautiful features as he started walking again.

When the king’s Betas stepped closer, growling soft and threatening, Cash spared them a glance and returned with a louder, more possessive sound. The men looked stunned but made no further move to stop him. Cash walked past them and, a few steps later, the king and his cousin. The king looked intrigued at the development. Goldie appeared shocked.

“My shoes,” the woman said softly as Cash continued up the path, his long stride quickly leaving the others behind.

“What about them?”

“You pulled me out of them. They’re back there in the sand,” she said, lifting her bare feet in proof.

Cash spared them a glance and found her feet were as beautiful as the rest of her. He chuckled when he took in that each toenail had been painted a different neon color.

He shrugged but did not stop or turn back. “Silver will bring them.”

“Aren’t you going to put me down? I can walk, you know.”

“No, mate, I don’t think so.” Cash flashed her a cocky grin. “You feel good right where you are.”

The woman took a surprised breath but then relaxed even deeper into his hold. A moment later, she tilted her head to rest it against his shoulder.

Cash continued walking, not caring whether the others were following or not. It was as if a bubble had closed around them, and the rest of the world had disappeared. When he reached a path that broke off and went straight to the Pyrate family home, he turned onto it.

He would take her home with him instead of to the village. He would show her around the rest of the island. Later. After they had spent some time alone.

“What’s your name?”

“Zoe Shannon Vaughn. What’s yours?”

“Cash Pyrate,” he answered automatically.

Silence descended again for a few minutes. The itchy, unsettled feeling that had been growing in Cash over the last months drained away with each step he took with his mate in his arm. Then a disturbing thought raced through his mind.

“Why did you marry the king when you two aren’t mates?”

Zoe lifted her head from his shoulder and looked at him as they moved from the forest into the backyard of the Pyrate family’s ancestral home. She did not answer his question, but posed one of her own instead.

“So, Cash Pyrate, are you planning to claim me as your mate right here and now or make me wait?”

Stunned by her question, Cash stopped walking and just looked at the woman in his arms. “But you’re married to the king,” he whispered. “What the fuck am I doing, trying to claim another man’s wife as my mate?”

Before she could respond, the king’s Betas blocked his path to the kitchen door. The two men stood shoulder to shoulder and crossed muscular arms over equally muscular chests. They formed a human wall that Cash refused to attempt to break through while carrying his mate in his arms.

“King Luka wants to speak with you,” the one on the right said with an impressive growl to his tone.

“Now,” the other one added before Cash could offer to meet with the king tomorrow afternoon, after he had spent some serious time claiming his mate.

Zoe wanted to argue, but she suspected Luka was up to something. Knowing the king as well as she did, it probably had something to do with Cash not publically claiming her. At least not until the king found the woman who would take her place.

When the man holding her tensed and held her even tighter, she patted his chest to calm him. “Put me down, please,” she said calmly.

He looked at her but did not make a move to release her. Feeling a completely improper urge, given the circumstances, Zoe leaned up and kissed him. It was a very proper first kiss, lasting only a handful of heartbeats, but as the seconds ticked by, she could feel the ties between them grow stronger.

When she broke the connection, he tried to follow and kiss her again. Heat and hunger filled his eyes, causing them to appear more green than brown. Though wanting nothing more than to continue making out with her handsome mate-to-be, Zoe forced herself to turn her head away. Just then Luke came into view, along with the rest of their welcoming committee. Luka moved at his normal, leisurely pace, as if unconcerned that Cash was ready to take her right here and now without a care as to who was present.

“Cash, please. Put me down,” Zoe said again as she eased her arms from around his neck.

Cash frowned but did as she requested. Even after she found her footing on the warm patio stones, he did not step away. Instead, he wrapped one arm around her shoulders and pulled her tight against his side, clearly staking his claim.

“You wished to speak to me, Your Highness?” He addressed the king with an unmistakable note of disdain in his voice.

Cash’s arousal, anger, and fear tightened her own chest. The hand on her shoulder squeezed, as if he were fighting an urge to attack the man who was keeping him from his mate. Sliding her arm around his back, she began to run her palm up and down his spine, hoping to calm him. The last thing they need right now was for Cash to piss Luka off with his mating madness.

Instead of answering, Luka turned his attention to her. “Are you all right, my dear?”

Zoe nodded with what she hoped was a serene smile, though the hand on her shoulder tightened even further, causing her to fight an instinctive need to move away from the pain. She had a feeling there would be bruises there later in the shapes of his fingers.

“I’m fine, Your Highness.”

When his expression went blank, she knew he did not believe her. If she did not calm Cash down and fast, things could get very nasty very quickly. Sliding her hand down Cash’s back, she continued over the back of his jeans and between his legs. She slid her fingers far enough between his legs to distract him, but not so far that anyone else would figure out what she was doing. Feeling the bulge of his sac, she pressed two fingertips up and into it.

Cash sucked in a sharp breath and froze. As she continued to rub against his balls, he shifted, moving his legs closer together and trapping Zoe’s hand between them. Her mound warmed and tingled as if her mate-to-be reached over and had cupped his hand over it. Her pussy clenched, and her juices began to flow. When her inner thighs grew damp and she began to smell her own arousal, Zoe wished she wore panties on a more regular basis.

With a deep breath, she forced herself to focus on Luka. The king appeared amused, as if he knew what a sticky situation she had fallen into.

“Zoe is my personal advisor and my wife. I depend on her counsel regarding many issues, both public and private. Over the years we have been together, she has become indispensable to me and, by extension, to all those I rule over.”

“Uh-huh,” Cash said, sounding unimpressed and more than a little distracted. “But she is not your mate, so why did you marry her?”

When her fingers pressed harder against the back of his balls, he took a deep breath and changed his tone slightly. “Zoe is my mate. My claim on her trumps yours in the shifter world. You are going to have to divorce her and find yourself another advisor, Your Highness.”

Zoe did not know if it was Cash’s words or his snarky tone that upset Luka more. The king pulled in a sharp breath and stiffened. She knew he was ready to call out the man beside her for a knock-down, drag-out fight that could leave her without a mate.

Knowing she needed to stop them before blood covered the ground, she pulled away from Cash and stepped between them. Cash may have been bigger and stronger, but Luka had a dozen or more years of experience in his favor.

* * * *

When Zoe stepped away from his side, Cash felt her loss immediately and wanted to jerk her back. Before he could, Goldie moved to stand beside her. His cousin glared at him, her Alpha in full power mode. “She is not your mate yet, and I suggest you change your tone. Now.”

“But, Goldie,” Cash began, but snapped his jaw shut when her frown deepened and her eyes flashed amber.

“We all understand that you and Queen Zoe are mates, but she has a prior commitment to King Luka. Until he releases her from that, you will not interfere with her duties or claim her as your mate. Understand?”

Put that way, Cash had to agree. After huffing a sigh, he reluctantly nodded. Goldie then turned to the king. “Is that a satisfactory solution to you, Your Highness?”

“Yes, but I have conditions on their mating.”

“Conditions? On me? Claiming my own mate? You have got to be kidding.”

Though she did not say anything, Goldie shot Cash a look that had him once again snapping his jaw closed. Instead, he ground his teeth. She watched him for another few seconds before gesturing toward the French doors that led directly into the library.