Eight Nights At Sea is such a love child for me.

As some of you know, it began as a Fanfic – the only fanfic I ever novelized, as a matter of fact, and it was also my very first foray into Fanfiction.

I’d read plenty of bad fanfic and the occasional good one across the years, but never had the urge to write any myself until one day, a story crept into my head and just wouldn’t leave. It featured a favorite character from a favorite show (Hook from Once Upon A Time, of course), but I was hesitant to try it as a fanfic because I paired him up with a brand new character of my own instead of Emma, his traditional love interest on the show.

I finally decided I had to write the damn story just for me, if no one else, and I opened an account at Fanfiction.net and started posting it as it leaked out of my brain. It was surprisingly well-received, and got a few hundred good reviews, which inspired me onto my next tale, a purely Captain Swan adventure that got me some more traction in the community and led me to keep going in fanfic, which inspired me to write a few novels, and yadda yadda yadda, here I am actually making money on Amazon and Smashwords from my loyal readers that followed me out of Fanfiction and into the worlds I created.

But I’ll always have a soft spot for this book. Always. The story ended up being so much more than I originally intended, and taught me a lesson about endless possibilities in storyline, and how good it is to surprise yourself as an author.

So with all that backdrop, here’s a tease of what you’ll find in Eight Nights At Sea. In this scene, Rina breaks into the rum, and nearly makes a confession that Zeph has been waiting to hear…

~ ~ ~

Even after all they’d shared in each other’s arms, she didn’t trust him.

Perhaps that part wasn’t entirely true; she’d learned to trust him with her body, to trust him to see to her pleasure, but beyond that she’d kept her secrets even though it meant making a fool of him.

Zeph was not a man who allowed anyone to make a fool of him. If he were truthful about it, he was just as angry with himself for letting his guard down as he was with her for burrowing her way in past his defenses.

And now he was in the extremely uncomfortable position of not knowing what the hell he wanted. He wanted his life back; of that much he was certain. He just wasn’t sure if he wanted his life back without Rina in it somehow.

He looked up at the sun and realized he’d been standing there musing at the wheel for the better part of the morning and now it was nearly mid-day. They’d be in Tyverna a few hours after midnight, and it would be best if he and Rina had things sorted out between them before then.

With that thought foremost in his mind, he handed the wheel over to a crewman, rounded up some lunch from the galley, and made his way to the cabin. Rina could be sullen, she could be angry, hell, she could just be sleeping. He wasn’t sure what to expect.

He opened the door, and what greeted him was completely unexpected.

Rina was sitting on his bed, wearing his shirt again. It was unbuttoned and she was completely nude beneath it. She had managed to pull on a pair of his favorite boots, and from the look of her, had made her way through almost an entire flask of rum.

“Rina,” he said carefully. “How long have you been drinking?”

“Oh, since shortly after you were staring at my arse.” She put her hand to her face as she giggled. “And you were, you know. As I was climbing up into the ship you were staring so hard.”

He walked over to the bed and took the nearly empty rum bottle out of her hand. “Better let me have that, love.” He swigged the last of it and set it down on the table.

She fell back on her elbows, stretching her booted feet out in front of her. “You know, I like these.” She twisted her ankles side to side, admiring herself. “I think they look every bit as good on me as they do on you.”

Zeph leaned against the table, crossing his arms. He couldn’t help but smile at her – she was bloody adorable. “I’ll buy you a pair, if you’d like. I would imagine those are a bit large for you.”

“Mmmmm,” she replied. Rina arched her back, letting her head drop, and Zeph’s mouth went dry.

Damn that girl. The shirt had fallen back against her arms and her perfect breasts were pointed up toward the ceiling. The line of her throat was mesmerizing and he just wanted to run his hand from her lips to the tops of those boots.

“Rina.”

She lolled her head to the side so she could see him.

“Oh, I know that look, Captain.” She lay down abruptly, rolling to her side to face him. “Are you going to come and tie me up again? Or should I come to you and let you take me on the table once more?” She pushed herself into a sitting position and her voice suddenly turned soft. “That’s not my favorite place, though.”

Zeph tilted his head to the side, trying to reign in the effect her words were having on him. He figured he only had a minute, maybe two, before he walked over there and did exactly what she asked, and probably more than once. Heaven knows he could never get his fill of her. But just now he was curious.

“And where is your favorite place?” he queried.

Rina rolled onto her stomach, hanging her head and one arm off the side of the bed. She pointed downward. “Right here, on this rug, that very first night.”

She pulled her hand up, stacking it on top of the other one under her chin. “You were so handsome in the candlelight. And the way you touched me…oh, the way you touched me. I’d never felt anything like it and I knew then. I knew.”

Zeph pushed himself away from the table. He knelt on the floor next to the bed, and carefully smoothed the hair out of Rina’s face.

“What did you know, love?”

Rina let out a great, shuddering breath. “I knew I’d never want you to stop.” She lifted her head, so that she was eye-to-eye with him. “Zeph, do you understand what I’m saying? I just want-” she stopped a moment to take another deep breath. “I want to say-”

~ ~ ~

To find out what Rina says, you’ll need to read the book. Eight Nights At Sea is available at Amazon for Kindle.