The Thrill Of You

Chapter 18

Stede's POV

2 months later

Tonight was the night. It had been a journey, a rough one at that, one that had been making my heart beat faster in my chest. But Ed's wound, which Roach had checked on to make sure, was healed and we were both relieved because we were unsure if we prematurely took out the stitches or not. And after all this, I was going to ask him to dinner. If anything happened to go wrong with asking him out, I had decided to call it a celebratory dinner to avoid my feelings, which seemed so sudden. But as I had thought about it, these feelings hadn't been surprising.

Looking at this man a month ago, I realize I still look at him the same way I did when I was marveling at his tattoos. And once before, I had dared to take a peek at his torso, which took forever to cool down my cheeks from. He's so soft and laying down next to him while he clings to me as if it had been the default, seeing a man who had a hardened expression soften into something as smooth as honey. It was breathtaking.

"Stede, geez, mate. You've been staring at the clouds for more than five minutes, blink," Ed advised gently while he slightly shook my body, which I registered eventually, doing as he said and finding how much it hurt from staring off for so long. "Ah, thanks, I forgot that was a thing for a tick," I mumbled, rubbing the pain away in my eyes. I heard a small chuckle before his hand slowly slipped from my shoulder so he could lean on the railing. "I know the clouds look cool, but it's a good idea to blink," He joked, to which I giggled, seeing as I caught him many a time doing just the same; not blinking for at least 4 minutes when lost in thought.

"Yeah, that one kind of looks like a banana," I commented, pointing to one hanging around in the blue mass of the sky. I saw Ed nodding a bit, stroking his beard, and moving to uncross his arms from against the rail. "That one over there looks like a frankfurter," He pointed out, to which I nodded, looking at the sky and finding one that looked to be of two people dancing. Though I kept this to myself, seeing as maybe it had been my brain thinking of it since I was trying to think of a way to ask Ed out to dinner. A special dinner.

"Tonight..." I whispered, having cut myself off as I lost all words. After a while, I was sure that Ed hadn't heard me and I didn't want to attempt another time until I figured out how I could ask. "Captain Bonnet! Lucius apparently needs your help," Pete called from the deck, his hands cupped over his mouth to make his voice louder, which had startled me out of my thoughts.

"Be right there," I called back, sighing as I resigned to put my thoughts on hold, for now, pushing off of the rail to tend to what Lucius had for me to remedy. Though before I could leave, I felt a gentle hand reach for my wrist, pulling me back, Ed's gaze locked with mine. "Um- you, you said something or kind of whispered about tonight. Just the word really," Ed asked, his voice low and his demeanor hopeful, or it seemed to be.

My brain had stuttered on which sentence to say, merging words silently and then looking at Ed. "Um- I uh, special dinner. Just me and you," I stumbled out, to which I felt the long pause pierce through with tension as Ed sat there with confusion. "Sounds great," He whispered, his innocent eyes that weren't so when you looked more than a glance. I nodded, feeling his hand slip from my wrist and he winked at me before leaning back against the rail. I blushed and went down to where Pete had been impatiently waiting.

"What did Lucius need?" I asked as he took me to where I would suppose the boy had been waiting for me, going below deck. "Ask him yourself, I was supposed to just deliver the message," Pete defended quite quickly before departing once we were in the storage room with the marmalade and gunpowder. I got weird vibes as soon as I saw him, almost reaching out to keep Pete from leaving if he hadn't already run off. "We need to talk about the captain," Lucius told me, to which I sighed and wished to exit quickly, knowing I had somewhat taken care of it.