I always loved when we pulled into port. Not for the reasons the other pirates thought of, (dirty dirty pirate minds- I wasn't that type of girl. Well, usually wasn't that type of girl.) but I always had a chance to sneak up on my BFF, the pixy Sita. I had a project in need of her assistance.

I let go of the rope and landed on the pier, soft soled boots absorbing all the sound as I checked the empty pier for riffraff.

"Whatcha know, tart?"

I whirled around. My heart thumped hard against my ribs and I scowled. This is what I deserved for using my wish to give her the ability to be human size. She enjoyed catching me off guard. The brat.

"Sita, dearest. Long time no see." I crossed my arms over my chest and she followed suit. "I have a favor."

"No kidding?" She laughed, and her demeanor changed from fanged vixen to tinkerbell. Pixy dust shimmered in the dying sunlight and I held my breath. There was no way I wanted to breathe in that stuff. I'd be higher than a kite for days and I needed my wits about me for what was going to happen next. "You vex half of Barbosa's crew again?"

I frowned. That had been a bad accident. He still hadn't forgiven me. Not even after falling for Mad Maureen. He couldn't admit they were perfect together. "No. You are such a wench. I have to do this interview for our joint venture and I'm struggling a bit with it."

"Oh, you mean for Booty magazine? You got Nika Riley to sign on for an interview? How did you manage that? Find her family and threaten them?"

I gave Sita a look that scared meaner men. "I do not threaten people. I ask nicely and when they won't do what I want, then I persuade them."

"Persuade them?" She laughed. "Please. Save the looks for the crew. When are you doing this?"

"Now?"

"You're kidding." She ran a hand through her wild curls and gave me an exasperated look. "You've always been like this, you know that? Last minute for EVERYTHING."

"Which means you'll do it."

"Yes, but only because I love you." Sita grinned. "That and I've been dying to meet Nika. She's a hermit, you know. No one knows who she really is."

I rolled my eyes. "Please. If someone wanted to find out, they could. They just haven't tried."

"Plenty have tried, my dear. No one has succeeded until now!" I blinked and Sita transformed back into pixy size, "Now, if you don't mind, I think I'll head onto the ship and scope out Ms. Nika Riley."

I sighed. Great. I dunno what I was thinking when I thought about asking her to do this with me. I shook my head and reached for the rope to swing me back on board. The pirates were milled around my reserved cabin. I never used it. I usually slept in the crow's nest where I knew no one could sneak up on me.

"What are you pirates doing?" Everyone jumped away from peeking through the boards, except for Lisa, who crossed her arms over her chest and frowned.

"She looks like someone I've met before." Lisa peeked back through the boards and pointed towards the figure in black. "She's wearing a hoodie but I know I know her."

Great. That's all I needed- suspicious pirates. "You do not. Stop harassing her."

Hells pushed her way in front of everyone. "Her eyes look an awful lot like yours, Sin."

"You have to be kidding me." I rolled my eyes at Hells. "I can't be two people at once. That's just absurd."

"Something fishy is going on here." The Bo'sun piped up. "And it's not because we're out to sea."

"Yeah." Marn and Hal looked at each other and crossed their arms over their chests. "We both know when something just doesn't add up. And this doesn't add up, Sin."

"Aye, not at all." Mad Maureen scowled at me from above, her long legs dangled over the door. "'fess up you ninja tart. What's really goin' on here? Who's the pixy?"

"You mean me?" Sita leaned against the cabin door in all her human size glory, pixy fangs resting against her ruby red lips and the crew jumped back. "I'm harmless. Really."

Mad Maureen started mumbling to herself. Hells shook her finger in Sita's direction. "You look familiar too."

"Oh god, don't start this crap again." I pushed everyone away from the cabin door and shoved Sita inside and followed in behind her. "Put the cloak on this cabin so we can get down to business."

Sita mumbled to herself and I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and counted to five. "Don't you start too."

I went to where I had the fake set up and yanked the black hoodie up and the illusion disappeared. I slipped the hoodie over my head and snuggled in.

Sita narrowed her eyes, and looked around the cabin. She threw her hands up in the air, "So where is she? Did you lie to get me here?" A smile slid across her lips slowly and her eyes twinkled, "You know if you want to see me, all you gotta do is ask."

I rolled my eyes. I was going to hit the world record of eye rolling in a single day if I kept this up. "Please. I'm not that desperate."

Sita laughed, "Ouch, you bitch. That hurt."

"Not as much as it does for me." I took a deep breath. This was going to be incredibly hard. "Okay. I have to ‘fess up."

"You wanted to see me?"

I laughed, "No, you crack pot. Nika is me. I'm Nika Riley. At First Taste is my book."

"No way!" Sita squealed and I slapped my hands over my ears.

"Warn a girl before you do that, okay? I like my eardrums."

"I can't believe it." Sita took a seat on my unused bunk and stared at me. I crossed my arms over my chest and then dropped them down and shuffled my feet. Sita had been my best friend for decades. Some things were just hard to confess to. "You never told me."

"Can we just do the interview and get this over with?"

"Is this one of those things where if I tell anyone you're going to kill me?"

I flopped into the hammock. "Yup."

"Crap. That sucks." She started to mutter again. Sounded like the startings of a truth spell.

"Sita!"

"Dang, okay. It just sucks that you finally do something cool and I can't brag about it."

"You're hopeless."

"Not the first time I've heard that." Sita slipped over to the desk and grabbed some paper and a pen and started to write furiously on the page. "I have so many questions."

"Well, I only have so many answers, so you better get to it."

"Let me just get the preliminary stuff written down and we'll get down to business."

Booty Magazine presents: Nika Riley, author of At First Taste- number 1 on the NYT bestsellers list for 15 weeks straight here to dish on all the great things secret in her life-

I reached for her paper and snatched it away. I scanned it. "What the hell is this?! I'm not dishing about my secret life!"

Her lower lip pouted. "Not even a little. To me?"

"Especially not to you, blabber mouth!"

Sita snatched the page back. "Fine."

She was quiet for a second and looked up again. "How about doing the cover for next month's issue? You could wear a torn skirt, your soft soled black boots with the hellacious heel and a torn white peasant shirt hanging from the ropes of the ship." She tapped the pen against her lips. "Our ratings would go through the roof! Our male readers would kill-"

"NO! Absolutely NOT!" I smacked a hand over my eyes. This was the worst idea I'd had since the Barbosa episode. And that was because I was on a three day rum bender and Sita dared me. "No, Sita! Don't even think about sneaking a picture on the cover!"

"Ugh, you ruin all my fun! Okay. Fine. Be that way. I'm just sayin'..."

"Well don't say anymore. I have no desire to go public. Not now. Not ever. I have a ship to play pirate to and a crew I'm fond of."

She started to write again and I leaned back in the hammock and closed my eyes. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. I could do this. Someone once told me that doing this interview should be interesting since I never opened up. I could prove them wrong.

Sure I could.

Oh god, this was going to be bad.

Tune in next week to read Booty Magazine's exclusive interview with author Nika Riley! Any questions you would like to see answered? Any rumors you might have heard in the rumor mill you want addressed? This is your chance!