He wipes his damp forehead with the back of his hand, wondering if there is actual steam coming out of his ears. He's been alive for a very long time, and been a pirate for most of those years. He's had quite a few adventures in many a bedchamber, but what he's seeing on the pages of this book have made him realise that he is naught but a babe in the woods. Surely, she had to realise what she was handing him to translate? Then again, if he hadn't realised, it's highly likely that the Saviour is also something of a babe in the woods.
He smirks. Perhaps they can learn together.
He leans out of the dark corner where he has been ensconced for the last ten minutes. "Er, Swan?"
"What is it?" She comes striding towards him, hope shining in her bright eyes. "Did you work out the writing on those pages?"
"Yes and no, love." Stars above, given what he's just been perusing, he can hardly look at her without picturing her lovely body in half a dozen different ways, each one more deliciously wicked than the last. "Did you, by chance, glance at the back pages of this book before you gave it to me?"
She frowns, coming to stand beside him, the soft press of her breasts against his shoulder as she peers at the open book in his hands. "No, why?"
"See for yourself." He flips to the back of the book, laying out the lurid drawings for her to see, and her shocked gasp is music to his ears.
"Oh." She looks at him, her eyes darkening with the same hunger that is clawing at his blood, and he wants nothing more than to press her back against the rickety shelf and simply have her, here and now, uncaring of the fact that they are not alone in this blasted shop. But they're not alone, Belle and the Prince are less than ten feet away from them, and there is a bloody witch still on the loose and he can't even kiss her-
Obviously reading him as easily as the book he's still clutching, Emma puts her hand on his forearm. That her lovely face is pink with heat gives him as much hope as her whispered words. "Maybe another time."
He takes the book with him when they leave.
Page fifty-four looks particularly promising.