Chapter 8 #3
Granted, I’d been wallowing in my dark, wretched thoughts for over a century now, when her imprisonment had only just begun. But I had crashed and broken most of my palace’s interior in those early days of my curse. And there she was, smiling.
Maybe the entire gravity of her situation hadn’t fully descended upon her mind yet. Maybe she still believed that she would leave Nerifir and be free again. She spoke about her old life as if she would still return to it. Maybe denial was what helped her cope.
If so, I felt sorry for her because the inevitable disappointment would be so much more crushing in her future. She’d never leave here. The life as she knew it was forever lost to her now.
So many emotions rose inside me when I looked at her. Some I had hardly known before—compassion, protectiveness, gratitude.
Others I knew extremely well—possessiveness and lust. Hot, relentless, torturous lust that gripped my groin in a vise and wouldn’t let go. The fact that I hadn’t touched a woman for so long multiplied the torture tenfold.
As if sensing my raging need, Maren opened her eyes and looked at me. My cock was safely underwater, but she didn’t need to look at it to know how I felt. Burning desire spread through my body, likely perfectly obvious on my face too.
Her easy expression slipped from her face. She sat up, bringing her arms over her chest and pressing her legs together.
“Don’t,” I rasped. “Please. I want to see you. All of you.”
A blush sprang to her cheeks, giving her face a warm coral glow.
Fuck, how much more tempting and adorable could this woman get?
“What’s the point when nothing can come out of it?” she asked in an equally husky voice.
Did she really want more than just looks and glances to come between us?
Because I’d give her everything in my power. Granted, I didn’t have much power left, but...
I splayed my fingers in the water, willing it to move. The thick, heavy, glass-laden swell rolled from my palm toward Maren. It was small. So low, it barely rippled the surface. I’d never do this in front of another siren. For a siren, it’d be a pathetic demonstration of how my magic had weakened.
But Maren hadn’t seen a siren’s magic in its full power yet. She had nothing to compare it to. Besides, she’d uncovered enough of my weaknesses by now for me to hope that she wouldn’t be repulsed by this one either. I trusted her.
I felt a faint bump when my small swell of water reached her.
“Ah!” she cried out in surprise, jerking her foot out of the water. “Something touched my leg. What was that?”
“Me. It’s me, Maren, and whatever power I still have over water.”
“You? You’re doing it?” She gingerly dipped her foot back into the water, and I wiggled my fingers, sending thick splashes over her toes. She smiled, dipping her leg deeper into the embrace of my waning magic curling around her ankle. “Oh... This feels so weird.”
“Unpleasant?” I worried.
“No. Not at all.” She stretched on the wide steps of the reef, submerging her leg even further into the water below.
Her hands slipped, and she slid down the step into the water.
I couldn’t lift her. I didn’t have enough magic to even lift an actual minnow out of a teaspoon. But I sent the swell around her body, trying to cushion her fall with a gentler splash.
She grabbed onto the edge of the reef on the other side of the steps from me and laughed. “While I’m teaching you how to swim, you’re clearly making me forget how to do anything at all, Kye.”
Her laughter stopped abruptly as I sent a ripple of water up her body in a spiral.
“What are you doing?” she asked breathlessly, arching her back.
“Touching you. Feeling you in the only way I can,” I rasped.
It was a poor substitute for touch. A long time ago, back before the curse, I could’ve easily tasted her through water even across this entire ocean. Now, all I got was a vague sense of her body heat. But even that was better than nothing.
“I want to touch you, Maren. I want to taste your skin. I want to bury my nose in your neck and breathe you in. But all I can do is this. Please, let me, sweetheart. You’re not betraying anyone by it.”
She glanced at the ring on her finger as if just remembering it now.
I was certain she’d never see her fiancé again.
He was forever lost to her now, as good as dead.
But that relationship still meant something to her.
She was still wearing the ring that must’ve come from him. She hadn’t taken it off.
I didn’t want the thoughts of him to stop her from being with me in every way I could have her.
“This is the closest I can get to an embrace,” I said. “Please don’t run. Please let me touch you, even if just like this.”
The last thing I wanted was her pity. Yet here I was, begging her for an imitation of a hug.
She stilled, gently treading water while holding on to the edge of the reef. She said nothing, but she didn’t get out of the water either. She stayed where I wanted her to be.
I sent a tentative stream up her leg. It curled like a curious little serpent around her knee, then slipped higher up her thigh. Her breathing sped up, but I didn’t push my luck, sending the water around her waist instead of between her legs as I really wanted to.
She exhaled, either with relief or disappointment, I couldn’t tell. So I tested the waters by cupping her left breast from below. She drew in a breath with a gasp but didn’t move. Apparently, my willful, fiery butterfly could be obedient when it pleased her.
And pleasing her was all I wished to do. I brushed her hardened nipple, rolling a ripple of water over it. Maren’s lips parted with the softest moan, thrilling me with her response.
I couldn’t give her much, hardly anything at all. But everything I gave, she responded to perfectly.
Impatient and in desperate need for more, I send the water rolling down her body. And, oh gods, she opened her legs for me.
Fuuuck.
My mind reeled. I could barely stand it. My cock threatened to explode into ribbons any minute now, and I wouldn’t even regret the loss of it if it did. I wanted her more than I’d ever wanted anything or anyone in my life. I had no idea how, but I had to have her.
Maren jerked, blinking as if waking up from a trance.
“This is so...” she started, her brow furrowing with a frown. “So...”
“What? Beautiful? Sexy? Fucking amazing?” I tried to help her finish the sentence.
“No.” She glared at me. “It’s wrong. It’s messed up, Kye. It’s so screwed up in many ways and many times over.”