27. A well-intended distraction #2
While I was no stranger to horrific acts carried out by one’s own father, Callum had at least never pretended to be anything but the vicious, fearful man he was.
And I’d been given the blessing of many years to parse my feelings about him before the cathartic release of being the one to deliver his final blow.
But Enora would never see any measure of that catharsis.
The man she thought she could trust, who’d lied to her for half her life, would never see responsibility for his actions.
“Well, I’m glad for you, Maksym. I really am, because it’s eating me alive right now.” I didn’t have any reasonable words ready to volley back at her, because Enora started to unfasten her vest as those last bitter words left her lips.
“What are you…?”
“You said you swim here?” She tossed it behind us. “That’s why you brought me here, right? Because I’d much prefer to do that instead of talk.”
Goddess below, I should’ve had a protest ready for her somewhat jarring slaughter of a topic that definitely needed further discussion, but I was at a loss. “I mean—” I had to clear my throat as she tugged her blouse up over her head. “Be my guest, if that’s…”
For fuck’s sake.
White silk went breezing past me, and it was like I’d never had a side view of a pair of perfectly formed tits before, with how heat climbed up my neck and my words dried on my tongue.
Enora was perfect in far more senses of the imagination than just her body, but I was losing the battle against the instinct, pulling my eyes across every inch of skin she exposed.
Enora shimmied out of her skirt next with an expert shift of her hips, leaving it in a pool at her feet, the full expanses of her muscular thighs and toned calves on display. She cast a single, sidelong glance at me before her undershorts met the ground, and she slipped off the edge.
When she sank below the surface of the water, a golden plume against an indigo backdrop, I let out a heavy, pained breath.
Some deprived—and maybe deranged—reptilian part of my brain was so fucking pleased at that brief, pointed display, and I should’ve been disgusted with it.
I’d spent decades trying to smother that part of myself, paid hefty sums of coin to have those desires dulled, but they were slipping in a way that should have been concerning.
But I was too busy being impressed with how effortlessly Enora wielded her body like some kind of seductive weapon.
In the seconds it took the princess to reemerge, I’d managed to gather myself. Slightly. Maybe not at all.
She slicked her loose golden hair back from her face and beckoned to me with a single flick of her wrist before she sank back below the surface.
Mina, help me. There was no time to consider the implications of following her in. If this was how she liked to cope, I’d entertain her whims to the best of my ability.
I fought off my boots and shirt and didn’t have enough patience for my pants before I slipped into the water. Some of the natural pool was shallow enough to keep my head just above the surface, but Enora was treading water at its deepest, clearly expecting me to join her.
Mina, grant me an unreasonable amount of resolve.
I swam out to the center before I dove under after her, aided by the weight of the pants I definitely should have thought more about. Enora had sunk to the rocky bottom, where the water was its darkest, but her fair skin glowed against the gloomy backdrop—every blissfully nude inch of it.
Her eyes flickered open as I approached, and she smirked.
This woman was unfathomable in every damned way.
Never had the stories of seafaring men being lured to their death resonated so strongly.
I would’ve killed to ask her what in the hell she was doing, but I had to settle for tipping my head at her as I swept my floating hair back from my face.
Enora’s smile grew. She reached for my hand and pulled me closer until our bodies were damn near pressed together, and I let her guide my arm loosely around her waist.
A feat, truly, when we were both working against the pull to float to the surface. I didn’t know how her lungs weren’t screaming at her already, with the dull burn that was building in mine, but Enora set her hand against my chest, like she was in no hurry at all.
She traced her fingers over one of the many bargain marks there before trailing her touch up my sternum, skimming over the scar on my throat I rarely liked to talk about, up to the base of my jaw.
I could’ve sworn the water was growing warmer, but that didn’t stop gooseflesh from rippling up my arms. My pounding heart may have had something to do with it too.
Enora’s touch slipped around, cupping the back of my neck as her hazel eyes searched mine, and I gave no resistance as she guided me even closer, pressing her lips to mine.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever been kissed underwater before.
But she was gone a heartbeat later, pushing away from me and kicking for the surface.
I really could’ve used a minute or ten to gather myself, but my protesting lungs and the other warmth in my chest had me swimming right after her.
I breached the surface with a gasp, sucking down all the air I could, and found Enora doing much the same as she swam for a submerged ledge and settled herself on it.
The water lapped gently at her waist, framing her heaving chest and divinely peaked breasts in a way that needed to be studied. Or painted. Or seared directly into the back of my mind for later use.
This was not getting any better. I couldn’t fathom where I’d left any of my carefully built resolve.
I was joining Enora before I knew it, grateful I could stand at the shallow edge and match her height, not caring the least about the discomfort of my waterlogged pants.
Especially not when she let me stand between her parted thighs and slipped her arms around my neck.
Something in the back of my mind gave a weak shout of protest, but it fell away quickly.
“Were you contemplating drowning me down there, or…?” I mused, and Enora chuckled, shaking her head. The glimmer of amusement in her eyes was so damned welcome.
“Oh, I’d never. Just giving you a taste of your own very confusing medicine.”
The hell if I’d get to clarify what she meant by that, because Enora kissed me again. Goddess below, this woman.
I fell whim to the slow coax of her absurdly soft lips. The testing brush of her tongue. Her pleased sigh when I cupped her jaw, and her expectant gasp when I slid my hand along the outside of her thigh, gripping the supple swell of her hip.
Warmth I hadn’t felt in years poured through my veins, pooling low in my stomach, settling into a needy ache in my spine.
It spurred my movements, tangling my fingers into the damp hair at her nape and tipping her head back.
Enora made a noise of protest that rolled into a low groan when I tore my mouth from hers and grazed my lips down her throat.
Enora’s soft fingers trailed up the side of my face, sweeping back wet strands of my hair until she brushed the base of my horns.
She curled her fingers around the sensitive base ridges, grasping gently, and a shaky breath sawed out of my lungs.
I nipped at the crook of her neck, if only to distract myself from the overwhelming urge to ravage her, but Enora stroked my horn again with a slow, sweeping squeeze, and she may as well have had her fingers wrapped around my cock for how my body shuddered and my core tightened.
I couldn’t help the low moan that clawed its way out of my chest.
“Oh, Max,” she breathed, and, in a goddess-damned blink, everything came crashing down.
Whatever deluded trance I’d found myself in under her touch vanished at the sound of her voice, an ice-cold dump of sensibility colliding with my heated body. I tensed and planted my hands on the stone shelf.
What the fuck was I doing? What in the dark mother’s name had me thinking any of this was okay? And worse, why the hell did I want this?
“Stop,” I ground out, and Enora’s touch slipped away from my horns. “We should not be doing this.”
She made a choked noise. “Excuse me? Where the hell did that come from?”
Who fucking knew where any of it had come from.
“This isn’t right.” I rested my forehead against her shoulder and let out a resigned sigh.