Chapter 27 #2
“The song started as a whisper I fought to ignore. But the clearer I saw you, and the closer I came to that void I was so terrified of, the stronger it became. Now it fills my veins with every beat of my heart, and it leads me straight to the man I love.”
With a strangled cry of relief, he pulled me into a hug, suffocating my silly protests about getting his white shirt dirty with all the muck covering me.
I put my arms around him too, digging my fingers into the crisp linen to feel the coils of muscles that made up his body.
“I love you, Reiven…even if you’re a pirate bastard, and a Mourner prince. ”
He chuckled as I grinned up at him through my tears.
“Former pirate bastard.” He claimed my lips.
When he pulled away to let us breathe, he brushed away some of the tears mixed with mud that streaked together in a disgusting paste on my cheeks.
The cocky bastard I knew returned for a tease after a moment.
“You taste like dirt.”
I laughed and smeared some of the mud on his face, too.
He didn’t even try to dodge, just knelt there grinning like a love-drunk fool.
“Actually, I think the mud is really doing something for me. Not sure what exactly, but it’s doing something.
Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.” He pulled me over to a door beside the wardrobe that I assumed led to a closet or maybe a lavatory.
The room inside was covered ceiling to floor in smooth volcanic rock, and in the center of the floor was a drain.
Tiny holes peppered a wide area across the ceiling.
Towels hung on a rack just inside the door, and a basket fixed to the wall had been filled with bottles of soap I could smell from here.
Citrus, eucalyptus, floral scents which evoked the image of flowers blooming out of the ashes of a long-burned forest.
Reiven pulled a lever beside the door as I cautiously entered, and something like a slab of metal within the ceiling scraped away. Steaming water flowed from the tiny holes above us in a steady pour, like a hot waterfall.
“There's a huge vat of boiled water above the ceiling, but you'd better hurry up and get in, because there's only around a half hour's worth of continuous use before it runs out,” Reiven murmured with a grin.
I stepped further inside the room to let the water run over my fingers, yelping in surprise at how hot it was.
Rei's smile widened as he stuck his hands in his pockets, leaning against the door jamb. “Sorry. We like our water scalding.”
“Oh, is that why you were so jumpy around the ocean? Because water and fire don’t mix well?”
“Yeah, until I fell for you and followed you into a tropical storm at sea. I still didn’t like how being crushed and somehow simultaneously weightless felt, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought. Since you were there with me, I suppose.”
I spun to face him and backed up so that the water fell over my shoulders, drenching my dirty hair and clothing.
He chuckled. “Aren’t you going to undress? We don’t really bathe with our clothes on here.”
“Is that all you can think about, Reiven?”
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t sticking around to catch a glimpse, but I guess I’ll leave.”
Insufferable. But surely he knew that I’d call his bluff?
“Well, bathing is really a one-person job, so you’d better get a move on.
” I smirked at the pout that shadowed his face for a moment, but then he good naturedly told me to enjoy myself.
I hadn’t expected him to give up so easily, so I panicked and flung some more mud at him to keep him from leaving.
“Oops. Well, since you’re dirty too…I wouldn’t mind sharing the water with you. ”
I’d never get tired of his laugh. Or the way he smiled at me.
He came closer, stopping just outside of the water from the ceiling, but within arm’s reach for me.
I yanked him close enough to kiss. While he was off balance and distracted, I switched positions with him so that he stood beneath the stream of water, and I stood just outside.
The white fabric of his shirt darkened and grew more transparent the wetter he got, and I stared at him like a starved prisoner being served her last meal.
Every ridge of his abs, every slight curve of his chest, every muscle in his arms was perfectly visible through the fabric, yet still, I wanted more.
“Rei,” I sang. I could form a thousand sultry melodies with just his name.
“Are you going to let me see all of you? All of…the real you?” I worked through the buttons at his chest, down his stomach until I eased his shirt off his shoulders and tossed it carelessly away.
My own mud-caked clothes soon followed, until I was left in just my underwear.
Reiven smirked and reached for one of the bottles in the basket on the wall, squeezing the contents into his palm. “As long as you don't mind that I'm a Mourner.” He rubbed his hands together and dug his fingers into my hair, massaging the suds into my scalp.
I shut my eyes, stifling a moan of pleasure at the sensation. Soap ran in rivers down my back and chest, along with the dirt he freed from my locks.
“Rei,” I murmured, unable to open my eyes. “Is it terribly forbidden for a Mourner prince to love a Siren?”
“You know our people hate one another.”
“But…if two people really love each other, why should it matter that they were born in different places, that one favors fire and the other water? Maybe we can be the ones to show them that relations between Mourners and Sirens don't have to be so bad.”
Rei dragged his fingers through my hair until only water ran down my skin, and he pressed a kiss to my forehead. “You've been spending too much time with Ashkade.” He gently guided me to switch places with him.
It was my turn to pour some of the soap into my hand, and I had to get up on my toes to reach the top of his head.
A soft growl of appreciation bubbled from his throat at the scalp massage I gave him, and once his hair was rinsed, I couldn’t stop myself from touching his ears.
They looked so natural I almost couldn't picture him with rounded Human ears now.
“The real me,” he muttered.
“I like how the real you looks, Rei.” Maybe he was self-conscious, having me stare at him with such newfound curiosity now that I knew he was a Mourner. “Your eyes are a different color, your ears are pointed, and your hands are black. Anything else that’s changed?”