CHAPTER FORTY-SIX #2
A rumble of approval ripped through his body into mine, undoing what little self control I had left.
I pushed forward into his hand, silently willing it to drift lower.
But it didn’t. With a feather-light touch, it slipped up my neck into my hair, fingers flexing against my scalp as though his resolve was waning too.
“Myra…” My name was a plea on his lips—and a warning, though for whom, I wasn’t sure, given the way he was staring at me.
Any hint of the black that had overtaken his irises was gone, leaving behind only that glorious green shade I’d hated to love in the fae I’d once loved to hate just as much.
His body shifted against mine, and I could feel just how committed he was to our ruse.
His delicious arousal pressing into me did nothing to calm the ache pulsing between my thighs, and a desperate sound escaped me as his hand fisted in my hair, holding me still.
“Do you trust me, Myra?” he whispered against my lips.
Desire surged through me at the question that should have given me pause—would have given me pause only days earlier.
Try though I did to deny it, Yael had worked his way past my defenses over that time, despite my best efforts, and earned that which I’d sworn to never give to another man.
“Yes,” I breathed in response, knowing there was no turning back.
The intensity in his dark stare as he eyed me was confirmation of that fact.
“I need to hear you say it,” he said, pulling away from me ever so slightly. “Say you trust me.”
“I trust you…”
The hand in my hair gripped it tighter still. “I need you to remember this moment when this is all over.”
His mouth dragged across mine, lightly at first to tease me, until his lips captured mine and he kissed me long and slow and deep. His tongue was perfection as it slipped inside my mouth, wrapping around mine as his other hand gripped my thigh and pulled it up so he could lever himself against me.
I arched into him, wishing I could claw my nails down his back and pull him tighter.
Everything about his body against mine felt right in a way I couldn’t deny, and I wondered if this was some cruel cosmic joke—to have me realize how I felt about him right before he was to return me to a place he could not go.
Those doubts simmered just below the roaring fire threatening to consume me, until his hand cupped my ass and he lifted me higher to better leverage himself against me, and all rational thought left my body.
“Yael,” I moaned, no longer caring about exposing my desire for him.
Maybe it had always existed, or maybe it had grown over time, but there, amid the swarm of bodies writhing with pleasure in Loreleia’s den of sin, all I wanted was to get lost in the sensations coursing through my body—and to bring him along with me.
“Having fun, are we?” a female voice called, cutting through the sexual haze fogging my brain.
Yael went still for a moment before setting me back down on my feet.
He stepped aside just enough for me to see a blonde bombshell in a black leather one-piece smiling at us.
Something sparkled in her ice-blue eyes as they fell upon me, and unease roiled in my stomach.
“Well, well, well,” she said as she beamed at me.
“You’re a hard woman to get my hands on. ”
Before I could respond, vines shot out of the wall above my head, ripping my hands from the rope I was holding and shackling me to the wall at my back. “This wasn’t the plan,” I hissed at him as I struggled against my bindings. “Let me go.”
“I see you’ve finally put that gorgeous face and infamous charm of yours to good use to snag this coveted prize,” she said, unfazed by the scene playing out before her. “How very resourceful of you.”
“Yael! Let me go!”
Instead of complying, or replying at all, he ignored me entirely and turned his attention to the lithe fae madam.
“Can we skip the false pleasantries, Loreleia, and get down to business?” he asked, casting an empty glare my way that sent a shiver of warning up my spine. “I’m ready for this to be done.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you—” A swath of vine wrapped around my mouth, cutting off any further objection. Panic rose within me as the situation spiraled out of control, until I remembered what he’d said just before he kissed me.
Say you trust me… I need you to remember this moment when this is all over.
I fought to pull myself together. He’d said he would give me the sign and I’d need to be ready, so I stood there, tethered and gagged, and did what I promised I would do: trust him.
“Shall we go to my office so you can collect your finder’s fee, then?” she asked, making a sweeping gesture with her arm.
But Yael didn’t move. “I told you, I don’t want the bounty. I want Jemma. And you’re going to make that happen.”
“Your sister is still paying off her debt,” Loreleia replied.
Yael’s cold stare cut to me once again. “Then consider the mermaid the remainder of the balance, or the deal is off.”
“So ready to be rid of your little plaything?” she asked as she eyed me with lust. “Maybe you should enjoy her one final time before you turn her over.”
“I don’t want to enjoy her at all,” he said in a tone so cold it seemed to surprise Loreleia. Her brows shot up before her eyes narrowed with suspicion, and I wondered if he’d pushed too hard to deceive her—if she’d heard the lie in his words.
If he’d buggered the whole thing right then and there.
Her laughter rang out, cutting through the din, and I dared a glance at Yael, who looked as unfazed as ever.
“So callous, Yael, even for you.” I waited for her amusement to fall away—for her to call him a liar—but instead, she just continued talking about the logistics of the deal while my heart sank to my shoes.
Because Yael wasn’t deceiving her at all.
And his words hadn’t been a lie.
Thoughts ricocheted through my mind as I tried to piece together his deception. Yael had somehow made a deal with her before we’d even arrived at the club. Everything he’d said to me—everything he’d done—had been a lie.
He had betrayed me, just like Finn.
I searched his face in desperation for a sign of any kind, but all I found was emptiness in those evergreen eyes while tears bloomed in mine.
History had repeated itself—and I’d been a fool to let it.
“Ohhh,” the fae madam said in a pitying tone as she stepped in front of me, blocking Yael from sight, “how darling. You really thought he was on your side, didn’t you?
” Her vicious smile widened as she leaned in closer to whisper in my ear.
“It seems you placed your trust in the wrong man yet again, Myra Morningtide.”
My eyes went wide at the sound of my full name passing her lush, red lips, and the fear and anger I felt in its wake buried my sadness in an instant. “Fuck. You,” I mumbled through the gag.
“An offer I’d normally be quite tempted by, but I’m afraid we have a deal to make, and time is of the essence.
” She turned her attention to the fae traitor behind her, still amused by his treachery.
“All right, Kristoris, I believe I can broker that deal for you. I just need to firm up the details, but that shouldn’t take too long. ”
Tethered and muzzled, I struggled against my bindings, knowing that if I could just free one hand—to reach the water streaming along the near wall or grab Loreleia and compel her—I’d have a shot to get out of there; but my efforts proved futile, much to the delight of the psychotic madam eyeing me up.
Her sharpened fingernail trailed along my cheek as she studied my face.
“There’s no need to worry, Myra. This will all be over soon, and in the end, we’ll all get what we want.
” She reached for my arm, and I tried to dodge her, to no avail.
I was trapped and out of options, and I damn well knew it.
She grabbed me with ease, and a wave of sleepiness curled around me within seconds, like her touch was a drug.
I felt warm and weightless, and I couldn’t help but think that if this was how I had to die, it could have been way, way worse.
As my lids grew heavy, I caught a glimpse of Yael staring at me, back rigid and features tight. Maybe somewhere deep in that tainted soul of his, he felt some measure of guilt for selling me out; or maybe he was just ready to be rid of me. Either way, I never got the chance to ask.
Instead, my vision narrowed and my legs gave out, and as my body went limp and the world around me went black, I wondered if I’d seen his eyes darken, or if that too was just an illusion.