Chapter 42
SOMEWHERE WE CAN RUN
ODELIA
The island is a speck in the distance.
We’d left my father behind. He and his crew lay bound and prone on the shore, waiting for either luck or the mercy of whoever Rune had invited to collect them.
For a blink, Ivor’s acid-gnawed skin and the new, soft thing inside me had made me hesitate, but he hadn’t been interested in final farewells, instead accusing me of being a dog at heel.
Tavi had introduced her heel to his ribs with what seemed like all the stress of the last several weeks, reminding him he’d be leashed at Stonegallows soon enough.
I’d walked away. I’ve waited to feel something, but there’s a void where the fear of him used to be and nothing has rushed to fill the open space. A weight in me has shifted. Balanced. It feels like . . . acceptance.
I trail my fingers over the intricate, splintered railing of The Gilded Hart, quietly reassuring her she’d done well.
She creaks in response, her bones worn and weary, but not yet quiet.
Despite the extra weight, she slices through the waves, gaining speed as we reach open water.
Elio shouts orders from the sterncastle deck while Tavi strides through the chaos around me.
Bodies work in eager coordination, moving crates of coin and relics to the storage below.
Rune picks through them all, collecting old, sealed kelp scrolls and the brittle art stones.
He’s tied up his hair, showing off the sharp line of his jaw and the muscle of his neck and shoulders that flex with every movement.
He catches me watching and flashes a smile, and I already know it’s pointless to try and hide how my stomach flips.
I would have laughed had someone tried to tell me I’d end up here, preening under the attention of handsome siren royalty.
As if he can read my thoughts, Rune’s eyes turn from playful to invitation, and heat wraps my spine, traveling to my cheeks and to a place considerably lower.
The hope that has settled over the crew buzzes under my skin alongside the sudden anticipation, and I laugh, drawing grins from those around me.
The treasure held a fair amount of wealth.
Even split evenly it’ll be enough that those who step away will never have to sail again, if they choose.
Rune gathers his things and heads to his room, tossing a look over his shoulder that has me caught in his wake.
The door closes before I make it, and the moment I step through, he slams it behind me, careful of the wrapped gash on my ribs as he cages me with his arms and locks it behind us.
My back presses into the cool wood. My heart rate spikes as his leg slips between mine and his hands bracket my hips, giving me just a taste of the sweet friction I already ache for.
“I’ve been ready to take you since the beach,” he says.
“We were a little distracted.”
He laughs softly, his breath kissing my cheeks as he nuzzles my hair. My hands go for his belt but he pins my fingers with his waist, pushing me harder against the door. “So greedy,” he says, the words laced with approval.
I tilt my chin up, stomach flipping as his cock, thick and heavy, strains against my stomach. His pupils are already blown wide, the black consuming nearly all of the blue.
“You aren’t the only one that’s been ready,” I murmur. “Let me touch you.”
He swallows, then steps back. My skin pebbles as the air replaces the heat of his body, but the sensation doesn’t last long because he sweeps his shirt up over his head, revealing the white of bandages and the shimmer of his siren markings.
The scars from the thrall squid haven’t yet faded, alongside a dozen other nicks and scratches he’d gathered on the islands.
I move close again, drawn by his warm citrus scent and the need to map his body with my hands.
“I suppose I should be gentle with you,” I say, brow pinching further with every mark I touch.
“And I, you.” He scoops the knuckles of his fingers up under my shirt, brushing them along my skin until I shiver. He slowly lifts it over my head. I try to hide my wince as the skin of my ribs pulls, but he shepherds me to the bed gently, quietly folding the covers aside and urging me in.
“I’m fine,” I insist as he joins me, cupping his body with mine.
“I know.” He feathers kisses over the back of my neck, his fingers tracing the hem of my pants with heart-aching care. “But from this point on, I want you to be much more than fine, little doe.”
I reach a hand behind me, gripping his cock through the fabric of his pants. He sucks in a breath through his teeth and slips his hands lower, slicking a finger in the arousal that already waits for him.
“Fuck, Odelia.”
“I need more, Rune,” I breathe. I don’t want him to go easy on me.
I’m ready to give whatever he wants to take.
He doesn’t hesitate, instead plunging the finger inside me and palming my clit.
I can’t help but rock my hips with each slow, agonizingly delicious curl of his touch.
He adjusts, finds the spot that unravels me, and doesn’t let up.
I’m too lost to the feeling to note when his pants slide down, but his hard length ends up free, and I circle my thumb over the leak of precum that waits for me, coating my hand before I pump once. Twice.
“I need to be inside of you,” he all but growls into my ear, trailing his hand out of me, tracing a quick flash of claws up my stomach, there and then gone again. “I need to feel you wrapped around me.”
“Yes, Captain.” I scoot and he sits back to kick his trousers down, then hooks mine and drags them off my legs.
The look in his eyes is pure fire, but he’s too far away, so I sit up to catch my arms around his neck and open my legs so he can settle on top of me, though he supports most of his weight on one arm.
I cant my hips as he kisses me in languid brushes of lips and tongue.
All I succeed in doing is driving my own need higher, teasing us both as I slick the head of him with the arousal that drips between my legs.
I ache, anticipating how well he’ll fill me, in awe of the way our shared breaths feel like a promise.
“I love you, Rune.”
“I love you too, little doe.” The words vibrate low in his chest, racing to tangle with the growing heat between my legs.
He slips one big hand beneath my ass, angling me so we’re in line before sinking in with slow, rolling strokes of his hips, all the while deepening our kiss.
He’s so gentle it almost breaks me. Will break me.
Being loved by Rune Ahren is a study in consuming.
In being swept away, caught in a current I don’t want to fight.
By the time he’s fully seated, I’m in another world, overwhelmed by the impossible fullness and the light brush of his skin on my clit. Without conscious thought, I start to rock my hips, and I feel his smile through the euphoric haze of our slow kisses.
“You’re torturing me,” I half-whine, half-moan, meeting each of his thrusts with one of my own, urging him faster.
He trails his lips off the corner of mine, across my cheek, working his way to my ear.
“And you fucking love it.” He punctuates the words by drawing all the way out before sinking back into me.
When I cry out, feeling another wet wave reward him, he moves his hand from my ass to clamp the back of my leg, where my knee meets my thigh.
He presses up, sinking impossibly deeper, holding me still while he increases the speed of his thrusts.
“Rune—” The growing heat steals my words. My thoughts.
I clamp myself tighter around him, urging him on, begging him for more with my body, while trying and failing to swallow down my wordless cries.
I sink my fingers into his lower back, pulling him into me, chaining our bodies together as we move.
The bed protests beneath us, fighting the bolts that anchor it to the floor.
I tip my chin down, watching the way his body moves over me, dragging his cock out before sheathing back in one smooth motion, over and over.
The sight of him fucking me already has me teetering on the edge.
He groans, the sound like a touch on its own.
“I feel that,” he murmurs, as my ecstasy skyrockets. “Look at me, Odelia. I want those eyes on mine when you flood my cock.”
I do, and that’s all it takes to send me over the edge. His shoulders glisten. The cords of his arms flex as he moves. His lips are parted, his eyes glazed with the intensity that drew me to him from the day we met.
My orgasm slams into me hard and slow, the build up drawing it from somewhere deeper, as if it’s latched onto my very soul.
I’m lost as Rune follows me over, thrusting deep with every wave of pleasure that clenches me tighter around him.
His groan grinds out from behind clenched teeth as he comes, and I nearly go over again as he spills into me in waves.
I roll my hips until he’s shuttering over me, our chests heaving, our breaths mingling as he rests his forehead on mine.
Every inch of me is limp, my legs tingly with weakness, and just as I’ve decided there’s no good reason for us to get out of bed, someone knocks on the door.
“Captain.” It’s Elio.
Rune falls to the side, his breath coming out in pants. I huff a laugh. “Do you think they heard us?”
Rune’s answering grin is wicked enough that I blush, unable to meet his gaze. He cups my chin and brings my face to his, planting a chaste kiss on my lips. “With any luck, all of the Adamaris Sea heard you. It’s good for my pride.”
I bat him away, laughing, but he grabs me tighter, and I don’t gain an inch.
He tips his head to the door, speaking louder as he responds to Elio. “Yes?”
“We’re in open water. The crates are loaded.” Elio pauses. “Figured it was time you decided where we’re going.”
Rune looks at me, and, for no reason at all, I want him to say the mainland.
It’s selfish, and the fierce hope takes me off guard.
To love him is to love the sea. And he will want to go home, dock at an ocean-held island where we can unload the relics we’ve gathered and return them to the siren kingdom where they belong.
I tear my eyes from his, hoping he won’t notice the way that answer will weigh down my spirit.
It’s unfair to him how the animal in me rears its head, sending a thrill of adrenaline through my veins, as if we’ve already touched endless soil.
But it’s not where my heart is. There’s nothing for me on the mainland now.
Nothing but fertile ground and nodding wildflowers.
“The nearest port on the mainland,” Rune calls, settling in to curl his body into mine, as if he doesn’t know how the answer sends my pulse fluttering and the world tipping beneath me.
“Where are we going?” I ask, snapping my attention back to study his face, my heart in my throat as Elio confirms and leaves us to our tangled silence.
Rune just nuzzles his nose to mine, then tucks a stray lock of hair behind my ear as the silence swells, making space for that foolish hope.
For once, I don’t squash it down. He threads our fingers together, and when he speaks, the words nestle in me, slotting in for a piece I always knew was missing.
“Somewhere we can run.”