Sweeping in, Reginald’s oceans drowned Layla as he seized her, kissing her hard. Layla forgot she could even breathe as Reginald’s power dove into her, commanding her roughly as he devoured her with his lean, mean dancer’s body and powerful grace. Drowning beneath his sudden wildness, Layla felt the wind whip and the ocean slam against the jetty as they ate at each other’s lips. Power crashed; Layla’s drakaina roared in a wave of heat and pleasure, making Layla cry out into Reginald’s kiss as he growled. Crushing her in his arms, he poured wave after wave of oceanic power so hard and fast through her that Layla suddenly erupted into climax. Screaming into his kiss, she bucked and surged with pleasure.
Caught fast by Reginald’s tides and loving it.
With a gasp, Reginald released their kiss, cradling Layla in his strong arms as she collapsed against him, her knees buckling as she shuddered with aftershocks. With a cruel chuckle, Reginald kissed her temple as he held her up tenderly from sinking. She felt him smirk at her cheek – that terrible, viciously sexy smile she loved so much as he murmured at her ear.
“My Partner. What a pleasure to see you.”
“The pleasure’s all mine!” Layla gasped, unable to stand from the ecstasy still rushing through her. As she was cradled close to his lean yet incredibly strong frame, Reginald rocked her like the ocean, humming a sweet tune of impossible harmonies like chimes in a sea-wind as he let his power calm her now. Rocked by her Partner’s seas, Layla smiled with bliss as she wound her arms up around his neck. As she buried her nose in his silky golden hair and breathed in his ocean spray and brisk Arctic scent, Reginald chuckled more sweetly. Stroking her back with his long fingers, he swayed with her like they danced in the wind and waves, and Layla sighed.
Feeling more safe in his arms than she’d felt in months.
When he at last pulled back, his blue-grey eyes were bright. “I’ve missed you these past months, Layla.” He murmured, stroking a few of her sable curls back behind her ear. “More than you know.”
It was a very frank admission for Reginald, and Layla blinked, feeling her heart melt for him. It wasn’t like Reginald to be open with his emotions, and as they stood together, Layla could suddenly feel how much she meant to him. It overwhelmed her, the vast tide of his love. With a wry smile, he realized what he was doing and tried to pull it back.
But Layla shook her head. “Don’t put it away. I like it, what you feel for me. What I feel for you.”
Like the sun coming out from behind high-north clouds, Reginald smiled his true smile again, and it made everything about him luminous. He laughed and it was such a bright, beautiful laugh that Layla beamed as he curled her closer in his arms, chuckling as she surrendered. Kissing her lips sweetly now, he was smiling, reveling in her as much as she reveled in him. Layla was grinning beneath his kiss as he finished, moving his lips to her ear and whispering, “Forgive me. I’d love to kiss you until you melt entirely in my arms… but we do have an audience.”
As Reginald nodded over his shoulder, Layla looked left. A trio of the most gorgeous men Layla had ever seen stood on the runway nearby. Watching Reginald and Layla, their faces ranged from amusedly pleased to downright disgusted. All were slender and tall like Reginald, their hair colors ranging from white-blond to a lusciously dark ebony. Each was more sexy than the hottest models on any runway in Paris or New York.
A devastating gorgeousness that suddenly made Layla shiver with heat and sex.
Clearing his throat, Reginald turned Layla toward the three elegant men, though he kept Layla tucked close to his side with his arm around her waist. “Layla Price, Royal Dragon Bind of the Desert Dragons of Morocco and the Mediterranean. May I introduce my elder siblings in the North Sea Sirens. On your left is Vindaris Durant, Clan Sixth. In the middle is Typhos Durant, Clan Fifth, and on your right is Atlantos Durant, Clan Third.”
Giving an elegant nod with Reginald’s arm still around her, Layla spoke cordially, “Pleased to meet you all.”
Layla had read about Reginald’s family in the Hotel’s annals. She knew there had originally been ten brothers, though only six were still living. As Reginald’s brothers stood before her, she suddenly saw how dangerously impressive Sirens were. Bold, audacious, the brothers had an elegant cruelty about them as they watched her. Deceptively calm yet intimately alluring, Layla saw that all three knew they were the apex predator of the oceans, just like Reginald. The North Sea Sirens had ruled their Lineage for thousands of years, primarily because they held incredible abilities to bend minds.
And reveled in breaking their enemies.
Reginald’s father, Léviathan Durant, had been King for two hundred and fifty years, taken over from Reginald’s mother Queen Auriana Morregain when she’d died in Reginald’s youth. Queen Auriana had ruled for over a thousand years, but before that, her mother had ruled, and her mother before her. The Morregain bloodline had been the dominant power in the world’s oceans for generations, their daughters ascending high. But Queen Auriana had had no legitimate daughters with her mate and then Battle-Lord Léviathan Durant, only sons, so the pinnacle position in the clan had passed to him when she’d died.
And to the Durant male heirs – if one of them was strong enough to battle for the top spot.
Layla could feel a love of power seething from all three Siren brothers as they watched her, though Vindaris beamed with a cheeky pleasure, while Typhos simmered with a haughty, sexy glower. But it was the Clan Third, Atlantos Durant, who stepped forward to greet Layla formally with a calmly political panache.
“On behalf of the North Sea Sirens, I declare the pleasure of meeting you ours, Dragon Bind.” Atlantos spoke in a flowing baritone. “Please be welcome in Deep Harbor.”
Just as handsomely slaying as Reginald though clearly older by a few hundred years, Atlantos reminded Layla of Tempeste Durant, Reginald’s deceased eldest brother. Wearing a slim pearl-white Italian suit with brush-cut silver-blond hair, Atlantos smiled at Layla with a pleasant nature. Sporting a pearl cuff similar to Reginald’s but done in platinum, he moved forward, taking up Layla’s hand and pressing it with a light kiss.
But Atlantos’ dark grey eyes pinned her as he kissed her hand, and Layla felt a press of power in her mind, roaring like a gale over the ocean. With a chuckle, he left off as Reginald’s brighter power sluiced it away, but Layla had felt the edge of Atlantos’ Siren-magic. Though he smiled elegantly, his power was immense, roaring and deep like the entire Atlantic Ocean. It shuddered all the way through Layla and she had no doubt he was a strong Royal as he pulled away, watching her with clever quietude.
Stepping back, the eldest Siren brother nodded for the others to greet Layla. Second came Typhos Durant, who lifted a haughty dark eyebrow at Layla in a similar manner to Reginald as he approached. Built like a brick house, Typhos was as tall as his brothers, though his hair was a dark ebony. Looking Layla over in a chilly fashion, his vibrantly Arctic blue eyes bored into her, simmering with sex and lust and battle. With a snort, he lifted his chin, glancing to Reginald. “This is the Bind? I thought she’d be prettier.”
“Don’t be an ass, Typhos, she’sgorgeous.” The third brother, the bright blond Vindaris Durant, stepped forward with a sprightly step, his jubilant laugh pressing his dour brother back like a spring wind. Hands tucked in the pockets of his sleek charcoal pants with a pearl-grey silk tie and pocket square, he wore a matching vest, his sleeves rolled up like Reginald’s. Though Vindaris wore a talisman also, his was fashioned of woven seaweeds and held no diamonds, only pearls. With a debonair grin, Vindaris reached out, taking up Layla’s hand; his eyes a grey so pale they were nearly white as he kissed her.
“Layla Price, Royal Dragon Bind, be welcome. I am Vindaris Durant, Clan Sixth and the least asinine of all my brothers. Anything you need while you are here, you have but to ask. We’ve set a banquet in your honor tonight, and I am Host of our clan, which to us is like a Concierge. Anything you need, any time of day or night, I am at your service.”
“Thank you.” Layla could feel how pleasant Vindaris was as it radiated off him, and Layla brightened. He had a brisk, teasing energy like Dusk or Arron, and Layla got the feeling he only caused trouble to have a little fun.
“We’ve heard quite a lot about you these past months, Ms. Price, though very little from Reginald’s tight lips.” Atlantos spoke again with a lift of one eyebrow, a darkly clever glint in his eyes as Vindaris stepped back. “Father is eager to meet you; the Royal Dragon Bind who has been making waves in the Twilight Realm. He is curious to see the woman Reginald has decided to become mated to. Only the second woman our youngestsirohas taken into theLouenou Virdiiduring his three centuries of life.”
As he spoke, Layla saw Atlantos’ gaze flick to her ears and wrist, noting Reginald’s pearls – bridal-gifts to his original wife, the Blood Dragon Avri. She suddenly felt a challenge in Atlantos’ demeanor, and at his double-edged words, Layla knew she was in for a fight here at the home of the North Sea Sirens. Not just because she was the Royal Dragon Bind, but because she was only Reginald’s second girlfriend, essentially. Layla was only the second person to wear his pearls, and she felt that knowledge now in all three of Reginald’s brothers as they weighed her.
But just as she was about to respond, a willowy woman approached their group. Wearing a pearl-white silk blouse with a plunging neckline, dark skinny jeans, and badass blush platform stilettos, her lusciously long black hair was braided into ornate waves over one shoulder with strings of grey pearls. Those silken strands were so black they shone blue in the sunlight, her long braid cascading all the way down past her slender hips. Everything about her was royally elegant, from her vibrantly cobalt eyes to the opal sheen of her skin to her lusciously full, pink lips. One of the few Siren women Layla had seen, she held a calm surety as she neared, a sound like evening tides easing from her as she came straight to Layla.
Taking up both her hands with a beaming smile.
