His hand cupped the side of my neck, his thumb brushing the tears from my cheek.
“I am here.” His other hand trailed down my back and over my hips, tracing what I imagined was a very prominent new scar through the fabric of my dress. “Are you alright? Two days you were in that pool.”
“I am lighter than I’ve ever been. If you can stand yet another mark on my body.”
His thumb tenderly trailed the scar along my cheek. “Your skin could bear a thousand and one scars and I would still think you more beautiful than Aphrodite.”
I smiled lazily at him. “I should have known you were alive. I should have seen past his deception. It’s just… before, he could not get you right. No matter how many times he tried, he could not get you right. But in that place, you were perfect. He’d finally put the pieces together so flawlessly only to kill you for what I thought was the last time.”
“He tasted of my blood. Perhaps that is how he perfected the image of me, but I swear to you, whatever you saw, it was a cruel trick. Just as the things I watched him do to you were only to torment me. Here you stand, against all odds. Whole, which is certainly not how I recall him leaving you.”
He snarled, his eyes closing as if to extinguish visions of it from his mind. I cupped his face and when I felt his jaw tick beneath my hands, I brushed his cheeks to soothe the taut muscles.
“I pray the visions will stop,” I said. “I pray that he truly is gone because I long to have you to myself.”
“Aye. That is all I wish for as well.”
Do not seek the shadows of the deep
~ Unknown
I was not unfamiliar with the sight of Dahlia suffering at the hands of our enemies. Kroans. Xhoth. Her own dreams or the cruel hands of men. But when thatthingappeared to me, wearing the skin of a man in a poor attempt to fool me, none of those other instances could compare. Everything I had ever fought for, everything I had ever fought to keep, seemed entirely insignificant when I watched her get ripped from my world. When I watched him tear into her. Violate her. Destroy her before my eyes.
To find out it was a lie was the greatest relief I’d ever felt.
To know Dahlia had endured such things many times in the weeks past battered my heart and tore me to shreds.
I thought her lost. I thought I was soon to follow… until the veil fell from my eyes and the falsities were exposed for what they were. Dahlia was just as strong and resilient as I knew she was from the beginning. She was the woman I fell in love with. The woman I woulddiefor.
In the end, she won.
That half of my heart had survived and prevailed against the tyrant that had been haunting her since before our paths had crossed again.
Now, that half of me was sleeping against my side, soundless as I ran my fingers continually through her silky tresses. I was in awe over the fact that we were both still alive and we’d managed to sail from that godforsaken drowned city. There was much to talk about and even more to attend to, but for the moment, I could not think of anything else except the siren pressed beside me. The mere weight of her leg draped over my thighs was like a taste of heaven.
“Will you not be sleeping?” she whispered.
“I have slept quite a bit the past couple days. I would rather savor your touch a while longer before I close my eyes.”
She reached across my body, running the tips of her fingers over the layers of bandages wrapped around my torso.
“I nearly killed you.”
“We’ve nearly killed each other a dozen times, love. I won’t be holding this one against you.”
Her gray eyes found mine when she lifted her head, blinking slowly up at me.
“Does it hurt?”
“Barely,” I sighed. “Your aim is faulty.”
“My aim is impeccable. I didn’t want to kill you. My hand knew it even if my mind did not.” Her knee slid up my thigh, brushing against the side of my groin. “I do wish my aim had been even less accurate, though. You’ll be weakened by this wound for some time, I assume.”
“Mmm,” I groaned softly. “Weakened, perhaps. If you want me, you’ll have to do all the work. And I know you too well to think you’re not eager to have me right now.”
She lifted her head again as if to ask something, but there was no question on her lips. Only a soft little smirk before she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, teasing. Lifting on her elbow, she scooted closer, bringing her mouth to mine. God, I missed her lips.Any time they were not pressed against my mouth, I missed them, and when we kissed, pain was a distant memory. She slid her tongue into my mouth, her fingers dancing across my bare abdomen, and then pushed past the waistband on my britches. Her fingers slid around my cock, her touch like magic, instantly making me hard. I moaned softly against her lips as she stroked me, her caresses igniting my core.
“Use me,” I whispered.
