He couldn’t let himself finish the sentence—couldn’t even think it.
Like Merrick, he needed time with his female. Hewantedtime with her. It felt as if it was the only thing he wanted as he continued staring into her mesmerizing eyes.
Iviry’s gaze moved to the sides, over the shadows he’d steered her into, and he knew what she was thinking before some of the light dimmed.
“No.” Loche lined his body up with hers again. “I will take you out there and make love to you in front of everyone if that’ll prove it to you. I would gladly show them how I plan to devour you.”
His hands went to the wall beside her head as her face pinkened when he leaned in again, his voice rough. “I just fear you would hold back. Try to behave like leaders ‘should.’ And I can’t have that. I can’t have my wife unsure when I fuck her for the first time. We have enough scrutiny. We don’t need someone to judge this too.”
“You don’t have to keep calling me your wife,” Iviry said weakly. “Loche, I don’t blame you for anything. I will not ask this of you. I know tonight was probably hard for you… seeing her?—”
For fuck’s sake. He wanted to draw this out, take his fucking time, but alas…
Loche captured her lips again, his hands finding her ass, and he lifted her, placing himself on the step leading up to the quarterdeck as he settled her legs around his back, her in his lap.
“Listen to me,” Loche drawled into her mouth. “The only thing that is hard for me tonight, apart from my cock, which you can feel would kill to be inside you, is that it wasn’t you and me up there.”
He pulled back to ensure she would truly hear him, truly see how much he meant the words he said. “One day, I will give you that. Bigger, better. Everything you deserve. For now, though, you’ll have to deal with the bastard idiot I am, and just know I’ve fallen for you.”
Her lips parted as she stared at him, and he couldn’t help but kiss her again, his tongue tangling with hers and his mouth swallowing the moan drawn out by his cock twitching beneath her.
“I… I love you,” Loche whispered. “I love everything about you. I love that I get to stand by your side. I love that I get to do this life with you. I love that even when it seemed like you hated me, I no longer felt alone. I… I just love you.”
“Loche—” Iviry started, and he playfully rolled his eyes.
“I even love that you’ll argue with me. I wish for many, many, many more days of you telling me what an idiot I am, and me crawling by your feet for forgiveness.”
A snort rushed between them as Iviry’s lips curled, and before Loche could take her lips again, she whispered back, “I love you too.”
If he’d felt like he was burning to cinders before,hearing those words, sensing the truth from her, seeing it in her eyes… something deep, a wound he hadn’t looked at in a long time—perhaps ever—healed with the regent.
“Fuck,” Loche breathed. “I think I love you even more now.”
Iviry giggled as he shifted her so his cock pressed against her, and he tilted his head. “Can we go to our room and finally share that bed now, please?”
When she nodded, Loche didn’t bother waiting—didn’t bother checking on anyone else—as he swept her into his arms and sprinted down to their rooms to show her exactly how much he loved her.
Chapter 41
Merrick
He knew he shouldn’t be as fucking happy as he was right now.
But how could he not be? How could he not smile like an idiot when Lessia, hiswife—the most perfect female in this world, who now carried his name, who’d tied herself to him in front of all Havlands—danced before him, her arms around Amalise and her sister, her face so free from responsibilities and pain and whatever they now faced, having returned to their friends?
How could he not toast with Raine, who stared at Frelina like a lovesick pup, holding a glass of water and reminding Merrick what his friend had once been like, silently celebrating that they’d both found something so fucking rare it shouldn’t be possible?
How could he not smile and shake his head at Kerym, who was teasing the poor witch on the dance floor until Merrick and Raine had to turnaway because otherwise there was no escaping the scent of madness and desire Kerym evoked in her?
How could he not nod to the regent when Loche carried Iviry down into their rooms, hoping his eyes communicated what he’d meant them to: that he’d make sure the two leaders got their time alone—because if any two people on this ship needed it, it was them?
How could he not laugh when Lessia spun around, her arms flying wide, almost smacking Venko and Ardow in their faces, and her dress—already ripped from dancing with every friend and acquaintance on this ship—flying behind her as she ran right up to him, face flushed and eyes glittering as she told him this was the best day of her life?
How could he not jump down from the railing he’d sat on and take her into his arms, ignoring the whistles around them as he placed her on the ladder leading to the crow’s nest, hissing at someone trying to stop them that he was “taking some fucking time with his wife,” as he gently nudged her upward?
Merrick didn’t have the words to describe what he felt right now, but he knew this moment… it was fleeting—it was one of those glimpses of pure euphoria that one got to experience only once in a lifetime, and if you weren’t lucky, perhaps you didn’t even get that.
He wasn’t about to waste a single fucking second of it.
