“You think I’m upset because you snapped at me?”
“You had every right to be.”
“I’m upset because you keep refusing to accept the truth. It’s too dangerous for me to love anyone.”
“Nonsense. Besides, you already love me. Refusing to claim me won’t change that.”
She trembled a little and took a wobbly step back, as if she’d just been thrown off balance. Her mouth opened, then shut, and her wounded blue eyes stabbed him to his heart before she turned away to gather her composure.
“No,” she admitted, “it won’t. I will always be a danger to others if anything ever happens to you, but I don’t have to endanger you by staying close. You’re safer without me. The only one who doesn’t see that is you.”
She admitted to loving him, yet in the same breath continued to reject him. Was there ever a woman so stubborn and hardheaded? Feeling exasperated, Dilys didn’t know whether to shake her or kiss her. In the end, he did both. Grabbing her shoulders, he gave her a firm shake. “Gabriella Aretta Rosadora Liliana Elaine Coruscate, has anyone ever told you that you talk completeshoto?”
Her outraged gasp gave him the perfect opening to plunder her mouth. Pulling her close, he swooped down to claim her lips. She struggled against him, beating at him with her fists, but he was physically much stronger than she was. He held with effortless ease and kept kissing her until she stopped fighting him and started to kiss him back.
“I don’t want to hear any more about how I’d be safer or better off without you,” he told her when he finally lifted his mouth. “You are not and will never be a danger to me. What you are,moa kiri,is the woman I love, the woman I cannot live without, the woman I want to stand beside for the rest of my life.”
“Then you’re an idiot with no regard for your own life.” She regarded him unhappily. “You may have managed to keep me from hurting anyone this time, but what happens when I get bad news and we’re not on a ship in the middle of the ocean?” she countered. “What happens if we’re somewhere you can’t conveniently expel the excess power I give to you? What if we’re in city or a palace or a schoolroom? What then?”
He stifled a sigh and reminded himself that her stubborn single-mindedness was precisely the trait that had enabled her to keep her magic under control despite not having a proper network to aid her. “Gabriella, my love, you are a Siren, and I should have prepared for that before trying to lessen your terrible grief. I didn’t, and that fault is mine. I will not make that mistake again.”
“What do you mean?”
“I underestimated the true strength of your power. I thought that I alone would be all you need—that I could provide for you as I have for my mother numerous times over the years. But you weren’t born to power a single Calbernan, even if he is your mate. You were born with strength enough to power us all.”
“That’s precisely my point!” she cried. “I’m the forest fire, and you’re standing there with a glass of water saying you can put me out. But you can’t!”
He arched his brows. “Considering that I’ve spent the better part of last fourteen hours proving that I can, in fact, light your fire and put it out over and over again, I’m vaguely insulted by that remark.”
“Aargh!” She clenched her fists and gave a strangled scream. “For Halla’s sake! Would you please be serious!”
“Oh, but I am being serious, Gabriella.” Letting every last vestige of humor fall away, he regarded her with sober, unswerving intent. “I have never been more serious about anything in my life. Tell me, is this fear that you will do some irreparable harm should I be injured or slain the last obstacle standing in the way of your marrying me?”
“Pardon?”
“You love me. You have admitted it. If I can prove to you that you need never fear losing control over your magic, regardless of your emotional state, would you finally agree to be myliana? Will you claim me as your mate?”
“The question is moot. There’s no way for you prove such a thing.”
“Answer the question anyway.”
She scowled, then huffed. “Fine. Yes. If you could prove I that I will never lose control and hurt innocents—which you can’t!—then I would marry you.”
“And claim me as your mate.”
She rolled her eyes. “And claim you as my mate.”
“Good. I will hold you to that.” He strode for the door and reached for the latch.
“Dilys!” Gabriella’s strangled cry stopped him before he could throw the door open. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“To prove beyond any doubt that you are no threat to me or to anyone if you do not specifically choose to be.”
“For the gods’ sake, put some clothes on before you go out there!”
Considering the quantity and volume of the screams he’d wrung from her over the last fourteen hours, there wasn’t a Calbernan or Winterman on this ship—or any of the ships in at least a five-mile radius, for that matter—who didn’t know exactly what the two of them had been doing or how often they’d been doing it. His nudity wouldn’t exactly be a shock to anyone. But it mattered to her, so he paused long enough to grab ashumaand knot it about his waist.
“Better?” he asked, and he waited for her stiff, pink-cheeked nod before he flung open the cabin door.
