Mirroring his pose, I shut my own eyes and resolve to rest with the same level of commitment and exertion that I would approach a cliff climb—
My eyes pop back open again. Without any kind of permission from me, they drop down to his sturdy boots and travel slowly up his leather-clad calves to his knees, and then his thighs. With his legs outstretched, I can see the front of his britches. He remains erect, and the finely worked hide is a second skin that once again obscures nothing of his anatomy.
The outline of the head and the thick straddle of his shaft are so clear, he might as well be naked.
His potency is no surprise. As if his arousal would be any less imposing than the rest of him—
“You keep staring at me like that,” he says with a hint of amusement, “I’m going to think I guessed wrong, and maybe you do want me, after all.”
Flushing bright as that torch, I look away. Then frown as meaning catches up with his words. “Is that why you stopped?” I clear my throat. “I mean—”
“I told you, I’m not a savage. Your lips never moved against my own and I’m not going to take what you aren’t willing to give me. Now do us both a favor and go to sleep.”
I lift my fingers back to my mouth. I want to tell him that I don’t know how to kiss, that he is the first and—given what we are about to face—the only for me.
And that I would like very much for him to teach me how to please his lips.
Instead, I close my lids and order sleep to take over.
Some things are best kept to myself.
NineteenOn Matters of Fish.
“It’s time.”
I must have fallen asleep at some point because I wake up to find Merc standing over me. He’s wet again, so I guess he’s done a little more exploration, and in the dwindling torchlight, the sheath that cleaves to his torso like a second skin gives me quite a show—especially as he picks up his mesh armor and straps it on.
With every movement, his muscles contract and release, the power in him as transfixing as flame. And I grow warm.
At least until he continues talking.
“We have to do it now.” He nods toward the pool as he begins strapping on his weapons. “We need to get you away from the village before it’s broad daylight, and there’s just enough sunrise for me to navigate the collapse—”
“I can’t swim.”
That shuts him up sure as if I’ve slapped him. “What do you mean you can’t—”
“I tried a couple of times when I was younger.” I’m flushing again, but this time, it’s with embarrassment. “I can’t do it.”
“Of course you can’t,” he mutters as he pulls on his leather coat and his pack. “How is this possible?”
“I sink—”
Merc slashes an impatient hand and then goes digging into his pack. “It’s as if I knew—and that’s why I brought this. Stand up.”
He holds out a rope, and when I just stare at the thing as if I’ve never seen one before, he pulls me to my feet. Stepping in close, he reaches around my waist with the twist of fibers—
The scent of him washes over me and I breathe in deep. How can he alwayssmell so good? This is the only thing I’m thinking of as the band tightens across the small of my back, and I nearly take a step forward just to keep us together.
“I’ll do the swimming.” My body tugs back and forth as he ties things in a tight knot. “You just need to hold your breath and not fight me.”
His strong, sure hands test the tie at my belly button one last time. “You have your knife?”
“There. By the pack.”
“Tuck it into your waistband. You’re going to need your hands free.”
On reflex, I bend down for my cloak.
