Awareness lit inside his eyes like a fire being stoked behind the endless black. He leaned close enough, his breath fanned my lips. Everything inside me screamed for release I sensed only he could give me.
Merrick tilted his head to the side, a fraction of a move, but I saw it, and it sent my heart barreling down a cliff, plunging me into a freefall where the ground was no longer solid beneath me. In an instant, I realized how high the stakes had become. How desperate my longing was to see where this path, this new, dangerous, exhilarating path, might lead.
To see where this man would take me.
His eyes locked on mine, and the storm of emotions there got caught in my throat. Fire, a furious blaze, burned beneath his composure, but there was something else there too, a flicker of vulnerability. Now he was asking, not telling, but what did he want from me?
I’d been the one who agreed to this marriage. I was the one who said I was willing. But all I could think of was how hard he was fighting not to claim what appeared to be well within his grasp.
The gentle warmth of Kinart’s memory brushed through my mind, a familiar comfort I never thought I’d lose. Yet here Iwas, staring up at Merrick with my body thrumming with an intensity that bordered on pain, caught between the past love that comforted me and the burgeoning, erratic feelings for my new husband.
“You disobeyed me,” he said, more a growl than words.
“I did. You asked for a willing bride, not a prisoner.” The defiance scorching through me edged into my reply.
His head cocked and his gaze drifted to my mouth. “Areyou willing, my pretty little bride?”
“Y-yes,” I whispered, my voice barely audible, a confession more than a declaration.
He didn't move right away, but I felt the tension in his frame coiling, as if my words had unlocked part of him, a chained thing that ached to break free. The tender warmth in his eyes flared with need.
My breath caught in my throat as the weight of his stiff cock pressed against my thigh, a reminder of the fact that we were married, that he could take whatever he needed from me whether I wished for it or not.
Till death do us part.
His eyes flickered with that same primal pull I felt deep in my core. His movements slowed as he leaned closer, until only a hair’s breadth separated us, as if he was giving me one last chance to say the word that would stop this madness.
It stuck in my throat, impossibly lodged, because I didn’t want this to end.
I needed what lay in his eyes.
His mouth claimed mine in a searing kiss that rendered all thoughts moot. It wasn’t tender or tentative; it was an unleashedforce, sweeping through me like wildfire, claiming every corner of my being with the ease of an unstoppable deluge. The world exploded into brilliant colors, and my body responded with untamed abandon, as if it had been dormant up until I met Merrick.
Shivers raced through me, freezing me in place even his mouth ignited my senses. All thought shrank to something both feral and tender.
ThisReyla craved everything this man had to offer.
Instead of being scared of this, I found myself teetering on the edge of something immense, more dangerous than anything I’d faced before. I wrapped my arms and my legs around him, tugging him closer.
The taste of him overwhelmed me, tangling with the salty spice of the sea still lingering in the air around us. He consumed me, made the whole world narrow to the press of his lips, his heat, his ragged breathing mixing with my own. His fingers tangled in my hair, and his grip tightening as his mouth demanded more, demanded everything I hadn’t known was mine to give.
Need, pure and hot, swept through me in a tide, awakening parts of me long buried. A whimper escaped my throat, my shame mixing with something dangerous, something blindingly feral. My hands found their way to his back, and I anchored myself to him in this dizzying storm.
My heart pounded, the very air in my lungs stolen by the claim he had over me. I let it happen because in this devastating clash of our mouths, I found a new truth: There was life within me, beating, bright, and wild, and it begged to be free.
Merrick’s movements softened, his fury easing into fierce control. His touch became focused, until there was nothing left between us but the heavy thud of our hearts and the weight of this undeniable connection we’d suddenly formed.
I hadn’t planned for this.
But the truth was, I didn’t want to stop.
16
REYLA
Iremained in my suite for the rest of the day, eating the meals Lord Briscalar brought me, avoiding his gaze that was too full of questions. He knew I’d escaped my room and made my way to the top of the ship just in time to see Merrick fling someone overboard, though I didn’t believe any of them realizedhowI’d escaped. Let them think I could wield enough magic to unlock my door.
Pacing allowed me to think, so I stalked back and forth across my suite. Farris followed me at first, but he eventually got bored and climbed onto the sofa to nap.
