A challenge sparks in her gaze. She tilts her head, reaching forward to tangle her soft fingers in my hair.“No.”
“If you don’t—”
“What?” she demands. “Are you going to fuck me, Arion? Maybe I want that. Maybe it’s all I’ve wanted—all I’ve thought about—since the cavern. Your hands on me. Your cock inside me. You want me to beg?Fine.” She looks up with wide, hungry eyes. “Fuck me. Fuck me, Arion, and make me come. Fuck me, Arion, and make me forget my own name. Please,pleasefuck—”
The rest of my control snaps. Gone.
Without another word, I take her hand. Pull her off the plank and lead her belowdecks with impatient steps. I don’t stop until I kick open the door of the empty crew’s quarters and throw her inside.She smiles up at me, wicked as always. Her mouth opens, undoubtedly to tease me. To beg. To do gods know what. I don’t fucking care. Not about anything. Not anymore.
Snarling, I grab her by the throat and kiss her.
Mymermaid.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
ZEPHYRA
Arion kisses me as if he wants to punish me. Kisses me as if the magic raging inside him is desperate to escape its iron cage. And goddess—it’s so fucking good.He’sso fucking good. And that silvered cord—our bond—makes everything that muchbetter. I tighten my arms around his neck, fingers buried in his dark hair, dragging my body even closer to his. Closer. Until I feel his hard cock pressed against my belly.
His tongue slides between my lips, teasing my own as he swallows my breathy sighs.
This.Thisis what I’ve been dreaming of, thinking about, obsessing over. His thumb sweeps across my throat, stoking my pulse faster as the ship undulates on crackling storm winds.It’s so fucking good.He nips my lower lip, lightly but still enough to sting, and desire pools hot in my core. It pools hot inside him as well, and I canfeelit. I can taste how much he wants me on my tongue. Every second of pleasure doubles. Beyond anything I can comprehend as Arion’s silver-gold gaze fixes on me, his pupils huge now. Midnight black andstarvingas the cord glows iridescent between us, tangling our hands and necks and chests in a thousand complex,yearningknots. My heart pounds. My head swims, but not from the blood loss or flying oranythingother than his touch, than our combinedneed. I don’t care about the others we abandoned on the deck, about this ship or soaring to our imminent demise. Don’t even care about gods and destinies.
Fuck me, Arion, and make me forget my own name.
That’s exactly what I want, isn’t it? To forget.
Arion is too weak to use his own magic now. We’re sailing straight toward my horrid past. We’re surrounded by enemies, and Arion and I—weshould be enemies. I should loathe the warlock. I should want to drown him the second our bond is broken. Maybe I will. Maybe he’ll try to kill me too. Maybe shattering our bond will return us to our status quo. Mermaid and warlock. Opposing forces in a centuries-old war.
“What are you thinking?” he demands, his voice hoarse as his hand slips from my throat to the back of my neck, angling my face up. Granting him easier access to my lips. He can’t stop staring at them. Staring atme. “Are you regretting—”
I shake my head. “I already told you. I don’t regret.”
“That’s a lie,” he says simply. As if the truth doesn’t bear down on me, threatening to break every bone in my body. As if his realization doesn’t threateneverythingcurrently between us.
If you’re evil, fucking destroy me, Zephyra.
He sees me. He has always seen me. He has never expected me to be anyone or anything else. I inhale as he exhales, dragging in the very air he breathes. Goddess, I’m aching for him. This bond between us—the cord, the debt—shudders with uncontrolled yearning until it feels as if I might explode from it. Until it feels as if this entire room might burst.
“Tomorrow morning, we sail for the trench and the castle,” I say, low and slow. “There will be a dozen worries and fears. A dozen ways for us to die. Tonight—right now—I want this. And I want it with you, Arion. You see me, and I see you.” Standing on my tiptoes, I tangle my fingers deeper in his hair and tug sharply. My tongue flicks out, tasting his lower lip. Tracing it. His pupils darken further, and a growl reverberates from his rib cage. “I want you. All of you.”
His wings splay wide against a backdrop of colorful silk hammocks and strewn tapestries as he sinks to his knees withoutanother word. We’ve danced around this for too long. For not long enough. I can’t… can’t stop. Wanting, lusting. He fists my skirts, shoving them up past my thighs without restraint and tearing the soft cotton. Another growl when he sees that I am completely bare. Exposed. He drags his gaze back to my face, teeth flashing white in the dim orange glow of sunset.
“Take off your blouse,” he commands, all warlock in this moment. All rage and pent-up frustration. “Now, Zephyra.”
The cord tautens between us. So goddess-damned tight.
“Impatient, warlock?” I tease, forcing my legs wider apart. Exposing myself even more.
He sets a hand on my upper thigh, and heat scorches through my skin and bones and sets fire to my nerves. I shudder beneath his touch. His thumb twitches, and I buck with restless need.
“Impatient, mermaid?” he says darkly. A brutal smirk twists his pretty lips, and my knees shake. Tremble. His mouth is so close. So, so,soclose. I try to move forward, but he forces me back. Against a wooden post. My breathwhooshesfrom my lungs as I crash into it, and the pain—the sudden sharp sting—hurts so fucking good. A moan slips from me, unbidden, and echoes in the otherwise tense silence.
“If you want me to touch you, show me your fucking tits.” His fingers curl into my skin, scraping down and up my thighs.
I gape at him, lust crackling around me, through me, at his words. At the rough, gravel tone of his demand. At the sight of him there—a mountain of muscle and beauty and power—kneeling at my feet. Begging forme.
If I wasn’t wet before, I am now.
