They hadn’t said they didn’t want me. They’d said we couldn’t do this.
Because I was betrothed to a Triton.
I swallowed hard, the lump forming in my throat. Even still, yearning bloomed within me anew, a desperate desire to be theirs.
They’d saved me from the sea. A sense of inevitability settled over me. Ursuline was the only reason I stood here today.
I didn’t want to walk away from this.
Their voice trailed off, and they played the final notes of their melody. It resonated through the air, a steady hum elongated by the tension that bloomed between us. They’d been avoiding me for over a week now, but tonight, they were here. And the feelings and confusion that had percolated inside me bubbled up to overflow.
Ursuline pushed up from their seat at the piano bench, and they glided in my direction. Their eyes contained a hungry intensity as they looked me over, the sort I’d surrendered to. And with their broad shoulders, their height, they loomed over me, even from feet away.
“A guileless human had been swept away in a storm,” they said. “What was I supposed to do? Let him drown?”
“Others would,” I commented. Their kindness sparked in my chest, kindling that now burned. They’d shown that care and consideration with me every step of the way through my time with the Triton family, but knowing they were my mystery savior? I wanted them more than ever, with an unabating ache that carved into my chest.
“I’ve seen enough cruelty in this world to not want to contribute more,” they murmured, averting their gaze.
Boldness gripped me, and I closed the space between us, step by tentative step. When I reached up, they didn’t jerk away, even though I telegraphed my movements. I skated my fingertips along their jawline, sharp and undeniably sexy. Their demeanor, their features were cool, remote, distant. Yet gods, they were so warm. So real, when everything else in my life wasn’t.
A shudder rolled through them, slight but undeniable. They opened their eyes, and pain shone in their dark gaze. “You have no idea what you do to me.”
A lump formed in my throat. “I’ve never felt this way around anyone before. I can’t…” I sucked in a sharp breath, my eyes stinging. “Please don’t go away again.”
They reached down and wrapped their hands around my hips. “You belong to the Triton family.”
I stared up at them, heat blazing within me, a stubborn resistance born and bred from their resignation. “I belong tomyself.”
Their eyes widened, and their grip on my hips tightened. My heart thrummed at the closeness between us, at the feel of their hands on me. I’d craved this for so long, to the point I’d dreamt of it this week, whether in slumber or reality. I wanted them to take me apart piece by piece until I was screaming, with their mouth, their teeth, their tongue. I wanted their tentacles thrusting inside me until all I could feel was them.
I wanted them to claim me until I felt utterly possessed.
“The look on you, sunshine,” they said, a hoarseness in their voice. “You’ll be my undoing.”
I dropped my hands to their chest, their heartthump, thump, thumpingat an accelerated pace beneath my palm. Even with the fabric of their tunic separating our skin, I could feel the heat there, amplified by my own.
“Please,” I begged, not sure what I even begged for at this point. For them to stay? For them to make my fantasies come true?
Truly, I just didn’t want to be without them again. They were here with me in this room, and their hands on my hips settled the rising panic in my chest like nothing else. They were the calm in the wake of a storm—the one who’d saved me from the worst storm of my life. My heart squeezed hard. If they rejected me now, if they walked away—I couldn’t bear it.
“Please, what?” they asked, bringing a thumb and gliding it slowly across my lower lip. The deliberateness of their action sent a violent shiver through me.
“Take me,” I gasped. “However you want. Just make me yours.”
Maybe the admission made me shameless, but I didn’t care. I burned with need tonight, with pent-up desire I couldn’t contain any longer.
Their eyes widened and then scorched. The blaze in them was the hottest inferno I’d seen, and I lit up from it. My whole body sparked with awareness, like it had awakened from a long slumber.
“Careful what you wish for, sunshine,” they growled. Their hand traveled underneath my shirt, sliding up my side in a slow and sinuous movement, and their tentacle twined around my leg, climbing up to tease the inside of my thigh. I gasped from the burst of lust that coursed through me. My cock stiffenedfrom the touch, from the sheer hunger in their eyes as they regarded me.
“Please.” The word came out in a mewl, my body so sensitized from being near them. All my fears, my concerns with my current trajectory flew out the window when they were near, their presence scrambling my brain.
I wanted to be claimed by them with every ounce of my being.
Tonight, more than ever, I needed the reminder I wasn’t alone. That I was more than some chip to be bargained with.
That I could still choose.
