“I thought you were—” I can’t finish.
He turns his face toward mine, so close I can see the blood vessels have burst in his eyes. “I thought I was, too,” he rasps. His hand finds my wrist, fingers wrapping tight, and I realize he’s shaking as much as I am.
We sit there for a second, neither of us moving. The merman twitches a few feet away, then goes still, the sword still quivering in his chest.
Finally, Cassius stirs. He grabs my face with both hands and pulls me closer, like he can’t believe I’m real. “Why didn’t you just run?”
“What?” My whole body recoils at the thought.
“I’m a fae. You hate my kind. Why didn’t you just run?”
The truth is, the thought never occurred to me. I could no sooner abandon him here than I could abandon part of my soul. Just imagining his body left in these dark waters makes my stomach turn. No, I could never do that.
“I had to,” I say, trying to work through my own thoughts aloud. “I couldn’t just—” I can’t finish the sentence, so I just hold onto him, harder.
He laughs, and the sound is broken and beautiful. “You’re brave. You know that?”
“So are you,” I say. My throat is raw. “You could have died.”
He shrugs, and I feel the movement through his arms, his chest, everywhere. “It would have been worth it.”
Worth it? For me?
I’m about to pull away when Cassius looks down at me strangely. Our gazes lock. My heartbeat picks up for reasons I don’t understand, and then he leans in, kissing me.
It’s not like kissing Ashton or Sylvian. It’s nothing like anything I’ve ever known. His mouth is cold from the water, then suddenly warm, the taste of him sharp with salt and something darker, something that makes my pulse spike. He doesn’t hesitate. Doesn’t tease. He takes the kiss like he’s been holding it back for too long and can’t anymore.
His hand slides to the back of my neck, fingers threading into my hair, holding me there, not roughly, but unyielding.
Demanding.
I gasp against him, and he deepens the kiss instantly, like he’s been waiting for that moment. The water shifts around us, pressing in, but I barely feel it. All I feel is him. The firm line of his body against mine, the steady strength in his grip, the way his control fractures just enough to let something raw slip through.
I clutch at him, my hands clinging to his muscle, pulling him closer even though there’s nowhere left to go.
For a second, just a second, I forget where we are. I forget the chains, the monster, the darkness pressing in on all sides. The world narrows to this, his mouth on mine, the rhythm of our kiss turning deeper, hungrier, like he’s trying to prove something without words.
Like he’s trying to claim something.
Or someone.
My heart pounds, frantic and wild, and I kiss him back just as fiercely, matching him without thinking, without fear. The cold, the water, the danger—it all fades into the background, leaving only the heat building between us, sharp and impossible and far too real for a moment like this.
And somehow… this feels more dangerous than anything else down here. Yet, I just want more of him. More of his kiss. More of his touch. More of his hard body pressed against mine. The thin fabric of our undergarments are the only thing between us.
When we finally break apart, we’re both panting, eyes wide.
He blinks, then laughs, startled. “That was?—”
“Amazing?” The word makes me blush.Why the heck did I say that?
But he just grins. “Yeah. That.”
He looks at the merman’s body. “Thanks for saving my life.”
“To be fair, you saved mine first.”
Cassius looks at the sword, still sticking out of the merman’s chest. He stands, a little unsteady, and pulls it free. He holds it out to me, hilt first, teeth clenched together. Touching the blade even though it hurts him. “This belongs to you.”
