Her merman was a brawler, through and through.
“You’re beautiful.”
He shook his head in wonderment of her. “I’m not the one who’s beautiful, mephearse.”
“Aye, you are. More handsome than any ever born. In the sea or on the land.” She laced her hands through his hair and nibbled his lips.
Kalder groaned at the passion he tasted, amazed by it and by her. How he loved the way this woman kissed him. The way she looked at him as if he were the only man in the world where she was concerned. No one had ever made him feel the way she did.
As if he were special.
Like he mattered.
She wrapped her legs about his waist. “Tell me how to please you.”
Her boldness startled and pleased him. He loved the fact that she was so brazen and unabashed. “You do that just by being with me.”
She smiled. “Do I?”
He nodded.
Her smile widened as she rubbed herself against his swollengroin. He groaned at the feel of her there and imagined how much better she would feel if he’d had a chance to remove their breeches.
“Is there anything else I can do?”
“That’s a good start, mephearse.” He reached up and unlaced her tunic until her breasts were free.
Kalder held her close, while his heart raced madly with hunger.
How strange that the only place he’d ever felt at home was in her arms. And he knew in that moment that he’d follow her anywhere. Even to hell itself. She made him feel so warm and welcomed.
No one else had ever offered him so much by doing nothing more than smiling.
You’re free now. No longer bound to Thorn. You could take a wife and start over.
Marry her.
But he knew better than that. It wasn’t so simple.
Starting over was for other people. People who didn’t have a brutal past like his. Those who were normal. Those who lived on the land.
Besides, he knew nothing about Cameron. Not really.
Does it matter?
It could. Better than anyone, he knew that alliances played a large part of his family’s life—that they impacted the ship and her crew—and any decision he made would affect all of them. He had too many enemies gunning for him.
Not to mention that Cameron held the blood of Michael in her veins. Her brother was a Necrodemian. And that blood would pass to any child Cameron might have.
Any child that might be born to them. A creature of the land and sea.
Those children would have a higher calling that would give them no peace, whatsoever, from the worst creations the gods had ever spat out of hell. It would cause all of them to be hunted forever.
Generation after generation.
How could he think to pass on such a cursed legacy? It would be the worst sort of selfishness.
And yet even though he knew that about her, he couldn’t bring himself to let go and leave her. She was like some missing part of himself.
