Get it together. Focus. Ignore it. Ignore him. This is a serious, important conversation. And—I take a deep breath.Okay.Concentrate.
“Will you leave, then?”
“Where you go, I follow.” His deep tenor wraps around my aching body. I shudder against him. He means it. To the deepest recesses of my soul, I know he means it.
He says it with intent, like he’s trying to tell me something I’m not getting.
“The area surrounding the mainland belongs to the humans and is the safest place for us to hunt to avoid encountering scavengers or creatures far deadlier,” he explains. Ordus shakes his head just as the first batch of glowing algae illuminates his face before plunging us back into darkness. “But hunting near the mainland comes at the risk of discovery, which is a sure death as well. We are quickly running out of krakens strong enough to make the journey, and they are needing to swim further and further out.”
That sobers me enough to push my libido to the background.
“Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.” I sigh, frowning from the painful tingles going down my arm.
Fuck, not again.
I hang my arm limp at my side, letting Ordus take the brunt of the effort to keep me against him. I maneuver my sore arm beneath his to rest my hand under the scar along his ribs.
Ordus makes a sound of agreement. “All soldiers have been assigned to bring game back from the mainland to feed the people, but even then, the water alone has become unsafe. Only the strongest kraken will survive.”
“Is there no other way to end the Curse?” I ask hopefully.
I feel his head shake. “The Witch is dead. The elders suspect there may be an anchor of some kind that enables the Curse to continue without its caster, likely two because of the severity of the Curse.”
I rake my teeth against my bottom lip as another wave of light hits us. My only knowledge about magic comes from TV and fiction books. I have no authority or experience to be throwing out ideas, but I might as well try. “You have sigils on your doors. That’s a witchy thing, isn’t it? Don’t you use magic to shift as well? Shouldn’t your people have more of an idea?”
To his credit, he pauses to think about it. “My mother was once friends with a witch. Her strength was incomparable to the one who cursed us. Beyond basic healing pastes and protection spells, we knew very little. The krakens of the royal line’s ability to shift is inherent because we are the only ones with any power. Our magic is different. It is not an outward manifestation.”
If an entire population of krakens can’t come up with a loophole around the Curse, where do I get off thinking I, a human woman who didn’t know mythical creatures existed until about a month ago, will think of something?
Which means there really is only one solution.
“And…” I swallow, pulse hammering. The algae is becoming more frequent, so I can’t hide in the dark. “You mentioned marrying to end the Curse. You’ve also spoken about bonding. Is there…a difference?”
“The term is used interchangeably.” His eyes drop down to me, rendering me frozen in his arms as another flash of light catches the longing etched into every crease in his face. “I will not force you to marry me, Cindi. We move at your pace, even if there is no pace at all.”
I frown up at him. “Aren’t you tired of me?” I say, breath catching when his hand glides back down to my ass to keep me stable as we take a sharp bend. Like everything else, it’s aninnocent gesture that skyrockets my heart rate. His fingers are mere inches from my core, and I’m frightened to think how wet he’d find me if we weren’t in the water.
One bump, one turn, a single swoop, and he’d be sliding over my slit like his thick appendages have done before. Images flash in my mind of all the times his tentacles have come dangerously close to sliding over my heat.
I shiver. Ordus squeezes my flesh to push me up his vibrating chest, rubbing my sensitive nipples and sex over his hard abs. It’s pure sin. My nails dig into his shoulders. I want to arch my back so fucking bad to add more pressure somewhere. Anywhere. I just…
I want him to make me feel good.
Which is wrong, bad, and shouldn’t happen for so many reasons, but fuck, can’t I have something nice for once in my life?
Whether it’s an accident or his gentlemanly façade drops, he gropes my ass, grabbing at the flesh so it pulls at my folds. My lips fall into an O.
My eyes round when his hand threaded into my hair uses the strands as leverage to force me to hold his suffocating gaze. “You fascinate me.” His breath skates across my tingling skin. “Everything about you fascinates me.” He carefully kneads my backside, getting closer and closer to the forbidden area each time. “The mark behind your ear. Your voice. How you tap your right thumb against your thigh when you’re thinking. Scrunching your nose before eating crab. The stretch you do when you first wake up. Sometimes, when you’re working, you make these small humming sounds. It’s rare, but it always brings a smile to my face.”
I flush red against the chilled water. He noticed all that? “This is the most you’ve spoken to me in weeks.”Outside of the treasure room.
He stops massaging me and looks away, pretending to focus on navigating the tunnel, even though the pool is right above us. “It’s for the best.”
I take a deep breath just before the bubble bursts and saltwater floods around us. It’s not a full second before we’re breaking the surface into the cave that’s quickly becoming my own safe space—like the swinging chair hanging from the ceiling, handmade by Ordus using the trees around the island. He set it up next to the shelf filled with books he smuggled for me from the mainland so I can stay inside and read if the weather is bad, I’m too tired, or to wind down before bed.
Then there’s the thick mats made from layers of woven bamboo to protect my feet from the unforgiving stone, and the little bed of dirt, moss, and coconut husks I made for Vasz.
I’ve made this entire island my own faster than I made the cabin my home back in Bali. It took six months before I even dared buy new clothes or used a dining chair that wasn’t a couple bucks and made from plastic.
