Her silver eyes flash, looking like a predator in the dark. “Why do you need a defined role?”
My spine stiffens. “Lucien’s a fae, like you. Funds the whole damn family. And Dorian...he makes you happy. He understands what you need before any of us, has a better radar for all things Cambria, and is the geeky glue that keeps us together. You already have everything you need between the two of them, so why the fuck am I even here?”
The words come out harsher than I intended, and my apology is already half out of my mouth for snapping at her when she cuts me off. “Would you feel better if I gave you a title?”
I laugh, but when she doesn’t, I realize that she’s dead serious. My mouth presses into a thin line while she lifts an eyebrow in challenge, waiting.
“If you’re just here to mock me, I’d rather be alone.”
She turns, swimming to the edge of the spring and hauling herself out, walking away without so much as grabbing her clothes. I turn my back on the pool beneath, leaning against the stone wall and shutting my eyes, trying to steady my breathing.
Everything’s heated, too hot, stifling. My eyes blink open as a splash sends water lapping at my neck, only to find a furious Cambria a few feet away, glaring at me in the water.
“Do you think so little of me? That I’m such a bitch, I’d come here to taunt you when something was obviously wrong?” Her cheeks tint red as she swims closer, passing the deepest point in the center of the stone basin and walking along the bottom to get into my face, water brushing against her collar as she nears.
I rise to my full height, narrowing my eyes as I grit out, “No.”
Her features are still twisted with indignant rage. “You can be sad. You can be upset and wallow if that’s what you need right now. But you don’t get to be a jackass.” She stops right in front of me, those eyes full of fire like I’ve never seen in her, her irises swirling like they’re made of storm clouds rather than the liquid mercury that’s been haunting my dreams for days, weeks. “You taught me that I deserved better than that, and you don’t get to just take it back when it suits you. So fuck you, and the high horse you rode in on.”
I capture her mouth with a snarl, palming the back of her head and tangling my fingers in her hair. Barely contained anger flows through my veins, each one of my heavy, rapid heartbeats pushing it farther, faster, until it burns away everything else. There’s no room for self-pity, not amongst the flames licking beneath my flesh.
Her nails dig into my shoulder and side, hard enough that they pierce skin. Forcing myself to pull back, her grip tightens, not letting me retreat, digging her claws into my fevered flesh. “You’re the one that actually sees me. The one that’s willing to say to hell with the consequences, to do what needs to be done even if it’s hard. You push me and push me, past my breaking point, then smack me with perspective. You wake me up when all I want to do is shut down and sleep, pull me from that black hole that’s always there, threatening to swallow me whole. It’s everything to me, so why does it mean nothing to you?”
That heavy weight that’s been suffocating me turns to ash. There’s no room to feel anything beyond the burning heat, consuming everything in its path until all I can feel isher,coaxing that flicker of life that was nearly snuffed out into an inferno.
My words are little more than a whisper, breathing nearly impossible. “I didn’t know.”
She doesn’t back down, those eyes still hard as steel, threatening to flay the flesh from my bones. “No, you knew. You just didn’t think it was enough.”
My lips part to object, but she’s right. I press them back into a grim line.
“You’re enough, Atlas. Just you. No roles, no fancy titles. I don’t care about what you can do for me; I just want you to love me.” An angry tear slips down her face and I palm her heated cheek, reverently stroking my thumb to carefully brush it away. “Do you seriously think that you’re the only one of us that struggles with insecurities? We all need to feel needed. Important.” She releases a shaky breath, reining in her temper. “And I’m sorry that I wasn’t here to remind you that you are.”
Slower this time, I lean in to kiss her. Everything’s raw, stripped bare for judgment and exposed. She burns it all; every dark thought, the loneliness and self-deprecation eating away at me. I’m no different than the wasteland when she’s done with me.
And from those ashes rises someone stronger. Maybe not better, and definitely not remarkable, but someone with purpose. Someone that makes the conscious decision to stop looking at everything he’s not, and start acknowledging everything that he already is.
Cupping her jaw, I tilt her head, tongue swiping past her lips. My knuckles trace a slow path from the column of her throat to between her breasts. Lower, every movement slow and controlled, I feel her stomach quiver beneath the gentle touch. The water does nothing to lessen the feeling, and when I slip my hand between her legs, she jerks against me.
“Do you want me to stop?” I murmur against her lips, toying with her, reveling in her shudders, but don’t push for more. I was a real ass, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she pushed me over the side of this spring for having the audacity.
“I must have missed quite a bit for you to be asking such a stupid question.”
With a growl, I bite her lower lip the same moment I sink two fingers inside of her. She bucks against me, arching her back. I recapture her mouth, hooking my fingers to bring her impossibly closer. When my back hits the stone wall, I pull away long enough to switch our position, pivoting her around. Her hands curl around the ledge as I step behind her, caging her in with my palms on either side of hers.
For just a moment, the view steals my already ragged breath from my lungs. The moon is reflected in the brilliant glow of the water, the different levels of springs beneath us appearing like portals to another world. The steam captures the silver moonlight, a living mist writhing on the slight breeze.
Bracing myself on one hand, I pull her hair over one shoulder, baring her neck. She cants her head to give me access, permission, and when my teeth graze the sensitive flesh, she shudders.
“And here I thought you had all of this aggression to work out,” she taunts, coaxes that fragile peace I’d recaptured into becomingmore.Inspiring buried emotions to life and trusting that I’m strong enough to survive them.
Kissing a path to the juncture of her neck, I bite down hard enough to leave a mark and she gasps, arching her ass into me. My free hand palms her breast, toying and pinching her nipple until she’s squirming. I give the other the same treatment, using my hips to keep her pinned between me and the wall. Only when she starts pleading do I kick her feet apart, water sloshing over the edge and crashing so far below. Sliding a palm over her collar, I wrap a hand around her throat as she groans, gripping my wrist and panting.
I reach between us, guiding my cock and slowly press deeper, torturing myself as much as her. Bracing a hand on the wet stone, I pull back just enough to slam inside of her. Each thrust is harder than the last, my grip tightening on her throat as she clenches around me, face tilted to the endless night in surrender.
Complete and utter trust that I won’t let her fall.
A little farther she leans over that ledge, reaching no higher than her belly button in this section. The ground gives a natural boost, like itwantssomeone to jump. But the deepest section of the water beneath is no more than ten feet at best, and even then, only the center. All the pools are crafted like a bowl, able to recline against the lip while seated on the natural bench the stone provides.
