“His absence is not an excuse for you to court me.”
“Alright, no courting. Just sex then?” he asked with so much hope in his voice, it made me laugh again.
Flirting came naturally to Kye. He looked more himself than ever. That cocky grin suited him so much better than the murderous frown he’d sported when I first saw him back in the great hall. Yet he seemed to have completely forgotten that he couldn’t even hug me, let alone have sex with anyone.
Well, at least the mood between us was light and airy now, instead of the fear, sadness, or longing of before.
“Nope,” I replied. “Not happening. And please keep all your witchy spell songs away from me, especially the mating ones.”
“Mating songs aren’t spells,” he argued. “They work the best on those who are in the right mood for them and who are already attracted to the singer. The purpose of the song is simply to voice one’s intentions and to serve as an invitation for the potential partner.”
And that was the problem. I seriously feared I’d have no willpower to resist such an invitation from him. I had felt his magic, and it had warped both my sense of reality and my free will.
“No, please, I don’t trust them,” I said resolutely.
I didn’t like the feelings that kind of singing caused in me. The loss of control was unnerving. The desire to be there for him was overwhelming. The all-consuming need to hold him was dangerous. Those weren’t my true emotions anyway. How could they be? I didn’t care about Kye like that. I barely knew him.
The siren king was attractive, no doubt about that. But who wouldn’t be attracted to that perfect body, or to his magical voice, or to the intensity of his feelings that he tried to hide behind his teasing and flirting and that could be glimpsed through his songs?
I blinked again, trying to ground myself back in reality. Dammit, he wasn’t even singing, but my head was spinning from his presence alone.
Warmth rushed my body under my dress.
“It’s a hot day today, isn't it?” I said, pulling on my neckline.
I understood perfectly well now why sirens used light, flowing fabrics for their clothes and why they left so much of their bodies uncovered.
“Hot? Is it really?” Kye mused, watching me fanning myself. “I find the weather rather pleasantly refreshing today.”
“Maybe it’s because I spent the entire morning in the palace? It’s like being inside a greenhouse with all that glass.” I eyed with longing the cool waves beating against the rocky shore of the reef. “Do you think there’s a bathing suit for me in that trunk by my bed?”
“What’s a bathing suit?” Kye asked, looking genuinely puzzled.
“Um, it’s a special garment for swimming.” I gestured over my boobs and groin areas to demonstrate where the bathing suit would normally be worn.
He frowned in confusion. “Do humans need a suit to swim? Does it help you stay afloat?”
“No. It’s just to cover up all the...um, indecent body parts.”
“Indecent?” He smirked. “What could possibly be indecent about that delightful body of yours?”
Was there a point in explaining modesty to a man who spent his days wearing absolutely nothing? He probably didn’t wear much even back when he could have, judging by the confidence with which he handled his nudity.
I was no beauty queen, but before coming to Nerifir, I considered myself fairly conventionally attractive. No human body could be called beautiful when compared to a siren, however, but Kye didn’t call me beautiful. He called me “delightful,” accompanied by a verydelightedsmile that proved his point.
“Are you saying that my swimming naked would not be considered scandalous in Olathana?” I clarified, actually considering it.
There were just Kye and I here, and he had seen me naked already when I’d lost my sheet to his touch that morning, I reasoned, itching for a swim.
“My dear Maren, I’m the one responsible for the majority of scandals in the recent history of Olathana. And believe me whenI say that the ones involving nudity have been the least egregious of them. Go ahead,” he said, granting me his royal permission with an elegant wave of his hand. “Enjoy yourself, and allow me some joy too by letting me see you gloriously nude once again. You know I can’t do much more than just look anyway.”
At that moment, however, his gaze remained firmly on my eyes, not straying anywhere else. Even so, a warm thrill of excitement coursed through my veins as I brought a hand to the ribbon of my lacing on the back.
“Alright,” I said, turning my back to him. “Skinny-dipping it is then.”
If his nudity didn’t bother him, mine shouldn’t bother me either. No one else could see us here, hidden behind the cliff from the view of those on land.
“Are you not going to tell me to turn away again?” he asked.
