Page 113 of The Hunted

“So have you. Since your visitor, I suppose.”

He made a harsh noise under his breath but didn’t reply. Instead, his fingers stroked her overtop the lacy undergarments covering her pussy that matched the thigh-high stockings she’d also decided to try that morning.

It was as she thought it would be, also.

Restrictive and pointless.

Eryx would get his way, however. He would fuck her insane in the solarium until someone dared to knock on the doors and call him away from her.

She would enjoy it.

No point in denying it.

So, she made sure to say what she wanted before that could happen. If only because she felt like she needed to say it. “I used to crave the land. Now, I only miss the sea.”

His hands tightened on her body to an almost painful point. “Is that your way of asking for something without really asking for it?”

“No, it’s me talking. Sometimes, I enjoy doing that. You could talk back.”

“Well—”

“I feel like I’m being pulled in different directions. What I’m being pulled to changes depending on the day, or … you.”

“What does that even mean?” he asked.

“There’s no certainty,” she tried to explain. “Not with you, or the sea. Not what would happen if I left, or even if I stayed. My kind, or all of this … I say it like there’s a choice, but there really isn’t when everything else will seem unimportant without my mate.”

“Arelle—”

“But what is my life with you? A slave at your bidding. I warm your bed and entertain you in the times between. That seems … well, it seems like nothing, doesn’t it?” Then, she lifted her hand that had been sitting overtop his on her breast to touch the collar at her throat. “And even if I could leave, you seem determined to make sure that I can’t, one way or another.”

The pain that burst in the center of her chest felt hollow and foreign. That was the only way she understood it wasn’t her own, but a reflection of his. He didn’t acknowledge that he’d felt it; not physically or otherwise, but she still sensed it all the same.

“Do you want to leave—to go? Will they take you back? Would you still come to me when I called?”

“I want certainty.”

“That doesn’t answer my questions, Arelle.”

His statement wasn’t quite a shout, but the level of sharpness in his tone still had her closing her eyes.

“If I left, would you want me to come back?” she asked.

“I …”

“It should be an easy answer, Eryx.”

“It is.”

Arelle tipped her head to the side even as his fingers tightened into her hair. “Then why not say it?”

“Because I already did.” His hand between her thighs grabbed tight to her pussy overtop the lace while his lips found the line of her jaw. “I gave you certainty—you’re mine.”

In that way, he certainly had.

“Now,” he murmured against her cheek, “hush and let me fuck you here, as I first intended to do before you had to go and make this an entire discussion. How opposed are you to letting me hold your ruined gown together when we leave here? I wouldn’t want to … scar the rest of the house with too much wickedness.”

Her lips split in a grin as his hand drifted away from her throat. “You landwalkers and your ever-ignorant shame.”