| |
Surely my eyes weren’t seeing correctly.
Surely it was just the darkness of the waters and the swift bubbly current passing through casting an illusion before me.
Surely that wasn’t Maisie in the arms of both Prince Kai and the Black Blade.
A strangled noise ripped from my throat. Surprise, and something else I could not quite describe. Shock froze me a few strokes away from the entrance of the balcony.
I’d seen Maisie swim out here with Prince Kai. I’d have followed them immediately, but the lack of guards had been disconcerting. And when I found them lagging about in the ballroom, I gave them a stern talking to, before hurrying out here.
To find this.
Something I never imagined I’d find.
The three of them...
I swallowed the lump in my throat. My heart palpitated like the rapids of a current, like the viciousness of a wave crashing to shore, over and over again.
Prince Kai shielded Maisie with his body, and in turn, shielded a wanted criminal as well. A criminal Maisie had risked everything to save. I had wondered feverishly what she had done that day to escape unscathed. Now I knew.
It had all been a show. Just a show. They were involved in the most vile of ways. And not just them, but Prince Kai as well. I shouldn’t have been surprised. His father was a greedy thing who hoarded concubines like jewels, why wouldn’t his son be as well?
My hand reacted on instinct, going for the sword I kept sheathed at my waist. I pulled it out and aimed it at Elias Blackfin.
“I will kill you,” I threatened, just before I charged.
The wise decision would have been to call my guards out here. To have them arrest him. But my mind wasn’t thinking clearly. All I knew was anger. That, and it would make a spectacle. It would exhibit Maisie in an unflattering light.
And why was I still protecting her?
“Swim away, Elias!” she cried out, pushing on his shoulders. He cast her a look, one I couldn’t decipher, but she could read all too well. Like their own personal language composed entirely of stares. “I’ll be fine. Just go!” She pushed again and he dove off the balcony. I made my way there, chest pressed up against the rail and looked down.
Elias disappeared into the shadows.
Cursing and pounding my fist into the rail, I whipped around. Maisie had taken a stroke back. There was fear in her eyes, as she took in the point of my sword. Yet still, her chin tilted up in a small act of defiance. Prince Kai was at her side, holding her arm, eyes narrowing on me.
I pointed my sword at him. A giant gesture of disrespect, one that could have caused a war. One that could have landed my head within the mouth of a dragon.
“What in gods’ names is going on here?” My voice was a menacing rumble.
Kai’s chin lifted, brown eyes beginning to take on an icy glow. His fingers lengthened into black talons. Talons that could surely rip my throat out with a mere swipe. “You saw what you saw, what need do you have to ask?”
What I saw... What I saw, I didn’t want to believe. What I heard I wish could be unheard. The sounds of Maisie being pleasured... the sight of their hands on her.
What had the little fool been thinking? She obviously hadn’t been thinking at all. She never did.
“Kai... can you give me a moment to speak with the Captain alone, please?”
Kai’s eyes never once drifted from mine, even as he replied with a voice as hard as ice, “I don’t think that’s such a good idea, Maisie.”
My whole body rippled into stillness.
Maisie.
He’d called her Maisie.
Because Prince Kai knew the truth. Knew that she wasn’t really Princess Odele. And if he knew, did the Black Blade know as well?
“I’ll be fine. He isn’t going to hurt me.”
The prince finally tore his gaze from mine to look at her with firm tenderness. Slowly, his talons sank back and his eyes lost their feral glow. He sighed and shook his head back and forth.
“I can deny you nothing, my gem.” And to my never-ending shock, he bent and pressed a quick kiss to her lips before piercing me with a threatening glare. “If you harm her in any way, I’ll drag your body through the streets of Draconi and feed you to my dragon.”
I believed every word.
That being said, he turned and swam away, leaving Maisie and I alone.
She stared at my sword for some time in silence.
“Shouldn’t you put that away?” she inquired softly. Even if her voice spoke of defiance, I could hear the slight tremble of nerves in it.
I glared but shoved the sword angrily back into its sheath.
So much swam through my mind. So much. I didn’t know where to begin or what to say.
“I can explain,” she began.
“Yes. Yes, you will explain to me just what in the abyss is going on, Princess.” I put as much emphasis and anger into the word as I possibly could. She barely even flinched.
“Perhaps, we could speak over there?” She inclined her head towards the more shadowy areas of the balcony, a place out of eyesight and earshot of the guests in the ballroom beyond. I resisted the urge to comment about how she should’ve taken such measures with Kai and the Black Blade rather than with me.
Still, I obliged, letting her lead the way towards the shadowy part of the veranda. If only to give me something to do. I needed to move, needed to pace. As if physical movement could help get my scrambled thoughts in order.
What I really wanted to do was shake Maisie senseless. Perhaps punch my fist through a wall. No, those wouldn’t do. My body was wound so tightly, I needed something. Something I couldn’t yet fathom.
“So explain.” I crossed my arms over my chest, uncrossed them. I was raging inside. “Why does Kai know your real name and why—?” I cut off, unable to finish the question. Why were you with Kai and the Black Blade? Why were you with them both?
She took a deep breath, her lips parting. My eyes flashed to the movement before flickering back up to the obsidian orbs that were her eyes. She placed her hand lightly on the railing, like she meant to steady herself for the lies—or truth?—she was about to spew.
Her eyes pierced mine, down to the very depths of my soul I was sure she could see. And curse me, something inside stirred, despite it all.
“I told Kai the truth,” she confessed. “All of it. I couldn’t bear to lie to him anymore.”
Shock rippled through me for the third time that night. I was tired of the sentiment already, but I couldn’t even chase it away. “Why?” The word ripped out of me like a cry of pain. She swore, she’d sworn she’d keep this secret. The most precious secret in the kingdom and she’d told the prince meant to wed Odele. She’d told... “Did you tell the Black Blade?”
She tensed, and that was answer enough.
“You did,” I accused. I couldn’t believe it. Thalassar’s biggest secret, and she’d entrusted it in the hands of a common criminal.
“To be fair, the Black Blade guessed my identity. He knew right away I wasn’t the princess.”
“Right. How could that sea scum possibly have known you weren’t the princess?” She opened her mouth to reply, but I cut her off, holding my hand up. “I don’t want to hear it.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Of course you don’t. You don’t want to hear anything that would remotely speak ill of your precious Princess Odele. Which, by the way, is how he knew I wasn’t her. Because she knew him. I bet she didn’t tell you that, did she?” When I didn’t speak, when all I could do was curl my hands into fists, Maisie laughed, a sound that was entirely without humor. “Of course she didn’t. For all the love you profess to have for her, you didn’t know a thing about her. I bet for my few months of being here, I know her a lot more than you ever did.”
“Stop,” I demanded with quiet rage. Not because I couldn’t bear to hear it. No, I knew what she was saying was the raw, honest truth. I could hear it in her voice. And I didn’t need her to tell me what I’d started to realize on my own these past few weeks.
I knew who Odele was. Every ugly, honest aspect of her.
“I will not.” She swam a stroke too close to me, rammed a finger in my chest. There was a ferocity in her gaze that had been building up for so long, leading to this exact moment when we would both undeniably explode. “You’ve tried to keep me quiet for far too long, Captain.” She spat out the word as vehemently as I’d called her ‘princess’. “You’d close your ears to the truth that’s staring you in the face because you can’t bear to face it. Well, let me be honest with you now.”
She jabbed her finger into my chest. Like she meant to inflict pain. It hurt less than the pain I’d felt upon seeing her giving herself to Kai and Elias. So I welcomed every jab. I welcomed every sensation it spurred deep inside me. Like the swell of a rising volcano, I wasn’t so far behind in the explosion.
“Your princess wasn’t who you thought she was. Her, and this bloody kingdom, and the lineage you love so much have secrets that could fill up the great abyss.” Jab. “And I’ve had to put up with pretending to be as selfish as she is, all while dealing with the queen...” Jab. “...Percival...” Jab. “...and you. And I will not be bullied by you, and I will not apologize for what you witnessed here. I will not apologize for falling in love...” Jab. “...with two amazing mermen. Not when they’ve been here for me in this shell of a palace, doing much more for me than you ever—”
I exploded.
Anger rose hotly and burst me into action. I moved, grabbing her by the upper arms and ramming her unceremoniously into the edge of the balcony railing. The rest of her words were cut off by a gasp as the water was knocked from her lungs. I should have been more gentle with her, but if she thought me such a brute, then a brute was what I would give her.
“I’ve done nothing for you?” I demanded darkly.
In the spanning breaths of my rage, I’d somehow come close to her. So close that I could feel the rapid rise and fall of her chest pressing up against my own. So close that I could count every individual eyelash framing that obsidian glow. That I could make out the exact shape of her plump bottom lip, and the small indent in the center of it that begged for attention.
“Nothing but demand everything of me, while expecting the absolute worst.” Her breathing was a rasp, her words hoarse. Like it was a struggle to bite them out.
The venom was there, in her tone, in her eyes. But there was something else there as well. Something that curled slowly, dangerously down my spine.
All my life I’d controlled my every action, moved so precisely. I had my every move on a tight leash, too afraid to let go. I was dangling on that precipice now, by a mere strand. All that was left now was to fall.
“Oh, Maisie.” I dropped my voice to a low whisper. “If I’d demanded everything, you would have given it to me. As freely and as fervently as you do to them.” There was a pause, as the heat of my vicious words sank in. Even in the dark, I could make out the rising flush on her cheeks, the hitch in her breath.
“I despise you,” she whispered ardently. “And I curse you to the deepest depths of the abyss.”
My nails curled on her skin, tightly but not enough to hurt, just enough to make her body shudder. “Curse me all you’d like, Maisie. It doesn’t matter. It won’t change the looming truth of your future. That in the end, you can’t be with either of the mermen you love. If you had as much courage as you pretend to have, you’d admit that’s the reason you hate Odele so much. Because she has the life you want, engaged to the merman you love. She has the life you wish you’d had.”
Her eyes narrowed, and I knew I’d struck a nerve of truth. Perhaps her biggest secret, one she hated herself for. The fact that she was more noble than any royal, and had been born a peasant.
“Admit it.” I pressed her tighter against the rail so her body bent just a fraction. I loomed over her, putting weight onto her body. She squirmed, but it only served for me to press tighter, to hold her still. “You love the royal life. I can see it in your eyes, no matter how hard you fight or hide it.”
“I don’t have to admit silt to you. Now let me go.” She struggled, thrashing her tail about. To keep her still, I wrapped my tail around hers and squeezed. She gasped, arching into me.
A cruel smile touched my lips. “It’s true, and you know it.”
“So what?” she spat. “You want me to admit it? Fine. I like feeling important. I like feeling like I have the opportunity to change the kingdom for the better, which is more than what your precious princess was doing. Does it make you feel good, Captain? Cornering me like this? You’re so used to everyone obeying everything you say that you can hardly stand the sight of me because I don’t.”
My hand slid up her arm to her chest. Her body stilled at my slow ministrations, but she didn’t fight back. Not even as my fingers slid past the open buttons of her bodice, across the sharp ridges of her collarbone, and higher to cup her chin. She swallowed.
“I like to be obeyed, Maisie.” I tilted her chin up so she had no choice but to glare angrily into my eyes. My thumb stroked across her bottom lip, pausing at the indent in the middle. I felt rather than heard her next shuddering breath.
“I’m not a soldier, Captain. And I will not obey you.”
I squeezed her chin and finally felt that tether on my control snap. “I will make you obey, Maisie. I will make you beg.”
And then my lips went crashing down on hers.
Her mouth stayed clamped tight, and she moaned against me, digging her fingers into my side.
“Open your mouth,” I commanded against her lips. I wanted her. All of her. Like I’d never wanted anyone in my entire life. And it took seeing her in another pair of arms for me to realize just how hot my blood coursed for her. Just how deep the yearning ran. “Do it.”
Her eyes fluttered. She did not want to yield to me. She’d rather put up a fight than give me what I wanted.
One hand cupped her chin, the other traveled down her bodice and gripped her breast tightly. She let out a gasp and her mouth opened and I dove in, tongue digging into depths I’d been too controlled before to explore.
Why had I waited until now?
Maisie tasted like heaven. Surely the gods were real.
I bent her over the railing and explored the inside of her mouth. I took, demanded her pleasure. She warred with herself, fingers digging tightly into my skin, and when my hand slipped into the crevice of her dress to finger a bare nipple, she gave in. Maisie kissed me back, a feverish war clashed between our mouths. I punished with tongue and teeth, biting and nibbling. She retaliated with as much anger and venom as me.
Her nails raked through my scalp as she tugged my strands of hair, pulling and clinging to me.
Nothing had ever felt better.
“Yes,” I tore from her mouth to say. She felt so good against me, body curving perfectly into mine. As if this were meant to be. As if it had always been meant to be, and I’d just been too blind to see it.
“We shouldn’t be doing this, Captain.” Her breaths were ragged things, panting against my cheek.
Why? I wanted to demand. Because I’m not Kai, because I’m not Elias?
I said none of this. I merely ripped apart the lapels of the dress, sending buttons flying through the water. Her gasp filled me to the core.
“We will.” I bared her breasts to the chilly currents of the night. They were ripe for the tasting, lush peaks that beckoned my mouth to them. I bent to have a taste. Her fingers dug into my hair, and I couldn’t feel if she was pushing me down, begging without words, or clawing at me. It felt good either way. Even better when my tongue flicked out across her pebbled nipple.
A sound caught in her throat that she dare not unleash, but her body said it all. The way she jerked closer to me was all the reaction I needed to confirm.
She wanted this as much as I did. She was desperate for my touch and would never admit it.
But I’d make her scream and beg with my mouth and tongue if that’s what it took.
I would dominate her every inch until she forgot their names entirely and could only utter mine.
“Get away.” Her nails clawed into my shoulders.
I stopped, lips hovering over her pert nipple. I looked up at her. “Do you truly want that? Do you truly want me to get away? Look me in the eyes and say it.”
She looked down, eyes meeting mine, eyelashes fluttered. Her breath hitched, and the pulse at her throat beat in a rapid rhythm. She swallowed before she answered. “Yes. I want that.”
I started to pull away from her, my heart beating up to my throat as I stared into her half-hooded eyes. As I pulled away, she followed, gripping tightly to my shoulders like she loathed to let me go.
I couldn’t help but smile. “You’re lying.”
The softest of sighs left her lips, the sound morphing into a growl. “So what if I am?” The words almost sounded like an accusation. Like she wanted me just as much as I wanted her, and blamed me for it.
I blamed her too.
She was maddening and yet I still sought her out with an ache in the very depths of my soul.
“Look me in the eyes,” I repeated. “Tell me you want me to go away.”
She growled, the sound of frustration her surrender. “Damn you,” she hissed. “I don’t want you to.”
I took her in my mouth again. She didn’t push me away, but she dug her nails into my skin, her punishment for my arrogance, for my earlier words, but she had no idea how much her aggressive touch spurred me on. It made me want to touch her harder, make her scream and writhe beneath me.
My tongue trailed down her stomach and lower to where her body betrayed her. To the evidence of her arousal. I bent low, and at the first lick of my tongue at her entrance, her hips bucked into my mouth. She was hot with sensual desire, and I was smug to know that I was the one who put her there.
Whether she hated me or loved me, it didn’t matter.
All that mattered was this. This primal urge between us, the need pulsating, begging for release.
I slid my tongue inside, and she responded, not by screaming, but by digging her nails deeper into me.
“I’ll make you come so hard, you’ll scream,” I promised darkly. And I would hear it.
My words made her shiver, the dark sensual promise behind it that she so obviously wanted. And then I licked her again, tongue delving in and out, up and down, her hips jerking against my face set the rhythm. And when I found the nub at the apex of her sex, my teeth grazed over it, and a sound of raw pleasure emanated from deep in her throat.
I looked up to find her biting down on her lip so hard, blood floated from the corner of her mouth.
“Just scream, Maisie.” I gripped her hips, pushing her back against the railing. “Tell me you want more.” Tell me you love it. Love me. Even if it’s a lie, I will take it.
“Never,” she gasped, but the way she clawed at me betrayed the lie for what it was.
“But you will.”
I went back to my ministrations, tongue licking up her nub. She gasped and trembled but did not scream. Her hands held me tightly, as if she would fall if she didn’t. I held her hip with one hand, and the other I slowly slid into her, feeling all her warmth and desire enclose around me.
“Gods, you’re so tight.” I slid a second finger inside, stretching her. “Aah,” I sighed, pressing a kiss to her stomach and then to the nub of her desire. “You feel so good.” My fingers began to move within her, stretching her, driving her to the pleasure she would deny.
“Captain...”
“Don’t.” I pressed a warning kiss to her nub, and flicked out my tongue to taste. Her body shuddered into me. “Say my name, Maisie,” I ordered, pressing a third finger in.
“N—no.”
I slid in and out, causing her to gasp. “Say it.” Gods, I wanted to hear her say it. I wanted to hear her scream it with reckless abandon.
“C—Cap—aah—”
I sucked on her nub, scraped my teeth against it, all the while my fingers dove in and out. She rode my hand, bucked against my mouth. I was doing this. I was giving her primal pleasure, feeling her against my mouth, listening to her helpless pants. I demanded more with every thrust of my fingers, every taste and tease of my lips and teeth.
“Tiberius,” she moaned finally. “I—I—”
Triumph swelled within me. “Are you close, love? Do you want me to end this torment?”
She was gasping, even as my fingers moved, and she bit her lip, feral sounds clawed from her throat. It was begging just the same. My thumb pressed against her desire and she cried out, loudly and with abandon. Close, she was so close to falling into that abyss, but I wanted to be inside her when it happened. To feel her shudder and fall and know that I was the one who took her there.
“Saber...” she groaned, nails digging into me.
“Beg me, Maisie. Tell me you want me.” I was desperate now, desperate for her. I wanted her, wanted to feel her. My fingers were still inside her, my thumb caressing her gently, pulling gasping noises from her throat.
“I—I—”
Just say it, I willed. Say it and end the torment for us both.
Her fingers wove through my hair, and she pulled my head back so I was looking up at her and the feral glance in her eyes.
“I want you,” she nearly spat with hatred, and a hint of something else, too. “Inside me. Now. Please.”
That was enough for me.
I slid up her body, tugging aside the buttons on my uniform, pushing aside the long tunic underneath until I was bare and aching for her body. I pulled her close, letting her feel the strength of my own desire against her stomach.
“This is what you do to me,” I whispered gutturally.
I jerked my hips against her stomach, and she gasped. The sound was a beacon, begging me to come home. I groaned as I gripped the side of her hip and her lower back, angling her up, so my tip pressed against her entrance.
“You make me forget my self-control. You make me angry.” I slid inside her and hissed out my pleasure while she sighed it. Yes. The gods must be real. And this felt like paradise. “You make me want you.” I thrust in to the hilt, hitting her just right. Her whole body trembled as she took me in. Her tail wrapped around my own in her desperation, as she went into the abyss where I wanted to do nothing but follow.
I thrust, slow and hard, pressing her tighter against the railing.
“This is what you do to me.” I thrust. She gasped, clinging onto me, digging her nails in as if she meant to punish. So I punished her back, taking her mouth in a kiss that left us both blind. I set the pace, slow and hard, and she clung to me, moaning and gasping as if she couldn’t get enough. As if she wanted more, wanted me to drop her into the depths all over again.
Maisie pulled away from my kiss to bite at the lobe of my ear.
That single action sent me spiraling. I pumped faster into her, stomach coiling tightly just before I spun down into that chasm of pleasure.
I leaned against her, aware of my heavy weight, as I tried to catch my breath. Our chest pressed, back and forth, as we both struggled to regain our control. My heartbeat refused to comply. It banged and banged against my chest like a war drum.
“Gods,” I whispered against her temple. My hand holding myself up on the railing curled into a fist. “Gods,” I repeated.
“We probably shouldn’t have done that,” Maisie rasped. There was no more hatred in her voice, at least. Just quiet resignation. Like she regretted what had just transpired between us. I felt it like a blow to my chest.
“Probably not,” I agreed, pulling away to look into her eyes. I tried not to let her see the hurt in my eyes, masking it with cool indifference. “But we both wanted it.” I pulled her dress back together, but with the missing buttons, all it did was flap open again. Shrugging out of my military jacket, I wrapped it around her shoulders. And then, because I could, I bent down and kissed her one last time. “And that is something I’ll never regret.”