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Sam had always saidthat I’m a man that attacks first and asks questions later, and that’s certainly true when it comes to the opposite sex (or the same sex, depending on the decade). I had many questions for Maren after Sterling clobbered me over the head and I found myself at the bottom of the sea, one being why she seemed to come after me—I assume to save me (unless she swam down to make sure I was dead, to which I would not be surprised).

And two, that she had swam down to get me at all. Looking up at the surface it seemed it was a long way up and she seemed to be doing just fine holding her breath, her dark hair flowing around her in such a way that it was hard not to imagine her as a mermaid.

Either way, those questions are quickly shoved to the back of my mind when I see her face so close to mine, her fingers pressed gently on the side of my face, her gaze focused on my lips. It doesn’t matter that we are at the bottom of the sea, all I want, all I need, is to kiss her once and for all.

I grab her face hastily, fingertips digging into her skin, and my mouth finds hers, claiming it with intent. Her lips part in surprise and she lets out a groan at the contact that seems to echo through the water. Her lips are as soft as honey and just as sweet, and my tongue plunders her mouth in the very same rough manner in which I am known to fuck. I taste her, savor her, want to sink deeper in these depths until she is my only obsession.

I have wanted to kiss her like this since the moment she first punched me in the face.

My fingers go into her hair, pulling it back and she suddenly stops and moves back, her hands brushing her hair forward over her shoulders, a look of fright in her eyes.

Then she starts swimming toward the surface, her legs pressed together and moving as one for a second before she abandons that and starts moving her arms and clawing her way to the top.

I watch her rise above me for a moment, remembering what she had said to Nerissa. She wanted the sea witch to turn her into a mermaid. Why would she want that? Is she living out some fantasy here at the bottom of the sea? And how on earth is she able to hold her breath for so long?

With the feeling of her lips still lingering on mine, my cock at a stand, I go after her, swimming up and up with powerful kicks of my legs until the sun beams though the water get brighter and brighter, the deep blue fading and then I’m breaking through the surface.

I take in a gulp of fresh air and look at Maren treading water beside me, her eyes focused warily on mine, droplets gathered in her dark lashes.

“What are you?” I ask.

“What areyou?” she counters.

I press my lips together. Hmmm. Seems we are at a crossroads.

I whirl around, looking for theNightwind, and my heart sinks.

She’s nowhere to be found. All I see is the cursed crew’s ship back in their cove between islands. TheNightwindis gone.

“Damn it!” I yell, smacking the water with my fist. “They’ve taken her.”

“That ship means a lot to you, doesn’t it?” Maren says quietly.

“Aye,” I reply sharply, as if that wasn’t obvious. “She does, and so does the crew. I can’t lose either of them.”

“They’re your family,” she comments, sounding rather wistful.

I frown. “That they are.” I look to the nearest land, which of course happens to be the ruined Reef City. Figures that we’d be back on Nerissa’s territory so soon. “Come on, we have to get to shore and think of a plan.”

She doesn’t say anything to that. She doesn’t need to, I can practically hear her thoughts, which is something that is possible between the Brethren at times. She’s thinking she doesn’t want anything to do with whatever plan I come up with.

We start swimming for the shore. We’re a long ways off and even though I’m in peak physical form, and she’s demonstrating the same, by the time we finally find our footing on the reefs and sunken basalt columns of the city, we’re both exhausted and out of breath.

“Don’t stand on the reef,” she chastises me. Her haughty tone irks me, like she’s back to acting like a princess again.

“And pray tell, why not?”

“Because you’re damaging them.”

I stare down through the clear water to my boots. “Who?”

“The coral are living creatures. You’re hurting them.”

I want to ask her how she knows that because this is the first I’m hearing of it, but I know her answer will be infuriatingly vague and I’ll have to chalk it up to her being royalty and having a finer education than me.

“Fine,” I grumble and step off the reef, swimming a few more yards until I’m staggering onto the shore. I walk away from the water until I find a patch of short coarse grass and plunk down. I rest my elbows on my thighs and drop my head, trying to get my brain back in order.

I hear Maren follow, sitting down beside me, close but still distant enough. She’s breathing hard and when I give her a side glance my eyes go straight to her chest which rises and falls with each heaving breath. If it weren’t for her hair covering her nipples she’d look nude with how transparent her shirt is. A jolt of hot lust thrums through my veins, knowing how good she looks in her birthday suit.