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Another risk. I didn’t even know that Larimar was in love with me when all hell broke loose. I certainly don’t know if she loves me still. But if there’s a chance…

Her eyes open, her lashes wet. Seems we’re both in the mood to make each other cry.

“Why would I give my heart to a man who never gave me his?” she says, her voice breaking.

I breathe in deeply. “It’s not that I didn’t want to,” I tell her. “It’s that I didn’t have a chance. We both realized we loved each other at the worst possible time.”

She swallows. “You love me?”

I want to tell her that of course I do. My love for her is intertwined with my obsession with her. She has a hold on me, lives in my veins.

But how is she supposed to know that? I’ve never given her any sign of how I feel, other than when I’m buried deep inside her, making her see stars. I’ve never told her how I’ve felt; I’ve only hurt her in every way possible.

I suppose hanging naked from chains is as good of a time as any.

“You’ve had your Syren claws hooked in my heart from the moment I first laid eyes on you,” I tell her, hoping she can feel the gravity in my voice, the weight of my soul being laid bare. “I’ve never been able to escape. I don’t want to escape. Even if you don’t love me anymore, my heart will belong to you until my undying day.”

I swallow down the lump in my throat. “I love you, Larimar. I worship you, I sin for you, and I would die for you, only you. So, if you want me gone from you forever, I can give you that. I will give you whatever you ask for. Ask, and you shall receive.”

Her lower lip trembles, but she squares her shoulders, trying to hold herself together. Perhaps if these chains weren’t holding me up, I would be on the floor.

“I want your heart,” she says.

“You have my heart, little fish.”

“I want your love.”

“You have my love.”

“I want…”

“You have every broken, wicked piece of me, Larimar, and you have my good pieces too. All the dark and all the light. You have all of them together, but it’s only you who will make me whole.”

She stares at me, her chin wobbling, and a single tear rolls down her cheek, which she quickly brushes away with her fingers.

“Now, will you undo me from these damned chains?” I growl.

She lets out a ragged laugh and looks around the room, spotting the key hanging from the wall. I exhale loudly, relief flooding through me as she walks over to me and reaches up with the key, releasing me from my shackle.

I pull my arm down, the blood rushing back into it, prickling like a thousand needles, but once she’s released me from the other chain, I waste no time.

I grab her face, one hand at the back of her neck, ignoring the fact that I can’t feel my fingers properly. “I love you,” I whisper, my heart hammering in my chest.

Then, I kiss her.

Soft at first, while feeling comes back into my body, savoring the velvet of her lips, the taste of citrus on her tongue. A mouth I had dreamed about for so long, one I never thought I would kiss again.

Then, my grip at the back of her neck tightens, and as my body comes back to life, my hunger for her returns.

I kiss her deeply as the moment washes over me.

That she’s here, now, with me, and that I’ll never let her go.

My tongue dips deep, unyielding, starving, our mouths opening against each other as all the tension inside is unleashed. She whimpers, her hands trying to grab me where she can—my biceps, my chest, running her nails down my back.

There is urgency thrumming through my veins now, and I waste no time taking what I want.

I break away from our kiss, our mouths wet, our breathing heavy, our eyes wild as we stare at each other, overcome with lust, with love, with hate, and everything else in-between.