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Their suite had burgundy linens and carved wooden furniture and a four-poster bed with a canopy of layered red silk.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” she asked Jarin carefully, as he kicked off his boots and ran his hands through his hair with a frown.

“Of course.” His expression cleared and put his arm around her waist, drawing her close. “Don’t worry about me.”

She surveyed him, gnawing the inside of her cheek. It was a nervous habit she’d acquired since losing her tail and gaining legs. When she’d been a proper siren, she never had nervous habits. But then, she’d also never had a warm glow in her chest when she was close to someone or thought about them. There were good things to go along with the bad. Jarin had been right about that.

Her face broke into a smile. “I can’t believe I’m in a bedroom suite with a pirate.”

A slow smile crept across his face, his eyes twinkling. “Not the first time though, is it?”

“You really couldn’t have imagined any other way to evade the royal guard at Madame Quaan’s than to get me on the bed? Or were you being a scoundrel?”

He kissed her forehead. “I wanted you from the moment I pinned your wrists to the wall in the brig.”

“You didn’t answer the question,” she replied, punching his shoulder.

“I did, though.” He laughed.

“The siren elders always warned us about evil pirates when we were young—especially the Dark Tide Clan. Their sordid deeds and ugly faces.” She put her head on the side. “How best to eviscerate them. I could hardly wait to grow up and join the fighting.”

“Let me tell you a secret.” He paused, his smile widening. “We never spoke about sirens that way. As much as we hated you, we loved you, too. You could deafen us and mutilate us and sink our ships, but you still entranced us, every time.”

Riella smirked. “Yes, well. That was the idea. The elders did lie about something, though.” She traced the angular line of his stubbled jaw, her fingertip coming to rest on his chin. “You, for one, are not ugly.”

He pretended to buckle at the knees. “An almost-compliment? From a siren? Surely no other man can boast of such an accomplishment. I can die happy now.”

His grin faltered as he realized what he’d said.

Riella dearly didn’t wish to spend her last days and nights lamenting her death. She put her head to his chest, feeling his invulnerable heartbeat and hoping he wouldn’t apologize or try to discuss it. He took her cue and smoothed over the hitch.

“But am I sordid?” he murmured into her hair.

The siren burst out laughing.

“Sometimes.” She tilted her head back and bit her bottom lip. “I quite enjoy it when you are, though.”

“You are not exactly a sweet little kitten yourself.”

With a cackle, she drummed her fingertips against his shoulder, where she often clawed him during sex. She did it on impulse, to vent some of her overwhelming desire for him. Of course, being invulnerable, he always healed within minutes.

“You love it,” she replied.

“I do. You have no idea.”

Jarin swept her off her feet and took her to the bed. Her physical desire for him flared, and she smiled in anticipation as he lowered himself over her body. But the look on his face made her hesitate. It was as though he was feeling a hundred things at once.

“What is it?” she asked.

He held his weight on his elbows, his body on top of hers. In this position, his gray-green eyes penetrated hers at close range and she couldn’t avoid the intensity of his gaze. Not that she wanted to, exactly, but she did not know how to respond to the hurricane of emotion that his attention stirred in her.

He dragged his fingertips across her forehead, moving a stray lock of hair from her face. “I would kill for you, you know. I would die for you.”

She returned his stare. “That’s easy to say, when you can never die.”

He put his lips to her neck and kissed her soft pale skin, sending frissons of pleasure through her body that were at odds with the sweet pain in her chest. Or perhaps the pleasure was in concert with the pain. When you were a land-walker, it could be hard to tell where one ended and the other began, Riella had learned.

“Never say never,” he whispered, tugging the sleeve of her blouse over her shoulder and kissing her décolletage.