Page 95 of Death’s Kiss (The Order of the Tide Raiders #1)

Agni mutters a few more curses before finally ordering, "Boreas, call off your sirens. Now .”

Meeting each of my crew member’s eyes, an idea comes to mind. One that’s sure to push the celestial-southern prick just a touch further tonight. I give them a quick flash of my father’s deviant grin before showing my little sirens precisely how to make the final killing blow.

The kiss of death, as it were.

Frowning deeply, I turn to face Captain ten-feet-of-pure-fucking-menace with a slow, disappointed shake of my head while ‘tsking’ three times over. “Now just what sort of parley do you expect to broker here with such a vicious attitude as that?”

Agni’s obsidian eyes meet mine, and his nostrils flare with outrage. I derive true pleasure from his anger due to me and my crew beating him and his so very horribly.

“What do you want? ” he growls in irritation.

My responding smirk is wicked. “Beg me.”

Agni's expression turns fully indignant in a blink, and my enjoyment heightens. Near-unintelligible laughter erupts inside the heart from my crew. The south captain’s arresting face darkens and I can see it—just how much it’s killing him right now to be the one to lose.

Perfect.

“Beg me to call off my sirens, Agni, or I will let them shoot your very handsomely tythed hellhounds—not fatally—but somewhere that will hurt,” I promise with mock sweetness.

Captain Agni’s gaze hardens as he quickly sifts through his tactical options before finally coming to terms with the fact that I do have him beat on this one. He looks towards Vagar and the rest of his hostage crew members, eyes blazing with fury.

“You see ? ” Agni demands with a brisk 'snap’ before pointing in my direction. “ Videstine quam deos-damnatum ieiunium erat enim ea in venire sursum cum quod ? It’s fucking intrinsic.”

Their captain then carefully studies my unwavering face once more. “ Fine ,” he concedes before roughly grabbing my wrist and dragging me back inside the hidden passage. Another wave of my crew's laughter follows us in and pisses him off even more.

Once we’re out of view from either of our crews, Agni quickly works through his seething anger and begins analyzing my face.

His jaw flexes while quietly calculating something.

I'm aware the moment he comes up with an answer to his private query because the beginnings of a cruel smirk flicker into existence in the corners of his stupidly soft lips.

Agni then grabs me by the waist, sets me solidly against the wall, and gets down on one knee.

The action throws me off so much that I find myself immediately trying to press further into the wall that I’m already back flat upon in startled surprise. He proceeds to take my hand with his ruby ring adorning it and brings it swiftly to his lips.

All of my previous nefarious amusement evaporates as I look down in alarm to find his eyes determined and intent. " Please, Merena, ” Agni whispers my name like a prayer. He then presses his searing mouth firmly against the top of his stolen ring. Irises of pure gold hold me prisoner to the spot.

My gaze narrows at his cruel cunning.

He has found the one and only way that would remove my very terrible enjoyment at watching him beg due to our to-be-inspected-further betrothed past.

Sadistic fucking genius.

“Please let my crew go from your unexpectedly deadly sirens,” he begs me, brushing his lips reverently back and forth against my hand in a way that causes a tremor to run deep inside my bones.

“Or if you won’t, then please take me as your prisoner too.

And I promise I’ll worship you, and every inch of your naked body, each night from dusk until dawn, for the rest of eternity. ”

I frown deeply in response as my chest begins rising and falling with more alarm bells sounding inside my head. He is appallingly skilled at testing my walls. This is not good. Not good at all.

My voice sounds a bit off, even to my own ears, when replying, “Okay, I’ll let them go. But I will be keeping the ring as my boon.”

Golden eyes flare triumphantly, and I know for sure that this one was not unintentional at all. He knows exactly what he’s fucking doing and exactly whatever sort of new mind game it is he’s playing with me. Meanwhile, I am yet again left in the darkness of the unknown.

Satisfied, Agni gets up from the ground.

I make to leave, but before I can exit, he pushes me gently back against the kórallian wall. Looking up, I find his scarily handsome person far too close for my sanity. Especially with those alarm bells still echoing inside my head.

“ Yes ?” I ask, suddenly wary.

“Second order of parley business,” Agni explains with another smirk.

He tilts my chin up with his index finger so that I’m forced to meet his gaze as he speaks in a sultry voice like smoke.

“I wanted to make sure that you knew, that the offer I just gave was not a taunt, and will always be on the table between us. You just let me know the moment you’re feeling daring enough to give it a trial run.

Spend one night with me, from dusk ‘til dawn. I can assure you that I will not disappoint, and I’m highly devout. ”

Studying his face for the game, I am very much alarmed to find Agni is extremely serious.

He sees my wary study and chuckles softly in response. “Let me know the instant you’re feeling daring, gorgeous,” Agni affirms, before having the outright audacity to use his lightning reflexes and steal a kiss from my unsuspecting lips.

I blink in stunned surprise at the feeling of raw, undiluted power that just passed from his mouth to mine. I haven’t the faintest fucking clue what on Pontus that just was.

By the time I find my voice, Captain Agni is already swaggering cockily back out to our crews.