Page 17 of The Withering Dawn (Wicked Tides)

Aeris was enjoying her dress, I could tell.

Perhaps not the way a human woman would enjoy a new dress, but something about the way she played with the fabric of the skirts told me she’d never worn anything suited to her.

She kept feeling the way the bodice hugged her body, too, and it was far too sweet a thing for a monster to be doing.

After I made sure she’d eaten, I provided her with a fresh roll with honey.

Even after a full meal, she ate it, savoring the sweet taste in the same way she did last time.

I took pride in thinking she enjoyed honey, even if she wasn’t hungry, because the subtle look on her face when the golden sweetness touched her tongue was priceless.

Once we were both full, I changed into a dry shirt and breeches and tied one of my many silk scarves around my waist in anticipation of my very special meeting coming up.

In the morning, everything would change.

I thought I would be more consumed by the thought of finally driving my sword through Antonio’s gut, but I was distracted by Aeris at every turn.

Even the way she walked barefoot across the deck under the bright blue light of the almost full moon made me pause.

Maybe my body knew that a great burden would be lifted by morning and the excitement was drawing me to her.

Or maybe she was outshining that nagging need for vengeance that had been driving me for years.

Either way, watching Aeris stand at the railing, her long, blood-red hair cascading like a waterfall down her back as she looked up at the moon, made my core pulse with desire.

A desire to find relief.

A desire to make her feel pleasure.

A desire to just touch her.

I walked to the middle of the deck and groaned as I lowered myself down and laid back to stare at the sky.

It had been a long time since I had done anything like that.

My mind was always untethered and untamed and unable to stop.

That night, however, I knew something was coming.

A change that would throw us all off course. I was at peace with it and I just wanted to savor the calm before the storm.

Aeris appeared beside me and sat down, smoothing her dress with her palms.

I slid my hands behind my head, crossing my ankles, and turned my eyes toward her as she peered up into the night sky with me.

“What do you see up there?” I asked her.

“Lune.” She pointed up at the shining moon. “The goddess’ eye looking down at us.”

“The moon?”

She nodded. “My people believed it to be a giant, each blink of her eye taking a whole month to complete.”

“What do you believe?”

She sighed, gathering her hair and pulling it all over one shoulder. “I believe in nothing. The few memories that I have of my mother, she was praying, and no god ever came to her aid.”

I sat up, resting my arms on my knees. “Perhaps she was not praying they come to her. Maybe she prayed they come to you.”

She turned her head toward me, her eyes like colored glass under the moon’s light.

“Why would she pray for me?”

I shrugged. “It is something a parent would do. Or so I’ve heard.”

“Did you ever know yours?”

“No. My first memories were in the orphanage. Leonardo recalled our parents, but he never spoke of them. Said there was nothing good to say.” After a moment of letting those words fade from my tongue, I turned to Aeris. “You have mentioned your mother many times. What of your father?”

She shook her head. “Yri do not have fathers. The sea blesses us with children when we are ready.”

“And you know that for certain?”

She pinched her brows together like no one had ever asked that question before. Then her eyes strayed like it had gotten her thinking. I wasn’t sure if sirens could breed with humans, but it seemed less farfetched than being impregnated by a body of water.

Then again, they called themselves “daughters of the sea.”

Perhaps I was the one who didn’t understand.

Aeris seemed to fall deep into her thoughts for a while, her fingers playing with the fabric of her dress as she gazed off into the darkness. Something was on her mind. Something that was making her uncomfortable.

“How did you move past what Antonio did to you?” she asked.

I sucked in a lungful of the fresh sea air. Many years ago, that question would have bothered me, but I had come to terms with it in many ways. Then again, how I did it was not something I expected to discuss with Aeris.

I had never truly talked about anything I did with anyone in the sixteen years I’d been out of the bastard’s clutches. I wondered if I could even find the words, but when I looked at Aeris, I could not see even a spec of judgement in her gaze. Just pure desire to learn. To understand. And perhaps a need to figure out if her own burdens could one day be relieved.

“Moving on was forced on me,” I admitted. “Like most other things in life. I could not afford to have that man and what he did looming over me. I was not eating. I was skittish,” I smiled, though nothing about what I was explaining amused me. “And I was mourning a brother. So, one day ashore, Denham took me to a brothel. I was seventeen. He told me to choose whatever woman I liked. So I did. I chose the largest woman holding her chin the highest. Denham paid for a night and she took me to her room.”

My smile wilted, my eyes wandering to the moon’s undulating reflection on the black water. Shame coiled its bony fingers around my heart, but I continued anyways, determined to reveal all of myself to Aeris. She’d revealed so much of herself to me. She deserved my utmost honesty, no matter how grim it was.

“The moment the woman wanted to be on top, I grew distraught. I threw her off of me. I shouted at her. And then I cried like a fucking child,” I laughed again, astounded the words were coming out of my mouth. “And she cradled me like a babe against her breast. That, too, made me angry because I was not a child. I was the age my brother was when he freed us all and died for it. But Denham had paid her well and she was eager to please. She asked what I wanted and… I told her to lie on the bed, face down, and I fucked her that way until morning. I was… rough. I wanted to be in control, but I did not want to see her face. I wanted to be cruel. I wanted her to beg me to stop.”

“Why?” Aeris asked softly.

“Because I needed her to be nothing to me. I needed her to feel what I felt. To know what it was like to be afraid.” I hissed and lowered my head. Hearing my own words made me sound monstrous.

Her eyes wandered toward the beach, but I did not see the shock or repulsion in her that I’d seen in the women I’d used.

“You do not seem appalled,” I said.

“Why would I be? I know there is something dark in you. The darkness in me recognizes it. What you did to me with your mouth, that was more shocking.”

“It was surprising to me, too,” I chuckled. “When I am with women, it is not usually so…” I could not think of the word.

“Gentle?”

“Yes. And… selfless, I suppose.”

“Is it always rough? Do they always beg?”

She watched me, eager to know, but I could not help wanting to keep some things to myself. Her eyes looked so innocent though I knew she had seen enough to drive a person mad. Enough that she had talked about death in more than one conversation like it was the ultimate escape from the horrors she’d faced.

“Most of the time,” I answered. “Not always.”

She nodded and still, she didn’t seem upset by what I was saying and for some ungodly reason, it made my desire grow.

“Aeris, I hunger for you,” I confessed. “But if you see a good man in me, you are mistaken. You only see the surface. When I am with a woman, there is a wall there. I built it very high. But with you? I cannot…” I trailed off, watching her expression go unchanged as if she’d mastered hiding everything she felt from prying eyes.

She had walls, too.

She lowered her eyes and shifted onto her knees, sitting back on her ankles in front of me. Her hand extended, taking mine so she could run her thumb gently over my scarred knuckles, touching me with care like she always did.

“If this means you don’t want to touch me again, I understand.”

“What? No. You misunderstand. I want you. I have wanted you for days. I… cannot even say everything that goes through my thoughts. It may frighten you.”

She cocked her head, her brows drawing together again. “I may be scared of many things, but never of you. I want to hear your darkest truth.”

I scoffed, rubbing the tension from my forehead. How on Earth did this small, seemingly frail woman disarm me?

“Perhaps it is not my darkest truth, but it is my truth,” I said, turning to meet her eyes. “And perhaps I am twisted for wanting it, but you are untouched. I want to be your first, Aeris. I want to be your only. I will never take what is not given, but that is what I want. I want you. I don’t care what you are. To me, you are beautiful and broken and every wound and scar makes you even more stunning. I want your tears. Your smiles. All of it. I want it all to be mine.”

Her face fell flat again like she could not settle on an expression. Or perhaps she was hiding again. I was beginning to get frustrated at how skilled she was with pretending not to feel when she wanted to. I wanted her to feel. I wanted to affect her the way she affected me. My cock began to stir at the thought of cutting through her defenses the way she had burrowed past mine.

“Aeris, what you’ve been through will be with you forever. I know—”

“Yes.”

“What?”

“Yes. I want all those things. I want you to be the first. The only. I want to stay with you.”

The serenity that washed across her face when she said that filled me with warmth. God, I wanted her. I wanted her so badly that my body physically ached. My heart throbbed.

Taking another deep breath, I decided that she deserved all of me. And more than that, she deserved to know I was completely under her spell, even if she had not tried to cast one on me. There was a part of me that could be what she needed, and I wanted to show it to her.

I climbed to my feet, lightly pulling on her hand so she would stand, too.

“Come with me,” I said. “I will be a far more dangerous man tomorrow. Tonight, I will be what you need me to be.”

I led Aeris toward my quarters, my heart thrumming loudly in my chest in a way she could likely hear. It beat out of eagerness, but there was also an air of nervous anticipation because Aeris was not some whore who was going to walk away with my coin afterwards. She was a woman I knew and respected and I desperately wanted to be the start of her good memories. She had never known anyone to show her mercy. She did not know a trustworthy hand or an honest face. She had never known someone to protect her. Someone to make sure she was eating. Someone to ask if she was alright.

I wanted to be all of those things to her and I wanted her to be my reason to be tender. The reason for me to give instead of take. To heal instead of shatter.

I could not pretend the sick darkness that swelled in my soul, always clamoring to get to the surface, did not still exist. The sickness that wanted tears. Pleading cries. Desperate moans. The dark part of me that wanted to be the punishing hand just to hide the memories of being the one under it. That was not the version of me that I wanted Aeris to know, though, and I prayed I could give her the part of me that I’d never shown another soul.

I closed and locked the door behind us, still clutching Aeris’s petite hand in mine. Once in the dim candlelight, I turned to her, taking a few deep breaths before releasing her and shrugging off my coat.

Aeris turned to look at me, innocence and curiosity brightening her features. I released her hand, stepping into her space to admire it all for a moment before I spoke.

“Touch me,” I said.

She blinked, her lips parting with wonder. “How?”

“However you want. Learn me the way I want to learn you. I am yours to explore.”

After a few moments of thought, her gaze began to move down my body. She glimpsed my lips, lingering there for a moment, and then descended along my neck to my chest, her eyes paying special attention to the way my shirt was unlaced and plunged low, showing plenty of skin. She slowly stepped toward me, focusing on that visible bit of chest. Nervous as she might have been, she was also fearless. She raised her hand, her fingers tracing down the divot between my pectorals so lightly it almost tickled. Her eyes flitted upward as if quietly asking if she could go on and inside, I was begging her to.

Inching a little closer, she gathered the hem of my shirt and gradually pulled it upward, lifting the fabric off me until I raised my arms and removed it the rest of the way on my own. Her gentle hands were on me before I even dropped my blouse to the floor, slowly studying and tracing the contours of my stomach. The sparse amount of hair on my chest. The small scars scattered across my front and the still-tender injury on my shoulder.

With every movement of her fingers, my body craved her more and more. With every miniscule change in her curious features, my heart beat a little faster.

I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

Her hands moved from my chest to my arms, leaving no part of me untouched. When she began to circle around to my back, the way her nimble fingers skated across my shoulders was careful and considerate, especially when she traced the mangled “A” that had been cut into my skin so long ago, a reminder that I was viewed as a possession once. A thing to be branded and owned.

Never had I allowed anyone to touch me with such freedom and never had anyone looked upon me like I was the most fascinating thing in the world.

No matter where Aeris moved, her touch never left me. She circled back around, her eyes meeting mine again, but she never filled the silence with questions. Anything she wanted to ask was asked through her fleeting glances and I answered them the same way.

Lifting one of my hands, she examined every ring on my fingers, slowly pulling them off one by one and setting them on my desk. Then she traced the lines of my palms down to my fingertips and something told me that she was memorizing it all. She moved to my other hand, doing the same thing and removing my jewelry before she took in every scar on my forearms. Every mark. Then her hands were on my stomach again, slowly descending to the thick leather belt around my hips. When she got to the buckle, she glanced up at me with another silent question.

My cock stirred again as I kicked off my boots, keeping her gaze.

“Explore as you wish,” I whispered.

Her throat bobbed at the implication as she swallowed her nerves, pulling my belt out of the buckle. As soon as it popped loose, my own hesitation came and went like a sudden breath. I’d not been undressed by someone else in a long time. No one had ever been allowed free reign of my body.

No one had ever been in control since…

Were Aeris anyone else, my instincts would have her on her stomach beneath me as she screamed into a pillow. I bit back that urge, taking a long, deep breath as I watched her fingers gently pull at the laces of my breaches.

“You’re nervous,” she muttered, pausing briefly. She looked up at me, her eyes instantly soothing any amount of uncertainty I was feeling.

“Are you?” I asked.

“Perhaps. But… in a good way.”

The corner of my mouth lifted at that. “Then keep going.”

Keeping her eyes on me, she moved a little closer until her chest was almost pressed to mine, one hand slipping past the cotton of my pants. She lifted her chin as if to kiss me, but instead she lingered there, her lips feathering across mine as her fingers coiled around the hard length of my cock. I sucked in a slow, ragged breath as she moved her hand down, her thumb smoothing over the tip and making me shiver.

“Have you ever touched a man, mu?equita?” I whispered.

She shook her head, sliding her fist to my base before gradually turning her palm to cup me.

I let out my breath on a trembling sigh and caught her wrist. “Any more of that and this will be over too soon.”

I stepped away from her, pushing my breeches down until I could step out of them. Aeris paused, her gaze soaking in every inch of me but paying particular attention to my cock standing eagerly between my thighs.

She hung her hands at her sides, clutching her skirts as if to try and keep them to herself and I fucking loved that. I grabbed the end of the string lacing the front of her dress and slowly tugged, watching her expression for any other wordless tells she might have.

I had loosened her garments enough for the fabric to slide right off her and gather around her ankles. Her red hair hung over her shoulders, partially covering her small breasts and making her look as enchanting as a goddess or a nymph who’d emerged straight from an old painting. I took a moment to admire her beauty in the faint golden light of the candles as I slowly began to circle her the way she had me. I ran my fingers up her bare arms and across the valley of her back, moving all her hair over one shoulder to expose her neck.

“Choose a word,” I said.

“A word?”

“Something you will say if you want me to stop.”

“I don’t want you to stop.”

“You don’t know that yet. My first time with a woman, I wanted her to stop. I didn’t know how to say it. Let me just say that it was good Denham paid her well.”

“Then why would I not just say to stop?”

A smile teased my lips. “Because sometimes we lie to ourselves. Now choose a word. For me if not for yourself.”

She thought for a moment and then peaked over her shoulder at me. “Morning.”

“Morning?”

“Yes.”

I grinned, my knuckles brushing across her cheek. “Very well. If you say that word, I will stop. No matter what I am doing, I will stop. But only if you use that word, do you understand?”

Eyes still fixed on me, she nodded, not an ounce of fear in her.

“Lay down on my bed,” I whispered.

Slowly, she turned, stepping toward the bed and sitting on the edge. I stood over her, watching as she scooted further onto the mattress. Despite what she said she was feeling, it was hard to know whether she was nervous or excited. She controlled her expression so thoroughly, but I was determined to change that. I wanted to see everything in those deep eyes.

I stepped to the side, kneeling on the end of the bed and nudging her legs apart. The sight of her body, so vulnerable and so exposed to me, made my cock throb with even greater need. I started to run my hands up her legs, gripping her thighs and pushing them further apart. She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth as if to suppress a gasp, but I lived for those sounds.

“Don’t hide your voice from me,” I said, leaning over her hips. “Before, you didn’t have a voice. Now you do. I want to hear what I’m doing to you.” I lowered my head, my lips pressing against her stomach just above her mound. “I want to know I’m affecting you.”

Moving my body downward, I began kissing her thigh, tracing my tongue over her and memorizing every inch before turning my face toward her sex. I made sure she could feel my hot breath on her before I kissed her there, sucking her little bud into my mouth. She bowed off the bed, pressing herself up against my tongue, and her need provoked my own.

I licked up her seam, breathing in her sweet scent before pushing my tongue inside her virgin entrance. Her sounds were content, wonderful moans and I loved it. I loved knowing that it was me who was making her feel that way. It was me overriding whatever cruel memories she had of a man’s touch.

“You’ve never had a man inside you,” I rasped.

“No,” she answered, breathless.

“I am going to be your first tonight. I’m going to fill you until you forget how to speak, save for my name. I want all of you. All your tears. Your smiles. Your cries of pleasure.”

Her whole body quivered at those words and it drew my lips into a victorious grin. Her sweet arousal permeated the air at my voice. Her skin flushed with color and as I climbed up her body, kissing and tasting her as I went, my cock begged for the heat of her body.

“And,” I continued. “If you let me, I will be your only.” I kissed her stomach, looking up at the way she chewed on her bottom lip, and then moved my mouth to her breast. “No other man will worship you like I am now. And that is what I’m doing. I am being thankful, Aeris, that you are allowing me the privilege of touching you. Because touching you—tasting you—is indeed a privilege.”

I sucked her pert nipple into my mouth and teased it with my tongue. She closed her eyes, momentarily going silent, but that time, the silence was unnerving as if a small part of her mind had gone elsewhere. I pinched her nipple between my teeth and she gasped, one hand immediately gripping the hair on the back of my head as it to tear me away from her.

“Do not wander from this moment,” I said. “This moment is ours. No one else’s.”

“Thank you,” she whispered and I didn’t need to ask to know why she was thanking me.

“Remember your word, yes?”

“Yes.”

“Stay with me. Here. In this room. Tonight, give me all of you and I will do the same in return.”

“I trust you.”

I stopped, looking up at her like those words had slapped me over the head. They were simple words, but I found myself cherishing them. When she realized I wasn’t doing anything, she lifted her head to look down at me and the corner of my mouth curled up with pride.

“I will never hurt you. You know that.”

“Yes. And,” she cupped the side of my face with her hand. “I will never hurt you.”

God, she was consuming me. My mind. My body. She was filling every empty void I’d been ignoring my whole life. Voids I didn’t even know were there until she shed her light in those hollow places.

I crawled over her, bracing my hands on either side of her head.

“What do you want from me?” I asked, searching for truth in her eyes. “Tell me. Tell me why you came onto my ship. The truth. All of it.”

And there it was. The transparency I’d been longing for. Her eyes shimmered. Her brows knitted together and the softest tremble shook her lips.

“I wanted to fall in love.”

My heart stopped. So many questions rained on the inside of my skull, flooding every corner and longing to get out, but not yet. I wanted that moment, pure and unfiltered. My body responded to her words like a wolf smelling blood. I was ravenous for this siren.

I dropped my head and kissed the side of her neck. The neck some foul man thought was his when he wrapped his hands around it. But her neck was not for choking. It was for kissing and as I trailed my lips upward, I took her lobe between my teeth, nibbling softly until her whole body broke out in gooseflesh.

“I will know every inch of you,” I murmured.

She sniveled and when I looked at her, tears were glistening on her cheeks. I should have been horrified. Instead, I was proud. I wanted those tears. I wished to lap them up and savor the taste of her emotions. Emotions she felt safe enough to reveal to me.

Reaching down, I fisted my cock and stroked it once. Twice. I trembled against my own touch, sensitive and needy. I wanted to be inside her. I wanted to feel her stretch and shudder around me as she adjusted. I wanted to hear her cry out my name as she squirmed around my thickness.

“Nazario,” she muttered, her voice music to my welcoming ears. “I want to be yours.”

You are mine.

She lifted her head, tempting me as she leaned in for a kiss. I could not resist her if I tried. Not after the way she raised her hips to meet my swollen cock. I rocked against her, sliding my length through her slick folds. Despite her tears, her body seemed just as impatient as mine to relieve the tension. Heat pooled between her legs, wetting my sheets with her need. I pressed my mouth to hers, devouring her delicate moans and slid one hand between us again, notching the head of my cock at her entrance. Lips locked together, I began to push inside her tight channel. She made the sweetest sound as I stretched her around me, a melody of relief and discomfort.

I pulled from our kiss, not daring to steal her voice any longer if she needed to speak to me. Her tear-reddened eyes held mine as I continued to pierce her. Her brows hitched up in the middle, her teeth catching her bottom lip again. But I kept going, my movements controlled by one single word that she had not used yet.

I kissed her softly on the side of her mouth as she mewled, her body a vice around my shaft when I finally met the limit of her depth. Lips barely touching, I began to rock against her, reveling in the beautiful sounds she made.

“Does it hurt, mu?equita?” I whispered.

“Yes,” she said against my lips, her eyes screwing shut.

“Do you want me to stop?”

“No.”

“Good girl. This is how I want you. At my mercy, but always in control. Always safe. You need only say one word to stop me.”

“I know I am safe. I know it.”

I smiled, my teeth grazing her chin as I began to hasten my tempo. Her breath became ragged and quick, sawing in and out of her in short, uneven gasps. Tears gathered on her lashes again as I continued to drive into her with long, steady thrusts. Every time I pulled out of her, I felt as if she was coaxing me back in and I was more than happy to drive myself deeper. The cabin flooded with our labored moans and whimpers and the crude sound of our joined bodies.

And the whole time, I could not stop looking at her. At Aeris, my lovely, gentle, and somehow vicious siren pinned beneath me. Her fingers curled against the sheets, but I wanted her hands on me. I wanted to feel her nails digging into my flesh. Her hot breath against my neck as I forced her to completion.

“Put your arms around me,” I panted, rocking into her with renewed force.

She whimpered, hugging me close, and in an instant, I felt my climax drawing near. I breathed against her neck, thrusting more desperately in search of that release.

“Nazario,” she sobbed. Her nails bit into my back, driving me wild.

The way my name sounded when she was gasping for air made my balls draw up. I snapped my hips forward, driving into her with an animal grunt. Aeris dug her nails deeper, grading my flesh. I watched her mouth fall open with pleasure and witnessed her teeth grow sharp before my eyes. A faint ripple of fear made my body shudder, but all it did was loosen the hold I had on my climax. My gentle siren was a beast beneath it all and it was gorgeous. Dangerous. Savage.

Lethal and soft. That was Aeris. A wild animal raised in a cage, barely starting to realize herself and what she could do. What she could become. Under the broken pieces, she was a wild spirit yearning for security. For freedom.

And I fucking loved it. I loved her. I loved her tender touch and her sharp teeth and her feminine cries as I replaced the unpleasant touch of her oppressors with the liberating force of mine.

“Nazario, I’m…” Her words were cut off by her own gasp.

I slid one hand between us, finding her swollen clit with my fingertips and stroking her gently. She arched up, letting out a strained cry and I couldn’t help smiling at the instant effect I had on her. I kept going, memorizing every reaction, every way that drove her crazy, until I found exactly what she liked. Until she was the face of unhinged desperation.

“Come for me,” I said before I crushed my lips to hers.

She shook beneath me, her hips desperately rocking in time with mine. She dragged her hands down the length of my back, her fingers grasping at my hips. I listened to the cadence of her breath until I heard that sweet hitch I was looking for. That pause followed by her breathy, frantic moans like she was on the verge of panic. Her teeth closed against my bottom lip and a familiar, copper taste tinged my tongue. I drew back to see her teeth painted red as she licked over them, drawing my blood into her mouth. Her green eyes became paler. More animalistic. That strange, red blush I saw when she was in that pool spread across her skin before my eyes and if I had forgotten what she was, I would have remembered it then.

I was feral at the sight and slammed into her faster, driving her body up the bed with very thrust.

She grew tense, her walls choking my cock so thoroughly that my own pinnacle was soon to follow. It tore at my sturdy armor like a storm, ripping every bit of my control to shreds until my toes were curling and I was spilling my thick seed inside her. My skin was slick with sweat. My heart was a wild animal in my chest clawing to be free of its cage. I let out a deep and throaty groan against Aeris’s neck, gripping a handful of her crimson locks. Wave after wave of dizzying pleasure racked my body and hers until finally, I felt her going boneless under my weight.

I kept myself braced on my elbows, trying not to crush her as my cock relaxed, spent and sated. Aeris was motionless, her hands barely holding onto me now. Lifting my head, I looked at her glistening face. The faint sheen of sweat made her features glow and streams of tears still stained her rosy cheeks, but her expression was content. Tired. Her lids were heavy and her mouth slightly agape so she could catch her breath.

I wiped my thumbs under her eyes before kissing her damp cheek.

“Your tears are beautiful,” I whispered. “Tell me why you weep.”

She sniveled, turning into my lips. “I love you,” she muttered.

I drew back, part of me wondering if I’d imagined her saying it, but her gaze pinned mine, filled with certainty.

“Why?” I asked stupidly.

“Because I was never a monster to you. You saw a woman. You’ve always seen a woman. I am grateful for that. No one has ever known me at all. Not like you have. No one has even tried.”

She was so sure of herself and I envied that. I had not been sure of myself for years.

I took a moment to study her face, making damn sure she was real before I pressed my lips to hers once more.

“I am a madman I think,” I said against her mouth. “I wish you had fled that day. I wish you’d have gone far away, somewhere where no man could ever touch you. Men are dangerous, me included.” I opened my eyes, looking deep into hers. “But you didn’t leave and now I don’t think I’ll ever let you. If you stay by my side, I will give my last breath, my last drop of blood, and my last ounce of sanity to protect you. I promise you that, Aeris.”

Tears gathered in her eyes again, but these were even more beautiful than the last. She lifted her hand, cupping my cheek.

“I would give all that and more to protect you, Nazario. I knew I would when I chose to climb onto your ship with the open ocean and my freedom at my back.” She quieted for a beat, licking her kiss-swollen lips. “In the morning, let me come with you. Let me be there when you kill him.”

No.

“We will see about that when the sun rises. For now, sleep.”

I could tell her eyes were heavy. She was fatigued and, against all reason, she felt safe enough to sleep beside me again. I kissed her cheek, still tasting the salty tears on her skin, and rolled us onto our sides, hugging her body to my chest. She fit so perfectly as if she was made to curl into my arms.

And I would see to it that she always slept that well beside me.