Page 23 of Waves (Tangled Crowns #6)

Avia

A fter an hour of being pinned between two men, I needed a break.

I was fairly certain that any skin on my rear had burned away from the cold and my throat positively ached from screeching.

We’d tried each and every slide carved into the iceberg, bored through it by playful narwhals, or so the children told us.

They were divine. My favorite were the twisting tunnels but both men seemed to like the way my thighs clenched around them when we went on the slides with large drops, so we’d gone on those a fair number of times.

Each turn had been preceded by a bit of teasing fingers and wandering hands, and by the time I pleaded for mercy, I was not only frozen, but a bit worked up.

After our final run, we floated outside the berg near the lower tip in a band of water that was cornflower blue.

The current had died down, but both my contestants were still delightfully unkempt, Valdez’s pink hair ruffled and Keelan’s pale shirt untucked after our rides.

My grin was an insistent thing that I couldn’t have stifled even if I’d wanted to.

But then Valdez lifted my hands to his chilly lips and kissed it. “Avia, while I would love to take full advantage of that naughty spark in your eyes, I promised I’d meet an old friend for lunch. And I’m quite late.”

Though I understood, my smile to him might have stiffened because the shifter had definitely riled me as he’d held me from behind, kissing and squeezing my neck during our final round, playing with my breathlessness. Holding me captive beneath his fingers.

I’d been hoping, perhaps foolishly, that he’d finally make good on his constant teasing about taking me with another man. It was definitely the sort of scenario that I wasn’t brave enough to take charge of or propose myself.

Or perhaps it was obvious that I was still a bit hesitant. And perhaps he was waiting for that point where he drove me off the ledge of reason, to the point where consequences and propriety fled my mind, where inhibition lost its hold. When I became feral for him.

Leaning forward, his lips brushed my cheek. “Soon,” he whispered in my ear, his breath a hot promise. And then he swam off as I fought a fluttering, light-headed feeling as if I was teetering on the brink.

I turned to Keelan with an attitude that bordered on cruel but was merely desperate. “Don’t you dare say you have plans too.”

He hitched up one side of his mouth in a knowing grin. “And if I do?”

I swam close and grabbed a fistful of his shirt, pulling him close. His heartbeat thudded rapidly against the side of my fist. “I’m canceling those plans.”

“Too bad. My plan was to service you ‘til you screamed,” he retorted nonchalantly as he unwound his shirt from my grip and floated a few feet backward. “But since you’re canceling—”My body slammed into his and I punished him with a furious kiss, smashing my lips into his, reaching for the back of his neck and pulling him in tight, refusing to let him escape.

A flurry of applause and a ghastly retching sound broke out behind me, and I inched back, turning only to realize that a small knot of children who’d been playing on the slides were watching us.

“Kissing’s gross!” one squi-shifter boy declared before sticking a finger in front of his open mouth and continuing to make puking sounds.

“No, it’s not.” A mer girl smacked his stomach with the back of her hand. Her tiny silver curls bounced around her as she smiled up at us far too eagerly, as if she was studying and taking notes.

Lava red embarrassment climbed up my neck and melted my cheeks. Luckily, Keelan knew just what to say.

“Kissing is gross when it’s with the wrong person. But I’m kissing my future wife, so it’s okay.”

That statement sent the children erupting into a series of questions about if he was going to win the tournament and how, and what the next competition was, and when.

Keelan held up his good hand to quiet them. “I’m happy to come back later today and answer all your questions, but I promised my betrothed that I’d feed her first.”

With a quick wave, he dismissed them and grabbed my hand, and we were away without being chased.

As we swam back to my rooms, I glanced at him.

Grateful. So grateful that he joined the tournament.

My throat grew thick realizing how much his lightheartedness meant to me.

Without him, this entire silly and sexy morning wouldn’t have happened.

My entire life would be work with no play.

When he glanced back, he might have seen the sheen in my eyes because he stopped, expression concerned. “Something wrong?”

I couldn’t possibly have told him what I was feeling, so instead I leaned forward and whispered something certain to distract him. “I’m worried it’s going to hurt. Because you’re so…” I made a vague gesture in the region of his crotch.

Immediately, he had the stereotypical reaction of any male. His brow cocked and a determined, smug expression lit his face. “Oh, it’ll hurt. But I’m going to make you feel so good before that you’ll be boneless and won’t care at all once it does.”

And then, impatiently, Keelan swept me up into his good arm and pressed me to his chest, navigating around the bridges and getting back to the mayor’s house in half the time it had taken me to leave this morning.

When he finally set me down in the hallway just outside my own room, I smiled at him. “Someone’s in a rush.”

“Just to get started. Don’t worry, I’ll slow down once I have you naked.” And then my siren bent his golden head and swept me into a long, searing kiss. My wings spread and he pressed my back flush against the door, boxing me in before he reached for the knob and smoothly swung it open.

We stumbled inside eagerly. The small floating orbs inside my room lit us in patches of orange and purple fire flickered in the fireplace behind an ornate screen in the shape of a conch shell.

Keelan shoved the door shut with a thwack and latched it for good measure.

Then he turned, head tilted down and fingers steepled.

“Now, I have you exactly where I want you.”

A belly laugh burst out of me, and I simply shook my head to scold him before I released the tie that held up my cloudy white dress and let it fall to my feet.

His inhalation of appreciation made delighted goosebumps trail up my skin.

Within seconds, we’d both shed everything in sloppy piles and our lips were locked again, fingers exploring.

Even though I’d had less than a minute to look at him, Keelan was beautiful.

Pure masculinity. His muscles were lean but sculpted, his golden skin dazzling, and I couldn’t help but adore the way he had to bend to kiss me.

He was eager with his kisses, trailing them up and down my neck so quickly that tickles burst over me and gave me shivers.

His hands came to my breasts, gliding over them, gently hefting them to feel their weight before his thumbs sought out my nipples. Rubbing lightly and sending delicious pulses of need shooting down my spine, he walked me backward toward my bed.

“Lay down,” he murmured before he kissed just beneath the lobe of my ear.

I flared my wings and lay back on the mattress, staring up at him and expecting to feel vulnerable.

But it was Keelan, and somehow his ability to put me at ease translated to everything, even this, which we’d never done before.

His hand reached for my ankle, and he let his thumb trace over it as his gaze roamed over me. “So beautiful.”

The spark of his reverent attention warmed my belly, and I reached for him. “Come here.”

He settled himself gently between my thighs, his stiffness pressed against me sending a ripple of decadent pleasure along my slit.

Holding himself braced with his hands near my shoulders, careful not to touch my wings, his golden eyes roamed over my face, all signs of his usual humor gone.

Instead, there was a softer, more serious side of Keelan present, a side I was certain few got to see. He was earnest.

“Do you feel it?” he asked, the question full of cascading emotions that flooded down on me, rushed over me, drowned me with their depth.

“Yes,” was the only answer I could give, a soft and breathy admission as my hand came up to cup his cheek. A single word, barely a sigh of a sound, but in it were the sunbeams he lit inside me, the warmth that shone through the darkest clouds pervading my mind and empty chest.

How could I not feel it? Even without a heart, his goodness managed to fill some massive void inside of me, managed to coax out whatever sweetness I had left. Keelan might not have had the same magic as other men, but the magic he did have was even more powerful.

He would enchant anyone.

My adoration grew to such an extent that it bordered on sorrow and tears lined my vision as I fought to keep the sudden desire to sob locked inside my own chest.

With a groan, he lowered himself until our foreheads met and he kept us joined there as he slowly rocked his hips back and forth, dragging himself over that swollen part of me, making me ache to join together.

My eyelashes fluttered, the world around me becoming a warm but enticing blur filled with the spicy male scent of Keelan, the feel of his body, the heady sensation of his arms surrounding me, his legs pinning me down as the length of his pleasure blotted out the rest of the world.

I grew damp and then soaked. The steady pace he set against my slit was maddening, just the perfect drag across my clit before he retreated, making me ache and long and pulse in all the right ways.

Fingers clenching down on the silk sheets, my back arched, head pressing deeper into the mattress as my body begged for more, a whimper rising like steam because I was burning, baking, boiling. “Please.”