Page 142 of Wicked Sea and Sky

“But the tide, Marin… the tide brought it back.”

He lifted me, splaying his hand across my shoulders, drawing me close.

“Did he claim it then?” I whispered.

Gavin pressed a kiss just below my ear. “It was evasive, its facets sharp.” His lips followed the map of scars along my collarbone. “It cut him once or twice.”

“But he didn’t give up.”

Gavin’s fingers slid low, teasing the ache between my legs as his thumb brushed over the sensitive bundle of nerves. I moaned, dropping my forehead into the crook of his neck.

“Not once. Even when it wished he’d fall off a roof.”

Heat flushed up my throat as he traced slow, devastating circles, pleasure tightening in my core.

“That’s a very strange wish for a jewel. But tellme—” My head spun, eyes drifting closed. “Did he ever steal it?”

I trembled, crying out as he answered first with his fingers, teasing me until my nails dug into his back. Until release shattered through me. Then his words coasted over me, low-pitched and rough with emotion.

“He didn’t have to. It was given to him.”

Gavin cupped the sides of my face. He slanted his lips over mine, deepening the kiss, a low sound breaking in his throat. Moving over me, he pressed me back against the cushion, his breath ragged as he stripped away the wet linen clinging to his body.

His story wrapped around me, the words echoing like an ancient legend. But this one was ours.

Pressing my hand against his chest, I felt his heart racing against my palm. I rolled my body until I was straddling him, his weight shifting beneath mine. I slid my hips deliberately against his, savoring the way his fists clenched. He gazed up at me with a look that filled my lungs with enough air to last a lifetime.

“Let me love you, Gavin.”

I wanted him to feel it—all the things he’d done for me. The way he’d lifted me when my soul was drowning. How never letting go made me believe it was possible to stay.

A growl rumbled in his throat. His hands settled on my waist as I rocked against him, chasing the ache that pooled low in my stomach.

“You give me everything,” I whispered. “Let me show you what it feels like to give you everything back.”

I sank onto him in one, slow, perfect motion. His head dropped against the lounge with a sharp inhale. He was wrecked, and I reveled in the way his body bucked beneathmine, the way his fingers dug into my skin.

My mouth grazed his neck. I brushed a kiss to the hollow of his throat, then dragged my lips down the ridge of his chest. I moved slower, deeper. His eyes squeezed shut, his breath a curse that slipped free.

“Do you know what it feels like to be loved by you?”

He shook his head, his breath stuttering.

I pressed my lips against his ear. “Like you made a vow nothing could touch me. Not monsters or fear. Not the dark… the cold. Like I’m free.” I pulled back just enough to look at him. “You did that. Your love is my greatest treasure.”

I rocked my hips again, and he groaned. He was at the edge, shaking. Then his hands gripped my waist, hard, like he couldn’t take another second.

In one swift motion, he flipped our bodies. My back hit the cushion with a soft bounce.

He kissed me roughly, hands tangled in my hair. No more restraint. No teasing story. Just his mouth hot against mine, his hands locked around my hips as he sank deep.

Meeting him with the same hunger, I moaned against his mouth as he moved. I tasted the salt of his skin and breathed in his dizzying scent. It would never be enough.

He drove into me like he’d lost himself. Like he was remembering the past few hours and was trying to banish the memory with the feel of my skin, the race of my heart, and the release spiraling tighter.

When I shattered, my name tore from his lips, his body following, his grip tight like he’d never let me go.

And he hadn’t. Not once.