by Bethany-Kris
Arelle sighed, ignoring the noise from the house behind her. She’d left the doors to the solarium open just because she wanted Eryx to find her easier when he was finished throwing around his orders to the servants. Moving an entire house—or rather, what items he wanted saved from the House of Miller—had been quite an event in a short amount of time.
Tiring, really.
Now, the estate bustled with activity to move and place whatever needed to come inside from the caravan of carriages before the rain and wind started from the next storm. She could have helped, or even watched from afar, but she was missing the sea.
Again.
Now more so than before.
Maybe it was because she could taste it in the air.
Or simply because it was so far away.
What did it matter?
Whatever the reasons, the heaviness in her chest wouldn’t leave. And that was difficult enough for her.
The click of a door had her tense posture softening slightly. She didn’t need to turn around to know who it was—she could feel him.
“You look as though you’re bathed in purple.”
She smiled at the reflection of herself in the glass. “Do I?”
“You do,” Eryx murmured.
His footsteps against the stone tiles approached her spot, but Arelle still didn’t turn away from the glass.
“Shame,” he said, his voice close enough that the small hairs on the back of her neck raised at his proximity, “that you look as you do, but all you feel is sadness standing here. Why is that?”
The unspoken parts of the bond left nothing to question between them, even when one of them wished for it to be different. From the emotions to sometimes, even the thoughts in their own minds.
Nothing was secret.
It all depended on what was needed.
“Did you know,” she said when he slipped in behind her with one of his arms wrapping around her shoulder and chest, “that my kind believe we’re cursed?”
“Oh?”
He pulled her closer; her back molded to the hardness of his chest, and for a second, she could breathe easier. She shouldn’t. Not with this man who promised to take her life, and as it was, had already taken everything else from her and changed the very world as she knew it. Even the way he fucked her was raw and brutal with little softness or care involved … although, she found that was exactly how she liked it anyway. Still, she shouldn’t find a sense of peace in the arms of a man who had only seemed to want to hurt her. Yet, she did.
“Why that idea?” Eryx asked.
His lips grazed the back of her neck, making her shiver while his one hand cupped her breasts through her dress, and his other slipped down to fist into the skirt of her dress.
“We’re designed to need the land to carry on the legacy, but to be desperate for the sea because that is where we are most natural. It wouldn’t be such a bad thing, but when one is taken away, we crave it more than ever.”
“Mmm, like the land now.”
Arelle let out a shaky breath when he finally managed to get her skirts high enough that his hand could slip in beneath the heavy fabric. His fingers stilled when they slipped over the thin, delicate lace between her thighs.
“What is this?”
A breathless laugh escaped her. “We’re having a conversation. Ignore what’s under my gown.”
“No. I closed the door so I could come to fuck you without interruption, actually. I find that there’s anything under here at all but your skin very interesting. Besides, you’ve been quiet the last couple of days.”
“So have you. Since your visitor, I suppose.”
He made a harsh noise under his breath but didn’t reply. Instead, his fingers stroked her overtop the lacy undergarments covering her pussy that matched the thigh-high stockings she’d also decided to try that morning.
It was as she thought it would be, also.
Restrictive and pointless.
Eryx would get his way, however. He would fuck her insane in the solarium until someone dared to knock on the doors and call him away from her.
She would enjoy it.
No point in denying it.
So, she made sure to say what she wanted before that could happen. If only because she felt like she needed to say it. “I used to crave the land. Now, I only miss the sea.”
His hands tightened on her body to an almost painful point. “Is that your way of asking for something without really asking for it?”
“No, it’s me talking. Sometimes, I enjoy doing that. You could talk back.”
“Well—”
“I feel like I’m being pulled in different directions. What I’m being pulled to changes depending on the day, or … you.”
“What does that even mean?” he asked.
“There’s no certainty,” she tried to explain. “Not with you, or the sea. Not what would happen if I left, or even if I stayed. My kind, or all of this … I say it like there’s a choice, but there really isn’t when everything else will seem unimportant without my mate.”
“Arelle—”
“But what is my life with you? A slave at your bidding. I warm your bed and entertain you in the times between. That seems … well, it seems like nothing, doesn’t it?” Then, she lifted her hand that had been sitting overtop his on her breast to touch the collar at her throat. “And even if I could leave, you seem determined to make sure that I can’t, one way or another.”
The pain that burst in the center of her chest felt hollow and foreign. That was the only way she understood it wasn’t her own, but a reflection of his. He didn’t acknowledge that he’d felt it; not physically or otherwise, but she still sensed it all the same.
“Do you want to leave—to go? Will they take you back? Would you still come to me when I called?”
“I want certainty.”
“That doesn’t answer my questions, Arelle.”
His statement wasn’t quite a shout, but the level of sharpness in his tone still had her closing her eyes.
“If I left, would you want me to come back?” she asked.
“I …”
“It should be an easy answer, Eryx.”
“It is.”
Arelle tipped her head to the side even as his fingers tightened into her hair. “Then why not say it?”
“Because I already did.” His hand between her thighs grabbed tight to her pussy overtop the lace while his lips found the line of her jaw. “I gave you certainty—you’re mine.”
In that way, he certainly had.
“Now,” he murmured against her cheek, “hush and let me fuck you here, as I first intended to do before you had to go and make this an entire discussion. How opposed are you to letting me hold your ruined gown together when we leave here? I wouldn’t want to … scar the rest of the house with too much wickedness.”
Her lips split in a grin as his hand drifted away from her throat. “You landwalkers and your ever-ignorant shame.”
“I think more the opposite, really. I would take pleasure fucking you in here, walking you naked through the house and then letting them all listen to the rest of our evening. And I appreciate even more that you would let me do it and enjoy it. But I’m not quite sure they could … settle it. So, are you opposed to me helping with your ruined gown instead? Because I am not leaving this room without fucking you. And since I promised to cut off anything you wore under a gown, I feel it’s only proper I keep it.”
“Do you even carry something to cut this apart? Do they train spoiled, arrogant princes to even use a blade, or—”
The next words caught in her throat when the cool, sharp edge of a blade found the curve in the back of her shoulder. The hand between her thighs stroked her over top the delicate lace covering her sex and his teeth grazed over her jaw.
“In fact,” he said, letting the knife draw down to the corset of the gown, “we are trained in that, yes. Now, do hush.”
She couldn’t promise anything.
He had that effect on her.
Eryx’s blade found the bottom ribbon on the corset at the same time his fingertips began to press harder against the seam of her sex. Every cut of the knife through the criss-crossed silk at her back had his fingers moving a little faster between her thighs.
Though she felt the cool metal kiss her skin, his hand and objective were steady. Never once did he bite or even nick her with the knife. All the while, he managed to get her panting against the smirk of his lips while his hand at her pussy moved faster until she was begging him not to stop.
“Please, please … oh, please.”
The low, broken whines faded into the noise of the solarium and the ripping of her dress when he pulled the delicate bodice down to her waist.
The bliss came on in a wave—a crest taking her under and then dragging her oh, so high. Her palms found the glass while she trembled her way through the orgasm. The loss of his hand between her thighs echoed in her bones, but her body still sang on.
The chiffon and silk of the skirt met the floor under his handling. She stepped on expensive, delicate fabric embroidered with sparkling beads that she was sure had taken its maker days to create. She ruined it in seconds with the soles of her feet when Eryx spun her around right where she stood on the gown.
The knife was still in his hand, and he spun the tip against her collarbone. “Ready me, sweet Arelle.”
She liked the tease of the sharp blade entirely too much as she lowered down for him. The tie of his trousers came off easily under her handling. The thin undergarments beneath his pants were the only thing keeping his erection from her. His cock strained against the gray fabric that she found was rather rough under the softness of her palm when she rubbed against him.
“In my mouth?” she asked, peering up at him.
“Suck me until I come, and then take very single drop.”
Arelle flashed a smile, the flash of heat between her thighs making her sigh. “As you wish.”
Untying the one small bit of leather keeping his undergarments tight to the cut-V of his groin, Arelle freed his cock to her waiting palm. She stroked him tight and fast, but only twice. He wanted her mouth, and she just wanted a taste.
He was silken, hot, and salty against her tongue. The second her lips wrapped around his length, his hips jutted forward to get her swallowing his entire length. The blade traced the delicate line of her throat while his other hand fisted her hair at the top of her head.
She found paradise in his blue irises.
“Just as you do,” he told her, still pumping his hips to a speed he wanted. “Keep looking at me and start singing for me, my little mermaid.”
Yes, because he loved the music she made. She would swear, though, that there was nothing more fascinating than the sounds he made. Those deep, heady grunts as he worked himself higher with her mouth around his cock. It made her wetter, and the softness of the delicates between her thighs were sticky from her arousal.
His heart raced.
She could feel it in the pulses of his dick.
“Fuck … fuck,” he muttered.
Her eyes blurred with water, but she loved that too. His rough handling only made her empty pussy clench with need.
He gave her no warning before he came. Just a harsh moan that followed the hot spurt of his semen hitting the back of her tongue. She took every single drop.
Just the way he wanted.
Those fingers of his tightened into her hair until she gasped from the sting, but he held her firm to his cock until all at once, he pulled her away. In a breath, Arelle faced the windows again. The blade was back at what remained of her clothing when he’d spread her legs wide enough that he was satisfied.
“Perfect.”
Eryx sliced through the delicates with ease.
The blade hit the floor.
His palm found her ass.
She turned back to kiss him while he rested the head of his cock against her slick slit. His tongue slashed to hers when his hips jutted forward.
Just like that, he was filling her.
Fucking her.
Making her forget.
He was always so brutal. Unforgiving when he handled her. Fast and deep and raw. It made her ache, but in the best way. Pleasure was far better when twisted with a tinge of pain. She didn’t shy away from it, either … simply urged him on for more.
Eryx delivered.
She hoped he always would.
Especially like this.
“Gods, what are you doing to me?” His voice in her ear was a harsh, guttural whisper. “Why are you like this?”
She could ask him the same.
He fucked her just like that, yanking on her hair and then shoving two fingers into her mouth to silence her, until she came again. Her arousal soaked his length, and she could hear it in the slick smack of his balls against her backside.
“Don’t you move after I come.”
That was the only thing she heard before a thick groan fell from his lips. He held her tight to his cock, deep enough to hurt, when he released inside her. She was still trying to catch her own breath. The gulp of air came faster when he pulled out of her and kneeled down. His hands spread her ass wide, and his teeth found the still burning cheek from the earlier slap as she felt his semen slip out of her sex and fall to the gown at her feet.
“Yes,” he murmured, “love watching that, my darling.”
Arelle sighed when his rough touches came softer after her orgasm had turned into nothing but a shiver working its way through her body. His fingertips stroked the strands of her hair when he stood up behind her again and leaned his jaw against hers to nuzzle. She didn’t think he knew, but that was how her kind—their kind—greeted people they loved dearly.
Like a mate, or their young.
It was moments like those that reminded Arelle that no matter what she thought of this man, their mating, or the things he was capable of, he was also one of them. She’d kept marking Eryx as different—a landwalker, because that had been his entire life.
But he was more.
A prince.
Insufferable.
A man who could walk the land and sea.
Flawed.
Her mate.
Hers.
“You seemed sad,” he said, “and I didn’t like that at all.”
Arelle laughed lightly. “Was that why you did this? Not everything else you said? You can’t fix everything by fucking me, Eryx.”
“But I can. And I consider it to my benefit also when I get to see you like this.”
“Hmm?”
“For a brief second, I get to see you still trembling, as sweet as a newborn kitten for a graze of my fingers in your hair. For a moment … I don’t want to kill you.”
A grin fettered over her lips. “Do you want me to complain about the last bit? Can’t say that’s a bad thing when it means my heart still beats.”
His dark chuckle skipped across her jaw before he muttered, “And just like that, you make me go back to wanting to strangle you.”
“You do know that threat has never scared me, don’t you?” she asked.
“I do—I enjoy that in a very distorted way, too. And so, as I was trying to explain, if fucking you fixes everything for even a few moments, where we get to be just this and not the rest, it is worth it.”
Arelle’s heart thundered loud and those silken touches of his continued. Eryx was not the type of man who enjoyed his charming sweetness to be pointed out to him. He much preferred the arrogant, spoiled prince persona that he’d carefully crafted for the rest of the world to see.
But he softened when he knew she needed him to.
Like now.
As a mate should do for the soul’s other half.
So, instead of saying thank you for what he’d done, or even acknowledging his tenderness, she gave Eryx the thing he seemed to need to keep his vulnerabilities hidden: the sharp-tongued, challenging little mermaid he wanted to kill as much as he wanted to fuck.
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Arelle cleared her throat, her tongue peeking out to wet the seam of her lips. “Well, you better figure out how you want to hold this ruined gown for me before you get me to the bedchambers and show me all that distorted way you mentioned.”
“Are you still sad?” he asked.
The heaviness in her shoulders had left for the time being. All that sadness roaring in her heart for the sea she so dearly missed was a dull echo.
He had fixed it.
For a moment.
She knew, however, the calm between every storm only lasted for so long.
Still, she answered him honestly. “No, I’m not still sad.”
TWENTY-SIX
Eryx
“HAVE YOU settled on a book yet?”
Arelle glanced over her shoulder at him. A teasing glint lit up her violet eyes before she went right back to surveying the rows of bookshelves in the room where they were kept at the stable estate. He’d made a promise to teach her how to read though he didn’t quite know how to teach anyone anything.
Thing was, she learned quick.
And he found he liked her smile.
“This one, I think,” she finally said.
Eryx couldn’t discern which book she pulled from the shelves with her body blocking his view, but that was just fine, too, when it gave him a glorious view of her trimmed waist and the way the silk skirts of her dress fell over the curve of her ass. “Is it a good one? It’ll need to be a good one to keep my attention long enough that you can read a bit before I get you into bed again.”
She turned her head just enough for him to see the sensual curve of her lips that said she liked that idea of his just fine. “You have to let me read a bit first.”
“A bit, then. Fine.”
“And it’s an old one. I don’t know if it’s any good.”
“What is the title?”
“It doesn’t have one.”
Eryx laughed. “They all have titles.”
“Not this one.”
“Let me see it, then.”
Arelle flashed him with a brilliant smile when she turned away from the bookshelves with the book in her already outstretched hand. When she was close enough, he took the leather-bound book, ready to find the title that he was sure had to be there. Perhaps it had faded where it was once embossed on the cover, or even the title page had been ripped out.