The Hunted
Page 29
He didn’t mind the mustiness of the tower or the fact that they rested on a pile of their wet clothing tangled together because at the moment, he had better things to focus on.
Like Arelle.
And that she was on top of him.
Fucking him.
The same way she’d done all night. Well, in between short bursts of sleep that never seemed to last too long before one of them woke up again and reached for the other.
Her fingernails dug into his chest, and she showed him her teeth when she leaned down just close enough that he could almost kiss her. Almost, because she was keeping that from him this time. She very much enjoyed riding him because it gave her control, like now.
How fast she went …
Whether she came, or he did.
It was all on her terms.
He let her have it.
This time.
“Tell me a secret,” he heard himself say.
Even his voice didn’t sound like his own. No, it sounded high with her and their fucking and everything that should be right and good. He didn’t have to think about what awaited them outside of this tower, or a world that would be turned on its end.
“I would like to sit on your face instead,” she returned. “And then have you taste your cum coming out of me, yes?”
Eryx laughed, but it quickly melted into a prayer—her name—when she squeezed her muscles and sat down atop him harder than before. Her rhythm stilled, but her hips grinded against his body without her own lifting from his. Hard and sure, around and around on his cock until he was sure he was going to blow.
And then she stopped again.
“You’re killing me,” he mumbled against his palm.
His other was wrapped in the hair that had tumbled down her back.
“Do you still want a secret?” she asked.
“Are you going to let me come?”
“I may.”
Eryx grinned and she lowered just enough to finally give him a soft kiss. It wasn’t nearly enough, but he felt it even after she straightened back up and tightened her thighs around his body. “Then, I still want a secret.”
“I love you.”
He’d expected something different.
Anything but that.
Not because he didn’t want it—oh, he did—but rather, it seemed like the one thing she had managed to keep for herself. Everything else, she’d handed over to him. Control. Her life. The bond. Even her freedom was his at the end of the day to decide whether she could have it or he would keep it.
He was in her heart, sure.
He didn’t own it, though.
Except apparently, now he did.
“Do you?” he asked.
She started grinding again, but this time, with a purpose. Above him, she nodded, the loose strands of her red hair that he’d not been able to gather in his fist falling over her shoulders and swaying the closer she brought him to orgasm.
He could feel hers, too.
The way she shivered.
How her muscles tensed.
The wildness in her eyes.
“I do,” she breathed.
She came. He followed right after. His I love you, too came out clear, and strong, though.
As it should.
• • •
“Look,” Eryx murmured.
Arelle turned her head to the left where she rested on his chest, using him as a pillow. He didn’t mind, and besides, like this, he could hold her close. He’d climbed into one of the slated windows of the tower, using the stone ledge as a backrest before she’d joined him and curled into his lap. Here, they could watch the bay, the sea, and even the sky.
Arelle sighed. “The sky is purple.”
It had been that way for a while.
He merely hadn’t mentioned it.
“Do you smell that?” she asked.
He didn’t need to ask what.
“There’s smoke in the wind.”
“Something is burning,” she whispered.
“Atlas. Atlas is burning.”
He didn’t need to be told.
A kingdom was changing.
A war had begun.
Down below, sea foam gathered on the rocks of the shore surrounding the watchtower. Another good sign that the storm had stopped, and they would have calm for a while. Bathed in the purple of the sky, he pressed a kiss to the top of Arelle’s head.
“What do we do now?” she asked. “Where do we go?”
“We do have options. I have … connections in places. Allies, though I’d hesitate to use them when their loyalties can be bought rather easily. Or we stay and—”
“Die?”
She made a good point.
He had a feeling that allowing Poe to go back to the sea would change what happened underwater. Arelle told him what she’d seen after escaping—Mattue and Eryx’s dead father—which meant the kingdom on land would be in upheaval as well.
Nothing would be safe.
“I’m with child.”
He hadn’t asked for a second secret that morning. She gave him one, nonetheless. His joy was only dampened by their current situation, and she seemed to sense that when she smiled up at him and lifted one bare shoulder as if to say I know.
“Does it matter,” he started, wondering out loud, mostly, “if we stay or if we go?”
“Will we be together?”
“Always.”
“Then, I will do whatever.”
Eryx stared down over the sea again, and the foam that had become thick on the surface of calm waters. “My mother’s journal—it was ruined in the rain.”
“I’m sorry.”
The secret could die with him.
Who he was—what he really was—could end right here.
No one would know.
“What was the name of the queen who came before your father?” he dared to ask.
“I never knew it,” Arelle replied, shifting on him until she settled once more with her face buried against his bare chest. “He forbade her name from even being whispered, when her death was a source of contention for the colony. We were all told she was the lost queen. She was favored—they loved her, or so I was told, and many weren’t willing to believe she had died. Rumors said she was caught, but the royal court said it wasn’t true. We never understood why we weren’t allowed to talk about her or what came before us—he mated after he became king, we came along to our mother later. Why?”
She tipped her head up.
Those violet eyes of hers met his, and she waited.
The secret could die with me.
Maybe it should.
Arelle reached up to drift her fingertips over his jaw. “What is it?”
“The lost queen was my mother.”
She turned to stone in his lap. “That would mean—”
“Yes.”
He didn’t want to say it.
He didn’t want her to say it, either.
“Eryx,” she whispered.
Pleading.
“We are two against many.”
“I know, but—”
“It’s not safe to stay.”
Her chin trembled when she said, “But we will return.”
It wasn’t even a question.
Eryx tucked her into his embrace again, but this time, with her back pressed against his chest and his arms tight around her middle. He nuzzled into her hair, pulling in the scent of her while the flatness of her middle was tight to his palms.
“We will return,” he promised, “one day.”
But today, they would love one more time, pack away their clothing, and slip into the sea foam where they could disappear into the depths of the sea below. Then, it would be as though they hadn’t existed here at all … because for a time, they no longer could.
BIO
Bethany-Kris is a Canadian author, lover of much, and mother to four young sons, one cat, and three dogs. A small town in Eastern Canada where she was born and raised is where she has alw
ays called home. With her boys under her feet, a snuggling cat, barking dogs, and a spouse calling over his shoulder, she is nearly always writing something ... when she can find the time.
Find more info about BK at her website:
www.bethanykris.com
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Copyright © 2020 by Bethany-Kris. All Rights Reserved.
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