One finger pierced my wet cunt, and I arched my back, moaning.
“Fuck,” I whispered.
He brutally, savagely, fucked me with his finger, pulling it in and out of me. It was completely different from his soft hands and even softer words only moments before. This was rough and brutal. Claiming. Punishing. That one finger was joined by two more - I had to give Ryland credit. He wasn’t doing anything half-assed.
I was reaching the tip of a mountain, seconds from tumbling over. I had to decide if I was going to fall and trust him to catch me or remain stranded at the top. My back arched sharply, fire racing down my nerves.
I pulled his face to mine, and our lips met in a desperate dance. He kissed me like rain falling on a spring day. Everywhere we touched, we dissolved into each other until there was no Z and Ryland, but one person.
Finally, I found my relief, sobbing. Ryland continued to finger fuck me long after my orgasm subsided. He pulled out slowly, lips tilted up in smug, male satisfaction against my own.
My stomach tightened with lust when I realized we were both bathing in my release.
Ryland pressed a kiss against my forehead, eyes burning with an emotion I recognized all too well.
“You won’t become a monster, Z, because you recognize the monsters in others. Soon, you’re going to recognize the monster in me.”
His words took me back to his earlier question.
Would I still love him if he had killed innocent people?
It had only just occurred to me that I had never answered it.
Ryland’s voice was self-deprecating when he spoke next. “This world is designed to bring out all our monsters. It’s only a matter of time until you see mine, little assassin. Only a matter of time.”
THIRTY-THREE
Z
By the time I left the room, my nerves had settled and I found that I could breathe.
Ryland had receded back into the shadows, a fact that saddened me. With time, he would be okay with showing his face to the world. Long, excruciating time.
Dair was uncharacteristically silent when I stepped into the main bedroom. He sat on the bed, arms crossed over his muscular chest and eyes contemplative. When he saw me, he sat up, a brilliant smile etching across his face.
It was nice to see such a smile. The mood with my mates had been tense and somber since the fight with the Kraken and then the massacre in the dungeons. We all just wanted to go home, to escape.
To kill some damn Mermaid Princes.
“Z!” Dair rushed from the bed and grabbed my hand in his. “I want to take you to see my mom and sister today.”
His words froze me in place. I blinked at him wordlessly.
“Excuse me?” I asked on a screech. Meeting his mother? That sounded more terrifying than fighting another Kraken. Was there something wrong with me, something so deeply and intricately wrong with me, that made me fear opening myself up to these men?
“I want her to meet you,” he said softly. His face softened in adoration, and I could see how much he loved his mom.
I wanted to say yes, to see the glorious smile I knew would cross his face, to feel his golden hand in mine as he tugged me out of the room.
But something was stopping me. Nothing large, but a diminutive clamp that tugged at the top of my heart. I knew that if I said yes, if I agreed to something so monumental, it would alter my life forever. I would no longer be “Z the assassin” or “Zara the maid.” I would be their mate, their lovers, first and foremost.
Why did that terrify me so much?
Maybe because you surround yourself with death, I told myself snidely.
Staring into his brilliant blue eyes, I knew that I had feelings for him and the others that surpassed even my fears. That thought cemented my resolve.
I loved him. Maybe it was the beginnings of love, the slightest trickling of rain before it down-poured. Maybe it had progressed in the weeks I had been at the Capital. Either way, it was love. The strength of my conviction took me by surprise.
Fuck.
“Yes,” I whispered. Did he see how much he meant to me in my gaze? Hear it in my voice?
“Yes?” He stared at me in disbelief. From his expression, it was obvious he hadn’t expected me to agree. That disbelief changed to joy, and I was right. He flashed that brilliant smile at me once more.
I may have had six other mates, but to Dair, I was his only one. He stared at me as if he had never seen a woman so beautiful before, so perfect, so deserving of his love.
Utter bullshit, if you asked me. I didn’t deserve this man in front of me with his golden hair and golden face and a heart that made women everywhere weep. He was a good man. I knew it from the first moment I had met him, after he had saved me from what might’ve been a disastrous and deadly fall. From the very first word, when he had somehow seen through the mask and to the vulnerable, broken-hearted girl beneath.
Before I could say anything else, Dair rushed at me, grabbing my waist and spinning me in a circle.
He knew, just as I did, that my yes went beyond merely meeting his family.
“But first,” I said, tapping his back. He immediately dropped me to my feet. “I want to see Slippy.”
His nose crinkled adorably.
“That’s an awful name for a scary ass monster,” he pointed out.
I reached a hand up to smooth the skin between his eyes.
“He’s the size of a small dog,” I protested.
“He was once the size of a very large building. And, he tried to kill us.”
I waved a hand dismissively.
“Let bygones be bygones.”
I didn’t know what had possessed the Kraken to attack us. Bash
