Page 66 of Ocean of Silver

But I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving her, of going back to the sofa alone.

This felt like a finality, a threshold that we shouldn’t cross, and this moment was the line drawn in the sand.

Fuck it.

“Okay,” I breathed. I could convince myself later that it was just for tonight, that I only said yes because she needed me. This could just be a one time thing, a tucked away memory from our time in the mortal territory. A time we could both pretend I wasn’t the Prince and she wasn’t the prisoner.

In the morning, when we returned to Lux, I wouldn’t say yes again. It would kill me, this little bit of temptation would make it near impossible to sort through the grains of sand, to once again find that line, build the divide back up. But we didn’t have a choice.

She scooted over as I crawled under the blanket. My one arm slid under her pillow as the other rested across her stomach. Her dress was hiked below her breasts, probably from tossing and turning, and I let my hand travel under it. Slowly, I spanned my fingers out across her abdomen, feeling every inch of her soft skin. She tucked her head into the crook of my neck, and fuck, it just felt right.

Lavender was mixed with her scent as I inhaled. The top of her hair bristled against my nose. Without meaning to, my senses crawled over her, wrapping and winding around her like a second layer of skin. I didn’t know if it was her enhancement reaching out, trying to connect us, or if it was all me, but I caught a drift of her residual terror from her nightmare. It was mixed with a new easing comfort as she settled her head against my chest. Her heart was racing, and I told myself that it was just from her dream. I honestly didn’t know if I would be able to peel my ability away from her either. It seemed too far connected, too entwined to separate, but that was something I’d worry about in the morning too. I’d push everything off until then. If this is all we got, I wanted to embrace it.

She sighed as she sank further into my side. I shifted so the lower half of me wasn’t touching her, so she wouldn’t discover that I was still naked. “I’ll stay until you fall back asleep.”

“I don’t want to have any more nightmares.” Her voice was soft, dream-like, and I wondered if she’d remember any of this. I knew without asking that her thoughts were probably filled with that bastard of a compulsion user that tried to drown her.

“Then don’t. Think about something happy. Think about something you want to do,” I whispered as her fingers curled around my wrist. She stirred in my arms and mumbled something unintelligible in acknowledgment.

It didn’t take long for sleep to find her. Her body warmed under the blanket, against me, and the sound of her breathing was my favorite melody, one I wanted to hear over and over again. I listened to it until sleep finally found me too.

When I awoke in the morning, we were tangled against each other. I didn’t know where I ended and she began. She stretched her arms above her head as the morning sun flickered through the window.

I froze as my senses were still wrapped around her. I usually yielded to my ability effortlessly and was able to pick and pinpoint what sense I wanted to hone in on. It was something I had to learn at a young age, or I would have gone insane with sensory overload. I could focus and narrow in on one thing during a fucking battle, but this… I couldn’t block her out. I couldn’t control it around her. It was like some invisible string reached out to her on its own accord, probably her enhancement working against me. But… what I scented from her was…arousal.

Fuck.

My nostrils flared as I instinctively hardened against her back. I knew she felt it because she jerked away from me, pulling the blankets with her.

“Why are you clutching the blankets like it’s a lifeline?” I asked as I sat up to lean against the white headboard, deciding to mess with her. I wanted to see her flustered at not knowing what to say, to watch her cheeks heat, and her blue eyes blaze like the hottest part of a flame.

“I’m not.”

“Uh-huh. Then why won’t you look at me?” I teased. At that her freckles did redden as she pulled the blanket closer to her chest even though she was the only one in clothes.

“When I asked you to sleep in the bed with me, I didn’t realize you were naked.”

“I told you last night that I didn’t sleep with clothes on,” I smirked, happy that she remembered she asked. Then added, “I’m jealous of whoever you were dreaming about just now.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I wasn’t dreaming about anyone,” she snapped way too quickly.

“If you say so,” I said as I rose from the bed and walked over to the dresser to claim a clean pair of clothes, knowing that she was adamantly avoiding looking at me right now. “But I thought you would know by now that I can tell when you’re lying.”

“I’m not lying.”

“Rumor, I can smell the emotions coming from you.”

I turned around to face her, having pulled on a pair of pants. Her blush spread to her ears as she gnawed on her lower lip.

“And,” I added, “besides smelling your arousal, I heard you last night.”

“What do you mean youheardme?”

“After you fell asleep, you moaned. Loudly, might I add. I always wondered what you would sound like when getting fucked.” I tossed a shirt over my head. “Well, now I know. And it was nothing like you eating a pastry.” And damn, if that sound she made wouldn’t haunt me. It was part of the reason I couldn’t fall back asleep.

“I. Did. Not.” she gritted through her teeth, which only made me smile more.

I shrugged, enjoying rattling her. “I was just saying I was jealous of the guy.”

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