Page 30 of Bound and Tide

The two shuffled backward but calmed. Costa cleared his throat and pointed, and when Xander looked behind him, there stood the three water imps he was sure he’d instructed to stay at The Sleepy Salmon.

“I think they’re the ones who saved you,” said Maia.

Xander could have drowned them, but he knew it wouldn’t stick. “Fine. Again!” At least this time, he would be prepared for what was coming.

Chapter 15

A ROCK-HARD TRUTH

“Come now, Red, don’t be upset with me.”

“I’m not upset,” she said with a conviction that could have worked on anyone except Xander.

He smirked at the back of her as she tidied things that didn’t need tidying and refused to look at him. He’d arrived just after the apothecary opened, and her gaze hadn’t met his since it had stabbed a hole right through his middle when he presented himself in the doorway. It was just past midday now, and he was dying. Didn’t she know her eyes were the only green thing around? It was a crime to deny him their sight.

He flicked a hanging sprig of something that smelled like dinner and followed after her as she slipped behind the counter to fiddle with her stock. “If you missed me, you should be glad I’m back, not angry.”

Red’s prodding at a basket of twine halted. He could practically feel the breath she let out as her shoulders rose and fell. “Why in the realm would I be angry that I showed you my el’erium, and then you disappeared for three days?”

Xander’s smirk down at the top of her head only grew—he knew she missed him. “Well, at least I didn’t abscond with it.” He hadn’t meant to be gone for so long, but after being drowned over and over by those brats, he needed to recuperate. He just didn’t plan for that recuperation to take two whole days, passed out face down in that bloody inn.

“So full of yourself.” She huffed and tossed a stack of linens out of her way. “As if you could steal that.”

Xander opened his mouth to tell her just how he’d do it—a plan that had hatched itself whether he intended to use it or not—but then shut himself up again. That would only push her away, and that wasn’t at all what he hoped for.

“Not everything’s about you anyway.” She rearranged the things under her counter with a force he was sure would break them. “I can be upset about anything like stubbing my toe or the wrong politician getting elected or rowdy customers.”

“Did that man come back?” Xander bit out.

“Thank the gods, no,” she sighed. “I’ve been very much alone.”

He bent at the waist, hands clasped behind his back, and brought his mouth to the delicate point of her ear, exposed with her curls gathered atop her head. “At least let me make it up to you. Surely the chores have been piling up while I was away.”

Red turned slowly to glare over her shoulder. Finally, her eyes met his once more, and every kind of tingle ran through his newly energized veins. She was angry, there was no denying that, but Xander might have liked that even more.

She rose to her full height, objectively unintimidating, but Xander still found his stomach clenching around held breath. “You’re shit at chores,” she said, and that tightness hitched even lower, fear and thrill entangling themselves between his legs. “But if you’re interested in making amends…” She pushed past him and headed to the curtain at the shop’s back.

Xander didn’t say a word—he might have been a fool, but he wasn’t completely stupid—and he followed closely up the stairs to her bedchamber. The smell of her was compounded inside that little room, and he took a heady breath while Red rummaged in a drawer. To be so inundated by earthy herbs relaxed him, and he found his smarmy smirk softening.

“You’ve broken my trust,” she said and turned, a long ribbon in hand, “so I want to tie you up.”

Xander’s jaw dropped, pleased and shocked both. “What a funny coincidence—I want you to tie me up.”

“Boots, coat, tunic, off.”

He practically jumped out of his boots, but then noted her level stare watching with a deep frown from across the room. She didn’t want a mad rush, she wanted a show, and from the looks of things, he damn well better give her what she wanted.

As Xander stripped, he kept his gaze on her mouth. Every button undone encouraged her lips to twitch, every newly exposed inch of skin earning him growing acclaim until he was down to just his breeches, and she was beaming.

“Good,” she quipped, tugging her lips back down. Damn, there went her approval, but he would get it back.

She strode to him and, with a push to his chest, Xander fell on his back, and she was immediately atop him, but her interest wasn’t exactly in the body he’d just exposed for her. With no concern for his comfort, she pulled an arm over his head and wrapped the satiny ribbon around his wrist.

“I usually do the tying,” he said, shuddering as she roughly wrenched his other arm upward, “so I doubt your knots can hold me.”

Red lashed each wrist tight, anchoring him to the bedposts. “Then I suppose you will choose to remain here for as long as you think you deserve.” Gritting her teeth, she gave the silks a final tug. Her breasts swelled against the thin fabric of her white tunic, so close to his lips that he could bite her nipples if he dared—he didn’t, she had not given him permission, but he imagined the noise he could draw out of her with a few nips and rose right to the occasion.

And that was apparently what she was looking for as she sat back, knees digging into his thighs carelessly, assessing his arms spread and taut overhead. Xander’s heart pounded through her appraisal, and when her eyes fell to his lap, she finally grinned in that hungry way he knew he’d failed to hide on himself.

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