Page 104 of Echoes of the Tide

“You always do. No matter where you are, even in the darkest parts of the sea, you blind me.”

The words filled him with more love and hope than he believed she could imagine. He filled his lungs with the emotions, as though he was sucking up every single ounce of attention she gave him and drawing it into his body so that he would never forget the feeling.

His hands found the spots just above her hips. It was like those curves called to him, compelling him to hold on to her and never let her go. “I am lucky to have found you,” he murmured. “Truly.”

“Oh, I think we found each other.”

She leaned down and kissed him, those lips gentle and toying as she played with him. He loved her most when she was like this. Not worried about what might come, and no lingering thoughts of the outside world plaguing either of them.

It was just him and her.

His mate. His love. His joy.

The sun seemed to turn even brighter as they indulged themselves. He relearned the softness of her lips, the way she made little soft sighs when he rasped his nails down her back. Everything about her turned him into a puddle because he just wanted her. Only her. There had never been another who made him feel like this.

Then she leaned back out of his reach. A little whimper escaped him before he could catch it, but he hated to lose her, even if he was panting with need at this point. He could keephimself away from her, though. He had enough self control to let her do whatever she wanted.

Her grief was more important than his desire, that much he was certain.

Until she pulled her shirt over her head and suddenly he was greeted with an even better sight. He took in a long, deep breath, telling himself that perhaps she was only overheated with the sun at her back. If she wanted to stretch out over his cool scales, so that her breasts were flattened against his chest, he could still hold himself together. Even when she propped her head on her hands and looked at him with that gaze that he knew meant she was hungry for him.

He would let her set the pace. This wasn’t the time to be thinking with anything other than the brain he had in his skull.

But when she was looking at him like that, it was hard to think of anything but that grin on her face. “I don’t want to push you,” he said.

“You’re not pushing me.” She spread herself a little closer, rubbing against him in a way that was almost impossible to ignore. “I’m asking.”

“Ace—”

“Maketes. I know this might seem like the wrong time to be asking you to do this, but I know what I want.” Her gaze turned a little serious, her tone sharper than before. “I understand your hesitation. I really do. But right now, I just want to forget everything. I want to forget the world, what happened, and even that we’re here. I just want it to be you and me, together. Can we do that?”

A distraction. Of course that’s what she wanted.

He wasn’t sure it was the smartest thing to do, considering the circumstances. She likely needed to sit in her feelings for a little while longer, but... he’d never been very good at denying her anything.

Nodding, he palmed the softness of her thighs and jerked her even higher up his body.

The sun framed her face, turning some strands of her hair to liquid gold. But it was her eyes that he stared into the most, the eyes that he so adored. It was difficult for her to even ask this of him, he knew. She didn’t want him to think less of her for distracting herself.

He drew her down until her forehead was pressed against his. The webs of his fingers smoothed through her hair, holding her tightly where he wanted her to be.

“Ah, kefi,” he breathed. “You never have to ask me for anything twice.”

He drew her to him with soft hands and quiet sounds. When she wanted him to roll her beneath him, he didn’t. He merely turned her to face the sun and ran his hands over her in that way. It was important that even while he pleasured her and drew out those sounds that always made him hard, that she still look at the world around her.

Because this was only a moment in time. A memory for her to come back to when the world was dark and the rains wouldn’t stop. He wanted her to always remember the pleasure they brought each other on a white sand beach where the sun was still overhead.

Even as he could hear the storms in the distance. Even as the world felt like it could tumble down around their ears at any point.

He wanted her to know that they had loved each other in the stillness of peace. And oh, they loved each other well.

EPILOGUE

They’d received a message. The logo on the sealed message that Byte had been transmitted was just a giant “T”.

Mira had her fist pressed to her lips, a scowl wrinkling her brow as she stared at the projection on the wall. “It’s a trap,” she said. “The moment we open that, they’ll know where we are.”

“Why would they have sent a message?” Anya asked. “That doesn’t make any sense at all. If they knew how to get in touch with Byte, then they already know how to track us.”

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