Page 44 of Echoes of the Tide

There were so many things between them, though. She had a lot of questions that needed answers, but first, she wanted to prove to herself that Maketes was here for the right reasons. Or maybe, just maybe, she wanted to feel wanted.

Hovering her lips just barely over his, she breathed in his shuddering exhalation against her lips. “Go ahead. Tell me.”

“We’re friends,” he rasped. “Just friends.”

She could be brave. She could be the brave one to say what they were both thinking. Or at least, what she hoped they were both thinking.

So Ace framed his face with her hands, sliding her fingers along the softness of his gills on either side of his cheeks, and felt them somehow go even faster. And then she leaned so close that her lips nearly touched his.

“What if I want to be more?”

CHAPTER 18

The question froze him. He wanted to be so much more than friends. He’d said the same things to Fortis, but the fear of what that meant for the two of them was hard to ignore.

She asked for him to let go of his own fears. He wasn’t the male anyone ended up with. He was fun for a little while, but then females always wanted a male who could actually give them a family. Someone who didn’t have the problem of being golden and all that came with his coloring.

But this one... This achromo had seen so much more in him. She had made him laugh. She trusted him to keep her safe, and when was the last time someone had done that? When had a female ever looked at him as anything more than just fun?

His hands clenched on her waist, and he wanted to do so much more. He looked into her pretty brown eyes, seeing the entirety of all the things he adored in them. Her bravery. Her honesty. Her loyalty.

All of those things and more made her so much more real. She wasn’t just someone he shared a friendship with through messages that only the two of them saw. She was someone who meant so much more.

Breathing her scent deep into his lungs, he allowed his eyes to drift shut as she brushed her fingers over his gills again and again. He could feel her breath fanning across his lips. He heard the faint sound of her heartbeat and the little breaths that shuddered in and out of her mouth.

He slid his hands down her spine so slowly that they both stopped breathing. Pausing just before he touched anything that a friend certainly wouldn’t touch.

“The gills of my people flutter when there is someone they are interested in. When they wish to create a show to entice a potential mate.” His voice was deeper even to his own ears, gruff with need and desire that he still feared he shouldn’t show. “Mine have never fluttered for anyone else.”

“Does that mean you’re interested in me, Maketes?”

“It means...” He licked his lips, watching her eyes widen at the sight of his black, ribbed tongue. Fuck, that did things to him. Already he could feel his cocks hardening, pressing against the scales that kept them hidden from her sight.

He rolled his hips, lifting his tail just slightly so he could press it against her heat. It was so hot between her legs he could feel her melting into his scales. He wanted to know what that heat was, to explore it far more than she might even let him. Everything about her called out to him. He was stuck in her siren call and there was no way for him to get out of it.

She moaned, the little sound echoing around them. Ace froze, her eyes widening a bit as though she didn’t intend to make the sound.

“Again,” he growled, rolling his tail between her legs a little harder this time.

The whimper she made was the prettiest sound he’d ever heard, and even then, he wanted more. It would never be enough to hear just the one little sound of her walls breaking down. Maketes wanted to swallow down every sound of pleasure shemade. He wanted to press the scent of her desire into his scales so he would never forget this moment.

One of her hands slid down to his chest, bracing herself so his movements didn’t knock her free from his tail.

“Do you know what a kiss is?” she asked.

“Yes.” Of course he did. He’d seen both of his brothers press their lips to their mates, and though he’d thought it was rather odd, it was more than tempting. With Ace, he wanted to do everything.

He wanted to taste every inch of her body, even if these thoughts were perhaps too much. He couldn’t devour her the first time she let him touch her.

“Can I kiss you?” she asked, and he could hear the vulnerability in that question.

And then he remembered what she’d shared with him. That no one else had wanted her. She was the one who everyone had overlooked. And though it was his luck that they had done so, he also understood that she might be a little nervous.

He couldn’t let her do all the work. Not when she was the brave one who had initiated this.

With a deep growl under his breath, he let his hands wander where they wished. He grabbed handfuls of her ass, feeling the softness, just the right amount that he could grab onto. The plushness in his grip nearly sent him into a void of pleasure and desire from which he would never escape. That growl in his chest grew louder as he used the leverage of his grasp to thrust her even harder against him.

Her breasts flattened against him, pressing against his chest as all of her was suddenly against all of him. “Gods, there’s so much of you I want to taste, kefi. But first, give me your lips.”

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