Page 63 of The Flame and the Forsaken

She nodded to show him she was fine, more than fine. The throbbing between her legs was all-consuming, pounding in time with her heart and irregular breaths as she considered what would come next.

He lifted her legs and eased her onto the cot, climbing up and over her, still so careful with her wounds. One hand scooped under her back to hold her aloft as he used the other to peel away her shirt.

His came off next. She ran her fingers along the hard lines of years at sea. Privileged or not, he’d worked hard to prove himself, to earn his place. He’d shied away from nothing their adventure demanded, and though she wasn’t used to anyone else being in charge, she realized shelikedhis assumption of control. She never knew how badly she wanted someone to look after her until Erran had decided himself her protector.

Erran deftly wriggled out of his pants. When his torso came down over her, his erection dragged along the length of her, sending her eyes rolling back with longing. He nestled into place, one hand reaching down between them to guide himself into place. “What a mess we are, Mariel,” he whispered, breathless.

“Nothing wrong with that, as long as we’re together,” she answered and boldly lifted, provoking a surprised reaction from him. Then something changed in his eyes, the lightness of the moment passed, and he drove into her, knocking her entire world off its course.

“Ahh,” she moaned, the stinging, burning pain unexpected but not more than she could handle. He slowed to check on her, but she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a deep kiss, gliding her tongue over his, showing him what she wanted, that she could handle all of him.

Erran’s rhythm was smooth and lyrical, like his skill with the sails. Every inch of her, including the parts she hadn’t explored, illuminated under his touch like lightning coursing through a desert. His gentle but frenzied thrusts seemed to manifest their fears that the moment couldn’t last, couldn’t be real. That they were still the Erran and Mariel of Goldsea Spires, products of worlds that would forever be at odds.

Erran caressed her face, his hands traveling her neck. He whispered her name there, and the syllables had never sounded so beautifully handled. Arcing back to look at her again, his head shook in slow passes, his voice cracking. “I never realized how gorgeous you are until now. I must have been blind, because...” He trailed off.

Mariel ran her hands up and down his muscled back. “We see what we think we need to see.” Her eyes closed, losing herself in his movements.

“Everything I need is right here.” Erran solemnly pressed his mouth to hers. “And here,” he said, brushing his lips along the hollow of her neck. Tears sprang to her eyes, and he swiftly dipped in to kiss the corners. “It’s all right, Mariel. The past can’t reach us here.”

Mariel tightened her grip around him and buried her face in his neck. “Don’t stop. Please.”

Erran wrapped his arms around her and hoisted her onto his lap, the two of them entwined in a perfect knot of desire and need and desperation. Mariel had no sense of how long they stayed there, him plunging upward into her and her riding the rhythm, but when he pressed his mouth to her temple and shuddered, she knew it wasn’t nearly long enough.

She waited for him to get up and leave, the way Destin and Remy had always said men did after sex, but he didn’t. He nestled down and pulled her against his chest.

“Mariel, was this your first time?”

Mariel launched into a panic, recounting everything she must have done wrong for him to know. “I... Aye, it was. Was I terrible?”

Erran squeezed her tight, planting a long kiss atop her head. “Nay...Nay,you were amazing. But you were bleeding, and had I known, I could have been gentler.”

“You didn’t hurt me.” She angled her head upward to look at him. “Do you know how you can tell?”

He shook his head.

“Because you’re stillbreathing.”

Erran burst out laughing and gave her a gentle shake. “Fair play.”

“Why did you think... You assumed I’d been with other men?”

“Well, aye...” He tripped over his words. “I assumed you were lying to me about the man who came to visit you. Remy.”

“Remy is family. I wasn’t lying about that,” she said, though it wasn’t so long ago she’d wondered if he could have been more. Imagining it now was like trying to fit a square oar into a round bolt. “Like a brother.”

Erran got quiet. “And me? What am I?”

“You’re...” The words didn’t come because she had no answer. So easily she could have saidnothingeven a week ago. “I don’t know. All I know is we can be anything we want here.”

“What if I said I wanted to be your family?” he whispered into her matted hair. “Butnotlike a brother?”

“We can be anything we want here,” she said once more, snuggling closer. “And lucky for you, I want the same thing.”

Chapter13

My Little Mystery

Mariel finished wringing Erran’s clothes after a wash in the river, draping them over a line they’d fashioned from the old netting. He grinned at her from the side as he mimicked her actions, having just cleanedherclothing.If you’re going to wash mine, it’s only fair,he’d said, and not only could she not argue, she found it incredibly sexy.

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