Page 56 of Siren Bound
“I don’t have a soul,” I murmured, letting slip my biggest fear and greatest disgrace.
Might as well give it to him all up-front. If he knew what he was dealing with, it could save him the trouble of thinking he could fix me. Bonding was definitely out of the question. Who wanted to tie themselves to someone that broken? I didn’t shy away from him as he moved.
I watched as he gracefully climbed over me. He slowly, so slowly, molded himself to my side, giving me all the time in the world to throw him off. Settled on one elbow, his free hand snaked under the one I had resting on my stomach, until our fingers wove together.
“That’s a pretty big declaration of bullshit right there.”
Oh, did I say I had no room for anger and wrath? Lies.Thatquick, they flooded my veins. Turned out, they only needed an invitation from the asshole next to me to join the party. I tried to rip my hand away from his irritatingly strong grip, but he wasn't having it. One of his legs landed over both of mine, essentially trapping me.
“Who the hell do you think you are?” I shrieked, fully fighting now to get free so I could punch him in the face.
“Your bond, babe, we discussed this,” he said, pulling his leg back once he realized it left a very sensitive part of him unguarded. “Gods, you’re a cranky cucumber, aren't you?”
He didn’t know the half of it. I just admitted my deepest, darkest, regret and he called it bullshit.Bullshit. I was going to fillet him. Claw his eyes out. Rip his dick off and feed it to the goldfish I saw him sneak into the pool.
“Are you done?”
I screamed in frustration.
I wasn’t getting up. Ezra had me pinned well and good, with only one arm and half his body weight. Bastard. It became too exhausting to keep fighting against him, but my entire being vibrated with my contained emotions, just waiting for him to slip.
Ezra’s face hovered slightly over mine, and despite how amused he sounded through all of this, he looked decidedly serious now.
“Are. You. Done?” he asked again in a clipped tone that left no room for argument.
I stared back in quiet rage, but he had my attention.
“You have a soul, Rani,” he whispered, and some of that storm inside me lessened and took notice. “As your bond, I can feel it, and I want you to listen very closely when I tell you that your soul is beautiful, and bright, and pure, and one hundred percent the first thing that made me start falling for you.” His head cocked, almost like he could hear all that bottled emotion swirling inside me, waiting for an outlet. That teasing smile returned. “The second thing is definitely your ass.”
The laugh burst out of me like a cannonball, and once I started, I couldn’t stop. Not when my stomach cramped and my chest heaved. Not when the tears began leaking from my eyes to run down my cheeks, and the snot dripped from my nose.Huge, wracking sobs came next. It wasn’t beautiful, and it wasn’t bright. It was a dark, deeply scarredhurtthat poured out of me.
Everything. All I’d been holding in and carrying since the day I woke up with the taste of decaying brine on the back of my tongue and my entire insides moved around to make room for something foreign. I wasn’t myself anymore. Sure, this new me had the potential to be pretty badass, but I still mourned who Iwas.
Ezra held me, somehow pulling me half on top of him and completely wrapping me in his arms. He smelled like the purest snowfall, and he felt likehome. If he said there wasn’t a mass of darkness rooted in the very core of me, I believed him. Unfortunately, it would take more than a crying cuddle fest to straighten out that trauma.
“I think you’re afraid to be happy,” he claimed, fingers lightly trailing through my hair. “It’s okay, you know, if you need to talk about it.”
I shook my head, which was more like rubbing it against his chest. “I thought I gave it away in order to come back.” His hand stopped for a heartbeat before resuming its gentle caress. “I wasn’t afraid to be happy, I’ve just hated myself too much to be anything but angry.”
“And now?”
It was a good question. Those heated emotions still claimed me, but they weren’t as all-encompassing. They had an end. There wasn’t a cavernous pit waiting to swallow me whole when I thought about that night. Progress, I think some would call that. Hearing him say my soul was intact, it shined a light on all those dark spots inside me; sent those dark whispers and their monsters running. I had room tobreathe.
I turned my head, resting my chin next to his shoulder so I could gift him with the genuine relief in my gaze.
“Now, I think I’m ready to face it.” Truly.
That was pride on his face. My heart almost exploded into goo at the sight. Something swooped in my chest and my stomach when he looked at me like that. The hand playing in my hair drifted over my shoulder and down my side. When it stopped at the curve of my waist, Ezra’s fingers dug in.
“I think someone deserves a reward for being brave,” he hummed, and rolled me onto my back.
Hovering over me, his eyes slowly trailed from the skipping pulse in my throat, past my collarbones, to where my twisted sleep shirt gaped over one shoulder and revealed the curve of my breast.
One of his fingers drew light circles on the delicate skin. “You have a couple options for being such a good girl. Option one.” He hooked under the stretchy cotton and pulled it down, inch by inch, until the hardened tip of my nipple was exposed. “We go downstairs and I bake you the best damn chocolate chip cookies you’ve ever had.”
It kind of wasn’t fair for him to dangle my favorite dessert in front of me like that, especially when his mouth was so close. I couldn’t think about anything else but where it was going next.
“Or we can go with option two,” he continued, dropping his head until his lips brushed against me as he spoke. “I test the limits of this bond and make you come so hard the neighbors hear you chanting my name.”
