Page 24 of Ruthless Scoundrel
“How much of their tongue went down your throat?” I ask, trying and failing to get a handle on my wandering thoughts.
“My throat?” she squeals, her face getting even redder. “None!”
I shake out my hair. “Then obviously you’ve never been properly kissed.”
She scoffs and laughs at the same time. Her frustration is so amusing. “I don’t know how selkies kiss, but there’s nothing ‘proper’ about sticking your tongue in someone else’s mouth.”
I lean against the rocks beside her. “You can’t hate it until you’ve tried it.”
“Vulgar man,” she mumbles.
I smirk. “Not a Man.”
She growls. “You are infuriating.”
I do my best to keep my wandering eyes to myself as she twists the water from her clothes and hair. There’s something about her that makes me hungry, and not for fish. When she healed my hands, it was like a warm sea current flowed through my very soul. Her eyes glowed blue, shimmering like the sun from the bottom of a shallow gully, and I felt as though I could almost see down to her spirit.
The way she gently caressed my palms as she healed me felt like something more than the hollow act she made it out to be. Yes, perhaps I am her only salvation, but there was more to her touch than hatred.
Or maybe I’m delusional from dehydration.
I look toward the horizon. Lazy clouds are painted in red and gold as the first light of the rising sun burns into the sky. Sometimes I forget how beautiful it can be on land.
What if I’m taking this beauty away from her? What if I fail, and she’s the vile wretch’s captive forever? How could she escape him if she doesn’t know the most basic things about theworld, like swimming? How could she survive him and the other hunters who will pursue her if she can’t fend for herself?
If I teach her competency, train her, perhaps she could help improve my chances of survival. That would require me telling her the truth, which she may or may not believe. Even if she does believe me, would she want to help? She has her own rebellion to tend to. The woes of a few surviving selkies would pale in comparison to her love for her people. For her sister…
Maybe if I can build some trust, turn her on to my charms, then she’ll care for my plight.
The sun blazes over the crest of the sea and I firm my resolve. “First lesson, princess. The tide is low at dawn and dusk, when Eyzanth and Nol’Ther pull the souls of the dead down to the afterworld. If you need to navigate by sea in a smaller craft, dawn is your best chance.”
I can feel her watching me from my peripheral vision. I want to look at her, to see what she’s thinking, but I don’t want her to know whatI’mthinking. What if she uses this information against me?
“So, midnight and midday are more dangerous?” she asks.
I nod. “Higher swells, faster winds, and bigger gusts.”
“Anything else I should know like that?”
“Monsters from the deep venture out in the dark to hunt. Moonslight is perfect for them to see by, but harder for us who live closer to the light. The Gods’ Eclipse in a few weeks will be much worse. Some of the selkie bands believe even the Voice of the Abyss may rise that night to feast on the creatures of the land.”
Reina’s gut growls loudly. “The voice from my abyssal stomach is rising first. Can the next lesson be about fishing?”
“So eager to learn from me.”
“Only to hasten my escape from you.” She gives me a perfectly pleasant smile that belies her words. “I’d like to get that underway, so if we could hop to it?”
I sketch a bow. “Yes, of course, my princess.”
Her cheeks blaze. “I am not yourprincess.”
“I could always make you my captive again, if you’d prefer,” I say, flicking the copper manacles attached to my belt.
She glares at my waist, but then her eyes travel up my body with a slower, more exploratory drag. When she meets my gaze again, her face is flushed. Something about her appreciative perusal emboldens me.
“Like what you see?”
Her lip peels back in a snarl and she turns away. “Don’t flatter yourself. You look like a drowned rat.”
