Page 72 of Fate of Echoes and Embers
I should stop him. Knowing it and being motivated to do it were two different things. It was unlikely I would ever have a chance to do this, certainly not with Marek, again.
“I might be wicked,” he said, pushing the camisole Mev had given me upward with both hands. “And a slew of other bad things.” Just as the urge to cover myself grew too strong, Marek stopped the camisole’s progress, took my hands, and placed them on the bed, silently telling me not to hinder his movements. He then grabbed the inside of both knees and spread my legs wide. “But I never. Ever…” Marek lay both hands on me, his thumbs opening me wide. It took everything inside me not to move, to cover myself. “Break my word. When I make a promise, sereia, I fulfill it.”
With that, Marek grinned and lowered his head between my legs. At the first touch of his tongue, I nearly came off the bed. It was such an odd sensation, I had no notion of whether it was good or bad. The sight of him like that… I grabbed the coverlet between my fists to keep them immobile.
At the second touch of his tongue, becoming accustomed to the sensation, I nearly jolted off the bed for an entirely different reason. With each lick, Marek’s tongue swirling and teasing as his fingers had done, I struggled to breathe. To think. It was the singular most pleasurable thing I’d ever experienced, and apparently, he wasn’t finished. Groaning, as if he too enjoyed it, Marek did not let up.
I grabbed the back of his head, holding on as if he were the quarterdeck railing and a strong storm threatened to toss me overboard.
“Marek,” I murmured, no other words forming in my mind. “Please,” I begged, not wanting him to stop. “Please.”
In response, as if knowing what I asked for, he increased the intensity. With the flick of his tongue, I tightened my grip, belatedly realizing I was clenching his hair between my fingers. He didn’t seem to care. Whatever he was doing, how he’d learned that, I didn’t care.
Nothing mattered.
Nothing except, “That,” I said. “Just that way, please.”
My entire body shuddered, clenched. Released in a wave of sensation that was unlike even the last time Marek had made me feel this way. I gasped, wanting to pull him back toward me as Marek lifted his head. He watched as I struggled to compose my thoughts, the tumbling mess that made little sense.
Nothing did.
That was…
“Incredible.”
“A promise is a promise,” he said, as I collapsed on the bed. He said nothing for a moment, but when he joined me, I realized it was because he had removed his shirt. He wore nothing but loose, linen trousers, suitable for sleep. Lying beside me, propped up on his elbow, Marek was also grinning from ear to ear.
“You seem… pleased with yourself.”
“I’m pleased you are,” he said, leaning forward for a lingering kiss. I turned toward him, Marek pulling me into his bare chest. Another strange, but enjoyable, sensation. We stayed that way, wrapped in each other’s arms, until I heard his steading breathing. Peeking up, I realized he was asleep.
I allowed my hand to lay on his chest, the warm skin beneath my fingers oddly comforting. Not knowing what tomorrow would bring, I closed my eyes and tried not to think on it. The Depths. Hawthorne Manor. Draven. The Gate. I attempted to let all of it slip away, pretending, for just this moment, my growing affection—once again—for him was not going to likely be my undoing.
And yet, as I lay in his arms, I could not shake a vision of Marek at the helm as a storm raged around him. No one knew precisely what the Depths were like since none had survived them, but my imagination conjured an image anyway. I saw him attempting to tame unnamable waters, both Marek andTidechaserlosing the battle.
I did not want Marek to die.
Pressing myself closer to him, I wanted to wake him up and beg him not to do it. Find another way. Instead, I contented myself in this moment, knowing such a plea was futile, but also knowing there was a real possibility we would share very few moments like this again.
28
MAREK
“Shall I bring my belongings?”
When dawn broke, the storm having already passed, I reluctantly woke Issa to let her know we would sail out. It was the best night of sleep I had ever had. A dreamless and peaceful slumber, punctuated only once when Issa moved away. I pulled her back and promptly fell back to sleep, waking before dawn in search of a window to the outside world.
I shook my head. “I’ve arranged to keep this room, and we should return before tomorrow.”
My gaze fell to the stretch of Issa’s tunic across her breasts. Despite our intimacies, I’d not seen her fully naked. Not felt their fullness beneath my fingers, even though I’d ached to do so when I woke this morn. I’d not taken her nipples into my mouth or driven into the sweetness I’d tasted last eve. I knew her more intimately now, but not nearly enough.
I wanted all of her.
“Marek?”
Shaking off the thought, I turned, knowing if I touched her now, we would not sail out this morn. “Come,” I said, “let’s get this done.”
Thankfully, we made our way back toTidechaserwithout incident. Ilyas was nowhere to be found, and since he was most often at the docks, I could only assume he’d not yet returned to port. Watching as Issa untied us, I marveled at how far she’d come since that first day.
