Page 78 of Fate of Echoes and Embers
“Home,” she murmured.
Issa longed to return to Hawthorne. I cupped her cheek, wanting to hear the words again, but knowing it would be more difficult to leave if I did.
“I meant what I said back there.” I nodded toward the open sea. “I love you, Issa. I’ve always loved you. It’s the true reason I left the way I did. Loving a human…” My words were not coming out as I intended.
“I know,” she said. “I figured it out, the night you were having the dream, I think.”
“You know?” I teased. “That is all you have to say?”
“That and… I meant it too. I love you, Marek. And if you think loving a human is difficult, try loving a Thalassari smuggler?—”
“Navarch.”
“Sure.”
I kissed her.
We were alive, and so I kissed her, our lips melding together more familiarly now. It was a kiss of longing, but of joy and relief too. It quickly spiraled, though, into something more. I couldn’t remove her clothing quickly enough, and Issa evidently felt the same. She tugged on the clasp of my leather belt, and I was all too happy to accommodate.
Pulling away, I released it, placing it carefully on the sand.
“There is something in there,” I teased as Issa tugged off her boots, “we would do well not to lose.”
As I pulled off my own, Issa paused. She might have let me pleasure her, twice, but Issa was still innocent. She was embarrassed.
“Take off your clothing,” I said, turning around. “And lay it on the sand. I will join you in the water.”
I turned, and waited. Heart pounding, as if I’d never been with a woman before, I stopped thinking about what this meant. How much of herself Issa would be willing to give me, knowing I wanted all of her. Body, heart, soul. I wanted to sail Elydor with her by my side.
She is human.
Issa will never leave Hawthorne Manor.
“Marek… I…”
The sound of water splashing punctuated the steady flow of the tide. I pulled off my shirt. The hesitancy in her voice… She was scared. I never undressed so fast in all my days.
Turning to face her, Issa submerged now to her shoulders, I strode toward the water, relishing in her expression. If Issa liked what she saw, her admiration was only a fraction of my own for her.
“You took out your braid.”
“You… are quite nude.”
Laughing, I reached for her, and there was no turning back. Our bodies pressed against each other, my hands roaming downward as the warm, gentle waves rose and fell around us. As my hands covered her breasts, I flicked my thumbs against her nipples, Issa pressing deliciously against my hands.
As our tongues tangled and Issa’s own hands explored, I encouraged them to roam, to learn my body as I was learning hers. When she pulled from our kiss, and looked down between us, the blue-green water crystal clear, I couldn’t resist a small chuckle.
I laid my hands on her shoulders, waiting until she looked at me.
“Talk to me, sereia. Tell me what you want.”
“I want you,” she said simply. “I’ve saved myself for a stranger, and for what reason? Draven threatens to take Hawthorne?—”
“He will not have it, Issa. I promise you.”
“I want you to be my first, Marek.”
First, and last. But that discussion could come later.
