Page 38 of Depths
I was pleasantly surprised when I climbed into my carriage and the scents from yesterday had washed away. Bless that swift plains current. I was even more pleasantly surprised when I realized that the one man I’d danced with at the ball, and had not seen since, had been assigned to ride with me.
The silent siren, as I’d called him in my head, perched gently on the cushioned bench seat. His golden skin was a bit paler or pinker than the other sirens, a bit more luminous—something. The man was tall enough that he slouched a bit so his head wouldn’t hit the ceiling of the carriage, though some of his pale pink hair still looked as if it touched the top. He wore all black, just as he had when he’d asked me to dance. Like that night, his hazel green eyes burned fiercely, though his lips were silent as he held a hand through the open doorway to help me in.
My hand was tiny in comparison to his, and suddenly, I was very aware of how his biceps flexed when he moved me onto the seat next to him with hardly any effort. Unlike that night, I noticed he wore jewelry today. There were two golden rings on the top of his left ear, another gold ring pierced the corner of his mouth. On another man, they might have looked feminine. Of course, on another man, pink hair might have looked that way, but not on him. Everything about him was entirely and utterly male.
When I was seated, he stared at me for a long moment before he softly said, “Hello.” His voice was melodic, sweet to the ear the way honey was to the tongue.
When I glanced over, I noticed a stray lock of hair had fallen across his eyes, and I felt the strangest desire to brush it back. I didn’t. Instead, I fussed with my skirts a bit, then found myself fidgeting with my breakfast roll.
What an idiot!I gave him a bright smile, trying to overcompensate for my nerves frothing unexpectedly, like seafoam. I was probably making him uncomfortable. “Good morning, I’ve been wondering when I would get to see you again. You never introduced yourself, though you made quite an impression.”
He gave me a slow grin. “Good.” And suddenly, I very much doubted I had the ability to make him uncomfortable. I doubted anyone did. His smile was smooth as silk, full of confidence. It was the smile of a man who was about to take exactly what he wanted. And I had the feeling that was exactly what he’d meant to do. This siren, whomever he was, was patient. Strategic.
“So, what’s your name, siren?” I asked as I slid sideways along the bench to give myself more space to peruse him, not because my palms had grown slick and my nipples had pebbled and I was attempting to keep my wayward body under control.
I’d have lied about it if someone asked, but I’d had at least one naughty dream about this nameless man, one vision of him spinning me out of the ballroom and slamming me up against a tapestry hanging on the wall … I hoped my eyes didn’t give away my thoughts, but I couldn’t be sure, because his grin only grew.
“Valdez,” he replied, shifting in his seat so he could face me fully. His movement made our knees brush together, and I was suddenly self-conscious of the fact that my traveling dress today, a deep purple number with slits in the skirt for swimming, was a bit more promiscuous than I was used to. Not to mention that I’d only quickly scrubbed at my teeth this morning. My tongue ran over them, though it was foolish—we weren’t going to be kissing.
Where was that other competitor? We were two seats shy on the whale’s back, with my two last-minute competitors. I needed a distraction; I needed the other one to be gross and douse the fire that lit between my legs as Valdez continued his silent stare. I glanced out the window, but the carriage jerked forward, seahorses grunting as they began to move.
I furrowed my brow and turned back to Valdez. “Yesterday, I always had two competitors at a time in here. Did someone get left behind?” I leaned forward to peer out the carriage window, reaching for the door handle. “Perhaps I should find Sahar—”
Valdez’s hand closed over mine. “Don’t go. I asked her for the chance to talk to you alone.”
I turned back to look at him. And all the prior impressions I had of him being sweet, romantic, the type of knight-on-a-horse that every princess dreams about while she jills off in her tower bedroom, vanished. This gleam came into his eyes that made everything else in the carriage blur, his pupils blew out, and the scent in the carriage changed … It was different from anything I’d smelled before, almost floral. What did that mean?
“Alone. Is something the matter?”
“No, nothing.”
He didn’t expand.
I couldn’t help but glance down at our hands. When I looked back up, the intensity of his gaze pressed me back against the seat, and I struggled to find some distraction. “Your rings, they’re quite unusual.”
A slow grin crept over Valdez’s face. “Yes, well, in my line of work, there’s an old tradition, you get a ring for each conquest.”
“Conquest?”
His fingers slid up my hand and to the underside of my wrist. Sensation and vulnerability swam up my arm. My breath fled.
His eyes grew hooded. “Yes. I’m what some might call … a pirate.”
“A thief?”
“Some call it thievery. I call it commandeering. I take what I want. Ships—”
“Carriages?” I tried levity as a means of breaking the tension that had built between us. But it was too colossal. Like a forty-foot wave, I was caught up in it, no escape.
Valdez grinned and leaned closer until we were merely a breath apart. His breath caressed my lips as he whispered, “Queens.”
A second later, his lips pressed to mine.
Blood pounded in my temples, and my vision swam. And my brain screamed a million things at once.I don’t even know you! Yes! No! Wait! Pull my hair!
That wave of lust crashed down on me, and I was caught in a dangerous undertow for a minute, unsure what direction was up, certain I was drowning.
Valdez didn’t pull my hair, but he did nip my bottom lip before he pulled back, eyes smug. “I knew it,” he whispered.
