“Please,” I begged, a shiver searing through me as he kissed the inside of my thigh. His lips swept lower with teasing torment.
“Is this what you want?” A slow lick over my heated skin. “What you need?”
I opened my mouth without a sound as he nipped even lower.
“Tell me, Mare. Who gives you everything?”
He waited, the wicked wretch, until I was trembling beneath him.
Until I answered.
“You, Gavin. Only you.”
His grin was a lethal thing. A slant of pure mischief and victory. Then, with his gaze locked on mine, burning like a green fire, he dipped his head and tasted me.
My back arched off the bedroll, but Gavin’s grip tightened, keeping me exactly where he wanted. Fingers digging into my thighs, he worked slow, devastating circles over my center.
There was no rush. He drew out every sensation, making me feel like my curse had been lifted and we had all the time in the world.
My fists clenched in the bedroll as a wave of pleasure crashed through me, tightening my core, making me see more stars than I could ever count.
“That’s my girl,” Gavin murmured, his voice wrecked with praise. “The one who clawed her way back from the sea.”
My heart clenched. I dragged in a breath. A deep, pure breath, savoring the weight of it, and the weight of his words.
“More, Gavin. Give me more.”
He let out a low, starving sound, sweeping his mouth one last time over the inside of my thigh, then slid up my body and found my lips. His hands sank through my hair, pulling me closer as his kiss deepened, turning essential. More than air.
Nothing else mattered. Not the castle looming in the distance. Not the maze. Not the clock ticking down, promising to end my life.
It all faded.
Gavin cupped my face in his palm and settled between my thighs. There was something in his eyes, something so fathomless, I knew I'd never reach the bottom. His mouth closed over mine like the sea in his eyes closed over my head, draggingme under. Hoping I never surface.
Bracing himself on his forearms, Gavin entered me slowly. The breath caught in my chest from the incredible pressure. The way we fit.
He dropped his head into the curve of my neck, his voice rough in my ear.
“You don’t know what you do to me. There is no end to how much I want you.”
Fathomless. An endless sea.
He kissed me again, our breath mingling as he moved within me. The pleasure inside me coiled tighter, an unstoppable tension.
He thrust deeper, and my hands glided down his back, finding the solid muscle of his hips. I let myself feel. Every stroke. Every claim of his mouth against mine. Everything that made us different, united against the forces that would tear us apart.
His control snapped. Breaths turned brutal as if my curse had become his, and he welcomed it.
My name slipped from his lips, again and again, the word his only tether. As if silence might snap it free. He held me tight, impossibly so, and I cried out as he took me with him, shuddering—breathless—into the place where nothing else existed but us.
Chapter 38
Gavin
The rain had finallystopped. But darkness was still my friend. I stacked another log onto the fire, stoking the flames to keep it from dying out, then returned to Marin.
She nestled closer, pressing her warm body into mine, still asleep. As if she knew I'd keep her safe. It was an instinct I prayed she’d never lose.
