The rage dissolves. One by one, his muscles untense, and the stormy clouds of his irises clear into bright blue. A tentacle latches onto my ankle, and I give him a small, sad smile that says,yeah, life is shit right now, but we’re in the shits together.
He moves his sprawling limbs out of the way and lets me pull him beside the pool. “Sit.”
Ordus studies me head to toe, like any second I’m going to rescind my offer and agree I shouldn’t trust him. But I’ve already made up my mind. I’m doing this.
Like a frightened animal, he lowers himself to the kraken equivalent of sitting, and I stand behind him. A few of his tentacles spill into the pool, some climbing up the surroundingwalls while one stays firmly around me, coiling up my leg until there’s hardly any exposed skin.
We’re closer in height this way. I can sort of see over his head, but not much. He shivers the moment I brush his hair over his shoulders. Otherwise, just like every other time, he stays stock-still.
I thread my fingers through his silken strands to carefully work out a few tangles. I could get the comb on top of my shelf, but I don’t want to. There’s something heady about seeing a powerful male all but kneeling in front of me, shivering and shuddering whenever our skin touches.
I guess I thought everything would change after what we did last night. Maybe he’d become cocksure or arrogant orexpectmy total compliance, but he’s just as uncertain as he was yesterday.
The quiet of the cave—less Vasz’s gnawing on a coconut—is peaceful. It’s comforting, even if it is the calm before the storm.
Ordus must feel when I’m getting to the bottom of the braid, because he offers me a scrunchie that has most definitely seen better days. I nudge his hand back and show him the little black hair tie on my wrist I was using this morning.
I can only see his profile, but there’s no mistaking the way his lips part on a heavy breath. Warmth douses my insides. I could almost forget about this afternoon’s fiasco with how much he lights up from such a simple thing.
I tie the plait off and navigate his limbs, plus a tentacle holding me hostage, to stand in front of him under the guise of assessing my handiwork.
The blue-algae light kisses the high points of his cheeks and the curve of his pillowy lips. Shadows dip around his broad shoulders and muscled chest, highlighting the definition in his abs. “You look good,” I whisper without really thinking about it.
Our gazes snare like a deer in headlights. Embarrassment flushes my cheeks, and uncertainty colors his.
Does he think I’m lying?
A stone drops in my gut. That doesn’t sit right with me. I’m tired of treating him like he’s the villain when he’s just another victim who didn’t get an out.
“I like the way you look,” I clarify. “The other krakens were fucking hideous.”
His eyes glimmer like the sun reflecting off the water, and the corners of my lips tick up. His do the same, though a little more hesitantly.
“Yeah?”
I nod. “It looked like someone stepped on them as a baby. The one who kept on talking creeped me the hell out. He was a real Eldritch Horror.”
Ordus’ gives me a small smile that doesn’t meet his eyes. It makes my heart ache for him. “Lazell,” he tells me. “When I was younger, kraken females would swoon over him, even when Yannig was alive.”
I reach around to pull his braid over his shoulder in a covert move to touch him. “I thought your kind had good eyesight.”
This time, when I meet his eyes, every sorrow and stress of the past few years washes away. He’s looking at me in a way I thought only existed in books, like the purest form of love that could bring rain to a desert. I take his hand and squeeze it, and it’s like every little thing is right with the world.
“Clearly not as good as my mate’s.” His deep voice makes my toes curl.
My fingers graze over the tentacle around my leg. “Clearly.”
Because yeah, I guess I am his mate.
29
Cindi
The woman looks at me like I’m about to rob her.
“Uh…” I glance over her shoulder into my cabin—or, at least, itusedto be my cabin. I’m kind of offended my landlord cleaned out my shit and moved on so quickly.
She shifts, blocking my view, casting a skeptical look over me. I can’t imagine I look all too approachable, with my sopping hair and the patches of saturation over my green dress—the same green dress I wore when Ordus stole me.
