“Wait, where are we going?” I asked, doing my best to keep up with his pace.
“For a swim.” He brought me back to the cave, stopping beside a few of the larger rocks as he began pulling off his shirt. “You can leave your clothes on if you’d like, or I can turn around while you undress,” he offered.
I thought about it for a moment. It was so dark in here; he wouldn’t exactlyseeanything.
“Turn around,” I said finally, deciding to take off the shirt and pants, but leave on my undergarments.
Once he faced the entrance of the cave, I slipped off my clothing and slowly stepped into the warm water. It felt so amazing, a sigh slipped past my lips the moment my hips had fully submerged. Quickly, I waded through the silky water until it hovered just above my shoulders.
“You can turn around now!” I yelled out to Tristan.
As he began removing the rest ofhisclothing, I peered up at the ceiling, basking in the shimmering lights, and tried to picture the night sky above me.They moved in waves as they mirrored the rippling water around me, but it didn’t take away from the beauty of it.Hemade this.
He’s never even seen the stars…The thought actually saddened me. He had been stuck in this wasteland of a world for so many years, never breathing fresh air… never feeling the warmth of the sun.
The water around me shifted as he entered, and I turned just as he submerged his hips under the spring. It was hard to hide the blush on my cheeks as I gazed at every perfectly sculpted inch of his body. The markings must have been from Ryuk. Whether they were inherited at birth, or due to what Ryuk had done to him, they were eerily similar to Kaiden’s. Had Ryuk gifted them to him as his prodigy?
“You’re staring,” Tristan teased.
Biting my lip, I turned my head away shyly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
All of a sudden, I felt him behind me and almost jumped when his hands touched my shoulders.
“What are you scared of, Morrigan?” he asked, brushing my hair back and exposing my skin to him.
He pressed his fingers into my shoulder, massaging it gently. It soothed the ache in my joints from training with Malakai, and I leaned my head back against his chest as I closed my eyes.
Eventually, after a few moments of silence, I said, “I don’t want Malakai to do it.”
“Alright. There are other ways to destroy a soul. I can give you the blade?—”
“No,” I interrupted him. Warily, I turned to face him, and his hands remained on my shoulders as I looked up at him in the glistening water. Tiny specks of light shimmered along his cheeks, making his eyes glow even brighter. “I don’t want him to be gone…yet.”
He stared at me for what felt like an eternity before the realization seemed to flash across his eyes. With no hint of what he was feeling, he said, “Then, he won’t.”
My heart began fluttering nervously in my chest, either out of fear or something even worse… Excitement?Gods… Am I really this fucked up?“You don’t think that makes me a bad person?” I asked him. “You don’t think it will… change me?”
“It will.” He lifted a hand, gently caressing my cheek with a deeper intimacy in his touch. “Will it make you a bad person? Never, Morrigan. Your heart is too pure… too bright.”
“I have this anger inside of me, Tristan. On one hand, the old me would have said yes to just getting rid of him,” he pushed my curls away from my face, never taking his eyes off of me, “but there’s this darkness that keeps growing, demanding some kind of justice that I feel I’m owed.”
“If you want to know whatIthink you’re owed, it would involve everyone in your world burning for ever caging you to begin with.” His thumb slid across my cheek, pressing into my chin. “I think your gods would forgive the loss of a soul theyalreadycondemned for his crimes.”
“Would you?” I asked, my voice coming out in a thin, whispering breath. “Would you forgive me for what I want to do?”
With a torturous kind of ease, he lowered his lips until they hovered close to mine, barely touching my own. “Morrigan,” he whispered, and I could feel his breath, making me part my own lips as my eyes closed. “If you want him to hurt…” his hands found my hips, and I felt him pushing me until my back hit the edge of the cave; I sucked in a sharp breath as the jagged wall scratched against my skin, “I will hand you the fucking dagger myself.”
His lips crushed mine, and I couldn’t stop myself from wrapping my arms around his neck, returning his kiss. He lifted me by my waist until my legs wrapped around him, and I opened my mouth as his tongue found mine. Histouch alone sent a shock of adrenaline throughout my body, sending my mind into a frenzy as our mouths fought for control.
He felt so good. Everything… His hands… His lips… His taste…
I pushed my hips against him, craving some kind of friction, and I could feel his length hardening beneath me. The tether pulled and knotted together as we tangled our bodies, driving my desire deeper than anything I had ever felt before. It wasn’t a want anymore; it was aneed.
“My mind,” I whispered into his mouth, unable to get many words out as our lips clashed together. “You have my permission.”
I felt it this time, his power touching the edges of my mind. I didn’t bother with any of my walls. I let him slide in, and showed him what I wanted. Something about allowing Tristan to touch every part of me, mind and soul, seemed to enhance the heat that blazed in my core.
Are you sure?his voice whispered somewhere in the depths of my mind.
