Page 96 of The Silversmith

“Because if I hurt you, I’ll beat him to it.”

I frowned and watched the steaming crystal-blue pool move in mesmerizing waves around my calves as I made gentle movements. Now that my legs had adjusted to the heat, the rest of me craved it.

“I don’t like that thought,” I mumbled.

My heartbeat thrummed in my ears when I felt his touch—calloused and gentle—on my bare knees.

“Come here.” His expression softened at my frown. “In the water. It’s not deep.”

I rested my hands on his thick forearms and let him pull me off my rocky ledge into the water. Instinctively, I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck, adhering myself to him.

“This isn’t swimming.” His voice was low in his chest—breathless—as his hard, carved pectorals brushed against my breasts. My core pulsed with heat and need.

“I’m not worried. You’re good enough for the both of us.” I matched each of my fingers with five water droplets along his chest and collarbone. Our breaths swirled together between us in light, hungry pants.

His eyes were on my mouth, those burning pools darkening.

He cleared his throat, the deep sound breaking my trance. “Swimming.” The strong grip on my waist tightened, and suspended desire crashed violently into the wall of my stomach. “Don’t worry, I won’t let you drown.”

He lifted me off him and tossed me to the other side of the pool. I was holding my breath before I hit the water, and when I did, the waves surged around me in a glorious embrace of heat. Unexpected but igniting. I grinned beneath the water and swore I felt the power of Rainar, God of the Seas, reach through my skin to touch it.

When I came to the surface, I gasped for air and laughed. “So much for teaching me to swim!” But I was still smiling as I propelled my arms and legs down in circular motions against the water to stay afloat.

“Ella.” He gestured at me as I treaded water, his smile warm and proud. “You are swimming.”

The movements of my arms and legs kept my head above water. Thankfully, it was shallow enough I’d used the rocky pool floor as leverage to push up to the surface after he threw me. But with my less-than-average height, I couldn’t stand and keep my head above the surface at the same time.

Swimming felt like muscle memory, just like riding our black horse. Some part of me already knew how to do things I couldn’t remember learning. Things I learned before the accident, perhaps. Or was it the elusive power in my veins? A piece of each god that lived inside me, guiding me?

Maybe I’d never know, but at least I could do this. I let the water lift me up so my hips were flush with the surface as I reclined, floating on my back.

He cursed and sucked in a breath through gritted teeth. I glanced at him and saw his reaction to the sight of his black shirt’s wet grip on the front of my body. And the winter air just above the surface, what it did to my skin, my nipples against the fabric…

He made no attempt to hide how he devoured me with his gaze.

I felt like a flame, white hot.

“What if Elias doesn’t want me?” Like he wanted me.

The water rippled around me as he moved closer. Closer, even though moments before, he’d tossed me away from him like a sharpened blade he couldn’t bear touch.

“That’s not going to happen,” he replied, his rich timbre low and gravelly.

“How do you know that?”

He slid his hands beneath me—one touching my neck, the other on my lower back—and drew me against his chest. “Because it’s impossible not to want you.”

I sighed. “What if he’s not… nice?”

“If he’s not nice…” He cocked his head in thought, darkness surging in his eyes. “I know more ways to kill a man than the days you’ve lived, and I won’t bother making it look like an accident.”

His words—so full of rage and bloodshed—were so at odds with how he looked at me, how he spoke to me. I lifted my fingers to his bearded jaw. He closed his eyes and leaned into my touch. When he exhaled, I drew his breath into my lungs. Warm and sweeter than air.

“If you had one wish in this life,” I began, “what would it be?”

Because as queen, I would find a way to grant it after all he’d done for me. I thought of his wife, even though I didn’t want to. And I knew, if it was what he wanted, if it was even possible, I would spend every possible resource retrieving what would make him happy. Even if it hurt me to see him with someone else.

He leaned down and pressed his mouth to my temple. “Your freedom.”