Page 68 of The Song of the Void

“That night, I think I saw the real you, though you probably didn’t mean to show me. When you offered to take away my pain, I saw that even if you didn’t want to care about me, you couldn’t stop yourself from wanting to help someone hurting. And…that night I had you beneath me on my cot…” He trailed off, leaving space for me to remember the heat between us, the heady words. His hands kept busy massaging my breasts, and another sweet kiss on my neck turned into a nibble that made me gasp his name. “Mmhm. I felt like I was in a dream. I knew it was all just a tease to you, but…I wanted it to be real.” One of his hands snaked down my stomach so that he could hook his fingers around the top of my underwear, lacy fabric that suddenly felt like it covered nothing at all. He tugged at it, but didn’t take it off.

“A-are you enjoying undressing me as slowly as possible, Reiven?”

I felt him smile against my neck. “Definitely. But I’m not just undressing you, I’m also distracting you.”

“Distracting me from wh⁠—”

His lips formed some word against my skin, a foreign word that was hardly audible. Something about the word filled me with a sense of relief, as pressure I hadn’t even realized lingered around me lifted away.

He removed his hands from my body, along with the Druinnic choker from around my neck. The solid gold ring that had magically sealed itself on me now appeared to have a clasp he had undone.

He threw it carelessly into the bushes in the jungle behind us. “Since I’m undressing you, figured I might as well do it properly.”

“But…how?”

The waves rolling onto the beach whispered to me, and my heart slowed to beat in time with them. If I decided to, I could just…go home. Right now. There was nothing I wanted more. Nothing—yet I paused at the warmth of Reiven’s bare chest against my back, his hands locking around my stomach as he rested his chin against my shoulder.

“That Druinn general, Shaddan, figured out I didn’t actually know how to disenchant it, so he told me. I think he might’ve wanted me to release you, to give you a chance to live if they killed me. Probably feeling guilty after seeing how you were treated, so maybe he does have a conscience.” He released me and stepped back, but losing his body heat made me want to scream. “I’d wondered if this would be goodbye.”

I faced him, only for him to nod at the ocean.

The girl I was a few months ago would have left in a heartbeat. Forget the plan, forget the Voidtome, forget everything but the Deep. But his eyes had me caught in a trance; a magnetic pull urged me closer. I stared up at him, completely silent. The idiotic piece of my heart that belonged to him whispered and sang until it overruled every rational thought inside me. I giggled.

“‘Goodbye?’ But Rei…You’re stuck with me.”

We moved at the same time, his lips colliding with mine like a bolt of lightning striking the sea during a tempest. Something warm erupted inside my heart—dangerous enough that it might melt me or burn me to cinders, but in that moment, it made me weightless. Reiven was a force of pure heat and power, and I yielded to the warmth of his body, to the tight hold of his fingers speared into my hair. Every touch was blissful, exhilarating surrender…yet I still had control.

It felt like freedom.

Our kisses were laughably haphazard, but neither of us bothered to care. Unable to breathe, equally unable to stop, I pressed closer to him, eager to taste more of that tangy-sweet pineapple on his tongue. It still wasn't enough. A growl escaped me mid-kiss at the realization that he was significantly more clothed than me, and not only was it unfair, but I wanted to see all of him. I seized him by the belt.

“Mm—Blue—this is a surprise,” he mumbled between unabashedly messy, wild kisses, but he didn’t sound surprised at all, damn him. He smirked and bit his lip while I fumbled with his belt buckle.

“Don’t you dare play innocent. You were the one taking my clothes off and talking seductively. You put thoughts of this in my head.”

Reiven blinked at the way I hurled his belt off into the darkness of the jungle, and had the audacity to laugh at how I practically ripped the buttons off his trousers in my haste and frustration. “I wasn’t trying to be seductive⁠—”

Go drown in a whirlpool, you liar!

“—but that’s definitely seductive,” he said, motioning in the general direction of his newly lost belt, as if he found my lack of care for his clothing sexy.

I gave up trying to get his pants off without his help. “Take them off. Now.”

“You’re bossy when you’re hot and bothered,” he teased, but obliged me. “But you also like being told what to do…Interesting.”

At least we were on an even playing field, with just our lower halves covered. I snaked my arms around his neck and jumped on him to wrap my legs around his waist, giving him no choice but to hoist me up against him. I lost myself in another whirlwind of chaotic desperation and the heat of his body against mine. He may play the confident joker, but he matched every inch of passion in my kisses. That odd feeling I refused to name squeezed my heart in the best way possible.

“I shouldn’t want you,” I moaned. “I’m a Siren. You’re a Human. A former pirate, for Spirits’ sake.”

“I know. But to hell with what we are.” Reiven sank to his knees to lay me down in the grass, smoldering eyes drinking in every part of my exposed body, just like he had on the Maiden weeks ago. “I’ll dive headfirst over the edge into that void you said would cause me pain. I’ve wanted you for too long to hesitate anymore.”

Together. We’ll jump into the void together.

He teased my earlobe with his teeth. The tickling, pleasant sensation of the gentle bites he worked down my neck sent me whimpering. Heat pulsed inside me. It began in the ache between my legs and spidered out into my lower stomach.

“Tell me what you want, Zephra.” His deep, provocative voice intensified every sensation, especially his lips dragging down my neck and chest. Rei looked me in the eye and repeated himself. “Tell me what you want.”

“I want you to make me feel everything I haven’t felt before,” I breathed, the words spilling from my mouth unbidden. “Everything.”