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Morning took an eternity to arrive, and I hadn’t slept a wink in the interim. When the pink and orange shocks of color painted the sky, I maneuvered the ship closer to shore and had my men ready the skiff.
“Morning, sir,” William chirped.
“Aye,” I grumbled back.
He eyed me. “I take it you didn’t sleep much after the siren attack.” It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t respond. He’d been my closest friend for centuries and he knew better than anyone how my mind worked. “Would you like me to see to Miss Never now or wait until we’re a bit closer?”
The urge to growl at him bubbled in my chest and I froze. Why would I react like that to my oldest friend offering to simply wake the woman? I shook my head. “I’ll do it. Take over here and bring the ship round to the west beach. You know the spot.”
“Yes, sir,” he said, not even trying to hide the twinkle in his eye.
What the man didn’t realize was that I was going in there to wake her up so he didn’t have to deal with her volatility. It was entirely possible, given her previous behavior, that she was inclined to come awake swinging. Technically, William healed more quickly than I did these days, but I still wouldn’t put it on him to risk taking that blow.
That was what I told myself when I got to the door. I knocked gently and listened, but the only sounds my heightened senses picked up were the slap of waves against the hull, the cry of a gull flying toward the island, and a faint, feminine snoring.
It was an unexpectedly adorable sound. A reluctant smile curved my lips, but then the vision from a few hours earlier filled my mind.
My indiscretion.
It had been wrong in so many ways, and very likely a setup by an incredibly talented enchantress. None of that stopped my cock from coming alive at the memory or prevented my mind from stitching together her moans of pleasure with the sight of her fingers dancing in small circles between her thighs.
I should have knocked again. Louder. But I turned the handle, pressing the door open quietly. I opened it just enough to duck through without giving any of my men a peek inside, in case Never had fallen asleep as I’d last seen her.
The thought made my scalp tingle, and I tried not to imagine her sprawled half-naked in my bed.
Fortunately, the woman was fully dressed, save for her boots and jacket. She was curled on her side on top of the covers with her arms wrapped protectively around something.
That was odd.
I edged closer to get a better look and recognized the book right away. A fresh twinge of irritation snaked through me. Had she gone through my things?
She mumbled something in her sleep and shook her head, burying it deeper into my pillow. Her grip on the book loosened and it slipped from her grip, sliding flat onto the silky duvet. Before I realized it, my feet carried me to the edge of the bed, and I plucked the book from its resting place. It was the one I’d been reading before this whole debacle with the demon and Never had started.
So, maybe she hadn’t gone snooping through my belongings. I vaguely recalled leaving the title in the top drawer of the nightstand. I flipped through the pages, but there were no creases in the dogeared pages. No sign of ill treatment.
“That’s one of my favorites.” Her voice was laced with sleep, but her eyes were piercing even in the near darkness.
I covered my startle by opening the nightstand and putting the book back in its place. “Aye, mine too.”
“I gathered that from the condition of it. How many times have you read it?” She asked the last bit with a groan as she stretched her limbs taut, arching her back just a little.
My body’s reaction was instantaneous, and I turned abruptly from her. She could not be allowed to witness the effect she had on me.
“What are you, Never?” The question came out unintentionally brusque, rough, and I hated myself for not having better control over my own voice. Silence filled the space between us, save for the ticking of the clock, marking the seconds she spent conjuring an answer.
I wheeled around and pinned her with my gaze. “I asked you a question.”
“I heard you, but I don’t know how to answer. Human? Is that what you’re looking for?”
Fine, if she wanted to play games, I could play to. Enchantress or no, I knew for a fact I had an effect on her. That attraction I felt, however warped, was not one-sided.
I hoped it wasn’t one-sided.
She propped herself on her elbows as she watched me. Her eyes followed me to the bottom of the bed. When I grabbed her ankle and pulled her toward me, she didn’t scream or cry out. No, she let me slide her closer without any fight at all.
Enchantress or temptress? One was magical, the other was just… insatiable.
My cock pulsed uncomfortably as I imagined stripping her out of her pants and running my hands up her legs. I shoved the thought from my mind. What I was doing was not for me. It was a test. A challenge to see how she would react.
