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Only this time, it was my fault. It wasn’t fair to keep her in the dark.
Swallowing hard, I returned to the bed. She scooted over a few inches, giving me enough room to sit down beside her. “We need to talk.”
Her eyes narrowed, and the trickle of emotion that had been bleeding through our connection was cut off completely. That normally feisty tongue of hers darted out of her mouth, wetting her lips before she pulled her knees up and sat up straighter. “In my world, that’s a loaded statement.”
I was fairly certain that was the case in most worlds, but it didn’t change anything. “There are things you need to know.”
A booming knock filled the room, and Never eyed me like I’d somehow planned the interruption. Truth be told, I wanted to take that distraction and run with it.
Anything to avoid this conversation.
I turned and stared at the door, weighing that option before my principles won out. “Go away!”
“Would love to, buddy,” Leo yelled back. “But it looks like we’ve got another storm coming.”
I let my head fall back and closed my eyes. “Aye, be there in a moment.”
The covers rustled in the quiet, followed by the sound of Never’s bare feet padding across the floor. When I dragged my head up, she was standing in front of the windows with the curtains pulled back. My mouth watered at the view, despite all my worry and hesitation.
Even if I’d tried to stop myself, I wouldn’t have been able to. My feet moved on their own, carrying me to her.
She jumped the tiniest bit when I placed my hands on her hips, but when I leaned in and brushed my lips across the shell of her ear, she melted back into me. Her trust did powerful things to me. It riled that primal urge to pin to her the glass and sink my swollen cock into her almost as much as it called to the protector in me.
She was mine, but I couldn’t keep her if she didn’t want to stay. And she’d already said as much. Her first priority in life was her brother.
Who was I to deny her the truth when it was the very thing that could send her back to him?
“That looks like trouble,” she whispered. Her gaze was locked on the horizon where a wall of dark clouds was building.
“Maybe,” I admitted. Probably. A sense of dread slipped through our connection, and I bent my head to plant a kiss on her temple. “It’s likely nothing to worry about, but I’ll have a better idea after I get a look at things from the bridge.”
She nodded. “I’d like to check it out too, if that’s all right with you?”
I was stunned into silence for a full breath. Never Darling was asking for permission to do something? That was a first.
It was also evidence of her unease.
Maybe telling her the truth about everything can wait until things are a little more settled. A day, two at the most.That was the lie I told myself.
“Of course.” I let go of her, reluctantly peeling my hands away from her soft flesh. “Why don’t you get dressed and meet me out there when you’re ready.”
That was where I left her, standing stark naked with the light of the mid-morning sun spilling in around her. We were both caught up in our heads, working through our own problems. And while I had no desire to share my own self-serving thoughts, I would have given anything to know what she was thinking.
Did that make me a hypocrite? Absolutely, but I didn’t care.
On deck, temporary repairs were coming along nicely. My men were almost finished bracing the cracked mast, and our spare sails were being hauled out of storage.
Our first destination was the island of the shifters. In part for the ship, because the shifters were the finest craftsmen in the realm. But also for Leo. He hadn’t been home in ages, and he was champing at the bit to share news of Lily’s survival with his clan.
There would be a celebration, no doubt. Though I suspected the festive torches would still be burning bright when the first whispers of traveling to the human realm to bring her back—to rescue the clan’s long-lost princess from her curse—would begin.
“So, this is how you fix a broken mast?” Never asked, inspecting the boards and coils of rope bracing the mast.
“Cracked,” I corrected. “If it had broken, we would have had to erect a jury-mast.” When she shot me a questioning look, I added, “It’s a temporary mast constructed out of pretty much anything we can salvage. It would be shorter and weaker, but it would get us where we needed to go until a new mast could be installed.”
A distant rumble of thunder drew all eyes on deck to the clouds in the distance, but it was Never who asked the question we were all thinking. “Will we be able to outrun it?”
“We’ll do our best.”
