Total pages in book: 191
Estimated words: 188966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 945(@200wpm)___ 756(@250wpm)___ 630(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 188966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 945(@200wpm)___ 756(@250wpm)___ 630(@300wpm)
He didn’t exist.
Only we did.
I threw myself into the fantasy and stepped toward the edge of the boat. I stared at the inviting blackness. “The salt will rinse away tonight. And after it does...” I met his eyes. “I want you to kiss me. I want you to touch me. I want...” My throat dried up as my heart raced.
What if I couldn’t?
What if Ethan had broken me so badly, I panicked the moment Aslan slid inside? What if I was never free to—
“Hey. I’m here. You’re safe.” Aslan stepped into me and slinked his fingers through my hair, tender and soft. “Don’t think about what might happen, Nerida. Only what is.” His fingers feathered to my chin, pushing gently to raise my head and kiss me.
His lips claimed mine.
Harder than before.
Possessive and familiar.
I let him sweep me away. I teetered on falling into the ocean.
He spoke into our kiss, “If I have to wait a thousand years to be with you, I’ll wait. We don’t have to do this. Not tonight. Not any night. My body is yours, Neri. Just like my soul and heart. You don’t ever have to fear my reaction if you decide not to—”
I threw my arms around him, pressing my breasts to his black, bloody t-shirt. I pushed my tongue into his mouth, shutting him up, kissing him deep, reclaiming another piece of my power.
I’d wanted this boy since I’d found him clinging to a shipwreck. I needed this boy with all my being.
Breaking the kiss, I reached for the hem of his t-shirt and pushed it over his head.
He didn’t stop me.
His bare chest gleamed silver, etching the contours and shadows of muscle. His belly flexed as I drank him in, drawing my eyes to the darker trail of hair running down the middle of the V of stomach muscles before disappearing into his jeans.
Swallowing hard, I dropped his t-shirt to the deck, then reached with both hands to his button and zipper.
He let me do whatever I wanted to him.
He swallowed a soft moan as his jeans opened and fell down his legs. His black boxer-briefs did their best to contain him, but his erection speared out the top. The tip glistened wetly in the moonlight.
“I’m sorry. I can’t...I can’t help it,” he groaned. “The moment you asked me to be with you, I can’t stop thinking about anything else.” He growled with self-repulsion. “Which makes me as bad as him because how can I be hard after what you went through? How can I even think of sleeping with you after what you’ve endured?”
Laying my palm over his hardness, I never took my eyes off his face.
At the way his eyes snapped shut. His throat constricted. His head fell back.
With one touch, I owned him.
And it was because of that, that I knew I was doing the right thing.
I wanted good to replace evil. Love to erase hate.
Because of the way Aslan reacted to me, because of the sensitive awareness we shared, because our lust came from love...I was free.
If I asked him to, he’d kneel before me and give me whatever I wanted. I could take whatever I needed, and he’d never, not once, try to take anything from me that I didn’t want to give.
And that...
That gave me another smidgen of my power back.
The power of my sexuality.
The power of my consent.
“Come swim with—” I cut myself off, glancing at the sea. Oh God. How could I have been so stupid? I’d been so wrapped up in my own tragedy, I’d forgotten all about his.
He can’t step foot in the ocean.
My shoulders rolled.
He wouldn’t jump in.
We couldn’t go to the island.
The fantasy of forgetting who we were and spending a night beneath the stars was gone—
“Finish what you were going to say,” he whispered. “Ask me.”
I met his eyes. I saw true fear shining there. Unresolved ghosts haunting his mind.
I shouldn’t ask this of him.
I should honour his wishes about the sea.
Just because I’d endured something that’d irrevocably changed me didn’t mean—
“Ask me, Neri.” He smiled, but it didn’t reach his stare. His smile was tight and stern but given with all the love he held. “Ask.”
Inhaling hard, I licked my lips and whispered, “Come swim with me, Aslan Avci. Swim to shore with me.”
For the longest moment, he didn’t reply.
His eyes closed as if he was saying goodbye to a part of himself that he still couldn’t bury or get free from. But then he nodded, placed his hand over mine, pressing my palm against his erection, and murmured, “For you, Nerida Taylor, I’ll swim in every sea.”
He kicked his jeans away, sending something spinning in the starlight.
He grabbed my hand, tucked his hardness back into his boxers, and positioned us by the open side.
I tugged on his hold. “Wait.”