We finally reposition, and somehow, we both end up fitting in one hammock. “I’m shocked this isn’t breaking,” I say, my body melting against his.
“I asked for this room because this one handles heavier weight.”
Once I’m no longer afraid of it breaking, I close my eyes as our bodies hang in the air, the hammock ensuring we’re properly intertwined. It’s absolutely perfect; I love lying next to him. I can’t help it.
Is falling for a man as simple as this? It feels like somethingmoreneeds to happen, a big epiphany. These feelings blossomed on their own accord without much transition.
That caress gently grips my hair, and he kisses my head. He pauses for a while, his breath warm against my scalp. “I’m sorry today shook you, with your father.”
My eyes part, and I stare at the details of his skin that’s taught around muscles. “My dad acts like I don’t matter, and yet I can’t stand the idea of him dying.”
“Youdomatter to him. I can tell. I think there’s a reason he’s doing what he’s doing.” My head rises and falls when his chest pulses with a laugh. “He keeps asking what I want with you.”
I grin ear to ear, although more so at the thought of Soren being pressed about his feelings for me. “Oh, I’d love to hear that answer.”
He chuckles, the sound deep and masculine. “Wouldn’t be much. I won’t tell him shit. He doesn’t get to see that side of me. No one does, except you.”
He leans forward and kisses my forehead while circling his rough finger on my exposed shoulder. I nestle my face closer to his chest, kissing his skin. The moment is so much tender than before, my eyes closing with ease as if this moment is meant to be. As I let feelings bleed out that can only be described as love, he continues to gently touch me as we sway in the hammock as the ship sails.
S O R E N
The quarters we’ve been given face the ocean, which looks entirely too calm for the storm I know awaits. It’s such a gentle roll of the waves, softly caressing this ship.
When I look down at this wild, yet beautiful creature, I smile without reservation while no one’s watching.
She lifts her heavy gaze, her hair falling past her shoulder. I love how rough everything around her is compared to how soft her body is. “Can I ask you things about your life?” she asks.
I stiffen for a moment, not having expected that. Boring my gaze into her, all I feel is a genuine desire to connect with someone right now. “You want to know about me?”
What joy filled her now partially fades. “What if something happens, and it’s all I have left of you?”
There’s something about that statement that punches clear through any armor I have left to shield me from her. She says that as if it matters. It’s been a while since I considered my death directly impacting someone—emotionally—other than my mother.
And now, apparently, this woman with a Zenith tattoo would use memories of me as her comfort. I’m completely weak for that. To read someone’s heart to the depth that I can, and feel that true desire in return, when youwantit but it’s not something that can be forced, is a sensation so alluring it scares me. “You can ask whatever you want.”
She relaxes more, and I stroke a finger down her shoulder, hovering my lips over her head and breathing her in as she lies back down on my chest.
“What’s your favorite childhood memory?” she asks, her arms limp across my chest.
“Thatmatters to you?”
She slightly knees me as the hammock sways more, and I can’t help but gently laugh before hearing her persistent voice, “Answer it.”
I think on it, finding the past so bittersweet, a place I don’t like to frequent anymore. But there’s something about her, about this moment.She’s comforting to me. “It was right before Serena was taken,” I state, recalling the last time I felt truly happy while still feeling like a child—before I was forced to become a man. “I was proving myself to Death’s Wing at about twelve, and killed a man for them. They let me have his coin bag for doing it so quickly—which was easy with my powers. I usedthat money to buy us our first real feast. We ate so much, Serena threw up.” I chuckle, only for the humor to fade as I wonder ifshethinks of that day, wherever she is. “I can still smell how salty the pork was, and remember how the fat dripped over the table.”
I touch Jane’s hair, feeling guilty as I recall my family. I only joined the Council of Zenith to find Serena, and now that plan has blown up in my face.
‘I’ll help you find her…’
It still hurts to think it won’t beme, but I cannot abandon this woman in my arms. Somehow, that might hurt more.
“What did you eat at the feast?” she softly asks, and if I was able to see in front of her, I’d bet that her eyes were closing.
“A pig roast, and potatoes with butter and cream. Our mother baked the fluffiest biscuits, and then we had two pies for dessert.”
Peace fills her heart, so soothing against my chest. I want to guard this sensation as long as my heart beats, my grip on her skin digging slightly deeper.
With a dramatic sigh, she continues, “Do you ever see yourself settling down? Would the people that follow you be okay with that?”
