“Yes, I think I shall have some as well,” Kael returns smoothly. “Come, Corin, finish your meal.”
Then he’s sitting with me.With us.
Amber looks freaked out, but she says nothing as she fills another bowl—a bigger one—and sets it in front of him.
I expect conversation to stall out, but Kael proves me wrong.
“Lord Kael, do you like my boat?” Corin pipes up, holding up the block he’s scribbled on.
“Indeed, Corin, I do,” Kael says gravely. “Is this to be your boat someday?”
“Aye, my Lord. I shall be a captain in your navy when I grow up!”
“Will you now? Then you must study, work hard, and always obey your papa and mama. Won’t you, Corin?”
“I will, my Lord! I will!”
“Good lad.” Kael ruffles the boy’s hair, and I feel my chest ache at how normal—how human—that gesture is, coming from someone who looks like he could sink continents if he sneezed wrong.
“All finished, Corin. Come, it’s time for lessons,” Amber chides gently, tugging the boy to his feet.
“Will you be needing anything else, milady?” she asks me.
“It is fine, Amber. Take Corin to his lessons. I have the Lady Phoebe now,” Kael says, and I wonder if he does.Have me, that is.
He is charming. Beautiful. Disarming in a way I could never have imagined. And now we’re alone.
“You don’thaveme,” I mutter, narrowing my eyes.
His mouth curves, lazy, like a storm tide rolling in.
“No?”
“No. I’m not some—some clam you can just pry open and call yours.”
That smile deepens, and my treacherous pulse skips.
“I would not pry, Telya. I would coax. The sea teaches patience.”
I snort.
“Patience? You kidnapped me yesterday.”
“Necessary,” he says, spooning stew into his mouth like we’re discussing the weather instead of felonies. “The Aqua Moon waits for no one.”
“Do you ever hear yourself?” I ask, leaning forward, voice sharp with disbelief. “You sound like a pirate fortune cookie.”
That does it.
He laughs, low and rough, and the sound rumbles through me like surf under a pier.
“You have teeth,” he says approvingly, voice low enough that it strokes along my skin. “Good. I prefer a viyella who bites.”
My cheeks flame so hot I could fry one of those squid rings on them.
“Your preferences don’t really concern me.”
His gaze catches mine, unflinching, hungry.
