Seeing enough, he lets go of my wrist and lifts me off my feet, hoisting me over his shoulder. He crosses the stone patio to a wrought-iron gate. He unlatches the ornate catch. It doesn’t squeak as it swings wide. His bare feet sink into white sand. I pound on his back with my fist, trying to kick my legs, but they’re trapped in the vise of his forearm. “Let go!” I demand.
I lurch up and make a grab for his hair, but he drops me down so far that I can’t gain enough leverage to get to it. Reaching the water, he pulls me off his shoulder and secures me in his arms. He keeps my wrists pinned so I can’t hit him. When the first cold wave splashes me, soaking my white nightgown, I begin to panic in earnest.
“Don’t!” I yell. It comes out in a high-pitched screech. I look up at his handsome profile, seeing his jaw clench. He doesn’t reply, he just continues to take me farther out into the water. “No, no, no, nooo!”
Waist deep, he stops. Violently, he grips me by the front of my nightgown and plunges me into the water, holding me under. My hair waves in my face, floating in the current. With eyes wide open, I see the phosphorescent glow of coral. Its shine causes my skin to take on a greenish-blue tint. I hold my breath. My heart wants to break out through my chest. Gripping Kyon’s brutal forearm, I dig my nails into him, scratching so that he’ll let go of me. It does nothing. I beat on his arm with my fist. He pulls me up out of the surf. My nose and throat burn, and I choke and gasp for air. I can feel the heavy blond tendrils of my hair plastered to my face.
Kyon’s fist tightens again. I’m thrust under the water and held down. The lack of oxygen makes my lungs feel like they’ll explode at any second. I panic. Every cell of my body fights for life, except for a small part of me, which is tempted to succumb to the madness of the moment. Kyon expects me to struggle, but he doesn’t want me dead. He went through so much trouble to have me—too much to kill me now. He wants my compliance—acceptance of the fact that he and the Alameeda Brotherhood own me. I have to gain the upper hand. I have to figure out a way to control a control freak.
I stop struggling against him, allowing my fingernails that are dug into his wrist to ease. I let go of him. My hands slip into the water, beneath the surf. My limbs wave in the current washing over me, lost within its embrace.
Kyon pulls me up once more. I break through the surface of the water. The starlight is just a blur. The glow from the Sea of Stars is reflected on Kyon’s angry face, highlighting the tight muscles of his neck and his cold stare. “Give up?” he asks me quietly.
“Never,” I croak.
“I can kill you right now.”
“You won’t.”
“How do you know?” he asks in a sinister tone.
“I’m your little savage. You want me too much.”
It’s there on his face. I’m right. We both know it. “I do want you too much,” he admits, “but I won’t tolerate defiance.”
“You’re sadistic. You enjoy defiance. It’s what makes me different from everyone else. I won’t blindly obey you.”
“I like it when you use your mind. But you’re wrong,” he says with a gentle voice as his fingers brush my wet hair from my cheek. “Right now I insist upon your obedience.”
A wave crashes into my back, pushing me against his chest. I clutch his shoulders and try to steady myself in the water. His hands move from the front of my nightgown to my waist. When the next wave pushes me forward, my breasts press against his chest, and his expression changes from anger to desire. He leans near; his rough cheek rubs against my much softer skin.
“I brought you here to hurt you,” Kyon murmurs, the timbre of his voice rumbles through his chest into mine. His words make my heart squeeze tight.
“Do your worst,” I retort with bravado, but inside I quake.
“Nothing’s in your control. When I hurt you—or how,” he replies, summing up my problem in a nutshell. “Submit to me. I own you.”
“You sound like owning me is something remarkable—an accomplishment. You don’t know what you have, do you?” I ask with an insincere smile. “I’m just a collection of sad stories, Kyon.”
“I want to know every one of those stories. Don’t fight me. We can make our story perfect.”
My blood is as thin as the seawater surrounding me. It courses through my veins too quickly, making me dizzy. “Where would be the fun in that?”
The deep rumble of his laughter vibrates through my chest as he holds me closer. “Our story will never end, Kricket. I’ll never let you go—not when we fit so well together. You’re my darker half.”
My eyes widen in surprise. “You’ve gotta be kidding, Kyon. If anyone is dark, it’s you.”
“A star will shine brighter than all the other stars just before it goes dark forever,” he murmurs, as if it’s a secret he’s imparting to me.
“You mean as it explodes and extinguishes forever?”
“I mean right before it transforms into something infinitely more powerful. And once your heart turns black, there will be no escaping it.”
“If I’m the dark one between us, why am I afraid of you?” I ask.
“Because you should be.”
My trembling becomes more pronounced under his intense gaze. I have to hide everything from him—keep everything I’m thinking a secret. His assault on me will be brutal—mentally as well as physically.
I have no place to hide, not the way the stars have aligned against me. I’m in this with Kyon until I find a way out. That realization makes me do something that I never thought I’d do in a million years: I pull Kyon to me and rest my cheek against his shoulder. Our feet touch beneath the water; toe-to-toe we stand. “I don’t want to be dark.”
Kyon’s arms tighten around me before he slides his hand up my back to the nape of my neck. “You make me want to beat the life out of you one moment, and in the next I ache to drag you to the beach and make love to you in the sand.”
“Is there an option C?”
His touch is restless; the same as the sea that swirls around us. “No. No option C.”
He lifts me up in his arms and brings me to the shore. My blood drains away from my face. He lays me on the sand and covers me with his body. I expect to be crushed, but I’m not. He holds his weight on his elbows. Still, I’m trapped, unable to move from beneath the cage he’s created with his enormous frame. Waves pour over our feet and thighs. The glow from the two moons above us is enough to see every line of his sharp jaw as he studies me.
“I want this.” His nose skims up my throat in an intimate caress.
“I don’t,” I growl between my teeth.
“You need someone you can’t control. Someone who will protect you and advise you.”
I point a finger at his face. “You’re wrong. I need to be in control. Without it, I’m desperate. Knob knockers like you have tried to control me my entire life!”
“You seem to be out of options,” he says, but he doesn’t make any move to kiss me again. He just studies me as if I’m a mermaid washed up on the shore.
My mind whispers, Don’t stay . . . I hope for the Sea of Stars to swallow me up. “There’s one option you haven’t thought of, Kyon,” I reply. I concentrate, wishing for sweet oblivion. Escape. A tear slips from my eye as I whisper, “Trey.”