He traced his other hand slowly down my body, sliding it down my belly, over my hips, until he reached the apex of my thighs. He groaned low into my neck as he felt my slick arousal.
He touched me in light circles, feeling my heat, teasing me until I couldn’t think clearly anymore, until my mind burned.
He kissed my neck, and pleasure crashed through me.
With one hand, he spread me open, and I was about to scream with need. He slid a finger inside me, and I moaned. I writhed against his hand, in and out, clenching around him. I flung my arms backward, curling them around his neck. The desperate noises I was making now sounded animal.
“Salem,” I managed. “Please…”
A low, dark chuckle from him skimmed over my skin. I could hardly remember how words worked now. I only knew I needed that feeling of fullness.
He pulled his hand away and turned me around again—the movement faster now. He was desperate for me. I hadn’t even realized he’d taken off his pants until now, but I took in the sight of him, his stunning, masculine perfection. He reached under my bum, and I wrapped my legs around him as he lifted me against the tree.
“Aenor.” There was a wild hunger in his voice now. His eyes were on mine as he slid into me slowly, filling me completely.
Oh gods yes.
His magic snaked over my body in ripples of pleasure, as he moved in me—slowly, deeply.
Gods help me, I felt safe with him. I felt like I belonged with him, like we were made for each other. We moved with each other, pleasure spiraling into my body as he pounded into me. With each deep thrust, I felt myself arcing higher to a perfect completion, a deep soul connection. He kissed me, and this time it was urgent, demanding. He was losing control as I was.
I dragged my nails down his back, moaning his name as I shuddered against him, pleasure shattering my mind into a thousand tiny pieces of sea glass.
35
Aenor
With my arms wrapped around him, I caught my breath. My body glistened with a light sheen of sweat.
“What are the scars?” he whispered in my ear.
I’d almost forgotten about them—the scars carved in my skin long ago, after I’d lost my power.
But I didn’t really want to go into it now. “Left by some bad demons.”
His muscles tensed for a moment. “I hope you cut their hearts out.”
I smiled. “Oh, I did.”
Slowly, Salem released me to the ground. The ripples of pleasure still pulsed through my body, and I caught my breath. His eyes were still on me, half-lidded, arms warm around my body. He was looking down at me with a look of complete satisfaction.
Salem’s heart beat against me, loud and echoey like a sacrificial drum. His body felt like it was burning against me, and his smoky magic curled around me.
But when I caught a flash of silver hair moving through the trees, my blood turned to ice. There she was, the Merrow’s agent—a reminder of my task: kill him, or the world burns.
Gods, had she been watching us?
With the cold chill of reality seeping into my consciousness, icy dread spread out over my mind like webs of frost.
“What’s wrong?” Salem asked into my hair.
His powerful arms were wrapped around me, pulling me in close to his chest like he never wanted to release me.
And yet reality was eating away at the warm bond between us.
I still had so many unanswered questions.
“When I made a teeny-tiny sacrifice to the god of the sea,” I began, “and I spilled a little bit of blood into the ocean—why did that bother you so much?”
“Gods are petty creatures, demanding love,” he said. “Demanding that you prove yourself. Petty and jealous, more beast than angel.”
My mind flicked back to what he had told me, about the burning human sacrifices in the cave. “But people sacrificed to you when they thought you were a god.”
“You really know how to kill a mood, do you know that?” he murmured into my ear. Then, more coldly, “I can’t answer that. It is what it is, and I’ve told you what I am. I’ve told you I poison everything. You know that I’m destruction embodied. I don’t belong in this world, and neither does Shahar.” He stepped away from me and pulled on his pants.
Shahar… He was already moving on to saving his sister. Desperation spiraled through me. “The prophecy, the visions—my own magic is telling me that complete destruction awaits if you save your sister. I need you to find another way. We need more time.”
“Time? You want me to leave her, tormented in darkness, drained of her magic, because of visions and prophecies?”
“I don’t know how to say this without sounding insensitive, but she’s been there for a hundred years—what’s another week?” That was phrased badly, perhaps.
I snatched my underwear off the forest floor and stepped into them.
The air seemed to go cold around us. “I have a destiny, Aenor, and if I don’t fulfill it within a few days, it’s all over. And it begins with saving Shahar.”
So this wasn’t just about love for his sister. “A destiny,” I repeated.
“Which you have done your best to thwart. Your seduction didn’t help.”
“My seduction?” I was on the verge of saying you started it, but that sounded outrageously childish.
“Do you plan to keep repeating everything I say?” he asked.
Oh, screw you, Salem.
I kept one eye on my skirt, then snatched it up off the ground. What had I been thinking? He was right. He never lied about what he was. He was destruction embodied—chaos and death personified in one beautiful, masculine form.
Had he ever pretended otherwise?
Salem’s eyes narrowed as he watched me slip my hand into my pocket, reaching for the sea glass to make sure it was there. He understood I was keeping the weapon near me. Nothing had changed. I still had to kill him if he wouldn’t listen to me.
I took a deep breath, searching around for my shirt. My mission here had gone off task just a tad. My thoughts in this enchanted forest had become completely confused until I actually believed that I was safe with him, that I belonged with him.
In reality, the exact opposite was the truth.
“I don’t know what I was thinking.” I gestured at the tree where we’d just been entwined only moments before. “What just happened? It was the wine. And the festival. Nothing more. I feel nothing for you.”
“Of course, Aenor. It was the wine.” His voice was frigid as his wings spread out behind him. He looked down at me, eyes cold as ice. “We are still mortal enemies. I wouldn’t dream of anything else.”
I glared at him, pulling on my shirt. Frost spread through my chest. “I will stop you before you get to the driftwood cage.”
His lips curled in a lethal smile. “Then you’ll need all the help you can get.” He plucked the ring off his finger and grabbed my hand to slide it onto mine.
I thought I saw a flicker of hurt in his eyes as they shifted from coral to blue. This was a dark sort of wedding, a ceremony threaded with betrayal.
“The thing is, Aenor, I’m not sure I need you anymore. You’ve healed me, and given the number of times you looked at the castle, I can only assume he’s there—in the dungeons, where the water reaches.”