But Quilla shook her head. “I’m not worried about her,” she murmured, except I thought that was partly a lie. She couldn’t help but worry about her aunt when they were separated.
I sighed, trying to figure out what her main concern was. “So what do you think our next course of action should be? Melaina will still probably want to question the Tyler jeweler regardless, but after that? Should we look for something that belonged to Locasta Blayton instead of seeking more amulets?”
Quilla closed her eyes and rubbed the center of her forehead, shaking her head. “Even if we found something of hers, then we’d have to find someone to help us decipher what she was saying. And if we did figure that out and get an answer of how to break the curse, then we’d have to go about actually trying to break it. And if we broke it, would King Ignatius even drop his decree to hunt down all Graykeys then?”
Exhaustion blanketed my mark.
“So you’re saying it’d be easier to just find another amulet?” I concluded.
She sent me a cross look but didn’t answer. And I noticed she didn’t correct me, saying we needed two more amulets, either.
“Hey,” I murmured, slowing my horse in order to stop and dismount. Going to her, I held up my arms.
With a drained sigh, she swung her leg over the saddle and set her hands on my shoulders, letting me grip her waist and pull her down to the ground with me.
“What’s going on in this brain of yours?” I asked, slipping my arms around her and kissing her hair. “Something’s bothering you.”
She shook her head, denying it, even as she hugged me back and burrowed against my chest as if seeking safety.
Getting into the feel of her fingers gripping the back of my tunic and her breasts pressed against my chest, I breathed in the scent of her hair.
“So…” I smoothed my hand over her hip suggestively. “How long do you think Melaina will be gone?”
Maybe all my true love needed was a dose of Indigo to cheer her up again. But when my palm slipped over the base of her spine and then down to her bottom, she sniffed and pushed away, glaring up at me.
“Really?” she charged, brown eyes flaring with fury. “You just took me to meet your ex-girlfriend. With no warning at all. And now you think I’m in the mood to—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I cut in, lifting my hands to correct her. “Jemma was never my girlfriend.”
Quilla lifted a disbelieving eyebrow and jammed a hand to her hip. “So you just made out with her a few times, then, is that it?”
“I didn’t even make out with her,” I argued, scowling over how she’d twisted everything in her head. “It was one innocent peck between kids. Between friends. That’s it. I decided fishy kisses weren’t my thing, and she told me humans were too dry for her taste. Neither of us enjoyed it.”
“Oh, really?” she accused in disagreement. “Then why did she go on and on about how soft your fucking lips were?”
“She most certainly didn’t go on and on about that.” I rolled my eyes. “And besides, that was her way of assuring you she didn’t like my kiss. Because, newsflash, empress. Merpeople are weird; they actually prefer firm lips. She teased me mercilessly about having such a weak, spineless mouth for years after that damn kiss. It kind of made me feel shitty, in fact. I didn’t have the courage to kiss another girl again for—”
When her eyebrows arched in vexed curiosity, I swallowed my next words and decided to remain wisely mute.
“For how long?” she pressed, though, looking ready to strangle me.
I grinned suddenly. “You know what,” I decided as I held up a finger. “Doesn’t matter. What matters is how aroused your jealousy is beginning to make me.”
Rage flashed across her expression. “I am not—”
“Are too,” I murmured, snagging her around the waist and tugging her against me, so I could kiss her with my soft, soft lips and press my growing erection against her middle, just so she’d know exactly how worked up she was getting me. “And I like it,” I whispered against her mouth before playfully batting my nose across hers. “I like knowing you care. Makes me want to fuck you right here and now so I can prove to you just how much I’m yours and no one else’s.”
Lust flooded my mark, coming from her, even as she hissed, “Except I don’t care.” All the while, her eyes fluttered with temptation as she looked at my lips as if eager for another kiss while she ground her body back against my hard cock. “I don’t care at all.”
“Yes, you do.” I gripped her bottom and pressed back, helping her ride me through our clothes. “You crave me as much as I crave you. Admit it.”
“No,” she growled stubbornly, right before she whimpered and tossed her head back, grappling with the back of my trousers so she could steal her hands inside the cloth and grip my bare ass as she humped me.
I groaned and kissed her exposed throat. “I know I don’t come to you pure and untarnished,” I admitted between each press of my mouth to her flesh. “But I always refused to give my heart to anyone else. I saved back the very core of myself for you. For the mere hope of meeting you. And all that I am now is yours. If you want it.”
She sank her fingers into my hair and cupped my head so she could gaze into my eyes. Saying nothing, she looked straight into my soul. I couldn’t feel a single thing from her emotions through the mark until this undulating wave of longing spiked from her, and she pressed her brow to mine.
“I do,” she whispered brokenly as if it were the hardest thing for her to admit. “I want all of you.”
My eyes closed and muscles loosened with relief. When she slid her hands down to my cheeks and held them gently between her soft palms, I leaned in to meet my mouth with hers. Then I gripped her hair and backed her into a nearby tree.
Her nails bit into my shoulders and her tongue dueled with mine as I lifted her until her legs wound naturally around my waist. My throbbing hardness ground into her moist softness, both our clothes preventing any more traction than that.
“I want all of you,” she repeated, throwing her head back against the tree and arching her hips against me. “Right now. Inside me.”
“Yes,” I breathed, bobbing my head as I lowered her feet to the ground just long enough to gather volumes of her dress and pull her skirts up past her knees. “Yes.”
She unfastened my trousers for me, her fingers working in such a rush, they fumbled, and she cursed, her brow wrinkling with adorable vexation and concentration. But then she released my cock from my pants and pulled it out into her eager hand to squeeze firmly, and I forgot about everything but thrusting into her.
I lifted her again, her thighs opened to receive me, and I sank deep, groaning as her inner walls gripped me.
“Christ.” My hips pumped against hers, surging with mighty, jarring plunges, over and over again.
She panted, desperate mewling sounds exiting her throat as her hips repeatedly met mine, grinding forward as if she couldn’t wait for the power of my next heave. Her nails scored my back through the cloth of my tunic and her breasts bobbed against the front of her dress.
I felt her come through the mark just before her pussy began to quiver against my cock and contract with each pull of her orgasm. Then, with an almost animalistic growl, I joined her, pressing her so hard against the damn tree as I jetted inside her that I feared I might have cut off her air for a few seconds there.