“Fates,” she whispered, so low I wasn’t certain I was meant to hear it.
It was in that moment I realized something strange had occurred. Likely still flustered by my teasing on the ride over or perhaps distracted by the beauty of this secret space, Arken had lain down on the right side of the blanket.Myright side. My blind side. And I hadn’t even noticed.
Odd.
We spoke of instinct—and it was typically instinctive, automatic, for me to position myself optimally no matter where I was. In our time together over the last year or so, Arken hadtacitly come to pick up on that instinct, too—always orienting herself to my left, without being prompted. She was, indeed,very observant.
I had spent the last six years of my life carefully adjusting to the newfound weakness of my blind eye, learning to use my arcana and lean on my other senses, honing them to perfection to compensate for the gap in my vision and lack of a full periphery. That included developing a certain muscle memory—a reflex—so deeply embedded that I truly couldn’t recall the last time I had allowed something like this to happen.
And yet…I’d just let it happen. Hel, I was the one who took the left side of the blanket, before she’d even sat down.
I wasthatcomfortable around her.
“Your turn,” Arken wheedled, prodding at my ribcage.
“Oh? Are we going tit for tat with this, then, Little Conduit?”
“If you want me to stroke your ego, it’s only fair you reciprocate,” she sniffed primly.
“I’ll stroke whatever you want me to stroke, gorgeous,” I replied, still grinning like an absolute idiot. “But I suppose saying something along the lines ofliterally everything about youwould be a cop-out, huh?”
Arken rolled her eyes. “Yes, it would be.”
“The sound of your voice, then,” I murmured.
You soft, soft motherfucker.
“Damn you!” she swore, swatting playfully at my arm. “You stole my next answer.”
“Well, I mean, if we’re being specific, the sound of your voice when you come,” I tacked on. “I particularly likethosesounds.”
“Degenerate,” she scoffed, though I could see she was blushing. Hel, I really liked that I could still make her blush so furiously, and so damn often.
“Pretty sure that’s on your list, too,” I noted.
“Maybe,” she sniffed, pushing herself up to a seated position.
“Ah yes, the word of the day. Going somewhere, gorgeous?”
All I received in response was a cheeky, golden wink as Arken rose to her feet. For a moment, I chose to remain on my back, arms tucked behind my head as I simply enjoyed the view. Sunlight streamed through her windswept hair, casting her aglow as she side-stepped off the blanket on her tiptoes. The aforementioned view got exponentially better as Arken’s pale fingers began to tug at the strings of her leather bodice, loosening them until she let it drop to the ground unceremoniously.
She reached for her skirts next, pulling the white linen sundress over her head without hesitation, shaking out her dark brown mane of waves and curls. All that remained were little scraps of cotton and lace covering her unmentionables, but she began to take those off, too.
“Fuuucking Hel,” I drawled as my eyes flickered over every inch of her exposed skin with starved appreciation.
Arken held searing, shameless eye contact with me the entire time, almost daring me to look elsewhere as she unhooked her bra and shimmied her panties from her hips. She wanted me to break first, and I did. I couldn’t help but watch the white lace slide down her thighs, the alluring goddess stepping delicately out of them and kicking the scrap of fabric to the side.
“Iknowyou didn’t take me to a lake just to laze about in the sand,” she crooned, a hint of sultry smoke entering her voice as she looked down at me through thick lashes. She nudged at my leg expectantly with a bare foot.
Indeed, I hadn’t. I had plenty of other things in mind when I’d concocted this little adventure, but honestly? I had been enjoying myself. I might have been perfectly content to just lie in the sand with her all godsdamn afternoon. But I was most certainly enjoyingthis.
In direct sunlight, the freckles gracing Arken’s shoulder blades, her cheekbones, her arms—they were all much more pronounced, and her porcelain skin seemed to glow. Metaphorically speaking, that is. Though I did catch a bit of arcana glimmering at her fingertips again. As a gentle, slightly cooler breeze blew past, I watched her rosy, exposed nipples pebble and harden.
“Well?” she asked. “Are you going to come swim with me, or not?”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
ARKEN