His lips tug into the smallest smile, his eyes taking on a faraway glaze as he stares into the distance. “She was beautiful. Kind.” His smile falters. “Too soft for life in the forest.”
Soft, like me.
He slips his hand from mine to collect a stone from the ground. “She longed to live in Rosehill. Always claimed she had a Seelie heart beating in her Unseelie chest.” He launches the stone into the air. A few seconds later, there’s a quietplop.
How sad that she wanted to live on our side but never had the chance. People should be allowed to live wherever they choose.
“I do not know why she married my father,” he goes on. “He used his fists when he was angry. By the time the chieftain found out, she could not be healed. My father was exiled the very next day.”
I cannot imagine how devastating that must have been for him, to lose his mother so tragically and at his father’s hands, no less. No wonder he was so irate over Ronan grabbing me.
“I’m so sorry, Ever.”
Wounds, even ones made long ago, may heal but the memories can still turn septic. Look at the scars on my legs. Because of what happened, I can barely stand to smell smoke from a fire. The nightmares that once plagued my dreams may not come as often as they once did, but they never completely go away. Haunting my mind with visions of my mother’s lifeless body covering mine. The stench of burned flesh. The unending pain.
Perhaps that pain is what connects me to this beautiful man. My brokenness calling to his.
Water licks at the shore, leaving the stones on the bank shining like gemstones. “Is the water safe?”
For some reason, my question makes him smirk. “Asks the woman who befriended an Unseelie monster.”
“Befriended” seems like such an innocuous word for this bond growing between us. Has he already forgotten about the pie I gave him? “We aren’t friends, though…remember?”
His eyes seem to ignite at the reminder. “I remember.”
What would it be like to truly belong to Ever?
To kiss his mouth. To share his bed. To let him mark me as his.
How I long to find out.
I look back out at that water, my over-heated skin beginning to tingle with anticipation.
Why not now? Why not tonight?
The silk ribbon keeping my robe fastened slips through my fingers, slow, tantalizing, and luxurious. “Would you like to go for a swim with me?”
He nods solemnly, fixated on my every move as my robe falls into a silken puddle on the stones. His eyes ignite as they sweep down my lace and silk shift.
“Am I to be the only one undressed?”
Ever toes off his boots and removes his socks, then slowly slips the leather strap of his belt free from the buckle and slides off his trousers, revealing a pair of dark short pants beneath.
Short pants that conceal a very obvious bulge.
My cheeks flame as I step back into the cool water, the damp silk at my thighs sticking to my bare skin beneath.
The drawings in my Unseelie book flash through my mind as he enters the water, sending ripples of lust through me. Tonight, I am going to know what it’s like to kiss this beautiful, quiet man.
Something tells me that afterward, I will never be the same.
I swim a little deeper, forcing Ever to come to me.
He swims with the same grace that he does everything else. Moving with purpose, strong muscles pushing him through the water.
When he reaches me, I splash him in the face. He looks so indignant, I can’t help but giggle as he swipes a hand down his cheek, clearing the drops there.
I expect him to splash me back, but instead he catches my ankle and drags me toward him. I let out a yelp and make a half-hearted attempt to get away, only to have him pull me closer, until I’m within the safety of his arms. “You caught me.”