Page 61 of Of the Stars and Sea

“So, it washisidea? To share those parts of his story?”

Grayson’s lips are a tight line. He nods once.

I run my hands over my face, suddenly feeling tired. “I hate that he felt he had to do that. I hate that he had to think—even for a few moments—about the evil that was done to him.”

Grayson slides his hands down my arms until my hands rest in his. I can’t think about what it means when he touches me like this. How everything I once thought about him seems to disappear the moment my skin brushes against his. I hope to the heavens that all I have learned about him these past few days is true. That the male I once loathed was merely a mask shown to the world—and that the male right in front of me is who he really is.

“We all experience a time when we must face what has been done to us. When we must look at the evil of this world and bare our teeth at it. If we let it mock us—if we let fear and evil become victorious—then we lose everything that we are.” He brushes a strand of hair behind my ear and I feel myself leaning into his touch. “Today, Tommy faced his fears and every day moving forward, he will be all the better for it.”

Before he pulls away, I reach up and clasp my hand over his, holding it to my cheek. I don’t want this moment to end. Not yet.

His eyes are a haunted sea and I feel them threatening to pull me under. The stroke of his thumb against my cheek is a gentle lullaby that sings to my tattered heart. What would it be like towatch him stitch me back together? To let him take the weight of my burdens off my weary shoulders. Some part of me realizes that with every passing glance, every wayward touch, Grayson has marked himself upon me in a way that evenIcould not see.

I press his palm harder against my cheek, not wanting a single fragment of separation.

“Rowenya . . .” He whispers my name like a heavenly prayer that even the old gods can hear in their far away slumber.

Time stills as Grayson brings his other hand to cup my face, moving closer until the only thing I can see is him. The way he devastates me . . .Oh gods, my heart soars across the stars, an utterly free thing that no one can capture, except him. But do I want him to? Can I trust that Grayson won’t shatter it? Some small voice in the back of my mind screamsyes.

“Say it again,” I breathe and I love the way the edges of his lips tilt up in a gentle smile. There’s nothing left of the masks he wears for everyone outside of this room. It’s just him in his beautifully dark glory.

His thumb traces the bottom of my lip, igniting a stream of fiery heat that races down my entire body. “Rowenya.” My eyes flutter at the sound of his voice saying my name. It’s a luscious song that drapes over my skin like fine silk.

His hand moves down my neck and my pulse jumps under the brush of his fingertips before he roams over my shoulder and down my back. Then he pulls me closer, my body flush against the hard planes of his. In one fell swoop, he curves his palm beneath my bottom and lifts me up.

My sex rubs against the fabric of my pants and I fight the urge to moan as I wrap my legs around his waist and he pushes my back against the wall. There is no escaping him now and there is not a single part of me that wishes to.

“My Little Pearl,” he whispers, voice a rasp. “You shine so bright tonight, rivaling the beauty of the moon herself. And here,I have you, with nowhere else to be.” He clicks his tongue at me as his eyes—those devastatingly beautiful eyes—roam every inch of my face. “The terrible things I wish to do to you are endless,” he growls and I can feel the sound radiating from his chest to mine. “Such deliciously terrible things.”

He skirts his teeth along my jaw, nipping as he goes, and I have to fight back a whimper as I bury my hands in his hair, loving how soft his black strands feel against my skin. “I think now is the time for more doing and less talking,” I mutter and I feel him smile against my throat before he presses his lips over my fluttering pulse.

If he weren’t holding me up, I would be a puddle on the floor at his feet as he continues his trail of kisses along my neck. Curling my fingers against his scalp, I adjust my legs around his waist so that I’m closer to him. The fabric of my pants rubs against my aching sex and I can’t help myself as I start grinding my hips into him.

He pulls back with a feral smirk, but I don’t stop moving. My body has burned for this moment for far too long and now there is no controlling the fire I have become.

“So greedy,” he purrs, nipping at my jawline, but it’s not enough. Not as the inferno inside of me burns away. Soon I will be nothing but ash if I don’t quell the heat threatening to swallow me whole.

“Kiss me.” I can’t deny the begging sound of my voice.

Grayson pauses, his lips a hairsbreadth from my skin. When he pulls back to look at me, a swell of emotions swarms my chest like a wave crashing onto shore and I can hardly breathe.

Something shifts as he tenderly sweeps a strand of hair from my face.

“Once we cross this line, there is no going back. The moment my lips find yours, you will truly be mine. No more games. No more lies and half-truths. There will be no place on this earthwhere I cannot find you, Rowenya. No place where you can hide away from me once we do this. Do you understand?”

I swallow. Letting the gravity of his words find their mark through the haze of the lust that still pulses through my body.

What is he saying?That a simple kiss would mark me ashisforever? Surely that can’t be true. He’s a pirate. Known to share his bed with countless women all across the realm. I mean nothing to him. What’s happening between us . . .

A quiet voice in the back of my mind nudges forward. Questioning what it might be like to give myself to him. To truly be his.

“And what of you?” I ask. My fingers find the back of his neck and I don’t miss the way his jaw clenches as I stroke his sensitive skin. “Does this mean thatyouare mine?”

A violent storm surges in the ocean of his eyes. The flecks of starlight twinkle out as though the sea herself has reached up and claimed them.

His forehead drops against mine and he closes his eyes. On a deep inhale he says, “You would claim a villain, with a wretched heart and a blighted past? My world is shrouded in shadows, and is not meant to house such precious things.”

I tuck my finger under his chin and lift his face until our eyes meet. “Then let us dance in the shadows together.”

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