Page 23 of Whispers Beneath the Deep
That was the problem. Maybe Iwantedhim to eat me. I wanted him to devour me, and that feeling scared me, yet, still I settled in at his side, resting my head on the crook, just where his neck met his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around my waist and held me, and I prayed he couldn’t hear my heart pound, as a recording of the princess began.
Chapter Fourteen
Elias
The Princess of Thalassar was perhaps one of the most daft, spoiled, irritating mer I’d ever known. Or at least, her recordings portrayed her to be that way. After a while, I started nodding off. Maisie had long fallen asleep, resting her head on my shoulder.
I marveled at the ease and trust she was placing in me. Hours ago, I held an axe to her throat. I certainly did not deserve this, but abyss take me if I lied and said I did not want it with every bone in my body. Not just this… but more. I wanted more of her. Her body, curling beneath mine, tails twining together, bodies opening up as I thrust inside her, wringing pleasure from her body, pulling cries of ecstasy from her mouth.
Maisie stretched delicately, tilting her face up, nearly touching her mouth to mine. I groaned at the proximity. If she kept at this, I’d not survive the night or keep the promise I’d made about not touching her again.
I shook her slightly. “Maisie…”
She jerked up, and our heads cracked together.
I flinched slightly. The brief touch was more painful than I’d like to admit because of my bruising.
Captain Saber’s lackeys had given me the beating of a lifetime. He’d locked me up in a dark, dirty cell, and had turned away just as they pummeled into me as if they meant to end my life. There had been evil in the captain’s eyes, just moments before. Evil, and a jealousy I could not fathom.
It wasn’t until I’d pressed the axe to Maisie’s throat that I realized why he’d gone through all the trouble. Who he had done it for.
“Sorry.” Maisie stretched her arms over her head. My pain forgotten, I was captivated by the movement, by the way the delicate curves of her body pressed against the material of her dress. She dropped her arms, and looked around the cavern, rubbing her eyes. She was too cute, with the traces of sleepiness fogging across her vision. “What time is it?” she yawned.
I smirked, and couldn’t help but to tease. “Let me just get out my diamond encrusted time piece…”
That woke her up quickly. She glared and scoffed out something that sounded like “tadpole”.
“You fell asleep and left me to watch these horrid conches by myself,” I accused with only the slightest bit of chagrin in my tone.
She made a slight mocking noise deep in the back of her throat. “Poor you,” she teased. “Now you know how I’ve felt the past few days.” She peeled herself off of the couch, swimming slowly over to the conch recorder. Her stiff body tilted her sideways. She tried to straighten her posture, but there was a strain in her muscles that made her movements jerky, perhaps the only indication that she was in pain.
I tried not to tighten my fists at her discomfort. I did not want her to see it and think I pitied her. On the contrary, she was strong. Stronger to have survived that vicious ordeal. What sliced through my body was rage. I wanted to murder the bastard that had taken advantage of her innocence. I wanted him to meet his death at the end of my blade.
She pried the conch from the recorder and bent down to pick up another one. She placed it on top, started it up, and swam back to the couch. It was almost instinct to wrap an arm around her shoulders, and pull her towards me. Her presence had a way of calming the shadows that stirred inside me. Things between us had changed. A door to secrets and intimacy had opened, spilling a closeness I doubted either of us had ever shared with anyone else before. She tucked her head into the crook of my neck, and it was like the last piece of a perfect life slipped into place.
The bubble rose up to show the familiar images of the princess in all her finery. Jewels adorned her neck and ears by the dozens, glittering diamonds and sapphires that covered up the entire length of neck, making her skin look bejeweled. An ornate headpiece rested on her head, jangling bells and objects dangling from shining thread to twinkle around her face. She was ostentatious to the point of it being blinding.
At the same time, Maisie and I groaned.
“Me again!” she exclaimed flippantly. I rolled my eyes. It was really rather incomprehensible how no one could tell that Maisie was not the princess. Odele spoke with venom and mischief curling her tongue. “And accompanying me today is none other than the Lizard Prince—oops—I mean, theDragon Prince, Kai Li of Draconi. Say hi to the conch!” The image turned to reveal Prince Kai.
The Dragon Prince was surrounded by his kinsman, mer who shared similar features; slanted eyes, bright tails, and long, dark hair. His personal guards, advisors, and courtiers. They all looked upon Odele with disdain.
Prince Kai frowned in her direction, displeasure evident on his too-beautiful face that he obviously tried to mask. She used the conch to close in on his face, a close up of those intense brown eyes.
“Princess,” he greeted, his voice a wisp of mystery and disdain.
“Hey, Lizard Prince,” Odele said venomously. “How is Thalassar treating you?”
His eyes narrowed into thin slits. “Splendidly.”
“I am so glad you’re finding Eramaea to your liking.”
Beside me, Maisie snorted, and I looked down at her. She was looking at the bubble, and the image of Prince Kai there. Her eyes were wide, and even in the dimness of the cavern, I could make out the flush on her rounded cheeks. Even if I hadn’t been able to see it, the heat of her skin against mine would have been a dead giveaway.
I lifted the end of my tail up to the couch and nudged hers with it. She shot a glance up to me and I smirked, a small twist of my mouth. “I see that gleam in your eyes,” I teased. “Are you inloovewith Prince Kai?”
She sputtered out a stream of nonsense that I construed as a mixture of truth and embarrassment. “Of course not!”
