Page 38 of The Pirate Queen of Ruin
“I…”
I am in full control of my body. Love is with her, and yet I feel like I am watching everything from outside of my body. My hand rises to cup her cheek. Delphini pants, and I know her eyes are locked with mine despite how dark it is. My thumb ghosts across her plush cheek and I feel a wetness there. Is it blood or tears?
My skin warms at our connection and I hold myself still, waiting for her to slap me away. I am so certain that she will fight me here. For as much as she may want me, I don’t deserve her or the warmth of our connection after everything I have done tonight.
“Why would Love bring us together if we were not meant to be? Please, I can’t be alone any more,” she whispers, voice breaking. “Can’t you feel it?”
“Yes, my human.”
“Then why?” She sounds close to tears, her teeth grinding together to prevent them.
“Do you really wish to give yourself to me?” I counter. “I am a cruel being at my core. I will do whatever I must to raise Love from the depths. I could hurt you.”
“Hurt me then, as long as you want me, hurt me.”
I grab her nape and pull her lips to mine. Heat, so soft and hungry, erupts through me. She is sweet, her sharp inhaling tickling my cheek. There is the taste of blood on her, and I can’t stop myself from licking it away. Delphini opens her mouth in an offering, but I pull away.
I spit the blood of the dead man back on his body.
“You are mine, now.”
Chapter thirteen
Delphini
0 Days
Mychestconstrictsather touch, at her words, her kiss.
Orthia’s hand on my neck is like coming home. The adrenaline pounding through my system slows and feeling returns to my limbs. I don’t know what came over me at that community centre, why I ran here of all places. I’ve never lost control of my anger like that before. I couldn’t just shove the feelings down. They flooded my system with so much power.
I killed a stranger without a single care for his life if it meant getting what I wanted, getting Orthia to see what I will do for her. I thought I would feel sick when I did it. There wasn’t a backup plan when I recklessly agreed to come out here, but he was quick enough to pull a knife on me when I told him no. The stink of cheap tequila on his breath made me gag and I’m glad he is the one I used to prove my point.
She called me hers. My eyes flutter shut as I try to remember everything about this moment. Her chapped lips on mine, the slick and foreign feel of her tongue on my lips. I want to explore more, to keep her lips on mine for the rest of eternity. Her warm hand on me is everything I never knew I needed. What will it feel like if she touches the rest of me?
“A small victory in a long war you will fight for your soulmate, sweet one.”
The weight of Love’s tentacles slides from me to her with such ease. They switch between us as if this is how they are meant to move through space and time. A breath shudders through me as the sensation of them leaves me. Orthia steps back once she realises what they’ve done. She clears her throat and looks behind me. I am dead on my feet and couldn’t give a single fuck about that shit bag. The morning will come sooner than I like.
“You didn’t do it right,” she finally says.
I blink.
“Love still hungers. You’ve got a lot of fucking work ahead of you.” Orthia moves around me and uses her boot to turn over the guy I stabbed like three times for her. “Did you even aim for a lung?”
For five days, I have held my tongue because why start a fight with my soulmate, who a literal god says is afraid of me? Her unimpressed tone and the annoyed look on her face now is the last straw. I can’t keep doing this. I am only human.
“I wasn’t fucking thinking about what part of him the damn knife was piercing. It’s not something you can fucking look up online.”
“You can.” Orthia scoffs, “but it’s not really accurate.”
“Oh my god,” I groan. “Why are you ruining our moment?”
She takes a deep breath; I can see her shoulders move up with the action in an almost comical way.
“I’m not- Look.” She turns around and rubs a hand over her fuzzy head. “We are not experiencing the same moment right now.”
“What do you mean?”
