Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 144411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
“Ramsay?” I ask, the sound muffled as bubbles rise from my mouth.
He frowns and slowly tilts his head to look at me, then looks up at the surface that’s so far away. When he looks back to me, a small, satisfied smile turns up the corner of his mouth.
“You came for me,” he says, bubbles floating from his mouth now.
I nod, overjoyed that he’s alive but before I can ask him how he’s still alive and seemingly not needing to breathe under the sea, he leans in, grabs my face…
And kisses me.
CHAPTER 20
Ramsay
Sam had always said that I’m a man that attacks first and asks questions later, and that’s certainly true when it comes to the opposite sex (or the same sex, depending on the decade). I had many questions for Maren after Sterling clobbered me over the head and I found myself at the bottom of the sea, one being why she seemed to come after me—I assume to save me (unless she swam down to make sure I was dead, to which I would not be surprised).
And two, that she had swam down to get me at all. Looking up at the surface it seemed it was a long way up and she seemed to be doing just fine holding her breath, her dark hair flowing around her in such a way that it was hard not to imagine her as a mermaid.
Either way, those questions are quickly shoved to the back of my mind when I see her face so close to mine, her fingers pressed gently on the side of my face, her gaze focused on my lips. It doesn’t matter that we are at the bottom of the sea, all I want, all I need, is to kiss her once and for all.
I grab her face hastily, fingertips digging into her skin, and my mouth finds hers, claiming it with intent. Her lips part in surprise and she lets out a groan at the contact that seems to echo through the water. Her lips are as soft as honey and just as sweet, and my tongue plunders her mouth in the very same rough manner in which I am known to fuck. I taste her, savor her, want to sink deeper in these depths until she is my only obsession.
I have wanted to kiss her like this since the moment she first punched me in the face.
My fingers go into her hair, pulling it back and she suddenly stops and moves back, her hands brushing her hair forward over her shoulders, a look of fright in her eyes.
Then she starts swimming toward the surface, her legs pressed together and moving as one for a second before she abandons that and starts moving her arms and clawing her way to the top.
I watch her rise above me for a moment, remembering what she had said to Nerissa. She wanted the sea witch to turn her into a mermaid. Why would she want that? Is she living out some fantasy here at the bottom of the sea? And how on earth is she able to hold her breath for so long?
With the feeling of her lips still lingering on mine, my cock at a stand, I go after her, swimming up and up with powerful kicks of my legs until the sun beams though the water get brighter and brighter, the deep blue fading and then I’m breaking through the surface.
I take in a gulp of fresh air and look at Maren treading water beside me, her eyes focused warily on mine, droplets gathered in her dark lashes.
“What are you?” I ask.
“What are you?” she counters.
I press my lips together. Hmmm. Seems we are at a crossroads.
I whirl around, looking for the Nightwind, and my heart sinks.
She’s nowhere to be found. All I see is the cursed crew’s ship back in their cove between islands. The Nightwind is gone.
“Damn it!” I yell, smacking the water with my fist. “They’ve taken her.”
“That ship means a lot to you, doesn’t it?” Maren says quietly.
“Aye,” I reply sharply, as if that wasn’t obvious. “She does, and so does the crew. I can’t lose either of them.”
“They’re your family,” she comments, sounding rather wistful.
I frown. “That they are.” I look to the nearest land, which of course happens to be the ruined Reef City. Figures that we’d be back on Nerissa’s territory so soon. “Come on, we have to get to shore and think of a plan.”
She doesn’t say anything to that. She doesn’t need to, I can practically hear her thoughts, which is something that is possible between the Brethren at times. She’s thinking she doesn’t want anything to do with whatever plan I come up with.
We start swimming for the shore. We’re a long ways off and even though I’m in peak physical form, and she’s demonstrating the same, by the time we finally find our footing on the reefs and sunken basalt columns of the city, we’re both exhausted and out of breath.