She hummed in agreement. “You are pretty enough without any lessons.”
“First you admire my warrior’s chest and arms, and now you flatter my face—though earlier, you would hardly even look at me. Is it because you cannot resist how strong and handsome I am?”
“Indeed,” she laughed, flicking water at him. “I do not pretend to be blind. I will leave that to those in the crystal palace.”
As she should, yet Aerax would like to hear more. “What do you mean by that?”
“I would leave blindness to those like Degg who think that because you do not take your lessons, you learn nothing. Or those like Uland who think you are declawed, as if they cannot see the difference between claws that have been removed and claws that are sheathed.” The shake of her head tangled her floating hair in his fingers. “I knew they called you feral—but until this day, I didn’t realize they only meant you have no sweet manners. I thought they understood what they’d brought into the palace. But if they are more afraid of Caeb than they are of you, they cannot know.”
Because he never showed them. “Caeb has bigger fangs, so that is what they see.”
“Caeb also wears a harness so they believe he is tamed, when in truth he would kill any one of them without a moment’s thought. Is that what your princely clothes are—a harness so they can pretend you are tamed?”
“Those are for the prop,” Aerax told her. “I wear a leash.”
“But who holds that leash? It is not King Icaro. It is not Koth.” Her voice tightened. “And it is not me.”
He could only give her the truth. “It is me.”
She bit her lower lip and seemed to contemplate that, eyes closed and floating quietly. Finally she asked, “There is something you must do?”
“There is.”
“And you’ve had this purpose since you went to the crystal palace? This is what put distance between us?”
“It is,” he admitted bleakly. A distance that had formed while Aerax had struggled with all he had learned beneath the crystal palace. First denying that it was his responsibility, then rejecting as impossible the only solution he saw, before finally accepting that it must be done and that he was the only one who would do it.
“Why did you never let me help?”
There were many reasons, but he gave her the simplest ones. “Because it must fall to one of Varrin’s bloodline. And I could not put this burden on you.”
“Is it so heavy?”
It was only the weight of thousands upon thousands of souls. It was only the weight of an entire island.
But Aerax would not burden her by answering that, either.
At his silence, she sighed. “What can I give that will help you?”
Emotion filled his throat. Even now, she offered this. “Already you helped by convincing the Krimathean to send her warriors. I had no words to persuade her, but you did.” A short laugh escaped him. “Perhaps I should have paid more attention to Degg’s lessons.”
“And learn to have a silky tongue? You don’t need one.” Abruptly she twisted around to face him, with Aerax’s hands still caught in her hair. Water dripped from her nose and chin as she met his eyes.
He didn’t want to let her go. “Your head—”
“No longer aches.”
Aerax did. His cock ached at her nearness and his heart ached when he released her. Then he stiffened as she moved closer, straddling his thighs with her knees braced on the ledge at either side. Short his breath became, fire raging through his blood.
“Lizzan . . .” He groaned her name. Hands shaking with the urge to touch her, his fists clenched and unclenched at his sides. His body burned volcanic. The only cool relief was in the lake blue of her eyes as her gaze locked with his, and he would drown in the answering need he saw there.
Her breath quickened. “This is also as before.”
“Worse,” he gritted out. Though that was not true. “Better.”
“Both,” she agreed, and her eyes closed. “Can you still restrain yourself?”
He could. And always for her, he would. Unless she gave him leave, never would he let loose the feral beast within.
At his abrupt nod, she slid closer, until his turgid cockstand rose tall against her belly and she linked her arms around his neck. His surging arousal demanded to devour her, to claim her, yet Aerax restrained every movement but the unclenching of his fists, so that he could grip her hips and hold