Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 106107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Chapter Thirty-Two
PRIEST
Sugared lemons and salt water.
Larimar’s scent still has the ability to undo me, even after all these years.
Though she definitely has other ways of undoing me as well.
I stare down at her, the intensity of my feelings rolling through me—love, hurt, lust. So much lust. My arms had been aching from being in chains for so long, but I don’t feel any pain or discomfort anymore, not after what she just did to me.
She’s staring up at me with fire in her eyes, though I can still see the pain there. She’s furious at me, and I can’t ever blame her for that. The last thing I expected was for her to do what she did. I know she didn’t mean to make me come, that she was trying her own sinful brand of torture, but I didn’t think she’d ever even touch me again.
But she did.
And that fire in her lavender eyes is also fueled by desire.
“What if I don’t want you to defile me?” she says with a raise of her chin. “What if I want to set you out in that boat so you can drift forever?”
“Then I shall give it to you,” I tell her. “But is that what you really want?”
I’m taking a risk here. I’m prepared for her stubbornness to kick in, the hurt I caused her to be lodged too deep. The mere sight of the scars on her legs makes me feel ill; I can’t imagine how they make her feel. She might really want me gone from her life forever, and I will have no choice but to obey.
I told her I would hunt her down and find her, that she was forever mine, that she belonged to me, body and soul. But even I have my limits. Even I have to find the courage to let her go if that’s what she truly wants.
Frankly, it’s what she deserves.
And I deserve to suffer for all my sins.
It doesn’t mean she won’t stop belonging to me, though. She always will.
“I want…” she begins and then trails off, looking away. Then she shakes her head and closes her eyes. “I don’t know what I want, Priest,” she says softly.
“You want to hate me,” I say.
She swallows hard, nodding.
“Part of you does hate me,” I add.
She stops nodding, pressing her lips together into a thin line.
“But part of you still loves me,” I say. “I know you do. Otherwise, you wouldn’t still be here.”
Another risk. I didn’t even know that Larimar was in love with me when all hell broke loose. I certainly don’t know if she loves me still. But if there’s a chance…
Her eyes open, her lashes wet. Seems we’re both in the mood to make each other cry.
“Why would I give my heart to a man who never gave me his?” she says, her voice breaking.
I breathe in deeply. “It’s not that I didn’t want to,” I tell her. “It’s that I didn’t have a chance. We both realized we loved each other at the worst possible time.”
She swallows. “You love me?”
I want to tell her that of course I do. My love for her is intertwined with my obsession with her. She has a hold on me, lives in my veins.
But how is she supposed to know that? I’ve never given her any sign of how I feel, other than when I’m buried deep inside her, making her see stars. I’ve never told her how I’ve felt; I’ve only hurt her in every way possible.
I suppose hanging naked from chains is as good of a time as any.
“You’ve had your Syren claws hooked in my heart from the moment I first laid eyes on you,” I tell her, hoping she can feel the gravity in my voice, the weight of my soul being laid bare. “I’ve never been able to escape. I don’t want to escape. Even if you don’t love me anymore, my heart will belong to you until my undying day.”
I swallow down the lump in my throat. “I love you, Larimar. I worship you, I sin for you, and I would die for you, only you. So, if you want me gone from you forever, I can give you that. I will give you whatever you ask for. Ask, and you shall receive.”
Her lower lip trembles, but she squares her shoulders, trying to hold herself together. Perhaps if these chains weren’t holding me up, I would be on the floor.
“I want your heart,” she says.
“You have my heart, little fish.”
“I want your love.”
“You have my love.”
“I want…”
“You have every broken, wicked piece of me, Larimar, and you have my good pieces too. All the dark and all the light. You have all of them together, but it’s only you who will make me whole.”
She stares at me, her chin wobbling, and a single tear rolls down her cheek, which she quickly brushes away with her fingers.