Страница 39 из 140
“Then you have to realize I will continue to be naked until I retrieve the clothing you apparently didn’t notice in your haste to undress.”
The breath I inhaled scorched my lungs.
“If it makes you uncomfortable, I suggest closing your eyes or keeping them off my unmentionables.” He paused. “Unless you would like for me to stay?”
“I don’t want you to stay.”
“Why do I think that’s a lie?”
“It’s not.”
“That’s another lie.”
I twitched at the near-decadent drawl of his tone and managed to keep my eyes on his face as he proceeded forward. Kind of. My gaze dropped again, but to those strange black lines. He was close enough that I could see that they did indeed creep along the side of his body. But they weren’t solid. Instead, some smaller marks or shapes followed the pattern of a line. Did they continue onto his back? Curiosity blazed through me now. What were the shapes?
Don’t ask. Keep your mouth closed. Don’t ask. Don’t—
“Is that ink?” I blurted out, hating myself for asking and for continuing to speak. “The kind needled into the skin?”
He stopped. “It is…something like that.”
I didn’t know if gods and Primals had a different process when it came to tattoos. “Did it hurt?”
“Only till it didn’t,” he replied, and my gaze lifted. There was a slight curve to his lips—just the faintest of smiles. But like before, it had a startling effect, warming the coldness of his features. “You’re familiar with tattoos?”
I nodded. “I’ve seen them on some of the sailors. Mostly on their backs and arms.”
Another lock of hair slipped forward over his cheek this time. “You’ve seen the bare backs of many sailors?”
Not that many, but that was none of his business. “So what if I have?”
“So what, indeed?” The faint smile remained. “It just makes all of this far more…interesting.”
I tensed to the point it almost became painful. “I don’t see how.”
“I could explain,” he offered.
“Not necessary.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“I have time.”
“I don’t. Just go,” I repeated, my frustration with him, the day, and with the fact that he was here in my lake, and that this place would never be the same again, rising to the surface. “But do not come any closer to me. If you do, you will not like what happens.”
The god became very still then, so much so that I wasn’t sure if he even breathed. And the water… I swore the water around him stopped its lazy rippling. My heartbeat stuttered.
“I won’t?” he queried softly.
Tiny hairs began to rise all over my body. “No.”
“What will you do, my lady?” Moonlight kissed the apple of his cheekbone as he tilted his head once more. “You have no shadowstone dagger to threaten me with.”
“I don’t need a dagger,” I said, my voice thready. “And I’m not a lady.”
His head straightened. “No, I imagine not, considering you’re nude in a lake with an unfamiliar man, whose lip you bit upon meeting, and have seen the bare backs of many sailors. I was only being polite.”
My lip curled at the presumed insult. I knew I should let it go. Keep my mouth shut, but I didn’t. I hadn’t in three years, and my inability to do so had grown and festered into an incurable disease. The kind that provoked further, dangerous recklessness. “What I am is a Princess who is nude in a lake with an unfamiliar man and has seen the bare backs of men,” I told him, speaking the forbidden. “And you, with each passing moment, are getting closer to no longer having the ability to see anyone’s unmentionable places ever again.”
For a long moment, he stared at me, his features unreadable. My heart began to pound with trepidation—
The god laughed. Tipped his head back and actually laughed, long and deep. And his laugh was…well, it was a nice sound. Deep and husky.
It was also highly infuriating.
“I’m not sure what you find so fu
“You,” he answered between laughs.
“Me?”
“Yes.” He lowered his head, his stare piercing even though I couldn’t see his eyes. “You amuse me.”
If there were some kind of switch deep inside me that controlled my anger and impulses, he’d found it with unerring accuracy over and over.
And then repeatedly flipped it each time I crossed paths when him.
I was a lot of things, but I was not the source of anyone’s amusement. Not even a god’s.
Fury pulsing through my blood, I rose to my full height. “I doubt you will find me so amusing when you’re gasping for the last of your breaths.”
He became still again, and…good gods, the water coursing down his chest froze. The droplets ceased.
“I’m already gasping,” he whispered, his voice rougher, deeper.
Confusion rippled along the flood of rage. Did he have some sort of breathing ailment? Could gods have health issues? If so, I doubted these cold waters would be good for his lungs. Not that I remotely cared for the condition of his lungs. Nor did I even know why I was wondering about their condition.
A warm breeze lifted the strands of my wet hair and slipped over the chilled skin of my bare shoulders and my…
Oh.
The water only reached my waist here.
“In case you’re wondering,”—his voice was a kiss against my skin—“this is me intentionally staring.”
I started to lower, seeking the shield of the water, but I stopped myself. I would not shrink or cower to anyone or anything. “Pervert.”
“Guilty.”
“Keep staring,” I growled. “And I will claw out those eyes with my fingers if need be.”
He barked out another short laugh, this one tinged with surprise. “Still no fear, Your Grace?”
I bristled at the way he used the Royal title as if it were something silly and irrelevant. All the more frustrating was the fact that he was perhaps the first person to ever refer to me as such.
“I’m still not afraid of you,” I replied, briefly glancing down. There was only a minor bit of relief when I saw several pale strands of hair plastered to my chest. They didn’t hide nearly enough, but it was better than nothing.
“Well, I’m a little afraid of you,” he said, and he was somehow closer without seeming to have moved. He wasn’t even a foot from me now, and an icy heat radiated from him, pressing against my flesh. His closeness heightened the sensitivity of every inch of skin. “You want to claw my eyes out.”
Hearing him say what I’d threatened sounded ridiculous. “You and I both know it would be impossible for me to claw your eyes out.”
“And yet, based on my limited interactions with you, I know you’d try, even when you know you’d fail.”
I couldn’t exactly argue against that. “Well, if you’re that concerned about the possibility of me attempting to do that, you should be careful of where your eyes wander.”
“I’m being extra-careful as incredibly hard as that is, given the…abundant allure of being less careful.”
“I’m sure you say that to all the ladies you accost.”
“Only the ones I would be tempted to allow to try and claw my eyes out.”
“That…that makes no sense.” Drawing in a too-short breath, I stepped back through the water, folding an arm over my chest.
He watched me, but his stare was nothing like Nor’s. There was curiosity there. “It’s amazing to witness.”
“What is?”
“These moments when you suddenly remember what I am. Is this another attempt to use common sense?”
I lifted my chin a notch. “Unfortunately.”
“Is it not going well again?”
“Not exactly.”
He chuckled, and the sound…well, it was as nice as his laugh. I wished it weren’t because it made me want to hear it again, and that seemed like a silly need. “Why do you think you need to remain quiet now?”
I spared a glance at the shore. “I’m likely to say something that would make you forget that one decent bone in your body.”
He drew his lower lip between his teeth, and for some inane reason, my full attention was drawn to that. “I don’t think that’s the kind of mood you have to worry about putting me in.”
“What kind of—?” I cut myself off as what he said sank in. There was a sharp curl low in my stomach that I didn’t like at all—for a multitude of reasons.
“I know. That was…inappropriate of me.”
“Very,” I muttered, thinking my response was just as inappropriate, all things considered.
“You’re unexpectedly outspoken.”
“I’m not sure how you can be expectant of anything as we don’t really know each other.”
“I think I know enough,” he responded.
“I don’t even know your name,” I pointed out.
“Some call me Ash.”
“Ash?” I repeated, and he nodded. Something about that was familiar. “Is it short for something?”
“It is short for many things.” His head suddenly snapped toward the shore. A moment passed. “By the way, I would think you would’ve learned from our last interaction. I don’t make a habit of punishing mortals for speaking their minds.” He shot a glance in my direction. “Mostly.”
Threatening to claw out his eyes and actually stabbing him in the chest weren’t examples of speaking my mind, but I wisely didn’t share that thought.
“And I didn’t accost you. I may be a lot of things…” He strode forward with the warning. “But I am not that.”
I opened my mouth, but all words left me when he neared the shallower end of the lake. I stared. Gods help me, I couldn’t take my eyes away from him as he climbed the earthen steps to the shore. It wasn’t his rear that snagged my attention. Though I did see that. I shouldn’t have, and I should’ve turned away right then because that made me a hypocrite of the highest order—being inappropriate went both ways. But I didn’t. What I did see of his ass was…well, it was as well-formed as everything else I shouldn’t have seen.
But it was the ink sprawling across the entire length of his back from the upper swells of his rear all the way to the edges of his hair that I couldn’t look away from. In the center of his back was a circular, twisted swirl that grew larger, lashing out to form the thick tendrils I’d seen reaching around his waist to flow along the insides of his hips. There wasn’t nearly enough light for me to make out what made up the swirling design, but I had never seen any sailor with a tattoo like his. Again, my curiosity stirred. “What kind of tattoo is that?”
“One that is inked into the skin.” He started to turn toward me, and I quickly averted my eyes. “You should get dressed. I won’t look. I promise.”
I peeked at him, finding that he’d turned away from the lake and held what appeared to be a pair of black breeches that I truly had not seen upon my arrival. My gaze shot to my pile of clothing. I couldn’t stand here forever and question him.