Proven (Daughters of the Sea #1) (32 page)

O
LIVIA

"You're so cute when you're mad,"

"I'm not mad," I challenged Sebastian. I was seething mad. The only problem was I didn't know why.

"Like I said. Adorable." He grabbed me around the waist and pulled me down onto his lap, attempting to cuddle with me.

"I'm not mad!" I insisted. "And I'm sure as hell not adorable."

"Wrong on all accounts." He smiled down at me, his lips suddenly inches from mine. The heat of his skin called to me and the way he eyed my mouth with hunger sent my pulse racing, sparking more waves of anger. Vulnerability twisted in my heart and I pushed him away.

"Drink some elixir and shut up." I held up the vial full of golden liquid he was supposed to be finishing.

"I wouldn't have let anything hurt her," he assured me between sips. "You know that."

"I don't know that and neither do you," I scolded him. "And then who would save you? What then? You just assumed you wouldn't let anything happen to you, either?"

"Pretty much," he replied, shrugging.

"That just proves my point."

"Have I told you how cute you are when you're mad?" He chuckled and tried to pull me close once more. "Especially when you're worried about me?"

"Why would I be worried?" I played off the mix of emotions thrumming through me, threatening to show themselves as embarrassing tears. Then my heart threw up yet another foolproof defense. It turned on him. "Why does it matter? You're already dead. You'd just be sent back to the Underworld where you came from."

"Not without seeing you again." His tone turned serious and his wet blond hair flopped across his ears and forehead as his head swiveled toward me.

"Like that stopped you last night!" I spit at him; dejection welling up into my throat. I pushed it back down with stubborn conviction as the true source of my fury bubbled to the surface and caught even me off guard. I wasn't ready for the intensity of my feelings. This was new territory for me. I threw up my arms as my mouth spewed my fears. "You didn't even say goodbye! What if you got sent back to the Underworld sooner? What if I never saw you again, Sebastian?! Did you even think about that?"

"Is that why you're upset?" he asked me carefully. "Because I didn't say goodbye?"

"No," I lied, and then alluded to the truth sheepishly. "I don't know, maybe."

"I didn't mean to hurt you," he promised gently. "That's the last thing I want to do."

"You didn't hurt me," I snapped defensively, lying through my teeth again. "I mean, you're leaving in three weeks anyway. It shouldn't matter."

"But it does matter. You matter." He demanded my attention; the burning in his eyes capturing mine, holding my gaze with purpose. "You matter to me, Olivia."

"I know, I know," I brushed off his words and decided to focus on my feet.

"No, I don't think you do," he insisted slowly, pulling my chin up to meet his eyes.

"This shouldn't have happened, Sebastian." I continued sabotaging my current situation like a boss. "In three weeks, I'll never see you again. What am I supposed to do with that?"

"What do you want to do with that?" he asked carefully.

I crossed my arms defiantly. "You deserve to have your ass kicked. You knew this entire time that you were going to have to leave, but you decided to throw paint all over me and kiss me anyway!"

"I had to," he admitted softly, trying to cup my cheek. I pulled away from him with a warning look.

"Actually you didn't." I glared at him. I watched with a hundred different emotions waging a seven year war with each other in my heart as he stood with resolve and walked over to the glass.

"Come here. I want to show you something."

"What?" I met him at the glass with skepticism.

"What do you see?"

I looked out the window at the vast sea I knew was beyond the glass, but the light of the room and the ocean's darkness reflected my own angry expression. I cut my eyes at Sebastian's reflection with irritation.

"Nothing. Except us."

He faced me with hooded eyes and placed my hands in his. "That's exactly how I feel. I know there's an entire world out there, but I don't see any of it. All I see is you. All I want is you."

"Why do you say things like that?" I pouted stubbornly. "It's only going to make it harder."

"We have two choices." He pulled me into his arms and the strong hold I felt myself captured in melted away my faulty defenses and I felt my heart crumble right into his hands. "We can either stop things now and pretend we're just friends or spend the next three weeks with each other and have no regrets and no 'what ifs'," he proposed.

"You just had to come back from the dead and screw up my life, didn't you?" I tried to be mad. The corners of my mouth were itching to pull up from the raw vulnerability I found in his eyes and the desperate way he clung to me.

"You're welcome." He grinned sensually.

"I hate you," I muttered and narrowed my eyes at him. My resolve completely disappeared and I found myself wanting to pretend he would be mine forever. That he wouldn't be leaving.

"I'm falling in love with you, Olivia," he whispered and my world froze mid-breath. "I can't turn it off. I can't control it." He cupped a hand behind my head. "Please spend the next three weeks with me. Let me love you."

"Okay," I consented in a voice barely above a whisper. The ghost of a smile fluttered across his lips before his arm encircled my waist and pressed me to him. My heart broke into a million happy pieces and shattered around us on the floor as he bent down and kissed me with urgency. I knew I would never be able to put the pieces back together, but at that moment, I didn't care. At that moment, I was with Sebastian. In his arms. Wrapped in his essence. Wrapped in his love.

"I think I love you," I gasped between kisses, searching his eyes and finding everything I'd ever dreamed of swirling amongst those blue hues. They softened even more and I thought my entire body would explode from the intensity racing through every vein. Every thought, every movement, careening out of control towards a place I never knew existed.

"And I know I love you," he said slowly, ensuring I felt every word down to my core. His soft lips met mine once more in a dance of warmth and passion, intoxicating the rest of my body with reckless abandon. Every fiber of my being ached for him, and I decided in that moment that I wanted all the things he had just said. No regrets. No 'what ifs'. I wanted to give him my heart fully, if only for a short time. I wanted to surrender. I wanted to be loved.

I pulled away and took his hands, meeting his gaze with seductive intention. I stepped backwards, leading him to the bed but stopping short as the back of my knees touched the mattress. His sideways grin disappeared and his eyes widened ever so slightly with understanding. In one quick motion he pulled his shirt over his head, revealing a torso so sculpted I was almost afraid to touch it. Almost. With quiet wonder I ran a finger over the intricacies of his armored trace. I ran both hands over his broad shoulders and down his arms.

His hands found the hem of my shirt and he paused, asking my permission with his eyes. I answered him with a slight smile and watched hunger tense his jaw and fill his now wild, enraptured eyes. He pulled the shirt over my head with ease and I pulled myself to him, needing to feel his skin on mine. He kissed me with renewed urgency as he grasped my waist and pushed me back onto the bed. With deliberate slowness he pressed his weight down on me, fanning the flames that already precipitated along my body. I wrapped my legs around him and pulled him against me, feeling his emblazoned heat in earnest. At some point the rest of our clothes were stripped away and he urged me under the covers, never breaking our kiss.

My world was a blur of impulse and adrenaline, wrapping us in a cocoon of fevered exhilaration. I closed my eyes in a cloud of euphoria as his lips trailed down my neck, his tongue leaving a cool trail as he went. He gently sucked and raked his teeth against my skin while moving on top of me once more, spreading my legs with his knees.

My vulnerable position left me craving to be taken; yearning to feel the raw power I knew he kept tamed within. But he held back, leaving us both desperate and panting. He moaned softly as he cupped my chin and returned his search to my wanting mouth. He gathered my wrists in one hand and pulled them above my head, leaving me blissfully powerless. His other hand found its way all over my body in a tantalizing pre-emptive promise. His breathing became hitched and the blue of his eyes turned wild with passion as he bent his head down and whispered in my ear in Greek.

"I'll always be yours."

Without hesitation, he filled me with a power that sent me reeling, racking my body with a pleasure I'd never felt. The raw masculinity he encompassed, coupled with the tender way he continued to kiss my neck, mouth, and collarbone was mesmerizing. He was the embodiment of strength, bravery, and sheer will. He'd led entire armies of men, ravaged lands, and waged countless wars. Yet, in this brief moment of time he rendered himself completely vulnerable, giving himself to me in every way a man could.

He released my wrists and I clung to him in unrivaled ecstasy, gripping his back, his shoulders, and his arms. I rolled us over so I was on top of him, my eyes drinking in the muscular machine lying beneath me. He grabbed my hips as a tidal wave of power exploded around us and we clung to one another once more. I buried my face in his shoulder as a wave of emotion elicited my voice to call out with pleasure and I felt a groan erupt from his throat.

We didn't notice when the light above us began to flicker. We didn't notice when the lamp on the other side of the room began doing the same. We didn't notice the electricity building beneath my skin. And we didn't notice the arcs of light connecting me to my surroundings. As a roar that I was sure my body couldn't contain rushed over me and I felt my essence erupt in a display of sparks, the light bulbs flickered once more before exploding with a loud pop, blanketing us in darkness.

I collapsed on top of him and we were left breathing hard and glistening with sweat. I pushed his hair out of his face and was about to lay my head down on his chest when I saw it. We were glowing, or electrified. All across my skin lay a sheen of my electric essence flickering and buzzing with energy. As I inspected my arms, Sebastian noticed the same thing.

"Whoa," he whispered. My essence stretched past my body and blanketed Sebastian's skin as well.

"That's new," I mused. I bent down slowly and kissed him lightly on his lips. I rolled off of him, taking my blanket of essence with me. He snuggled in behind me and ran his fingers through my hair. As my pulse slowed and the numbness of pleasure began to settle, the glowing essence seeped back into my skin and began to fade.

"I think you're going to need to replace the light bulbs," he whispered with a chuckle.

"Gladly," I sighed happily. "Although...we'd probably just break them again."

"We?" he chuckled again. "I'm not the one with an internal power plant running through me."

"True, but it's entirely your fault,"

"I know," he whispered before I drifted off to sleep in his arms.

S
TASIA

When in doubt, always send your soul where your physical body doesn't want to go. Instead of putting ourselves in danger to research what was happening on the island, I decided to find out as much as I could in a much quicker and safer way; via a reverie. The rugged cliffs were no obstacle for me as I urged my soul up and over the mountain of rock. I'd left my body back on the monolith under Finn and Sebastian's supervision. The early morning sun was peeking up from beneath the calm horizon as I knelt behind a scraggly bush and scanned my surroundings.

The odd glass building we'd spotted last night was now about one hundred yards to my right and looked more like a watch tower than anything else. The glass room was perched precariously on the side of the cliff, facing the crux and supported by thick metal beams anchored to the rocky mountainside. I peered over the side and into the mouth of the miracle I'd seen under the light of the moon only twelve hours prior. It pulsed with an undeniable power that allowed my essence to surge at its close proximity.

I thought about what my Mom would have thought the first time she saw it. I pictured her standing on the empty beach far below, facing the crux with wonder. She knew of its power. She knew it must be kept secret. She knew something like this was going to happen, and now the time was near. The prophecy was closing in and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

I gazed past the glass building, over the ridgeline, and down the beach; the only movement the bending of grass in the breeze and the churning of the crux below. Then I heard a voice to my left. I crouched instinctively before remembering I was invisible. Inwardly snickering at myself, I stood and searched for the source of the voice. I strode to my left and rounded a boulder, running a hand along its bumpy, cool surface. I stopped short when I came upon the scene that its size had blocked from my previous perch.

"Again!" a male voice instructed curtly.