Bound by Sin

  Her. Somehow he had earned the gift of her. A blessing amid his curse.

  The thought of squandering that blessing scared him. Truly terrified him in a way nothing else had been able to ever since he had been rescued from the chains of that star. When one was immortal, one’s fears tended to evaporate. All fear, it seemed, was rooted in the fear of death. When it boiled down to it, a fear of heights or a fear of snakes or any such fear was a fear of being killed. Death was a frightening thing. An unknown thing. Take away that fear, take away death, and suddenly very little was frightening. At least that was how it had been for Jaykun. Now that death had been taken out of the equation, he felt he was nearly invincible and he feared almost nothing.

  But the one other thing that terrified him was the mercurial nature of the gods. Their moods and tempers were the stuff of legend. If anyone could touch him, it would be the hand of a god. To be specific, a goddess. Weysa would look upon anyone who might interfere in his punishment with a hostile eye. She would feel threatened by any woman who came too close to him. She had already released his brothers from their curses, and as long as there was a brother to replace them and she had a warrior to fight in her name, she was content. But if for any reason she thought Jaykun might be swayed from his course and purpose…well, it was quite possible she would simply rid herself of the threat and be done with it.

  So it was key that he manage his emotions and his desires with a strict hand. He did not think Weysa would begrudge him female company, so long as he played by the rules and kept his heart out of the game. And that was exactly what he would do. He would enjoy Jileana for whatever time they had left together, then he would put her aside and focus on the next city he was destined to lay siege to. Weysa couldn’t possibly ask anything more of him.

  Well, actually she could, but he hoped this would be enough to keep her satisfied.

  “I think your sins should be forgiven. You suffer for them nightly, and it is a cruel thing. When will it be enough? When will you earn reprieve?”

  He shushed her nervously, looking around them as if there might be someone spying on them and hearing her words. “I deserve every moment of my fate. Do not question the will of a goddess.”

  “I will question it,” she said stubbornly. “There has to be a point when they must forgive you for what you’ve done and release you from this awful curse. Otherwise, to do this indefinitely makes them purposefully cruel and sadistic, and I don’t like to think the gods are sadistic. I prefer to think of them as kind and benevolent and perhaps a little strict when it is called for…but this…this is just merciless and brutal.”

  “Enough. Do not speak of this anymore,” he said, harshly gripping her by her forearm and giving her a shake. “You do not know what you are daring and I will not have you endangered! I couldn’t bear it if—” He broke off and looked away from her.

  But she smiled as she realized what his unspoken emotions were. He did not want to see her hurt. He cared about what happened to her. The understanding made her feel light and dizzy inside, and she didn’t even understand why it should matter so much. But it did matter. It mattered enough to make her feel good, and that meant something. She didn’t know what exactly, but it did mean something.

  She considered that she might be falling for him. It was a strange notion for her because she had never fallen for anyone before. She had never really wanted to. She enjoyed everyone, for the most part, equally. She didn’t really think more or less of one man over another.

  But she liked Jaykun a great deal. There was much about him that impressed her. He was brave and strong. More important, he was cunning and intelligent. She had seen it in the way he solved his problems and the problems of others. He was never overbearing like Silan and Silan’s friends often were. Friends who thought they had a rightful claim on her. She frowned as she thought of Barban. She had not come across him yet since she had returned from the Overworld, but she would easily bet that Silan had reported her behavior accordingly. It was only a matter of time before Barban sought her out and made his displeasure known. It was a confrontation she was not looking forward to.

  But thinking of Barban only served as a contrast to how much pleasure she derived from Jaykun’s company. She had not known him that long, really, but even so, she felt she knew him better than any other man she had ever known. And considering how many brothers she had, that was saying something. Then again, comparing any man to her brothers was likely to make that man come out ahead of the mark. Her brothers did little more than aggravate her.

  “All right,” she said, refocusing on the conversation at hand. “I won’t speak of it any further,” she said to him, laying a comforting hand over the one gripping her arm. She then leaned her body against his again and reached to kiss him softly and slowly on his cheek. When she pulled back he was looking at her bemusedly.

  “What was that for?” he asked.

  “Do I need a reason now to kiss you?”

  “Of course not,” he said. “It just seemed…different.”

  “It was different, I suppose. It was my way of beginning to lure you into my bed again.”

  His right brow shot up. “Is that so?” he asked. “Well, then I rather like different.”

  “I somehow thought you might,” she said with a chuckle. She leaned in again and kissed the corner of his lips. Then her next kiss fell dead center on them. Jaykun’s hand drove into the wet tendrils of her hair and held her head as his mouth seized hers suddenly and fully. The kiss lit a fire deep in her bones, heating her until all of her skin was flush with it. Between that and the sunlight, she felt as though she had never been so warm. But the truth was, she had…as she had sat close to him while he burned. Now he was burning her in a completely different way. This way was from the inside out. She had had sexual experiences before—Jaykun had not been her first—but they had been so cold in comparison. He was so much more passionate than her selkie lovers had been, somehow more alive than they were. Perhaps it was because she saw him through the eyes of her adventurous soul, but she didn’t think so.

  She slid herself around into his lap, and for a moment her backside dangled in the air over the cliff as she straddled his legs and seated herself across his thighs. He anxiously locked his grip at her hips, drawing her in tight and close at the fear of her possibly falling over backward, down the long cliff face, and into the water.

  “Don’t worry,” she whispered across his lips, “I’m not going anywhere. You won’t be rid of me that easily.”

  “That’s just it. I’m not looking to be rid of you at all. Just the opposite, I find.”

  She smiled at that and shifted herself as close to him as was possible, chest to chest, sex to sex, and snuggled in tight.

  “There, now. See? I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Yes, you are rather…secure,” he said as he nuzzled her ear beneath her hair. “But I’d much rather you be safer than this. After all, only one of us is immortal.”

  “Mmm…after a fashion. I won’t grow any older. Selkies never do. So I’ll never die of old age.”

  “But you can die from falling off a cliff,” he said dryly.

  Jileana leaned back in his lap until her hair was dangling out in the open air beyond the edge of the cliff.

  “This cliff? I’ve dived off this cliff before.”

  “Good gods,” he breathed, jerking her back in tight to his chest. “You’re insane. I’m immortal, but it still hurts to hit that water wrong. I’d likely break every bone in my body.”

  “You likely would since you aren’t natural to diving. But we are. It’s like second nature. There’s something inside us that makes us hit the water just right every time. Accidents do happen of course, but it’s rare.”

  “I think I would prefer it if you don’t do that while I’m watching. Come, let’s go where it’s safer.”

  “No!” She tensed her body and stayed him from getting up. “Let’s stay right here. Just like this.”

  She gr
ipped his strong shoulders with both hands, and with a flex of her limber thigh and abdominal muscles, she undulated her sex against his, rubbing him hotly in her wet kiss.

  His heart pounding, blood filling his cock, he gripped hold of her wicked hips. He glanced beyond her, out into the open air and down, past all the levels of caves and at last the water. His entire lower body tensed, as if he could cling to the ground beneath him and make it more safe somehow. But the fact was, it wasn’t safe at all…and that was what was making his heart race and his blood burn.

  He reached up, grabbed a fistful of her hair, and controlled her head as he crushed his mouth onto hers. He invaded her mouth with his tongue, lapping at the heady flavor of her. She was beyond delicious to him, and he savored every second of his tasting of her. He let go of her hip but did not lift his hand from her body for even a second. He wasn’t going to risk anything with her—at least not more than he already was. But he had to admit there was an immeasurable excitement to be found in what they were doing. Which was no doubt her entire purpose. He ran his free hand up along the curves of her side, the hand in her hair clenching tighter as he embraced her full breast. All the while, he was kissing her as if he were starved for her. And he was. It felt like forever since he had been inside her, and he was definitely willing to change that…even if it was while she dangled over the side of a cliff.

  Jileana kept her hands busy as well. They left his shoulders and brushed down over the tight swells of his pectoral muscles, her thumbnails scraping at his nipples in taunting little flicks. Then, while her left hand remained at that particular task, her right continued down over the ridges of his abdomen and farther down until her fingers were scraping through the wiry hairs where their bodies met. She lifted her hips just enough for her hand to reach between them and take hold of him. He sucked in a breath, then released it in a growling groan of pleasure. He wanted to lift up into her touch, but he dared not move an inch lest he topple them over the edge. Instead he was forced to let her do all the work, let her stroke him tightly until he was beyond hard for her. She alternated stroking him with her hand with rubbing him against the wet flesh of her sex. Then she rose up in his lap, trusting him to hold on to her, and offered her breast to his lips. He took her in between his teeth, sucking at her urgently until she gasped from the punishment. But she deserved to be punished, he thought. Look at what she had him doing. Look at the risks she was willing to take. He was beginning to realize that she had very little in the way of a self-preservation instinct. It was obvious in everything she did. She was utterly fearless…and she even sought out trouble aggressively. Oh, she didn’t mean to get into trouble, but she did nothing to lessen her chances of it and she put herself into situations where trouble was just as likely to occur as not.

  Through with punishing her, he gentled to teasing flutters of his tongue around her hard, distended nipple. The gentler undertaking made her moan with pleasure just as the rougher one had. Her free hand crawled through his hair, clutching at his scalp.

  Finally, after he had left her breast in trade for the side of her neck, her shoulder, and then her opposite breast, she rose up once again and guided his shaft into the waiting embrace of her body. She lowered herself onto him slowly, bringing him snugly into her with small undulations of her hips. His hands rocketed to her hips, holding her and guiding her as he exhaled in a gusting groan of pleasure.

  “Ah gods, how you feel,” he said between clenched teeth. He could not thrust up into her as he would like, not without risking the worst, so he was forced to let her ride him as she saw fit. It was frustrating and erotic at the same time. His blood was pumping through his every vein with brutal force and he felt as though he could barely catch his breath.

  As for Jileana, she was loving every minute of her control of their pleasure. She rode him in slow, wicked, torturous moves until she had built up to short, quick undulations of her hips. Their mouths touched, but only enough to exchange hard, rapid breaths. She trusted him to hold on to her, to keep them rooted to the cliff’s edge while she gave in to her need with absolute, heart-stopping abandon. She threw her head back, then slowly curved her body backward over the abyss, her hair hanging in the open air, only his hands around her ribcage anchoring her to solid ground. She came back upright at his insistence and once again focused on the movements of her hips. It was more than she could bear, her heart pounding with the thrill of the danger she was in at every instant and the even more ecstatic thrill of having him inside her. Danger was one thing…but it was nothing…nothing without the thrill of having Jaykun. Nothing could compare—only enhance—what was already there, making it so much more. Jaykun was wild. Having him like this was wilder.

  She launched into orgasm, knowing she was free to do so, free to let her body spasm and curve, to throw her head back…all with complete abandon and trust that he would not let her go, would not let her fall.

  To be given that trust made a huge impact on Jaykun. It was an erotic high all its own. He had to force himself to wait, however, force himself to keep control until she had gone limp and he could pull her back into balance against him. Then, with her help, he was able to release, to let his orgasm be birthed. But it was a controlled passion. He dared not forget himself for even an instant.

  The moment he had recovered his breath he pushed away from the cliff’s edge and rolled them onto solid ground. He had her on her back beneath him and was settled between her thighs as he looked down into her face. She looked mightily self-satisfied, proud of herself for her achievement. He couldn’t help but laugh.

  “You seem quite content,” he said.

  “I am at that. However, one could always use more contentment.”

  He laughed again. “If you were truly content, then you would not want more. But I can see I have somehow come up short. I think I shall have to remedy this.”

  “You shall, but not right now,” she said, giving him a little push. “We have to get to our midday meal.”

  “Must we?” he asked, dipping his head and nuzzling the crook of her neck.

  “Yes! We must! Stop that.” She laughed.

  “Very well. But I will be readdressing this matter at a later time,” he said just before he surged to his feet and held a hand out to her. She took it and he pulled her up to her feet as well. When she moved to the edge of the cliff, he snagged her hard about the arm and pulled her back. “Don’t even think about diving off from up here. I am sure you would be fine, but I’m also sure my heart could not withstand the terror of watching you do it.”

  “But it would be so much faster,” she said hesitantly.

  “Please. For me,” he begged her gently.

  “Very well. We can climb down to the dining level.” But it was clear she was only mollifying him; she would have chosen to dive off had it been up to her. The thought was absolutely harrowing to Jaykun. He was not a cowardly man by any stretch of the imagination, but still…it was a long way down to the water and he had tempted fate enough for one day.

  The midday meal was a gathering of all the nobles of the court, including Jileana’s father and five of her brothers, Silan, Lalo, Misan, Kidas, and Gruen. Lalo, Misan, and Gruen seemed a little more laid-back than their surly elder brother, Silan. The jury was still out on the remaining one who seemed to be watching him with sharp eyes. Jaykun watched the proceedings around him quietly and with a careful eye. He decided he liked her brothers after only a short while of watching them. They were clearly careful and thoughtful where their brother Silan was headlong and headstrong.

  Also amongst the attendants was a beautiful woman with sea-green hair and fey features, including pointed ears. It was instantly obvious, even to him, that she was not a selkie. And when Jileana’s eyes settled on her, she went hard with instant tension at his side.

  “Oh no!” she cried softly. “I had forgotten!”

  “What is it?” he asked her quietly.

  “The siren ambassador!”

  At her words he beg
an to share her tension. The idea that this woman could open her mouth, sing a few notes, and ever after hold him in a thrall of love made his soul go cold. He had been in the thrall of love once before. He would never wish to be so stricken by that emotion again—and left blind to the faults of his partner because of it. He did not want a woman to have the power to manipulate him at her whim. He could think of no worse fate.

  “We must visit my mother after this,” she said anxiously. “Surely she has a spell that can counteract the effects of a siren’s call.”

  “A wise plan. I am not comfortable being within earshot of her.”

  “For now it is best we do not draw any attention to you,” she said.

  But as luck would have it, attention quickly turned solely to him. Jalaya was utterly fascinated by him and would hear nothing from anyone else at the table. The “table” was a cleared, raised platform of stone around which everyone sat cross-legged. Servers circled the table with trays full of various selections and allowed for each individual to choose what they wished and how much of it they wished.

  Jalaya focused completely on Jaykun, laughed at him, lavished him with her attentions. It wasn’t long before Jileana realized Jalaya was flirting with him—and an even shorter period of time before jealousy set in. It wrapped itself hard and fierce around her heart and she shocked herself with the level of hostility she suddenly felt toward the empress. What was wrong with her? she asked herself. She had wanted Jaykun to find a useful position in the empress’s attentions, had she not? Had they not come here with the sole purpose of striking an accord between Jalaya and Jaykun?

  But an accord was one thing, a flirtation something else entirely. Did the empress not see that Jaykun was hers? But if the empress decided she wanted Jaykun, what power did either of them have to refuse her? It was her court, her power, her rules. They would merely be pawns in her game.