Octavian's Undoing (Sons of Judgment) (35 page)

She jumped when Octavian did. He yanked his fin away from her, rumbling something.

Riley stared, torn between fear that she’d hurt him to dread that maybe he was upset with her. Both melted away when he continued grumbling and twitching his tail.

No. Way!

Astounded now, she dove after it, wrangling it to the ground and rubbing her hand over the fins.

His entire body jerked, nearly knocking her off him as he tried to detangle himself from her grasp. The deep, snorting sound brought a smile to her face.

Riley burst out laughing. “You’re ticklish?”

Big hands swooped down and snatched her up as though she were nothing more than a bothersome kitten and dragged her back up his body. They dropped her gently onto his chest then wrapped around her, restraining her in place.

Still laughing, she reached for his sides, anywhere she could reach with her fingers, poking and prodding until he ripped the coat off his face, tossed it aside and grabbed for her. She was twisted onto her back, hands restrained above her head.

Breathing hard, Riley grinned up into his scowling face. “Cheater.”

He made a sound like a raspberry being blown, but she couldn’t be sure. His lips never moved when he tried to speak.

“All right,” she told him. “I’ll behave.”

He rolled his eyes, giving a snort of disbelief. Nevertheless, he relinquished his grip on her, not that his hand strayed very far. It went down to cover half her entire stomach. He reclined onto his side, his free arm curling under to double as a pillow. Riley mirrored his posture, turning onto her side and using her arm as a pillow as she lay facing him.

“Thank you for bringing me here,” she murmured.

He gave a slight nod of his head.

“Can I come again?”

He rambled off something, but he must have remembered she couldn’t understand him, because he stopped and just gave another nod.

“Will you change back soon?” she asked.

He nodded a third time.

“When?”

He lifted the hand he was resting on her side and brushed at his chest as though dusting something away.

Riley frowned. “When you’re clean?”

He shook his head, wiping at his arms and wringing the water from his hair.

“Oh! When you’re dry?”

He nodded.

She lay back down, giving a wide yawn. “That could be a while. There’s a lot of you. What do you normally do when you’re here alone?” She hesitated. “You do come here alone, right? You don’t bring other women, do you?”

He made a sound that could have passed for amusement. He raised his hand, bending the index finger so when he gently poked her in the chest it wouldn’t be with his nail. He grumbled something. Then reached down and took her hand, the one with the bracelet. He held it up for her to see. He said something else before releasing her and splaying his hand over his heart.

Riley had no idea what he was trying to tell her, but she understood enough to get no other woman had come there with him.

Pleased, she closed her eyes. “Good.”

She was only vaguely aware of being tucked into his wilderness-scented arms. Everything else slipped into a blissful slumber.

“Riley?” Something cool and soft brushed her cheek. “Time to wake up, Green-eyes.”

Disorientated, Riley opened her eyes. She blinked at the thick canopy of branches knotted above her head and the hard ground beneath her. She shifted, groaning as her stiff body protested the movement.

“What happened?” Her voice came out hoarse, thick with sleep and confusion.

“You fell asleep.”

Still not sure where she was or why, Riley turned to the pond running alongside her. It took one glance at the glassy surface and it all came rushing back.

“Octavian!” She whipped around, searching for him.

He was kneeling a few feet away from her, fully dressed, fully human and absolutely gorgeous. He offered her a smile that melted everything inside her.

“Welcome back.”

She felt herself flush. “I’m sorry.”

He rose to his feet and offered her a gloved hand. She took it and let him help her up.

“Turning usually takes seconds, turning back takes a bit longer and the wait is tedious so nothing to be sorry about.”

She peered up into his face, searching for some clue that he was a sea creature in his spare time, but there was nothing there. His eyes were a breathtaking gray once more, his hair a raven black. His skin held the same golden glow as always and he had no tail.

“How are you?” he asked.

She shrugged. “I still think that was all a dream.”

His eyes narrowed teasingly. “Good dream, or a nightmare?”

Riley shook her head. “It was amazing. I thought for sure I would be scared out of my mind but the minute I saw you… I wasn’t scared. I mean, I was a little at first, but I think it was your eyes. As soon as I looked into them, I felt…” She trailed off, at a loss for words.

“What?” he prompted, taking a step closer.

“Safe,” she said at last. “I felt safe and so happy to see you. Crazy, right?”

It was his turn to shake his head, slowly rock it from side to side as his eyes bore penetratingly into hers. “You’ll never know what it means to hear you say that, Riley.”

Without waiting for a prompt from him, she reached out and splayed her hands on his chest. She frowned at the dirty gloves staring back at her.

“I hate these stupid things,” she muttered, ripping them off and tossing them to the ground.

“Riley…”

Ignoring him, she returned her hands to the hard muscles of his chest. She touched the soft material of his shirt, completely at ease with doing so. It may have only been a few months, but she felt as though they’d been together for centuries. Openly touching him, being close to him felt as naturally as breathing.

His hands went to her waist. “My mate,” he murmured, drawing her into the possessive folds of his chest.

It didn’t matter how often he said it, those two words never failed to send a warm thrill through her. It skipped over every bump along her spine and rolled like warm honey down to the very marrow of her bones. There was never any doubt he meant it.

“What?” he said when she smiled.

Riley shook her head. “I just really like it when you say that.”

His hand cradled the side of her face, the leather cool on her skin. “I’d like nothing more than for this day to never end, but I need to get you home.”

She wanted to ask why. They could just stay there, in their tiny slice of paradise, but she knew he was right. Their time there was done and they needed to return to reality.

“We will return,” he vowed.

“In a month?” she murmured, remembering what he said about only needing to return once a month to recharge.

He shook his head. “Whenever you want, as often as you want.”

It was only that promise that helped ease the pressure inside her. She agreed, accepting the hand he offered her. He curled his fingers around hers and glanced down at the leather band she’d nearly forgotten about.

“What does it say?” she asked.

Octavian took her one hand in both of his and turned the wrist until they were both looking at the words burned into the pelt. “It’s written in the first language,” he said. “The language that came before all others and it says,
body from earth, soul from fire, breath from air and life from water. To forget where you’ve begun is to forget where you will end.
”

Riley touched a finger to the soft strip. “It’s beautiful.” She raised her eyes to his face. “Why do you keep it here?”

His thumb lightly grazed the curve of her heel, moving down to the center of her palm. “No one must ever come in possession of a Selkie’s pelt.” He met her gaze with a tender smile. “To capture our pelt is to capture us, to enslave us and even destroy us. Our pelt is our soul. Without it, we are nothing but dust. But should a Selkie give his pelt away freely to another, he is entrusting them with his life.” He drew her trembling hand back to his chest where he splayed it over his heart and held it there. “He is giving her the power to destroy him.”

Riley swallowed hard at the lump wedged in her throat before she was able to speak. “What are you doing, Octavian?”

He raised the sleeve on her sweater to the hideous marks on her arm. He traced the raw flesh with the pad of his thumb. “Our marks bind us the way humans bind their love through rings. It’s our symbol of completion, of finally finding the other half of our soul. It joins us as a single heart in two bodies, or it should at least.” He raised his eyes to her face, his penciled with pain. “It hurts not to see my mark on you when every fiber in my body knows you’re mine. It kills me that I can’t touch you or kiss you. This,” he touched the band around her wrist. “Is the only way I can think to be a part of you.”

Riley didn’t know what to say. Her brain was crammed full of words, but none in any real order. She was completely lost in the cavernous depths of his eyes.

I love you.

It repeated over and over in her head, becoming a silent mantra that she was too shy to voice before he did. Not that she feared his rejection. She knew he would never refuse her anything. She knew that with a certainty that was nearly frightening. It was purely the need to have someone else say it to her for once that held her tongue. All her life, she’d been the one to love unconditionally and each time, it had been thrown back into her face by both her parents. For once, just once, she wanted someone else to say it first.

Guilt and uncertainty buzzed through her like an enraged hornet’s nest.

What was she doing? Was she out of her mind? Since when did she want a relationship? Since when had it mattered that she not live the rest of her life alone? She’d decided long ago that she could never leave her father. He needed her too much, never mind the fact that no one in their right mind would put up with her supporting her father, not the way he needed, and she couldn’t blame them. A relationship happened between two people, not two people and the girl’s father. He’d put up with it for a little while and finally get fed up. She knew it. It was best if she cut things off now. It had been fun and at least she could walk away knowing she’d experienced something she probably never would again. She just prayed he wouldn’t hate her.

“Riley?” Gently, he used his gloved hand to stroke away the strands of hair brushing her cheek. “What is it?”

It was now or never.

She took a deep breath. “I can’t be with you.”

His expression became thoughtful. “Why not?”

“Because I can’t.” To avoid his eyes, she bent down and hastily stuffed her socks and shoes back on. But he was still waiting for her when she rose once more.

His brows drew together in a frown. “That’s not a very good reason.”

“I know, especially since I can’t seem to keep my hands off you. But there are things you don’t know about me and if you did… you would agree.”