He flashed her to the infamous island cliff. The obsidian peak sat miles from the Harpinian shore, overlooking an endless stretch of purple water, where tribes of harpens and harmaids resided. The sirens and mermaids.
Afternoon sunlight streaked a brilliant sapphire sky with amber. Behind them, lush emerald foliage and gleaming silver stones towered.
Her ears twitched as a faint moan carried on a cool breeze. Then another moan came, and another. The moans never stopped, the rocks seeming to orgasm with every brush of wind.
“Listen,” she prompted. “Nature’s best soundtrack.” Climax Point was said to be the last body of land in the entire realm. Anyone who’d ever set sail on those rippling purple waves—and returned—had claimed the ocean never ended.
A handful of harpies loitered nearby, and word of Halo’s presence spread fast. Most of the girls stared at the Astra with unabashed curiosity. Some with invitation.
Ophelia’s hackles rose. Mine!
“Go,” Halo commanded, and they beat feet. Much more subdued, he asked, “Why this place?”
Not mine. Not yet. “I get stressed after training or battle. And when I’m not training or in battle, because I know I should be training or in battle. I come here to channel that stress into fury.”
“I see.” A breeze blew a lock of hair over his brow. “No, I don’t see.” The flash of a wide, no-filters smile nearly stopped her heart. “How does this place help you channel your stress into fury?”
“Well.” She turned into him fully, pressing herself flush against his heat. Missed this. Sliding her hands up his arms, she told him, “The how is simple. I listen to the rocks getting off and remember that I’ve spent decades denying myself the slightest pleasures, and voilà! I’m frothing at the mouth, ready to render a death blow.”
He seemed to analyze every word. “Why did you deny yourself pleasure?” Analysis complete, but data inconclusive? “You were unable to serve as General.”
She caressed his cheek, the action somehow necessary. “Once a nymph starts, it’s difficult to stop until reaching satisfaction. But we are notoriously impossible to satisfy.”
“That will not be the case for you.” He nuzzled into her palm, his eyes crackling with possession. His intensity ramped up a thousand degrees. “Your satisfaction is a top priority for me. Nothing will keep me from my goal, Elia.”
He was devastating like this. Determined, attentive, and fervent.
Why hadn’t she slept with him yet? He would either stardust her or he wouldn’t. But either way, she would finally learn the truth. Gravita or not—a future together or not?
“What do you do to alleviate stress?” she asked with the slightest tremor.
He shrugged. “Kill the source.”
Yeah. That tracked. She fiddled with the button on his leathers, saying, “Maybe we should both try a new method.”
“Oh?” He traced the trinite collar. “Do you have any ideas?”
So many. Judging by his straining zipper, he entertained the same ones. “What if we make each other moan?”
He arched a brow. “Are you requesting pleasure, nymph?”
With a wicked smile, she told him, “I might be. But I refuse to confirm or deny it at this time.” Oops. The button slipped free.
“You’ll have to deal with the consequences, then, won’t you?” He reached up and pinched her chin. Not the chin pinch! She had no defenses against it. “Tomorrow morning, I will have my compensation for your refusal to answer my question. You will wait in your bunkroom for me. Naked.”
“Will I?” she breathed, stroking his hard-on through the leather.
He hissed air between his teeth. “You will.”
“Why tomorrow? Why not today?” Right now?
“The newest freeze is set to occur in eighty-three seconds, and you will not be happy with me afterward.”
Ugh. The task and her benching. “What does it matter if I help you? These first labors are only practice rounds. And you’re supposed to learn stuff. Like how to work well with others.” Yeah, she’d listened when Roc and Taliyah whispered their thoughts to him.
“Doubtful. I allow the Astra to aid me daily.”
As if she needed the reminder. Yesterday she’d stared a wee bit too long and gotten trapped by an alevala, living another of his memories. In it, he’d allowed the Astra to get all up in his business. Because he’d trusted them. He did not trust Ophelia. Which was irritatingly understandable or whatever. It wasn’t like he knew she was the one who’d chewed on his liver in battle. But oh! She didn’t want to be talked out of her mad when nothing was going her way.
Unwilling to give up, she said, “I know I’m untested and untried in your eyes. Good news is, that can be easily changed with testing and trying.”
“I have already allowed your harm and death, chaining you for a god’s slaughter,” he replied, stubborn to his core. “I’ll let you die no more.”
“Hey! Don’t use that slaughter as an excuse. Wasn’t my death punishment enough?”