The Sea Siren

Chapter Twenty-Five

Vivian

My eyes open slowly, not needing to account for my surroundings.

My mind has already done the job creditably.

I'm clearly far from my bed.

Lifting my cheek from the feather-stuffed bedding, I glance around the mostly bare room, thinking I'm alone until I spot the prince seated, naked from the hips up, at the desk with a razor blade in hand and a cracked mirror perched against the wall.

My stomach flips wildly at the sight of him. Partly because I know the sun has risen and I'm still in his presence—meaning someone probably found my bed chamber empty this morning. Also because I'm used to waking alone... reminiscing on my sinister goals for one particular individual. Loneliness doesn't sting so much when I consumed it with other emotions. Bedside manner used to be my specialty but I'm out of practice and there's no sneaking past him without detection.

I lift myself up, bringing the blanket up with me and his eyes catch mine in the mirror.

Neither of us say anything right away, absorbing the situation we're in.

I'm the first to tear my eyes away, clearing my throat. "I wasn't supposed to fall asleep."

"I know."

"Why didn't you wake me?"

"I only just woke myself." He drags the blade upward over his chin, slicing the dark stubble with a clean shave. It feels wrong to stare but I can't seem to look away, watching him complete the job, wiping the soap from his face with a towel. "How are you feeling?"

"In what regard?"

He smiles slowly. "Every regard."

I pick out feathers from my hair, chuckling softly to myself as I climb from the bed, my bones protesting. "Ask me later."

In reality, my body feels like it's smashed to the waves. My mind is muddled and confused. And my heart races at the thought of him beside me in bed, receiving flashes of memories from the night before.

The chair groans as he pushes out of it, watching me dress as I watch him do the same thing.

His chest expands as his hands bind together his breeches. "You're regretting last night?"

The truth pours from my mouth without restraint. Another oddity. "No."

He is pleased. He's as poor at hiding it as I am becoming. "Good."

"You didn't kill me last night," I chuckle, glancing to his weapons hanging from the back of the door. "I'm taking that as a good sign."

"I row you across the sea and you still think I'm concealing some evil plan?"

"No." I pull my nightgown over my head, fitting the material over my hips. "I'm just not in the habit of
leaving myself defenseless around another... especially a member of the opposite sex."

He faces me, tucking his shirt into his breeches. I blush under his steady gaze, which travels the length of me brazenly. "Clearly, I like you too much to kill you."

All reminders of what we are to each other politically leave the room with those words.

Because, as I well know after last night, I too like him too much to kill him.

And that is unusual.

Looking anywhere else but at him, I adjust the bandage on my shoulder that slipped over the course of the night... no doubt from all the rolling and twisting... "Bastian and Aggie will know about us by now... if not the entire crew."