Black Sea [English Edition]

CHAPTER 7

I watched him swim toward the trunk, to whose branches, protruding out of the water, he had hung the rope and the sheath of his dagger. Then I turned again toward the coming storm.

Where did it come from?

I knew that in open sea storms could form in a few moments. Yet, I sensed something suspicious in those increasingly dark clouds, as I did during the flood of Lake Caran.

Something full of evil.

"Are you going to help me or what?"

The human's arrogance snapped me out of my thoughts, and I barely had time to give him a withering look before he took a deep breath to dive with the rope and move to the other side of the tree.

I could leave.

I had to leave.

A little rain and a rough sea were nothing for me. I would be home in two or three days, maybe even less. I had to start swimming, and when the storm would finally stop, I would use the stars at night to figure out which way to go.

Instead, I stayed where I was, afloat, unable to bear leaving the soldier to the fury of the storm.

Calling myself an idiot, I returned to the tree and helped him wrap the rope around the trunk as the water began to ripple. He came back to my side, and we tied the two remaining ends of the rope around our waists.

A small wave caught us by surprise, pushing the man against me first and then hitting us not too hard against the tree.

I found myself crushed between the trunk and the human. His body swung against mine. His legs were waving between mine, our knees unwittingly bumping one another. We were so close that his chest kept rubbing against mine, and the thought that he could feel my hard nipples made me flush with shame.

His gaze got under my skin, so deeply that I felt its grip around my pounding heart, its intensity depriving me of the ability to breathe slowly.

I couldn't stop staring at him.

And he wouldn't stop staring at me like he would devour me.

All of a sudden, I felt his fingers on my torso. I sucked in a sharp breath, tensing up. His expression darkened, his burning eyes challenging me to stop him as his hand went down on my side.

But I did nothing.

I had never been touched like that. With such confidence, with such intent. It was disarming, and it upset me.

Because I wanted more.

Much more.

More forcefully.

Everywhere.

He slightly stretched a corner of his lips. In a split second, he drew out my dagger and thrust it firmly into the wood, a breath away from my head.

I just knitted my brows, not even blinking.

His smirk got a little wider. "Relax, Elf."

He looked at my mouth for a second too long, then swam away to fetch his dagger.

I exhaled abruptly, panting a little, and enjoyed the wave that slapped my hot face.

The soldier came back, stuck his weapon next to mine, and finally gave violent blows on the ends of each hilt so that the two blades penetrated deep into the trunk. He gripped the hilt of his dagger and pointed mine with a sharp glance.

Giving him a piercing look, I clung to my weapon.

Then the rain poured over us, becoming torrential in a moment. Giant waves began to form and crash into the tree. Bolts and lightning raged through the dense clouds, so low that they seemed to loom over us.

The wild currents seized the trunk, causing it to spin over and over. The waves raged about it, making it sink again before we had time to breathe oxygen.

And instead of holding both hands to his dagger, that stupid human tried to snake an arm around me to keep me close, thinking I needed his help to face the water hell we were in.

Therefore, when a wave swept us with all its violence, his fingers slipped from the hilt.

But my hand found him at once.

I grabbed him by the forearm and pulled him out of the water, pushing him toward the hilt so he could hold on to it again as he coughed and gasped. Then I grasped him by the collar of his tunic and pressed him against the tree.

"Stop trying to protect me!" I yelled in his face to overcome the thunderous whistle of the wind and the sea roaring. "I'm stronger than you."

Suddenly, I wrapped my legs around his hips and took his hand off his dagger to replace it with my own. Enclosed in my arms, he looked at me as if I had gone out of my mind, and a hungry gleam flashed in his eyes when I increased the grip of my thighs to prevent the currents from ripping him away from me.

"Bind yourself to me," I instructed him, glancing at the rope around my waist. "I will protect you."

For a brief second, I thought I glimpsed the specter of anger on his face. The next moment his hands ran to my rope. It took a long time because the water had tightened even more the knot I'd made, the waves were hitting us from every angle, and the rain was blinding us.

When he finally managed to untie it, the man twisted the rope around our waists until our abdomens were pressed against each other. Then he tied the rest of my rope to his.

We were back to being tremendously close. Hooked to the daggers, I towered over him a few inches. My very long hair fell on my face, creating a sort of curtain that hid us from the storm.

He raised his arms out of the water and closed his big hands on mine as if to strengthen my grip on the hilts.

His eyes captured mine.

And they never let go.

Art by revilan_ (IG)