When I woke in the morning, it was to a sun-lit cabin. Eryk’s arms were still wrapped around me and I felt warmer than I ever had before. I nuzzled my cheek into the pillow and breathed in the faint lemon scent of the pillowcase.

“You’re finally awake,” Eryk breathed in my ear.

I twisted around to look at him. He had his head propped up in one hand and regarded me through concerned eyes.

“You all right?”

“I am. And Dimitri?” I asked, shooting a glance to where he had been laying the night before.

“Better. He went upstairs for some breakfast.”

I blew out a sigh. We’d all survived the nightmare and, considering how bad things had gotten, I couldn’t help but feel almost giddy with relief.

“Wonderful. What time is it?” I asked, peering out the windows.

“Well past dawn,” he replied. “How do you feel? Your wound has healed, but are you sore?”

“Actually, I feel good. Happy to be alive.”

It was a bright sunny day and the sun was a quarter of the way to midday. I sighed and stretched, arching my back and groaning as my muscles straightened out and my back cracked.

That was when I realized the cool and now familiar weight of my iron collar was gone. I touched my fingers to my neck and stared at Eryk, unable to form the words.

He shrugged. “I made the executive decision that the collar was too dangerous to leave on…until or unless you make it necessary again.”

I could hardly believe my ears. I would be able to shift again at will.

Tears stung the back of my eyelids and I blinked them away. I shouldn’t feel grateful for being let off my leash by one of the men who had kidnapped me, but after what had nearly happened last night—

I shuddered, shoving the memory aside, and nodded. “Thank you.”

Whatever happened from here on out, I would never feel that helpless again, and that meant something.

“We hadn’t considered all of the risks involved, and for that, I apologize.” His jaw flexed as he looked away. “I would’ve been gutted if something terrible had happened to you. We all would have.” He cleared his throat and met my gaze again. “I know this is hard to believe, Princess, but despite the job we were hired to do, we were assured that no harm would come to you. We are very invested in making sure you are protected, and we failed at that. It won’t happen again. I hope that you believe that, at least to some degree.”

“I do,” I said truthfully. When things had gone so terribly wrong in the dark of the night, despite my anger at having been dragged onto this ship in the first place, I couldn’t deny that I’d been worried about each and every one of them. We’d formed a tenuous but very real bond over the past couple of days. That didn’t mean I was giving up on my efforts to get away. Just that, for the first time, I understood that this issue might not be as black and white as I’d originally thought.

“I’m glad to hear it.”

There was something in his voice that sounded sad now. I frowned as I propped my own head up to look at him levelly. “What’s going on?” I asked.

His troubled eyes wouldn’t meet mine.

“Eryk,” I said, “tell me what’s wrong. If I’m to trust you, surely you can trust me…just a little more,” I added, stroking my skin where the collar had lain just hours before.

The struggle in his gaze was plain to see. He was battling with himself. Finally, he gave words to his thoughts. “You are not the only prisoner on this ship, Iris.”

“Wh-what does that mean?” I asked, brain whirring as I tried to make sense of his words.

Eryk looked over his shoulder and opened his mouth as if to say more, but then snapped it shut.

“It doesn’t matter. Telling you would change nothing.”

“Try me,” I urged, taking his hand in mine and squeezing.

“We didn’t want to be the reason you were taken from your home. From your sister.”

“Then why?” I asked, my throat aching with unshed tears at the very thought of my poor, surely frantic sister. “Why did you do it?”

He held my gaze and shook his head slowly. “You tell me. Why would a group of strong men…lethal men, do something they didn’t want to do, Princess? And don’t insult me by saying for gold.”

I shrugged, tugging my hand away in frustration. “Stop with the riddles. I don’t kn--”

But I stopped as the answer hit me between the eyes like a wooden plank.

“Love,” I whispered softly. “Anaya’s mates betrayed their king for her…just like she would sell her very crown, no, give her very life to save me. You are doing this to protect someone you love.”

I didn’t need a verbal response. His face confirmed everything I’d said.

The realization was stunning as I thought back over the past few days. I’d relegated them to cutthroats …mercenaries for coin without thought, but then why had they been so gentle? Almost reverent and apologetic at points? The pirates from last night had proven what a true villain would’ve done.

But mixed in with the shock at this new realization was a low, steady thrum of foolish sadness. An ache I couldn’t deny.

“So, you’re mated, then? And what…Whoever is behind this all will kill your wife if you don’t--”

“Not wife, Iris. I have no wife. If I did, I wouldn’t be lying next to you right now in knots,” he replied, his voice all grit and gravel now. The vise on my heart loosened a little and he sat up.

I stayed where I was, looking up at his broad back as he visibly wrestled with how much to say.

“I do not have much family left,” he said finally, “but I have a nephew, and a niece. They are young, not yet ten. My sister is raising them alone. If I do not return with you, I’ve been assured that their mother will be killed and the children taken as slaves. My instinct was to find him and fight. Go to war with whoever was behind these threats. So I said I needed time to think it over. Not a day had passed before I was shown in no uncertain terms exactly how easy my family was to get to.”

He broke off and let out a harsh breath before pressing on.

“My sister took the youngest to the marketplace. A pair of men took her in broad daylight, right in front of my nephew. He was frantic and tried to get help, but they disappeared as if into thin air. He sent for me and I got there as quickly as I could. Thankfully, by then she had returned…”

I let out a pent-up breath and then he continued.

“But she was missing two of her fingers.”

I shook my head slowly, sick at his words and at the thought of the poor boy who’d had to witness such evil.

I wanted to weep. “So, you had no choice. And the others?” I said, swallowing hard. “Are they all bound by the same threat?”

Eryk tipped his head in a curt nod.

Strangely, this gave me comfort…helped me justify why I had developed feelings for these men, and why I trusted them. Why I cared when I shouldn’t have.

Just as my gut had told me from the start, they weren’t cruel. And they weren’t out to hurt me for their own gain. They had been forced to do this, and the consequences for failure were too great to risk. I would have done the same thing if I were in their shoes. They were victims as much as I was.

“Who are they doing this to protect?” I asked as I sat up.

“Dimitri’s younger brother. Titus’s mother and aunt. Mathias’s sickly father.” He scrubbed a hand over his sculpted cheekbones and blew out a sigh. “We were promised you’d be treated well and that, once the ransom is paid, you’d be returned to your home.”

I rested a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Eryk. I’m sorry for all of you.” And for myself. Because the odds of me making it home in one piece, alive to tell the tale of my capture and, eventually, give clue to who had masterminded this whole thing, were slim to none. I could tell by the look on Eryk’s face, some part of him knew that, too. And now that he knew me better…saw me as a person? Maybe even cared?

He was torn in two, ripped apart by guilt and duty.

There were no winners here, regardless of what happened next.

“We won’t let anything happen to you, Iris,” Eryk said, leaning into my touch to press his cheek to my knuckles. “At least not more than already has. Please believe that.”

For now, just as it had been since I’d had that hood thrown over my head what seemed like a lifetime ago, my fate was out of my hands. We were stuck on this boat until we hit shore. Maybe then, the answer would come. Maybe then, I’d wake up from this nightmare and figure out a solution that didn’t involve someone dying.

For now, there were a few precious things I could control. Like how I spent my time on this ship and who I spent it with. With the impending doom of being delivered to death’s door looming over me, I found myself aching for the things I had yet to experience. To feel the things Anaya’s book described. To know what it was like to have a man inside me.

I wanted him.

“Eryk,” I breathed, running my now quivering fingers over his bare, muscular shoulders.

When he looked at me, I saw the same need banked in his stormy, green eyes.

“Please,” I continued, “let’s…forget who we are and why we’re here. Just for a while.”

He turned to me, his muscles shifting beneath his dark skin. “Ah, Princess…you don’t know what you’re asking for.”

“I do,” I replied, scoring his skin gently with my fingernails, relishing the heat of his flesh. “I truly do.”

“You’re certain?” he rasped, his dark lashes dropping to half-mast as a muscle flexed in his lean jaw.

I nodded. I was more than sure. If I was going to meet my end, I wanted to have loved, and been loved.

Eryk eased himself back down beside me and stretched out on his side. His scent filled my head. Rainwater and earth and sunlight all mixed together. As he leaned closer, his body blocking everything else from my view, I gave control over to him.

On a muffled groan, his mouth slanted over mine. The kiss was tender at first, a gentle pressure, warm and sweet. But my fingers tightened on his shoulder as his tongue slipped between my lips. He explored my mouth and I gasped as heat flowed through me like wildfire.

Blood rushed to my ears as he trailed a hand to the collar of my oversized tunic and pushed it aside. With a flick of his wrist, it slipped off of me and pooled around my waist. Cool air battered my skin and my nipples went tight.

This. This was what I wanted. What I needed right now.

I moaned in protest as he broke away from our kiss, but the sound died on my lips as I took in his rapt expression.

“Sweet hell, you’re gorgeous,” he muttered, his heated gaze sending a ripple of pleasure and pride through me. With a reverent hand, he reached out and traced the outline of my breast, batting my sensitive peak with his thumb. “Your skin is silk,” he said, cupping me gently.

I gasped, wondering if he felt even half of what I felt. Like my blood had gone thick, my mind slow and sluggish as I became nothing but a pool of sensation.

He dipped his head low and closed the very edge of his teeth around one nipple. Where I expected pain, all that came was more pleasure, gathering between my thighs as I clutched at his head, holding him to me.

“That feels so good,” I whimpered, arching into him as he nipped and then sucked the straining bud into his mouth.

If this ship sinks tomorrow, that would be all right, I thought as waves of pleasure rocketed through me. So long as I got to reach the end of this mysterious, winding road of beautiful torture.

He wrapped his arms around my waist, turning me so that I was lying flat on my back beside him.

He kissed me again, and then trailed his lips to my jaw. He worked down from there, over my neck, and down my belly. All the while he shifted the tunic down over my hips and thighs to pull it free and toss it over his shoulder. He began untying the drawstring to my borrowed trousers, his gaze flicking to mine as if looking for permission to continue.

I nodded, incapable of words, and he proceeded to untie the bow. The pressure between my legs only magnified, building to an insistent ache.

“Please,” I begged, hoping he would know what I needed. Praying he could give it to me before I expired in a pool of unrequited lust.

His gaze never left mine as he took hold of my waistband and slid the pants down my legs. The cool wash of air reminded me that I wore nothing beneath. I was completely exposed, laid bare before a man, for the first time in my life.

And I was so ready for him.

But Eryk’s face looked pained and he squeezed his eyes closed.

“Is…is everything all right?” I asked, hit by the sudden urge to cover myself. Was I not what he’d hoped? “I’ve never done this and--”

“Ah, Iris.” His jaw only clenched tighter and he forced his eyes open. “Fucking hell, everything is more than all right,” he growled. He blew out a harsh breath and then met my gaze, the need plain to see as he reached for the hand I’d laid between my thighs. “I just want to take my time. Savor this. And looking at you naked is killing me, Princess. But that’s all right,” he murmured, tugging my hand away, baring me to his gaze again. “It’s a death I welcome. Just don’t hide yourself from me.”

Pleasure rolled through me, heating my skin, flushing my cheeks as he looked his fill.

Just when I wanted to scream with the anticipation of it, he dropped closer, running one hand over my waist, past my hip, before gently pushing my legs apart and settling his still-clothed, muscular form between them.

“What are you doing?” I asked, suddenly nervous. This was not how it was supposed to go. He was supposed to undress and put himself inside me. I had seen it in the book I’d peeked at in Anaya’s chambers. I tried to close my legs, but he held me firm with a hand on the inside of each of my thighs.

“You are a virgin,” he said simply, “and I want you to enjoy it. A woman needs more…time and attention than a man. Do you trust me?”

I bit my bottom lip. I couldn’t deny it. I did trust him, to a large degree. He had saved my life. We had shared secrets.

I nodded. “I do.”

I’d barely gotten the words out before he slid down and nuzzled my hip.

“Then let me pleasure you.”

Another image I’d seen in Anaya’s book flickered through my mind but before I could catch hold of it, he dipped his head between my legs and flicked his tongue over an incredibly sensitive spot between my legs. A spot that had my back bowing as I yelped in surprise.

He made a sound in the back of his throat that could have easily been a moan or a chuckle. Then his tongue darted out again to taste me, trailing almost lazily up and down my throbbing slit.

“Oh, my,” I breathed, letting my head fall back to the pillows and closing my eyes. This was a most wondrous thing. His tongue was a wicked stroke of pleasure each time he touched me, and soon that aching burn below my belly was ebbing away.

The pressure, however, was gathering, and I was desperate for…something. Some end to the tension coiling inside me like an ever-tightening noose.

“Relax,” Eryk cooed softly, his breath washing over my heated flesh, making me shiver. “Stop thinking. Let your body take over.”

It was hard to stop thinking when a man, especially one such as this, was licking you between the thighs, but I tried to do as he asked. I took a deep breath and sunk deeper into the blankets and pillows.

Then he slipped a finger inside me. Instinctively, I gripped the blankets beneath me and let out a keening moan. His mouth joined his finger, his tongue rolling over the swollen pearl nestled there even as he thrust in and out in long, slow strokes.

“I can’t take it. I--”

And just like that, the exquisite combination was too much for me to bear. My hips bucked suddenly, and the tightness inside me blew apart in a thunderclap of pleasure that consumed me. My thighs quivered as I lost all sense of who I was and gave in to the waves crashing over me again and again.

I quaked and shook, vaguely aware of Eryk’s hand on my hip, holding me tight, guiding me through.

I wasn’t sure how long it lasted. Maybe seconds. Maybe minutes. It didn’t matter. When it was over, I was wrecked.

“That will remain etched in my mind for all eternity,” Eryk said, his breath coming in harsh gasps as he settled back onto his knees between mine.

Still reeling, I watched in rapt fascination as he pulled off his tunic and set to tugging his pants down. He yanked them off, tossing them aside, before turning his attention back to me.

“That was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

His words sent my blood running hot again but I could only stare at the massive rod between his legs. It was large, larger than the ones depicted in Anaya’s book. Stiff and proud, nearly reaching his belly button, and widening at the tip. Creamy wetness glistened there like a drop of dew and the sudden urge to lean in and lap it off was strong.

I inched closer to him. He leaned over me, planting one hand on either side of my shoulders, and dropped his hips until the top of him was pressed against my inner thigh. He moved slightly to the left until he grazed my wetness.

“Will it hurt?” I whispered.

“For a moment,” he said, looking into my eyes.

I wrapped my fingers around his wrists and then nodded once. “Okay. Ready.”

A hint of a smile tugged at his firm lips but it disappeared the second his broad head touched my wet heat. He eased his way inside me, his swollen member stretching me to fit him. It was glorious…everything…until a sharp pain shot through me. I let out a gasp, tightening my grip on his wrists as I breathed through the stinging pull and he pushed on.

“Almost there, now,” he whispered. A moment later, he was seated fully inside me, thick and throbbing. He stayed poised above me, muscles flexed, motionless.

For a moment, I almost retreated, pulling away to make the discomfort and the overwhelming sense of fullness cease. Before long, though, the pain gave way to the ache that had been there all along. Pulsing beneath the surface, waiting for this. For him.

I fluttered my hips experimentally, reveling in the pleasure etched on his gorgeous face as I did.

“Don’t tease, Princess,” he managed, his lean throat working. “You’re asking for trouble.”

If his words weren’t enough, the tone of his voice, all gritty and thick with need, pushed me to repeat the motion more slowly this time. Drawing it out, relishing the friction of his distended flesh dragging against my tight channel.

My pulse careened wildly as he let out a growl and pulled back, only to slide in deep once again. This time, the pain never came. A fullness, a completeness like I’d never felt before, soared through me as I tumbled headlong back toward the precipice again. That tightness began building once more and I gripped his forearms with a moan.

“You feel…perfect.”

He kissed me again, deeply, tangling his tongue with mine. I cried out into his mouth as he thrust inside me, dragging me inexorably back to that place where I burst into flames before.

He pulled back to watch as my breasts bounced in time with our motion.

“You, too, Princess,” he groaned. “So good.”

His husky voice brought me to the edge and his magic hips and hands and mouth did the rest. He began thrusting in earnest, heavy cock hitting some secret place inside me even as his pelvis ground against the aching bundle of nerves nestled between my thighs.

“It—it’s happening again,” I whispered, crying out an instant later as ecstasy broke over me and I gave in to the pleasure. This time I cried out his name, unable to hold it inside as my whole body tensed and trembled.

I was still in the throes of climax when he stiffened above me and then plunged deep.

“Fuck…Iris!” he groaned before bucking and quaking above me, every muscle standing in stark relief as he found his own pleasure, spurting deep inside me.

How had I gone my whole life without feeling this?

I tried to catch my breath…find my voice, but there was no need for words as our lips met once again.

Our hearts were still pounding, our skin slick with sweat when he finally collapsed beside me and pulled me close.

His chest rose and fell with each heavy breath as he looked over at me, a sad hint of a smile on his normally firm lips.

I couldn’t help but smile back, despite it all. For the first time in days, I felt truly alive. And for the first time ever, I felt like I understood what Anaya felt for her mates. A sense of rightness. Like I was where I should be.

Which was crazy. Insane.

I knew it as sure as I knew my own name, but as I snuggled closer and buried my head against his chest, I couldn’t shake it.

Later. Later, I would let reality back in. I’d find a way to get myself, and, hopefully, Eryk and the others, out of this mess. I’d let my sister know I was all right.

For now, though, as the ship sailed lazily through the sea and my eyes drifted closed, I was going to hang on to this one shred of paradise for just a little longer…