The emergence of the twin seeds blew new hope into Kadir’s warriors. Their astonishment and joy lightened the group meals and the patrols, and the reports Kadir received as he quickly healed were more joyous and less accusation-filled.

Even Adviser Creo could not say an ill word about it.

“I have never heard of this,” he said the next time it was brought up. “No city has a twin seed.”

“In ancient times, it was common.” Kadir had learned it in the forbidden archives of the All-Council. He’d snuck in often when he had been an innocent youth assisting Dragao Azul’s All-Council representative. Now twins were rare; of all his warriors, only Zoan was such a twin. “You will see it with the return of queens.”

Adviser Creo pressed his lips together, but even he could not stop admiring the small, determined, bright little seed.

Just like his queen. Bright and small and determined Elyssa.

“I’m sorry about the misunderstanding. Again. I’ll make it up to you.” In the privacy of their heart chamber, she floated at his side and trailed her fingers down the taut muscles of his abdomen, caressing his thighs. Her hunger warred with concern.

She wished to join with him.

Despite his injuries, despite his disfigurement, despite that he could not protect her well. He warred with himself to confess his weakness. “We cannot join. I am much better, but I must go to the ruin. I cannot risk reopening my injuries.”

“Well, you don’t have to do anything.” She licked her lips. “I could just use my mouth on you.”

Use her…mouth?

The image made his cock twitch. Did people do such things more than once? She had given him this pleasure after their wedding. He wanted her hot mouth around his hard cock. “Your mouth does not make a young fry.”

“Not everything has to make a young fry.”

What a strange idea. Joining for pleasure? Not for the end result of a young fry?

Danger twinged in his belly. Had his disfigurement changed her mind? Did she no longer wish to have a young fry with him?

“No.” He covered his hardening cock. “We must make a young fry.”

She wavered, then grew more determined. “You’ll like it.”

“My pleasure is not important.”

She huffed. “Well, maybe mine is.”

Oh. She was upset he could no longer provide her pleasure.

“Just let me do this.” She pushed his hands away, nestling herself between his thighs. Her knees rested on the warm, clean floor of the heart chamber. “I can’t believe I’m arguing with a guy about giving him a blow job.”

She teased her fingers lower and stroked him from stem to tip.

Pleasure. His cock pulsed.

But his release, when it came, would clench his torso painfully.

No. He could not risk this pleasure again now. He would allow himself to enjoy her body, even though it would not bind her with a young fry. Actually, perhaps pleasure was better.

“I will use my mouth on you,” he decided.

Her lips parted. “Me? But—”

“You wish pleasure. Come.”

“Oh, but I only said that because—”

He grabbed her around the ribs and lifted her easily. While she scrambled, he clamped her thighs and drew her soft, feminine center to his mouth.

She wriggled. “But I’m the one who screwed up. Wait! I want to do something for you.”

“Stop.” This was the same argument as at the beach coffee shop when she had desired to provide him with food. She gave him great pleasure whenever they joined. Well, he desired to give her the pleasure. She would accept this from him.

He caressed her folds. They were already slick and pink, glistening with invitation.

His cock pulsed again with heat.

Everything about her enticed him. Why had he never considered using his mouth on her before? The other warlords had not spoken of such methods to pleasure their brides.

He licked the soft creases. What was this flavor? He must taste her deeply. His strokes caused her to open with a moan, revealing herself fully to him. Her chest glowed as bright as the sun.

He latched onto her bud.

She jolted and moaned. “Kadir. Don’t reward me for…mmm.”

He thrummed, easily forming the words in his chest while his tongue remained busy. “This is mine.”

She rocked her hips gently. He caressed her over and over until her back arched and she came, shuddering, in their private chamber.

In the stillness, there was still a distance he couldn’t bridge. She lay beside him, her eyes open when she should be asleep. In conversation, she trailed off. In the middle of laughter, she suddenly sobered.

What made her eyes lose their sparkle?

“Tell me.” He cupped her cheeks. Her face was cool in his large, hot hands. “What pain are you hiding?”

“Pain? You’re the one with all the pain.” She tugged at his hands. “I’m just benefiting.”

He caught her fingers with his thumbs and held them tight. “Elyssa.”

“Fine.” She closed her eyes. “It’s not that I don’t want to have young fry.”

“You want five,” he reminded her.

“Yeah.” She lightened and stroked his cheek. Her frown returned. “It’s just that I don’t want our relationship to only be about the young fry.”

“This means?”

“I want us to be together because you love me,” she said. “With or without young fry.”

“Warriors do not love. That is a human word.”

His mother had used it many times with his father, and his father had passed on that she had loved Kadir also. But that love had taken her to the surface. She had never longed to cross the surf and meet the son she had left behind.

In contrast, Kadir bound his soul with Elyssa’s. He would never relinquish her and never take another bride.

Elyssa frowned. “Right. I should have expected that.” She pinched her eyes closed. “If we don’t deliver Sea Opals on the next trip to the surface, the platform is going away. I’ll have no way to contact my family.”

He stroked her cheeks gently. She must be frightened. The journey to visit would be longer and require more guards. “You will return to Florida.”

“Yeah.” She sagged. “I guess you’re right. There’s no way this could work out. When it’s over, it’s over.”

“When what is over?”

“If the project is canceled on the surface, it’s canceled here too.”

Cold lanced him.

She wished to return to Florida permanently if they did not provide the Sea Opals?

No. He refused. She was his now.

He clamped onto her. His back screamed. He held tighter.

She gasped. “Kadir! Don’t hurt yourself. Please.”

He hushed her. She was his. No matter how she tried to get away.

Were the warriors of the past this possessive? His need frightened him. But it would not be denied.

“Listen to me,” she begged.

“I listen,” he growled. “You speak. I listen.”

She stopped pushing on his arms. They rotated quietly in the heart chamber. First, she was on top, then he was on top, and then she was again. “I don’t know what to say. Um. What did you want to hear?”

Anything. Nothing. Her voice.

“Speak,” he ordered.

“What, you mean like a story? Or—”

“Yes.”

“Okay. I guess, um, do you know the Little Mermaid?”

“Who is a little mermaid?”

“No one. It’s a story. A simple story with a bunch of versions.”

He held her tight while she told him all about a sad mermaid who could not catch the attention of a human prince. The prince married another human, and the heartbroken mermaid turned into a green surface liquid called sea foam.

The rhythm of her story was calming, and he relaxed, even though the sad story caused her melancholy.

“That is a strange story.” Kadir stroked her back. “How did she accomplish the transformation?”

“The sea witch. She can do magic.”

“And this mermaid could not shift into human form without the assistance of a magic witch?”

“Well, the original Grimm brothers probably didn’t know about Life Trees or elixir.” She snuggled closer. The places she touched felt warm and no longer hurt. As though her touch, gentle as her story, did deeper healing. “The moral is how difficult it is to communicate with people of different worlds. The mermaid tries to tell the prince over and over that she loves him, and he can’t hear her at all. He doesn’t see her for what she is. It’s sad.”

Ah. The true meaning of her story struck Kadir now.

She had been hurt. He had not paid adequate attention to her. They were from different worlds. She was the human and he was the merman prince.

“We will bridge our differences,” he vowed. “Or you must go.”

She stiffened.

No matter how much it hurt him, she must never darken so much her sunshine smile turned to surface foam.