Page 78 of The Never List
She stands, too, shifting closer to me, placing her hands on my bare chest again. For fuck’s sake, she’s so close, the tips of her breasts graze against my body. She leans her head back, flashing me a look filled with promises of sin—delightful,devioussin.
I may be the Player through and through, butfuckthe wager.
I slide my hand down her arm, settling it on her waist as I draw her against me. She sighs when my cock brushes against her. Her fingers dip to my chest. I lower my head, ready to suck that pretty pink tongue into my mouth—
She dives into the water.
It takes me a full ten seconds to register what she’s done—distracted me so thoroughly, I’m standing on the boat while she’s racing toward the net at the bottom.
“Clever kitten,” I say, then dive headfirst into the water.
23
Rylee
The water is warm on the surface but turns cold the deeper I swim.
It takes my eyes a few moments to adjust to the sting, but soon I can see the buttery sunbeams as they break the surface and brush the ocean floor. My heart pounds in my chest, not from the dive but from Axl, from the way I teased him on the boat.
I hold back a laugh. How else am I supposed to beat him?
And Ihaveto beat him.
Last night flashes through my head—the execution, the way Baydel had dangled Erin’s fate in front of me like a cat playing with its food. I need to find her, if only to warn her about the kings’ sudden interest in our family. But if she’s not on a Never List mission…if that part of the record was forged like my parents’ cases and my birthplace, then wouldn’t she have seen the royal posts? Wouldn’t she know I was chosen?
And if she did… Why wouldn’t she have tried to come find me?
Whenever I think I’ve come to terms with her disappearance, more questions arise that I can’t ignore.
Axl just offered me a perfect way to get some answers.The Player loves to make wagers, loves to push boundaries. I have no doubts he’ll honor a bet placed between us.
And even if he didn’t, I’d planned on asking for Kal’s help tonight, too. Either way, I’ve got to try.
I spear my arms, pushing myself farther down. My lungs don’t burn, not in the way Ivy and Layce have described holding your breath for too long whenever we swam in the lakes of Cedar and Silk. I’ve siphoned enough air with my powers to hopefully beat Axl, but that’s only if my distraction worked.
Goddess knows I could use a distraction myself, because I haven’t had a moment’s peace since last night. I kept reliving the memory over and over, not sleeping, instead trying to change things with the power of my mind. And it’s not like I haven’t seen Baydel’s executions before; I have. They’re always brutal, always leave fear and a bitter taste in my mouth. But this one hit harder because I was right there…I was right there and couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
And maybe the man truly was guilty. He did try to attack him right in front of us. Despite my dislike of the kings, no one deserves to be murdered, right? If he attempted to murder one of them, then he certainly knew the risks…just like he did if he was concealing jewels, too. All of Lumathyst knows the risks of breaking the laws. Still, it doesn’t sit right with me. And he was a demi… He was like me. Or Baydel claimed he was.
What if it had been Ivy or Layce? Not that they’d get caught doing something as obvious as stealing from the mines, but still. What if it had been them?
My blood runs cold. I would’ve died. I would’ve foughtand clawed and shredded my way through Baydel to save them.
I force the fear from my mind, burying the guilt of my absolute inability to help the man last night deep into a space inside me that I know will one day overflow.
But not right now.
Right now, I’m all too happy to dive headfirst into this wager with Axl as a form of selfish distraction. And the fact that Kal is here with me, waiting for us on the beach, is a level of comfort I never thought I’d be afforded when Jax chose me that night.
Having Kal here has relieved some of the pressure, and with his support, I’m more than excited to dive into all things Axl—his city, his antics, his body, whatever it takes to survive this.
The cluster of rocks on the seafloor Axl mentioned comes into view. A massive net is strung across them. It’s a tangled mess, but victory is a few strokes away.
A pulse of awareness ripples behind me, and I turn to see Axl diving into the water from the boat above. He’s beautiful. A bronze masterpiece of muscles, ink, and bravado that has me aching in all the right places. He’s a god in the water, the liquid folding around his body like it bends to him and no other.
I jerk my eyes away from him, focusing on the target. A few more strokes and I’ll touch the net, winning what I so desperately need—
A sound echoes through the deep water, a wounded sort of cry that is both heart-wrenching and mystifying. I’ve never heard a sound like that before, but it only takes me a few seconds to see what’s making it.
