Page 104 of A Dark and Drowning Tide

“I swear, ifyou—”

Whatever protest she made was snatched from her as Sylvia kissed her again, deep and slow and full of fervor. Suddenly, she could notthink much of anything at all. She tasted likelavender—likethe river, deep and dark. Sylvia arched against her, as though any space between them was unbearable.

Lorelei hooked an arm around Sylvia’s waist and lowered her to the ground, her white hair splaying across the furs like a spill of moonlight. Sylvia reached up to undo the buttons of her waistcoat, but Lorelei caught her wrists and pinned them over her head. The pain that seared through her was immediate and blinding.

“Fuck,” she hissed. Then: “Sorry.”

Sylvia made to sit up, but Lorelei melted her weight into her and buried her neck in the crook of Sylvia’s. Her smothered laughter danced over the shell of Lorelei’s ear. “Goodness. Are you all right?”

Ithurtbut not as much as herpride—andher own disappointment. She considered herself a methodical person in all things, even in her hatred. Even in her fantasies. There were so many things she wanted to do to Sylvia. She had spun a thousand encounters, filled with every sordid, desperate desire, all the ways she wanted to make Sylvia suffer and beg and come. She wanted to fuck her until she couldn’t remember her own name. She wanted her to think of nothing but her: her hands and mouth on her, how she controlled her pleasure. She had never resented the limitations of her own body more.

When the spots in her vision cleared at last, she said, “I’m afraid I’m a bit limited at the moment.”

“There’s time.” Sylvia cradled her jaw, a fond smile playing at her lips. “I want you however I can have you. I want you brutal, and I want you tender, and I want you at your best and your worst. Saints. I wantyou, Lorelei, andI—”

Lorelei kissed her again, hard enough to bruise. Desire ran through her like a knife, so sharp it was almost painful. When she drew back, they stared at each other, their breaths coming heavy in the dark. Sylvia’s pupils were blown wide. Lorelei could see her pulse fluttering wildly in the hollow of her throat. It was a caged, frantic thing.

I wantyou,Lorelei.

Her entire body sang with those words. She wanted all of her. Her every petty barb, every cruelty she could enact, every meager sweetness dripped onto her tongue like honey. Lorelei had not thought herself capable of feeling like this. Passionately, insatiably, recklessly. It terrified her, to have all her control unraveling and slipping away from her, all her walls crumbling. She needed Sylvia to experience even a flicker of what threatened to consume her now.

“Unbutton your shirt,” Lorelei said huskily.

Sylvia obeyed without hesitation. Her callused fingers trailed along the column of gleaming mother-of-pearl buttons. Inch by agonizing inch, she bared herself. Lorelei’s mouth went dry. She brushed her fingertips down the plane of her stomach, the delicate silver on her cufflinks sliding against her skin, leaving gooseflesh in their wake. Sylvia watched her hungrily, her throat bobbing with anticipation.

She was so breathtaking like this, desirous and entirely hers. Shadowed patterns swam over her skin like lace. Lorelei bent over her, pressing the flat of her tongue to her breastbone and dragging it lower, lower. Sylvia moaned softly as her fingers found purchase in her hair. Lorelei kept her fingers steadily braced against her hip bones.

“You’re still wearing too much.”

“So are you,” Lorelei groused.

Sylvia wriggled free of her trousers and her underclothes with a mercenary efficiency. Had she any of her wits still about her, Lorelei might have teased her for it. Her fine linen shirt was still draped loosely over her shoulders. Lorelei admired the curves of her breasts, but her gaze drifted to the edge of the wound just above her collarbone, imperfectly healed along Lorelei’s stitches. Sylvia caught her looking and righted the sleeve. And when she reached for her waistcoat, this time, Lorelei didn’t fight her.

It pooled on the ground behind her with ashushof fabric.

Sylvia kissed her, her tongue tracing the seam of her lips. Sylvia’s fingers worked desperately to unfasten her cravat, and when she finally tore it away, she dragged her mouth down her throat. She got to workon her shirt next, sliding each ivory button through its eyehole with such tender, reverential precision, it almost embarrassed her. Satisfied, she pulled it from her shoulders, so needily Lorelei feared it would tear. She hooked her fingers into her belt and looked up at Lorelei through heavy-lidded eyes.

“You’re so beautiful,” she whispered.

“Thank you.”

Lorelei’s throat constricted embarrassingly. No one had ever told her that before. No one had ever looked at her the way Sylvia did now, breathless and wanting. God, she wanted to give her everything she wanted. She wanted to ruin her. The look Sylvia gave her was molten as she traced a line from her knee to the delicate skin of her inner thigh.

“Tell me,” she said. “Do you still think me cruel? Would you like to see the depths of it?”

“Please,” Sylvia said breathlessly.

Please. Never had she heard a more beautiful sound.

Lorelei kissed the crease of her hip, then lower. Sylvia’s hips rose insistently to meet her touch, and her eyelashes fluttered as she rolled her eyes shut. It took all of Lorelei’s control to keep herself collected. But she wasn’t sure how she was supposed to keep her composure like this, with the heat of her body and the sound of her name on Sylvia’s lips. The desperation lighted her eyes as she denied her again and again. It was almost too much to bear. She never wanted it to end.

She wasn’t sure how much time had slipped away from them when Sylvia begged her to put her out of her misery. She shuddered, pulling Sylvia’s hair hard enough to hurt, and then went loose against her. Her skin was flushed and covered in a gloss of sweat.

She was a vision, impossibly lovely.

Sylvia smiled at her radiantly. Lorelei hadn’t realized she’d said it aloud.

She’d give anything to bask in the light of her love forever. But for now, she kissed her until she felt lit from within, shimmering and warm and safe.