Awakening by Kitty Thomas Read Free Book Online Page A

permanent my living arrangements were. I was keenly aware as his erection pressed against my skin, that he had every intention—and in his mind, every right—to use me for his own pleasure as often as he wanted.
    Since having breakfast in the pool, I still held out a hope that he wasn’t going to turn vicious now that he had what he wanted: access. But that still didn’t mean I’d like all the things he did to me.
    He finally spoke again. “Are you afraid of me, sea nymph?”
    I couldn’t be sure whether or not he was mocking me with the endearment. I didn’t answer the question because I wasn’t sure what the answer was. I was afraid, I just wasn’t sure if it was him or something more nebulous and hard to pin down.
    Instead I said, “I miss my family. I’ll never see them again.” It wasn’t the answer to his question, but it weighed on me considerably.
    His grip on me tightened and for a moment I thought he intended to squeeze me to death. After a minute or two, he seemed to realize what he was doing and loosened his hold.
    His mouth was next to my ear, the warm puffs of his breath on my skin sending another shiver through me. “I’m going to make you forget them.” Lips grazed my throat and then across my shoulders as his hands moved to cup my breasts. I sagged against him, rendered unable to stand by the electricity in his touch.
    “Tell me you love me, Nerina.”
    “I love you, Master.” It still wasn’t true. I wasn’t sure if it ever could be. And yet the idea to disobey a direct order wouldn’t even form in my brain. He had the power to turn me from an innocent mermaid into a sexual animal. What other powers might he possess?
    His fingers stroked down my belly, moving between my thighs to part moist folds of flesh. Moisture that wasn’t from the pool.
    After a long stretch of silence, he said, “I’ll inform your family that you’re all right.”
    It wasn’t unheard of for humans to try to communicate with mermaids. They often dropped smooth large stones in the sea with messages, or sometimes put messages in bottles that were weighted down so they would go beneath the water.
    A legend of my people is that merfolk were so curious about the messages dropped into the ocean that they learned how to read and decipher their meaning.
    We’d find these messages and laugh over them. Often they were of a sexual nature, which both fascinated and disgusted us. If Kyros sent several messages about where I was, would someone from my family find it? Would they believe him?
    “What will you say?”
    “That you’re human now and living with me in the castle on the hill, and that if they want to come see you, they will not be harmed or held against their will.”
    “They won’t believe you.” We aren’t a very trusting sort. In all likelihood, even if they found the message, they would think it was some sort of trap. Mermaid fin was a delicacy, after all.
    I felt him shrug against me, and it seemed the matter was closed for now. He was more interested in other activities. I gasped as he scooped me up and took me to the bed. My breath caught in my throat and I moved away from him. I’m not sure what I thought I was accomplishing, trying to edge away from him so that he wouldn’t notice what I was doing. It was more an instinct to avoid pain than anything else.
    “I’m not going to hurt you,” he soothed as he brushed my hair from my face.
    “It hurt last night.”
    “I know. But that was just the first time. It won’t hurt today.”
    I wasn’t sure if I believed him, but I didn’t have much choice in the matter.
    “Spread your legs.”
    I was still very self-conscious, but I did what he asked because his voice and hands were still so gentle that I felt if I just obeyed him, I could prolong the kindness indefinitely. He stroked me for awhile, and finally he spoke again.
    “I need you to relax.”
    “I’m not sure I can.”
    He gave me an exasperated look. In the sea I’d been independent