Song of the Abyss (Deep Waters, #2)

by Emma Hamm

But he wanted to prove that even if he was broken, he was still worth something.

A monster would leave smudges on something so lovely as she.

No female had ever wanted to pick him. He was too large for their offspring to be easy births, and too aggressive to battle in the mating dance. He had already resigned himself that fluttering was foolish for anyone.

My heart...he resigned himself to be alone

His claw tugged the lapel of her borrowed suit. “You turn so many colors, kalon. I can’t wait to see how many.”

This time she looked at him, and he had to struggle to not roll his eyes back in his skull at the sound of his name on her lips.

Because I want to keep you for myself. Because if I keep you, feed you, bring you everything you ever dreamt of, maybe you’ll give me a chance. Because no one has made me want them as much as I want you.

But that sound. He wanted to hear it a hundred times. A thousand. He wanted to bathe in the sound until he could think of nothing other than that breathy moan of pleasure that had escaped from her lips without her realizing it.

“Beautiful,” he said. “You come so pretty, kalon.”

“I want to find someone who doesn’t fear me. I want to know that when I come home, there is a soft place to rest my head, and someone who cares if I had a hard day, or if I am upset. I want someone to take care of, and who takes care of me in return. That is what I dream of, kalon.”

“I may not know you as well as I wish, but my soul knows yours, Daios.”

“How could I? When your hair is the color of the sun on a cloudless day? When your smile warms the entire ocean around me? When I touch you, your soul is so familiar to me. It is like I have known you in a hundred lifetimes before this, and some part of me that I’ve forgotten wishes to bury itself inside you. It tells me to cling to the curve of your waist, to clutch at the feeling in my chest that lingers when you are near. My soul wishes to keep you and never let you go.”

Daios breathed her in, that citrusy smell that coiled around his heart and flooded his tongue with her flavor, and he wondered if this was what it felt like to fall in love.

“If we do not see each other again, my kalon, I wish for you to know that I have never been more honored than to have a woman like you at my side.”

“Know as you dive into danger that I love you, my kalon. I will hold you in my heart until you return to my side.”

“Home,” he replied, that deep voice radiating through her entire body. “That is what you have given me, kalon. Wherever you are, I am home.”

“Just because she is soft does not mean she is easily broken,”

You make me want to put my weapons down and find out what it really means to live.”