by Sonya Blake
“Without going inland, your choices are slim,” the woman replied. “Maybe try Dunne’s Hardware on Milk Street.”
Kaia nodded. Sam had pointed out Milk Street when he’d shown her where the market was.
“What house are you trying to sell?” the woman asked, furrowing her alabaster brow.
“It’s the one out there on the Point,” Kaia said. “Foley’s Point. I’m Kaia Foley, by the way,” she said, and offered her hand.
“Violet Wilde.” Her handshake was cool, but firm. Her green eyes leveled with Kaia’s and her lips spread in a perfect smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Kaia.”
Kaia left the apothecary with her free gift of lip stain, feeling a little squirmy. There was something about Violet she didn’t like, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. As Kaia climbed into Sam’s truck to make her way to the market, she glanced back at Wilde’s apothecary and saw Violet looking out the window, lifting her hand to wave. The woman was harmless, obviously. It was Kaia who was paranoid and whacked out of her mind.
After stopping at the market for yogurt and fruit and a bottle of locally-made kombucha, among other things, Kaia decided to skip the search for a cellphone at the hardware store and head back to the Point. She wanted to get there before all the light was gone from the sky, and she was cutting it close.
Before heading into the house, she braved the wind and flying snow and went to the shed to add more wood to the furnace. The fireplace in the house would only get her so far, Sam had told her before they left the Point. He had made sure the furnace was running hot before leaving, and Kaia dumped a half dozen logs inside before banking it for the night, like he’d shown her.
After heating up some leftover spaghetti, Kaia made tea and sat by the fire in the living room as the night came. The darker it got, the more vividly she could visualize the person in the forest—the white and stark face with gaping eyes and mouth, long limbs moving at ungainly angles.
*
Only firelight lit the living room when Kaia woke at the sound of a noise. She was so tired she could barely bring herself to open her eyes, but something had dragged her out of her slumber. Forgoing the big lonely bed upstairs, she had let herself fall asleep on the yellow velvet couch in front of the fire, wrapped in a fluffy gray blanket, her head propped on a down-filled pillow.
She wasn’t used to the quiet or the darkness here. Her apartment in downtown Nashville had been bathed by yellow street lamps all night long, the sounds of cars and late-night revelers passing under her window till the early hours of the morning. It wasn’t exactly silent out here, though, she noted. The sound of the ocean crashing was constant, soothing in one way, disturbing in another. But that wasn’t what had woken her.
She sat up and felt her skin prickle. In the dimness of the living room stood a lanky, swaying figure. Long white hair hung over her bare breasts. Her long, lean arms hung slack, hands not bothering to cover her nakedness. Kaia screamed as she met the woman’s large, staring eyes.
The naked woman turned and ran upstairs. Kaia’s belly twisted in fear and sweat prickled her hands as she made herself perfectly still, straining to listen over the pounding of her heart. The boards overhead creaked with the weight of the woman running down the hall.
When there was a moment of eerie quiet, Kaia got up and dashed for the phone in the kitchen. Something told her the cops wouldn’t be helpful in this situation, so she dialed the number Sam had left scrawled on the fridge.
He answered quickly, but sounded like he’d been asleep. “Yeah?”
“Sam, it’s me, Kaia,” she said into the phone, her hands trembling. “I need you here.”
She told him about the intruder. After hanging up the phone, she went out into the cold and locked herself into the truck, waiting for the lights of Sam’s boat to cross the dark expanse of the water. Eventually he appeared over the edge of land, dressed in a parka and jeans tucked into tall rubber boots. Kaia slid out of the truck as he strode toward the house.
“What’re you doing?” she demanded.
“Going in there,” he told her, not slowing down as he took the porch steps, his voice swept away by the wind.
The cold bit Kaia’s cheeks and fingertips, her stockinged feet, as she scampered after him. If he was going inside, then so was she. Sam went straight in and headed upstairs, flicking on the light in the master bedroom.
The woman stood in the middle of the room, glancing back and forth between Kaia and Sam with cagey, dark eyes. Her long, sinewy legs were covered in moony down. Her hair, a faintly greenish white, went to her hips. She picked up a fire poker from the hearth with thin fingers, revealing pointed, claw-like nails, and bared her teeth.
“Sam, be careful.” Kaia gripped the sleeve of his jacket.
Sam took one step closer and the woman opened her mouth and let loose a high-pitched, inhuman scream. Kaia felt it through her eye sockets. She choked on it. The woman screamed again.
“I think she feels cornered,” Kaia said, and stepped aside to the wall of the hallway, pulling on the back of Sam’s jacket.
Letting the poker clatter to the floor, the woman ran past them in a white blur. Sam gave Kaia a wide-eyed glance, then followed the intruder down the stairs and out through the kitchen door. They stood on the back porch and watched her run over the rocks, fall—hard—then get back up and splash her way into the water. She threw herself into the waves and disappeared into the foam.
When several minutes had passed and the white head did not surface for air, Kaia turned to Sam.
“She’s like me… isn’t she?” she murmured.
“Seems so.”
“Under any other circumstance, I’d say we need to inform the police that somebody escaped the loony bin and is now putting herself and others in danger,” she said, “but in this case I’m afraid that if we do call the cops, I’ll be the one who ends up in psychiatric evaluation.”
Kaia felt the earth spin beneath her feet as Sam put an arm around her. He led her inside, closed the back door and locked it.
“I can stay a while,” he said, “if you want.”
Kaia nodded. “Thanks. I’d feel better having you here.”
This time she didn’t resist her need to be held. She went to him and wrapped her arms around his middle, pressed her cheek into his chest as he folded her into his embrace. She let the tears come, let herself tremble and sob, and all the while he held her, murmuring that it would be okay. She had soaked through the flannel of his shirt when she became aware of the soft warmth of his breath in her hair, the bristle of his beard and the pressing of his lips against her forehead.
“I only met you yesterday,” she said into his chest when she could speak again, “but I feel like you’re the only person on Earth who really knows me.”
Sam chuckled, a low, pleasant rumble under her cheek. His big hands cradled her closer and she felt herself wanting more of him, wanting less clothing between them. “Yeah, well, I’ve gotta say, my life has gotten a whole lot more interesting since you came to town.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, pulling back and wiping her nose on the tattered cuff of her sweatshirt.
“Don’t.” Sam cradled her face in his hands. “Don’t apologize.”
His gaze dipped for a moment to her lips and Kaia felt it there, almost as good as kiss. She felt the deep, humming warmth of desire fill her body like she was melting from the inside out. If he wasn’t so damn tall, she would’ve kissed him herself by now.
She took a step closer and felt her breasts brush his body, felt his heat radiate through his clothing. Sam dipped his head to hers and shut his eyes as he brushed her lips with his. His lips were cold, dry, chapped. He pulled away an inch and licked them, bit them till they were warm and soft, then leaned in again. He touched his lips softly, questioning, to one side of her mouth and just stayed there, very still, as though he was waiting to see what she might do.
Kaia breathed him in. He smelled like the fresh salt air and handmade s
oap scented with sandalwood, patchouli, and lavender. His beard was rich and thick under her hands as she touched his face. He pressed her hard against him with a hand to the small of her back and all the fear melted out of her, replaced by desire for him, an ache she was suddenly desperate to soothe.
She stood on her toes, arching her back as she kissed him in return. A low moan escaped his lips, his breath rushing past her own lips as she sucked in a deep lungful.
“Kaia—”
She wasn’t sure if he was saying her name in protest, if he’d tell her they’d only just met and that this was crazy, but she didn’t care. It seemed he didn’t either, as he pulled on her lower lip, asking her to open more for him. His tongue slid slowly, achingly slowly, against hers and she felt her knees tremble beneath her. Just that gesture had her burning straight to her core.
He came willingly with her when she pulled him toward the kitchen table. She sat on top of it and wrapped her legs around him. Gripping the firm muscles of his bottom through the denim of his jeans, she pressed him closer as he leaned over her and kissed her deeper, his mouth soft but demanding.
*
“Hang on a second.” Sam drew away from her. It took every ounce of his willpower to do so. He was pulsing and throbbing for her from his head to his toes. He could easily yank down those leggings of hers right then and there, bury himself in her until he forgot his own name.
Kaia lifted her brows and bit on her lower lip. “The girlfriend?” she asked.
Sam drew away, gripping his cock and adjusting himself through his jeans to ease the strain and his raging need. He couldn’t think straight in this state.
“No,” he said. “Not really.” He swallowed, hard. His pulse battered his temples and balls. His stomach ached for Kaia.
“Not really?” Kaia pushed her legs together and slid off the top of the table.
This wasn’t going the way he would have wanted. He could feel the situation spinning out of control. Himself, spinning out of control.
“I don’t love her,” he said, too loud. Kaia’s eyes went wide as she sank into a chair. He might as well say the rest of it, he thought. “Not like I think… I could love you.”
Her eyes lifted to his; her soft lips opened. She blinked. “Oh,” she said, quietly. Her plump, cute little hands folded on each other over the rough table-top.
Shocked by what he’d just said aloud, Sam went to the sink and poured himself a glass of water. He drank it down before turning back to her. His heart was still pounding, though now it was with something other than desire.
“You terrify me,” he confessed.
Kaia gaped at him. “Me?”
Sam braced himself on the back of a chair at the end of the table. “I don’t know if this is the best way to explain it, but ever since I came to live on land, I’ve wanted nothing else other than to go back to the water,” he said. “I told myself I’d get there someday, and that until I did I wouldn’t let myself become too rooted here.”
She pressed her lips together in a line and nodded slowly.
“I’m afraid you’re gonna take this to mean I don’t want to invest in a relationship,” he said. “And a day ago, that would’ve been true.”
Her ruddy brows drew closer over the bridge of her freckled nose.
“But now, I’m thinking everything could change,” he said, his hands sweating as he gripped the chair. “And that’s probably a lot for you to take in, just meeting me.”
She shook her head. “No, Sam, I get it. I showed up here yesterday and threw your life into a tizzy. My own, too. You’ve got something goin’ on with someone else and you need to sort that out.”
“But it’s not just that,” he said, eager to make himself clear. “I think that this—me and you—this is something… different.” He shook his head, frustrated with his lack of words.
Don’t be a cornball and say it’s special.
“Something better,” he tried. “Better than anything else. Maybe even better than—” Could he really say it, say that what he had felt kissing her just now was better than being a seal in the water? Could he admit that she held more power over him than the entire ocean?
“Sam, you don’t have to explain.”
Kaia came to him and took hold of his shirt collar in a way that made him ache to kiss her again, to feel that velvet-soft mouth—
He contented himself with putting his hands into the warm wool of her wild red curls. She sighed, frowning.
“I got my heart blown to pieces six months ago,” she confessed. “I’m in no rush, really.” Her eyes narrowed. “Especially if you’re involved with someone else.”
“Okay.” Sam contented himself with rubbing his hands through her hair, feeling the contours of the back of her head, the warmth of the nape of her neck. “No rush,” he whispered.
Her fingers gripped the fabric of his shirt as she shut her eyes again, bending her head back at his touch like a cat. A wicked little smile came over her lips.
“But, dammit! I want you, Sam,” she said, and stood on her toes to kiss him again.
She sucked and nibbled on his lips and pulled him by the shirt into the living room, where they fell onto the couch. He gathered her on top of him, letting his hands take in the shape of her full thighs under the soft fabric of her leggings, the roundness of hips and ass, the gentle give of her waist.
He was so hard for her it hurt. Tumbling closer, the shadowed curls of her sea-scented hair curtaining their faces, she kissed him, grinding into him until he thought he’d burst.
Fuck it. I can’t wait. Can’t be patient. Not about this.
He was about to reach between their bodies to unbuckle his belt when she pulled away and retreated to perch at the far end of the couch, biting her lips and pressing her fingers to her cheeks as she stared at him. She shook her head, laughing wryly.
“No, no, no,” she said, maybe to herself. “Despite what it feels like, I only just met you yesterday.”
“Yes. You did.” Sam sat up and straightened his clothes, pulling his flannel discreetly over his lap. One of them had to be rational, and apparently it was her turn.
“You’ve got… someone,” Kaia added.
Sam nodded, reluctant. “Sort of.”
“Yeah… that’s weird. And I don’t really know you.”
“You know my deepest secret,” he told her, like that would justify his wanting to take her to the big bed upstairs and rock her till they both fell asleep, lost in each other.
“And you know my deepest secret,” she said, letting out an adorable series of short, exasperated pants. “But I only just learned it myself. It’s all new. A lot to take in.”
Sam nodded, tried to deepen his breath and slow his racing heart. “No, it’s better if we… don’t.”
Kaia’s gaze drifted to the dying embers in the grate and a pensive silence settled between them. Sam got up and told her he was going outside to make sure there was no one hanging around, and to add more wood to the furnace.
Once he was out in the bracing cold he felt his head clearing like the sky overhead, brushed clean by the wind. The stars shone like hard little diamonds stuck into black velvet. Gazing up at the Milky Way, tears came into his eyes. He told himself it was just the cold wind, but that wasn’t all it was. He was happy and terrified and felt more alive than he had in the fifteen years he’d spent in this flawed human body.
When he was good and done with his tears and had the furnace cranking, he came back inside to find Kaia curled up on the couch, a blanket drawn around her.
“Go up to bed,” he told her with a touch to her shoulder. “Get some rest.”
Kaia sat up, bleary-eyed. She reached for his hand. “Will you come?” she asked. “Just to sleep, I swear.”
Sam shook his head, laughing. “Don’t tell me you actually think that’ll be possible,” he replied, knowing himself well enough. “I’ll stay down here, keep a lookout.”
Kaia stood and stumbled into his arms, lifting her
head with a sleepy smile. He gave her one chaste kiss on the forehead, inhaling the delicious scent of her hair, before gently pushing her toward the hallway.
Chapter Ten
“Any more naked ladies running through the house in the night?” Kaia asked when she came into the kitchen the next morning.
Sam stood leaning against the counter with a cup of coffee in hand, his jeans and white undershirt wrinkled. Kaia could tell from his body language and the fact that he hadn’t so much as put a piece of bread in the toaster that he was planning on leaving the house early.
The heated closeness that had been between them last night was gone, replaced by an awkward sense that they were little more than strangers who had shared one or two weird experiences together.
“You want breakfast?” she asked. “I’ve got yogurt, oatmeal—”
Sam shook his head and set down his mug in the sink. “I’ve gotta take care of some things today,” he said, his face guarded.
Kaia felt her heart sink. Maybe they’d just gotten carried away last night, caught up in the chaos. Maybe he was regretting the things he’d said to her. I don’t love her. Not the way I could love you.
She hovered at the opposite end of the kitchen table, afraid to get any closer to him, afraid he’d see how her emotions were boiling up inside her. She dipped her head and looked down at her stockinged toes. Her feet were cold, even through the thick wool.
“Okay, well, I’ll see you around,” she said, trying to be casual as Sam went to retrieve his jacket by the door. “I’ll let you know as soon as my car’s ready so you can have your truck back.”
Sam came to her and put his wide, warm hands on either side of her face. A smile spread on his lips, his dark eyes sparkling beneath the sweep of his brows. “I’d like to come back here later and check on you, if that’s okay,” he said.
A tingle of pleasure radiated through her at his closeness and she felt it morphing dangerously into that tidal pull she’d felt for him the night before. “Oh, sure,” she said, breathless. Then, chancing it, “Maybe… I’ll make dinner?”
Sam smiled wider. “That sounds great.” He rumbled with a low, satisfied chuckle that was really more like a purr and pulled away, cheeks dimpled.
