In Over Her Head

by Judi Fennell

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  She staggered back to find him pulling himself by his arms, army-style, onto the beach. Pain bleached his face and blood oozed from the gashes in his shoulder.

  “Get moving, sweetheart! That thing’s got an eight-foot neck and even longer body.” He sounded out of breath.

  Out of breath… Out of water, more likely. Erica ran back to the ocean, the angry storm punctuating each footfall, the never-ending rain pellets divebombing her skin. Kraken surged closer to the beach.

  Glancing to see Reel army-crawl another five feet, Erica cupped her hands beneath the surf then ran back to dump the water over his head.

  “What… in Hades… is that… for?” He winced as he pulled himself onward. “Stay… away… from… the…

  water.”

  Erica looked back. Kraken kept coming. He was touching bottom, the red lump of his body inchworming above the surface, jaws gaping, seawater spilling from the cavity filled with spear-like teeth as lightning played backdrop.

  One more handful. That’s all the time she had before the creature reached them.

  Reel’s “Wait!” blew away in gusting winds and thunderbolts as she ran back to scoop more water. How long could Reel hold his breath? If Kraken decided to wait them out, she was going to be hard-pressed to keep this up. God, she couldn’t let Reel die.

  She threw the second round of water on Reel as he reached the dune line, but it didn’t seem to do any good. He lay there panting, rain beating down on his back. InOverHerHead.indd 201

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  Kraken rushed onto the beach. Scales glistening like flames in the flashing sky, its chest smacked land, a loud mucking sound in the reprieve of thunderclaps as the sand absorbed the impact and pooled around it. Another ripple and its tail churned the shallows into a whirlpool. She couldn’t risk another trip or that thing might kill her.

  But then… Kraken’s neck seemed to fold over itself, and its head hit the ground with a thud.

  “Reel? I think it died,” she yelled over the crash of the surf and storm.

  A hollow drone emanated from Kraken’s nostrils over the pounding of the waves. It lifted its head a foot or so off the beach with a blast of air. Its sides shuddered as the creature looked at its body, the water, then at her and Reel.

  It shook its head and slithered back into the sea. Erica plunked down amid the dank dune grasses, removed the belt, and wiped the rain from her forehead. One problem solved, but that thing could move. She couldn’t go near the shoreline again or it’d race forward, snapping her up like she’d seen orcas do to seals in documentaries.

  Reel had dropped onto his chest, one arm stretched out before him, the wounded one tucked beneath. His sides heaved once.

  Erica rolled to her knees and crawled to him.

  “Reel? Reel, can you hear me?” She brushed the black curls from his cheek. Raindrops clung to his lashes. Her fingertips tap-danced over his shoulder then down his back, stopping at the trident tattoo above the shimmering blue-green scales on his flank. InOverHerHead.indd 202

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  That was freaking her out. How’d he get a tail?

  His sides hitched as if he were fighting for oxygen. Oh, no… Maybe he was getting a tail because he was going to die? She didn’t know, but she did know she wasn’t going to let him die without doing everything in her power to prevent it. “I’m going to see if there’s some other place I can get water. Hang on, okay? Don’t give up!”

  She kissed his shoulder and stood. Maybe she’d find an empty coconut or a big clam shell, something to carry the water with. Squinting, shielding her eyes, she scanned the area for an inlet. Some place she could get to before Kraken—

  Reel’s hand grabbed her ankle. “Don’t go.”

  Her heart twisted as lightning flashed over his rainslicked skin. He looked so vital. So alive. “I have to, Reel. I can’t sit here and watch you die. Not without trying to do something. I can’t give up and neither can you.”

  She shook her foot, but for someone at death’s door, he had a pretty firm grip. “Let go. Let me help you. Please.”

  He shook his head and tugged. The sand shifted beneath her, and she landed on her butt.

  “Don’t go.”

  She sniffed back tears. His back rose and fell with short, staccato breaths as if he were gasping. There probably wasn’t enough time left for her to make a difference anyway. But she would not fall apart. Not now. She knelt beside him. “Okay. I’ll stay with you until—”

  Reel rolled to his back, throwing his hand up to shield his face from the rain. His eyes squinted. “Until?” The dimple in his left cheek flashed at her. InOverHerHead.indd 203

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  God, she’d miss that dimple. She’d miss every part of him. Well, maybe not that tail… “Whenever, Reel. For however long you need me.”

  The dimple disappeared and he reached across for her hand. His eyes closed and his chest rose then fell.

  “However long?”

  She interlaced her fingers with his. How could such a strong man be undone by a lack of water? How could she let him go?

  He tugged, probably the last of his reserves. She toppled above him, bracing herself with her free hand, taking the sting of the rain on her back. Shielding him. Protecting him.

  For the last time?

  His eyes opened, their vibrant green so in contrast to what must be happening inside his body as it shut down. She could get lost in them if she let herself.

  “Kiss me,” he whispered.

  Thunder, the crashing tide, the blaze of lightning through the darkness, they all mimicked the beating of her heart.

  “But, Reel—”

  “Kiss me, Erica.”

  He lifted his head, his gaze holding hers. Life filled his eyes. This was the way she wanted to remember him, this last part of him so vigorous, so animated, so… Reel…

  Her lips lowered to his.

  Moist from the rain, tangy from the salt, warm from him, the taste of his lips infused her, surrounded her, made her ignore the storm. There was no rain hammering her back because her heart was pounding enough to block everything.

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  Her nerves jump-started when his fingers speared her hair, anchoring her mouth to his. Not that she needed any encouragement. His tongue stroked her bottom lip then plunged inside to play with hers. Frolic, gambol, the words jumbled inside her head as his tongue slipped over her teeth, dipped behind them, swept along the inside of her cheek…

  A low burn started in her stomach. The parry and thrust of his tongue… an ache between her legs… she tightened, shifting just a bit, seeking something, searching…

  Then he curled their joined hands to the small of her back, pressing her tighter against his hip, and her nerves burst into flame. Hot, wet heat pierced her, and she groaned into his mouth.

  He felt so good, so alive, she couldn’t think—

  He released her fingers and caught her head between his palms, slanting it so his tongue had full entrance. He sucked on her lips and she moaned again, pressing her mouth to his, her breasts swelling against his chest, the suit so flimsy that it might as well not be there, her nipples begging…

  He seemed to read her mind as his hands left her hair. His kisses softened and his fingers slid the suit down her arms.

  “Erica…” His whisper was louder than the thunder exploding above them, the intensity in his eyes searing into her in a way lightning never could. She raised her head, her breath hitching. “I… my suit… stuck…”

  He smiled. Both dimples winked at her, and he lifted her enough to bring his mouth to the tops of her breasts. He nudged the suit do
wn her arms then fit her against him just so…

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  His mouth closed on her nipple and more light burst behind her eyelids than brightened the sky. Her heart hammered more fiercely than the surf. Nerves aflame…

  God, she could barely breathe…

  His tongue circled her nipple, lapping, sucking, and she tried to hold onto that thought. There was something—

  He switched to the other breast and she lost it. Angling her cheek to the side, the seductive warmth of raindrenched lilies and hibiscus filled her senses. Heat spread throughout her body and the storm ceased to exist. She fell, whirling into the ebb and flow of sensation as Reel played with her breasts, tugging on her nipples with his teeth, his tongue slicking its way from one to the other, caressing, stroking, his hand strumming from her back to the sensitive skin of her sides, cupping and squeezing her bottom, tracing the crease there…

  She couldn’t move by herself, not with her arms pinned. Her weight rested against him, chest heaving as she tried to take in more air.

  More air?

  Lightning exploded in front of her, the acrid smell of a strike ripping the scent of flowers from the air. Air?

  Her eyes flared and she wiggled back, withdrawing her breast from his mouth. Her hands slid to his sides, seeking sand, and she raised herself above him.

  “Air? You can breathe? ”

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  Chapter 25

  Reel exhaled—with no water anywhere. The puff of warm breath tickled her throat. “Of course I can breathe. What’d you think? I was going to beach myself to flop around like a landed fish?” He flicked her nipples with his thumbs, his eyes following the movements. Rain ran over her shoulders, the rivulets sliding over the tips of her breasts, keeping them erect. That was the reason. The only reason.

  His eyes shot to hers. “You did think that.” He shook his head, the dimples she’d found so endearing now mocking her. “Sweetheart, trust me. I have absolutely no altruistic bone in my body. I would’ve outrun that thing if I could’ve, but I’d never take the coward’s way by intentionally beaching myself. I brought us here because it was a means of escape.” His fingers flexed on her breasts.

  “Argh!” She scrambled off him and readjusted her suit. The thunder was a whisper compared to the anger raging through her. She didn’t even flinch when another lightning strike sizzled the air.

  “Let me get this straight. You can breathe. Air. Here. You’re not suffocating?”

  His grin twitched to the side as he leveraged himself onto an elbow. “The only suffocating I was doing was when your tongue was halfway down my throat and, let me tell you, what a way to go.”

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  “Oh!” She kicked wet sand at him. “You are such a jerk. I thought you were dying, and here it was all a ruse for a quick feel.”

  “Quick? If that’s your idea of quick, I’d love to see what a long time is. I thought I was in paradise for a while. Your shell-fillers are to die for.”

  “Yeah, well, you better keep your hands to yourself from now on, buddy, or you will die. And, for the record, they’re called breasts.” She spun away from him, flinging wet strands of hair behind her shoulder. “I can’t believe I thought you were dying.”

  “But I am, sweetheart. Of severe pain, just below the scale line. Care to lend a hand for a worthy cause?”

  She wasn’t going to turn back around. She knew exactly what pain he was talking about. Was suffering from it herself. But she wasn’t about to tell him that. Hell, she didn’t even want to admit it to herself. The guy was half-fish, for pete’s sake!

  And what if he weren’t? her subconscious wanted to know.

  Dazzling streaks curved across the sky as if the gods were laughing at her. They’d been doing that a lot lately. She crossed her arms. It was a moot point. He’d been a two-legged man and she hadn’t jumped his bones. No way was she going to now that he had a tail…

  Besides, it wasn’t as if she needed the hell of another relationship. Another person’s expectations to live up to… She wasn’t wanting, remember?

  Raindrops trickled through her suit, sluicing down the backs of her legs. She stomped her feet to fling the water off and peered through the unrelenting downpour. Dark. Black. No moon, no stars. Nothingness. InOverHerHead.indd 208

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  Joey had wanted her once.

  He was using you.

  No kidding. Of course, she’d learned the truth too late. Her heart had been battered, her pride struck down, her whole sense of self put into question. She wasn’t opening herself up to that again.

  “Uh, sweetheart? I could use your help.” Reel’s words carried above the wind whipping through the palm fronds and the creaking of the tree trunks as they fought the storm, but she didn’t turn around.

  “I get it, Reel. I know the kind of help you want and, sorry, I’m not volunteering.” She kicked a piece of driftwood. And hurt her toe. Fabulous. She picked it up, drawing her arm back to hurl it at the sea—

  Reel sighed. Loudly. Yeah, the guy could breathe.

  … and so could she.

  If she weren’t so mortified about her, well, enthusiasm during their kiss, she would’ve realized it sooner.

  She whirled around, pointing the driftwood at him.

  “You’ve got some explaining to do, mister.”

  “Which part, sweetheart? I believe the Kraken discourse has previously taken place, I’m as much in the dark as you about the tail, and I already mentioned exactly how I’d like to suffocate. Do I need to draw you an illustrated reference as to the mechanics?”

  He folded his good arm behind his head and pulled a lopsided smile onto his face, looking so much like a dark-haired, devil-may-care Matthew McConaughey that she had to catch her breath. Which brought her right back to the question.

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  “Why can you breathe? Why can I? And you must have some theory on the tail.”

  He blew out one of the aforementioned breaths, flung his hand to the sand then propped himself on his elbows, wincing as the shoulder gash stretched. He cleared his throat then turned on his side. If he had a towel over his scales, she’d swear he was all man.

  Mer man, Erica… In every sense of the word. Right. “Well?” She lowered herself to the sand out of touching distance, scraped her soaked hair off her neck, pulled her legs in front of her, then blocked the rain from her eyes with her hands.

  “I don’t have a clue about the tail. Maybe the gods were cutting me a break. They want the diamonds returned so much they were willing to give me the advantage in getting away from Kraken. How do I know what’s in a god’s mind?” He brushed his hair off his forehead, but the curls didn’t cooperate. She was not going to think about how silky his hair was, how good it felt… “But the breathing thing is easy. You can breathe because turning you into a water-breather doesn’t negate your air-breathing abilities. Your lungs can now do both. As can mine. Ergo, we breathe water under the ocean and air when exposed to it.”

  She tapped her fingernails against her temple, the side of her hand brushing against that actinia thing, which reached out and tickled her. She tried to suppress a shiver. The combination of wind and rain were leaching the warmth from her body. “So why all the drama when you were hauling yourself up the beach? I thought you couldn’t breathe.”

  He rested his head on his hand. “You think dragging you along while outrunning a sea monster for miles is InOverHerHead.indd 210

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  easy? Then I’m battling waves to come a
shore and have to crawl my way up a shifting surface. Leg height puts a different perspective on surf action, sweetheart. Try being level with crashing waves and see how you do. Not to mention, you did hear the ‘I have no idea’ part of my tail explanation, right? Try coming to terms with that in the blink of an eye. I’m surprised I could maneuver it well enough to save us.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah. ‘Oh.’” He pinched the bridge of his nose.

  “Look, that was harsh. I’m worn out, my shoulder hurts like Hades, the weather sucks, and good ol’

  Krak has taken up residence too damn close to our beach. To top it all off, I get a tail, which makes it damn inconvenient to move and damn uncomfortable out of the water. And we need to find shelter. At least for tonight.”

  “At least?” A crack of thunder split right above them and Erica ducked. “How long are we going to have to stay?”

  Reel nodded to the hump in the water. “We’re not getting away from here any time soon. That bastard can wait us out. And for all his small-brain capacity, he knows it.”

  “So we’re stuck?”

  “Pretty much.” He swiped rainwater off his chest, and she tried not to follow his hand over those cut abs. Tried not to remember how they’d felt contracting against her stomach. “Um… how’s that going to affect you?”

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  for my life? Trust me— not how I was planning our heist to go. But at least we got the stones.”

  Erica’s hand shot to her swimsuit leg. She’d forgotten about the diamonds, what with their near-escape, outrunning a sea-monster, being stranded, kissed…

  Her fingers found nothing but torn fabric. Son of a—!

  She stood, grabbing her suit with both hands, and pulled it out from her body to feel beneath it—

  “Sweetheart? We do have the stones, right?” Not one teasing note in his voice as if he wanted to volunteer to help her check her suit—

  “Erica?”

  “They’re gone.”