by Judi Fennell
Thunder punctuated the silence. She’d swear someone was directing this scenario if it weren’t so damn important.
“Gone.”
She gnawed the inside of her cheek, hope sinking to her feet. “I lost them.”
“You lost them.”
“Yes.”
“Exactly how did you lose the things we risked our lives for? Things that decide our lives? Things that apparently merit getting a tail to save?”
She slammed her hands to her hips. “How the hell do I know? I didn’t do it on purpose, Reel.”
“Now there’s a relief. Because I was seriously starting to wonder for a minute there if you had a death wish. So glad to know you don’t. I would, however, like to know how you could lose the entire focus of this little expedition. Or were you just along for the fun factor?”
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“That’s not fair. When you shoved me over that glass wall, my suit must have torn. I probably lost the bag somewhere on our way here.” A shank of wet hair fell forward, and she tossed it over her shoulder, twisting the soaking length around itself and squeezing enough water out of it to fill a Jacuzzi.
What she wouldn’t give for a Jacuzzi right now. And the house that went with it.
“So you’re telling me we actually have to go back in that water where Kraken awaits to find the stones so The Council won’t send a hit squad after us.”
“Pretty much,” she mimicked.
“Hades.” He exhaled and flopped back onto the sand.
“I give up.”
“What? You? Reel the Non-Altruistic? Reel the Rebel?”
“Try Reel, The Guy Who Likes To Live. He’s done.”
“So, what? We’re going to hang out on this deserted island ’til ol’ Krak goes belly up? Sounds like a great plan.” She twisted down over crossed legs to the sand beside him.
He raised an eyebrow and squinted at her. “You got a better one?”
Lightning crisscrossed the sky. Kraken lifted his head, almost in salute. She scooped a few clumps of wet sand then lobbed them past her toes. “How long do you think he’s going to stay?”
Reel shrugged. “’Til he gets bored. Or hungry. Or forgets about us.”
“So what’ll we do in the meantime? Isn’t this going to be a problem for you? Don’t you need to go in the water or something?”
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“You really don’t know your mythology, do you?”
“You’re not a myth. Not unless I’m crazy, which is debatable at this point.”
“Sweetheart—”
“I thought we were done with the ‘sweetheart’
business.”
“You might be, but the name just seems to fit. What can I say?”
He muscled himself, complete with mouth-drying ab contractions (which, in this weather, was saying a lot) to as near a sitting position as his tail would allow. His biceps flexed when he leaned his weight back on his hands, and his pecs took their own sweet time getting settled into this new position, the next streak of lightning acting like a photographer’s flash at a supermodel shoot. Quite the show. Her hormones clamored for frontrow seats. He knew it, too.
His tongue slicked his lips, but she wasn’t going to mention the kiss. No way. They had more important things to focus on.
He sighed, with a hint of dimple. “Okay, here’s the plan. Obviously I’m not going to be much help like this. I’ll head over to that mess of overgrown whatevers over there and dig a pit to hole up in overnight.” He flipped to his stomach and repeated his army-crawl over thirty or so feet of cold, water-logged dune. Erica scooped up the utility belt then cleared torn palm fronds and other debris out of his way, anger and pity fighting for hold of her emotions. Hell. She needed those diamonds. They certainly weren’t on her Top 10 list of things to lose. She should InOverHerHead.indd 214
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have put them between her breasts or tied them to the utility belt or tossed them out of the cavern first. Then, at least, they’d know where they were…
She shook off the self-recrimination. What-ifs and could-have-beens were not the way to move forward. She knew that from experience.
In the time it took for Reel to reach the beaten tangle of hibiscus, the rain began to peter out, dwindling down very quickly to a soft pitter-patter.
“I guess fire’s out of the question, even when it finally stops raining,” Erica said.
“That’s one thing I’ve never gotten a handle on. Sorry. Never had the need for it.” Reel swung his tail around and began digging in the sand, shoveling the flattened blossoms away. “Well this comes in handy. Who’d have thought?”
He almost sounded cheery as the water-logged petals flipped to the side, their honeysuckle-sharp fragrance filled the air. Like when he’d kissed her…
She rubbed her hands on her upper arms. “It’s getting chilly.”
“We’ll be okay, sweetheart. Grab those palm fronds over there.”
The slippery fronds made her take extra care so their sharp edges wouldn’t cut her. By the time she returned with half a dozen, Reel had carved out a depression the size of a twin bed.
Raindrops sprinkled his hair, glistening on his chest as he flipped another tail’s worth of sand to the side. “You didn’t see any mangoes, did you?” he asked. “Coconuts?”
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“Fish, woman, you really need to read more. Of course Mers eat mangoes. And coconut and papaya and guava and pineapple and anything else we can find.”
“Oh, well, I just thought since you live beneath the water and all…”
He stopped digging for a moment. “We need to clear a few things up. Let me finish this, and then we’ll have a heart-to-heart. Everything you ever wanted to know about Mers but were afraid to ask.” The dimples darted out for a quick salute.
And, my, what it did to her insides. Stupid, traitorous, horny insides…
“Fine. Whatever. Let me see if I can find anything edible around here to keep you in tip-top digging shape.”
Oh no. She did not just say that…
He had his full-out, double-dimple grin going. Yeah. She’d said it.
She couldn’t get away fast enough.
Mer man, Erica. Bad enough you kissed one and let him have a quick feel…
Nothing quick about it.
She ignored her subconscious’s argument and scoured the ground for something edible. The clouds had started thinning and a star twinkled through.
One good thing about the storm—no tree climbing necessary. With that lone star dancing between clouds, she managed to find a few mangoes and some coconuts near a denuded palm tree. At least they’d have something to keep them occupied tonight.
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ttt
Reel watched her go and felt a stirring beneath his scales.
Nothing new there.
Well, okay, the stirring was nothing new, but the scales? He stopped shoveling the sand and looked at the tail.
Bluish-green and every bit as iridescent as his brother’s. Reel couldn’t believe it was attached to his body. He’d wanted a tail every day of his life. And now he finally had it. And didn’t want it. It wouldn’t change anything. Rod had always had his tail, just like he’d always had the throne to inherit. Their father had explained the difference between them in just that way. When subsequent sons were born to the royal family, the gods gave them legs. Tails were only for the heir; an easy identifier.
What Fisher hadn
’t said was that Immortality was only for the heir as well. Otherwise, the gods worried there’d be challenges for the throne. No better way to protect the succession than to kill off any competitors. Fisher had never told him that, but Reel had figured it out since there were no other two-legged Mer men in their world.
It’d been tough to realize he was going to live a mortal life span while his sisters, brother, and parents would live on forever. It’d taken more bottles of kelp wine than he dared count to resign himself to his fate. But had he really? How unfair was it that, just because he’d been born after Rod, he was created different than the rest of his race? That he’d end up being a memory, InOverHerHead.indd 217
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and maybe not even that. Gods knew he’d never heard the names of other second sons in their history. No, he was destined to be forgotten after his death as much as he was now. Fisher only had anything to do with him when there was a problem. He never got a
“how’s it hangin’” communiqué from his dad. No, their interaction was fraught with tension. To the point where Reel just didn’t bother any more. No way would he ask his dad about the tail.
He’d seen Erica staring at it. What was she thinking?
Here they were on a deserted island, guaranteed privacy and probably more time than they’d need… would she come near him? Or would the tail freak her out?
He already knew the answer to that from her actions all those years ago.
Oh, the irony. All those years he’d wanted what his brother had, but now he had it—and it was the last thing he wanted. The gods were capricious; Reel had learned that in school. Don’t anger the gods because manipulating their creations was what they liked to do. What had he done to them to deserve this? Or were they really trying to be helpful? Was this some sort of reward? Or were they just toying with him?
Reel exhaled. He’d probably never know. Did it even matter?
He flicked the flippers, amazed at how natural they felt.
Scared at how natural they felt.
Scared he might be stuck with them.
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Chapter 26
Reel had doubled the width of the depression by the time Erica returned. He flexed his tail, tossing grains of sand from one fin to the other.
“Comfy?” She parked herself on the sand next to the pit and dumped a feast of tropical fruit between them.
“I found these.”
Reel sliced the mango with a jagged clamshell then bit into the fruit’s mouth-watering sweetness. Sure, he’d said Mers ate them, but what he hadn’t mentioned was that it was sparingly at best. With all the habitation humans were doing of small, deserted islands these days, it was tough to find an empty patch of land with a tree on it.
The juice coated his fingers, and he licked it off. So much better than kelp or mussels. Even shrimp. Nothing under the sea was as sweet.
He looked up to find Erica’s ocean-blue eyes staring at him. At his mouth.
Zeus. Talk about sweet…
His heart rate tripled, and all of him took notice. His palms itched to be back on her shell-fillers, er, breasts. His thumbs flexed, remembering how tight and perfect the tips had felt, and his stomach twinged at the thought of her slim body pressed against him. And forget about the electricity zipping around beneath his scales—like his misadventure with the rays, only much more pleasurable. InOverHerHead.indd 219
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“Something you want?” He couldn’t resist. As the moon glimmered around the edge of a cloud, her eyes flared and she glanced away, a soft flush to her cheeks.
He wanted to stroke them.
He blinked. Since when had his thoughts ever been so refined? Usually he wanted to stroke other things, cheeks not being high on his list of priorities. He looked back at those cheeks with the soft dusting of sun-dots. Her lashes lowered, sweeping the blushing skin like he wanted to do. Cup her cheek, feather it with his thumb. Tilt her head back. Stare into those eyes until all of this ceased to exist. Just her and him. She cleared her throat and stood, tossing a coconut into the air and catching it with a nonchalance he wasn’t buying. She looked down the beach.
“So. Um, do you think there’s anything on this island?
Natives? Wild boar? Anything dangerous?”
Just me, sweetheart. “If there is, they’ve all gone for cover. We should be fine.” He finished the mango and leaned against the edge of the hole, making a half-hearted attempt at the pretense of watching the stars appear. It wouldn’t be much longer until they lit up the darkness. He loved the night sky. Many times he would swim to the surface just to watch the stars come out. He could Human-watch then, too. The boats anchored for the night, people on deck, drinking their wine, soft conversation drifting along the gentle crests of an ocean at rest.
Had his fascination with them always been there, or had it been because of this woman in front of him? He’d never know. He’d met her so young.
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He’d thought about her so often.
And now, here he was on a deserted beach, no one around but her.
He might never have another opportunity like this. And Zeus knew, he wasn’t one to waste an opportunity.
“Erica.”
Her shoulders tensed, but she didn’t face him. “Yes?”
“Are you going to stand there all night looking out to sea?”
He got a chuckle out of her and her shoulders lowered.
“I guess not.” She turned around. “I guess I’ll just park my palm fronds next to your sandy bed.” She walked to the pile near his head, bent down, and exchanged the tree’s fruit for its leaves.
Reel’s hand snaked out to her wrist. “Those fronds aren’t for you to sleep on, Erica.”
Her eyebrows knitted. “They’re not? Then why did you have me get them?”
“They’re to cover us. Keep us insulated from the elements.”
She relaxed. “Oh. Okay. I can sleep on the sand. Hmm, I should probably hollow out a little area for myself, too. Less wind factor.”
She sat back down and started moving the wet sand with her delicately arched feet.
He captured them with his hands. “Don’t bother.”
“What do you mean?” She wiggled her toes but he didn’t let go.
Hades, he didn’t think he could let go. His skin felt like it was seared to hers. “I dug this for both of us.”
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temple, following the curve of her cheekbone to dip in the hollow beneath and trail over her jaw and down…
He wanted to taste it… her.
He raised his gaze to her face.
Erica didn’t say a word. Her eyes, however, spoke volumes. The blue darkened to resemble an evening sea just as the sun disappeared, her pupils widened. Unblinking.
Reel traced a pattern on her instep. Her toes flexed. Good.
“Reel?” She coughed. “Um, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” She tried to slip her feet from his grasp, but no way was he letting go.
He stroked the soft spot behind her ankle bone.
“Actually, Erica, it’s one of the best ideas I’ve had in a while. We can keep each other warm.”
She looked at his tail .
Don’t look too long, sweetheart. You might see some- thing you aren’t prepared for.
Just offshore, Kraken blew a spout of water and Reel glanced that way. Something to get his mind off where her eyes were—where he wanted her hands. Her mouth…
Her fingers reached for his, peeling each one from her beaut
iful legs. He let her win.
“Look, Reel. We need to talk.” She slid her legs out of reach and leaned onto her hip, one arm supporting her. A stiff, après-storm breeze ruffled her hair, and she tucked a strand behind her ear. “I’m a Human and you’re, well, you’re—”
“I’m…?”
“Ah, well, you’re a merman.”
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“That’s not a newsflash, sweetheart.” He leaned toward the edge where she reclined, crossing his arms, his elbows next to hers.
“No. What I mean is you’re a merman. With a…
well… you know…” She sat up, crossed her legs, and tucked her hair behind both ears. The actinia twitched a tentacle at him, reminding him what he’d done. And what he needed to do… eventually.
“Oh, I get it.” And he did. “You mean I’m not good enough for you. Not man enough for you.” He levered up on his palms and swung his tail behind him. “I’m okay to kiss, to be curious about, but spending the night together is out of the question.”
“Is it even possible?” Her hand covered her mouth immediately after the words escaped.
Too late. He hadn’t meant to make that leap, but since she had, he was going to swim with it. He hiked himself out of the cavity to sit next to her. His shoulder rubbed hers.
She didn’t move away.
“It’s possible, trust me. The only difference between your type of men and Mer men is the tail.”
“That’s a big difference.”
“Not as much as you might think.”
He felt her eyes skim over every inch of his torso. Then lower, all the way down to his fins.
“I…”
He put a hand on her thigh. The muscle contracted beneath his palm.
She laced her fingers between his and squeezed.
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much for me.” Stars glinted in her eyes, sparkling in the small drops at the corners.
Something in him thudded. He didn’t want to make her cry. He was a selfish jerk for pushing the issue. He lifted her chin and sighed. “It’s okay, sweetheart.”
