In Over Her Head
Page 20
He took in her storm-tossed hair, bits of kelp and shells tangled there, the ends drying to a slight curl. Funny, he hadn’t known that about her.
He cleared his throat. “But, that still doesn’t resolve the matter of body heat. Let’s call a truce and share the sleeping pit and the fronds. We’ll keep each other warm tonight. That’s it. Nothing more.” He offered her a smile, and not one from his cocky repertoire. “Who knows?
Maybe you’ll see things differently in the morning.” If the mythology was true, she would.
She smiled back, so that was a step in the right direction. “I highly doubt it.”
“Oh, you never know.” He let go of her hand, maneuvered back into the depression, and reached for the palm leaves. “Ready?”
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Chapter 27
READY OR NOT, HERE I—Erica shook her head. Why did everything revert to that?
Oh, maybe because he was sitting there holding out his hand like some gallant knight in shining—gleaming—
naked chest? Because the look in his eyes was one of utter sincerity like she’d never seen in Joey’s? And with more than just a hint of desire?
That he’d backed down because she’d asked him to?
Or maybe because she was just so darn tired, and sleeping beneath the stars was not something she’d thought she’d ever have the chance to do again once The Council and Ceto had gotten hold of her. She slid in beside him. The hibiscus tickled her nose—and reminded her of that kiss.
See? It always came back to that.
He adjusted the fronds, crisscrossing them into a rough basket weave. “Here.” He lay back, tucking her under his arm, her neck braced against his bicep. She moved her head to keep her hair from the gash in his shoulder. That actinia thing squeaked. She’d forgotten about her little hitchhiker.
“How’s your shoulder?” she asked him.
“Better. We’re quick healers.”
His heart thudded next to her ear, his chest rising and falling with every deep breath. His nipple at eye level. His tight, erect nipple—
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“Um. So. Reel.” She rolled more onto her back, tucking her hands under her butt, and watched the constellations twinkle in and out of the wispy gray clouds.
“Yes, Erica?”
“That conversation. About your people.”
“What would you like to know?”
“The healing thing. Mangoes. Why I’ve got a parasite on my ear. What it’s like to live with all these dangers every day.” How to outwit your Council and return to my world. He took a deep breath. “Okay. Healing. Can’t tell you much there, just that we do. Part of our physiology. The slices in my shoulder will be gone by morning. Mangoes. Storms like tonight tend to send many things out to sea. Or the fruit drops off and makes it to the ocean. Your ships are also a good source.” His fingers tapped his six-pack abs.
“As to your parasite, as you call it, nothing could be further from the truth. He’s actually for your protection. I’ve staked my claim to you. Bound you to me. If anyone messes with you, they get me on their tail.” He bent his free arm behind his head, his abs contracting. “Which brings me to your danger question. Sweetheart, Kraken is a fluke. Up ’til today, I didn’t think he existed. No one else in The Council did either or they would have been out in full force as soon as they knew.” His other hand played with the ends of her hair.
She thought about asking him to stop, but really, it felt nice, a soft tug, the rhythmic strumming like a gentle massage…
“What do you have against the sea, Erica?”
“Hmm? Oh. You mean besides Kraken, Ceto, and being bound to you? Let’s see.” She pulled her hands InOverHerHead.indd 226
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free and listed each item with a finger. “There are sharks. Barracuda. Riptides. Man-o-wars. Coral sharp enough to flay skin from bone. And let’s not even touch on The Council.”
“You don’t have government in your world? Laws to be upheld?” His fingers brushed her shoulder beneath the fall of her hair then traced the shell of her ear. His bicep flexed beneath her neck, nudging her face into the crook of his arm.
“Well, when you put it like that… But at least there I know the rules. Here, I get thrown into them and have to sink or swim. Kind of like that bound thing. How does that work? And what’s with shoving that thing on my ear without explanation?”
The scent of the hibiscus faded as others wove themselves around her. The sea, the salt, body heat, that indefinable something that was Reel… She was warming up quite nicely now. She closed her eyes, taking in the surf, the cool night air, his body so close to her, the quiet rhythm of his chest. She could stay like this forev—a while. She could stay like this for a while.
“I didn’t have time to explain. They’re extremely hard to find. When I saw it, the idea just popped into my head. Carlos was closing in, and it seemed like the easiest solution. It essentially made you part of my family, which, as you know, is high up on the food chain around here. Without it, Ceto could have thrown you into a trench.”
Lovely. Engaged to a merman. Not a Mer man. Big difference. Would the surprises never stop?
But engagements were made to be broken. She should know, thanks to Joey.
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“She might as well have thrown me somewhere. I was locked in that room for days. And what happened to you, by the way? What’d she do to you? It scared me to death when I saw you slumped in the corner, all nonresponsive with that giant red mark on your arm.”
“I had a run-in with an electric ray. I shouldn’t have grabbed him while holding onto a metal door. It wasn’t pretty. Knocked me out.”
“See?” She glanced at him, eyebrows raised. “Even you are subject to the hazards of the sea. That’s why I’m not thrilled with The Council’s edict.”
“At least it’s not me, personally, you object to. The thing is, Erica, for all your complaints about being in the sea, you’ve done a great job—as if you lived in the ocean your whole life.”
She snorted. “Yeah, right. Since The Incident I’ve been in the ocean only one other time before Joey shot me.”
Damn damn damn. She didn’t want to talk about that.
“The Incident?”
“Oh, it was nothing.” She turned her head and stared back at the stars. There. That was Scorpius, right? And Draco and… she couldn’t remember the name of that constellation—
“Sure looks like something.”
“No. Really. It was nothing.” Lyra? Libra? No, maybe—
Reel drew her chin toward him. “Obviously it was something. Why won’t you talk about it?” When her eyes met his, he smiled. “It’s not as if there’s anything else to do, right?”
Oh she could think of plenty to do, which might be better than discussing The Incident.
His fingers traced her lips.
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Most definitely better.
“Erica?”
“Hmm?”
“The Incident?”
The question crashed over her like the waves they’d outrun earlier.
“It’s… silly.” To everyone but her.
He slid to his side so their noses were almost touching.
“I promise not to tell anyone,” he whispered.
“Like there’s anyone to tell.”
“Hey, you never know. Krak might be the sea’s biggest gossip. But I promise not to barter your story for our freedom. How’s that?”
“Well, if you’re making that kind of sacrifice, I guess I have to tell you, don’t I?”
“I’m a
ll ears.”
And other body parts.
The Incident. Right.
Erica tucked her hand beneath her cheek and took a fortifying breath. The salty brine took her back to that day. She kept her eyes on the steady rise and fall of his chest. Sometimes this memory was just too painful.
“It was the first anniversary of my mom’s death. I was eight. My dad decided we should celebrate Mom’s life on the beach she loved, so we spent some quality family time building castles, burying each other in the sand, that sort of thing. Then my brothers went off to play football, and I wandered off. Not too far, just by the jetty. The surf was light and I wanted to see if I could find a pretty shell or interesting piece of driftwood or something. My brothers are all older than me, bigger. They could do anything. Still can. I just wanted to find InOverHerHead.indd 229
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something none of them ever had. My dad always said I looked like her, so I wanted to cheer him up, make the day special.”
She grimaced. “Well, that’s one way to look at it, I suppose.” She felt Reel’s eyes on her and looked up to see the hint of a smile around those lips she’d kissed…
She cleared her throat. “There I was, swimming around the rocks, overturning the smaller ones, finding pieces of shells, but nothing special. It was such a monumental day for our family that I wanted to give him a happy memory. Make it a good day instead of one filled with sadness. So I ventured out a little farther.”
Reel’s lips tightened ever so slightly.
“There was an odd shell beneath the waves, just beyond the last rock. It was huge and not covered in barnacles. I’d never seen anything like it. That giant clam shell in your parents’ foyer reminded me of it. If I just could’ve gotten it…” She shrugged. “I swam out. Giant clams aren’t found around the island, so I thought I’d found a treasure. Dad would’ve loved it. So I surfaced, took another breath, then dove back down.”
This was where it got murky, and she didn’t mean the water. She chewed the inside of her cheek. She’d never been able to explain this part so she’d given up trying. But she’d never forgotten the fear. Not even one smidgen of terror had diminished over the years.
“What happened?”
“I’m not sure.” She closed her eyes, remembering. Trying to figure it out. To peer through the black curtains and swirling dry ice vapor her mind had conjured to protect her from some memory so horrible it needed to be blocked. “I don’t know what happened.”
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“What do you mean?” Reel brushed his fingertips across her cheek, and she opened her eyes to see the concern in his.
Her throat tightened—as it always did when she got to this part of the story. “I can’t remember. All I know is what they’ve told me. That they were looking for me, and all of a sudden, I was screaming at the top of my lungs, thrashing in the water at the end of the jetty. They thought I’d been bitten by a shark or stung by a jellyfish or something. It nearly gave my father a heart attack.
“My brothers dove in after me. Tristan got there first. He lifted me out of the water, expecting to see a missing leg and tons of blood, but… nothing. No blood. No cut. All my limbs were fine. But I was hysterical.
“Andrew, Del, and Anthony searched the entire area and didn’t see one dangerous sea creature. Not even a crab. They never saw the clam shell either. When I told them about it later, they said I must have imagined it. That whatever had scared me must have looked like the shell and, for some reason, decided not to bite me.”
She exhaled, feeling the same sense of failure come over her that had when she’d seen her father’s face. Make the day special for him? Hardly. Now that awful date was the anniversary of the two worst things to ever happen to her dad. She’d heard him say that one night when he thought she’d gone to bed.
“What do you think happened?” Reel’s voice was low as he ran a few strands of her hair through his fingers. Erica sighed at the familiar frustration his question evoked. “I’m not sure. I don’t know what I believe. But I do know I’ve never wanted to go in the water since.”
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“But if you didn’t have any bite marks, why were you so scared?”
“That’s just it, Reel. I’d thought I’d heard voices. In a language I didn’t understand, but still, people talking. As clear as we’re doing now. Underwater.”
Reel went still, his fingers dropping her hair onto her shoulder. “You heard us.”
“Us?”
He sucked his upper lip between his teeth and grimaced. “Yeah. Us. Rod and me.”
“You?” She yanked her hand from beneath her cheek and leaned onto her elbow. “You were what I saw? You were what scared me so badly that I’ve got chunks of memory missing?”
“We never intended to scare you. It was just a prank.”
“A prank? Your prank ruined my life.”
“Erica, it’s not like—”
“Like what? Like it wasn’t some joke to see if you could scare the crap out of the Human? See if you could drive her insane? If you could make her the biggest laughingstock on the island?”
She rolled away from him, but the damn palm got tangled in her legs as she tried to climb out of the pit. Reel grabbed her arm. “Erica, it was just kids’ curiosity. We didn’t mean—”
“My friends and family have laughed at me for years, Reel. Years! Erica, the Coward. Erica, the Nut Job. Erica, the Incapable—all because I freeze up any time I get near water. The thought of going out on a boat terrifies me.” She wrenched her arm free.
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So I should’ve been able to help out with the charters, right? Diving should be no problem. Do you know I actually had to have my father and brothers surround me like a safety net the one and only ocean dive I tried? I ended up being sick the entire ride out and back and couldn’t eat for a week. Sheer and utter terror. That’s what your curiosity did for me. What it took from me.”
“Yet you did it, Erica. You overcame your fear and went into the water and survived that dive.” He touched her arm, softly this time. Feather-light. “And you took that charter out.”
Well… yeah. She had. That sucked the wind from her sails. “But I didn’t have any choice. Not if I want to keep the marina up and running.”
“You could always have hired someone to do it for you.”
She snorted. “Yeah, right. You don’t know my brothers. If you think an eight-year-old’s terrors are bad, try living with the teasing. Oh, I know my brothers didn’t mean to be mean, but still, always questioning yourself, wondering if you’re crazy, being unable to perform the simplest things the rest of your family takes for granted… it undermines your confidence and makes you question your worth.” She allowed him to pull her back into the cavity he’d dug to sit next to him.
“Sweetheart, that’s something you should never have to question.” One hand slid around her back to rest on her hip, while the other lifted her chin. “I’m sorry for what we did, but look at what you’ve accomplished. You outwitted the mother of all sea monsters. You recovered the jewels and our weapons. You rescued me and escaped Kraken. No worthless person could do that. InOverHerHead.indd 233
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Only someone who conquered their fears could. You don’t give yourself enough credit.”
That shut her up. She had done all those things. On her own. Well, except for escaping Kraken; Reel had done the hard work on that front. And she had subsequently lost the diamonds again, but stil
l…
“A cowrie for your thoughts.” His hip nudged hers. A cool night breeze sifted through the bushes near them, the leaves rasping against each other. A bird cooed nearby, the angry crash of the waves lessening against the beach as Erica reflected on his words. Maybe she wasn’t as bad as she’d thought; all her bravado wasn’t just for show. She had done all those things he listed. She let a smile escape. “I guess I’m not such a coward after all.”
“You guess? Are you crazy?” He framed her face with his hands. “Coward? Erica, you’re one of the bravest people I know, Mer or otherwise.”
“I’m the only ‘otherwise’ you know.”
He rolled his eyes. “Fine. Make light of it. But don’t you see? You’ve got it all wrong. Your brothers got it all wrong. The fact that you tried going back in the water, that you elected to work the marina despite being scared, that you went in the water to look for the diamonds—”
“I didn’t have a choice. Joey had a gun on me.”
He shook his head. “Yet you figured out a way to keep yourself from going down to the Minnow a second time, and that shows an incredible amount of bravery when faced with his gun. Don’t sell yourself short.”
“How do you know about my plan with Joey? I don’t think I ever mentioned that.”
“Uh… sure you did.”
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“No… I didn’t.”
Reel released her face and developed a sudden interest in the tree line. “You must have mentioned something.”
“Reel. Look at me.” Erica grabbed his chin. “How do you know about that plan?”
“I—” An osprey swooping from a palm tree with a sharp whistle cut him off. Two rounds of waves ebbed and flowed from the beach. A crab scampered across the sand just in front of their bed.
Reel exhaled and met her gaze.
Oh, Zeus. He was going to have to come clean.
“Because I was watching you.”
“You… were watching me? With Joey?”
He nodded.
“Why?”
He swallowed. It had seemed so innocent at the time. Satisfying his curiosity.
Of course, looking back, his curiosity about her was when his father’s disappointment in him had begun.