by Judi Fennell
“I have to catch my breath.” She sat on a large rock, removing the belt so she wouldn’t sit on a knife. She brushed her hair off her forehead and cut off another piece of pineapple. “I wish we could find fresh water. I could use a drink.”
Reel shook his head. “Sorry, sweetheart, there’s no time for foraging. Besides, once we’re back in the sea, you won’t need it. We’ll get our moisture there.”
“Oh, that’s right. We go back to being fish.” She sighed. Reel hunkered down in front of her. She should have insisted he wear the belt with the braids on it. Maybe she still would. That larger knife would do a fairly decent job of covering…
InOverHerHead.indd 295
3/20/09 2:00:19 PM
Judi Fennell
296
Her eyes drifted downward. She couldn’t help it. She was only Human.
For now.
“Come on, Erica. You knew this was temporary. We have to go back. It’s part of the judgment.”
A parrot fluttered onto a branch a few feet above them, cocking its head to stare down at them. Spying on them, if what Reel said about birds reporting back to Poseidon was true.
Now she was getting paranoid. She looked back at Reel—at his face. “Tell me again how it’s punishment for you? You live under the sea—you’ll stay under the sea. Me? Totally different story. And why can’t we stay here? The Council can’t do anything to us here.”
“You think? How do you suppose Ernie just happened to show up? That parrot?”
The newest arrival promptly took off. Probably to go report in or something.
“Poseidon controls everything on and above the sea, Erica. They all answer to him. Polar bears, walrus, whatever creatures need the sea to live. Trust me. He can make our lives a living Hades unless we can find some place so far inland nothing seaworthy can ever reach us.”
“Sounds like Kansas.”
“Huh?”
“Kansas. It’s a state. In the U.S. Right in the middle of the continental forty-eight. Land for miles. We’d be safe there. God knows, I feel like Dorothy anyway.”
“Unless we can get there from here, we’re going to have something to do with the sea and, therefore, be at the mercy of the gods. You do not want to tick off a god. Trust me.”
InOverHerHead.indd 296
3/20/09 2:00:19 PM
In Over Her Head
297
She sighed again. “Okay. Fine. Let’s go be fish again.”
He raised her chin with his finger. “At least you’ll be with me. You didn’t have any complaints about that last night.”
She smiled. She loved his self-assurance. Nooooo. She didn’t say the “L” word. She didn’t. Well, okay, so she did, but it didn’t mean anything. Just a figure of speech. Right. That was it. Just a figure of speech.
“Last night was great, Reel, as I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you. But it can’t happen again. The whole sea thing… And what if you get your tail back?
I’m sorry, but that’d be just too ‘out there’ for me.”
“So that’s it? One night together?” His words were gruff. Low. From someplace deep in his chest and she hated that it took the twinkle from his eyes. But he had to see—she just couldn’t. Here, they’d been in her element. On land. Where she could pretend everything was normal. But in the sea… he’d be descended from gods, from a different race, his family all had tails, he’d had a tail…
“That’s all it can be, Reel. One night. I’m sorry, but we’ll always have the island.”
Damn it. No. He’d given her his heart last night, even if she didn’t realize it. She couldn’t consign him to just one night. Sentence him to celibacy. He’d never find someone else like her and he, sure as Hades, wasn’t letting her get away from him. The Council had given her to him for the rest of their lives and that’s where she’d stay. Maybe, in time, he could wear down her resistance. InOverHerHead.indd 297
3/20/09 2:00:20 PM
Judi Fennell
298
But he didn’t want to wait until then to have her one more time. Hades, he didn’t want to wait one more minute. He pulled the pineapple from her hand and tugged her toward him. If this was the last chance they had, he was taking it.
She stumbled off the rock, right into him, knocking him back onto the grass, and he took full advantage. Hades, he’d been hard since they woke up. Ernie had made sure to point that out. Even Chum had noticed from his vantage point, but Reel wasn’t making any excuses for it. She turned him on. In a big way. He couldn’t get enough of her. If it weren’t for that stupid edict, he’d seriously consider staying on the island permanently. There’d be no interaction with her world, just Erica and him. With her wrapped around him, his knees pushing off the sand, building an amazing rhythm with her, inside her, his toes curling as he came, it’d be just the two of them. Forever.
Erica was sprawled on top of him, her breasts soft on his chest, the nipples hardening. Her breathing shallow, those beautiful blue eyes stared down at him, the pupils widening. Her lips parted, a hint of her tongue caressing the inside. A flash of white teeth.
“Erica…” Reel groaned. He remembered every one of those forays her teeth had made over his skin last night…
Hades with The Council. He needed this. He needed her.
Erica kissed him. Hard. Tongue probing, her lips softening as he returned the kiss. She wiggled against him and he grabbed the arms of her swimsuit, stripping them down her sides, imprisoning her arms. InOverHerHead.indd 298
3/20/09 2:00:20 PM
In Over Her Head
299
Grabbing her waist, he hoisted her up his body until her breasts were even with his tongue. Her hair swept around him and she shuddered when he took the perfect flesh in his mouth, his tongue swirling around the tip. He sucked on her warm skin, tasting the heady remnants of their mingled perspiration and the dried saltwater mist. The remnants of mango juice. He was glad he hadn’t licked all of it off last night.
Erica’s moan vibrated through him. He swept his mouth across the other breast, finding more mango there, his own sweet treat of a breakfast. Her mound pressed against his hip and he felt the heat there, the moisture seeping through her suit, and remembered what it’d tasted like.
Her leg moved, brushing his gono. Zeus, he was so close. So fast. Only Erica could do this to him. He rolled her over, shoving her suit down her legs, past the sweet heaven of their juncture, over the indentation of her knees behind which he’d laved kisses until she’d begged for mercy sometime before dawn, down over those shapely calves and ankles.
She kicked the suit off her feet, grabbing at his shoulders, as hungry for him as he was for her. The sun peeked through the swaying palm fronds, hot but too ethereal to burn. That was fine. His skin was on fire from her touch alone.
“Reel. Now,” she gasped, tugging him up her body. Her legs spread, the musky scent of her wafted to him, exploding the images of her orgasm in the moonlight through him. He wanted that again. Over and over. Forever for them.
InOverHerHead.indd 299
3/20/09 2:00:20 PM
Judi Fennell
300
He slid into her and she bucked up to meet him, her lips searching for his. Her tongue invaded his mouth and Reel lost whatever control he’d had.
He pulled out, his body rocking back in before he could tell it to. Again.
In. Out. Hard. Pulsing in time with his heart. Their skin, the moisture, heavy breathing, wet kisses, sucking on each other’s tongues… Her soft gasps in his ear, her fingers quivering on his back, the nails biting into his skin… he was so close. He could never have enough of this. Of her.
“Reel.” Her hoarse cry reached inside him, down into the depths of his soul, and asked something of him. For what, he didn’t know, but he wanted to know. He wanted to answer.
He kissed her neck, her pulse, strands of her hair catching in his lips, brushing his nose. Tickling his cheek, his eyes. All he wanted was Erica l
ike this forever. Under him, around him. Inside him.
“Reel!” His name flowed from her lips like a steady underwater eruption, over and over, every sensation she felt rolling with the word.
He changed the angle of his hips, feeling that tight, swollen part of her ready to explode, and he stroked her with his body.
She clenched her thighs on his, her heels digging into the backs of his knees, trembling against him. He pulled out as far as he dared—he couldn’t leave her heat—then plunged back inside.
She gasped. Her eyes opened, those luscious lips parting, and she panted his name again. Half plea, half exclamation.
InOverHerHead.indd 300
3/20/09 2:00:20 PM
In Over Her Head
301
He loved this moment.
He withdrew again, and her eyes slid closed, her head tilted back.
“Stay with me, sweetheart,” he whispered, tasting a drop of sweat as it rolled down his cheek. He couldn’t take much more and still pull out.
She sobbed in a shaky breath and opened her eyes.
“I’m here.”
He smiled. “Yes, you are. We both are.” He looked to where their bodies were joined and felt her answering glance as her stomach contracted. He kissed between her breasts.
And surged in.
Zeus, she felt so damn good. Over and over, his body wouldn’t stop.
She dug her nails into his back and arched beneath him, crying out his name on a half-sigh, half-sob. Her legs trembled against him, her body clenched around him. He couldn’t hold out much longer.
“Reel…. oh…”
She took a breath and he pulled out, surging against her mound. He came, jerking, throbbing against her belly, smooth skin gliding against him. Emptying him. What would it feel like to do that inside of her?
Damn it all, he wanted the chance to find out.
“Wow,” she said after a few minutes, her voice unsteady.
“Wow works.” He lifted himself off her, his legs shaking. The legs he didn’t know if he would get to keep.
“We didn’t have time for this, did we?” She opened her aqua eyes and he wanted to make the time. To lose themselves to Time and never move from this spot.
“If you noticed, sweetheart, it didn’t take all that long.”
InOverHerHead.indd 301
3/20/09 2:00:20 PM
Judi Fennell
302
She closed her eyes on a chuckle. “Really? It felt like forever.”
Truer words were never spoken. He wanted to make it last forever. To discuss “forever” with her. What it could mean for them. What it would mean to him. But there was no time.
Reel rolled to sitting, the damn “man-parts” up and dancing. Zeus, you’d think the guy would settle down some. Reel clicked his tongue. With her lying there, skin gloriously flushed, her breasts still tight from his mouth, legs splayed in satisfaction? Yeah, right.
“Come on, sweetheart.” He retrieved the swimsuit and knife belt for her. “You’re right. We really need to get moving.”
The sun was rising higher than he’d like when they reached the ocean. They’d spent time they didn’t have, but somehow he couldn’t regret it. He just hoped Krak was still occupied.
He scanned the sky for Ernie, wanting to make sure they weren’t swimming into a trap.
Amelia, Ernie’s wife, popped by instead, floundering to a pelican’s lumbering landing just as they hit the beach.
“Heya, Reel. You are one lucky S-O-M.” Amelia was munching on that chewy substance Humans were so fond of. It stuck to everything and they stuck it to everything: the underside of docks, boat hulls, every piece of their refuse. He could always hear her coming from a mile away.
“What’s the scoop, Amelia?”
InOverHerHead.indd 302
3/20/09 2:00:20 PM
In Over Her Head
303
Erica groaned behind him. “Amelia? As in Earhart?
Who’s next? Captain Nemo?”
“Sorry, chicky, but Nemo’s in the Pacific these days. He and Ern had a falling out.” Amelia blew a pink solid bubble with that stuff.
That always freaked him out. Bubbles. Solid. Out of water. Pink. Odd, just odd.
“So, what’s happening in my luck department, Ame?
Krak still chasing the herring?”
The bubble popped all over her beak and she made the mistake of trying to remove it with her wings. Several gooey, fowl-mouthed comments later, the pelican was spun in a web of her own making.
“Oh, for pete’s sake!” Erica approached the squawking bird, plunked her cute backside in the sand and started picking the pink gunk off Amelia.
“Thanks, doll,” Amelia said when her beak was untied. “I guess I oughta lay off that. If you could do that big feather on the bottom… yeah, that one. It’s bending back and pinching a bit… yeah, that’s it.” The pelican sighed. “So, where was I?”
“About to tell me if we’re heading into a trap? You know, just a tiny portion of info that could determine whether we live or die? Nothing too important, Ame,”
Reel answered.
“Yeah, yeah, keep your scales on—wait. You don’t have scales. My bad.”
“We’re wasting time, Ame. So, did Krak take the bait? Or did his two brain cells rub together enough to generate a spark of intelligence?”
Amelia stretched a freed wing out to its full threefoot width. “I said you’re a lucky S-O-M and I meant InOverHerHead.indd 303
3/20/09 2:00:20 PM
Judi Fennell
304
it. The big, dumb oaf is probably halfway to the Falklands by now.”
“Good.” He pulled Erica to her feet. “Come on, sweetheart, we’ve got to get moving.”
InOverHerHead.indd 304
3/20/09 2:00:20 PM
Chapter 35
It took all of two minutes for Reel to turn back into a fish.
The minute his toes hit the water, a greenish-blue shimmer started up his legs. He got about six paces in and his feet reverted to flippers. By the time he was knee-deep, he had no knees.
Erica turned away when the rest of him went underwater; she couldn’t bear the tragedy. Or the travesty.
Because even when the lower portion of him was once again covered with scales, the pull of attraction didn’t go away. She still wanted to wrap her legs around him, trace the strong line of his jaw, that enticing line down to his hip—
He swam over to her, his eyes grave, the cocky tilt to his mouth nonexistent. “Ready?”
No. She wasn’t. She wanted him back. The way he’d been. But how unfair was that of her? Somehow he’d become like the rest of his people, something she knew he wanted, no matter how nonchalant he’d tried to be. How selfish was it of her to want him to lose the tail?
“I guess.”
He smiled and her heart tripped over itself.
“I’ll make it worth your while. Promise.”
She knew how well he kept his promises. She could count on it not hurting, maybe even being enjoyable. InOverHerHead.indd 305
3/20/09 2:00:21 PM
Judi Fennell
306
Who was she kidding? That last go-round on the beach only whetted her appetite to taste more of him. She put her hands on his shoulders and let him scoop her up again, carrying her to deeper water, his nose touching hers all the way. She inhaled the scent of him, their lovemaking still lingering on his skin. The sea would take it away soon, but for now she let herself revel in it, in the memories.
He nuzzled her cheek. “You feel so right in my arms,”
he whispered, his tongue tracing circles on the shell of her ear. “You smell so good. Like the island—flowers and fruit.” He lips stroked her jaw, trailing around to her chin. He slid his cheek against hers and she forgot to breathe.
His arms circled her torso, his fingers softly stroking the sides of her breasts. She should protest, she knew. It could lead nowhere, but, dea
r God, it felt so good. She didn’t even care that probably hundreds of fish were watching them beneath the waves. She didn’t care that a tail was brushing her legs, because the muscles rippling through it felt like his thighs had as he’d surged into her. She wanted him around her, on her. To have him do that to her neck. To feel his arms flex when she tugged on his earlobe like this.
It felt absolutely right that she should be here, in his arms, her feet not touching ground, surrounded by warm water and soft waves. That Reel was keeping her afloat, and all she had to do was feel. Nothing else existed beyond this moment. No edict, no Kraken, no tail…
“Erica,” he murmured, caressing her cheek. She turned to find his lips. She needed them on hers, to taste him, to share this moment in time with him…
InOverHerHead.indd 306
3/20/09 2:00:21 PM
In Over Her Head
307
The kiss went on and on. Tongues mating, circling, teasing, stroking. His hands in her hair, hers in his. Molding her mouth to his, pressing her breasts against his strong, hard chest, slanting her head to welcome his tongue deeper, the soft urging of his thumbs beneath her chin…
His tongue circled the hollow at the base of her throat and Erica thought she’d faint with the sheer bliss of it. She sighed, water caressing her face…
She opened her eyes.
They were underwater.
And she was breathing it. Again.
She gripped his shoulders and Reel looked up.
“Erica?” His eyes were glazed with an emotion she’d seen so many times during the night.
“Reel, we’re underwater.”
His sigh was tinged with regret. “I was hoping you wouldn’t notice.”
“How could I not?”
“You haven’t for the last six minutes or so.”
She felt her cheeks flush. The man could kiss. Make that Mer man. The merman could kiss. That lower-case letter was important.
It made all the difference.
She pulled out of his arms and settled the knife belt more firmly on her hips, not looking at him while she did so. She knew what she’d see. Knew how it felt.
“So how are we going to find the diamonds without encountering Kraken?” she asked, starting out in what she hoped was the right direction. She needed to do something or she just might throw her inhibitions, and common sense, out the proverbial window. InOverHerHead.indd 307
