by Angela Blake
“Tane!”
He was nowhere near done with her yet.
He fucked slowly into her as his hands ran up and down her sandy thighs, massaging gently as he buried his head between her breasts, sucking and biting.
“Mmm,” she moaned as the hot bubble of feeling started to build up again. He grabbed the bottom of her bra and flung it off her, squeezing her breasts between his hands even as he continue to shove long and slow, taking his time, in no hurry to come even though they were on a public beach.
He grabbed her legs, pulling them over his shoulders and leaned in, going as deep as he could. It was almost too much for Livy.
“Tane!” she groaned as he began to thrust faster and faster, losing his rhythm, his groans getting louder by the second.
“Aah,” he cried as he emptied himself inside her.
There was stillness for a few blissful moments, the waves rushing against the sand and the breeze rustling the palm trees above them. There was something primal and wonderful about making love out here in the open air, and as he slowly pulled out and collapsed beside Livy.
“Wow, how is a body supposed to recover from that?” Livy murmured, turning onto her stomach beside him and tracing a pattern in sand over his chest.
Tane laughed, “It’s too early in the morning for flattery Livy,” he replied, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her in close for warmth.
“I wish it was flattery.” Livy gave a sated sigh. They lay for a few moments more as coherent thought returned, and with it, the unpleasant sensation of cold, damp skin and sand in unfortunate places.
Chapter Eight: Houston We Have a Problem
“Dad? We have a problem.” Tane said bursting into the house where his dad was making pancakes for breakfast.
“Where’s the fire?” Tipene asked slipping a pancake onto the plate and putting it on the kitchen table for Tane. Tane picked it up, swallowing it in three bites.
“I think Livy saw me.” He said.
Tipene froze, turning away from the cooker to stare at Tipene, “Saw you what Tane?” he asked.
“Saw me…turn.” Tane said avoiding Tipene’s eyes.
“No. Tane…”
“I know dad, I know. I shouldn’t have turned so close to shore. But it was like sunrise and no one was supposed to be on that beach but me. I just wanted to connect-”
“Tane, this is a disaster and you know it. Whatever you wanted to do doesn’t matter now.”
Tane dropped his eyes, looking defeated, “What now dad? What do I do?”
“First tell me exactly what you think she saw and what you did after.”
“As soon as I saw her I changed back dad. And she looked like she was spooked but also like she wasn’t sure what she’d seen.”
“Did she act different with you in any way?”
“Not really. She just looked at me like she wanted to ask me if what she’d seen was real but also like she could hardly believe it and didn’t want to look crazy.”
“So did you just ignore her or did you speak to her at all or…”
“I uh…kind of went for distraction.” Tane said avoiding his father’s eyes.
“Distraction?”
Tane really didn’t want to elaborate.
“Tane,” Tipene said in an ominous tone, “What did you do?”
***
Livy had a problem.
A problem in the form of one Tane Patariki; Enigma and decisive head of Wilkins Enterprises.
And the problem, to put it simply, was that Livy had begun to lose her shit when she was around him. She wasn’t sure if she had ever quite felt like this before. She wasn’t sure she even liked it if she were being honest. It made her wonder how other girls dealt with this on a regular basis; just stumbling around guys, being so flustered it was even affecting her duties at the job she wasn’t sure she still had.
She hadn’t felt anything like this before. This pining was embarrassing. She didn’t feel like herself at all. She was a strong, confident woman.
Only now—
Now she was a mess. And it was slowly starting to look like something that would never go away, it seemed.
Everything Tane did was somehow making her heart beat a little faster, her cheeks heat up a little warmer, her smile grow a little bit wider.
Even if she wasn’t entirely sure if he was human or she was crazy. She had had time to think about what she saw once she’d calmed down from that impromptu session on the beach. She still could have sworn that she saw a tail fin, attached to Tane. But it must have been a hallucination.
Right?
The man was beautiful, inside and out.
And so Livy had a problem.
***
“Um, Gill? Can I speak with you for a moment?” she asked as she stepped into her twin sister’s work space conference room.
The air traffic controllers had just finished up a group training session, and Livy had sat patiently in the waiting room until they finished because it was just that urgent that she see her sister. Gill had been pulling so many double shifts it was near impossible to catch her on an off day.
“What is it, honey pie?” Gill grinned, clearly pleased to see her.
“Uh, right,” she snapped her focus back to her and asked, “Can we speak privately? Let’s go to your office.”
“Oh ho,” Gill waggled her eyebrows, to which Livy shot her an unimpressed look.
As they left the room she could feel a few eyes watching them, but she ignored it, because she knew what an effect she and her sister’s identical looks had on the public. The thought occurred to her that this might be the first time she was visiting Gill at work. Which meant they were still a novelty to Gill’s colleagues. They walked down the halls in silence, and once they had finally reached Gill’s office she stepped back for Gill to enter first before closing the door behind them.
“So, what’s going on?” Gill turned to her, frowning slightly, “You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Is it your job? They didn’t let you go, did they?”
“No, no and no,” she deadpanned, taking a seat at Gill’s desk and gesturing for her to do the same. She fiddled with a small gift her father had given them many years ago, taking a deep breath before finally letting the words tumble out:
“I think I might be in love with Tane?”
Gill is quiet for a moment, blinking fast, but then it smoothed over into something thoughtful. “What makes you think that?” she asked.
“I kinda maybe slept with him.”
She laughed somewhat nervously, “What? You’re kidding me right?”
Livy’s porcelain skin filled with hectic color. “Afraid not—”
“Dammit Liv, what happened to him being a spoilt lil rich boy?” Gill waved her hand about irritably. “You’re supposed to be the one who knows better Liviana!”
Livy relaxed slightly, trying to cover up her cheeks by letting her hair fall forward over her face. “Okay so we’re using full names. So this is a crisis?”
“Well,” Gill leaned towards the desk, cracking her knuckles dramatically. “It’s Tane, so, the man probably wouldn’t pick up on it if you yelled it to his face,” she laughed at the thought, “So what I would do, is just test the waters first. Be yourself, y’know? Talk to him more outside of y’know, like sex, or ask rope him into some project at the mansion. Tell him you enjoy having him around that he makes you happy.”
“That’s…” Livy frowned, not believing it could be that simple. “That’s not what I’d thought you’d say at all. Besides I’m not sure he cares how he makes me feel.”
“Hey, you said y’all had sex right? Which, by the way, eww,” Gill shrugged with a coy smile. “But if you wanna turn up the heat, walk around in a tank-top and skimpy shorts; he’s bound to get flustered.”
“Ah, the Baywatch plan,” Livy laughed softly. She leaned back in her chair in thought, and decided that Gill’s plan might actually
work. “Okay, so what should I do first?”
“Hmm,” Gill pondered for a bit, and then, “Oh, why don’t you start by inviting him out for lunch? Try to take the temperature on where y’all are at now?”
“Sounds like an idea,” she said, tilting her head.
”Course it is. I only have the best ones.”
Livy inclined her head in agreement. It was the reason she’d come to her sister after all. But she didn't bring it up again in favor of giving her idea more thought. It had great potential, but would it be enough to get her feelings across? She’d never done this before, but, if Gill said this would work, she crossed her fingers and hoped it would work.
"A round of shots for everyone in the bar!"
Liviana winced a little at the jubilant cheers that followed, at the shouts of excitement and boisterous cries of drunken revelers. Normally loud noises didn't give her too many problems but between the pounding beat of the music and the cacophony of a dozen conversations being shouted over it, Liviana was beginning to get a little overwhelmed.
She went against the current, pushing through the crush of bodies making their way to the bar in the hopes of finding a pocket of space for herself. She wasn't claustrophobic - most of her childhood had been spent in one overcrowded building or another - but people became unpredictable in crowds, and doubly so while imbibed. She'd spent most of her life avoiding exactly these kinds of settings, when lowered inhibitions and a posse of friends might push some guy to do something they'd only ever fantasized about…she had heard too many stories from too many of her friends not to be cautious.
It was unfair - that she should feel so nervous on a day celebrating everything special about them - but she had too many memories to change that feeling anytime soon. Today was their birthday though for most the 'party' referred entirely to pub grub and beers. Traditionally, it was a day she and her sister spent with a hundred of their closest friends, enduring twin puns while they dressed in identical outfits and as they grew older, downing a celebratory pint. But with the Wilkins’ death - and the threat to a lot of their friends’ jobs, including hers - still fresh in everyone's minds, the festivities seemed to have been kicked up a frantic notch.
"Not taking the free drink?"
Liviana glanced wordlessly at Tane, wondering for the umpteenth time how he moved so quietly. Over the past few weeks she'd learned most of his tricks for remaining invisible - keeping his head down, avoiding eye contact, he really was quite antisocial - though how he'd picked her out of a crowded, deafening bar was still beyond her.
"Never been one for drinking in public," she admitted, raising her voice slightly to be heard above whatever Bieber club remix was being blasted. "And besides, my father always warned me about accepting drinks from strangers," she said.
A grin crossed her face as she caught a glimpse her colleague Kat’s blonde hair and muscled arms bouncing in the dance floor's sea of humanity.
"You?" she asked, pointing at his empty hands.
Tane grunted. "I’m clumsy enough sober, no need to pour gasoline on the fire. Or liquor."
Liviana smiled at that, leaning against him so he could feel her gentle pressure on him. "You're not that clumsy." In fact in her experience, he wasn’t clumsy at all. Just the opposite in fact.
Another grunt, though this one had a contemplative note to it. It was true that he moved about far better than most other people. He was pretty sure it was a side effect of his heritage. He’d always had trouble with alcohol. It made him sharply nauseous and he’d projectile vomit without warning on anyone in his vicinity. It made him hugely popular at college parties. Or not. It’s not like he even liked parties anyway so the point was moot.
"That was my polite way of saying," Tane began, careful to keep his tone flat, "that I think you and I avoid drinking for the same reason."
In his own admittedly-fairly-limited-experiences, people tended to react to having a life changing secret in one of two ways. Option A was to open up, to throw yourself out there and trust that humanity on the whole was more benevolent than not. He knew a few people who went through life that way, and some part of the back of his mind was happy that they could make it work. Option B, conversely, was to clam up, to withdraw, to try to hold on to whatever shreds of control you still had and guard them jealously.
Tane's thumb idly traced his neck where the gills would appear when he was underwater. He certainly wasn't the first type.
"Where's Giuliana?" he asked, after the silence between them had grown just a little too long. Liviana scanned the crowd with eyes honed by years finding her sister anywhere.
"Other side of the bar, in one of the booths," she answered, a few seconds later. "She's with Arnie Stone. Both have martinis."
"'Girl talk'," supplied Tane, though the mockery in his voice was mostly feigned. He didn’t know Arnie as well as he did Gill. They’d all gone to school together and he knew that Arnie was a force to be reckoned with. And so, apparently, was Gill.
"My cousin Mya?" he asked. She had turned up the day before and she was the main reason Tane was even at this party apart from checking in on Livy.
She was much easier to spot.
"At the bar, between Kat and Eva Jones - the short girl from human resources. She's either refereeing a drinking competition or is the competition between them." She squinted. "Possibly both."
There was a pregnant pause.
"…Do you want to leave?"
They spoke the same words at the same time, their voices crossing over. Then they stared at one another. Or at least, Liviana stared at Tane, and Tane glanced at what he was pretty sure was Liviana's eye line.
Liviana giggled.
"They seem to be having a good time," she noted, even if Mya was looking more irritable by the minute. Still, she had wanted to meet people and those two were basically harmless. "I'd feel bad to spoil their fun."
"Yeah," murmured Tane in agreement, glossing over the fact that they'd both been willing to do exactly that moments ago. He shuffled slightly. "Wanna just slip out for a few minutes?"
"Sure," said Liviana, glancing around the room. "There's a back door by the washrooms, I think it's a shortcut."
"I'll take your word for it," replied Tane, deferring to her judgment in a building unfamiliar to him.
Liviana surveyed the thronging masses between here and there. "Take my hand?"
Tane uncrossed one arm, leaving his hand outstretched as if formally asking for a dance. Liviana took it with a wry grin and a moment later they were off, threading through sweaty bodies like snakes in the grass. Tane took her hand because it was easier than making a fuss. And they did need to stay together through the melee. He desperately wanted to scent the clean, unsmoke-filled sea air that came in on the breeze. Sweaty bodies, booze and the pervasive scent of weed was nauseating. He wondered if he’d always felt that way or it was a by-product of claiming his second heritage. He stumbled after Livy, wondering how to start the conversation they needed to have. His father had been very explicit, he needed to find out how much Livy had seen and what she believed. All without alerting her that what she might have seen was the truth.
They stepped out into a back alley a minute later, even the miasma of a nearby dumpster doing nothing to diminish the crispness of the evening air. When Liviana forgot to release his hand Tane slipped it from hers, reflexively. Only belatedly did he consider an alternative explanation for her extended hand-holding, followed immediately by an unanticipated pang of regret.
If Liviana was at all disquieted or disappointed, he couldn't tell.
"Oh, that's much better," she breathed, massaging the base of her neck and drawing his eye to the smooth line of it. Her voice sounded like she'd just slipped into a hot tub.
"Too loud." She murmured.
"Much too loud," agreed Tane. Sheer volume didn't bother him as much as it apparently did Liviana, but it was disorienting especially after his time underwater where everyt
hing was not necessarily quiet, more like muted and filtered through the water.
He heard Liviana's footsteps a few feet away, the light patter of leather shoes on pavement. He trailed behind her, almost unthinkingly.
“So...your birthday, eh?" mused Tane, once the ringing in his ears had largely subsided. "You know I had to hear about it from my mom?"
"I didn’t know you cared. The last time I saw you, you kind of took off post coitum," replied Liviana shooting him a glance in which Tane detected annoyance and maybe hurt.
Tane sighed, looking up at the patch of sky visible from the alleyway, “What am I doing?” he asked out loud.
“What do you mean?” Liviana asked sounding breathless and nervous.
“Livy? I need to know something,” he said.
Livy straightened up, darting glances at him as her fingers twitched, “what?” she asked.
Tane took a deep breath, looked her in the eye, “What is going on with us exactly? No, let me rephrase, what do you think is going on with us exactly?”
Liviana just stared at him, seemingly nonplussed, “I don’t know. I guess we’re kinda sorta…dating? Friends with benefits? I don’t know.”
“Only we were never friends,” Tane said with a wry chuckle, “Okay let me put this another way, what do you want this to be?”
It was Liviana’s turn to draw in a shaky breath, drop her eyes and trace patterns with her feet, “I…” she shrugged, glad of the darkness because it hid her blush, “I guess I’d like us to be dating. But…I get the feeling that that’s not where your head is at right now.”
Tane nodded looking away, “Perceptive of you,” he said.
“Yeah, I don’t always have my head up my ass.” She said.
Tane laughed, looking at her with frank appreciation, “My dad seems to think there’s something here between us and so does my mom. I’m just sort of confused. I don’t know if it’s me who likes you or its’ my parents.”
“Well…that’s a start at least. And the sex is good right?”
“The sex is very good.”
