by Starla Night
“We have no time for the mainland.” He felt stronger now. Strong enough to join with her and fix her light at its most brilliant setting. “We must descend now to Sireno.”
Once their marriage was recognized by the Life Tree, the Council would reverse its judgment. His honor would be restored. Other warriors would claim modern brides. The city would grow with new life.
“Sorry.” She eased out of his arms. “We barely have enough fuel to reach Cancun. I don’t think there’s enough to detour to another dock on the way.”
Wait. Could this rattling actually be the ship’s engine? Was this rocking the sensation of movement across the surface of the ocean? Could he, actually, be slipping further from his goal now that he had acquired his bride?
She strode to the engine room, poured a container of liquid into the growling machine, and then climbed the stairs. He followed. The ocean moved under their hull and the night sky lightened with a distant city. She leaned over a dashboard full of blinking lights and pressed some buttons.
“Stop,” he ordered. “Anchor. Now.”
“We’re in the middle of a shipping lane.”
“We must go to Sireno as soon as possible.”
“Forget it. We’ve got to get you to a doctor ASAP, and we’ve got to dock before the ship sinks.”
“Stop now, Lucy.”
She straightened and put her hands on her hips. “Give me one good reason.”
“We must join ourselves before the Life Tree.”
“I’m sorry. Life Tree?”
“You, Lucy, will save my race. Join with me now and become my mermaid queen.”
Chapter Five
Torun’s words awoke something in Lucy’s soul.
Join with me and become my mermaid queen.
She longed to say yes. She longed to run her hands across both broad pectorals, down to his tapered waist, and follow with her tongue. She longed to give him even temporary happiness, and rediscover her own in the process.
But she could not.
Because that was crazy talk.
He had a shiny, dark bruise on his forehead. It must have scrambled his knocked-around brain. He’d also drunk gallons of salt water. And didn’t dehydration cause hallucinations?
His earnest, chiseled face awaited her answer.
Aw.
She should have realized something was wrong the minute he found her attractive. Her body was beautiful? Say what?
That aside, she didn’t have much experience with crazy people. Was she supposed to go along with the hallucination or try to return him to reality?
He’d been through a lot today. No need to upset him further.
Lucy touched his rough jaw. “I’m sorry. I’d like to.”
He grew more intense. “Good. You would like to.”
“I would,” she emphasized, stroking her index finger along his powerfully masculine jaw, trying to ignore the answering pulse of desire in her body, “but I’m not the mermaid queen type.”
“You are.” He squeezed her. “I have seen a thousand women. You are mine.”
Stardust fell on her soul, twinkling with beauty and promise. Why was she so tempted? Perhaps it was the way he towered over her, powerful and gorgeous, and begged her to join with him.
Well, since he begged her…
“Sorry,” she repeated, more to herself than to him, “but I’m definitely not. And once a doctor checks you over, you’ll know that, too.”
“On behalf of the mermen of Sireno, you must accept my claim.”
Thinking he was a merman was a totally plausible hallucination. He had survived drowning.
“Mermen? So, there’s more than one of you, huh?”
He nodded.
“And are you all men who are half fish?”
“We are not fish.” He lifted his noble chin. “Nor are we men. We are marine warriors.”
Uh huh.
“Well,” she started to pull free, “you sure look like a man.”
“I change in the water.”
She paused. Remember his feet? They’d been flat, like fins. Or what about his skin, slippery as a fish?
What if it wasn’t a knock to the head? What if it wasn’t a delusion from near drowning? What if he was telling the truth?
“We must go now to Sireno,” he continued. “It lies ten songs underneath the water.”
“Songs. I see.” What did that even mean? She extricated herself from his arms and focused on the radar. Obviously, she was the one who had been drinking the sea water.
“Lucy, your shine is diminishing.”
“Oh, is it?” She tsked. Funny how a girl could lose her shine when things didn’t go his way. “You’re not the first man to say that, turns out.”
“Now your light is almost completely out.” He tilted his head. Dark hair curled around his curious features. “I did not know the light could swell and fade.”
“Probably you’re just catching me from a different angle.” She kept a steady hand on the steering wheel and a steadier eye on the instruments. “I look thinner from the front.”
The mega resorts of Cancun stained the night sky and washed out the stars. Soon, the whole strange start to her expedition would be behind her. This sexy, crazy tribal “merman” would become the hospital of Cancun’s problem.
Perhaps, when the swelling went down in his brain and he got his stories straight, he’d look her up. Thank her for dragging him on board and saving his life. Maybe he’d even volunteer to join the expedition. She could use another hand, so long as it was free.
Oh, his wide, sexy hands.
Speaking of the expedition, she had forgotten to document this event. She took her phone out of the undersea case, queued the live broadcast, and trained the camera on herself.
“Hi, Mel. Here’s the prize I pulled out of the water. He insists he’s a merman and I’m supposed to be his mer bride.”
“Mer queen,” he corrected. “A queen stays forever.”
A shiver of awareness sizzled through her.
“Well, that sounds important. You’ll definitely need the right woman for the job.”
“The right woman is you.”
Heat flushed through her pores.
“You shone brighter than the sun. Even now you are twinkling like the brightest lights. It is your destiny to stand with me against the Council and liberate our race. Why do you not see it?”
She wanted it to be true.
Of course, she had wanted a lot of things in her life. “Smile for Mel.”
He looked deeply into the camera. That charisma lit by the dash lights would certainly give her old friend something to appreciate.
“Fight with me,” he said.
He was gorgeous and absolutely bonkers. “We’ll put it on the to-do list.”
“Lucy?”
“You make revolution sound very attractive.”
“Attractive?” He frowned at her. “You are teasing me.”
Lucy put on a brave face for the broadcast. “Sorry about the last dive. We’ll brainstorm our options when I see you.” She shut off the camera.
“Lucy.” Torun arrested her before she could walk away. His deep bass voice tightened with a terrible urgency. “We must remain together. I do not have the offering you deserve. My pouch fell from my grip before I ever reached your boat. But—”
Pouch? “So that’s what you were holding.”
“I… what?”
“Some pouch. I thought it was seaweed. You were holding it so tight I couldn’t get it out of your hand.” She led him down the stairs to the guest room. “You had it in the bunk…” It had rolled into a corner of the room. “There.”
He fell upon the pouch. His aquamarine eyes shone. He fished something out. “Now you will become my queen.”
“Are you forgetting everything we just talked about?” Right. Head injury. “I guess that’s pretty common, probably.”
She turned on her heels and huffed back up to the cockpit. This close to Cancu
n, if she left the radar unattended too long, she was likely to plow into a yacht or broadside a cruise ship.
“Lucy.” He followed her with a new intensity. “You will accept.”
“Forget it.”
“Look here.”
“Give it up.” She did not want to spend even one second staring into his gorgeous eyes and fantasizing about things she should not have. “There’s not a single thing you could show me that would change my mind.”
He lowered his palm to her level. In his grip rested a gigantic Sea Opal.
Chapter Six
No way.
Lucy almost dropped her cell phone. “That’s a…”
“It is my offering,” the crazy, sexy, supposed-merman said. “Come to Sireno with me now.”
The Sea Opal reflected the meager dashboard lights as though a thousand stars glimmered within its pearly white depths. She sucked in a breath. It was nearly twice as large as the one she had found before.
Mexico was the place to find them! Not the Keys. Take that, stupid Blake! Lucy had been right!
Lucy swallowed on dry lips. This jewel was the collections agencies off her back, her loans canceled, her credit cards paid off, and her ex-husband shown up, all in one. This was her redemption and triumph.
She reached out, her fingers trembling. “You found this?”
“It is the resin of our Life Tree.”
“Are there more?”
“Many more.” His deep voice shimmered with need. “Our Life Tree has not flowered in so long. It is dying. Our race is dying. Only you can save us, Lucy.”
Only she could save them…
“I am going to hell.”
She took the opal. Its smooth surface was cool in her palm and heavy with promises. Promises of hot nights and long showers and delicious, lazy afternoons under the covers.
“You are going with me.” He drew her into his arms and cupped her neck. “By the covenant, I claim you for my bride.”
His mouth descended and she lost herself in his kiss.
This time, she didn’t fight it.
Their touch combusted. Her desire burned like a supernova, heating her to the core.
His lips were cool and tasted of salt. His wide palms spanned her back, pressing her to his hard body. His proud cock hardened against her thigh.
She explored his broad back. No man had ever enticed her like he did. Not her ex, not anyone. Torun intoxicated her from the inside out. She clasped him like an anchor in a storm.
He teased her lips with his commanding tongue, and she opened to his mastery. He delved in, tasting her. Her tongue met his and tangled. He stroked her, pumping desire. Wetness slicked her channel. She wanted him now, on the deck, plunging into her hard and rocking her with soul-shattering thrusts until their passion exploded into an orgasm.
He palmed her buttocks, grinding her against his cock. Could hear her wishes?
“Lucy. You are shining again.” He smiled and pressed hungry kisses against her forehead, cheek, jaw, and aching sensitive neck. “You will be a powerful mother for our young fry.”
Young fry? That was such a weird way of saying baby.
Oh, because mermen were fish. Like salmon fry.
Ohhh.
She slowed his hands and disentangled herself. “Okay. I, uh, and you…”
“Torun,” he supplied.
“No, I know. Look.” Deep breath. Let it out. Deep breath again. Let it out. She stepped back and faced him. “I can’t be your queen.”
“You must.”
“But you’re looking for a woman to give you kids.”
“That is also you.”
“It’s …” Her throat closed. Crap. She covered her eyes. Was she going to be okay? Yes. She cleared her throat and dropped her hands. “It’s not. Sorry.”
He set his feet. A proud tribal warrior. “You belong with me.”
She wished that were true.
“Your hunger is heightened by my offering.”
“Sea Opal,” she corrected. “Funny you should mention it. They’re ridiculously valuable. I’m not the only one whose hunger will be heightened if you flash it around.”
“I want you.”
Desire tugged her.
“Okay, listen.” She tapped the jewel against his gorgeous, hard chest. “I can not be your bride. But in exchange for showing me where you got this beautiful Sea Opal, I will introduce you to every fertile young woman I know. It only takes six people to meet Kevin Bacon. I have hundreds of Facebook friends, so you will definitely find your, uh, queen.”
“You will receive more Sea Opals in Sireno.”
“Take my offer or leave it.”
“I will take your offer.” He closed his hands around hers over the jewel. “I will also take you.”
“Torun—”
“You wish to become my queen. I will make it so.”
Torun’s promise rang across the deck.
Lucy’s heart swelled with his conviction. He was so proud, so determined, so certain of his desire for her.
How would he change when he knew the truth?
Lucy gently pressed his chest, feeling his heartbeat radiant beneath his cool skin. “You couldn’t be more wrong.”
He opened his gorgeous mouth to argue.
She stood on her toes and kissed his cheek, brushing her lips over his, to silence him.
The powerful warrior focused on her. She held a magnet, and if she moved an inch, she would lose herself to crushing hunger.
Hunger for her old dream. For his new fantasy.
Hunger for a family.
“Anchor us,” he said softly. “I will take you to the Sea Opals, Lucy.”
She wanted to. She wanted him. She wanted … things she couldn’t have.
“It’s late.” She stroked his high cheekbone with her index finger. Rough, sensuous. Sexy. “I tell you what. I’ll introduce you to the expedition backers tomorrow. If they say you’re not dangerous, we’ll skip the psychiatrist and I’ll take you back out with me to hunt Sea Opals.”
“I know where—”
“And when we find more like this one,” she clenched the gem, “I’ll go with you to free your people, whether they’re on an isolated tropical island or whether they’re actually gill-breathers living twenty thousand leagues under the sea.”
He frowned. “You do not believe I am a merman.”
“You took a sharp blow to the head.”
“We are destined to be together. Believe in me, Lucy.”
She forced down the rising, fluttering, overwhelming rightness of nestling in his arms. “Believing in you isn’t so hard. Believing in me is the problem.”
“I believe in you.”
“Like I said.” Lucy pulled away to navigate the entrance to the Cancun marina. “One of use needs a serious reality check. And right now, I’m not sure if it’s you or if it’s me.”
Chapter Seven
His Lucy refused to recognize their destiny. She refused that night, on the sea, and the next day, on the land.
Probably, this was because she had not grown up on the sacred island.
Torun watched her maneuver her rusty boat between the sleek, white ships to the crowded main dock.
On the sacred island, she would have heard about his kind from her mother and grandmother. She would know it was her fate to live on the bottom of the ocean and give him a young fry.
As long as she held the mating jewel, which she called a Sea Opal, in a special pouch close to her heart, its siren song would call to her. She would begin to believe in him, and her soul star would shine.
“You move this boat skillfully,” he told her.
Her star burned brighter.
Then, she dimmed and waved his compliment away.
“I’ve been sailing these waters for years,” she said. “My dad had a charter boat business off the coast of Oregon, so when I grew up, I sailed through rocky shores every summer. This is nothing.”
“Many others do not handle th
eir boats as well.”
She looked over his shoulder. The crew on larger vessels struggled, and smaller vessels hung up on hidden snags.
“Well, it can be deceptive if you don’t know the area.”
She eased into their docking place. The engine squealed and they bumped the dock harder than she intended.
“Ugh. You praised me too soon.” Her cheeks pinked. “I’m out of practice.”
He caught her in his arms. “You are wrong.”
Her heart thumped loud in her chest.
She pushed against his arms, her cheeks reddening. “I am so out of practice. Usually I do better. I haven’t had the chance to get out much.”
“I mean that I must praise you sooner.”
She stopped struggling. “Huh?”
“And later, and also more often. Praise makes you shine brightly.”
She paused, thinking.
He luxuriated with her softness. Her gentle skin caressed his forearms, and her swelling curves pressed against his thighs.
“Something has beaten you down and caused your light to dim. But you deserve to shine, Lucy. You are more beautiful than any woman I have ever known.”
Her dark eyes glued to him and her sweet tongue licked her lips. His words caught her off guard. Her frown returned, and she pulled away.
“Since you’re from an isolated, all-male tribe, I’m guessing I am also the only woman you’ve ever known.” Her light dimmed as she dismissed him. “It’s sweet of you to say it, though. Keep up the misguided compliments and I won’t be able to turn you loose on other women.”
“I do not wish to be turned loose.” He stroked her sinuous spine and pressed her against his rock hardness. “I want you close. Naked with me. Making our small fry.”
She sucked in a breath and pushed free. “No.”
Doubts panged. Every time she refused him, every time her soul dimmed, the Council’s words of warning echoed. You cannot claim a modern bride. No! He would not believe the Council. This was destiny. Lucy was his.
He barely controlled his fury. “Why do you refuse me?”
She stomped across the deck, echoing his anger. “It’s for your own good.”
