She waded in, bracing herself against the slap of the waves. Since she wanted to stay in the human world and had avoided the portal, she would have to wait till she was deeper to change so no one saw her.
When she was waist deep, she took off her bikini bottoms and put them in her dive bag. After hooking the bag to her bikini top, she touched the sand mark on her hip. She didn’t look at it but knew it would be flashing gold as the magic spun within it. Within moments, the water frothed around her as the change began.
It wasn’t painful—just a tingling, tugging sensation in her lower half as her legs fused and grew covered in delicate, iridescent scales. As her fins unfurled, she swayed back and forth to stretch them out. Breathing was the only difficult part. That first lungful of salt water was always painful until her system adjusted. But before she dove, she turned and saw that her uncle was still there, watching over her. He always would be, but he couldn’t follow where she was going. He had given up that ability before she was born.
Narissa reveled in the empty water around her. The waterscape in the Gulf of Mexico was an underwater desert, nothing but sand for miles. Small swarms of silver bait fish flashed past her and sand dollars dotted the wavy ocean floor with their breathing holes, but no other life appeared as she swam past the second sandbar.
As the seafloor sloped down, the water cooled, wrapping around her skin, curling over her with a closer touch than air could ever have. The bag hooked to her created some drag, but it didn’t slow her down. Soon, she came to one of the artificial reefs built by the humans to create a better ecosystem for the fishing industry so important to the area’s economy. A decommissioned ship had been dropped here decades ago and was now covered in coral. Marine life flourished here in great variety, which was why it was frequented by divers. But no one dove this late in the day, and the ship offered her a safe place to relax.
She ducked inside the flybridge, careful not to catch her flowing fins on anything as she wedged into the smaller space. Fortunately, she wasn’t claustrophobic. Tight, sheltered places felt safer than open water. She lay back on the sand that had drifted into the ship and let her mind go blank as she breathed in the salt water for the first time in weeks.
A swish of water caught her attention, too great of a disturbance to have been made by any of the small fish she knew to be in the area. Dread filled her, and she stayed very, very still. Looking out through the empty window frames, she saw nothing in the jade waters. As a mermaid, her eyes were better adapted to the darkening water, but she could still only see about thirty yards.
With an urgent desire to go home, to be free of the dangers lurking in the deep, she eased her way slowly back out of her haven and paused to watch for any movement. But anything could be lurking beyond her sight in any direction.
Taking a deep, shuddering breath, she pushed off from the ship, rocketing back towards shore. She hadn’t gone far however when she saw three mermaids approaching her, none of whom she knew by name, though she had seen them before. Confident that she could handle the interaction with her bag full of gifts, she stopped and allowed them to draw even with her.
Because it was impossible to speak with anything but high-pitched shrieks under water, she watched their hands for any sign of what they wanted. If they wanted to talk, they would motion her to the surface, but she wouldn’t go there unless they wanted to. It was still too light above to chance being seen by a passing boat and she would put herself at risk of attack from below.
The first of them was beautiful, as human in appearance as she was, with blond, algae streaked hair. The other two had distorted features and scales that ran further up their torso. These two were only interested in seeing what she had in her bag while the pretty one wanted only to play with Narissa’s hair as it fanned out in the water.
Anxious to be free of them, Narissa opened her bag and held out a mirror to the pretty mermaid. Thankfully, the mermaid took it and swam away while admiring her reflection. Narissa held out a comb to one of the others, who reached for it greedily, but the other grabbed at the bag and tore it away from her, swimming off and disappearing in the gloom. The second mermaid circled her angrily, pushing at her, yanking at her arms, looking for more. Apparently, she was no longer satisfied with the comb. Narissa fought her off, wishing she’d thought to bring her diving knife with her. As the other mermaid wrestled with her and pulled her hair, she swore she wouldn’t go into the water without it again.
Narissa felt a sudden loosening around her torso but realized too late that the mermaid had untied the strings of her bikini top. It floated up front of her, and she grabbed at it—but too late. The other mermaid yanked it out of her reach.
Watching in angry resignation as the mermaid swam away with her top, Narissa considered going after her but knew it would be nearly impossible to catch her and get it back. With the water growing dark around her, Narissa didn’t want to waste another moment on something she couldn’t fix so she turned and headed back to shore. She always hated how vulnerable she felt when swimming in the dark, so she exerted every ounce of her strength to swim as fast as she could.
When she got close to shore, she saw the lights of the restaurant winking in the distance. When her head broke the surface, she saw that the beach was nearly deserted in the semi-darkness. The beams of a few flashlights sliced across the beach as tourists searched for snow crabs in the sand, but she could easily avoid the light.
Changing her tail back to legs with a touch on her sand mark, she braced herself against each wave, waiting for a good time to run across the dark beach and find her towel.
When the groups with flashlights cleared away, she decided to take the chance. Using the force of a wave to push her forward out of the water, she stood and ran to shore. She stumbled as she hit the sand running but gathered her balance and hurried to the stairs. She grabbed up her towel and wrapped it around herself, not caring that there was sand on it scratching her skin. Hurrying around to the side entrance, she welcomed the safety of her home, even though it was full of people coming in for dinner. The only hard part now was how to slip past them in only a towel. The staircase to upstairs was in a hallway off the kitchen, which would be full of staff.
Sometimes human modesty was a real curse.
Chapter Four
River heaved a sigh of relief when Allen locked the front door of the store. It had been a hectic and exhausting shift at Beach Bum’s Paradise. River began closing out the register but paused a moment to glance across the store. His eyes strayed to Narissa way too often. He couldn’t seem to help it.
Her thick braid swayed across her back as she folded t-shirts and stacked them neatly. Her slim, muscled calves tensed as she rose up on her toes to put one on the highest tier of the display table.
“Dude, you have it bad.”
River narrowed his eyes at Brody. “Shut up.”
Brody shrugged and leaned the skim boards he carried up against the wall. “Ask her out already.”
“I already tried. She works all the time.”
Brody laughed then pinched his lips between his fingers to control it. “You got shut down? No way.”
River leveled an annoyed glance at him and kept counting out the change. “Some things are worth working for.”
“Then what are you still doing behind that counter?”
Brody was right. His time with her was so limited. With a deep breath, River closed the register and walked towards her. Could he take it if she rejected him again?
“Need some help?” he asked, stepping up next to her.
She looked up at him, but her eyes shifted away again quickly. Picking up another t-shirt, she said, “I’m almost done, but sure. Knock yourself out.”
River pointed to the words on the t-shirt she was folding and read, “No thigh gap means I’m one step closer to being a mermaid. What does that even mean?”
Her laugh was sharp, like she hadn’t meant to let it out. “Well, you know, if your thighs touch, they sort
of look like a mermaid’s tail.”
He raised an eyebrow at her. “I’m lost. Is having a thigh gap a good thing or not?”
She shrugged. “I guess most girls think it is. I don’t care much.”
“Does that mean you don’t have one?”
She glared at him. “I don’t happen to have one, but that’s not why I don’t care.”
He loved the way her eyes sparked when she got riled up. He pulled out his phone and did a search for thigh gap.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
He held his screen out to her, showing her the images his search had pulled up. “So it means you have skinny legs? These girls took it a little too far if you ask me.”
“But it might just be how their body naturally is. All legs are beautiful. They’re a gift.”
Tilting his head, River studied her. He had been teasing her, trying to get a rise out of her. But like many other times, her response was unexpected. Weird even.
It was one of the reasons she was so interesting—like she was made up of puzzle pieces that didn’t fit together. And when she said awkward things, it always made her blush, like she realized too late how she sounded. Sure enough, even with her head turned down as she went back to work, River could see her cheeks had turned red.
“You say the oddest things sometimes.”
Her eyes, stormy and deep, flew to his. And though he’d expected her to blush again or even roll her eyes, she grew pale instead.
He hurried to reassure her. “I like it. It makes me want to know you better, figure you out.”
“Does it?” She sounded tense, however, not flattered.
It wasn’t the most encouraging response. He looked around and saw Brody watching them from across the store. He gave River a thumbs-up and grinned big enough to split his face in half.
“Come on,” River said, taking her hand and pulling her behind a tall display. With the little bit of privacy, he studied her closed expression. “Look, I feel like we’ve become friends, but there’s more here, I know it. Is there any way we can hang out? Spend time together away from all of this?”
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I can probably take a break tonight. Maybe if you came by the restaurant for dinner…?”
His heart, which had felt tight and twisted before, began to race. “Definitely. Poseidon’s Realm, right?”
“Yes.” She bit her bottom lip, as if she already regretted the invitation.
He wished he knew what worried her about going out with him. He knew he wasn’t misreading the way her eyes lit up when they met his or the charge of electricity between them. No, it was something else.
“Relax,” he said. “This is no big deal. Just two people hanging out, figuring out where to go next.”
***
River asked Marshall and Graham to go to the restaurant with him. He didn’t want to look like a total creeper sitting at a table by himself, staring at one of the waitresses.
The line to get into the restaurant wrapped down the deck to the parking lot, so they had to wait in line a long time just to get inside. When they finally did, River searched the crowded restaurant for Narissa’s dark red hair and easily found her. She stood at a table taking an order but looked up as if she felt his eyes on her. River smiled, but she frowned and bit her lip. As her lip slipped out from between her teeth though, he saw the corners of her mouth twist up before she turned away.
He wished he could just go over and talk to her but didn’t want to annoy her while she was working. He’d just have to be patient.
Poseidon’s Realm was an institution around the Destin area and had been for as long as he could remember. The roughhewn slats that made up the walls were covered with nautical themed art. A six-foot-tall, wrought-iron octopus with enormous tentacles dominated the wall at the far end, and an angry depiction of King Triton stirring up a storm around a helpless ship with his trident hung on the opposite side. The most impressive piece, however, was the life size mural of a buxom mermaid that stretched languidly behind the bar.
Combined with the good food and live music, it was no wonder the place was so packed. The locals liked it too, so it was busy year-round—which was why River usually avoided the place. He didn’t like crowds.
“Man, this blows,” Marshall said. “Let’s go somewhere else.”
“No.” River’s voice was uncompromising.
“But I’m starving.”
“You’ll survive.”
Graham bumped Marshall’s shoulder, grinning. “He’s here for a girl.”
Looking around, interested, Marshall asked, “Which one?”
River rolled his eyes and, reluctantly, nodded toward Narissa. “The one with the red hair.”
Marshall elbowed him and grinned. “Okay, she’s hot. No wonder you didn’t want that girl on the dive the other day.”
“Yeah,” Graham said. “This one actually fills out her bra.”
River’s jaw clenched in anger. “That’s enough.”
Their eyes widened and they looked at Narissa again.
“So,” Marshall said, stretching the word out. “Are you serious about her or something?”
Five minutes in and River regretted bringing them. Maybe looking like a creeper would have been better than being embarrassed by his friends.
A waitress came up to them and River recognized her. “Anne, right?”
“Yep. Good job, River. Come with me.”
Marshall and Graham looked as surprised as River felt since there were still several people in line ahead of them, but they shrugged at each other and followed her. Anne led the way past every table in the restaurant and through a set of swinging doors at the back. Beyond them was a narrow room with three empty tables. She motioned for them to sit down at the one nearest the door, then handed them menus.
“Narissa said to put you back here. You must be pretty special to get one of these tables.”
River raised his eyebrows. He had definitely not expected this. “Any way I can talk to her?”
“Maybe. She told me to take care of you because she’s super busy, but I have a feeling she’ll make her way back here.”
“Great.”
She took their drink order and whisked away again. The noise from the crowded restaurant was slightly muffled in this back room, but it was still loud. Interestingly, there was even more nautical art back here and most of it looked really old. The painting that hung directly over their table depicted a ship wrecked on jagged rocks with sailors being dragged into the ocean by three beautiful mermaids.
“What a way to die,” Marshall said, seeing where his attention was.
“Yeah,” Graham said. “But how do mermaids do it? I mean—"
The doors swung open before Graham could finish his question, and for some reason, River’s face heated when Narissa walked in. At least Graham shut up when he saw who it was.
“Brought some friends, I see,” she said, her voice low-pitched and musical against the discordant noise from the restaurant.
“Yeah,” River said. “Wish I hadn’t though. This first idiot is Marshall and the other one’s Graham. Guys, this is Narissa. She works at the souvenir shop with me.”
Narissa laughed when his buddies glared at him. “Well nice to meet you. I was hoping to find you alone though, River.”
“We can leave,” Graham said, tugging on Marshall’s shirt as he stood.
Motioning for him to sit down, Narissa said, “I’m just teasing River. I can’t take a break for another thirty minutes at least.” Then she looked at River, her expression growing serious as she looked at him. “Maybe you could walk down to the beach with me for a few minutes.”
“Absolutely.”
“Great. I’ll be back. Enjoy your dinner.”
When she left, River stared at the doors until they stopped swinging behind her. Turning back to his friends, he realized they were staring at him with raised eyebrows.
“What?”
“You�
��re a goner,” Graham said.
When their food arrived, they all cleaned their plates in no time and River didn’t think he’d had better fish tacos anywhere in Destin. But the whole time he ate, a sense of expectancy hung over him, making it hard to relax and enjoy the food.
“Dude, you aren’t going to kiss her with fish breath are you?” Graham asked.
“I’m not going to kiss her,” he said, even though he’d been thinking about it.
“I got you,” Marshall said. He handed River a piece of gum.
Glancing at the time on his phone, River chewed on it like a crazy person. Narissa came in, a minute later, surprising him into accidentally swallowing it. It slid slowly down his throat as he stared at her.
“Ready?” she asked.
He took a drink, hoping to get the gum to move faster, and stood up.
There was a door at the other end of the room with an exit sign over it. How had he not seen it before? Narissa opened it and went out. Without hesitating a second, he followed her down the narrow, rickety stairs that led to the beach below.
At the bottom, she kicked off her slip-on shoes and he kicked off his flip flops. The white sand gleamed in the security lights along the wall of the restaurant but darkened to grey as they slipped into the darkness. Overhead, the crescent moon hung like a fragile ornament in the night sky, casting very little light on the nearly deserted beach. The sea wind blew the sounds of the restaurant away, making it feel as if they were slipping into another world—one without cars or pavement or high-rises.
River could barely make Narissa out in front of him in the darkness as she walked confidently toward the water.
“Man, it feels good to get out of there,” she said. “I wish I didn’t have to go back.”
“Then don’t. Will your uncle fire you?”
She laughed. “With tonight’s crowd? Absolutely. Or worse, give me a lecture on duty and responsibility.” Her tone deepened. “He’s big on that.”
The soft sand changed abruptly, firming beneath his feet where the water packed it into a solid surface. It was cool and wet beneath his feet, and the edge of a wave washed over his toes. Coming to a stop, he took a deep breath of the humid, almost sticky air and took in the calm that always met him at the shore.
The Lovely Deep (The Mer Song Trilogy Book 1) Page 3
