by Starla Night
“Why do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Force your smile.”
She beamed while her chest light darkened. The classic human contradiction between her soul and her body. Once, he’d thought it meant she was ill, but now, he knew it indicated lies.
“Why do you think it’s forced?” she asked breezily.
“Because your soul darkens.”
“Soul? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“That is a lie.”
She laughed, shocked, and her cheeks pinked. “Lie! You don’t pull your punches, do you?”
“I do not punch. And this smile is natural.”
“All my smiles are natural.”
“Your lips are closed.”
She covered her mouth with her hand. “No.”
“Now you cover your mouth. Why?”
She studied her soup, her plates, the garden, and the koi pond without answering. Her ear metal vibrated. Her eyebrows wrinkled, and her soul light fluctuated.
“Now you contemplate more lies,” he noted.
She narrowed her eyes.
“And now my words cause anger.”
She dropped her hand, straightened, and rested her forearms on the table. “My front teeth are crooked. That’s why I close my lips to smile. My parents couldn’t afford dental care. I’m lucky I still have teeth.”
Her words were light, but her soul was dark.
He’d made her angry? By speaking about her teeth?
Balim didn’t want to make her angry. He spoke aloud what was obvious.
Her metal vibrated.
She took a deep breath and forced another close-lipped smile, picked up her glass of wine, and swirled it. “Sorry. I’m a little off-center by the ‘resonance,’ I guess.” She took a sip.
“And by the communication device behind your ear.”
She lowered the wineglass. Her soul light darkened to black. “What?”
“The metal bar behind your ear.” He pointed. “The one that vibrates and causes you to calm.”
The glass stem clinked on the table, rattled, and she settled it in place with both hands. “Vibration?”
“It vibrates now. What is it telling you?”
“You…” She swallowed hard and could not make her voice perform. “You hear words?”
“No. Only your reactions. I wonder who speaks to you.” His point shifted to her ear jewelry. “The whine of the small camera in your right ear.”
She bolted to her feet, stumbled back from the table, and grabbed for her covering. “I’m… I’ve got to, uh, got to go.”
He shot to his feet as well. “Bella. Wait.”
“I just remembered something.”
“My observations frighten you.”
“No, I just… It’s not the right place to talk about…” She stumbled on her heels. “I’ve got—”
“I frighten you.”
She was running away. Leaving him. His bride.
Rejection closed his chest. “My words. I do this.”
She slowed and stopped. One hand lifted and rubbed her chest. “Why does your tone hurt my chest?”
“Because our souls are sewn together. You feel my pain at your rejection.”
And that could not be allowed. He was a mer. A warlord. Control of his soul light should be a given.
He focused on calm.
“I’m not rejecting you.” She half turned. “I don’t want to ruin your life.”
“You cannot.”
“Give me time.”
“I mean my life is already not what I desired. Among other flaws, I cannot attract a worthy female.”
And now she was mad again. She turned all the way to face him. “What’s that?”
“You have never noticed me.”
“Because I never saw you. You looked down at me on the street. What could I do?”
“You never looked up.”
“Why should I?”
“That question has tortured me alone for a long time.”
Her mouth twisted. The small metal behind her ear vibrated. She lifted her head. “You don’t know what it is to be tortured or alone.”
“I do.”
She hung her purse over her arm. Walking out for the first and final time.
Balim’s heart squeezed.
She was leaving because he repelled her.
No.
“I did not go to you because I feared this. Overwhelming connection. Resonance I cannot control. We are destined whether or not I want it. Whether or not you want me. Whether or not it is convenient.”
She lingered. “So this date isn’t convenient for you, huh?”
“I cannot leave Warrior Pelan without a healer while we consummate our marriage and repopulate our race.”
Her soul darkened to black, and she snapped up her head. “That’s what I am to you? A means to procreate.”
“Our race is dying, Bella.”
“I know, and that sucks. It does. I have no wish to ‘procreate,’ not even with you.”
Her rejection stabbed him.
“You don’t know me,” she continued, smacking herself on the chest. “You don’t know what I’m going through. The choices I have to make. You don’t even know why I’m here today.”
“I know you experience deep pain,” he murmured.
“You can’t understand how much being here and enjoying this date and talking to you betrays my…betrays me.”
“All warriors betrayed our origin cities to rebel to Atlantis. My origin city would kill me on sight. If you feel betrayal in your heart, it is only the mirror of my soul reflecting into you.”
Her anger lifted to quiet curiosity.
She cupped his cheek. “Does that soul light tell you everything about me?”
“No.” He savored the softness of her delicate fingers. “I sense the emotions that make you strong and whole, and the emotions that tear you down.”
Her gaze dropped to his mouth.
“I will always feel this compulsion to join with you because you are my soul mate. No matter what you or I do. Because our souls resonate on the same frequency. We are the same in mirror.”
She lifted her gaze back to his eyes. “I came here to heal my son. No other reason.”
The metal behind her ears vibrated insistently.
But her soul clarified. Pure light. She spoke the truth, and it freed her.
This was a solvable problem. “You need elixir? How much?”
Skeptical amusement crossed her face. “I can’t, Balim.”
“I will give you whatever medicine you need. Whether human medicine purchased with money or the medicine of my body for your soul.”
“It’s not for me.”
“You—”
She covered his mouth with her fingers. “I’m balancing a lot of plates right now. You make me want to walk away with you and let everything come crashing down. Don’t tempt me.”
He spoke around her muffling fingers. “There is another way.”
“Another way to what? Hurt people who depend on me?”
He shook his head, allowing her hand to move with his mouth. “We are soul mates.”
“So you better hope I never turn evil.” Her plush lips folded into a sad smile.
“You are not evil.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do, Bella.” He clasped the hand on his mouth and lowered her hand, sliding his fingers between her slender digits until they interlocked. “Whatever your reason, hurting others is not your wish, and it hurts you. We are mirrors. You and me.”
She studied him for a long moment. Searching for his lies.
But he did not have lies.
The metal behind her ear vibrated.
She spoke. “I should really go.”
“Not before I show you the other way.”
“Other way?”
“To heal your son.” Balim brought her fingers to his lips. “Become my queen.”
&nb
sp; Chapter Six
Become Balim’s queen?
Become Balim’s queen?
Bella’s heart thudded harder and harder.
Desire welled up in her heart. Her soul sang. The future beckoned with gold, rainbows, and stardust glimmering as it fell between the twinkling flower petals.
No. No, no, no.
It was a trap. A lie. Another false hope presented in a long line of false hopes.
If she became a queen, she’d have to go to Atlantis, and she’d never see Jonah again.
Never.
But if it was his only chance for a cure…
“What do you mean?” Bella’s voice broke on the forbidden question, and she swallowed. “How will that help Jonah?”
“I will show you.” The steady warrior with the soothing, calm voice and mesmerizing eyes tugged her fingers. “Come with me.”
Bella followed Balim through the gardens.
His fingers were a lifeline. His broad back and hard lines enticed her beneath the smooth suit.
This was crazy.
Crazy.
She had to tear her gaze away and breathe.
This resonance was no joke. She never reacted like this to a client. She never reacted like this to anyone.
“Bella?” Starr’s voice was tight with worry. “Something’s wrong. Did they drug the food? You’re not being yourself. Stop arguing with the guy and get out. Now.”
She sealed her lips. Starr would have to understand.
“Please, Bella. We already discussed this. You said yourself that you’ll never help Jonah on the bottom of the sea. Remember how I tried to talk you out of marrying Chaz? This is me, your voice of reason, pleading you step back and think.”
Dannika waited just inside the shelter, watching a movie on her tablet, while Hazel beside her typed furiously on her phone.
Dannika rose, concerned. “Is everything all right?”
“Fine.” Balim pressed the button to open the elevator doors.
“Are you finished? Already?” She gestured at Hazel, whose gaze was glued to Balim’s fingers linked with Bella’s. “Hazel made raspberry chocolate mousse.”
“I wish I could try it. It sounds delightful,” Bella said, recovering herself.
Hazel tapped the cooler. “Here, you can try it right—”
“Another time.”
“We are going to the office.” Balim entered the elevator and pulled Bella in with him.
Dannika thrust the tablet into her seat and jogged across the short lobby, stopping the doors from closing with her hand. “I’m sorry. After everything that’s happened, you know I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Bella is my bride, Dannika.”
“Oh!” Her face lit like a child opening a birthday present. “That’s wonderful. Another successful match. I like you both so much, and I was hoping you’d feel the same.”
Bella’s heart hurt. Don’t be this excited for me. It’s not going to end how you think. She needed to escape this bittersweet nightmare.
Balim pulled Bella closer as though protecting her from Dannika’s enthusiasm. “Excuse us, Dannika.”
It had been a long time since a man had protected Bella. A long time.
“Hazel.” Dannika clapped her hands. “We need to schedule Bella’s photo shoot of her accepting Balim’s Sea Opal, drinking the elixir, and—”
No.
“Not right now.” Balim pointed at Dannika’s hands in the elevator door. “Goodbye.”
Dannika’s smile faltered. She removed her hand. The door slid shut.
They descended.
“Thank you,” Bella whispered.
“For?”
“Getting me out of there.”
“I had to protect you. You were unhappy.”
“How do you know?” She touched her face. He’d caught her business smile. She didn’t trust her expressions around him.
“Not from your mouth.” He lifted his free hand and slid one sensual finger across her hot skin just above the low-cut neckline of her emerald dress. “From here.”
Suddenly, there was no oxygen.
“My chest?” Her lips trembled. Smile like it means nothing. Smile! “I don’t have words in my chest.”
“You do.” He placed his palm over her heart. His fingers curved above the mounds of her aching breasts. “I hear, see, feel them. You want, Bella.”
My name.
Heat kindled from his words and his caress. Her breasts swelled, threatening to spill from her constricting undergarments into his palms. A warm, liquid ache made her clench her thighs.
She wanted him to speak her name again in that soft, measured tone—in her ear, followed by the teasing tug of his teeth and the hot, wet slick of his tongue.
His intent gaze deepened as though he knew what she was thinking.
She closed her eyes.
Bella always controlled the conversation. But from the moment she’d walked into the garden, every fiber of her will bent to Balim’s domination.
No longer.
Get a hold of yourself.
Only a short few hours ago, she’d run circles around Harv. And now this merman, this inhuman—sexy—monster was doing the same to her.
No one dragged Bella around.
She was here for one reason and one only. And it wasn’t to remember, in panty-soaking detail, how many years it had been since she’d ridden a man’s thick, hard, dominating cock.
That was a happy fantasy. And she would not experience happiness, not even one single moment, until Jonah was cured.
Hear me, God?
They reached the floor of the office. Balim dropped his palm and exited the elevator.
“You are killing me. There are more security cameras,” Starr noted as Balim touched the keypad lock and punched the numbers. “Why aren’t you leaving? I’m having a heart attack. You know I can’t get to you. There’s a security guard on the corner. And the MerMatch office has a keypad lock. It must still be secure if the Sons of Hercules are relying on Hazel to let them in.”
Balim glanced back at Bella’s ear.
“Gah, how does he hear me? It’s impossible! This isn’t even sound. My words are vibrating on your eardrums. It’s inhuman.”
Bella hummed “The Sound of Silence.”
Starr shut up.
“How will me becoming your queen help Jonah?” Bella asked, redirecting his attention.
“Several ways.” Balim pushed open the now-unlocked door and let her in. He disappeared into an interior office.
She strolled to the reception desk and then panned around the office.
The walls were a soothing sage green with accents of warm sand by the windows and peaceful blue couches. The thirty-gallon fish tank behind the desk glowed with light, and inside a single, white creature fluttered like a flower on the aerated tank current.
The Life Tree blossom.
Despite being a plant, its movements were smooth and calming, hypnotic, and it danced as though it were alive. It looked like a small water lily or extra-large cherry blossom, glimmering and catching the tank lights.
“Ooh,” Starr said, breaking her silent concentration. “This entire place is hot. It’s crawling with bugs.”
Right. The job at hand.
Bella perused the office, following Starr’s quiet directions to inspect or check on the different bug locations. She placed stickers on the windows, a jammer on the underside of the aromatherapy diffuser, and unplugged the phone cable to attach Starr’s diverter. But the plug didn’t look right.
“Of course.” Starr laughed to herself. “The Sons of Hercules are already intercepting their traffic. Take theirs off.”
“They’ll know it was me,” she muttered.
“Just for a minute. Then log me on to the computer.”
Bella sat at the reception desk computer. The password taped to the monitor caused Starr to guffaw, and then Bella followed the prompts to give Starr access.
“All right…put their
logger back on.”
Bella did so.
“Now I’ll know the kinds of things they know, and with any luck, I’ll be able to follow their signal back to the jerks who are peeping in.”
Balim exited the office. “What are you doing with Hazel’s computer?”
“Oh, I just wanted to check my email.” Bella stood and lifted her cell phone. “Send a quick message, but I can do it another time.”
He looked right through her.
She silently begged him not to ask her in the middle of this bugged office. Had Starr jammed all of them? She had to act as if they were exposed to the enemy.
As usual.
Balim relented as though he had read her mind. He walked to an InstantPot pressure cooker, tapped the buttons, and changed the numbers.
“Cooking dinner?” she asked, still regaining her equilibrium.
“There was destruction in the labs. I am replenishing the water.”
Destruction? Hmm.
“I will retrieve your Sea Opal at a later time.” He straightened again and unrolled a damp mat filled with roots and reeds. He placed a chunk of vegetation into a pestle and ground it into a clear, gelatinous paste.
“My Sea Opal?” she asked, watching him.
“When you accept my gemstone, you become my bride.” He took her right hand. His warm, capable fingers encircled her wrist and splayed her fingers. “That is how it usually works.”
She swallowed. “Usually?”
Balim smeared the cool gel on her scabbed ring finger cuticle, an irritated hangnail on her index finger, and a paper cut she hadn’t even noticed on her middle finger. It gelled like aloe and smelled like the sea.
“You need extraordinary healing for your son.” Balim set the paste aside and wrapped her fingers in a thin green bandage. “There is one time a human female experiences extraordinary healing.”
She looked beyond him to the Life Tree flower again. “And that is?”
“When she drinks the nectar of her warrior’s Life Tree for the first time.”
The blossom danced like a wish, like a promise.
Like a curse.
“That’s permanent, Bella. Elixir is temporary, but the nectar is permanent.”
Balim’s gaze eased to her ear and then back to her eyes. His own red threads gleamed with intensity.
She couldn’t breathe.
Bella shook her head. Her heart thudded hard. A new possibility for Jonah. But at what cost? “I can’t go with you to Atlantis.”
