by Rosanna Leo
She felt him lean back and take a breath, felt his hand smooth the spot where he’d broken the skin. And then all she felt was his tongue again on the same spot, gently soothing. Sweet, warm flicking movements around the little wound. At the same time, his hand came around to play with her clit, echoing the movements his tongue was making on her ass.
As the first of several orgasms that night reduced her to mush, she lay in his arms, unable to move or reciprocate. Eventually, he removed his lips from her skin. He turned her gently around, sat on the bale and pulled her into his lap, making her straddle him. Her head fell onto his strong shoulders, and she breathed him in. He smelled of the sea. He smelled of her. He smelled wonderful. She embraced him with all the strength she had left, which wasn’t much.
Calan laughed, and her chest moved as his rumbled. “Don’t tell me you’re worn out, dear heart. I’m not done pleasuring you,” he threatened in silky tones.
“Please,” she managed to spit out, not even sure how she was planning to end her sentence.
He gripped her hips and guided her to his cock. She looked down between their bodies. It seemed bigger than ever, formidable. However, there was no hesitation on Calan’s part as he positioned her above him. Holding her there, he whispered, “Maggie, look at me.”
She did. And he impaled her on his body.
As her voice escaped as a near sob, she threw her head back down on his shoulder and held him tight. Calan would have none of it. “Woman,” he commanded, “I said, look at me.”
She lifted her eyes toward his and kept them trained on him as he fucked her hard. His eyes were large and dark and full of adoration for her. A faint sheen of sweat broke
out on his face, and she leaned forward and licked it from him, making him thrust even harder. He felt so good, filled her so completely. She felt embraced by a warm sea, buoyed up by salty waves.
Before she knew what was happening, she felt submerged in deep water. Swimming with Calan, his arms wrapped around her. His cock still joined to her, making her ache with the pleasure. She didn’t know where they were, but it was beautiful.
They continued swimming in the darkness, through what appeared to be a seemingly endless cavern. Maggie wondered at the dark shapes made in the water as Calan’s strong head cut through the brine, leading them onward. She looked around them. Clearly, they were soaked, but she felt strangely dry and warm, even as they drove deeper and deeper into the sea.
It seemed they were swimming forever. Time felt skewed. Unimportant.
All she knew was that she was wrapped up with Calan, surrounded by his body, and nothing else seemed to matter.
She nestled in closer to his body and looked up at his face, feeling his heat. She rubbed her hands down his strong back, luxuriating in the feel of his skin, in the ripple of each strong muscle as he moved against her. He felt so good. Naked and hard. His arms clasped about her, holding her more tightly than anyone had ever held her. Still propelling through the water, kicking his webbed feet behind him with a powerful force, yet still able to kiss her and fuck her senseless.
Even though she worried about opening her mouth to him, in case a rushing flood of water finally decided to bombard her body, she let his lips nudge hers apart. When she opened to him, she didn’t taste seawater at all. The water had become like air. All she tasted was Calan. Hot and salty and sweet.
Delicious.
His cock pressed deeper into her body, seeking sanctuary in her bower. She slid her hands down to his ass, feeling, wanting him closer. He gripped her, one hand behind her head, the other wrapped around her back. Swimming with him in such an intimate fashion, she’d never felt so close to another being in her life.
She wanted the feeling to last forever.
However, within moments, Calan stopped kicking. And just as her pussy began to clench with the most delicious agony imaginable, he dared her to look at him again and she did.
And knew she loved Calan Kirk with all her heart. Somehow, it had happened.
As their bodies both began to cease their trembling, he gently laid her down on the hay bale. The sea had disappeared, and Maggie felt a strange sorrow. Even still, he was with her, so she couldn’t feel sad for long. He cradled her in his arms and she felt safe enough to sleep there in the stable with him. She was with Calan, no matter who or what he was, and that was all that mattered.
Right before she closed her eyes, Maggie happened to look up toward a small window on the nearby wall. Took note of how dazzling the stars appeared, as if fueled by their passion. And she noticed, full of wonder, how a perfect rainbow arched across the night sky.
A rainbow at night. Miraculous.
But then she looked at Calan, felt the warmth in his eyes as he gazed at her, and everything made sense. The rainbow came from him, just as surely as the thunder and
lightning had before.
At peace, she closed her eyes.
Chapter 12
When she opened them, it was still night. She found she was covered with the flannel blanket and Calan’s leather jacket. The large garment was tucked all around her and was as warm and comfy as a quilt. It also smelled like him, which was an added plus. She looked up, dying to throw her arms around him and saw him standing at the little window, gazing out into the darkness. He was nude, his long hair trailing down his back, over the dips and curves of his musculature.
He looked so beautiful, but the turn of his shoulders was inexpressively sad. She’d only ever seen him with a posture that was proud and almost regal. This was the bearing of a man who seemed hopeless.
Why?
Then she realized. He was staring out at the beach. Could it be the lure of the sea was ripping him to shreds inside? Could it be he wanted to leave her? No thought had ever made her feel more dead inside.
Eventually, he will want to return to his beloved sea. Her gran’s words came back to taunt her.
Dismissing the notion, Maggie padded over to him. She didn’t care that she was still nude as well, she just wanted to make him feel better. He heard her approach and turned, sucking in a quick breath at the sight of her naked form. “You’re a sight for sore eyes, pet.”
He enveloped her in his strong arms, and Maggie wrapped her arms around his waist. She breathed him in, burying her face in his chest hairs, and listened to the steady thumping of his heart.
The most precious sound she’d ever heard.
Little by little, standing on her toes, she kissed her way up to his neck and then licked at the little hollow under his Adam’s apple. As she did, she felt his hard shaft pulse against her stomach.
Bliss. How she wanted him to lay her down once again, to plunge inside her, and make her feel as if she were coursing through the black waves of the sea again.
But she needed to know what was saddening him. Needed to know if it was something she could fix. Or if it was about her. “Tell me about Kyla.”
Calan held her away from him for a moment, looking severely down at her, as a teacher would a student who’d let a bad word slip. But then his face softened. “There’s not much to tell.”
“Calan, please.”
He seemed to be considering whether or not he could trust her with the information. It didn’t take long. “Kyla was a friend of mine, for many years. She was selkie. We grew up together. Did everything together. She was there when I discovered humans for the first time. There, when I had my first sip of wine. There, for everything.”
“She must have meant a lot to you.”
“She meant the world to me.” He squeezed her arms gently. “As a friend, Maggie, only as a friend. But I haven’t had a lot of those, so it pains me she’s gone.”
As much as it bothered her, she couldn’t deny the rush of relief she felt upon hearing
the words as a friend. “What happened to her?”
He paused, and then launched into the tale. “Just as a selkie man can be captured, so can a selkie woman. Two fisherman came upon her pelt a year ago. They claimed h
er and she went with them, figuring she’d have a spot of fun and then return home with her skin.” There was a sheen of tears in his eyes. “It didn’t quite work out that way. The men who’d found her abused her terribly. They kept her locked up for weeks on end and treated her like a dog. Angus and I found her body on the beach one day soon afterward. Dumped like a piece of trash.”
Maggie’s heart grew heavy at the vision of the dead selkie girl on the beach, lying used and abused.
“I’m sorry, Calan. No wonder you’ve been distrustful.”
He held her close. “Not of you, Maggie. Never of you. You’re different. You’re kind and gentle, and you make my heart soar.”
Just as hers was soaring.
So Kyla was a sad memory to him. Then what was making him stare out at the sea with such longing?
Turning in his arms, so that he was embracing her from behind, she looked out the stable window. Out in the surf, playing like a group of puppies, were some seals. “Selkies,” she said, gasping.
“Aye,” he murmured against her ear, capturing her lobe between his teeth and tugging gently. Maggie stiffened as a sensual shiver rippled through her body. The shiver became a quake as his right hand snaked its way down her belly, kneading its fullness, and then dipping down between her wet lips.
Maggie parted her legs for him. She had no choice. All Calan had to do was whisper her name and her legs automatically spread for him.
He slid a webbed finger inside her core, penetrating her with delicious ease, and then drew it out again. Just when she suspected he might be done doling out his sweet torture, he circled her clit with that same finger, making her knees buckle.
The whole time Calan stared out the window with her. “See the big black one? That’s Machar. With Angus occupied with Elsie, he fancies himself the boss man. Look at the way he’s frolicking.”
Maggie could barely see. With the way Calan was touching her, she could barely think.
He kissed her shoulder and groaned, sliding two fingers inside her. “The one with the lighter streaks in his fur is Jamie. And the one with the ginger shimmer is Edan.” He stroked and stroked.
“Uh-huh,” she barely managed to say.
A third, marauding finger joined the others, stretching her, making her sigh. “The two brown ones are Breannan and Drummond. In their selkie form, they look like twins.” He pulled his wet fingers out of her pussy, found her clit once again, and lightly tugged.
“Oh God!”
Calan spun her around, backed her up to the stable wall, and got down on his knees in front of her. Before she could say a word, before she could ask if the sight of his brothers swimming in the surf made him depressed, Calan spread her legs and embraced her with his mouth. Drinking her in. Sucking and sucking until she came against that wooden wall.
And as her spine-shredding orgasm leveled her, Maggie forgot to ask anything.
* * * *
When she woke up the next time, the sun starting to illuminate the corners in the little stable, Calan was fast asleep.
Maggie turned over in his arms and raised herself up on her elbow so she could look at him. Really look at him.
The gentle rays of sun were sneaking between the wood slats that made up the walls of the stable, streaking across his face. His chocolate hair was tousled behind him, a wave of brown silk across the hay bale. Sculpted shoulders were peeking out from under the blankets, begging her to lower her lips to his skin. And yet, she refrained, not wanting to wake him. Not wishing to disturb the picture of the sensual, slumbering angel.
He was perfect. At the same time, he was perfectly wrong for her.
He was selkie. He had to be.
What possible future could she have with him? None. Could she seriously run away with him the way Elsie had with Angus, knowing that at any time his skin could be pilfered by someone else? That he could be impelled to jump into another woman’s bed, just because she might happen upon his discarded skin on the beach? Maybe Elsie could live with that sort of uncertainty, but Maggie? The woman who’d already been tossed aside by two other lovers?
Still, that not-so-quiet voice inside her railed against whatever logic she was using to justify her actions. The voice that dared to proclaim, “You love him. You know you’ve loved him from the first day you saw him in your dreams.”
It defied all reason and sense.
She couldn’t let herself be hurt again. No. She’d run now, before things went too far.
They’ve already gone too far. The moment he first called my name, they went too far.
Maggie silenced the voice in her head. With slow, subtle movements, she pulled away from his arms and got off the bale, and then quietly dressed so he wouldn’t awaken. As she did, she gazed down at his face, the face she’d seen in both incarnations. Seal and man.
And tried so hard not to fall back into his arms.
The best thing she could do was find his skin for him. Then she could help him return to the sea and set him free. He would be happier in the sea, she could tell. When she’d glimpsed that momentary sadness in him as he gazed out at his brothers in the waves, it had almost killed her.
Anyway, it wasn’t as if he loved her.
Before he ever started rustling in their makeshift bed, Maggie slipped out the stable and ran down the beach toward Gran’s house, away from her selkie lover.
* * * *
Calan awoke, needing her already.
In his very long life, he’d had a few dandy moments. An assortment of good times. Nothing had been as mind-bogglingly fulfilling and marvelous as being able to make love to Maggie Collins. To be able to fall asleep with her bundled in his arms had been even better.
Life-changing. Life-affirming.
He reached for her, wanting to feel the brush of her soft skin against his fingertips. “Maggie?”
He opened his eyes, squinting in the light. She was gone. Her clothes, her boots. The sweet smell of her. All gone.
“No,” he growled, as thunder grumbled in the distance. Ignoring that elemental manifestation of his temper, he jumped off the hay bed they’d shared, and rummaged for his clothing. As he did, he tried in vain to dismiss the nagging, splintering sensation in his chest. The one that dared to suggest she might leave him.
No. Not after what they’d shared. Not after he’d put his teeth to her fine arse and marked her as his own. Sure, their love affair was improbable, to say nothing of hasty. Still, it had penetrated him, fusing him to her. She was his, plain and simple. And if he had to spend the rest of his life proving that to her, he would.
Anything but let her go. He couldn’t let her go.
If it had been one-sided, fine. He could release her under those circumstances. But not after witnessing the need in her eyes. Not after hearing her sighs in his ears, or after tasting her kisses. They were all scrumptious indications that she needed him as much as he needed her.
And yet, she’d run from him. It was a novel, horrible concept. No woman had ever run from him. To think Maggie would break that mold was enough to break his heart.
Why would she leave? Did the idea of falling for a selkie finally turn her off? He knew she was falling for him.
“I don’t know what sort of game you’re playing at, wee Maggie,” he muttered as he threw open the door to the stable and raced outside, “but you won’t win.”
He tore across the stretch of land between the stable and Breannan’s house, only to find his family exiting the house. All nude, headed for the beach, carrying their pelts. Even Elsie was with them, moaning as Angus carried her in his arms. Her head slumped against his chest.
“Calan,” his mother said, approaching. “We’re taking Elsie home. She needs to be underwater for the birth.”
“The pain’s too much for her here,” Angus concurred in a quiet voice. “She thought she could do it, but we’ve finally made her see sense.”
From somewhere against the wall of Angus’s chest, Elsie groaned an unintelligible reproach.
Angus kissed her wet brow. “I’m going to take your pain away, love. I promise.”
With that, Angus trudged into the water, not stopping until he and Elsie were shoulder-deep. Calan watched his brother whisper a few words to his wife, and then he set her down. Gently, he pulled Elsie deeper into the water until they both disappeared under the waves.
Fae touched Calan’s face. “Are you coming, son? It might be some time before we resurface, what with the wee babe.”
“No. I’m sorry.” He stared out toward the spot where Angus and Elsie had vanished. “I don’t have my skin. And I have to find Maggie.”
Fae kissed him, as his brothers all began plunging into the cold sea. “Go find her, Calan. Bring her home.”
His father put a hand on his shoulder. “Mates aren’t easy to find. Fight for her.”
Hand-in-hand, Fae and Alun stepped into the surf. Within seconds, they were gone.
Calan turned and looked down the long stretch of beach. He could make out her footprints. Sighing in relief, he followed them.
Mates aren’t easy to find.
Could she really be his mate? The one destined to share life with him? He’d certainly believed it as he broke the skin on her sweet cheek, the traditional selkie method of declaring oneself.
Knowing he didn’t need to debate the topic any further, for the answer was already in his heart, Calan tore into a sprint and followed the track from her Wellies.
Chapter 13
Maggie wobbled down the beach, her ankles hurting from running in her gran’s rubber boots. Her eyes stinging, more from the loss of Calan, than from the spray of saltwater from the sea. Her legs were ready to buckle. She felt like a big, soft buffoon.
“Dammit,” she grunted. “Why did I always choose debate team over track and field in school?”
She took another step in the squishy sand and tripped over her own feet. As she tumbled to the sandy ground, she wondered why she was running. For the umpteenth time.
