by Lia Lee
He made his way back to his friends, who jeered at him for the splash but were eager to know more about the mermaid with the white tail.
"You think she likes to party?" asked one. "Let's see if she wants to come with us tonight, always room for one more, especially as pretty as that one."
The others laughed, but Luciano shook his head.
"She's too good for all that," he said. "Not that kind of girl, I don't think."
The conversation turned to other matters, and he quelled the strangely protective and jealous streak that was revealing itself inside him. These were men he had been to school with, and he knew them well enough. Of course, that was the problem, and he knew exactly how they liked to party. For some reason, after exchanging less than a thousand words with Amilla, he wanted them far away from her.
Above them, the loudspeakers came to life, announcing the beautiful mermaids of Santa Joan, calling them out by name. As the dozen women dropped into the water one by one, Luciano's belly tightened until he heard the man call out, "Amilla."
There she was, a pale streak cutting through the water with ease, coming to swim in formation with her sisters. All of the women were extremely talented to his inexperienced eye, but it was Amilla who drew his eye over and over again. There was a kind of poetry to her movements, and he remembered how strong she had been in the water, wrestling the little girl to the surface. She had been red-faced in the water, gasping and blowing as she’d hauled the girl to the side of the pool, but there had been something so beautifully vital about her that it felt as if he had given her a small piece of his soul in that moment.
I need to find her again, he decided. I need to speak with her. I need to have her.
In another time, he might have been shocked at his own possessiveness, but here, it only seemed right. There was something beautifully compelling about Amilla the Mermaid, and there was a part of him that would take nothing less than possessing her.
***
In the locker room, Pearl got plenty of hugs and cheers for saving the little girl, and she grinned, exhausted but happy. She was less pleased at the message on her phone from her booking agency, because it seemed that they never had good news, but for once, she was happy to be wrong.
"What's up?" asked Juana, raising her eyebrow.
"I'm out of here," Pearl said with a grin. "They got me a booking for Florida, and I can be on a flight tomorrow night. Good money, and it's a full month of work!"
"Good for you, getting outta this hellhole," Juana chortled, punching her lightly on the shoulder.
It was true. The resort was heaven for the people who could stay there, but for everyone else, it was a constant fight against management over work standards, schedules, pay and more.
No, she wasn't going to miss the resort, and everything that she loved about it could be found elsewhere.
She locked her tail up carefully in the provided locker, and in a surprisingly short amount of time, she was dressed in a thin camisole top with a sarong wrapped around her hips. She could pass for a college girl on break instead of a hotel employee, and that was the way she wanted it.
With her bag slung over her shoulder, Pearl dodged her way out of the locker rooms, and then took a roundabout route to get out of the resort itself. As she went, she could see Carson dressing down some poor waiter, and she shook her head. No, as beautiful as it was, she wasn't going to be sorry to see the last of the resort.
She had a bit of a harder moment when she glimpsed Luciano in the lobby. He was alone, without his laughing friends, and for a single, strange moment, she wanted to go to him. She had a strict policy against fraternizing with guests of the hotel, but she was on her way out. What harm could it do?
Pearl was even taking a step towards Luciano when she saw him wave down one of the waitresses. It was clear that he wasn't interested in the tray of cold drinks she had. Instead, he spoke to her earnestly, standing far closer than Pearl strictly thought he needed to.
Okay, Pearl, you're being ridiculous, she told herself. It's not like you have a claim on him at all. Literally all you did was save that little girl together.
She shook her head at her own foolishness, and then she felt even dumber when Luciano pressed something into the waitress's hand. His number, she decided, and before she could make a bigger fool out of herself, she turned and left the hotel.
***
Luciano groaned quietly to himself as the waitress turned away with his tip. She had said she would keep an ear out for anyone by the name of Amilla, but from the look on her face, he could tell she had no idea who he was talking about at all.
“Amilla, where are you?” he murmured, but he was beginning to realize what he should have understood from the first.
Given his status and the power he commanded, there weren't many women who were inclined to give him the brush-off, but there had been a few. Trust fate to make the most fascinating woman he had ever met one of them.
He knew he should give up. If a woman made it a point to be difficult to find, he owed it to her to let her go in peace. Every time he had that thought, however, he thought of the mermaid's bright green eyes, the lovely way her blonde hair curled to frame her sweet face. He was used to tall redheads, willowy brunettes, women who would never so much as leave the protective shade of a sun umbrella for fear of breaking a nail. He had never had much time to spend with a woman like the mermaid before, one who made her living not just with the beauty of her body but with its strength as well.
Luciano shook his head. It was as if she had turned to smoke and disappeared through his fingers.
While he could certainly respect a good disappearing act, something about this one left Luciano curiously bereft, as if someone had removed something from his heart before he had even realized what it was for.
Chapter Three
Pearl wasn't a surfer, but she liked the same waters that they did. Fortunately, there was plenty of strong water around the shores of Santa Joan, and a great deal of it was less than half an hour’s walk from the resort.
There were warnings posted throughout the resort recommending that the travelers only leave the resort in company, ideally with one of the official tour buses. Santa Joan was a prosperous little community, but there were deep forests where the inhabitants were not always lawful.
Despite the warnings, Pearl felt at home on the island, and she thought nothing of wandering along the beach where the revelers gave way to the locals who were just looking for a night time party.
The sun dipped lower towards the edge of the water, painting the sky with vivid crimson and turning the forest behind the beach black.
I suppose it'll be good to get back to the States, land of Starbucks on every corner and McDonald's on the corners opposite that, she thought. Definitely going to miss this place, though.
She found a quiet bit of beach where she could spread out her towel, and then she simply sat on the sand, staring out at the darkening water. She allowed her breathing to slow, her heart to slow, her mind to slow. There was nothing in her world except for the water, blue turning dark, and below it a world that humans had barely begun to understand.
It had always felt cold when she’d come out to the water to meditate before, but now it felt distinctly warm in her mind. Instead of feeling as if she were sinking down, down, down into the depths, it felt as if she were being taken into something instead. Something foreign was wrapping around her, leaving her warm and soft and open. If she were in some other state, she might have found herself startled and alarmed, but right now, there was only pleasure and curiosity.
Her eyes closed, she sought in her mind for the source of the warmth and the pleasure, and then she saw Luciano's face. It was strange, she had only met him for a few charged moments, but she knew his face well enough in her mind that she thought she could paint him. He smiled, and she could feel her heart beat a little faster in her chest.
What is this? Why him? This makes no sense...
She came o
ut of her meditation with an unpleasant jolt, and she shook her head. She glanced at the water, but something in her right now didn't trust it. Pearl had intended to swim, and she still might yet, but going into the water as dazed as she felt was likely a monumental mistake. She started the walk back to the resort and to her rooms there, but abruptly, she realized she wasn't alone.
During Pearl's meditation, the beach had emptied out. The families were drifting home to their rest, and a rougher element was coming out.
The man who was watching her had the unkept beard and thinning blond hair of an inveterate beach comber. In his ragged and tattered khakis, he was likely an import from the mainland working on a novel that never seemed to end. And that sugar cane grin of his might charm a giggling and innocent co-ed, but Pearl was wise enough to know that it hid teeth. He had come far too close for Pearl's liking, and he fell into step alongside her.
“Gorgeous girl,” he said as casually as if he were talking about the weather. “Did you come to the island for a good time then?”
“I'm here to work,” Pearl said tersely. “I'm up at the hotel up the beach, the Valiant. I'm an employee there.”
It worked often enough. People who came to party and people who worked were two very different classes on Santa Joan, and there was often a kind of mutual disgust for each other. Unfortunately, this man seemed disinclined to worry about trivialities like that.
“Ah, are you a bar girl?” the intruder asked, stepping a little closer. “You're pretty enough. Let me guess. You're a dancer? Beautiful legs, bet they get a workout and you get lots of tips.”
“Nope, I clean rooms and plunge toilets,” Pearl lied. “And I need to get back to it now.”
“Oh, stay a while, pretty girl,” the man crooned. She couldn't tell if he was drunk or if he were just this bad at seduction. “Come, listen to me make up a song just for you, and when you go back, you can sing it to all the girls.”
“Christ, you have got to be kidding,” Pearl said, and she tried to walk faster. If she had to, she would run. However, she didn't expect the man to grab her so hard by the arm that she yelped with pain, spinning her body towards his.
“Bitch, you're all alike,” he spat, something ugly in his voice. “Men give you everything and you still think...”
“She still thinks she should be able to go where she wishes when she wishes,” said a new, cold voice. “Let her go.”
I recognize that voice, Pearl thought, and then the man who had grabbed her let out a high-pitched groan before releasing her.
She turned just in time to see the man thrust towards the woods. Like a whipped dog, he didn't even bother looking back as he skittered into the shadows where his kind lurked.
“Disgusting,” Luciano said, looking after him. There was a tension in his back and shoulders that told Pearl that he half-wished the man had wanted a fight.
Without thinking of what she was doing, she reached for his back, touching him gently as if he were a guard dog that needed calming. He relaxed at her first touch, and then he turned to her with a smile.
“I didn't expect to see you again,” he said softly.
Pearl shrugged uneasily. “I suppose I didn't expect to be seen.”
Luciano raised an eyebrow, and she realized what she had admitted. Before she could stammer out an explanation or something that sounded at least a little apologetic, he shrugged, smiling a little. It was a strangely shy and lovely thing.
“So you did run out to avoid me. And gave me a false name on top of it?”
“It's...not really a fake name,” Pearl said, oddly compelled to defend herself. “It's a name I use while touring sometimes. When I want to make sure that people remember.”
“Good,” he said, and she looked at him with surprise.
“Good?”
“I think it's good that you protect yourself. Twice today I've seen you deal with men who felt as if they were entitled to your beauty. I am afraid that I have given you the impression I was one of them.”
There was a part of Pearl's brain that told her she needed to move on from this discussion. There was nothing here that was going to serve her well, not when she felt such a strange draw to this man she didn't even know. Instead, she drifted a little closer.
“Are you not one of them?” she asked, and he smiled slightly.
“I could be very easily,” he admitted, shoving his hands deep into his pockets. “That's what I was assuming at first. Instead...well, instead I saw something that could not be bought, but only given.”
Pearl wanted to pull back, but she stayed where she was. Luciano was handsome, but it went beyond that. Men as handsome had certainly made offers to her before, often while their children were close and their wives were pretending not to look. They probably would have described themselves as princes as well, but something made Pearl hope that Luciano was not like them.
“Do you want to know my name?” she found herself asking.
“If you want to give it to me,” Luciano said with a smile. “But if you don't want to, I want you to keep it. I wonder if you have had more taken from you than you might have wanted in the past.”
The softly uttered words seemed to strike at the very core of her, and she swallowed hard. Pearl almost wanted to ask him what right he had to look so deeply into her, to see so much when others who were closer never had.
“I think I'll keep it to myself for the moment,” she said instead. “You can call me Amilla if you like.”
“I'd rather not,” Luciano said candidly. “If I cannot call you by your right name, perhaps I should simply call you my mermaid instead.”
“When did I become yours?” Pearl wanted to make it a challenge, but it came out soft, almost wistful.
Luciano looked as if he was going to say something, but then he shook his head. She started to ask him what he meant, but he took her hand. It was a startlingly gentle touch, far different from the way she had been grabbed earlier, and the moment his hand touched hers, a spark jumped between them, so bright and bold that she almost thought she could see it. Before she could cry out, he tugged her into his arms.
I've never felt this way about anyone before, she thought, and then he was slanting his mouth over hers, his lips claiming hers in a deep and perfect kiss. For several long seconds, she simply gave herself over to the kiss, wondering in the power of such a sweet touch. Then the heat in her burst fully formed into flame, and she couldn't stop herself from throwing her arms around Luciano and dragging him even closer. Her fire lit a fire in him, and the kiss grew more desperate, needier. She felt his hands roaming up and down her back, increasingly possessive and desperate.
They broke for air, looking at each other with slightly wild eyes. Pearl realized she had matched her breathing to his, as if something in that kiss had married them to one another. His breath was now hers, and vice versa. There was so much power in that thought that Pearl let out a soft cry, her hand flying up to cover her mouth. Luciano stepped closer in concern, and then he stepped back, aware of her distress.
“What's wrong?” he asked, and his voice was so reasonable that for a moment, Pearl could barely believe she was acting this way, was being so very silly.
“Nothing,” she said, but Luciano shook his head.
“It's not nothing. Even I can tell it's not nothing, and I am by no means skilled at this. What is it? Did the man hurt you worse than I thought? Do you need help? Or to be alone?”
“No, no, none of that,” she said softly, biting her lip and looking around. The beach they were standing on had become deserted, and the sun was down beneath the horizon. The sky was a deep indigo, and sooner rather than later, it would be completely dark. As Pearl watched, a few scattered fireflies drifted out, and she felt a kind of certainty come over her.
The water. The water would never lead her wrong.
She took a few steps towards the water, never taking her eyes off of Luciano. In the dim light, she could just barely make out his raised eyebrow.
She half-expected him to say no. That would be the sane thing to do, after all. It would be the smartest thing to get her back to light and civilization where things would make sense again. However, this was Luciano, and nothing made sense with him. Instead, he hesitated for only a moment before stepping on the sand with her.
“I don't have a suit,” he said, and she laughed. It didn't sound like her, and at the same time, it was perfectly her. It felt as if there was a secret version of her hiding all this time, hanging back and only now revealed thanks to Luciano.
“Do you think I do?” she said, and she knew she didn’t imagine the softly drawn breath from the Italian.
“Mermaid, I don't know if...”
“The time for knowing is over,” she retorted. “I don't care what you know or what I know. What matters right now is the water.”
Her words were defiant, and she turned her back to him, reaching for her clothes. Santa Joan could boast of a rather cruel, cold wind at later times in the year, but right now, it was perfectly warm and balmy through the night. Matter-of-fact, Pearl stripped to her skin. The dark kept her modest, or at least she hoped it did, and she threw a glance over her shoulder at Luciano. He stood as if frozen in place, hands on the hem of his shirt. It looked like he had been on the verge of drawing it over his head when he had seen her.
“I'm a mermaid not a gorgon. You shouldn't turn to stone,” she said teasingly.
He muttered something about stone and other parts of his body, but he shook his head hard. He removed his clothes with a kind of ruthless efficiency that took her breath way, and then he was as naked as she was. The faint light left in the sky showed her a body that was thick with muscle but still lithe, powerful and sensual all at once. She didn't allow herself to look down past his waist, but she had the intimation of his manhood, thick and powerful as the rest of him.
“What happens now, mermaid?” Luciano asked, and his voice was rough with lust and need. She recognized it because it was exactly the kind of need that was running through her body. It would have been the easiest thing in the world to give in to it, to make love with this man instantly, but something held her back. The moment stretched out between them, thinner and thinner as she thought of Luciano's question.
