Catch of a Lifetime

by Judi Fennell

  Zeus planted his hands on either side of the chair, his face inches from Logan's. "Or is this a ploy to make the ultimate sacrifice as a means of earning Immortality and escaping death?"

  Logan took a deep breath. Of water. Funny how that didn't bother him anymore.

  He met Zeus' gaze, then slowly pushed on the arms of the chair and rose. Zeus grudgingly allowed him to stand.

  Every eye in the place was on him.

  Logan didn't care.

  He brushed past the god to face Angel, her beauti ful eyes both worried and shining with happiness. He reached for her hand, then dropped to one knee.

  "Angel, I love you." He said it loud enough for ev eryone to hear. There would be no misunderstanding on anyone's part. Especially not hers. "I have since our night together. Probably even before. I love how you laugh, how you sing, how you make everyone around you feel special and good and valued. I love how you are with my son, and I love how I am when I'm with you."

  Tears filled her eyes, and he had to clear his throat.

  "I know I said awful, hurtful things to you that night. I was an ass. I didn't mean them. I was just so… sur prised, and—"

  She put a finger on his lips. "I know. I should have—"

  "No." He shook his head and inhaled that special blend of hibiscus that was all Angel. "You shouldn't have. There was no easy way to tell me. I behaved badly. But I want to make it up to you. And not because you saved my son. Not because you put yourself in danger. Not for any of the reasons Zeus said." But he had used Mariana's knowledge of Immortality to his advantage. It'd been the only way, and one he'd embraced wholeheartedly.

  "I want to marry you because I couldn't live another day knowing you were suffering. That I'd never see you again. Whatever it takes, if I have to give up living on land or only see you occasionally, I'll do it." He stroked her cheek with his other hand, then cradled it and ran his thumb over her lips. "I love you Angel, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

  ***

  There wasn't a dry eye in the place—oh, that's right. They were underwater.

  But Angel knew tears when she felt them, and they were what was sliding down her cheeks. And what she tasted when she kissed Logan. "I love you, too," she whispered against his lips. "I never lied about that."

  "Then it's settled." Zeus clapped his hands and a giant golden abacus with different colored pearls floated in front of The Council.

  Angel looked past Logan as Zeus swam over to it. What was the head god up to?

  She caught Mariana's smile before her sister tucked her chin to her chest and draped her long hair in front of her face.

  She had a feeling Mariana knew exactly what Zeus was going to do—and she had a feeling she was going to be eternally grateful to her sister.

  "In the system of checks and balances that we use On High, two negatives—" the god slid two small black pearls to the side—"equal a positive." He slid a pink pearl on another row.

  "Angel offered herself in Michael's place. Knowing Ceto as we all do, that was certain death." He slid one of the black pearls back toward the middle. "Then we have Logan. Mortal, Human Logan who dared to venture back into Ceto's palace to save the woman he loves. Again, almost certain death." The other black pearl slid home.

  "Two sacrifices." He tapped the one small pink pearl. "One positive left." Then he slid the pink pearl back.

  "The precedent's already been set. Noble sacrifice earns Immortality. Reel will testify to that."

  Angel looked at her brother, who held his wife's hand to his lips. Reel had earned Immortality for sav ing Erica's life, then declined it to spend the rest of his with her.

  "And if someone's Immortal, they cannot be hooked, killed, or destroyed. Which is how Ceto survived her own seaquake. She and I had a little chat after she slith ered out of that trench she buried herself and half the continental shelf in. I believe I've put the child issue to rest with Ceto. She's on indefinite community service at Artemis's orphanage."

  Zeus brushed his hands, and the abacus disappeared. Then he raised his hands, palms down, toward where Angel and Logan sat, and closed his eyes. "So, by the power vested in me, I now bestow Immortality upon you, Angel Tritone, you, Logan Hardington, and any progeny thereof."

  He opened one eye, then the other, nodded, then clasped his hands behind his back, and faced The Council. "Rod, I believe all that's left for The Council to do is decide a fitting punishment since a death sentence is now a non-issue."

  Thorsson tossed up his hands and Santos grumbled something.

  Henri, however, had something to say. "Humans are the worst punishment I, personally, can imagine. Filthy air, crowded living arrangements, ignorance of other civilizations… I say we give Angel the job she so desperately wants. Talk about a fitting punishment. And marriage—especially to a Human—is just one more shackle."

  Not in her mind. To her, Henri couldn't have given her a better punishment. Logan, Michael, and the free dom to do what she wanted.

  This trial had turned out better than she'd ever expected.

  ***

  Hera was waiting for Zeus when he returned home.

  "You just had to do it, didn't you?" She crossed her arms and tapped her foot beneath the saffron toga he'd given her for Mother's Day.

  Zeus grabbed a bottle of ambrosia out of the icebox and wiped it across his forehead. "It was fascinating, sweetheart. They're finally flexing their Free Will muscles. It's only taken them two millennia."

  Hera huffed and walked over to her prized hyacinths. She picked up the spritzer and watered first the purple, then the pink, then finally, the white. His wife was a creature of habit. In some things. "I knew you wouldn't be able to simply observe. You just had to play deus ex machina to the hilt, didn't you?"

  One of her habits was to keep his feet firmly planted in the clouds.

  He took a swig of the ambrosia. "Don't get your lau rel leaves in a tither, Hera. Logan found a way around the statute with no help from me. Give me a little credit for knowing my creations. I just showed up to bestow the Immortality. Besides, you can't tell me you don't love a good happily-ever-after."

  Hera's spritzer hit the window ledge.

  "Whose creations?" She turned her head so slightly that the long braid down her back barely swayed, but it was all the more effective for its lack of movement.

  Oh shit. "Um, our creations, dear. Ours."

  She nodded and picked up the spritzer. "That's better. So, you gave Ceto something to make her happy and keep her out of trouble, and you saved a Mer, a few Humans, and their civilizations."

  "Don't forget coming up with a fitting punishment for those two sharks." He tried to keep Smug out of his voice, but Hera knew him too well.

  Surprisingly, his wife laughed. "Yes, sticking A.C. and Harry in a Human aquarium was a stroke of genius. How long will they be there?"

  Zeus let Smug out. "I figured five selinos ought to teach them a lesson. Three if they're on their best behavior."

  Hera sniffed. "That I'd like to see. So, what's next on your agenda?"

  Zeus picked up the latest edition of Natural Geographic. Easter Island. Hmmm. Every so often Humans revisited the origins of the statues. He won dered what Mariana thought of that.

  Smart girl, that Mariana.

  "I think we ought to take a vacation." He thumbed through the article to the map and ran his finger across the twenty-seventh latitude, west of South America. "How does Chile sound?"

  Chapter 51

  LOGAN WAS GLAD ANGEL DECIDED ON LEGS FOR THEIR wedding day. And the morning after—if only for the fact that she looked utterly magnificent straddling him.

  Her skin glistened in the warm Caribbean sun. The pineapple-and-hibiscus-scented breeze wisped her golden hair around them, and the rhythmic arrival of the surf on the deserted island beach set the tempo for their lovemaking.

  The twilight ceremony last evening hadn't been his idea. If he'd had his way, they would have been mar ried in Atlantis immedia
tely after the trial, but Angel had specifically requested a land wedding with all her family… and no tails. It wasn't enough that she'd fi nagled both the job she wanted and had him—by virtue of his experience with green technologies—appointed to her Advisory Board, she'd wanted to make a state ment about bringing the sea and the land together via their marriage.

  The earliest the wedding could be pulled together, tails shifted into legs, and Michael brought over had been last night. Logan hadn't let Angel out of his sight for one minute between the verdict and the wedding.

  And what a sight she was: naked, sexy, with that glori ous hair cascading over her shoulders, the ends caressing him wherever they touched. Logan realized he'd found paradise. Anywhere Angel was, was paradise—and he didn't care that he was waxing poetic again. Those poets had been onto something.

  Logan reached for her hips, her deliciously silky, naked hips, and slid his palms down her thighs as she straddled him. "You know I really don't mind the tail, right?"

  She tossed her hair down her back. "Now? You want me to have a tail now?"

  "Well, no. Not now, obviously. But later. You don't have to sneak off like you did before."

  Angel blew against his throat, then traced her tongue up to swirl around the shell of his ear, little puffs of her breath warming him more than the sun ever could, and one of her hands found his nipple. He sucked in a breath. She'd discovered just the right way to do that for just the right reaction and had been using that weakness to torture him for hours.

  Not that he was complaining.

  "I know I don't have to, Logan, but if it's all the same to you, my tail is the last thing I feel like thinking about right now."

  He smiled. Oh, he didn't mind thinking about her tail…

  He ran his hands back up her thighs and around to knead her backside, pressing her down onto him a little more, gratified to hear her groan, "That's not fair."

  "Tell me about it." He did it again.

  "That's it, buster." She wiggled in that sexy way she'd discovered drove him wild. Which it did all over again.

  Angel, in all her naked beauty. Even more gorgeous than she'd been on his boat. She was his, and he could look and touch and savor all he wanted.

  He didn't give one damn that she was a mermaid. Mer. Whatever. She was Angel, she was his, and she was free because of his love.

  She tossed her hair, this time to the side, where it drifted against his hip, a sensation so erotic it almost made him come. Then she did that tongue thing again below his Adam's apple, her nipples stroking his chest, and Logan didn't know how much longer he could hold out.

  "Are you trying to kill me?" he murmured between a sigh and a groan.

  She kissed the underside of his jaw, her breasts flat tening against him, the slick wet heat of her enfolding him. "I can't, remember?" She did that thing against his throat again. "Unless you want me to stop?"

  "Hell no," he growled, urging her to sit up, then an gled her hips up just a bit… right there… that was it…

  Logan spread his hands across her flat belly, his thumbs meeting where she pulsed against him, and he stroked her.

  "Oh gods, Logan…"

  "Oh gods, Logan, what?" He slid one thumb along her swollen flesh until he reached the spot where they were joined, then slowly stroked upward.

  Angel's breaths came faster. Shallower. Her skin flushed just enough to be noticeable, and even the sun couldn't match the heat they were generating together.

  She ran her tongue over her lips in that way he loved, her eyes almost closed, and moved against him. Against him, on him, around him, everything he saw, touched, smelled, wanted, it was all Angel.

  He stroked her again. "Come for me, sweetheart."

  The words themselves had power, but it was the tiny

  hitch in her breath that wound her around his heart. It was as if they'd been created for each other, every part fitting so perfectly…

  He'd been an idiot to tell her to leave. A fool to think anything made any difference for them. Here was where he was supposed to be. With her.

  "Oh, Logan." She changed her position, now falling back to brace her hands on his thighs, opening herself up to his touch, wet and hot and ready. Her hair slid down her back, falling between his legs with an erotic simplic ity that stole his breath. A few strands drifted between her breasts, down to where he touched her.

  "Don't ever cut your hair, Angel." He grasped a shank of it behind her, threading his fingers through it, and tugged gently.

  Framed by the window and silhouetted against a sky the color of her eyes, she arched her back, her breasts swelling, nipples tightening, and Logan ached to run his tongue over every inch of her.

  He stroked her again and she shuddered. She was ach ingly beautiful. Natural. Breathtakingly and elementally so. The very essence of a woman.

  He shifted beneath her, knowing she'd feel him inside her, and stroked her again. Her eyes flashed open, then he used the tips of her hair to trace the spot where her trident tattoo had been—one more piece of the magic that was Angel.

  "Do that again," she breathed, her tongue flicking against the corner of her mouth, and his cock responded with the same movement inside her.

  She rocked back, her breasts heaving as she took a deeper breath.

  His thumb circled on her and she moaned, her inner muscles squeezing him.

  Using his palms, he lifted her off him, just enough that she protested, only to press against her swollen flesh and make her cry out.

  "Oh gods, Logan, yes… I'm almost… I… please…"

  Sweat glistened on her body, and the heady scent of ocean and Angel and lovemaking filled the air around them. Logan slid his thumb down a little farther, all the while circling, using her own wetness for the perfect amount of friction.

  Perfect. That's what she was.

  She squeezed her legs around him, trembling, and her inner muscles contracted, sending spasms of need spiral ing through his body, tightening his balls, and he knew it wouldn't be long.

  He dug in his heels and thrust into her, pressing down on her hips as she contracted around him again, his thumb still circling, her breasts rising and falling before him, eyes half-closed again, her tongue tracing madden ing circles on those sweet pink lips, her breath coming faster, harsher, her fingers biting into his thighs as her inner muscles quickened.

  "Yes… yes… oh… my… Logan…"

  Shudders stronger than any earthquake wracked his body as they came together, the sensations more power ful than any whirlpool.

  The love they shared greater than any differences the gods had created between them.

  "I love you," he had to whisper, wrapping both arms around her slender form, feeling the fragile bones in her back yet knowing how strong she truly was. Strong enough to take on the world's worst mon ster for him. "Forever."

  And, thanks to Zeus and her love, it truly was forever.

  Chapter 52

  "ANGEL? LOGAN? WANNA PLAY BALL?" MICHAEL'S shadow fluttered on the filmy netting draping their hon eymoon cabana door. Private island getaways didn't need doors—unless one expected a six-year-old to make an appearance.

  Logan helped Angel smooth the sheet on the bed, then checked himself in the mirror. They'd had to scramble into their clothes when Mariana had done the first loop around the island. Good thing Angel's sister had a big set of lungs—half the Caribbean had probably heard her warn them Michael was on his way.

  One more reason he'd be indebted to Mariana for the rest of his life.

  He didn't mind in the least.

  "Come on in, Michael." Logan brushed past Angel, unable to prevent himself from touching her shoulder, then he pulled back the netting.

  "Oooh, awesome!" Michael bounced in—of course— and picked up the crystal sculpture Mariana had given them for a wedding present.

  "Awesome? What happened to 'cool'?" Logan said, rustling his son's hair. The hat had been left back in Florida on Rocky's head. Michael had decided it wasn't p
roper wedding attire, and Logan liked the symbolism that change represented. His son was willing to accept Angel in Christine's place.

  "'Cool' is a little kid's word. Since I swam with sharks and dolphins in a whirlpool, I'm all growed up."

  Logan put his arm around Michael's shoulders and tugged his son against him. He didn't want Michael to be all "growed up"; he'd barely had any time to enjoy his son as a child.

  But he definitely would enjoy the children he and Angel made together.