by Naomi Clark
Evernight Publishing ®
www.evernightpublishing.com
Copyright© 2015 Naomi Clark
ISBN: 978-1-77233-491-3
Cover Artist: Jay Aheer
Editor: Melissa Hosack
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
DEDICATION
For the critique group that tore a very early draft of this story to shreds ten years ago – it needed shredding and it might have taken me a decade to put it back together, but it was worth it!
THE SEA WIFE
Romance on the Go TM
Naomi Clark
Copyright © 2015
Chapter One
When the sun rose, the ocean called and Charley answered.
She’d left her bedroom window open, and the roar of surf beating on sand was the only alarm clock she’d ever need. The tantalizing tang of brine in the air reminded her that she was home and that the ocean waited.
She showered and dressed in a hurry, racing downstairs to leave a note on the kitchen table. She’d only been home since last night, and due to the shifts her mother worked, hadn’t seen her yet. No doubt Fiona Delaney would know exactly where her daughter was, but Charley left the note anyway, out of habit. It had always just been the two of them, and the rules her mother laid down when Charley was sixteen were still ingrained at twenty-six.
Outside, the sleepy village of Ailbhe Cove was just waking up, and fog still shrouded the houses. A few cyclists zipped past Charley as she jogged to the beach. She could already hear dogs barking down on the sand, mingling with the raucous cries of seagulls and the eternal wash of waves to create a symphony that echoed down in her heart. Home. No matter how far she went, she was always pulled back like driftwood on the tide.
She reached the beach, breathless and exhilarated, and stopped to pull her shoes off. She stared out at the calm waters, sparkling with pink and gold light cast by the rising sun chasing the fog away. She inhaled, relishing the scent of salty water and brisk ocean air. There was something cleansing about it.
She dug her toes into the silky-fine sand and watched gulls darting in and out of the water, crying to each other. A few feet away, a pair of spaniels splashed in and out of the rock pools, yelping joyfully as their owner threw a tennis ball for them. Charley strolled along the waterline away from them, hugging her over-sized cardigan around her. It was early April and the Irish coastline was still chilly. Really it was too cold to be wandering barefoot, but she couldn’t resist the feeling of sand between her toes.
As beautiful and alluring as the ocean was, it wasn’t the only thing calling Charley home, and she picked up her pace as the beach curved away from Ailbhe Cove, becoming rockier and rougher. Tucked away in the cliffs, out of sight of anyone who didn’t know to look, was a series of sea caves, only accessible at low tide. Once the tide was in, the entrance to the caves was cut off, lost in a swell of seawater. Even so, you could still safely sit inside, perched on high rocky ledges slick with seaweed and crusted with cockles and mussels, and watch the ocean beat at the walls below.
Charley clambered easily over the boulders hiding the cave entrance, her heart fluttering. Eleven years now, she’d been making this journey every chance she got. Since she’d gone to university in England, her trips had been less frequent, but that only made her excitement more vital. She picked her way carefully across the wet, slippery stones until she reached the natural ledge at the back of the first cave. Pulling herself up onto the ledge, she took off the backpack she’d brought with her and pulled out her breakfast – a couple of bananas and a bottle of iced tea. She also took out a picnic blanket and spread it over the cold stone before settling down. She stripped off her cardigan and peeled a banana. Now she just had to wait.
Waiting was an exquisite torture.
But Nessa didn’t keep her waiting long.
As Charley finished her first banana, a sleek gray seal, skin dappled with chocolate brown, pulled herself into the cave. She called out to Charley, a plaintive, haunting sound that Charley could well imagine might fool sailors into believing in sirens. Charley grinned, waiting for the magic.
She couldn’t have described it, if asked. It just … happened, in a rush, like a wave crashing over your head. One minute there was a seal. The next there was a woman, naked and glistening with water droplets, smiling up at Charley as if she was the magic one. A silky pile of seal skin sat at her feet.
“Hello, stranger,” Charley said.
“Hello, leannán,” Nessa said. Lan-awn, she said it, with a lyrical lilt that lit a fire in Charley. Lover. Hello, lover.
In seconds, Nessa was up on the ledge beside her, and Charley pulled her into her arms to kiss her fiercely. Nessa tasted of sea spray and sunlight, her long dark hair smelt of sea lavender, and her body fit perfectly against Charley’s, just as it always had. Now Charley was truly home.
They didn’t need words to greet each other, not really. They’d been meeting in this cave since Charley was fifteen. They’d been kissing since she was sixteen. Nessa slid her hands into Charley’s hair, freeing the messy red waves from the loose knot she’d tied them in. Nessa’s fingers trailed down Charley’s throat as they kissed, then down to grab the hem of Charley’s t-shirt. They broke the kiss briefly so Nessa could pull the t-shirt off and toss it aside. She fumbled with Charley’s bra, as she always did, and Charley giggled, as she always did, and slipped it off for Nessa. That, too, was tossed away carelessly.
Charley skimmed her hands down Nessa’s bare back, relishing the little shivers she caused. She pushed away Nessa’s heavy locks and kissed the curve of her neck, licking drops of seawater from her skin while Nessa cupped Charley’s breasts and ran her fingers round her nipples. Charley sighed, burying her face in Nessa’s hair and soaking up her light, delicate touches. They’d been apart too long and she needed Nessa with an urgency that wouldn’t settle for light or delicate. She slid her arms round Nessa’s waist and pushed her to the blanket. She stood quickly, hopping like an idiot to kick her jeans off, and Nessa watched her with barely-contained laughter.
“If you just didn’t bother with clothes at all…”
“I’d be arrested for public indecency and you’d never see me again.” Charley dropped to her knees beside Nessa, trailing her fingers over Nessa’s stomach and down between her legs.
Nessa parted her thighs eagerly and Charley dipped her head to kiss her way up the soft skin towards Nessa’s sex. She circled Nessa’s clit with her tongue, slowly and lovingly, savoring the taste of her. Nessa sighed, head rolling to the side in bliss. She curled one leg round Charley’s bare shoulders, pressing her closer and deeper, and Charley obligingly upped the pace, swirling her tongue down into Nessa’s channel. Nessa hissed, writhing, and Charley grabbed her legs to keep her still.
“No fair,” Nessa gasped.
Charley raised her head. “Do you want fair?”
“I want you.”
The simple words were Charley’s undoing. She’d meant to take her time, pleasure Nessa thoroughly and show her how much she’d missed her, but Nessa’s smoky voice short-circuited her brain. She was suddenly on fire with lust, aching for her own pleasure. She knelt and pulled Nessa up to kneel with her, intertwining their legs and pushing their breasts together. It created a delicious
friction, heightened when Nessa palmed her breast, rolling Charley’s pebbled nipple between her fingers. Aroused to fever pitch, Charley dipped her head to bite Nessa’s shoulder as she slowly ground her thighs, pushing hard against Nessa’s core.
Nessa responded in kind, a little growl slipping from her. She twisted Charley’s nipple and Charley broke away from her shoulder with a cry that was half pleasure, half pain. She snatched a kiss, squeezing the smooth curve of Nessa’s ass, then slid her finger between her buttocks.
“Can I?” she whispered in Nessa’s ear.
Nessa’s only answer was a soft moan. Charley gently eased her finger into Nessa’s tight entrance. Nessa gasped, her breath hot on Charley’s mouth, and whispered her encouragement, grinding her own hips harder against Charley so the pressure on Charley’s clit became beautifully unbearable.
As Charley worked her finger carefully in and out of Nessa’s ass, Nessa moved her hand down between Charley’s legs, pinching her clit lightly as she continued to roll her hips. Charley’s head spun. She felt as though she was about to plummet off a cliff, spinning out into nothing but raw sensation. Lust and joy and absolute love. She chanted her lover’s name, pushing harder and faster with every part of her body – fingers, tongue, hips – until Nessa cried out, her entire body jerking wildly against Charley’s, her fingers tugging at Charley’s hair.
Charley’s own climax hit her seconds later, dizzying her completely. She collapsed against Nessa, pushing her gently down to the blanket. They lay together, limbs entangled, breathing heavily. Nessa flung her arm across Charley’s stomach, pulling her into a spooning embrace. She nuzzled Charley’s cheek, peppering her face with tender kisses.
“Welcome home, leannán.”
Chapter Two
Eleven years ago, Charley had found the hidden caves and made them her den. An introverted teenager, more comfortable with her own thoughts and fantasies than other people, she’d valued the seclusion. For months they were her private kingdom, untouched by anyone else.
Until the day she climbed into the caves and found a young brunette girl dozing on the surf-washed rocks, wrapped in a seal skin. Nessa had been startled – terrified, in fact – but with Charley blocking the cave entrance, she’d had no way to escape.
Charley, immediately enchanted, had done the only logical thing and offered Nessa some of the chocolate she’d brought with her. Nessa had never tried chocolate before, or seen a girl with fiery red hair and freckles. She stayed. She liked the chocolate. And she liked the girl.
They became each other’s secret. Nobody would believe Charley that she’d met a selkie. Charley didn’t believe it herself until the day Nessa showed her, slipping in and out of her seal skin with the ease Charley would slip out of a bathrobe. Nessa’s people didn’t mix with humans normally.
“If a man steals our skin, he can trap us,” she told Charley over a bar of bitterly dark chocolate. “They can force us to be their wives.” She shuddered, and Charley wrapped her arm around Nessa’s shoulders and promised her it would never happen.
The first kiss was as natural as the turn of the tides. Charley had no doubts it was love, for herself anyway. Nessa was magical. She brought Charley pearly pink seashells and spiny, fragile sea urchins. She talked of racing with dolphins and dancing in the waves by moonlight. In exchange Charley taught her about life on land, about the internet, airplanes, music, and books. It felt like a poor trade to Charley, but Nessa devoured every scrap of information.
The first “I love you” was as sweet as summer air, and Charley knew she’d found her mate. It didn’t matter that Nessa could never live with her, that they could never have a “normal” relationship. What was normal, anyway? This was the only kind of relationship she’d ever had, one made of stolen afternoons and skinny-dipping at dusk. Watching storms rock the ocean from the safety of the cave and swapping stories about underwater lakes and manicures.
And Charley had a dream, one she didn’t share even with Nessa, that one day she’d own a cottage at the edge of the sea and Nessa could come and go as she pleased, unseen and all Charley’s.
****
“When do you finish your Master’s?” Nessa asked Charley.
They lay side by side on their backs, hands linked. Charley was suffused with a deep contentment, listening to the waves rush in and out of the cave mouth, with Nessa’s warm body so close to hers. University seemed a world away. “My dissertation is due in the summer. I still have about twelve thousand words to write.” She winced. It felt like an impossible amount.
“And then you’ll be home.” There was a wistful note in Nessa’s voice.
Charley rolled onto her side and kissed her. “Yes,” she said firmly. “Home and all set to enter the working world.”
Her Master’s was in Early Childhood Education, with a focus on creativity in learning. Her hope was to land a job at one of the schools in Belfast. She could stay in Ailbhe Cove and commute to the city. Her mother would be more than happy to have her home, and as long as she was living there, she could save for that dream cottage.
“I can’t wait til you’re home properly,” Nessa said. “Surely all this education can’t be good for your brain.”
“It’s definitely not good for my bank balance.” Charley yawned, stretching out on the age-softened blanket. The susurrus of the waves was lulling, a reminder that she’d had very little sleep last night. It was a long journey from York to Northern Ireland, and rising at dawn to rush here – although worth it – was catching up to her now.
“Sleep if you want.” Nessa propped herself up on one elbow, stroking Charley’s hair. “I’ll still be here when you wake up.”
Charley wanted to protest and say she was fine, but all that came out of her mouth was a deeper yawn. “Don’t let me sleep too long,” she said. “I want to swim later.”
The sea would be freezing, but that wouldn’t matter once she got going. The initial icy shock of the water became an invigorating embrace, and who better to be by her side in the choppy waters than a selkie?
Nessa leaned in to kiss her forehead. “Sleep. The sea isn’t going anywhere either.”
****
Frantic barking jerked Charley awake. She lifted her head, blinking sleepily, and found Nessa dozing next to her, one arm thrown over her face, the other draped across Charley’s hip. Charley shifted her arm gently and sat up. Pale sunlight streamed into the cave mouth, sparkling off the water filling the cave. A sudden, choking anxiety gripped Charley and she shook Nessa less gently.
“Nessa, where’s your skin?”
Nessa peered at her from between her fingers, looking confused. “Down where I left it.”
“The tide came in.”
Nessa sat up and stretched. “It’ll just be under the water, Charley.” She slipped off the ledge, splashing gracefully into the waist-deep water. She ducked under and disappeared for a few minutes. Charley held her breath, counting the beats until Nessa resurfaced.
Nessa broke the water with a gasp, flinging herself up in an icy spray, wet hair flinging droplets clear across the cave. It was a panicked motion and Charley felt an answering dismay flare in her. “It’s gone!”
Charley scrambled down from the ledge with much less grace, hitting the water hard and sending a wave crashing over her own head. She spat out a mouthful of salty water and grabbed Nessa.
Nessa flailed in the water, kicking up sand and stone as if she’d unveil her seal skin. Her liquid brown eyes were wide and wild. “It’s gone! Charley, it’s gone!”
“Well, it can’t have gone far,” Charley said, trying to keep her voice level and light. “Let’s just—”
The dog barked outside the cave again, high-pitched and over-excited. A boy shouted, telling the dog to hush and back off. A spark of anguish lit Nessa’s eyes and she pulled free of Charley, racing to the cave mouth. Charley followed instinctively, ignoring flashes of pain in her feet as she cut them on jutting rocks. Nessa was already over the barrier at the cave mo
uth, almost throwing herself over them. Charley slipped and skidded as she followed, cracking her knee as she stumbled onto the beach.
The pain hobbled her, and she fell behind as Nessa raced toward the shore and the boy yelling at his dog. The dog bounced around, barking and lunging at something on the ground that the boy kept trying to snatch away. A moped lay on the sand behind them and the sight of it spurred Charley on. She didn’t know why; maybe she was just infected with Nessa’s blind panic. It didn’t matter. Sometimes you just knew what was coming, your heart ahead of your brain. It was an irresistible pull, and she limped after her lover, heedless of her nudity and the cool wind whipping at her.
She saw Nessa trip and go down, saw the dog leap toward her, tail wagging furiously. Nessa screamed and rolled away, even though Charley could see from here the dog wasn’t attacking. Still, it was a big animal and Nessa’s nerves were already shredded. Charley tried to run, but her knee wouldn’t bend properly. Even as she closed the gap between them, she saw the boy grab Nessa’s skin from the sand and bolt for his moped.
“No!” Charley shouted. Her voice was lost in the tumult of wind and waves. The boy was speeding away down the beach long before she reached Nessa.
The dog, some kind of Alsatian mix, barked joyously at Charley when she got to Nessa. Nessa lay face down in the sand, arms protectively covering her head, body wracked by her sobs. Charley eased herself to the sand, pulling Nessa into her arms. “It’s alright, we’ll get it back. We’ll find him.” Charley heard the begging note in her voice and hated herself for it. But she had to beg – Nessa’s weeping was heartbreaking, maddening. The dog whined, dropping down to nuzzle at Nessa’s hair and she batted at him uselessly.
