Page 32 of Ensnaring the Siren

And maybe Reid was reacting more calmly than she deserved.

Turning her attention to the room around them, Nireed studied the other Surface Dwellers sharing the space. As time wore on, a few got up from their chairs to sway their arms and bodies in front of the music-makers, some in time to the beat, some not.

She observed them closely. The touching, the tension in the not touching, the meaningful eye contact, the sensual bump and grind of bodies. Happiness. Bliss. Aroused energy. It radiated from them all.

“What are they doing?”

Reid looked over his shoulder, then back at her, some of the light returning to his eyes. “Dancing.”

“What’s dancing? Is it a mating ritual?”

He sputtered, spraying his drink across the table. “Jesus, Starfish. You always just say the first thing that pops into your head?” Grabbing small square sheets from a box on the table, he began wiping up the mess.

“Are you always so easily embarrassed?”

“You got me there.” Balling up the soaked sheets, Reid shoved them to the side. “I guess I hadn’t ever thought of it that way, but yeah, sometimes it’s like that.”

“Bolder than I expected from your clothes-loving kin.”

Amusement sparkled in his eyes. Any evidence of the dismal conversation they’d had was gone without a trace. “It’s also just for fun. Wanna try?”

A funny floating sensation seized her stomach, but rather than alarm her, it made her smile. “Show me.”

He held out his hand, and she took it, letting him pull her to her feet.

Out on what Reid called “the dance floor,” he placed her arms around his neck. Excitement and nerves knotted her stomach in equal measure. “Just relax.” His hands fell to her hips, warm and reassuring. “Move to the music.”

As he began to sway, he guided her hips in time to him and to the music pulsing in her ears, fluid like seagrass in a gentle ocean current. There was a pattern to it, a beat, and she gave herself to the push and pull, luxuriating in the weight of Reid’s hands. No thinking, just moving.

Moving because it felt good, not because purpose or survival dictated it.

When her hips brushed his, a delicious thrill raced up her spine. It was a familiar sensation in an unfamiliar body, and for once Nireed was grateful for the discretion her Surface Dweller form granted. In siren form, her scales would have surely parted.

“Am I doing this right?” She sounded a little breathless, even to her own ears.

Reid’s eyes darkened, rich brown swallowed by black. “Yeah.” There was a harsh quality to his voice, and like his eyes, it was penetrating and all-consuming. Every nerve ending in her body alighted to that sound and silently begged for more. “You’re good at this.”

Delighted in the praise, she leaned in close, mouth at his ear. “If I sang right now, do you think you could resist me?”

So many senses fired off at once. His breath hitched, and his heart raced. Beneath her hands, warm skin heated, and something tantalizing spiked in his scent. Something that edged dangerously close to arousal.

Their hips brushed again, and this time, it felt less like an accident. Dancing was a language of itself, and Nireed liked how Reid’s body was speaking to her.

“No, Starfish,” he admitted quietly. “And I don’t think I’d want to.”

And yet, with a gentle push, he put a modicum of space between them, the meaning of their dance changing as inches became an ocean.

Chapter

Ten

Inviting Nireed to dance had been a mistake. There shouldn’t’ve been any harm in demonstrating a simple two-step, just some innocent fun, but the weight of her arms around his neck, and the slow, sinuous grace of her hips beneath his hands, so responsive to him and the music’s rhythm, had fogged his brain.

Dancing had a way of lowering inhibitions, and he should have anticipated that, but this bordered dangerously close to a full-blown, lust-drunk haze. Off one beer, he didn’t even have a decent buzz going to blame it on. This was all him.

Was he attracted to the mermaid? Did he want her?

He wasn’t sure how he felt about that possibility, not when he didn’t know if he’d moved past the fact that she’d helped kill and devour eight fishermen. Or that she’d personally taken out Captain Flick Rockland just because she thought the guy was attacking him.

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