Page 53 of Ensnaring the Siren

Tucking his dick into the waistband of his boxers, he swung his legs off the bed. He should see how her wound was healing, make sure infection wasn’t setting in. “Let me swap out your bandages first.”

First responder mode would get his body back under control.

Huffing impatiently, Nireed rolled onto her back, propping herself up on her elbows.

He swallowed thickly, reaching for his EMS kit with a shaky hand.

Her long, dark brown hair had fallen back, giving him an eyeful, as she splayed out along his floor, not a stitch of clothing on her, looking like a goddamn feast.

Using the kit to hide himself, he knelt on the floor next to her. But the cramped quarters meant he couldn’t do so without some part of him touching some part of her. He desperately tried not to think about how his thigh pressed snugly against her cool scales and warm skin as he worked a corner loose on the old bandage. “How’s it feel?”

“A little sore. Kind of itchy.”

He peeled back the bandage and sucked in a surprised breath.

“What?” She looked down. “It looks fine.”

That was just it. Not only did the injury look fine, it looked mostly healed. What had been a gaping wound less than twelve hours ago was now a deep pink scar. He’d used dissolvable sutures, and in most places, they were gone. At this stage in healing, there wasn’t any reason to rebandage it.

“You heal fast,” he marveled, running a thumb beneath the spot.

“Have to. Blood attracts sharks.”

Shuffling back, he examined her tailfin, taking the flowing, piscine material into his hands. It shimmered as he sifted through the folds, checking on the sutures he’d stitched. The healing was patchier here. In some places, the membrane had fused back together; in others, it was still red and raw, but even those spots didn’t look inflamed. Her fin was healing well, just not as rapidly as her flesh.

“Does it hurt?” He applied antiseptic ointment to the reddest areas. Even if it all washed off in five minutes during her swim, with how fast her body healed, maybe it would absorb this quickly, too. Anything, even if just a little, to help the process along couldn’t hurt.

“Not much. Not a lot of feeling there, remember?”

He did remember, but it was a part of his training to ask, and he was going through the motions in a feeble attempt to keep his lust in check.

When he finished up her tail, he returned to her side, applying scar cream this time.

“Thank you, Reid,” she said softly. “For taking care of me.”

“Always.” He looked up into her awaiting eyes. “I’m really glad you’re healing this well. I don’t like seeing you hurt.”

It wasn’t until she rested her hand on top of his that he realized two things. One, he hadn’t stopped touching her. And two, not only was he still touching her, he’d gone and laid his hand across her belly.

“Come swim with me?” Something that looked a lot like hope sparked in her eyes. How could he say no to that? Especially not after stealing that light with an almost kiss he’d been too chicken to follow through with.

He nodded. “Go on. Just need to put this away first.”

Reid waited for her to clear the door before readjusting himself and following her.

The air was cool when he stepped out onto the diving platform, a thick tapestry of stars overhead. He placed his hands on his hips, gazing up. He never tired of that view.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Nireed was looking up, too, from the water, her tail fanning beneath in long, easy strokes. The mystifying translucent quality of her skin and muscles had returned, hints of her skeletal structure glowing from within, and she twinkled like starlight, a mini universe under her skin.

Reid wanted nothing more than to be in her orbit. “It’s breathtaking.”

She smiled up at the sky, and despite that smile’s sharp edges, it didn’t look malicious. Just serene.

Not wanting to ruin this tranquility, he lowered himself into the water—which was fucking cold—but he wasn’t going to undercut the moment by complaining. He swam beside her.

When she turned that smile on him, his breath caught in his throat.

How cold it was no longer mattered. How scared and unsure he’d been, a distant memory. When she smiled at him like that, looked at him like he brought her peace, he knew.

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