Page 89 of Ensnaring the Siren

So taken by the sight of her, by the pleasure she wrought, he barely registered her lifting his wrist to check the time on his watch. He’d a finite air supply, something that needed to be monitored. If they didn’t budget enough time to safely ascend, he’d get decompression sickness. Or worse. He’d run out of air and drown.

That should alarm him, and the fact that he couldn’t concentrate on anything else but the sensations her body doled, but his limbs felt heavy, blissfully lethargic.

Nireed pressed a kiss to his palm before laying it above his head, her unhurried movements soothing. “I’ve got you,” she mouthed, before redoubling her efforts.

All he could do was stare up at her, enthralled by her intoxicating spell.

It wasn’t long before his back arched off the seabed, euphoria stealing over him.

Chapter

Thirty

After ascending at a cautious thirty feet per minute, and taking a longer break during the last twenty feet, Nireed returned Reid to the surface with plenty of time to spare—thirty-six minutes to be exact. It was in the mermaid lab that she’d learned to tell time, the clock ticking above the door an agonizing reminder of its slow passage. But she’d felt none of that pain watching it for Reid. It was with loving attentiveness that she made sure he had enough air in his tank.

Pushing his goggles to the top of his head, Reid spat out his mouthpiece, grinning wide. A red outline of where his goggles had been cutely ringed around his eyes. Looping an arm around her shoulders, he pulled her in, kissing her fiercely.

“That was amazing.” He laughed, water droplets dripping from his lashes and dotting his cheeks.

It was the stuff of dreams. She never could’ve hoped it might be a reality for them, what with the limitations of his biology. “Would you do it again?”

“In a heartbeat. Although, I think I might’ve experienced nitrogen narcosis.”

“Is that bad or good?” It sounded bad, but he was still smiling.

“Not great, safety-wise. Could’ve been really bad, if I’m being honest, but you took care of me.” He lightly tapped a finger to her nose. “It’s an altered state of mind that impairs judgment. Causes fatigue. Sometimes hallucinations. Kicks in at around one hundred feet. If someone else isn’t looking out for you when it happens, you may forget to surface, which is bad for obvious reasons.”

Deepest murk, that did sound quite bad. Next time, they’d stick to shallower water. “I will always look out for you.”

He tipped his forehead to hers. “I know. Thank you, Starfish.”

Her tail waved back and forth beneath them, and because Reid liked to match her rhythm, she kept an easy, leisurely pace. It might be a little while before Lorelei and Lila returned for him, and he needed to conserve his strength.

“It’s fitting, in a way. Would your first time in the deep even be right if I didn’t blow your mind and endanger your life in the same forty minutes?”

“Did you just crack a siren joke?”

She smirked.

“Man, I’m lucky I’m cute.”

She just smiled, showing more teeth than strictly necessary.

“I am too cute to eat, right?”

“Cute, yes.” Playfully, she nipped at his earlobe. “But I do like the way you taste.”

He swatted at her face, and she licked his hand.

But all playfulness died when she detected a shift in atmosphere.

She pulled Reid in close as a thick fog rolled in, a wall of smoky white even her siren eyes couldn’t penetrate. It curled around them, enshrouding their surroundings. People got lost in this kind of fog, never to be found.

“That’s not good,” Reid murmured, arms looped around her waist. “They’re not going to see us through that.”

“Shh, let me listen.” Her hearing wasn’t as good above water as below, but it was still sensitive and engine sounds were easy to pick out. If she could get a sense of distance and location, they could start swimming in that direction. They’d have a better chance at finding Cure Creator’s research vessel than the other way around.

Concentrating, she filtered out the sound of Reid’s breathing, the beating of his heart, the waves, and the wind. She thought she caught snatches of a small engine, puttering somewhere in the distance, maybe three or so miles away. But there was something else. Something too big to be the research vessel, drowning out all other nearby sound.

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