Page 74 of Oceansong
He watched with fascination as she undid them, and she took his hand, sliding it beneath her clothes.
“Ah, first time I’ve seen such a thing.”
“I imagine the mer don’t have much use for buttons and zippers,” she said with a light laugh. His expression was sheepish, his hand moving lower, lower, and she gasped, her gaze locked with his.
“Open your legs.” His voice came out hoarse and breathy.
She did. His fingers met her damp heat and worked in slow, methodical circles.
A gasp emerged from her throat when he slid one finger inside her, and then another.
His mouth moved to her neck and her breasts, pleasing her desperately, as if today were the last time he would ever see her. It drove her to want more, need more from him. Her mind ran wild and again, her body thrummed.
She pressed her lips to his ear. “Kaden, don’t you dare stop. Please, please, please.”
He listened and kissed her again, a clash of tongues and lips, her body heat rising with his. She wanted to hold on to this feeling, to him, forever.
Under his arduous touch, the pulsing in her temples made her feel as if her head was going to explode into a thousand stars, clouding her vision and mind like a school of fish swimming around her in dizzying dances.
She unraveled with forceful pulls until she became undone, and a cascade of dull warmth spread from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. A cry escaped her, and she squeezed her legs against his arm while she buried her face in his neck, her body shaking. He enveloped her in his arms and kissed the top of her head. Her breathing gradually slowed to a normal cadence.
Neither of them spoke, but she was content to stay where they were. She didn’t want to think about returning to the docks yet.
Instead, she nestled in his arms, fearing that if he let her go, their worries would become reality.
Thirty
Three—or was it four?—days passedsince Angie was with Kaden last, and still, her heart fluttered when she thought of him. The way he touched and kissed her made her feel like she could walk on water. A flush of heat emanated beneath her belly and dissipated over her thighs when the handsome, sturdy mer-prince made his way into her thoughts.
The perfect lover. And a mer, the enemy of her people. A fact she couldn’t forget, much as she tried to tonight.
Cyrus’s face flashed in her mind. The way he had nearly killed her, and her panic as she desperately searched for air bubbles. Her only hope at the time of staying alive thousands of feet under the sea. She shivered at the memory.
Beside her, Mia and Stefan laughed while setting up a long table full of plastic cups and napkins. Behind her, Bàba, their village physician Imani, and Jenny and Dave from their village prepared drinks. Kodiak Coffee—Bàba’s favorite—dessert wines and Mamie Taylors flowed with abundance and soda, water, and hot chocolate topped off the rest of the table. Angie had invited Celia, but the young woman declined. Other villagers and dock workers milled around the patio, chatting and laughing.
All that was missing was the food.
Nick was also missing from tonight’s festivities. Apparently, he was still at the docks, according to Bàba. Angie couldn’t fight the feeling that he was up to something.
“So, Nick was the one who set up this whole celebration, and he’s nowhere to be found?” she sniped to no one in particular. “Would be nice to actually feed everyone here.”
“Last I heard, he was on his way. Promised good news,” Ken, Stefan’s husband, said, passing by and standing next to her.
Angie jolted. She hadn’t seen Ken coming, and Nick promising good news made her stomach clench with unease.
An upwards of forty some people were in their sprawling backyard, including Jenny and Dave and a group of fishermen among them. It came alive beneath early August’s midnight sun, like their summer family gatherings when Mama was still alive. Even Lulu came out for a peek, a tiny thing standing in the corner and staring at the new people with wonder in her round eyes.
Rosie tugged on Angie’s shorts. She pointed to Angie’s wrist. “Angie ayí, where did you get your bracelet from? It looks like mine, but nicer.”
“Oh, uh.” Angie looked down to Kaden’s gift snug around her wrist. “It was a gift. But, tell you what. After I get out of school and I have a little more money, I’ll get you an even nicer one.”
Rosie’s curious expression brightened, and her eyes sparkled with her smile. “Okay! And, um, I wanted to ask, but have you seen more mermaids?”
Angie acknowledged Rosie. She couldn’t tell her about Kaden and Adrielle and Cyrus.
Adrielle was the type of gorgeous mermaid that Rosie dreamed of seeing. Angie knew, because she had once dreamed that too. She hated lying to her family, but she couldn’t take the likely chance she would run off and tell her parents.
“Not recently sweetie, no.”
