by Jaci Burton
* * * * *
Jaz’s eyes widened as a man with a human torso and a fish tail swam to the entrance of the lab. His lower body gleamed an aqua blue color. As he swam through the watery doorway, his lower half transformed into a human male. Thankfully, he wore the same kind of loincloth some of the men wore here.
Oceana was amazing. Different species from human to merman to sprites and so many others she couldn’t even name them all. Many ran around naked, a fact she found quite interesting, and yet not shocking in the least. Some wore the loincloth or toga-like shifts.
She looked around for Trey, but didn’t see him.
“Hey,” the man said, nodding and moving over to one of the tables.
“Hey,” she mumbled in response, shocked to her toes.
She couldn’t help but stare at him, and heated from forehead to her knees when he looked up at her with a questioning look on his face.
“Are you new here?” he asked.
“You could say that.” Was she even supposed to tell him she was from topside?
His aqua eyes widened. “Oh, you’re the land human.”
“Yes.”
He walked over to her and held out his hand. Webbing spread wide as he opened his fingers. “I am Zaren.”
“Hello, Zaren,” she said. “I’m Jasmine.”
His smile gleamed white against his dark skin. “Welcome to Oceana.”
A shock of awareness spread through her as he squeezed her fingers. Such heat emanated from his body. It was almost like touching Trey, but with Trey there was more of a passionate connection. With Zaren, it was different. “You’re a merman?”
He nodded. “Bet you don’t see my kind up on land very often.”
His smile was infectious, and her wariness began to dissipate. When he motioned her onto a stool next to his, she sat, thankful for someone to talk to. Trey had been disconcertingly silent lately. “No, I don’t see mermen of any kind topside.”
“Kind of hard for us to occupy your labs in this condition.”
“Yet you assumed nearly human form when you came in here.”
He nodded. “True. Can’t flood the lab with water because of our experiments, so we shapeshift to accommodate the lack of ocean.”
More things to amaze her. “Are all of Oceana’s people shapeshifters?”
“No, just the guardians.”
“Guardians?”
“Don’t you have work to do, Zaren?”
Jasmine turned at the sound of Trey’s voice, surprised to find him glaring at them. She looked at Zaren, who shrugged and smiled. “I’m talking to Jasmine right now.”
“Jasmine’s busy and doesn’t need to waste time making idle talk with you.”
Zaren arched a brow. “If I didn’t know you better, Triton, I’d think you want to keep her all to yourself.”
“I think you’re full of shit, Zar. Now go fuck around somewhere else and leave us to our work.”
Zaren laughed, picked up Jasmine’s hand and pressed a soft kiss to her palm. She shivered when sexual heat instantly trickled down her body. When she looked up at Zaren, he winked. “A little psychic gift from me to you.”
She supposed whoa wouldn’t be an appropriate response. “Umm, thank you.”
“Trust me, Jasmine,” he said as he stood and headed to the door. “It was my pleasure.”
She watched him leave, marveling at the instant transformation from human male to merman as he stepped through the watery doorway, then swam away. She looked at Trey’s angry face.
“He sent you a sexual connection, didn’t he?” he asked, his voice dark and accusatory.
“I guess so.” She rubbed her palm against her thigh, still feeling the tingle.
“Prick,” he mumbled.
Jasmine fought a smile. Trey was jealous!
Now why did that thought thrill her so much? And why did she suddenly want to see what she could do with that jealousy?
“It was amazing. Like nothing I’ve ever felt before,” she said as matter-of-factly as she could, moving back to the microscope she’d been working at before Zaren’s arrival.
“Really. Never felt anything like that before, huh?”
“Nope, nothing that intense. My body still tingles.”
She waited, poised for his response, some perverse side of her wanting to see if he even cared that another man had shot her a sexual zinger. But he didn’t say a word. So she decided to push a little harder, and let out a dreamy sigh.
“All right, that’s enough!”
She jumped at the sound of his voice, and looked up to find him storming toward her. Instead of fear, her body came alive with a sensual tremor of excitement.
He didn’t stop when he reached her side, just pulled her against him and ground his hips against hers.
Pinning her hands at her sides, his fingers dug into her flesh. But it didn’t hurt. Instead, her cunt moistened, instantly ready for him. These little shifts the women of Oceana wore didn’t include underwear, which stimulated her to know that nothing separated his cock from her pussy.
And she’d bet Trey already knew that.
“Is this exciting to you, Jasmine?” he asked, the husk in his voice thrilling her.
“Yes,” she managed in a whisper. Her throat was dry. All moisture in her body had gathered between her legs.
“Better than Zaren’s little psychic fuck?”
“Yes.” She’d pushed him too hard, had no idea he’d react this way. But still, she was incredibly turned on, especially when he dragged her into a narrow passage, not quite outside the main lab but away from the viewing area to anyone outside.
His eyes had darkened to a stormy blue, his gaze so intense the heat between them was palpable. Her nipples brushed his bare chest and instantly hardened, the peaks extending as if desperately searching for contact with his body.
Just like his cock, which grew insistently against her. She let out a whimper and pushed against the hands holding her arms down. Trey released her and she threaded her fingers into his lush hair, pulling his face towards hers.
His lips crashed down over hers, his tongue plunging inside. The torture was merciless.
Heedless of their surroundings, she lifted one leg and wrapped it around his hip. The thin cloth he wore was no barrier to his burgeoning shaft, and he brushed the material aside.
Jasmine reached for his rigid heat, cupping it in her palm, sliding her hand over his length until he uttered a harsh curse against her ear.
“Yes, Jasmine, stroke my cock, make it ready. I’m going to fuck you. Right here, right now.”
Part of her wanted to pull away, to beg for privacy. The other part of her didn’t care where they were, as long as Trey drove his shaft deep inside her. She ached for him, craved a release that felt too long denied. Pent-up anxiety coursed through her, demanding relief.
She grazed the tip of his penis with her index finger, rewarded with drops of his silken fluid. Catching his heated gaze with her own, she lifted her finger to her mouth and licked his essence.
Trey groaned and raised her shift over her hips, slipping his cock between her legs. Her moisture seeped over his shaft and she slid against him, sparks of pleasure stabbing her core as her clit rode the velvety softness of his penis.
He held her leg poised over his hip, backed her against the wall, then lifted her off the ground and drove his cock hard into her cunt.
He captured her cries with his eager mouth. She wrapped her legs around his waist and he grabbed her buttocks, his fingers digging into the tender flesh, massaging her, pulling her closer.
She loved the feel of him, the sweet ocean scent of his neck when she buried her face against it. His pulse pounded against her lips and she nipped at it, rewarded with his guttural groan.
“Tell me what pleases you, Jasmine,” he said through panting breaths. “Do you like a long cock?”
She lifted and met his teasing gaze, not sure what he meant by that question. She was about to ask when his cock e
longated inside her. Subtly, so that she barely felt it at first, and then…wow. Oh, God did she feel it, inch by lengthening inch until the tip bumped against her womb.
“Or maybe long and thick.”
She hadn’t been imagining it. As he said the words, his thickening cock stretched her walls, filling her so completely he could barely slide it back and forth.
“Oh my God,” she whispered, unable to believe what he’d just done.
“Tell me what you like, and I’ll make it happen.”
She couldn’t wrap her mind around the delicious sensations of being so totally filled, let alone make any suggestions.
“Maybe you’d like me to have longer arms, so I can do this.”
Despite their positions, she felt his fingers probing her cunt, felt him swipe at her seeping juices, then teasing the entrance to her anus. Shocks of pleasure made her pussy tighten around him as he teased her puckered hole. When he slipped his finger inside her, she cried out.
No way could he do that unless he grew longer arms.
“Holy shit, Trey!”
He laughed then, removing his fingers and returning his cock to normal size.
“I can give it to you huge like that, baby, but right now I just want to drive it up into you hard and fast until you scream sweet pleasure in my ear.”
The mere thought of him doing just that had her teetering on the edge of reason. She held on tight as he once again rocked her close against him, then thrust upwards, impaling her on his thick shaft until she was near delirious with the sensations.
A spiraling, sweet tightening formed inside her core, starting at her belly and spreading outward like white heat. It was too intense, she couldn’t take the pleasure.
“Hang on, Jasmine, we’re almost there.”
Trey clutched her close, then stroked her, his pelvis brushing lightly against her clit as he leisurely took her to the pinnacle.
The contractions pulsed within her and she dug her nails into his back. “Hard now, Trey, fuck me harder!”
With a dark laugh, he did just that, plunging deeply, so deep she felt the pinpricks of delight all the way to her womb. Then she toppled over the cliff, indeed doing exactly what he’d asked for. She screamed her climax into his ear, riding him hard and fast until she took him along with her. He tensed, then poured his seed inside her.
Jasmine kept her eyes closed tight, using her sense of smell and hearing to breathe in the scent of sex that permeated the air around them, the sweet smell of satisfaction that made her tremble in Trey’s arms. She listened to the rush of blood pounding in her ears as she fought for even breathing, and heard Trey’s panting breaths as he ruffled the hair against her cheek.
God help her, nothing could compare to loving this man. She’d fallen hard for a man who wasn’t even human.
A man she knew she would never have a future with.
Chapter Fourteen
“I think I’ve found it!” Jaz looked up excitedly and searched the lab for Trey. He came out of a storage room, arching a brow.
“You have?”
“Yes. Come look!”
For two days they’d been working tirelessly to isolate the bacterium. They’d come close so many times, only to suffer disappointment when their trials didn’t equal the bacteria they’d found in the digestive tracts of the ailing dolphins.
They’d pushed on, eating and sleeping very little, barely even speaking to each other unless one of them felt close to uncovering the mystery.
In the back of her mind dwelled the fact that the closer they came to discovering the cause and developing an antidote, the sooner she’d be leaving Oceana. And when that happened, her memories would be washed of any knowledge of this beautiful place.
And of Trey.
“Tell me what you’ve found.”
She inhaled his scent, always like a fresh ocean breeze. “Remember we talked about the dolphins ingesting sponges and that possibly being the culprit?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I took another sampling and discovered a new strain of bacteria. This one from diseased coral which the sponges must have come into contact with.”
“Go on.”
“I’ve never seen this strain before. It’s almost like it’s deep sea based, because I’ve never come across it on land. And I’ve never seen it on any of the coral found in the shallow waters.”
“Let me see.”
She scooted to the side, allowing him access to the viewing bar. His arm brushed against hers, and her entire body tingled. It still amazed her that the slightest touch of his skin against her could cause such a combustible reaction.
“That’s interesting. It looks like a new strain, all right. A combination of the B and C strains we’d looked at earlier.”
“Exactly. And that’s why we couldn’t identify it. So I’m thinking if we mix the antibiotic antidotes that separately cure both the B and C samples, then combine them into the right dosage amounts, we’ve got our cure.”
He looked up and nodded. “Sounds like it. That’s why our scientists couldn’t figure it out. What it looks like to me is something that’s based on both a land bacterium and one indigenous to the sea. Rare as hell.”
“Exactly. I’ll get to work testing the antidotes right away.”
“Good.” He paused, then added, “How long do you think before you’ll have the antidote?”
“About two days, maximum. I’m really anxious to get this finished so we can administer it to the dolphins.”
“Okay. I’ll let you work on it, then.”
His gaze lingered, compelling her to reach for him. She ran her palm across his cheek, her toes curling when he pressed a soft kiss to her palm.
Two days. If this worked, that’s all they’d have left together.
And he didn’t even know she loved him. Would it matter if she told him? Would it complicate things? Did he even care?
No. Don’t think about it, and for God’s sake don’t tell him. She’d only end up hurting herself when she found out her love for him didn’t change anything. She’d still have to leave Oceana.
* * * * *
True to her word, in less than two days, Jasmine had an antidote to the dolphins’ infection. Now it was up to Trey to administer it, and if it worked, bring her back to land.
Where she belonged.
He stood over her in the darkness, watching her sleep. She’d long ago discarded the light blanket on his bed, and her body glowed in the natural ocean light.
She slept on her stomach, her hair in wild disarray around her shoulders.
The most perfect body he’d ever seen. Hell, the most perfect woman he’d ever known. And she would soon leave him.
When he looked down at her sleeping in his bed, he knew she belonged there. There, and in his sanctuary, in the lab, working side by side with him, and swimming next to him in the waters. Why did the thought of her leaving make his stomach ache with a burning pain of loss?
With a longing he hadn’t expected, he wanted to crawl back into bed with her, wrap her in his arms and never let her go.
But she didn’t belong with him, or in Oceana.
And he had no business loving her. But he did, had stupidly allowed his emotions to interfere with his vow not to get involved, not to love again.
This time, when she left, it would hurt much worse than when Leelia left. He realized now that his love for Jasmine was so much more than what he’d felt for Leelia.
Leelia had been an unattainable beauty, convinced that she belonged on land. He’d been more determined to convince her that she belonged with him, competing with the land for her affections. That elusive quality about her that he’d never been able to reach had been the attraction. It hadn’t been love.
Not like what he felt for Jasmine.
When Leelia had left, his ego had been bruised. When Jasmine left, part of his soul would go with her.
Bending down next to the bed, he whispered in her ear. “Jasmine, I’m leaving.”<
br />
She shifted and let out a soft moan. “Mmm hmm.”
Trey smiled in the darkness. “I’m going topside now to deliver the antibiotics to the dolphins.”
“Okay.”
She was exhausted, hadn’t slept at all the past two nights. No wonder she wouldn’t stir.
That, and the fact he’d kept her up last night making love to her over and over again until they’d both fallen into a spent slumber.
Each time he held her in his arms, he knew that in a short period of time she’d be out of his life forever. A thought that a few weeks ago he would have welcomed with a sigh of relief.
But not any longer.
No sense in delaying the inevitable. He swept his hand over her silken hair and pressed a kiss to her lips. She murmured and sighed, offering him a sleepy smile, but didn’t wake.
“Sleep well, my little siren. I’ll be back soon.”
He swam out the door armed with the vials necessary to treat the dolphins, hopeful that the serum would work, and at the same time dreading what would happen when he returned to Oceana.
With his lightning fast swimming, the trip topside took only a few minutes. He walked out of the water, clothing immediately appearing on his now dry body, and smiled, thinking how Jasmine would love to be able to do something like that.
So many things he had yet to show her, so many things she would be capable of if she were a resident of Oceana.
But he’d never be able to tell her, or show her, any of the miracles of their civilization.
Enough. Quit thinking about it. She isn’t staying, so deal with it. With renewed determination, he slipped inside the lab, grateful it was before daybreak. He could administer the antidote, hang around a day or so and watch for results, then hopefully swim back down to Oceana with good news for Jasmine.
If the antidote worked. That was his first task. Before any of Jasmine’s assistants arrived, he’d administered the serum to every one of the sick dolphins. He charted their progress, including the dates and times and dosage levels for each dolphin, knowing Jasmine would want to have access to the information when she returned.
He explained Jasmine’s continued absence by indicating she was offsite gathering more information on the cause of the illness, and thought he could handle administering the antidotes. The staff seemed to buy it with no problem, their excitement over a possible cure taking precedence over any other thoughts.