Stolen by the Sea Lord (Lords of Atlantis Book 4)

by Starla Night

  “Perhaps.”

  Perhaps he valued her more sharply having loved her once and lost her. Or perhaps they had both matured in their separation and heartbreak, and now their experiences were richer and more poignant.

  Whatever the reason, he nuzzled into her soft skin, teasing her attractive slickness. She gasped. He delved into her folds and rediscovered the sensual places she most liked stroked, sucked, and licked. Her exquisite pleasure cries muffled as she tried to keep her hot mouth around his thickened cock.

  She suddenly gripped the sheets and shuddered. Release whipped through her body, silent yet powerful. She collapsed and gasped for breath.

  So, he could bring her to the peak of pleasure with only his tongue. His chest swelled with rightness. Knowing he still had this precious skill healed another part of his injured heart.

  Zara wiggled free of his grasp and sat beside his torso, on her knees, and rotated to face him. He rolled upright to face her. His cock pulsed hard as granite, ready.

  Her soul light shone like a beacon. Was it enough to make her fins? Right now, he didn’t care. He loved her unconditionally. Defenses would come later. She had torn all his down and made him stronger inside with her mouth, with her acceptance, and with her hungry tongue.

  Now, Zara straddled him, thumping one knee on each side of his waist. His cock pressed her silky wet cleft. He pulsed, needing to thrust inside.

  She curled her arms around the back of his neck and undulated.

  He steadied her, his fingers sinking into the perfect grip on her hip bones. “Zara?”

  “I want you.” She kissed his mouth, stoking his hunger even higher, and positioned her tight entrance against the head of his throbbing cock. “In.”

  He steadied her. She glided onto him, fitting them together as one, gripping him inside and out. His cock filled her taut channel completely. It felt like coming home.

  She sucked in a trembling breath and sighed her satisfaction. Resting her forehead against his, she nuzzled him softly. “You are the only male I have ever wanted. I never forgot you for a moment.”

  He struggled not to release immediately, drowning her in his seed.

  “Never leave me again.”

  His voice cracked. “Never.”

  She stamped his lips with hers and then rocked against him, closing her eyes and moaning. Her dark pearled nipples stroked his chest. Her wet sheath gripped his shaft and her cleft ground against the turgid base of his cock.

  She was so beautiful, so fiery, so gorgeous.

  So passionate.

  He gripped her derriere, filling his palms with her sweet bounty. She rolled back her head, giving in to her undulating thrusts. He sucked on the exposed flesh, seeking to bring her to greater passion. Her channel gripped his shaft and her pleasure-filled moans filled his ears. He thrust deeper into her willing softness. Faster, tighter, and so deliciously hot.

  She gasped. “Elan!” Dug her nails into his back. “Yes!”

  He slammed in, coated himself in her, and lost all control. She was his, and he was hers. Forever.

  She gasped. Her channel clenched his cock. Her blissful expression shattered into an endless orgasm.

  Hers shoved him over the edge. His balls clenched. White-hot pleasure burst from his cock and he filled her with his trembling release.

  They came down together, in each other’s arms.

  She stroked his shoulders gently. He squeezed her tight. If this moment could only last for the rest of his life, he would know peace.

  Something thumped in the living room.

  She stiffened, and he rose to full alert.

  The world would not give them peace. His wish was foolish.

  They disentangled and scrambled off the bed. He bolted for the living room naked. Zara’s fearful cry, “Zain?” echoed behind him.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Zara raced after Elan, clutching her clothes to her chest.

  How could she have been so stupid?

  She knew not to underestimate her parents. If they returned, they wanted something, and when they wanted something of hers or Milly’s, they took it. Returning a week after Zain and Elan emerged from the ocean? The timing was no coincidence.

  Elan’s warrior gaze coolly swept the empty living room.

  Zara raced past him to the bathroom.

  Baby Zain slept peacefully in the dry bathtub, a blue and yellow duckies blanket wrapped around his white onesie. His little mouth hung open and a very human snore emerged from his baby lips.

  Her terror drained out of her. She rested her forehead on the door frame.

  Behind her, Elan stalked through the house. The quiet pad of his feet announced he was going upstairs, and his weight creaked the old floorboards as he thoroughly examined every room for intruders.

  Maybe she was over-reacting. Maybe it was a coincidence her parents returned now. Her father had lots of friends and partners in the area.

  The scent of sex clung to her skin. She tidied herself quietly in the sink and pulled on her old clothes.

  Elan returned to her side. He was still naked — and troubled. “There are no defenses in this house.”

  His castle closed up to become impenetrable when it was attacked. In comparison, yes, her house was definitely lacking.

  “Close the windows,” she said. They were usually left open for refreshing breezes; spring humidity could get stuffy and hot. “Make sure everything’s locked.”

  “I will rest on the couch tonight.”

  “Sure.” She’d sleep on the floor of Zain’s bathroom. “Put on some pants.”

  He looked down at his nude form. The corner of his mouth turned up, a pleased smile remembering what they had just shared.

  Her feminine center tingled.

  She shooed him out and whispered. “Get dressed.”

  With a stolen kiss on the back of her neck, flushing her tingling to full-blown throbbing, he retreated.

  No time for tingling. She rubbed her neck and set about securing the house.

  They were locking the final window when Milly’s car raced to her usual spot in the back. Her headlights flashed, and she honked without regard for the neighbors.

  Zara’s heart thudded.

  She unlocked the back door and ran out in her flip-flops, Elan right behind her.

  Milly cut the engine and got out, her headlights still on. “Is everything okay?”

  “Here? Yes.” Zara felt Elan’s warm, shirtless presence at her back. “Is everything okay with you?”

  “Yes.” Milly’s shoulders sagged. “Oh, thank goodness. You don’t have a cell phone and I got a call from the police. Someone who looked like our mother hired a locksmith to have keys made to our front door.”

  A sick feeling oozed into Zara’s stomach. A dangerous twinge of knowing.

  Even though she had just checked, she turned and sprinted back into the house. Through the kitchen, the living room, to the bathroom. Elan and Milly crowded behind her.

  The duckies blanket in the tub was empty.

  Her world tilted. She grabbed the wall for balance. Her stomach bolted for her throat.

  Elan turned abruptly and disappeared.

  “Where’s Zain?” Milly asked.

  “He was right here.” Zara wheeled, stumbling past her sister. The front door hung open and Elan raced across the front gravel.

  A car engine started on the main road. Tires squealed as the engine revved. A car fishtailed away, its lights flicking on after it was already halfway down their hill. Elan raced after the car as it rapidly left him behind.

  “My car! Go!” Milly shouted, tugging Zara.

  She ran after Milly and crashed into the passenger’s seat. Elan tumbled into the back seat. Zara fumbled with the door. It wouldn’t close. The seatbelt was caught. She yanked it out and slammed the door.

  Milly started the engine, messed with her cell phone, and shouted, “Seatbelts! Seatbelts!”

  “Drive!” Zara swore through shaky tears. “They’
re getting away!”

  “Not until you put on your seatbelt!”

  She fumbled with the fastening. The lights of the other car disappeared around the hill. She sobbed. “Milly!”

  Elan reached forward and snapped Zara’s belt into place. “Go.”

  Milly threw her cell phone at Zara and wheeled out to the road. She white-knuckled the steering wheel.

  The other car had disappeared.

  Zara strained for taillights. The moon cast a small glow between patches of black and gray clouds, and the roads were quiet at this time of night; the island had a population of about fourteen thousand, and most of them spent late evenings with their families.

  She squinted into the patchy darkness. “Did you call the police?”

  Milly shook her head tightly.

  Zara checked the phone and pressed the call button. Nothing happened. “I can’t dial.”

  “That happens when the battery’s low.”

  “Where’s your charger?”

  “Not with me.”

  She wanted to scream. “Why did you wait for seatbelts? If they get away, we’ll lose—”

  A small, furry creature dashed in front of the wheels.

  Milly slammed on the brakes.

  The sedan skidded, slid out, and stopped on the edge of the sharp ditch. It rocked back and forth on its wheels. Burnt rubber oiled the night.

  Milly stared at Zara. “That would have been someone’s head through the windshield.”

  Zara’s heart couldn’t beat any faster and her hands couldn’t shake any more. “Okay. I get it. Drive.”

  Milly returned to the correct lane and accelerated to normal speeds. At the first stop sign, she guessed. Distant taillights flashed on a barely visible road leading toward an exterior harbor.

  Anxiety squeezed Zara’s belly in a fist. “Is that them?”

  “We’ll find out.” Milly’s voice was flat as she drove.

  “Your phone’s still not working,” Zara moaned, unable to do anything else.

  Elan remained silent in the back seat.

  “Try restarting.”

  The taillights turned onto a private marina. Yes. They were chasing the right car.

  Milly reached the turn a few minutes later and bumped over the entrance. She slowed to check each parked car. Zara divided her time between searching for suspicious shadows and watching Milly’s phone cycle power.

  On the dock, a medium-sized boat suddenly powered on.

  “There!” Zara pointed. “That must be our parents’ yacht.”

  Milly slowed to make the turn.

  Elan unsnapped his seat belt and exited the moving car.

  Milly slammed on the brakes, rocking the car on its tires. Zara unsnapped her belt and climbed out. She dropped Milly’s phone on the seat.

  “Zara!” Milly called. “Wait!”

  “Call the police!”

  Zara raced to the dock, easily catching Elan and passing him. She wasn’t a great runner, especially in flip flops, but she had lived her entire life on land.

  She reached the end of the dock. The yacht was already chortling away, hundreds of feet, heading for the marina exit.

  Zain!

  She pulled off her flip-flops. The dark water reflected patches of moonlight, opaque and impenetrable.

  Elan huffed down the dock behind her.

  She turned to him. No time for fear. No time for doubts. “Can you catch that boat?”

  “Yes.” He reached the end and jumped.

  She jumped behind him.

  The water slammed into her, cold and black. Shock squeezed her lungs and stole her breath. She struggled in her clothes. Seawater sucked into her lungs and choked her. Her throat closed and her eyes watered.

  Drowning! She was drowning!

  A hand grabbed her elbow and tugged her through the black water, fast and sure, like a jet ski.

  She flailed.

  The sea water, stunning at first, pooled in her lungs. It was a heavy, cold, familiar weight. On her back, slits opened to the chill, transforming her air-breathing lungs into water-breathing gills. The temperature warmed to a familiar slippery sensation as her skin shifted from human to mer.

  She was not drowning.

  Zara opened her eyes.

  The night ocean flared to life as if someone had flipped on stadium lights.

  Darkness means nothing under the water.

  She could see miles in every direction. Marina fish floated in the light, each glowing with their own inner lights, and making small notes like the chime of a xylophone.

  Their soul lights.

  Elan could see these in humans and mer. She could only sense them in animals as a sort of combined light-sound.

  The fish tinkled as they munched plankton, which glowed like stardust sprinkled into layers on the ocean “breezes.” Coral came alive with music and lights as each resident gave off its own unique musical aura.

  Larger wrasse darted into deeper water, bellowing their unique song, and beneath them, the ground sloped down to reveal the whole shape of the ocean. Manta rays the size of Milly’s sedan flew like magic carpets in a V-formation, and farther out, true giants — mako sharks, the squiggly arms of large squids, and even baleen whales — soared.

  It was beautiful and freeing, like flying.

  Just as she remembered.

  Elan gripped her forearm. He was still wearing his denim shorts; his ankles now terminated in large fins that he kicked powerfully, propelling them after the yacht.

  He had not left her behind.

  Even though she couldn’t make her fins and feared her parents, he understood. She needed to save Zain.

  The motor growled with unnatural, mechanical screeches. Propeller blade chewed the surf. Elan flew under the yacht, examining it like an unfamiliar fish. “How do we defeat this machine?”

  “On the deck we can shut off the engine.”

  Her voice sounded weird under water. Rather than using her mouth, her words vibrated deep inside. And they weren’t exactly words, either. She heard his communication in the same place — in an unused chest cavity somewhere beneath her heart.

  “There’s a ladder,” she recalled. “On the left side.”

  He veered that direction. They surfaced. Waves rolled and smashed into her, stunning her as her body fought to shift from breathing water to breathing air. She choked helplessly.

  The ladder bounced in and out of Elan’s reach.

  She dragged helplessly behind him. If one of his arms wasn’t full of her dead weight, he might have a chance. And she couldn’t tell him to let her go because she couldn’t shift to speak.

  Rather than give up on her, Elan dropped beneath the surface to try a different attack.

  On the bow, the anchor chain dragged. Her parents had taken off so quickly they’d done an improper job of raising it. And why had they used an anchor, anyway? They’d been tied up to a dock.

  But now, regardless of the reasons, the anchor was being dragged out of the water.

  Elan changed direction and caught the ascending anchor chain. His webbed fingers hooked into the thick metal rungs. The anchor itself was the picture-book variety; her parents had always been more interested in style than function. He shifted to human feet and rested on the flat bar. It wasn’t big enough for her to stand on the bars too. They rose out of the water. The full force of gravity dragged her waterlogged body down.

  He gripped her around the waist and pulled her tight to his side, his biceps bulging with inhuman strength.

  He really was an indomitable warrior.

  She choked out the sea water and sucked in gasps of air. Fully shifting back to human form was rough. It felt a little like she’d drowned. Her throat and lungs clenched. Cold ocean sprayed against her flapping, freezing clothes.

  The anchor chain clicked into a narrow portal. The bow curved outward, so they dangled in the air. Elan would have a hard time reaching the deck.

  She forced her question around chattering teeth
. “Can you reach the deck?”

  He tested his reach, balancing with inhuman strength against the roll and bounce of the anchor. “No. We will try the ladder again.”

  “Wait.” He couldn’t reach … but she could. “Boost me.”

  “Zara.” He held her tight against his warm body. “You will be alone.”

  She knew that.

  “I will find another way.”

  “Zain could be hurt.” She gripped him in terror. “Boost me up there. I can do this.”

  He gripped the anchor chain in one hand. As though he felt her terror and knew she was lying, he lowered his voice with promise. “You are powerful. A warrior. You will fight them and win.”

  His words were always exactly what she needed to hear.

  “I’m ready.”

  He timed the roll of the ship and pushed her up over the thick lip of the deck. Her elbows landed on the edge and she almost slid off backward. He cupped her swinging feet and pushed.

  She wiggled forward and got her knee over the ledge, then rolled the rest of the way over and thudded on her back onto the deck.

  The boat looked worse than she remembered. Dingy lights crackled with disrepair. A broken mini fridge hung open next to her head as if someone had meant to throw it off the deck but missed; it had scratched the deck and dented the railing. Loose black tarpaulin obscured some chunk of machinery at her feet. She had landed in its shadow and she laid there like a lump, disguised, until she got up the courage to move.

  She would save Zain. Her parents would not win.

  Elan grunted. Something scraped the bow, thudding just below the ledge. Then, a splash.

  Zara crawled to the edge and looked over. Elan was no longer there. He had tried to leap after her and missed.

  She faced her parents alone.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Zara got to her knees and peeked around the busted mini fridge.

  Sick, dark feelings churned in her belly, heavier than the seawater.

  The deck curved around a peeling cabin and opened up to a trashed sun deck. A single light buzzed on the corner of the cabin.

  She clung to the shadow and crawled forward.

  Conversation on the sun deck made her freeze.