Shattered by the Sea Lord (Lords of Atlantis Book 8)

by Starla Night

  He moved around her and rested one hand on the ledge beside each thigh. His chest bumped gently against her knees, and the iridescent threads in his eyes gleamed. “Lucky me.”

  The suggestion in his tone made a delicious throb between her legs. Her butterflies flurried. She squeezed her elbows in tight, hugging her breasts and hiding her belly.

  He bumped against her. “You will be more comfortable in the water.”

  “I’ll be more comfortable ten years younger.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I wanted you to find a woman with fewer miles on her.” She risked reaching out and stroking his earnest, chiseled cheek. “You deserve someone like that.”

  He caught her hand and pressed a sizzling kiss to her palm. “But I want you.”

  Her breath hitched.

  He’d always said that. And it was too late for them now, anyway. He embraced her. She just had to embrace him back.

  He kicked back from the ledge and gently tugged her in.

  She entered the water with a splash. It was warm and salty, just like before. She blew bubbles out her nose, and the stillness of the lagoon seemed to chime into her waterlogged ears. She had shifted. She just had to release her bubbles and believe it.

  Leap of faith.

  Again.

  Everything about Ciran was a leap of faith.

  The protests of hundreds of her dating clients echoed in her mind. I don’t even know why I walked in here. Dating never works. I’m different. I’ve been trying to meet the man of my dreams for years and all I do is meet losers. What do you mean my attitude is what has to change?

  She breathed in.

  Water filled her mouth and hit the back of her throat.

  She choked.

  There was no way not to feel the wrongness of it. Heavy chill in her lungs, unnatural, promising death…

  Ciran whirled over her, rolling her around and making the rocky floor the ceiling, the air above her toes.

  The glow brightened as the lagoon opened up around her. Tiny, clear shrimps fluttered like moths. Algae glowed blue, and small anemones suctioned to the underside of rocks dusted with sea stars. Wind chimes of a hundred stained glass windows tinkled in her chest, in her ears. Stalagmites punctured the surface, and it was much deeper at the edge of the ledge than she’d realized. He hadn’t been standing on the bottom. No, he’d been floating or kicking those long fins.

  “You continue to wish for another bride for me.” His chest vibrated as they gently twirled in the lagoon. “But I want you, Dannika. I want your doubts and your miles and your worries and your hesitation. I want the you who is lost and afraid. I want the you who is finding her way again, and who comforts others even when she feels fearful herself. I want the you who works tirelessly for my warriors and cries tears of frustration because she cannot give them an easier life.”

  He slowed and his incisive gaze pierced her very soul.

  “And I want the you who is cautious with yourself, even though your natural urge is generosity, because you are not sure if you are ready to fully gift yourself to another soul mate.”

  Her heart ached.

  How did he see so much?

  She cupped his cheeks. These were the bones of a proud, arrogant warrior. She teased her fingertips along his dark, expressive brows. “I wasn’t always like this.”

  “And you will change again. Because although I want the you who is uncertain, I want even more the woman who knows her desires and claims her destiny.” He pressed another kiss to her tender fingertips. “I want to take that journey with you. Let me hold you when you cry. Someday, we will stand together, and you will smile.”

  Her heart squeezed again.

  “I keep thinking I’m going to get over Eliot’s death. ‘This will be the last time I cry.’ But I lost his wedding ring today.” She showed him her bare left hand. “I felt a lot of guilt for his death. We were visiting friends on the lake, and one afternoon I just felt too tired to go out. I’d gotten a sunburn the day before and still had a headache. He didn’t want to be rude to our hosts, so he went out on their new boat, and a sudden storm capsized it. Everyone else was fine, but Eliot didn’t survive.”

  He remained respectfully silent.

  “A thousand hours of psychotherapy assures me it’s not my fault.” She closed her left hand into a fist. “But even now, I can’t help playing the game of ‘What if?’”

  “You are not to blame for the death of your first soul mate.” He touched her forehead with his. “But there is a different knowing in your body and in your heart.”

  He was right.

  God, he was always right.

  The tears, somehow ever-present these days, pricked her eyes. In his comforting embrace, she successfully swallowed them down.

  “It’s funny. You think grief is like a storm and when it’s over, the sun comes out. But it’s really like the waves of the ocean, cresting and falling. Usually, the tide’s going out, but every once in a while, a sneaker wave drags me in.”

  “Then.” His embrace tightened. “I will stand on that shore with you even if the tide rushes over our heads.”

  She chuckled, but underwater, it was more of an interrupted vibration. “Then we’ll both get wet.”

  He leaned back and cocked a brow. “I am a mer. I am not afraid of wetness.”

  That’s right. He didn’t fear drowning. Because no matter how heavy and deep her grief, he would float beside her, supporting her, just breathing.

  Because he was her one.

  She had loved Eliot whole heartedly. And now she came to Ciran with a cracked heart, and he loved her just as she was.

  He loved her just as she was.

  Tingles filled her veins like starlight.

  The water seemed to heat between them. Her bare breasts pressed to his solid chest, her hip tucked to his, and her feet dangled between his ankles. His cock pressed, hard and ready, against her upper thigh.

  He pressed a gentle palm to her chest. “You are feeling better. Rest now. I will hold you as you heal, and you will carry this strength into the morning.”

  “Mm, I have a better idea.” She fitted herself more fully to his body.

  He cupped her hips. “Better than sleeping?”

  “I’m feeling kind of nervous about demonstrating my powers.”

  “But you have already used them.”

  “Right.” She nuzzled his cheek and nibbled on his inflexible jaw. “You have so much confidence. I want to drink it up.”

  His chest rumbled with amusement. “I am not a vessel of water.”

  “Are you sure?” She flicked her tongue against his earlobe.

  He shivered and focused on her with new intensity. “I thought you would want to rest.”

  “Hmm.” She rubbed her tightening nipples across his chest. “Suddenly, I’m not tired.” She tugged his lobe, causing another delightful shiver in him. “Because of nerves. I could use your advice.”

  “My advice?” He hunted her mouth and took her lips, questing deep and awakening her senses. While kissing her, he vibrated, “I have dreamed of possessing you for so long, Dannika.”

  “Good. Me too. Will that help?”

  “I hope.” His lips curved into a smile and he broke from her mouth to kiss her cheek, her forehead, her hair. “But only you can grow your powers. Brighten your soul light so you do not fail.”

  “You know I can’t see my own soul light.”

  “But you must feel it.” He pulled back and kissed her chest, searing her with sudden and unstoppable heat. “Right now. This sensation. You shine.”

  This sensation?

  Ciran cradled her, loved her, worshipped her. His kisses melted her collarbone, nipping teeth that made her feminine core clench. She flexed her fingers to entwine him, but he gently gripped her wrists.

  “This sensation, yes.” His lips melded to hers, passionate and true, driving in and overwhelming her. “You are a queen, Dannika. Increase our resonance and claim your power.
In time, you will turn back storms.”

  She drowned in his sweet insistence. “But if I’m not even there…”

  “We will never part.”

  So much was still unresolved. Hesitation buried deep in her heart.

  But she wanted to believe.

  She would anchor herself to his certainty.

  Because they were soul mates.

  And embracing him was the only way she would ever truly live.

  His tongue plumbed her depths, into the places she hid, and she welcomed his sensual assault. He wove his fingers into her hair and goaded her to duel, to face him with the same urgency. Heat crackled into her veins. He was the rake unearthing her soil and she was finally breathing again as she opened herself to his life-giving sunlight.

  “You will become confident,” he promised. “You will change and grow and flourish. And you will unite your soul more tightly with mine.”

  Starlight filtered through the overhead caverns and lit the ocean with a beautiful hum.

  It penetrated her skin, her chest, her heart.

  And so did he.

  His eyes gleamed, calculating and watchful. His tongue flicked her dark nipples, teasing her to hard pearls.

  Heat streaked to her center, and she moaned with a desperate vibration. Her desire filled the water. It tasted of musk and need, a thousand empty nights, a thousand salt tears of loneliness.

  She drew him to her breast, seeking relief for the ache he created, and he resisted, kissing around her hot pearls, stoking her with painful need. He finally closed over her nipple and sucked. Intense relief gave way to new pinnacles of clenching feminine need. All she wanted was him. His driving sex, hard against her thigh, and his certainty. If she could just draw them both inside her, she would never fear losing him again.

  He stamped his possession in with every kiss, every nip of teeth, tasting and tormenting her. She clung onto him like a buoy in a storm.

  And with unstoppable strength, he freed himself from her embrace and lowered between her legs, resting her thighs on his inflexible shoulders.

  Her pussy throbbed. Yes, she wanted him there, exactly.

  His tender fingers stroked her feminine flower, folding back the petals gently, and then his tongue explored, soft and gentle, then, as she drew him tighter, firm and commanding. Some men would never do this, but Ciran attuned to her every tremble, enjoying and savoring his control. He latched on to her sensitive nub.

  She craved more. Now. Faster.

  He thwarted her urgings and took his time, persisting at his pace, leading her around the winding road to a peak of gorgeous perfection. He didn’t stop at the easy, quick release. No, he led her from a slow-burning ache into an explosive orgasm that made her whole body shatter.

  She arched and cried for him. “Ciran!”

  He released her and trailed his powerful hands gently down her shuddering body, gazing at her beautiful ruin with satisfaction.

  A soul-deep peace flooded her veins with sleepy promise.

  He had stood against all the times she’d pushed him away. He had stood against her clinging desperately for more. He was a post, a rock, an anchor point and he would stand against anything.

  And now he held her gently, cradling her tenderly to sleep, completely ignoring his own unsatisfied desire that still prodded her belly.

  She curled her hands around his rebar-hard cock.

  He tried to disentangle her fingers. “You were sleepy a moment ago. Do you not want to rest?”

  “Yes, I do not.”

  He frowned. “You always give so much. This time, it is okay to receive.”

  “Same to you.”

  “Release me, Dannika.” He tried to separate them.

  She clung on. “No.”

  Surprise shuddered through his taut body. “I should have known you would not simply accept pleasure.”

  “You should have. Because you said you want me, even the imperfect me. I’m not ready to believe in forever, but I am ready to try. So if you can wait while I figure this out, I will do my very best to become your queen.”

  He cupped her cheek. Emotion tightened his jaw. He vibrated for her. “I will.”

  Heat seeped into her crevices and throbbed with the pleasure she’d just received, readying her for even more.

  Because she wanted to spend tonight with this warrior.

  And tomorrow, and the night after that.

  And then they’d just see.

  “Make me believe in us.” She snugged him close. “Claim me as your bride.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Make me believe.

  Ciran had tried to convince her from their first meeting.

  Only she could believe.

  But he would give her all the reasons he could.

  And then he just had to hope his devotion carried her the rest of the way.

  He bent his head to chase her lips. “You are powerful, Dannika.”

  She returned his kiss with a sweet push-pull and twirled her hand around his cock. “I want to carry your child. I want us to make a life together.”

  “And you will forgo MerMatch and live in Atlantis?”

  She squeezed his cock. “Don’t push your luck.”

  “But I have a duty to my king, so we must—”

  She pulled him in tighter, silencing his vibrations with her hug, entwining him like a strangling vine and rubbed her soft, sensual female curves against his hardest places. “Reason later. Love me now.”

  Very well.

  He wedged his hand against her hip to stroke her delicate feminine core.

  But she pulled him in tighter, melting against him with more compliance, and ensnared his torso with her legs. His cock bobbed between her thighs. She fitted his sensitive head to her channel and tightened her legs around his buttocks, pressing him in.

  His cock buried deep in her channel connecting their bodies for all time.

  Dannika’s chest glowed.

  He shuddered. His very soul throbbed.

  She was his bride. They belonged together.

  Forever.

  Dannika’s hands tightened on his shoulders. “Never leave me.”

  He kissed her taut brow. For the worthy soul mate who had once been forced from her arms. For the uncertain future that made this promise impossible to keep, but which he made anyway because it was what she needed to heal. “Never.”

  She squeezed him inside so tight. He was gripped by her, and he only wanted more.

  He slid out.

  She entangled their legs to stop him from leaving her.

  He surged, filling her more completely, grinding against her sensitive button.

  She moaned. “Ciran, yes.”

  Her cry caged him, cornered him, drove him. He chased her moans, thrusting again and again, bucking and clashing in a battle for who could give the other the most pleasure. She broke for him, shining in the water as her body trembled, sobbing his name.

  Her second release made his groin spasm.

  He prevented his own with iron control.

  Because he would not let her past dictate her future.

  He would not let one shining pleasure be enough. Dannika was too selfless, too generous. She must know that he would never give up on her. He worked his cock in deeper, faster, chasing the hot pleasure erupting within her so she cried harder. Each cry was stronger and more beautiful as the light filled her.

  He would make her believe in him. Make her trust in their connection by strengthening it beyond the bounds of human and mer, bride and warrior.

  Her inner light glistened. Around them, other light danced. Her powers throbbed. Dannika was a queen. The power was all inside her. She just needed to unlock it.

  And he would be her key.

  She bucked with release, arching and twirling them slowly as sparkles shuddered through her body, melding their spirits and turning their bodies to liquid.

  And then she looked him in the eye and dug her fingernails into his back. “Come with m
e.”

  He erupted, burying his seed deep within her womb.

  She shuddered, glowing with a third release.

  Somewhere across the infinite sea, but so distinct it almost felt like it was in this very lagoon, he heard the chime of a Life Tree.

  Odd.

  Dannika curled around him.

  He tucked her close, floating with her in the quiet lagoon.

  She splayed a hand over his pectoral. “I hope I can show my queen powers tomorrow.”

  “You will.”

  She snuggled close, and her soul glowed. “I hope the others can make their own powers, too. We’ll be unstoppable.”

  “You, alone, can stop an army.”

  “Oh, no, I…” Her soul dimmed and she wiggled in his arms awkwardly. “I couldn’t stop a whole army. Not alone.”

  “Trust in your power, Dannika.”

  She laughed without mirth and wiggled again. “I’m trusting in you, Ciran. And I can feel your faith in me. I’m sure that’s enough.”

  Tomorrow, they would find out if she was right.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Dannika was well and truly satisfied.

  She struggled out of the lagoon when Ciran said it was daylight—not that she could tell, floating in a luxurious half-daydream on Ciran’s chest—and tiny tendons she had not felt in her hips for two decades squeaked to announce themselves.

  That was after she finished chucking seawater and regretting her life choices, of course.

  She rested on the ledge while Ciran shifted effortlessly and tugged on the Bermuda shorts, sliding them up commando-style over his well-formed buttocks and snugging them around his muscled abdomen.

  He left his shirt unbuttoned and ran a hand through his water-slicked hair. Droplets highlighted his muscles from his honed jaw, across his implacable chest, down his rippling abdomen, belly button, and lower.

  Dannika did a few yoga stretches to loosen up, then crawled over to her caftan. Did she really need underwear? Meg had been so surprised yesterday, and she was just going to shift…

  “Dannika! Ciran!”

  A herd of youngsters, all nude, clattered down the back steps and hurtled into the lagoon, then jumped out with playful shrieks and raced up the stairs.