by Shona Husk
“Ah, so if I don’t agree to date you, you won’t help.” She leaned back in the seat, her lips twisted with righteousness. She thought him no better than her pond-scum teacher.
“I’ll help either way.” Nik smiled, hoping like hell it looked sincere and not like the finger-curling agitation that crawled through his blood and screamed in his ear to take the book now.
She lowered her gaze to her cup. “Thank you.”
Nik watched as she nibbled her lip, fighting her desire like it was a terrible beast best destroyed. Whoever had chewed her up and spat her out had left wounds that hadn’t healed. Any other human woman, and a few Elementals, would have been on their backs begging for more than a platonic coffee. Maybe that was why Isla interested him: she was perfectly capable of walking away like he didn’t exist. Something he’d never thought possible. She who held his tail was immune to his charms. The corner of his lips quirked up with amusement.
Getting Isla to succumb was more of a challenge than getting the book back. After spending the weekend in her hands and in her fantasies, he wanted to know what the body beneath her crisp white shirt was like in bed. With the shift in plan, he relaxed. He would help Isla, have some fun, and then get back his tail.
Chapter Five
Isla watched as Nik leaned back and stretched out his legs. He was a fine-looking man, the kind who would haunt the edges of her fantasies for a long time. Her nipples peaked in her bra. She’d thought of him more than once over the weekend. Now he was asking her out on a date. And she wanted to say yes. The word rested on the tip of her tongue, ready to leap out if she opened her mouth. Isla clamped her teeth together. There’d be plenty of time for dating after college. Besides, she didn’t know Nik, and he knew nothing about her. Yet he was willing help her…maybe he deserved a chance.
Isla rested her chin on her hands. There was no harm in talking to him. “Are you from around here?”
“No, traveling through.” He turned his cup a full circle before taking another drink.
“Backpacker?” That would explain the nude modeling. Bet his resume contained all kinds of strange jobs. For a moment, Isla let herself envy the freedom Nik must have to come and go as he pleased. A few more years of school, and she would have that luxury. She’d travel the grand cities of Europe, sketchbook in hand.
He nodded, but he was hiding something. Nik ate and dressed too well for the average backpacker, yet nothing about him was average. His eyes remained guarded and he didn’t speak the lie a lesser man would’ve.
“Different woman in every city?” She asked as a joke but was half hoping he’d agree, so her obsession would be over. It would be much easier to turn down a man who was sleeping his way around the globe.
His tongue darted over his lip, like he’d been caught out telling fibs. “Not quite. I generally prefer to avoid the entanglements relationships bring.” Nik neatly evaded her question with another half-truth.
This time Isla didn’t care.
A crazy idea was forming, the kind where she couldn’t lose. Nik was offering nothing more than a transient affair. He wouldn’t stay and clot up her life and derail her dreams. He would leave. It was perfect. He was perfect. Her nerves tangled themselves around her stomach, pulling tighter with each breath. If she didn’t make a decision, she’d pass out.
“How long are you staying for?” she whispered.
Nik leaned forward, a glimmer in his dark eyes. “How long do you want me to stay for?”
Their breathing was the only sound as they weighed each other. The offer was on the table. All she had to do was accept. Just this once she wanted to so she could see what the fuss was about. Was she really missing out by staying single? Was having a lover worth the sacrifice?
She could find out, test the water with a man who by his own admission wasn’t after a relationship. Neither of them would get hurt because they both knew the rules. Could she do it with a stranger? A man she barely knew? She wouldn’t just be taking a man home. She would be taking him to a dorm filled with a hundred other students. In truth, she wouldn’t be doing anything different to anyone else who lived there. Would Nik care?
“I live in a dorm.”
“Backpackers’ hostel.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Do you spend all of your money on food and clothing?”
“People judge by clothing, and I enjoy food. Where I sleep is of little consequence. What would you do?”
She’d grown up in hand-me-downs from discount chain stores. And while she couldn’t afford fancy labels, she refused to look like she came from the rear-end of the wrong end of town. “The same,” she said.
That meant between them they wouldn’t have the money for a hotel room. At least her dorm room was clean and familiar. Some backpackers’ hostels were in worse shape than her mother’s rented home.
Isla swallowed then let the words glide out. “So, my place?”
“Tonight?” His eyes rounded in surprise.
“Isn’t that what you wanted? Why you came back to the restaurant?” Beneath the table her foot twitched, trying to release the tension strung through her body. If she didn’t do it tonight, she’d lose her nerve. Then Nik would only visit when she let her imagination take over.
“I thought we’d plot to take down Mr. Gardner tonight.” His voice was serious, but the crooked grin gave away his true intention. This was exactly what he wanted.
He wanted her, studious, snooty, couldn’t-get-a-man-if-you-paid-for-one Isla. Her mother’s jibes lost their sting and her confidence grew in the glow of Nik’s desire. She picked up her coffee cup and drained the lukewarm contents.
“We can do that in the morning. If you’re still there.” Isla stood. Lips pressed tight, nerves wound tighter, she tried to tell herself that if he was gone, it didn’t matter. She could still take her case to the dean. She had the sketches, and they couldn’t be faked. Having someone at her side lending their strength to her cause was irreplaceable, even if he was only the model.
“I’ll be there.” He pushed his chair back with a screech.
For the first time, Isla realized how tall he was. She had to tilt her chin to meet his gaze. He slipped his hand around hers, cool and steady. She was sure hers quivered like a trapped butterfly.
They left the coffee shop and walked a dozen paces, Nik slowing his stride to match her pace. Isla stopped and spun around. He caught her in his arms, his lips landing on her mouth, stealing a kiss. It was over before she had a chance to enjoy it. Isla blinked and gasped for breath, her lips wanting another taste.
“The…the pharmacy is the other way,” she explained, too aware of the hard male body pressed against her. Heat bubbled like a hot spring in her belly. She stepped back and mumbled at her toes. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Isla left him standing there. By the time she reached the pharmacy she’d pulled herself together and was able to walk in as if she bought condoms every other day of the week.
Nik waited, half expecting Isla not to return. Half wishing she wouldn’t. Couldn’t she see he would take what she would give and more, then leave like he’d always done? Greta had seen him for what he was, a shallow puddle. A heartless water Elemental amused by humanity. Well, humanity had been amusing until he’d become human. Now it either bored him or pained him, depending on the day.
Isla walked breathlessly back to him, hips swinging. He watched her every step. She was everything he used to love about human women. They were earthy; they felt with their entire being with a depth of emotion he could barely understand, yet wanted to be part of. She took his hand, grinning as she led the way back to her place. Being human did have an upside. Sex wasn’t the same without a corporeal body.
As Elementals with bodies of water, they’d merge, changing forms as they chased the edge of joy. But it was different. The intensity wasn’t there. Human bodies were made for lust, and he was sure Isla was no different. The promise of what was to come propelled him forward. He followed her up the two flights
of stairs to her room. The building was silent, giving the illusion it was devoid of all life except them. She unlocked a door, slipped inside, and beckoned him in. Nik closed and locked the door.
His eyes were drawn to the bookshelves. The air in his lungs slid out in one breath. The book made from his skin and scales sat on shelves lined with textbooks. His tail. After all this time, he was within touching distance. He stared at the crimson cover. The way the colors shifted in the ambient light, black through turquoise. The leather called to him, flesh to flesh. He ran his hand along the shelf but stopped short of the book. He was too scared to touch it in case that was all it took to undo the spell that had held him trapped in this body for four hundred years.
Isla slipped her arms around his waist; the heat from her hands permeated his clothes, pressed into his body. The scent of coffee and woman filled his thoughts. It was because of Isla that he had found the book and if he took back his tail, she would fail. It wasn’t his problem, but he’d experienced her passion. He understood what the scholarship meant to her. It was her tail. The one thing she wanted—no, needed—above all else. His fingers curled, gripping the wood laminate. A few more days were nothing to him when he had an eternity to live. Her life was a fleeting moment unrecognized by the movement of the tides.
“Would you like to see my drawings of you?” Isla gazed up at him, her lips curved in a smile that would undo even the strongest of men.
Nik swallowed and closed his eyes. Was she tormenting him on purpose? He wound his fingers in her hair to keep from touching the leather that had been his tail, the pages that had been his skin. The book that would make him whole.
“I know what I look like.” He kissed her mouth to distract himself. To become lost in her.
Her kiss was sure, tempting him to take more, and her heart raced against his chest, mimicking his. She let him unbutton her shirt. He got two buttons down and stopped. Blood pounded in his ears like waves against a sheer cliff. It couldn’t be…he’d thought it lost, buried with the woman he’d given it to.
“What is it?” Concern crinkled her forehead.
He lifted the necklace, a pearl melded to the shell. The oyster had been unwilling to part with its treasure, even in death. He turned the pendant so it shone silver in the light intruding through the window. The leather thong was missing, probably rotted away, but there was no mistaking the gem. This necklace had been a gift to Greta the night she’d betrayed him.
They’d lain together in the white powdery sand, loving under the full moon. His island had been a sanctuary while she’d repaired her ship that had been damaged during a battle with the British Navy. A sudden storm had saved her from defeat. Since he had joined her ship, she’d been unsinkable.
With Nik at her side, Greta had gained a reputation as a pirate not to mess with. Her enemies called her the Sea Witch. And he reveled in the power he held as he controlled her success and entertained her in bed. He knew her ship had been stolen from a previous lover, but that hadn’t been warning enough. He was a water Elemental. He was untouchable. Or so he’d believed.
The Sea Witch had bewitched him. As their bodies had glowed pale beneath the moon, she’d scratched his neck. Her nails had come away bloodied, a scale in her hand. She’d spoken before he could react.
Blood and flesh, scale and sea, bind this Elemental’s powers to me.
Fire had ripped through him, crippling him as he was stripped of his connection to water. In her hands his powers coalesced into the book made of his skin and scale.
He’d lost his tail.
While he writhed in agony, unable to change between forms, Greta had run, her prize clutched in her hands and the pearl necklace bouncing between her breasts. The calm waters of the bay had become solid under her feet, obeying her will, while he had floundered in the shallows, yelling her name. Rejected by his lover. Rejected by the water.
Human.
“Where did you get this?” Nik choked out the question. Beneath the calm surface of his words, his stomach roiled. After centuries, the necklace and his tail were together. Did she know? Did she have a plan to use him the way Greta had?
“My aunt left it to me with some books.” Isla smiled down at the pendant in his hand then back up at him. She knew nothing of its history. Of what it meant to him.
He ran his thumb over the dome of the pearl. “She must have loved you very much.” He placed the necklace back against her skin.
The book wasn’t just for her art. The wash of joy and loss he’d felt as she’d stroked the pages had been because it was her aunt’s last gift to her. All his justifications were wet, limp excuses. The book might be rightfully his, but to Isla it was everything, her past and future. Isla wouldn’t just give him the book for helping her, and he couldn’t steal from her without sinking to Greta’s level. The sharp blade of his lover’s betrayal pressed against his belly. He couldn’t turn that knife on Isla.
She ran her hand down his cheek. “Tell me something about yourself so you’re not a stranger.”
He was a stranger. He shouldn’t be here, in her room, He wasn’t even human. The secrets he could tell weren’t for her ears. His hands dropped to his side; he had to let her go. Wait until she had forgotten; wait until she died of old age. He could wait.
She sensed his hesitation. Her hand slid to his shoulder, and she cocked her head to the side. “When did you learn to swim?”
Nik frowned. “There was never a time I don’t remember swimming.” That at least was the truth.
Even now he swam daily. He couldn’t avoid water; water was a part of him, even if he was no longer a part of it. Her body swayed against his, a subtle reminder of why he was here. Isla had nothing to gain and everything to lose by knowing him.
The cover of the book shimmered in the corner of his vision. He didn’t have the guts to leave. Leaving now would achieve nothing. Prove nothing except that he was more human than Elemental. In staying, he was being true to his element. He seized her lips, cradling her head with his hand, forcing other thoughts from his mind like he could convince himself he was here for sex and nothing more. That he cared nothing for the woman in his arms.
Between his fingers, the buttons on her shirt separated. Her clothing floated to the floor, discarded. His body ached to touch the center of the storm, to feel Isla wild around him. Then he’d leave. He wouldn’t allow himself to be caught in a net woven from something finer than moonlight.
She took her cues from him, peeling away his shirt. Her palm smoothed over his chest and stomach, exploring what she’d drawn. His muscles contracted; her caress was so light it was almost a tickle. Nik traced down her spine and unzipped her skirt. She stepped out of it and her shoes, now naked except for her underwear.
He smiled, but it was restrained as lust and conscience warred. Isla wore exactly what he’d thought she’d wear. White lace. Beautiful. Matching. And for her eyes only. He ran his finger along the edge of the bra cup. She shivered then pulled him toward the single bed. He’d never refused an offer before, and he wasn’t going to start now. No water Elemental would refuse sex—it went against the flow. Just as Fire would always rise for the fight. Air the battle of wills, and Earth would protect, guaranteeing survival.
In her body she held all the elements. Once he would’ve manipulated her emotions, but now he searched her face for a clue. Desire glittered like scattered diamonds in her eyes. He took off his jeans and shoes and socks. Naked, he lay over her, as there was nowhere else to go. Her eyes widened and she jumped when their hips connected, even with the protection of her panties. He rolled his hips against hers. She gasped, her open mouth inviting a kiss. Her lips were sweet like rainwater, and he was the acid making it sour.
No, he’d never refused an offer, but it had been a long time since he’d let himself be close to anyone. He kissed down her throat, tasting the skin between her breasts. Isla squirmed as if fighting the urge to arch up and press closer. He thumbed the peak of her nipple, the fabric grating over hi
s fingers. He slid his hand beneath her and unhooked her bra. She slipped her arms free.
With his tongue he traced over the pebbled tightness of her nipples. When he sucked, she arched, her hips lifting and grinding against his hardness. Resisting the urge to tear off her panties and plunge into her was like holding his breath underwater. He would gasp for air eventually; it was just a matter of when.
Once he would have breathed water like air. He wouldn’t have hesitated to seduce a woman who waded too deep. Now it was him drowning in need. He kissed down her stomach, his lungs burning, inflaming every nerve. He wanted Isla to be as raw as he was. With care that scraped at his flesh like coral, he drew her panties down and kneeled between her legs. He glanced up. Her gray eyes were dark and wide. No breath moved her body.
Nik dipped his tongue into the shell-like lips of her sex. Soft and pink. Touches that barely existed had her fingers twisting in the sheets, but not his hair. The muscles in her leg tightened, but she held back, resisting his caress. Isla wouldn’t let go and come. As he eased away, she relaxed and drew him back up to her. In her eyes was a tangle of thoughts he couldn’t read.
“Condoms.” Her voice was a whisper, not wanting to upset the delicate balance between them.
Of course, standard procedure these days. He found her hasty purchase and when suitably dressed, he rejoined her on the bed. She welcomed him with open arms. But she didn’t offer up her hips and open for him. Something wasn’t quite right.
“Are you having second thoughts?”
Isla shook her head. “I want you.”
He traced the contour of her breast, cupped the flesh in his hand. “But it’s weird because we don’t know each other?”
She exhaled, her body relaxing beneath him. “Yeah, that’s all. I don’t usually pick up strange men.”
“I thought I picked you up?” He nuzzled her neck. She wriggled, her body contacting with his in all the right places. Steam, not blood, moved through his veins. “I like sunrise, winter, and the color blue. Now tell me something about yourself, and we won’t be strangers.”