by Starla Night
His confusion cleared to dark-eyed hunger.
He slid both arms around her. “Yes, my Sid-nee.”
She melted into his powerful embrace and closed her eyes—
Bam!
The door to the guest bedroom slammed.
Sydney startled and peeked over Xalu’s broad shoulder.
Jen rested her back against the door. She looked upset.
Xalu’s arms loosened.
Sydney stepped out of his embrace — sadly — and prepared to support her friend.
He drew himself up. “I will announce our union.”
Huh? Oh!
“No.” She tugged him back. “I’ll do it.”
“Now?” Xalu pushed.
“Jen just broke up with a jerk. She’s in a delicate place right now.”
He studied her warily.
“I’ll handle it.”
“Xalu.” Jen strode around the pool toward them. “Dosan’s awake.”
His expression showed his concern. Then, he tore his gaze from Sydney and turned to Jen. “Dosan wakes?”
“He is awake. Go sit with him.”
He strode to the guest bedroom.
Sydney lifted her glass to her lips on a reflex. Oh, it was empty. And she really needed to clear her head. “That’s right. Good riddance.”
Jen turned back to face her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think about how you or Ian would feel having foreign men invade our vacation.”
“Hmm? Oh, I wasn’t talking about … You know what?” Sydney threw her arm around Jen’s shoulders. “Let’s get a cup of coffee and chat.”
“Coffee? You?”
“I’ve got something to talk about.”
She led Jen to the kitchen.
Her insides were dancing. The taste of Xalu’s lips lingered on her tongue.
She set out the drink ingredients while she thought about how to broach the subject. Jen collapsed in the kitchen chair and closed her eyes. She looked exhausted.
“Interesting coffee,” Jen commented dryly.
“What? Oh, my god.” Sydney had accidentally gotten out the blender, ice, vodka, and mix. Was she blacking out now? She tossed them in the sink and got out the French press. “Guess I really need this.”
She spooned coffee into the press while water boiled.
“What did you want to tell me?” Jen asked.
“Huh? Oh…”
Jen stared at the darkening brew. A classic purple beach dress clothed her voluptuous figure and complimented her crinkly black hair. But it couldn’t disguise the worry wrinkling her face or the dark shadows under her eyes.
Sydney imagined telling her the amazing news. Jen would try to smile. Her honest, happy wishes for Sydney would be given right next to the depressing darkness of her own wrecked engagement.
And it was partly Sydney’s fault.
“I haven’t been a very good friend to you, have I?”
Jen lifted her head in surprise.
“All I’ve done on this whole vacation is hide in my room and drink.”
A tired smile curved Jen’s lips and one shoulder shrugged. “I understand.”
“Well, that changes now.” Starting with the coffee. “How are you?”
“Me?”
“This is your ‘reinvention’ vacation and I’m here to support you. So, how are you doing with relaxing and everything?”
Jen rested her elbows on the table. “Dosan kissed me.”
“He did!” Well, that made everything so much easier. She took a deep breath to make her happy announcement.
Jen cut her off. “But it’s not happening again.”
Oh. “That bad, huh?”
“It wasn’t bad.” The defensive look on Jen’s face faded into a starry memory. “It was dreamy. Hot. Delicious.”
That’s how Sydney had remembered her own kiss minutes ago. “Yeah.”
Jen shook herself. “And never happening again.”
Hmm.
Sydney poured the coffee and carried the mugs to the table. “Why not?”
“Because I’m supposed to be redefining myself. And I can’t redefine myself if ‘me’ is a couple.”
“Oh. I see.”
“Plus it’s a little fast, don’t you think?”
Faster than Sydney accepting a male’s proposal minutes after meeting him? But she got it. She’d kicked out the Loser months ago. Jen had left her loser days ago.
Still.
She pointed at Jen’s chest. “You do not have to mourn Gary. Sister Sydney absolves you.”
“I’m not mourning Gary. I’m mourning the person I was when I was with him. The naïve, hopeful idiot who missed he was a jerk and thought we’d be happily married by now.”
Sydney folded her hands around her mug. “Okay, then. We’ll mourn her. And then, Jen, you deserve delicious hot kisses in your life, so we’ll do something to make sure you can kiss fearlessly.”
“Something?”
“You like checklists. We’ll make a checklist. You evaluate your warrior. That way you fall in love with someone who treasures you.”
Jen nodded uncertainly.
But this was perfect! Sydney tried to contain her excitement. If Jen ended up with Dosan and she ended up with Xalu, then they’d be neighbors and queens.
Jen yawned.
“Be gentle with yourself,” Sydney ordered. “Take a long shower. Get a good night’s sleep. We’ll tackle this in the morning. You’ll be a whole new you.”
Jen headed to her room.
The pool and courtyard were quiet. Empty.
Sydney decided to take her own advice. She lay in bed with the Sea Opal on her chest. Heavy.
This was quite the engagement ring.
Yes! She was engaged!
Sydney hugged the gem and giggled.
She woke at her usual time to the delicious smell of breakfast cooking — sausage, omelets, coffee, and toast — and took a pleasant shower in the guest room bath. Selecting her most sensuous Balencia suit, she styled her dyed henna-and-black hair in a bun with dangling gold clips and slipped on open-toed flats.
Not bad.
She pocketed her massive engagement gemstone, made a kiss at her reflection and, humming, exited her room in search of Xalu.
Sydney did not have to search far.
His dark head emerged above the tile of the guest pool.
“Hey!” Sydney waved and swung her hips. “Good mor—”
The huge male rested his knee on the tile and hauled himself out of the attractive blue liquid. He stood in her path.
“—ning.” She swallowed. “Uh…”
Droplets shimmered on his smoky chest tattoos and dripped from his hair. The narrow black Speedo left nothing to the imagination as it hugged his ripped waist. Deep divots of a toned male tantalized her senses and an irresistible scent like rum and leather made her want to bury her nose in his midsection and just breathe in those abs.
The male’s fiery gaze burned on Sydney with intensity. “Good morning, my Sid-nee.”
“Sydney.” She touched her hair ensuring nothing was out of place. “You’re a sight to wake up to. How long have you been out here? I would have come out faster.”
“Some time.” He took her hands in his cool, damp palms. “We must go now to the beach. You will drink the transformation elixir. We will descend to my city and marry.”
His words thrilled her. This was what she had wanted for so long. And he just asked! No waiting!
But … well, she’d waited a decade to become engaged. She could enjoy being a fiancée for more than a day. Right?
She squeezed his fingers. “Give me a little more time.”
He frowned. “You are not ready?”
“I’m ready.”
“Why must we wait?”
“Because … because I can’t announce my engagement in the middle of someone else’s broken honeymoon. It’s just selfish.”
“Jen is the destined bride of Dosan.”
Sydney leaped to
her friend’s defense. “Jen just went through a huge breakup. This was supposed to be her honeymoon — to someone else. It wouldn’t be right to overshadow her recovery with our happiness.”
He didn’t understand. “Her own happiness will increase when she embraces her resonance with Dosan.”
“The heart has its own pace. All right?”
He shook his head. It was not “all right.”
She linked their elbows and drew him toward the kitchen. “I’ll try to help. I’ll ask questions and you make undersea life look good. Then Jen will imagine what she has to look forward to and she’ll get more excited about the future than the past. It’s a great plan.”
In the kitchen, Jen and Dosan glared at each other with tension so taut they snapped apart when Sydney entered. Jen wheeled to the stove and began scraping up an omelet. Dosan stared at her back, smoldering.
Sydney surreptitiously patted Xalu’s arm and took a seat. “Wow, that smells delicious. Fresh coffee, crunchy toast slathered in warm butter and sweet jam.”
“And a spicy omelet with chorizo.” Jen’s voice was higher pitched.
“I don’t suppose you have all this underwater.” She turned the question on Xalu.
“We do not have this,” he confirmed.
The kitchen fell silent.
“But … you have other food that’s equally delicious,” she pushed.
“It depends on your taste.”
“Yeah, but … what food do you like best?”
“I do not prefer any food. All food is nourishment.”
She was going to strangle him. “How about you Dosan?”
The sapphire warrior did not remove his gaze from Jen. “A warrior always provides nourishment for his bride.”
“How appetizing,” she said flatly and nodded at Ian as he collapsed into an empty seat.
“It is very filling for the appetite,” Xalu agreed, throwing back his shoulders in pride.
Her heart tingled. He really was trying to help. But he was honest and fair to a fault.
At least he was trying.
The other topics she tried to raise went about as well. There were no beds or furniture under the water, everyone swam naked so there were no designers, no hair styles, no makeup.
Jen served her yummy home-cooked breakfast flavored with Portuguese and Azorean spices. Everything Jen touched was logically organized and well-managed. She was brilliant with management. Sydney had wanted to steal her away to manage the daycare but Jen always refused, partly because of the pay cut, and partly because handling the emotions of their young charges — especially anger or frustration — was her weakness.
That was how the jerks she met controlled her. They threatened to throw a fit and she caved.
It was good to see her stand up to Dosan now.
Even though it was inconvenient.
“And so…” Sydney cast her mind for a new topic. “Would Jen stay home and take care of the kids all day while you go out hunting and exploring? Or do you stay home drinking underwater beer and Jen does everything?”
“What is ‘underwater beer’?” Xalu asked.
“Something I just made up.” Sydney scooped jam onto her third piece of crunchy toast. “I’m trying to ask what women ‘brides’ do underseas.”
“You decide.” Dosan addressed his answer to Jen. “Dragao Azul’s queen does not stay in our city. So, if you will stay, then your choices will determine the roles of future queens.”
Jen’s anger softened.
She loved management. She’d be a perfect queen.
“You want Jen to be royalty?” Ian asked, speaking up for the first time, around a mouthful of egg.
Dosan nodded. “She must use her nurturing powers to rebuild our civilization.”
Ian raised a brow at Jen and half-grinned. “No pressure or anything.”
So, now Ian was on their side.
After breakfast, they settled around the courtyard. Dosan rehabilitated in the pool with Xalu.
Sydney spent the whole day with Jen painting nails, exchanging opinions about new designers, drinking virgin margaritas that Jen made because Sydney was not to be trusted, and not bringing up that Xalu had proposed and kissed her.
“This day has been so much fun,” Jen said, sighing in her lounge chair as the afternoon faded into evening. “It’s like going back in the past a decade before we got bogged down with jerks and losers. You’re on fire, Sydney. Being single suits you.”
Being single.
Luckily at this exact moment, Xalu and Dosan were both beneath the waves. “Yeah … about that…”
Jen turned away from her to watch them swim across the pool, lap after lap, never arising to take a breath.
Sydney rubbed the smooth Sea Opal in her pocket.
An entire undersea city was waiting for a queen. Waiting for Sydney and Jen.
Sydney just had to tell her.
She took a breath. “Um, Jen, I—”
Jen rose and carried her iced drink to the side of the pool. Dosan surfaced. She offered him the virgin juice.
He rested his elbows on the tile. As they talked quietly, both couldn’t take their eyes off each other.
The difference in this romance was that Dosan listened to every word she said and treasured them like gold pearls. He was enraptured with Jen and she, for once, had the good sense to be interested back.
If he had half a chance, Dosan would spear her a great big fish, leave it at her doorstep like the proudest catfish — dogfish? — and pant for her praise before he swam out and speared her another.
Nothing like the big lunk bobbing in the pool, every movement exact and precise and deadly. He stared at Sydney with the intensity of a hunter. Xalu wouldn’t hunt her a giant fish. He would hunt her. And when he caught her…
She shivered.
His lips, his teeth, his intensity promised a night she would never forget.
Not that she was putting off his catch because of herself. No way. Sydney was here for Jen. Totally Jen.
Xalu’s gaze nailed Sydney.
She looked away.
Mer warrior Uvim and his bride, newly minted mermaid Milly, stopped by in the afternoon.
Uvim was as hunky as Dosan and Xalu. He was their superior officer and he had a steely silence that commanded their respect. Amethyst tattoos ran in geometric designs like fractures across his olive-colored skin.
The trio of warriors had private guy-talk while Milly visited with the humans.
“The police traced the dynamite — in fake-looking ‘Merman Repellent’ packages — to the tourist stalls,” Milly updated them. “They came in with regular shipments of T-shirts and postcards. So our criminal either broke into the shipments after they arrived, or he tricked a government official not to inspect the contents.”
“So it’s possible the culprit isn’t even in the islands,” Jen said.
“That’s right.”
“I have a question.” Sydney raised her hand. “It’s about being a mermaid.”
“Go for it,” Milly said.
“You’re a queen, right?”
The younger woman hesitated. “I will be after everything’s finalized in Dragao Azul.”
“But you can transform.”
“I drank the elixir,” she confirmed.
“You don’t get scared going into the water?” Sydney asked. “Knowing there could be sharks, or now, dynamite?”
“It’s who I am.” Milly pressed her palm to her chest. “I’ve always been a diver. Being underwater is so freeing. I’d do it even if it weren’t my job. Now I have the power to transform into a mermaid, it’s even better.”
Jen took over, just as curious as Sydney about the perspective of an experienced woman. “But how did you know getting engaged was right for you? How did you know Uvim wasn’t taking advantage of your generosity?”
Sydney made a silent “Yes!” to herself.
Milly laughed. “I’m not that generous.”
“I’m not that
generous.” The young guide laughed.
Uvim’s gaze moved to her. Silent communication passed between them.
Milly faded to a soft smile. “I fought my feelings but, in the end, I had to admit the truth. The heart always knows.”
The heart always knows? Ha.
Milly was at least a decade younger than them. Studying marine biology in college led to the diving tours. She’d only recently gotten engaged to warrior Uvim.
“Oh, I think your heart can give you the runaround.” Sydney sipped her icy virgin drink. “A decade of running around, stuck on the same, stupid guy, refusing to admit defeat.”
“That sounds like your head substituting fear for loneliness,” Milly disagreed, showing her young idealism. “Stop running and listen.”
Milly was too young. She didn’t know how shallow the dating pool was after college. Sydney felt inclined to give her a swim lesson.
Jen read her mind and gave her a quelling look. No need to frighten the kid.
“Yeah, well.” Sydney tried to pacify Jen. “You’re not wrong. Most likely.”
But Jen and Dosan still seemed no closer to resolving their issues that night. They went to bed separately.
Sydney rested on the lounge chair by the pool while Xalu swam beneath the surface. The courtyard gleamed with subtle lights in the sconces.
Xalu emerged from the pool and rested his elbows on the tile near her feet. The shadows sharpened his features. He looked magnificent, a warrior of the gods. “Come into the water.”
“Now?”
“You asked many questions today,” he stated. “I will show you how you will be safe when we enter the water together.”
“That was for Jen’s benefit.” She took off her suit to reveal her two-piece black and gold tankini.
He admired it, his gaze roving over her curves as she approached the edge of the pool. She sat on the tile and dangled her legs into the warm water. “I’m not afraid of water.”
He spanned her waist with his powerful hands and lifted her effortlessly.
She squeaked.
His embrace tightened. She slid down his front to her armpits in the water and hugged his rippling shoulders. The pump of muscle seduced her. Her toes dangled above the bottom of the pool.
He had her totally in his control and she liked it. “Now what?”
“We swim.” He slid back and floated her to the shallower end and reversed. “You feel safe?”