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Deeper (Elemental Series)

Page 2

by DePetrillo, Christine


  “No. I…I don’t swim.” Crystal dug in the sand with her big toe.

  Even in the dim lighting, Ray saw her pale at the mention of swimming.

  “Why the gorgeous bikini then?”

  Her lip twitched up at the corner. “Well, it is Bermuda, and it is hot out here. Do you recommend I wear a fur coat instead?”

  “No fur coat. Please.” He took a step closer. Her hair was unbound, no longer corralled into that messy ponytail. A faint breeze sent wisps fluttering about her face, and she hooked some of them behind her ear. Her movements captivated Ray.

  “So, are you going to tell me what that blue stuff is on your stomach and why you’re swimming naked?”

  “Blue stuff? What blue stuff?”

  “I may be exhausted, Doctor Ray, but I know what I saw. It looked like…scales.” She narrowed her lovely blue eyes at him.

  “That’s ridiculous.” His voice wavered.

  “Is it?” She reached out a hand and tugged at the towel until it fell at their feet.

  No use in trying to react, trying to stop her. He had only two options now. Lie and tell her it was a tattoo or something while he high-tailfinned it back to his room or…tell her the truth.

  For some strange reason, he didn’t want to lie to Crystal.

  He didn’t say anything as she ran her fingers over the scales, her nose crinkled in confusion. Her touch was outstanding, like newborn gull feathers brushing against him.

  “They are scales,” she whispered, meeting his gaze.

  “Do they frighten you?” He held his breath.

  “No, but you have some explaining to do.”

  And so, for the first time, he did.

  Chapter Two

  “A merman? Come to save the oceans?”

  Crystal folded and unfolded her arms as she sat on the couch in Ray’s hotel room. He sat across from her in an overstuffed chair. He’d slipped his swimming trunks back on before leading her up the stairs to his balcony doors, his towel gathered securely around his mid-section. Of all the possible explanations she’d thought he’d give her, a merman complete with an underwater kingdom was not one of them.

  “You don’t believe me.” He looked down to his lap, resting his elbows on his knees.

  Crystal studied the top of his head. All that thick, black hair, still wet from his swim, beckoned her fingers to comb through it. “What scares the shit out of me is that I do believe you.”

  He raised his head, his unusual colored eyes searching her face. She’d never seen a more perfect combination of features on a man. He did have an otherworldly aura about him. A glow of some kind.

  “Answer this,” she said. “Am I asleep right now? Have I finally fallen to sleep, a slumber so deep and complete that this is actually a dream? Not the nightmare I usually have, but a fantasy dream with an attractive man in it? Well, actually a crazy man, but you’re still ridiculously handsome.”

  He laughed, and damn, it sounded like a real laugh. “You’re awake, Crystal. This isn’t a dream. Come to the conference tomorrow, and I’ll prove everything I’ve said is true after my presentation.” He moved to sit on the couch, a single cushion the only buffer between them.

  “Sure, why not? It’s my day off anyway. I’d like to spend it sleeping, but that’s unlikely.”

  “Tell me about your nightmare.” Ray propped a foot on the driftwood coffee table in front of the couch, and Crystal’s gaze traveled from his heel all the way up to the hem of his swimming trunks. She couldn’t get rid of the image of him naked. Scales or no, human or merman, she wanted to see all of him again. Better yet, she wanted to touch him again. Running her fingers over those scales had brought her such a sense of tranquility and restfulness. She hadn’t felt that in forever.

  “The nightmare always starts out the same.” She recanted the familiar, plaguing sequence of deadly events, the need to touch him growing more powerful as she became anxious replaying the nightmare in words.

  When she finished telling him about the water, the lightning, the paralysis, and the drowning, Ray’s dark eyebrows lowered as he pulled at his lower lip with his index finger and thumb. Crystal couldn’t help wondering if in merman form webbing connected his long fingers.

  “What?” she finally asked when his pensive expression remained.

  He blinked as if coming back to the present time and looked at her. “Nothing. I’ll explain later. After the conference.”

  Crystal shrugged. “Okay.” She glanced at the towel he held closed with his other hand. “Can I…can I see them again?”

  He tightened his grip, his knuckles going white.

  “Please?” Crystal rarely begged for anything besides sleep, but she had to see them again.

  Slowly, Ray loosened the towel until it pooled in his lap. “After a swim, they usually fade away. I think I’ve been on land too long.”

  “They’re stunning, Ray.”

  He offered her a half-smile. One that made her feel totally comfortable around him. “No human has ever seen my scales before. You’re the first.”

  “Bet you weren’t looking forward to telling someone your secret, were you?” She inched a little closer, dying to get her fingers on those scales.

  “I wasn’t. I thought there might be more screaming or fainting or…something.” He slid the towel off his lap and put it behind him as he moved onto the cushion between them.

  “I’m not a screamer or a fainter, but if someone told me this morning that I’d be sitting on a couch with a merman tonight, I’d have called hotel security.” Her hand made its way onto his bare thigh. His skin was cool and speckled with sand that sparkled in the dim light of a single lamp.

  “I’m glad I didn’t use, ‘hello, I’m a merman’ as my opening line then.” He covered her hand with his, brought it over to his scales, and pressed her palm against them.

  Crystal shivered with arousal. The salty sea air fragrance exploded into the room, and she took a deep breath. Closing her eyes, she sifted the breath out slowly. When she opened her eyes, Ray had moved closer, his lips mere inches from hers. She traced a finger down the scar on the side of his face. It made him more real somehow. That small imperfection.

  “How did you get this?”

  “Shark.”

  “You mean you don’t all live as one big happy family under the sea?”

  “Generally we do, but sometimes you have to get rough to keep everyone in line. I am my people’s prince,” he said. “I have to do whatever it takes to keep them all safe.”

  “You love your people.”

  “I do.” He stroked her cheek with his knuckles. “May I kiss you?” he whispered.

  “Such a gentlemerman.”

  She closed the distance between them, and when their lips met, every nerve ending in Crystal’s body shot wide awake. She actually felt her blood moving in her veins, her limbs tingled, and her girl parts rocked ‘n rolled. She’d been kissed before, but not like this. Never like this. She was aware of every part of her body and every part of Ray’s as well. He was just as aroused, just as heated. When he pushed his fingers up into her hair, she groaned against his lips.

  He broke the kiss, and Crystal prepared to throw an all out tantrum until she saw the grin on his face.

  “We’ve only known each other a few hours, and I’ve told you unbelievable things about myself, but would you do me the great honor of staying the evening with me?”

  Crystal smiled over his polite manner. The last guy who wanted her to stay the night had said something along the lines of, “You wanna screw?” Thinking she’d maybe be able to sleep after a good lay, she’d agreed. The sex hadn’t been that good and the nightmare had been even more terrifying that night.

  Tracing a fingertip over his scales, she let her gaze sweep over his defined chest muscles down to his apparent anticipation waiting beneath his swimming trunks. “Do all your human parts…you know…work?”

  “Yes, ma’am, they do.”

  “Fabulous.”

>   Ray stood and held out a hand to her. He led her to the bed where he backed her onto it. “You’ve seen all of me on the beach this evening, my crystal ball. Now I want to see all of you.”

  “In this bikini, there isn’t much left to see.” Still, she turned around and swept her hair out of the way to expose the strings on the swimsuit’s top. “Have at it.”

  Ray made quick work of freeing her then Crystal shimmied out of the bottom piece. “Perfect,” he said.

  She faced him and got to her knees. Resting her hands on his broad shoulders, she caught his lips again. They kissed with a certain wild hunger that supercharged her entire body. Kissing him was both brand new and oddly familiar. She couldn’t get enough. She slid his swimming trunks off, and he crawled onto the bed like a beautiful predator, capturing her beneath him. Her vision of his naked body from this morning at the front desk had somehow been spot on.

  “Let me take your nightmares away,” he said before kissing a line up her thigh, over her belly button piercing where he tugged lightly with his teeth, then around her breasts. By the time he slid inside her ready heat, Crystal was drunk on his attention. With the beachy scent of him, the sandy scruff of his skin, and the cool press of his scaled patch against her stomach, she let all the tension and anxiety slough away. Her only concern was pleasing him, pleasing him completely.

  And from the sound of things, she was succeeding.

  When they both reached their peaks, Crystal swore she heard enormous waves crashing outside. Only they felt as if they were crashing inside her, washing her clean, renewing her.

  “Welcome to Bermuda,” she said as Ray folded his arms around her and cuddled her close.

  “Sleep, sweet Crystal.”

  The last thing she remembered was the light brush of his lips against her neck.

  ****

  Ray rolled up the sleeves of his light green dress shirt, a shirt Crystal had told him made his eyes look electric. Waking up with her in his arms had been like returning home. How that was possible he didn’t know. She was a human after all. He hadn’t changed her into a mermaid, though the notion kept bouncing around inside his skull since he’d made love to her.

  Don’t get ahead of yourself. He still had things to explain to her. Things that might prevent her from ever wanting to see him again. That was an ugly thought. He had to see her again.

  He must.

  At that moment, his extra senses kicked in, and he became immediately aware of her presence in the hotel’s crowded auditorium. Wearing a purple sundress that highlighted her exquisite curves, Crystal took a seat a few rows back from the stage and gave him a covert wave. He took great pleasure in knowing that fresh, rested look on her face was his doing. He’d spent part of the overnight hours blocking the nightmare from her mind. It was a strong one. One that confused him.

  Why was she dreaming about the hydrelam, the transformation from human to merfolk?

  He couldn’t come up with one instance of such a thing happening in Selecahnia’s history. No human was to know of the metamorphosis unless he or she was going through it. Ray knew it was a terrifying experience, but the bond the human had with one of his people was always strong enough to protect the human. He couldn’t imagine what Crystal had been going through, being subjected to that night after night in her dreams. Had he known, he could have found her sooner perhaps.

  And what did it mean now that he had found her?

  Too many questions. He needed to focus on the presentation and sort everything else out later. Later, when he hopefully had Crystal snug beside him again.

  He sent her a quick smile to which she responded with a wink and a truly sexy grin that almost had him diving off the stage to be near her. Instead he hooked his laptop into the large projector and brought up the first slide in his presentation. He took a seat next to the other two guest speakers and loosened his tie around his neck.

  Why is it so hot in here?

  The hotel’s air conditioner was humming along, however, Ray felt anything but his normal cool. Maybe last night’s activities had altered his body temperature. Making love to Crystal had been a little like being set on fire. Consuming. Blocking her nightmare had probably depleted his energy as well.

  Fanning himself with a stack of handouts, Ray found Crystal again. She mouthed the words, Are you okay? He nodded, though his throat was extra dry. After pouring himself a drink of water from the pitcher on a side table, he sat again and fought not to chug the water. He felt a little better after the drink, but an itch grew in intensity beneath his shirt.

  Just get through the presentation. Looking out into the audience, he saw many lawmakers and other important guests who could really support his cause and make a difference in preserving the oceans. A few of their strongest thoughts reached his own mind, and he knew he could get them onboard with this presentation. He could fall apart later.

  By the time it was his turn to approach the podium, he’d developed a ring of scales around his right forearm, the mark of his royalty. Forced to roll his sleeves back down, he was hotter than ever. He must have looked like Hades because Crystal had moved to the front row and sat at the edge of her seat.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Doctor Ray Taimen, expert in marine health.” He heard the facilitator announce his name and stood, but his legs couldn’t support him. His hands reached for the podium but ended up slapping the stage floor instead. Voices cut in and out from the audience as his vision blurred. He couldn’t take a deep breath. No oxygen was getting to his lungs. His throat felt as if someone had stuffed a beach towel down there.

  “Ray.” He lifted his head and focused long enough to see Crystal kneeling beside him.

  “Water,” he rasped just before everything went black.

  ****

  “Help me get him outside,” Crystal barked at the other two speakers. A weird image of Ray’s scales, dull, dried, and peeling flashed into her head. She instantly hated the picture.

  “Outside? Shouldn’t we call 911?” one of them asked.

  “That’s not going to help.” Crystal didn’t like the way Ray was wheezing while unconscious. “Please, let’s get him outside to the water. You can still call 911 if you want. Tell them we’re on the beach.”

  The second speaker got an audience member to help carry Ray to the shore while the first speaker got out his cell phone. Crystal was certain no doctor would be able to tell what was wrong with Ray. Though he was in human form, this was clearly a merman problem. She’d seen him unroll his sleeves and surmised that more scales had made an appearance.

  Ray mumbled something that sounded like deeper—or had she only heard that in her mind? Either way, Crystal knew merely getting his feet wet wasn’t going to be enough. She’d have to…go in there with him. Have to swim him out to deeper water. Submerge him.

  All the details of her nightmare came rushing back. Last night had been amazing getting a full eight hours of uninterrupted, non-petrifying sleep. She owed Ray for that, but the idea of actually swimming and being surrounded by the dangerous sea made her want to puke.

  The men carrying Ray started to lower him to a beach chair.

  “No. In the water,” Crystal said.

  “Miss, he’s shaking. He’d be better off waiting here for the paramedics.”

  Crystal let out a frustrated growl. She kicked off her sandals and marched over to the beach chair, which had wheels. “I can handle it from here.” She pushed the chair toward the water.

  “What are you doing?” someone asked.

  “Saving him.”

  “She’s crazy,” a voice that sounded a lot like Rionne’s said.

  Maybe she was crazy, but she knew Ray’s time on land was killing him. Just like the fish her father used to catch and let flip-flop to their deaths on the deck of his powerboat when she was a kid.

  Grunting and sweating like a wrestler, Crystal managed to evade the folks trying to stop her and slid Ray’s body into the sea. As much as she didn’t want to, she
hooked her left arm around his torso and swam him out to deeper water. She was terrified of her nightmare coming true, but more terrified of losing Ray. And it was more than the amazing sex and peaceful night’s sleep he had given her.

  They were…connected.

  Ray coughed and opened his eyes. “Let me go.”

  “No.”

  “I need to go deeper.”

  “I’m going with you.”

  “You can’t go as deep as I need to go. Not as a human.” His body jerked in her hold, and she almost lost her grip.

  Dark, gray clouds moved in, blocking the warm Bermuda sun. The blue sky was gone, turning the water almost black. A few flashes of lightning zig-zagged across the sky followed by a rumble of thunder. The water around them churned and undulated, white foam forming on the surface.

  Crystal recognized all of it. This was her nightmare. The only difference? Ray was in it too.

  This doesn’t make sense.

  “I must go deeper, Crystal.” Ray’s voice was strained as he struggled to breathe. “Let me go.

  “I don’t want to.” Hot tears stung her eyes as she fought to keep them both afloat. Before meeting Ray, she would have done anything to stop the nightmare. Now it was really happening, but all she could think about was not losing him.

  Ray grabbed her arm with surprising strength. “What do you want then?”

  She focused on his face as the ocean beat against their bodies. More beautiful scales appeared in an intricate pattern on the side of his neck. When the lightning flashed, it reflected off the scales making them look like stained glass. The stormy wind had turned Ray’s hair into a wild, black mane, and his eyes nearly glowed with a sea-green fire.

  “I want to be with you, Ray.” She tightened her hold on him. “Make me one of your kind.”

  “You don’t know what you’re saying.” He coughed again, but his eyes were hopeful. “If I did the hydrelam, you’d have to leave your world behind. It takes a while for newly turned merfolk to be able to spend any time on land.”

 

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