The Calling

by Ashley Lynn Willis

  “My sister turned to water and disappeared into the folds of the wool blanket, and my mother went mad.”

  “You were on the beach when all this happened?”

  “Yes.”

  “You saw your sister disappear?”

  “Well, no. She was just gone.”

  “She turned to water?”

  He nodded.

  That wasn’t a world he’d created to escape; it was a world his parents had forced on him to explain the death of their daughter. She grabbed his hand, praying to God he’d listen to the voice of reason. “Justin, I think your mother killed your sister and blamed you.”

  “No. That’s not what happened.”

  She gripped his hands tighter. “I’m a nurse. I see this kind of thing all the time. Your mother probably suffered from postpartum depression. She didn’t know what she was doing, and your father couldn’t face the fact that his wife had murdered Cecelia.”

  “The police said the same thing.”

  Mandy stiffened. “She went to jail?”

  “No. They never found Cecelia because she’d turned to saltwater, and the court deemed my mother incompetent to stand trial.” He stared at her as if the story of his sister’s death had no effect on him emotionally. All his concern was directed at her. He needed her to believe—she could see it in his eyes—but she couldn’t.

  “Gods don’t exist, and people don’t turn to water,” she said in a tone much gentler than she wanted. If it weren’t for the funeral and his delicate state of mind, she’d be about to lose it. As it was, she wanted to shake him hard enough to rattle some logic into his brain.

  “I didn’t expect you to believe me.”

  “Then where does this leave us?”

  “Let me rephrase that. I didn’t expect you to believe my words.” The car door clicked when he opened it, and the interior light shone bright on his golden face. “Follow me.”

  She opened her door and stepped out, her heels immediately sinking into the soft sand. She leaned down, pulled them off, and chucked them into the passenger floorboard.

  The cool breeze raised goosebumps across her bare arms as she crossed the beach with Justin by her side. “What’s the point of this?”

  Justin shrugged out of his blazer and wrapped it around her shoulders. “You’ll find out in about thirty seconds.” He grasped her arms as he stood behind her and gently positioned her. “Stand right here.”

  She nestled deeper into the jacket. The cold water lapped at her toes, and she backed up an inch to escape the ocean’s icy fingers. Justin took off his shoes and socks and dropped his pants in a puddle on top of them. Wearing a white dress shirt and dark boxers, he waded into the ocean.

  “The water’s freezing,” she said.

  He glanced over his shoulder while he waded deeper into the frothy waves. “Doesn’t bother me.”

  She hugged herself tighter, warding off the biting wind, and watched with curiosity as he reached thigh-deep water and turned to face her. He extended his arms high to his sides and closed his eyes. At first, nothing happened, but then the water behind him began to vibrate, splashing in tiny droplets that hung just above the surface.

  The waves spraying his legs stilled, and the ocean became as smooth as glass around his body and under the suspended quivering droplets. Suddenly, the cold wind didn’t bite through Justin’s blazer, and the water at her toes wasn’t icy. As if called by an energy radiating from the sea, she slid out of the blazer and threw it to the beach in a hurried rush. She waded into the water, not even needing to hike her skirt because the ocean was as calm as a mountain pond.

  His eyes stayed clamped shut as the water slowly began to rise behind him—higher and higher until it reached shoulder level. Without warning, the pulsating sea jumped twenty feet and hung like a crystal backdrop. But it wasn’t a waterfall. The water didn’t cascade; it levitated in the air, shimmering beneath the moonlight.

  Mandy dashed past Justin. In her rush, water splashed against her skirt, soaking the fabric, though the chill in the ocean barely registered. When she reached the iridescent wall, she extended her hand and touched it with her fingertips. It felt so cool, so real, but how could it be? She pushed through, her hand engulfed by the suspended sea. A few more inches forward and the cool air on the other side swept across her skin.

  She cupped her hand and pulled it back to her chest. Water drained through her fingers, but the hole she left behind never filled. In awe, disbelief, excitement, and every clashing emotion in her repertoire, she stared through the gap, watching the ocean churn on the other side.

  Behind her, she heard Justin’s voice, tight with worry and fear and even a tinge of relief. “I can’t be with you if you don’t believe in my heritage. My sister died because my mother didn’t trust my father. I can’t let that happen again.”

  She stared straight up at the towering face of water without the slightest twinge of fear. “How can I not believe?” Holy mother of all that was real, she was in love with a demigod. She waded to Justin’s side and brushed his cheek with her palm.

  He leaned into her hand, his eyes full of sorrow. “Does this change things between us?”

  “It does.” Before he could feel slighted by her words, she added, “When you teach me to surf next summer, I’m going to expect a perfect barrel.”

  Justin released a loud breath and wrapped her in his warm arms. He buried his head in her hair and with a joyous laugh, then lifted her and twirled her in the air. Mandy laughed with him.

  Their movement stirred the calm waters, and the water sprayed high, soaking them through and through. His arms stayed tightly wrapped around her, holding onto her as if she were the most precious possession in the world. As he lowered her, over his shoulder, she watched the wall of water creeping into the ocean until it finally disappeared.

  “How could your mother not have believed with proof like this?”

  “My dad can’t manipulate water.”

  “Why can you?”

  He shrugged, but his eyes sparkled as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “I don’t know.”

  The waves began beating against her legs, and the energy Justin had unleashed was swallowed by the sea. A tremble coursed down her spine, and she instinctively pulled her arms in between herself and Justin’s chest, all her warmth draining into the cold waves. Between the chill and Justin’s abilities, her head spun.

  “You’re freezing,” he said, squeezing her tighter.

  “Why aren’t you?”

  “I swim in this every day.”

  “With a wetsuit,” she said between chattering teeth.

  He reached down, slung his arm behind her knees, and lifted her into a cradle. She leaned into him, trying to take advantage of his warmth. As the cold drained her body of energy, she began to question the validity of her beliefs. She’d never considered herself a strong Christian. She believed in one God, whose son had died for her sins, but as for the Old Testament, she’d always seen the book as too violent and mystical to be taken as God’s word. Her beliefs were loose at best. But were even her lax ideas of God wrong? Was everything invalid if gods existed?

  Her shivering rattled the thoughts from her brain. Until she knew more about Justin’s heritage, there was no point in speculation. Right then, she was too cold to ask.

  * * *

  Justin trudged across the sand to the car with Mandy in his arms. Her body trembled uncontrollably, one of the first signs of hypothermia. He berated himself for letting her stay in the water too long. He’d been so in the zone with relief when she hadn’t freaked that he hadn’t paid attention to the warning signs until her lips were turning blue.

  He let her body slide down his until her feet rested on the sand next to the passenger door of the SUV. When he heard her teeth chattering, he hurried to the back of the car and grabbed his duffel bag. “Take off your clothes.” He walked back to her side and opened the passenger door. Then he set the bag on the seat and rummaged through the contents
before pulling out a T-shirt. While waiting for her to undress, he leaned into the car, started the ignition, and turned the heater on full blast.

  Mandy fumbled with her blouse, groaning in frustration when her trembling hands couldn’t coax the buttons through the holes. Justin decided he’d better help her, and with nimble fingers, he made short work of her shirt. He tugged her skirt down, his face leaning within inches of her soaked bra, her nipples pushing against the thin fabric.

  His desire rose like a beast, sucking away his breath along with his sanity. When he slid his fingers under her front-bra closure, he realized it was only going to get worse. Christ, his girlfriend was frozen solid, and he wanted to bone her anyway.

  He closed his eyes as he slid off her bra and threw it into the car. Next he slid his fingers to her hips, under her panties, and tugged down the lace, letting them pool around her ankles. Though he sternly told his eyelids to stay shut, they had a mind of their own and opened wide.

  Naked. She was completely bare in front of him, her skin covered in goosebumps, her limbs shivering like leaves in a hurricane, and yet all he noticed was the way her wet skin glistened in the moonlight and the delicious ‘v’ of dark blond hair between her thighs.

  With a moan of displeasure, he tugged the dry T-shirt over her head, but not without accidentally brushing his straining wet boxers against her stomach. Though her lips were still tinged blue, she smiled an impish grin full of possibilities.

  He slipped out of his wet dress shirt and boxers and threw them into the car. “I know a way to warm you up quickly,” he rumbled, his need for her overwhelming him.

  She peered up at him with huge blue eyes that seemed to say, I’d let you do anything with me. The electricity between them crackled. With a hunger he couldn’t control, he sank his fingers deep in her hair and pressed his lips to hers. She moaned into his mouth. As her groan of desire reverberated through his body, he picked her up and slid her into the backseat. His lips stayed secured on hers while he shut the door and blindly swatted at the locks.

  Justin wanted to worship her, to kiss every inch of her flawless skin. He broke their kiss as he laid her across the seat, her arms high over her head, resting near the door handle, her legs spread wide, one propped against the backrest, the other dangling so that her foot touched the floorboard. He kneeled over her, taking her in as if she were a sculpture carved just for him.

  Christ, she was beautiful. Her goosebumps were gone, her breathing shallow, and her eyes darkening. Justin leaned down and kissed her one last time on the lips. He decided he wouldn’t touch her mouth again until she cried out his name.

  With her body displayed for him to consume, he glided his lips over the smooth skin of her collarbone. She groaned and raised her hips beneath him. His cock jumped when her wet sex ground against him. Holding back would be difficult, but he was making love to the woman who would someday bear his children, to the woman who knew everything about him, and yet still loved him. He’d be damned if he took her before his hands and lips had touched every part of her and knew her body’s every secret.

  “You’re going to be still,” he growled. “Or I’ll hold you still.”

  Just as he’d expected, she tilted her hips back in defiance and drove upward, hitting at the base of his cock. He hissed. Without a second thought, he wrapped both her wrists in one hand and squeezed, just enough to be uncomfortable. “Still,” he whispered against her lips, giving one more squeeze for emphasis.

  Her eyes widened, but she obeyed, her hips falling back to the seat. To make sure she understood it wasn’t a game of dominance, but one of stark need to claim her as his own, he leaned down, and said, “I love you. Always.”

  She instantly relaxed, her rosy lips opening slightly, her gaze watching him with both interest and need.

  He kissed each of her nipples and drew languid circles around them, taunting her. Forcing himself away from her perfect twin swells, he dipped down to the flat planes of her stomach, his hands rubbing her hips, his lips caressing her skin. He trembled with the desire to taste her, to drink her in. Before he swept past her sex to her thighs, he lapped at her clit—once, twice, three times.

  She gasped, then whimpered in protest as he left her core and ran his mouth down the juncture of her hip and bottom, down the inside of her silky thigh to the back of her knee. With his hands, he caressed her calf, her ankle, then brought her foot to his mouth and kissed the tops of her toes. Laying her foot down gently, he reached for the other and began the ritual again, kissing her toes, massaging her calf, his mouth running up her thigh.

  As he showed reverence to every part of her body, he realized he wasn’t memorizing her the way he had every time before. He wasn’t cataloguing away her scent, her taste, the little mewling sounds she made when he touched her. He wasn’t storing away the moment, afraid that his memories would have to sustain him when the truth of his past finally scared her away.

  He lived the moment with her, letting his feelings guide him, all fear gone. She’d given him a freedom he’d thought impossible, one of forever, with no secrets untold.

  Justin wanted to give her the same joy he felt and, though it’d take time to make her that happy, he knew just how to start. He leaned to the side of the passenger seat and pushed it as far forward at it’d go, freeing up precious space for all the things he wanted to do to her.

  He slid both hands beneath her ass. When she rose, he scooted her to a sitting position. Then, he wrapped his hand around one ankle and planted her right foot on the back of the passenger seat; he planted the other on the center console. With her glistening core exposed, he kneeled between her legs and folded back the hood of her sex with his thumbs. Her eyes sparkled with anticipation. The growl that erupted from his throat reverberated inside the car as he buried his face in her.

  She jerked as he kissed her hard with his mouth and tongue, moving against her until she bucked beneath him. She was so ready for him, so swollen. He tugged and pulled her pleasure to its peak.

  He’d barely begun when she tipped over the edge into bliss, her hips swaying wildly beneath him. She screamed his name, loud and with force. He kept riding her with his tongue, not letting her return to earth until he’d milked every ounce of pleasure from her. On and on, she rode the wave, her head snapping back, her eyes clamped tight, her thighs trembling. And when her body fell back to the seat, he didn’t stop.

  Slowly, teasingly, he drew lazy circles around her clit, letting her relax. Not giving her so much sensation to overstimulate her, but enough to pique her interest. For several minutes, he drew the circles until he felt her tense, building again toward the precipice. She began to strain beneath him, and he picked up his pace, his circles drawing closer and closer to her core. With greediness, he drew her just out of reach of another peak.

  “Oh, God,” she moaned, her hands threading through his hair, urging him on.

  His fingers dug into her hips, holding them steady as she bucked off the seat with each flick of his tongue. Closer and closer, he drew her to the summit.

  She writhed beneath him. Gasped for breath. Begged for more. As she rounded the corner to sweet ecstasy, he rose between her thighs, burning with the need for his own release.

  “No!” she pleaded. She grabbed his shoulders and pushed him back down.

  He took her hands and pinned them into the seat, holding her down by the wrists. In one forceful thrust, he dove into her, crying out in rapture, drunk from the feel of her warm, wet heat.

  “Come with me,” he demanded, pumping her full to brimming. He buried his head in the crook of her neck, his lips grazing her skin as he pounded into her. Mandy fought to get her hands free and, when she succeeded, she dug her nails into his ass. He kicked his head back; his body tensed, the muscles of his abs going rigid along with his arms and back. He couldn’t hold on any longer.

  “Now!” he growled. “Come, now!”

  His orgasm barreled down on him, making him blind to everything but her. She wri
thed beneath him, her face drawn in stark concentration. And then he felt her tip over the edge, her hips jerking beneath him. With each contraction, she clenched him hard, drawing out his own orgasm. Together, they cried out, their bodies tensing, releasing, tensing, releasing. On and on, they rode the crest, the pleasure flowing between them as if more than just their bodies connected them. When the last trembles of bliss rolled through them, he collapsed on top of her, his chest pressed to hers, her legs still wrapped around him. They stayed like that, neither of them moving, too content and satiated to break the connection.

  The silence between them was beautiful, too full of love and understanding to taint with words. She stroked his hair as he drew deep pulls of air, trying to catch his breath. The smell of sex hung thick in the air, and the windows of the SUV had fogged with their passion. The moment was perfect, made only more complete when Mandy lifted a finger and drew on the cool glass. As she finished her art, bringing her index finger down to connect the bottom of a heart, his body stirred again.

  He lowered his head, his teeth grazing her earlobe and gently pushed deeper into her.

  She moaned when his full width cleaved her. “Really?” she gasped.

  “I can’t get enough of you,” he whispered.

  She rolled her hips forward, meeting him halfway as he thrust all the way inside her. “Then, have me as many times as you want.”

  And Justin did. His soul bared to her, his heart forever in her hands.

  Chapter 16

  Mandy played with the dark curly hairs on Justin’s chest as they lay in bed. Her gaze focused on the black and white surfboard leaning by the window. A serpent, matching his bicep tattoo, curled around the front of the board, its slithering tongue touching the tip. On the other side of the window hung a painting of the ocean with a green-sailed boat gliding through the sea, its bow cleaving the frothy white water. She’d never thought about it, but everything in his room echoed the sea, from the deep blue drapes to the collection of shells and sea glass in a jar on his dresser.