Aquatic Attraction

by Charlie Richards

  “Come on,” he yelled over the sound of rushing water. He shook off the glass and dragged Carlye to her feet. They sloshed through the several inches of water already filling the large room.

  Climbing the stairs, Carlye paused at the top. “We’re sinking,” she called, panic filling her voice.

  “It’ll be okay,” he assured her.

  “But I can’t swim!”

  Niall wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, sealing his mouth over hers for a brief, passion-filled kiss. “I won’t let you drown, Carlye,” he promised.

  “Prince!” Drew yelled from above.

  “Damn. He just can’t stop calling me that,” Niall muttered, leading Carlye back to the observation deck. He glanced around the tilting deck and spotted Drew climbing over the railing. A glance out to sea showed him Branson still in sea snake form dispatching the final keevil. “We’re here,” he called, heading toward Drew.

  “I’m sorry about that, Niall,” Drew said, rushing toward them. “I completely forgot that glass window was there.”

  “It’s fine,” Niall assured. “We’re not that far out. Gather anything essential and then meet us back in the sea. We can swim for shore.”

  “What about…” He motioned toward the still wide-eyed Carlye, although now she stared in fascination at the sarong wrapped around Drew’s hips.

  Niall cleared his throat, drawing her attention to his eyes. He lifted a brow in amusement as she flushed. “When we shift from mer-form or animal form to human, we automatically make the wrap. Technically, it’s made of the same skin that creates our fins,” he explained.

  “Oh,” she murmured.

  “After I drop into the water, I need to you jump in after me.” When she opened her mouth and started shaking her head, Niall placed his hands on either side of her head and pulled her in for a kiss. “I will catch you. You will be safe.”

  “You’re going to haul me all the way to shore?” she whispered.

  Niall shook his head and smiled. “No. I’m going to have you ride Branson most of the way. It’ll be easy for his sea snake to carry you.” At her indrawn breath and panic-filled eyes, Niall glanced over his shoulder and spotted his friend gliding through the water toward them. He turned back to his mate and slid a soothing hand up and down her spine. “He’s perfectly cognizant in his animal form. He won’t harm you,” he promised.

  Finally, she nodded slowly. “Okay,” she whispered.

  Grateful for the trust she showed, he leaned down and gave her one more kiss. Niall stepped back, stripped down, crawled over the ledge, and dropped into the water. As soon as he hit the water, he released his human form. He felt his muscles stretch and contract, his skin melted and then tightened as his legs snapped together and formed his tail. Gills opened behind his ears, allowing him to breathe underwater.

  He broke the surface and held his position. Looking up, he shoved his blond hair out of his eyes and then motioned for Carlye to drop. “Come on, baby. I got you,” he called.

  Drew appeared next to her and helped her over the railing. Seconds later, she splashed in front of him, sinking under the water. He followed her down, caught her waist and brought her back to the surface. “Easy, baby,” he crooned, pulling her close.

  “Niall,” she whispered, her fingers reaching out to lightly brush his gills. She looked down his body, just making out the shining scales of his tail. “That’s amazing!” she whispered.

  He grinned, pleased that she didn’t shy away from his mer-form. “I’m glad you like it,” he murmured. “I’ll let you explore to your heart’s content later, baby,” he promised. “Right now, we need to get you to shore. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  Niall eased her onto Branson’s scaled back, encouraging Carlye to straddle his sinewy spine and hang on. She squeaked softly when Branson started to weave through the ocean’s waves, swaying slightly before catching her balance and finding a way to ride Branson’s movements. Niall took a bag from Drew, and they spread out to swim on either side of her and the swiftly moving sea snake.

  Thirty minutes had them closing in on the shore. Branson kept his head low, barely skimming the salty spray. Once within a hundred feet of the rocky beach, he paused and turned his massive head to look at Niall.

  “Good idea,” he said, catching his guard’s hesitation. “Come here, baby.” He eased Carlye off Branson’s back and held her close as he started moving again. The waves bubbled briefly and Carlye gasped as the coils wrapped around themselves and sank beneath the waves. Seconds later, Branson’s dark features appeared above the surface of the water, and they again began swimming.

  A moment later, Carlye’s feet could reach the sandy bottom of the ocean. Niall set her down and quickly shifted back to human form to walk next to her. She paused, knee deep in water, and turned to him.

  “You should go back to your people, Niall,” Carlye murmured softly.

  Shock filled him. He shared a glance with his friends, and they moved away, giving them a modicum of privacy. “What are you talking about? I…”

  “Look,” Carlye said, cutting him off. “I went in to this with the knowledge that you’re an investor from out of town. I realize that my premise wasn’t completely accurate, but the outcome is still the same. You go back to your people, and I stay here. I told you I’d stop the drilling, and I will.” She reached into her shirt and pulled out her still-wrapped phone. “I have the footage of Branson fighting the keevil. I’ll post it on YouTube, which will flock this area with mythological creature hunters, stalling plans for oil drilling. That will give me time to find a permanent solution.”

  Niall shook his head. “I can’t have millions of humans flooding the area with sonars. That’s not any safer for my people,” he whispered, cupping her cheek. “Finding a way to stop the oil drilling is my job, not yours. I just need to know you’re not going to try to stop me, baby.”

  Carlye closed her eyes and let out a breath. When she opened them, he saw a closed expression he’d never before seen on her face.

  She took a step back. “I’ll put the source of the video two hundred miles north of here. That’s far enough away from you for safety, but still inside the zone we looked at for drilling. Just tell your people to stay clear of there for a bit. The quality on a phone is so bad, it won’t show any details, so your people will be safe.” She glanced over at Drew and Branson. “Thank you for everything,” she said and started walking toward the beach.

  When she paused and turned back, Niall felt hope buoy through him, until he heard her words.

  “I had fun, Niall, and you’re an amazing person to go through all this for the safety of your people. You have such a big heart. I’ll make sure they’re safe and check in with Drew once a final resolution has been reached.”

  He felt like a piece of his heart was torn from his chest as he watched his Adelfi Psychi walk away.

  Chapter Seven

  Carlye had done as she’d promised. She’d loaded the clip of two creatures fighting on YouTube under a heavily encrypted IP address to hide her identity. She’d spent the next three days pouring over the maps of the oil-drilling area until she figured out a way to stop preparations for good.

  The dark spots she’d noticed nearly two weeks ago were magma pockets. Most were small, making them easy to avoid, but there was no telling what was farther down out of the range of the satellite feeds. Even if Niall and his friends had never shown up, the drilling still would have been stopped and she wouldn’t have this ache in her heart that she didn’t want to dwell on.

  “Hey, are you okay?”

  She glanced up from the printouts she was working on and forced a smile she didn’t feel. “Yeah. Just finishing up before heading home.”

  Deb took a seat across from her desk and leaned forward. “You’ve been moping around for the past week and a half. Want to talk about it?”

  Shaking her head, Carlye grimaced. “I think I made a mistake that I can’t fix. I’ll get over it.
”

  Even as she said the words, she wondered if they were true. It had been ten days, nineteen hours and twelve minutes since she’d seen Niall. And she still pined for him as if it was still that afternoon on the beach. Walking away from him had been the hardest thing she’d ever done. The pain and sorrow in his deep blue eyes as she turned away had called for her to turn around and run back to him. But she hadn’t. Niall had come on land to stop the oil drilling. With his task done, he’d need to return to the sea. Sure, he may have stayed for a few more days of fun with her, but in the end, he was still a prince, and his place was with his people. A place she couldn’t go. Shoving the thoughts away, she lifted her gaze to Deb and took in her knowing look.

  “This is about a man, isn’t it?”

  Carlye sighed. “Yeah. Do you believe in love at first sight?” Oops! Did she really say that out loud? By the way Deb’s brows lifted, she must have.

  “Not really, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen. Didn’t he feel the same?”

  Carlye shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t give him a chance.” Now that her thoughts had turned to Niall, a deep sadness and longing filled her, almost to the point of pain. Knowing she wouldn’t accomplish any more work, she let out a deep sigh and closed her files. “I’m going to go,” she murmured, rising from her chair.

  Deb stood, too. “How about I bring over pizza and ice cream? You can tell me all about it.”

  She almost said no, but then nodded. “That would be really nice, Deb. As long as you don’t mind if I bawl on your shoulder, cause I can guarantee that I will.”

  “Hey,” Deb murmured, reaching out and touching her arm. “That’s what friends are for. I’ll grab my stuff, make a quick stop, and be at your place in less than an hour.”

  Forty-five minutes later, Carlye heard the doorbell ring. She’d already pulled her hair into a ponytail, changed into her comfiest sweats and t-shirt, making herself ready for a girl’s night of commiserating men and bad decisions. She pulled open the door and her jaw dropped. Her breathing quickened as a masculine hand reached toward her and closed her mouth before sliding along her skin to cup her jaw.

  She backed a step, but Niall followed her, not letting her break the contact. He turned her and pressed her against the wall before claiming her mouth in a hot, possessive kiss. She felt all his pent up need and anguish as he explored her mouth, teased her tongue, and nipped her lips.

  When he finally lifted his head, they were both panting. “I am not allowing you to walk away from me again, my Adelfi Psychi. I will not live without you.”

  “B-but you can’t live here,” she murmured, hardly believing that she found herself once more in Niall’s arms. But she couldn’t deny the feel of his hard body pressed snuggly against her’s.

  “Why not?” Niall asked. “Drew does. You are my Adelfi Psychi. I would do anything to be with you, Carlye.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Soul mate. You are my soul mate, Carlye. My other half. I realized it the first time I kissed you. Briny Nix recognize them by taste.”

  “By taste?”

  “Yes. I told you that you weren’t just a job to me, my mate, but you didn’t believe me. If it takes a hundred years, I will prove it to you. It almost killed me when you walked away. Don’t ever leave me again. I love you.”

  She saw the pain and desperation in his troubled blue eyes. Niall truly believed what he said. “You love me?”

  “With all my heart,” he whispered.

  “I love you, too,” she admitted, reaching up to touch his face.

  The change was nearly instantaneous. A relieved smile eased the lines of tension from his lips. His eyes lightened from the stormy gray-blue to a brilliant deep blue, like the ocean after a storm. He kissed her again, this one a quick brush of lips.

  Lifting his head, he grinned. “I’ve already worked it out so I can live here. For security reasons, we’ll have to stay with Drew and Branson, but when we decide to have a family, there’s enough property to build a wing just for us. We can…”

  “Carlye?”

  They both turned their heads at the interruption. A confused Deb stood on the doorstep. A plastic bag in one hand and a pizza box in the other.

  A blush crept over Carlye’s face as she realized they hadn’t even bothered to shut the door. “Hi, Deb. Um… this is Niall. Niall Karson.”

  “Is he the…” Deb let her sentence hang, uncertainty filling her face.

  “Yeah. He’s the one.” Carlye looked back at Niall and smiled. “I guess he felt it was love at first sight, too.”

  Niall cupped her face and kissed her gently. After breaking it, he smiled, the move reaching his eyes. She could clearly see the love he felt for her displayed on his face, and knew anyone else looking could see it, too.

  “I certainly did. And this time I’m not letting you get away, sweetness.”

  Before he could kiss her again, Deb cleared her throat. “Then here is a pizza to celebrate, and I expect a phone call later, Carlye, so you can tell me all about it.”

  Carlye took the pizza and laughed as her friend flounced down the sidewalk, tossing a sassy wave over her shoulder.

  “She’s nice,” Niall murmured into her ear. “We’ll have to have her over some time.” He reached past her and closed the door before turning her back to face him. “Now where were we?”

  “You were telling me about how many kids you want,” she whispered, holding back a laugh.

  “That might be getting ahead of ourselves.” Niall chuckled. “I would love for you to have my children, but right now, let’s enjoy each other.”

  “That sounds fantastic, Niall,” she murmured, kissing him gently. “We’ll have pizza and champagne, and toast to aquatic attraction.”

  Niall grinned, taking the pizza box from her and wrapping the other arm around her waist. “That sounds like a marvelous plan, Adelfi Psychi.”

  Watch for

  the Briny Nix series

  coming to eXtasy Books

  About the Author

  Charlie lives on a mini ranchette in Utah with her supportive husband. She enjoys spending time playing with her furry, four-legged children; horses, dogs, and cats. When she’s not training to compete in jumper competitions with her boys, Apache and Tucson, she can be found curled up with her laptop, creating a sexy hero to pair with an adventurous heroine… or maybe with another hero.

  She can be reached at ch.richards2010@yahoo.com

  Or visit her at www.charlie-richards.com

  Table of Contents

  ch.richards2010@yahoo.com