by Starla Night
She studied him for a long moment. Searching for his lies.
But he did not have lies.
The metal behind her ear vibrated.
She spoke. “I should really go.”
“Not before I show you the other way.”
“Other way?”
“To heal your son.” Balim brought her fingers to his lips. “Become my queen.”
Chapter Six
Become Balim’s queen?
Become Balim’s queen?
Bella’s heart thudded harder and harder.
Desire welled up in her heart. Her soul sang. The future beckoned with gold, rainbows, and stardust glimmering as it fell between the twinkling flower petals.
No. No, no, no.
It was a trap. A lie. Another false hope presented in a long line of false hopes.
If she became a queen, she’d have to go to Atlantis, and she’d never see Jonah again.
Never.
But if it was his only chance for a cure…
“What do you mean?” Bella’s voice broke on the forbidden question, and she swallowed. “How will that help Jonah?”
“I will show you.” The steady warrior with the soothing, calm voice and mesmerizing eyes tugged her fingers. “Come with me.”
Bella followed Balim through the gardens.
His fingers were a lifeline. His broad back and hard lines enticed her beneath the smooth suit.
This was crazy.
Crazy.
She had to tear her gaze away and breathe.
This resonance was no joke. She never reacted like this to a client. She never reacted like this to anyone.
“Bella?” Starr’s voice was tight with worry. “Something’s wrong. Did they drug the food? You’re not being yourself. Stop arguing with the guy and get out. Now.”
She sealed her lips. Starr would have to understand.
“Please, Bella. We already discussed this. You said yourself that you’ll never help Jonah on the bottom of the sea. Remember how I tried to talk you out of marrying Chaz? This is me, your voice of reason, pleading you step back and think.”
Dannika waited just inside the shelter, watching a movie on her tablet, while Hazel beside her typed furiously on her phone.
Dannika rose, concerned. “Is everything all right?”
“Fine.” Balim pressed the button to open the elevator doors.
“Are you finished? Already?” She gestured at Hazel, whose gaze was glued to Balim’s fingers linked with Bella’s. “Hazel made raspberry chocolate mousse.”
“I wish I could try it. It sounds delightful,” Bella said, recovering herself.
Hazel tapped the cooler. “Here, you can try it right—”
“Another time.”
“We are going to the office.” Balim entered the elevator and pulled Bella in with him.
Dannika thrust the tablet into her seat and jogged across the short lobby, stopping the doors from closing with her hand. “I’m sorry. After everything that’s happened, you know I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Bella is my bride, Dannika.”
“Oh!” Her face lit like a child opening a birthday present. “That’s wonderful. Another successful match. I like you both so much, and I was hoping you’d feel the same.”
Bella’s heart hurt. Don’t be this excited for me. It’s not going to end how you think. She needed to escape this bittersweet nightmare.
Balim pulled Bella closer as though protecting her from Dannika’s enthusiasm. “Excuse us, Dannika.”
It had been a long time since a man had protected Bella. A long time.
“Hazel.” Dannika clapped her hands. “We need to schedule Bella’s photo shoot of her accepting Balim’s Sea Opal, drinking the elixir, and—”
No.
“Not right now.” Balim pointed at Dannika’s hands in the elevator door. “Goodbye.”
Dannika’s smile faltered. She removed her hand. The door slid shut.
They descended.
“Thank you,” Bella whispered.
“For?”
“Getting me out of there.”
“I had to protect you. You were unhappy.”
“How do you know?” She touched her face. He’d caught her business smile. She didn’t trust her expressions around him.
“Not from your mouth.” He lifted his free hand and slid one sensual finger across her hot skin just above the low-cut neckline of her emerald dress. “From here.”
Suddenly, there was no oxygen.
“My chest?” Her lips trembled. Smile like it means nothing. Smile! “I don’t have words in my chest.”
“You do.” He placed his palm over her heart. His fingers curved above the mounds of her aching breasts. “I hear, see, feel them. You want, Bella.”
My name.
Heat kindled from his words and his caress. Her breasts swelled, threatening to spill from her constricting undergarments into his palms. A warm, liquid ache made her clench her thighs.
She wanted him to speak her name again in that soft, measured tone—in her ear, followed by the teasing tug of his teeth and the hot, wet slick of his tongue.
His intent gaze deepened as though he knew what she was thinking.
She closed her eyes.
Bella always controlled the conversation. But from the moment she’d walked into the garden, every fiber of her will bent to Balim’s domination.
No longer.
Get a hold of yourself.
Only a short few hours ago, she’d run circles around Harv. And now this merman, this inhuman—sexy—monster was doing the same to her.
No one dragged Bella around.
She was here for one reason and one only. And it wasn’t to remember, in panty-soaking detail, how many years it had been since she’d ridden a man’s thick, hard, dominating cock.
That was a happy fantasy. And she would not experience happiness, not even one single moment, until Jonah was cured.
Hear me, God?
They reached the floor of the office. Balim dropped his palm and exited the elevator.
“You are killing me. There are more security cameras,” Starr noted as Balim touched the keypad lock and punched the numbers. “Why aren’t you leaving? I’m having a heart attack. You know I can’t get to you. There’s a security guard on the corner. And the MerMatch office has a keypad lock. It must still be secure if the Sons of Hercules are relying on Hazel to let them in.”
Balim glanced back at Bella’s ear.
“Gah, how does he hear me? It’s impossible! This isn’t even sound. My words are vibrating on your eardrums. It’s inhuman.”
Bella hummed “The Sound of Silence.”
Starr shut up.
“How will me becoming your queen help Jonah?” Bella asked, redirecting his attention.
“Several ways.” Balim pushed open the now-unlocked door and let her in. He disappeared into an interior office.
She strolled to the reception desk and then panned around the office.
The walls were a soothing sage green with accents of warm sand by the windows and peaceful blue couches. The thirty-gallon fish tank behind the desk glowed with light, and inside a single, white creature fluttered like a flower on the aerated tank current.
The Life Tree blossom.
Despite being a plant, its movements were smooth and calming, hypnotic, and it danced as though it were alive. It looked like a small water lily or extra-large cherry blossom, glimmering and catching the tank lights.
“Ooh,” Starr said, breaking her silent concentration. “This entire place is hot. It’s crawling with bugs.”
Right. The job at hand.
Bella perused the office, following Starr’s quiet directions to inspect or check on the different bug locations. She placed stickers on the windows, a jammer on the underside of the aromatherapy diffuser, and unplugged the phone cable to attach Starr’s diverter. But the plug didn’t look right.
“Of course.” Starr laughed to he
rself. “The Sons of Hercules are already intercepting their traffic. Take theirs off.”
“They’ll know it was me,” she muttered.
“Just for a minute. Then log me on to the computer.”
Bella sat at the reception desk computer. The password taped to the monitor caused Starr to guffaw, and then Bella followed the prompts to give Starr access.
“All right…put their logger back on.”
Bella did so.
“Now I’ll know the kinds of things they know, and with any luck, I’ll be able to follow their signal back to the jerks who are peeping in.”
Balim exited the office. “What are you doing with Hazel’s computer?”
“Oh, I just wanted to check my email.” Bella stood and lifted her cell phone. “Send a quick message, but I can do it another time.”
He looked right through her.
She silently begged him not to ask her in the middle of this bugged office. Had Starr jammed all of them? She had to act as if they were exposed to the enemy.
As usual.
Balim relented as though he had read her mind. He walked to an InstantPot pressure cooker, tapped the buttons, and changed the numbers.
“Cooking dinner?” she asked, still regaining her equilibrium.
“There was destruction in the labs. I am replenishing the water.”
Destruction? Hmm.
“I will retrieve your Sea Opal at a later time.” He straightened again and unrolled a damp mat filled with roots and reeds. He placed a chunk of vegetation into a pestle and ground it into a clear, gelatinous paste.
“My Sea Opal?” she asked, watching him.
“When you accept my gemstone, you become my bride.” He took her right hand. His warm, capable fingers encircled her wrist and splayed her fingers. “That is how it usually works.”
She swallowed. “Usually?”
Balim smeared the cool gel on her scabbed ring finger cuticle, an irritated hangnail on her index finger, and a paper cut she hadn’t even noticed on her middle finger. It gelled like aloe and smelled like the sea.
“You need extraordinary healing for your son.” Balim set the paste aside and wrapped her fingers in a thin green bandage. “There is one time a human female experiences extraordinary healing.”
She looked beyond him to the Life Tree flower again. “And that is?”
“When she drinks the nectar of her warrior’s Life Tree for the first time.”
The blossom danced like a wish, like a promise.
Like a curse.
“That’s permanent, Bella. Elixir is temporary, but the nectar is permanent.”
Balim’s gaze eased to her ear and then back to her eyes. His own red threads gleamed with intensity.
She couldn’t breathe.
Bella shook her head. Her heart thudded hard. A new possibility for Jonah. But at what cost? “I can’t go with you to Atlantis.”
“You must. To claim your queen powers and take your rightful place as—”
“My life is here.” She spiked her voice with steel. “My son comes first.”
His nostrils flared. His gaze intensified. “No mer would dare come between you and your young fry. Your dedication is well honored, Bella.”
That wasn’t what she’d expected him to say. She wobbled, off balance. “Well, I know your race isn’t thriving.”
“The needs of the many will never outweigh the well-being of a single young fry.” He glowered, fiery with the truth. “Any warrior would give his life to protect a child.”
Her heart squeezed. She wanted to drink the nectar. Fall in love with him. Her soul had committed. Why not her heart?
“But you want me to be your queen,” she pushed.
“Queens channel the Life Tree’s powers.”
She shook her head again. “Faier said Jonah’s soul was too dark.”
“Faier is no healer.”
“I know, but—”
“You possess powers beyond the knowledge of any warrior. Try. You may succeed.”
She turned back to the flower. It danced like a mote of stardust on a dark night.
Wish upon a star. Free yourself. Leave this sad life behind and embrace a future far away as a mermaid.
She could never turn her back on Jonah. Balim’s offer was too tempting.
Bella couldn’t do it. She couldn’t.
She swallowed the hard lump in her throat and forced her longings deep. “You said there were several ways to heal Jonah. What’s another way?”
Balim was silent behind her.
“What are you doing?” Starr asked. “He gave you a solution. Take him up on it. You can still save Jonah, Bel. And if this is the flower, imagine the whole tree.”
Yes, she was asking for something crazy. Once he realized the hard, ugly, ruthless woman she was, this strange spell would break. He would reel back from her, push her away in disgust. The sooner it happened, the better. She would no longer fight the compulsion to go to him and—
“The moment a bride transforms to mer for the first time, she experiences extraordinary healing,” he mused, as though feeling his way through a problem. “The nectar enters your blood, resonates with your soul, and performs a change. Humans are fond of injecting blood. So if yours is injected into your son…”
“Then you think there’s a chance he could gain the same benefit,” she finished. “Get my healing with his healing.”
He unfolded a stepladder behind the reception desk, opened the tank, rolled up his sleeve, and reached in with a small plastic cup. The Life Tree flower floated into the cup. He lifted it out and offered it to her.
“Drink and accept your destiny.”
I will never transform into a mer.
He blinked as if he’d heard her. The silent refusal in her heart. The sharp burden she carried and could never give up just because tonight, she’d glimpsed something different.
Balim frowned. “Bella?”
Bella needed to go to Balim and cup his cheek. Dismiss his feelings the same way she had dismissed Harv’s. Say she’d already tried a similar proposal and there was no point in wasting the nectar on her when she would never become his queen.
But she couldn’t.
Balim stood on the stepladder, a lone warrior with heartblood-red tattoos snaking up his wet arm, a strange contrast to his suit. Stuck between worlds, he was forever lonely because he belonged to neither.
She could not dismiss him. She’d cup his cheek and lean in for a goodbye kiss and crush her body to his, losing herself in his kiss, praying he never let her go.
So she took the cup.
Her fingers closed over the wet plastic. It was heavier than she expected, and the small flower danced with a strange light.
Her throat tightened. What was this emotion? Sadness? She had to tell him her truth. “I can’t go to Atlantis.”
“Yes.”
“But you’re willing for me to drink this anyway.”
“Now, yes. And then hurry to your son.”
She couldn’t do this.
The desire curling around her heart, urging her to cup the flower and drink the bead of glimmering nectar within, squeezed.
Take it. Drink. Become a mermaid queen.
She gripped the cup. “How long does the ‘extraordinary healing’ last?”
“It has never been tested.”
She got out the new phone. Her contacts were gone. She addressed Starr directly, even though it was dangerous and an outside observer would think she was talking aloud like a crazy person. “Dial Jonah’s doctor.”
Balim watched her blank screen.
“You’re not thinking straight,” Starr began.
“I need to drink it while we’re transfusing, or else I could miss the moment.”
“Bella, taking out the flower is what the Sons of Hercules want you to do.”
“Dial. Please.”
“Stick to the plan. Tell them you couldn’t get him to release it. He can sneak it out. You can’t.”
<
br /> “I have to.”
Starr muttered. She had not secured the hospital or their route, and she chastised Bella for making herself vulnerable. “You didn’t even want to become a mermaid before tonight.”
“That’s not true, and we’ll take every precaution. How many resources can they have to stop me? They’re a bunch of college kids.”
“That’s what Hazel thought when she let in the window washers three times.”
“Then the longer we wait, the more chances they have of stealing it.” Bella couldn’t let that happen. “I know it’s dangerous, but we need to go now.”
Bella’s phone lit up, and the number Starr had retrieved rang.
Fear warred with hope.
If the only way to save Jonah was her transforming into a mermaid and yielding to the tattooed warrior, she would do it. She made the arrangements with Jonah’s doctor, but he resisted unless they promised another doctor would supervise and take ultimate responsibility. Balim gave her a name—Doctor Kowalski—and Jonah’s doctor not only got approval from that physician but an eager offer of help. They would be ready.
This. Was. Happening.
Now they had to cross the city to reach Jonah.
The most dangerous journey began when they exited onto the street.
Chapter Seven
Balim escorted Bella out of the MerMatch office.
His warrior instincts pinged.
Although he had not heard the answers of Bella’s conversation partner, he knew she meant the dangerous Sons of Hercules.
They wanted the Life Tree flower. They would try to take it from her.
“Can I risk the subway?” she murmured as they exited the office into the hall, the blossom secured in a hastily emptied and refilled water bottle she held as if it were life itself.
“We use a car service,” he said.
Her ears squeaked. She tilted her head, listening. “Give me your phone.”
“Mine is at the hospital drying in a container of rice. I am assured this is how humans repair damage caused by water.”
She wrinkled her brows at him. “I’d think you, of all people, would buy a waterproof cell phone.”