Page 6

6

Claira

D id I seriously just compliment his erection?

Kai’s chin turned. “Erection?” he asked, raising a lavender-blonde eyebrow like I’d broken into a foreign language. Then he must have noticed the tent he’d pitched under the covers, because he jerked, his hips twisting to conceal it. “Oh, ow . Right—moving. Not great right now.” His teeth clenched and his body curled while he tenderly rubbed at his lower back. Even through the pain, a flush of red wrapped across his face, all the way to the tips of his ears. “Sorry—I’m just so happy you’re actually here.”

“I know. It’s hard to believe all of us made it back.” I couldn’t help but blush, too. Nice erection? Ugh. That moment was going to haunt me until I was as old as Gram. “I’m happy you’re here, too, Kai.” I crouched down to pick up the bottle of water I’d dropped. When I straightened back up, he had lifted the edge of the covers to look at himself.

Horror drained the color from his face as he stared under the covers. “How long have I been naked?”

“Uh, pretty much since you got back to land.” Returning to the bed, I sat down beside him. “But don’t worry. With the way Laverne was shrieking and carrying on when we got in the lobby, I don’t think anyone noticed you hanging off Barren’s shoulder.”

Kai’s lips parted as he eyed one of the bottles of water. He strained to sit upright, and I shifted the pillows behind his back to help prop him up. He looked at me curiously while I fluffed the pillow behind his shoulders. “Aren’t these supposed to go under my feet?”

“Pillows? Um, no,” I said with a laugh, then passed him one of the bottles Barren had brought for us. “Here on land, people sleep with a pillow under their head. Usually one, but sometimes more. They’re pretty comfy, don’t you think? Better than wrapping yourself up in seaweed to keep from drifting out of your bed at night.”

Kai sat up straighter as he untwisted the bottle cap. “Interesting. Laverne sounded so sure when she told me humans put them under their feet.” After he took a deep gulp of water, he folded his hands over the bulge on his lap. The blush on his face fired again. “Life on land is full of constant surprises, isn’t it? Humans are fascinating.”

I snorted. “Yeah, I guess. Although I think most humans would find having a shark tail and breathing underwater much more fascinating.”

Kai took another sip before sputtering out a wet, rumbling cough.

Feeling helpless, I leaned in, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Do you need anything? I can get you some more pillows, or help you get to the bathroom if you need to go. Should I go get Barren or Laverne?”

I stood halfway up to do just that when a hand on my arm stopped me.

“No, wait,” Kai said between coughs. Pausing, I sank back onto the bed. He carefully took another sip of water, then cleared his throat until he had composed himself. “Can we rest here for a bit?” Shifting uncomfortably over the pillows, he scratched at the back of his neck. “I mean—if that’s okay?”

There was a tentative hopefulness in his voice that pulled at my heartstrings. What an unexpected request. I’d assumed he would want to see Laverne as soon as he’d woken up. “Of course,” I said, swinging my legs back up on the bed. Our shoulders brushed as I snuggled into the side of the mound of pillows supporting his back.

Our pinkies sat over the covers, barely an inch apart—the same hand I’d desperately clung to as I drifted to sleep. How many hours had I held on to him? Even a full night of sleep couldn’t justify the urge I had to slip my hand back into his, counting the rough calluses covering his palm until my fingers had every one of them memorized.

“Laverne is okay, though, right?” Kai asked, beaming a contented smile.

“Oh yeah, don’t worry. She’s safe. She’d be here right now if Barren hadn’t taken her back to his room so you could get some rest.” Though I had a feeling Barren had been more worried about me getting rest than he was about Kai.

I took a sip of my water as Kai shook his head, looking amused. “ Barren’s room? Gosh, I bet she’s thrilled. Laverne’s been trying to get all three of us to have a sleepover since the very first night we stayed here.” He chuckled. “It was the snoring, right? I swear she grunts louder than an entire pod of blue whales.”

Although I’d never heard a blue whale grunt, I joined in his laughter. “For real. It’s a wonder you slept through it.” My mouth eased shut, and my fist clenched around a handful of the thin, off-white covers as all the humor in me drained away.

He wasn’t really sleeping, was he?

I squeezed until I could feel my fingernails press into my palms through the fabric, just to keep myself from shaking. “Kai, I… I was afraid you weren’t going to wake up.”

The pillows shifted behind us as Kai turned. “I’m okay now, Claira. I don’t really know how, but I’m fine now, see?”

But he didn’t understand. Sure, I was upset, but it was more than just him. It was everything. The trident, the cecaelia, the bloodshed. I’d thought that once Leander got the trident, it would be the last thing I’d need to do as a mermaid. Now I had this dreadful, gut-churning feeling that the ocean wasn’t done with me. That it might never be done with me. That maybe retrieving the Atlantic’s trident wasn’t enough to break the curse, and now that it was absorbed, Leander might be more cursed than ever.

If he couldn’t figure out a safe way to use its magic, there would be more danger, more trials, more bloodshed.

Just as I slumped forward, warmth wrapped around me as Kai’s arm drew over my shoulder. It was an odd embrace, with his elbow cocked at an angle that kept it well away from my chest and his hand resting conservatively on my shoulder. As awkward as it was, I still appreciated the sentiment.

“A lot happened after you got hurt,” I confessed.

A soft puff of breath tickled my ear. “Don’t tell me you had fun without me,” he said in a gentle, teasing voice.

Fun? I barked out a laugh. “I promise you, nothing that happened down there was fun. Not at all. Just disaster after disaster after disaster. After you got hurt, Lee told me I had to let you go. So I did, and pop .” I demonstrated the abrupt magical transformation with a flourish of my fingers. “You turned into a betta fish.”

The lean muscles of the arm around me tensed. My spine stiffened as his hand lowered, closing over mine. “I think I remember that part,” he said on a hum. His usually hyper voice was so subdued, low and relaxed, a soothing caress to my ears. My heart thumped against my rib cage as his fingers coaxed mine to open so they could work in between them. “I guess I’m not surprised Leander wanted you to let me go.” There was a tinge of self-deprecation in his voice that I wished wasn’t there.

“No, no, it wasn’t like that. Lee was trying to save you. You were losing so much blood, and I wasn’t thinking clearly. I kept clinging to you, even though it was only hurting you more.” My head shook, my throat growing thickening at the memory. “I didn’t want to let go, but he knew your wounds would close if you turned into a fish.”

“Whoa,” he blew out. “I would have never thought of that. Sounds like I owe him a life debt.”

Kai was clearly relieved, but if anyone owed a life debt, it was me.

“Barren helped, too. He stayed behind to take you back,” I added. “Which was actually really brave of him, because as soon as he let go of me, he turned into a fish, too.”

I wanted to demonstrate the pop again, but Kai’s hand held strong around mine. He gave my fingers a squeeze while he chuckled. “So Barren dragged me back to shore even though he was a fish? Wow . That dude really is amazing.”

“Well, he tried to bring you back,” I said, returning the squeeze. Holding hands with Kai felt nice. Strangely right. Like our hands had sought comfort in one another countless times before. Which… didn’t make any sense, did it? “But then he said Laverne showed up, and she carried you back to shore. Apparently, she was upset we left without her.”

“Sounds like Laverne.” Kai’s thumb brushed absently over the inside of my palm as he chuckled. The light caress sent tingles shooting through my arm that settled deep in my belly. “But how did she find us?”

I squirmed on the bed, shifting and pressing my bare knees together to stifle the arousal building between my legs.

Kai is recovering . I shouldn’t have needed to remind myself. That was why he’d kept his shirt off, and it was why he was drawing me close to him now. He was tired and needed comfort while he healed—and not in the way my body was apparently anticipating.

“You’ll have to ask her in the morning,” I said, adding in a casual shrug. He didn’t need to know what his soft touches were doing to me. “Or I can run over now and wake her and Barren up?” That was a good idea—I wouldn’t need to worry about getting too comfortable with Kai if Laverne was here. Her attitude was even more impressive than her snoring. No one could kill a mood quite like she could. “I’m sure they’ll want to know you’re okay.”

Kai’s thumb paused, hovering over the delicate skin of my wrist. “Can we just stay like this?” he asked, and my insides thrilled as he reclined back into the pillows, taking me with him. “Just you and me?” His voice was suddenly rough. Was he really that exhausted?

“Of course,” I blurted. The two simple words had sounded far more eager than I’d meant for them to. “I mean, uh, you’ve been through a lot. We both have.” I was stammering now, and I let out an awkward laugh, trying to play it off. “Even after I tell you everything that happened, you’re still not going to believe it.”

Kai’s mouth drooped. “So, you did have fun without me?”

“What? No .” I gawked over at him. “It was the opposite of fun, actually. It was more like a nightmare.”

I almost believed he was actually upset when his lip started twitching. His frown cracked, turning back into a playful grin. “But you’re smiling.”

“Well—that’s because you’re here.” Heat flared over my face. It was hard not to smile while Kai was around. “You woke up… I was so worried you wouldn’t.”

“But I’m awake now.” His voice turned tender as his arm tightened around my shoulders. Then he pulled me in closer. “You didn’t get hurt, did you?”

“Just some scrapes,” I whispered, staring ahead. Normally, I wouldn’t have mentioned scrapes, but my mind was presently distracted. My eyes were level with one of his nipples—hard and pebbled, exposed to the air. My own breasts prickled as I thought about running my fingers over his smooth chest. Kai was built like a swimmer, compact and toned, the perfect body to stare at from across the beach. Or from right in front of your face.

But Kai was so modest about his chest, and from what he’d told me, every mer in the Pacific had the same complex. Even though I wanted to, he would hate it if I touched him… Wouldn’t he?

“Scrapes?” he asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Yeah, but they’re nothing compared to what happened to you.” That’s right—he’d experienced more pain than I could imagine. Pain that had been meant for me. “I’m so sorry, Kai. I just—I don’t understand why you did it.”

His body froze like petrified stone, and his breath hitched before he whispered, “What do you mean?”

“Why did you risk your life like that?” I asked, setting myself up on an elbow to look at him. He looked like he was in pain, but not the physical kind. Like maybe it hurt that I didn’t understand why he’d done it.

Why did you risk your life for me , was what I really wanted to ask him, but I didn’t know what I’d do if he said it was because of the thrall . I didn’t want that type of attachment—a spell, a curse, a magical net that held us captive together. Not with Kai or with anyone. I wanted something more. Something real , like what I felt for Leander. That was more than some conjured spell. Beyond the magic of the thrall .

“You almost died,” I said, the words a bare ghost of a whisper. My eyes searched his as my heart surged with both fear and eagerness, waiting to hear why he’d protected me, and knowing full well I couldn’t bear it if the thrall was his only reason.

A contemplative hum vibrated Kai’s lips as he dropped his water bottle down to the bed. “No one has ever truly seen me before, Claira.” His hand drifted toward me, and the back of his knuckles skimmed over the side of my jaw. Goosebumps rose over my skin as all the hairs on the back of my neck lifted.

“Back in the Pacific, I’m just a number,” he continued. “I laugh and pretend to be what everyone expects me to be. A bother. A nuisance. Always last, never first. But when you look at me, I…” A tempting mixture of devotion and longing pooled in his eyes as he tucked a section of hair back behind my ear. “I know you see me,” he said, then his smile turned lopsided. “And I don’t know what to do. No one has ever looked at me before—not like you do. You look at me, and it’s like my heart is so tight it wants to explode. But then you look away, and I can’t wait for you to turn back to look at me again. I know we haven’t known each other very long, but this feeling I have, it’s deeper than that. Even if we had just met underwater, I still would have guarded you. So please don’t look sad because of me, okay? Because all I want to do is make you smile.”

“Kai…” I was nearly breathless; I didn’t know what to say. I’d been worried he would blame his actions on the thrall , but how he felt about me was so much more than that. “You’re more than a number,” I whispered, just in case he needed to hear it.

His smile deepened, and the movement brought my eyes down to his lips. “Thank you, Claira.”

If it weren’t for Laverne, those lips would have kissed me once before. I’d wanted it then, but that longing was nothing like what I felt right now.

Unlocking our fingers, I drew my hand up, hovering it over his chest. Slowly, I eased in a deep breath. “May I… touch you?”

Kai’s eyes rounded as he stared at the flat of my palm. “Yes,” he breathed out, and his lips hardened like that word was the most wicked thing that had ever slipped through them.

My hand landed on the middle of his chest and both our bodies stilled as his warmth sent little sparks of heat up my wrist. Kai’s easy smiles had a way of disarming me, and I realized now I’d never truly noticed how masculine he was underneath his playful persona. He was smooth, yet firmer than I’d imagined, his skin easily sliding underneath my fingertips like it was urging me to feel out more of it.

Next to Barren, Kai had seemed so small. Now that it was just the two of us, it was obvious that the body before me held all the innate allures of a merman. How ridiculous it was that I hadn’t noticed before.

My hand kept grazing, skimming over the dips and curves of his pecs as his stomach clenched, his chest rising and falling in increasingly heavy bursts.

With anyone else, this would have been an innocent touch. But with Kai, it felt wildly intimate.

His deep draws of breath had me thinking he was enjoying this just as much as I was until I noticed his eyes flicking from where my hand slid against him, up to my face. Panic strained his features, and I pulled away, stricken.

Clearly, I’d rushed things. The poor guy had just woken up from nearly dying, and here I was, asking if I could touch him. Now that Leander had accepted my pull toward Kai, and Kai was finally awake, all I could think about was getting closer to him, bending the boundaries between us. But look at him, dammit . He looked so uncomfortable.

Kai gulped down a breath as his eyes rolled up to the ceiling. “Please—” he gasped, his voice straining. “Don’t stop.”

I drew in my bottom lip and shook my head. He was saying the complete opposite of how he looked. “Kai, no. You look so uncomfortable.”

His eyes turned pleading. “I’m… nervous. No one has ever touched me here before.”

Goodness, Kai was innocent. What would he think of me if he knew I’d spent two nights cradled against Leander’s bare?—

“And it feels fantastic .” Kai drew out the last word with a rough, raspy edge I wasn’t prepared for. The covers pulled tight over his hips as he shifted to massage a palm over the underside of his tented erection.

Whoa. I nearly fell straight backwards off the bed. I… hadn’t expected that. Kai was normally so shy, but then again, he never seemed to mind having his pants off around me—although, to be fair, that had been before he knew he had a penis.

My lips parted. “Yeah?” The word barely slipped out. I was so distracted by the slight movement of his hand over the sheet.

“So you can keep touching,” he whispered, tempting me back to his chest as his fingers curled around his erection. Although his elbow hadn’t moved, his grip was changing, kneading over his hard length.

Wait, wait, wait. This wasn’t what I had planned. Honestly, I just wanted to give him a sweet kiss. To thank him for saving me.

But now his eyes were on me, his lids heavy with an incredibly un-Kai-like emotion. Like I was a tasty treat, and him a starved shark. One with a craving that he was ready to satiate. And if it weren’t for his injuries, he would have already attacked.

I take back what I said before , I thought with a gulp. Kai wasn’t so innocent.

He’d only known about his human anatomy for a moment, but by the way he was handling himself in front of me, without an ounce of shame or embarrassment, he’d already found time to master the basics.

“Sorry.” His sweeping lips tilted, revealing those perfect, pointed teeth. A graceful tongue flicked over their tips as his elbow started up with long, leisurely movements, and I practically choked on my next breath.

He was staring straight at me, and although there was a layer in the way, he was still touching himself in front of me, slowly but deliberately. “Everything is so different on land. It’s crazy. I’ve had my legs for months now and it was never a problem. But ever since I met you, I can’t get this hardness to go away.” His voice strained in a way that made me want to chug down my whole bottle of water and then what was left of his next.

His free hand tangled with mine. “Though I still feel like I should be using both hands,” he added, his tone wavering between a groan and a laugh.

He couldn’t get his hardness to go away… because of me? That thought was a head rush. Damn, he really was hard. Even when his movements had caused him obvious pain, he’d stayed fully erect. “Wait… Both hands?” My voice trailed as the image of him cupping his balls with one hand and sweeping long strokes up his length with the other sprang to mind, the sheet covering him long gone.

Then my face almost combusted, because what the heck was I thinking?

“I’d never thought about human reproduction. Well, not until after that time in the pool,” he continued, color rising over his cheeks like he was finally embarrassed. “But I get the gist of how it works for merfolk. Well, in theory. I saw depictions of it in glyphs, and my brothers, they love to gloat whenever—” His expression soured, and he looked like he wanted to stuff the words back into his mouth. Even the hand on his dick had stopped moving. “Sorry. You don’t want to hear about this. I keep forgetting you’re an ex-mermaid, and what would an ex-mermaid need to know about tails?”

Tails. Of course. He was referring to his… mer -equipment. I had some idea of how merfolk reproduction worked. Leander had made sure of that. But not when it came to shark-tailed mermen—though I had already felt Kai’s claspers press against me right before Laverne had gotten between us. Plus, I’d seen the extent of his tail when all four of us were in the water. Unlike Leander, Kai’s tail didn’t appear to have a sheath that held its reproductive organs. No, they were right there. Out and proud.

Two long projections had sat on his underbelly, seated between Kai’s pelvic fins, fully rigid and exposed. Huh… Maybe it was fitting that his first orgasm had been from a stream of water.

I’d only snuck a quick glance, but his claspers had looked even thicker than they had felt brushing against my scales. So thick, in fact, I wasn’t sure if they were a part of him or if he had tried concealing a weapon down there, much like the harpoons the other two had strapped to their backs.

“You really have two ?” I asked, my gaze flicking up to him.

His eyes searched mine. He took a strained breath and answered huskily, “Yeah.” Those lilac eyes were pulling me in again, gleaming like clouded gems in the low light. There was a hint of pride in his voice, too, like he could read my curiosity plainly on my face, and was enjoying the fact that, for once, he possessed something that other merfolk around me didn’t.

When the silence had stretched too long, Kai’s gentle hand moved to the side of my face. His thumb rolled over my lower lip, bringing flutters up from the depths of my belly.

“This might not be great,” he admitted, but damn, did he look determined. Lips tilting, pain pinched his eyebrows as he leaned toward me. He kept pushing forward, like even pain wasn’t enough to steal away this moment, until he paused just short of my lips. His hand swept back, passing through my hair to curl around the back of my neck. “But I really want to kiss you.”

I could barely contain my smile when I said, “I want you to kiss me.”

Kai’s face flared with heat as his gaze sank to my lips. He was staring at them so intensely I could almost feel it. “I’ll try to be gentle,” he murmured—wait, what? —then his lips were on mine.

He’ll try to be gentle ? That didn’t seem like a phrase typically used to preface a kiss, but— Oh.

Kai’s mouth gradually opened, and I realized what he meant by being gentle. His tongue lashed at mine, eager to deepen the kiss, and as my tongue slid against his, the top of it grazed the tip of one of his teeth.

He pulled back even before I registered the slight twinge of pain.

“No, no—it’s okay.” I pushed forward until our lips were back together, my hand landing on his chest. He gave a groan, and for a moment I wasn’t sure if it was from my mouth or my hand, until he placed the hand he was holding beside the one on his chest.

Well, okay then .

My fingers splayed over his skin as our kiss sank deeper; only this time his tongue moved slower, growing more cautious with each stroke, like he was restraining himself. He was clumsy, sure, but I was just as clumsy, if not worse. This was likely his first kiss, and he was trying his best not to hurt me. But, unlike him, I wasn’t afraid of feeling his teeth again. In fact, I wanted it. I’d felt them on my neck—that wonderfully strange bite he’d given me in the pool—and part of me hadn’t been able to shake that moment since.

Bites were supposed to hurt. I’d been bitten by numerous fish, as well as a stray cat or two, but when Kai’s teeth had locked on to my shoulder and the pain had mixed with that buzzing of need left from the water pulsing between my legs, it had almost unraveled me. Maybe it was a fluke. But what if it wasn’t? Either way, I was ready to find out.

He pulled back for a breath, and I struck, capturing his bottom lip between my teeth. The breath he took turned into a hiss as I tugged, giving him a playful nibble. I’d laid out the bait perfectly. The hold he had on the back of my neck weakened as I toyed with his lip, and he stilled, giving all control in the kiss over me. Then I nipped a little too hard, and his spine arched, his chest pressing into my hands. The heat in his groan morphed into genuine pain. I popped off his lip, pushing his chest back flat on the bed.

“You’re too hurt. I shouldn’t have tried to—” I stammered out between gasping breaths.

When his eyes blinked open, his pupils were blown, his bottom lip full and red from where my teeth had been. “Shhh, Claira.” His arms wrapped around me, drawing me in closer. “I like it.”

I gave him a stern look. “You’re in pain, Kai. I can tell your back is still healing.”

“There’s some pain I don’t mind,” he said with a smile, his breathing slowing along with mine as we both caught our breath. “Sometimes it’s worth it.”

I shook my head, and he bit back a grunt of discomfort as his spine stretched to fling the covers back, pulling them off of us.

“Wait,” I started, but he’d already pulled me on top of him, our stomachs pressed together.

His voice wrapped around me, low and warm. “You’re worth it.”

I pressed against Kai while propping myself up, my hair raining down over his face as I found my balance on top of him. I hadn’t expected him to throw the covers off, and I really hadn’t expected him to pull me so close.

He broke his smile to blow a strand of my hair away from his mouth when a curious look crossed his face. “You’re wearing my shirt.”

Oh, damn, I was. “Yeah,” I panted, my head still reeling from the kiss we’d just shared. While preparing to explain myself, my mind slid to a naughty thought. I sat back, my hands popping to the shirt’s topmost button. “Do you want it back?”

The sound of him gulping sent my heart racing.

“Wow, Claira…”

I’d meant to tease him with my offer of returning his shirt, but he wasn’t even looking at where my fingers flirted with taking it off for him. His gaze sat just below where the fabric ended—where the covers would have been if he hadn’t just thrown them off the bed to pull me on top of him.

Where my underwear should have been. “… Oh, right.”

My mind drifted to the bathroom, where I’d hung my panties up to dry next to the rest of my clothes across the curtain rod, when something hard pulsed beneath me, sending my spine into a shiver. I didn’t need to look down to know what it was, but I couldn’t stop myself, and my mouth fell open at the sight of the swollen head of Kai’s penis poking out from between my legs. I was straddling him—straddling it —my bare center aligned with his.

“Yes,” he murmured, and my head snapped back up to face him.

“Yes?” I repeated. Yes, what? I was so flustered; I’d forgotten what we’d even been talking about. Had I asked him a question?

I must have looked confused because his hand joined mine at the top button of my borrowed shirt. Oh… Oh! I’d offered to give it back, but that was before I’d realized my legs were already spread for his viewing pleasure. Was he seriously okay with me taking it off?

“I’m not wearing anything underneath it,” I warned, and his eyebrows twitched, his mouth turning serious.

“I know.”

My stomach dipped and tumbled. Were we really doing this? Both of us were going to be naked?

… Well, he’d let me see all of him, so it was only fair, right?

Gulping, my hands slid away from the buttons, allowing him to take control and unfasten the top one for me. I’d only wanted to tease him a little, but now that his eyes were on me, I realized a part of me wanted him to see me, too.

Kai’s fingers trembled as they worked down the buttons, one by one, his eyes growing wider every time he moved to the next. When the last button popped free, I eased the shirt back over my shoulders, opening it up for him.

There was nothing disappointing about his reaction.

He hissed like a man burned, a deep craving flickering in his lilac eyes. He clearly wanted to touch, to explore my chest like I’d just explored his, and I held my breath as I waited. But his hands only hovered, then dropped, settling low on my hips.

Perhaps he needed a little encouragement.

“Gosh, it’s warm in here.” I shrugged the shirt the rest of the way off with a dry laugh and dropped it on top of his chest.

His teeth gritted as he watched on in silence, not even regarding the shirt I’d just returned.

Oh, his eyes might have shown a slight panic, but he was definitely enjoying this. The Pacific’s customs were still a mystery to me, but with the way he was watching me, it wouldn’t surprise me if their women kept themselves wrapped up as tightly as their men did. His gaze slowly panned over my breasts. Then his dick throbbed, its hard heat practically begging for relief.

Should I have told him we were playing a dangerous game? That humans didn’t typically bump their junk together just so they could do the totally more intimate act of feeling each other up? Only this quiet moment together was so real, so comfortable after all the chaos… No —I wasn’t ready for it to end.

“You can touch me,” I breathed out, leaning forward. Before I could press our stomachs back together, Kai’s attention snapped to his shirt, and he yanked it right off his chest, casting it off the bed like the thought of breaking this moment and putting it on was the furthest from his mind.

That made two of us.

“I want to,” he all but groaned, though his hands settled right back at my hips. I leaned forward to give his chin a teasing peck.

Damn, he was cute. Even his lips were pulled at a weird angle. Like he’d seen me and his muscles somehow forgot the correct way to smile. “Then why don’t you?” Another nip, and he groaned again. I could get used to teasing him. My lips aimed higher, pressing a soft kiss against his mouth so he could feel my bare skin against his chest.

Oh, he felt it. His fingers curled, biting into my thighs, and my body rocked forward. I wanted him to make more sounds. A groan, a whimper, a grunt. Something. I just wanted to hear him.

My nipples drew against his chest, flaring little tingling sparks through my breasts as our cores rubbed together. One kiss. Then another. For someone new to kissing, he was sinfully good at it. His lips pressed back with a fiery strength, leaving no room for doubt or hesitation. More fire, more heat, more urgency. It wasn’t until we broke apart in a combined gasp, both of our faces alight with arousal, that I realized I’d been grinding away at him. I hadn’t meant to do it, but damn , it felt good, and with the way Kai’s dick throbbed between my legs, the feeling was mutual.

Kai stared up at me, all wet lips and lust-drunk eyes. We had paused momentarily, taking each other in. Did he notice how aroused I was? I was pretty sure his dick was slick with evidence of what he did to me. All I knew was that he didn’t want us to stop for long. His fingers sank into my thighs, coaxing my hips to move over him again. I failed to stifle a gasp as I slid against his length some more. Yeah—there was no way he didn’t know the mess I’d made all over his dick.

“It’s like back in the pool,” Kai rasped, his hands kneading into my hips, urging me to keep grinding against him. “Nothing ever feels as good as it does when you’re with me.”

Moving at a frantic pace of my own, I seized one of his hands, bringing it up to my breast. “Sorry, but I can’t take the credit for the water jet.” I puffed a laugh that was snuffed out as soon as his thumb stroked over my nipple.

A moan built in my throat, and Kai stopped immediately, his hand popping off my breast to stare up at me like a puppy that wasn’t sure if it deserved a scolding.

“No, no—it’s good,” I coaxed, drawing his hand back to me and grinding against him again. Damn , it was like the more weight I gave him, the more his steely dick pushed back. “ Really good. I love it when you touch me here.”

I leaned back down, feeling out every slick inch of him, and caught his lips with mine as our bodies rocked together.

Then he did something unexpected, pulling off my mouth to move to my shoulder. His tongue traced up my neck, and it nearly threw my hips off their rhythm.

“Kai,” I moaned as the tips of his teeth grazed the sensitive edge of my ear. My nails bit into his chest to keep myself from falling off of him. Another graze, more pressure. He was testing me, seeing how much I could take. “More,” I begged, and he laughed. He actually laughed .

He flicked my ear with his tongue, then scraped it with his teeth. Hot breath beat against me as he pulled me even closer. “As if I had any intention of stopping.”

His teeth sank, biting into the fleshy part of my earlobe. It wouldn’t leave a mark, but it did ignite a burst of adrenaline that went straight to my head.

I gasped. “Yes, like that—” Goodness, I could become addicted to that feeling. The way the little spark of pain messed with my brain, confusing it into thinking it was pleasure. Then again, maybe it was pleasure, and I’d just never known how incredible the slight sting could be to one’s senses. I moaned, leaning into him. “Just like that.”

His mouth slid back to my neck, his teeth grating all the way down. I arched against him, my hips grinding. He was so hot between my legs, his hips, his cock, all lying so perfectly still underneath me, letting me use him to chase these feelings higher and higher. More, more, more . When I was biting into my own lip, those sharp tips that had been working me into a frenzy sank into the spot between my neck and shoulder. I cried out, the sudden spark sending me hurling over the edge. Stars glittered in my vision as Kai tensed, garbling a moan against my skin while every inch of him shuddered underneath me.

Hot spurts jetted over our stomachs, but I kept moving, kept grinding, until I almost lost my balance and he had to forcefully grab hold of my hips. “Easy…” he groaned, leading my movements until I finally slowed, both of us spent, panting messes.

When our bodies stilled and we both started coming out of our haze, Kai held me there like he wasn’t ready to let go. I blew out a long, satisfied breath as he rubbed up and down the small of my back.

“That was… Wow .” I looked down at the trails of cum smeared over his abs. Heat flared over my face as I rubbed a hand over my neck. My skin still stung from where his teeth had been, but it was a good sting. I lurched forward, rolling off of him, and as soon as I hit the bed, his mouth was on me again, easing the ache with a flurry of soothing kisses.

In between kisses, he whispered against my neck. “Was that too hard?” His hands ran light strokes over my skin like he was eager to relieve any pain he might have caused. “Did I hurt you?”

“A little,” I admitted, leaning into each caress of his lips. It felt nice. Loving, even. Like he loved taking care of me. But he was the one always looking out for me, wasn’t he? Getting me clothes, doing my hair. Making sure I always had what I needed. “But I asked you to do it harder, so it’s not your fault. I bet it won’t even leave a mark.”

“Damn,” he blew out under his breath before kissing over my neck all over again. It was the first time I’d ever heard Kai curse. “I swear my mouth just does things,” he grumbled. “Moves all on its own—but that’s no excuse.” He pulled away to look at me, his eyes full of sincerity. “I won’t do it that hard again, Claira. I’m sorry.”

I scoffed. “Don’t be sorry,” I said, then rolled onto my back. Cum was smeared all over my stomach, which was a first for me, but I didn’t really mind it. I stared down at it, taking it in. Wow . Did human males come as much as mermen did, or were these guys part sperm whale? “It wasn’t what I expected, but I enjoyed it. I should have said this earlier, but thank you for saving me.”

“Not what you expected, huh?” Kai’s grin was waiting for me when I glanced back over. “Same goes for me,” he said, rolling on his side to face me. He winced with the movement, but when his eyes settled back on mine, he was smiling brighter than ever. “I really enjoyed—” He paused. “What would humans call that?”

“Uh…” I glanced at our cum glazed bellies while my mind grasped for the correct phrasing. What was it called when you got off by grinding on each other’s genitals? It certainly wasn’t a dry hump. “Foreplay, I guess,” I said with a noncommittal shrug, and he nodded like he was soaking up the information.

“I like foreplay,” he said, his teeth flashing with the words. “Even better than the pool.”

Now I was laughing, my head shaking as I scooted off the bed. “I sure hope I’m better than a pool,” I teased, getting to my feet.

The corners of his mouth fell. “Where are you going?”

I gestured to my stomach. “Don’t you think we should clean up?” Leaning over the bed, I planted a kiss on top of the soft spikes of his hair. “Then we can cuddle until Barren and Laverne come back.”

His eyes lit, but I knew that there was a lot we needed to talk about before they came to check on us. Like what had happened after he’d been knocked out. The cecaelia, the sea wizard, Leander taking in the trident…

Then there was the shell that had saved my life. I’d stashed it as soon as we got back from the beach, too afraid that it might accidentally cut someone if I kept it out, but the others needed to see it. Maybe there was an easy explanation as to why it had acted as a blade when I’d tried to clobber the Rook over the head with it?

I massaged my temples as I walked to the bathroom.

Yes, there was a lot to discuss, and I felt whatever happened next was the beginning of something greater than all of us.