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Celestia

I make my way down the little walking path with Melodia, trying not to get discouraged that it’s been a couple hours since Serenia was so taken with that man at the park that she couldn’t help but leave with him. Neither Melodia nor I have seen anyone that’s made us feel like giving a second glance towards. As quickly as it happened for Serenia, I’d hoped that we’d be the same too. But what’s the actual chance that all three of us will find men in the same place that we can make fall in love with us?

Were we crazy to think it’d be so simple once we were past the worst of the pull of the cold? That we’d just find a man that we could entice and live happily ever after out of the water?

When Melodia came to us, telling us about the loophole to keep from being turned into full-fledge sirens, I’d never been so happy. It seemed simple enough. Make it past our twenty-first birthday—which was yesterday—without killing anyone, and we’d get to experience Aphrodite’s gift. To have legs and walk on land for seven days. All we had to do to keep them, was to make a man fall in love with us, without using our powers on them.

Simple surely? But after seeing all of these men and being unable to even think of going near them, I don’t know how simple that’s really going to be, but I’m not giving up just yet. No, I don’t want to go back to the ocean and eventually be unable to fight off the cold bloodlust that our kind are known for—to eventually kill.

I really hope we all find it, but even if I don’t, I still want my best friends to be free. They’ve always been softer than I was. I don’t know if it was just my connection with the sky—particularly the night sky—that made me feel the urges deeper than for them, but it was a desperate fight to control myself at times. Especially the night I found that man attacking the girl whose clothes we’re now wearing. If he’d been closer to the water, I can’t guarantee that I wouldn’t have attacked him in return.

I hold back a sigh as I spot a man and woman up ahead of us, almost blocking the walkway. It’s not because they’re blocking it, but because they’re kissing, in ways that I’ve come across lovers doing on the beach late at night when they think they’re all alone.

The ones that were rough, where the woman was calling out to stop, and trying to fight him off, I’d do my best to interrupt. A few times I used my powers to disorient them enough and the woman would run away. I would have to fight even harder to control the coldness that sliced through my body when that happened, making me fear I was just as bad as the others were, and it would be just a matter of time before I took a life.

But the ones that were sweet and kind, even if they were passionate, I would watch and wish for someone like that to come along for me. To want me enough, even if I was a siren and unable to live outside of the water, that we could have a daughter, and he would keep her safe—away from the water other than to come visit me. To let her live the life that I desperately wanted—on the land.

Now, I have one chance to make all of that happen, but in an even better way, because I’d be able to stay with them, live with them on land without fear of what I am destroying my life.

A sweet scent hits the air, and I can’t stop from sighing aloud this time, “Mmm, something smells amazing.”

“I don’t know about that,” Melodia states as I turn down a new path rather than crossing the one ahead of us with the other people.

“No, it’s like heaven,” I argue, my feet moving faster before I turn into a smaller path between two buildings and push open a door making her hiss at me but for some unknown reasons, I just can’t stop.

“What are you doing? This doesn’t look like…” Melodia stops when a deeper voice from inside calls out to us.

“We’re not open to the public back here.”

“Sorry,” I say, drinking in a deep breath that smells like pure absolute bliss, better than anything I’ve ever smelled. “Something just smelled so good.”

“That’s the newest coffee roast we’re making,” the man says coming out from behind a wall, his feet stopping when his gaze lands on me and a little gasp slips from my mouth at the sight of him. He’s gorgeous and big, likely as big as the man that Serenia went with, but his hair is sandy like the beach, whereas the other man’s was dark brown like the dirt. “Would you like to try some?”

“If we’re not supposed to be here,” Melodia says hesitating, and the man’s eyes slip to her for a second before they come straight back to me, making my heart race entirely. Melodia is stunning, soft, and sweet looking with her pink and white hair. While mine reflects the turbulence inside me more with its grayish-blue tone and the pops of golden sage that help keep me camouflaged when I’m resting just on the beach, amongst plants and rocks and sand.

“I own the place so I can make an exception,” he says to me, and a smile slips onto my face that pulls a deep sound from him that simply makes want to get closer.

“You make coffee?” I ask him and he nods. “I would love to try it.”

“It’s this way,” the man offers, holding out his arm to point through the space towards the front.

“I’m not a coffee fan, sorry, but you should stay,” Melodia tells me with a grin as I glance from her to the man, not wanting to leave yet. “I’m just going to check out the rest of town.”

“Are you sure?” I ask and she nods, backing back out the door leaving us alone.

I can’t take my eyes off the man as I move closer, my heart racing making it hard to hear as I draw up just in front of him. His eyes are the lightest blue I’ve ever seen, like the clearest waters over sandy beaches, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to think of anything but him when I see them now.

“Hi beautiful,” he says, his hand reaching out and I almost collapse at the jolt that rushes through me when his hand slips so gently onto my cheek, those eyes of his studying my silvery gaze. “I’m Dane.”

“Celestia,” I get out on a breathless whisper.

“Pretty name for a pretty girl that reminds me of the night sky—beautiful and tempting,” he states making my body heat entirely and I can’t stop from leaning further into him, shivering a hint when his arm slips around my waist, keeping me there. “Are you new to town? Just visiting? I know I’ve never seen you before. I wouldn’t have let you go without finding out more about you if I had.”

“My friends and I are visiting for the week. We just got here this morning,” I add as he drags in a deep breath at the mention of a week. “We wanted to get away to celebrate our birthdays.”

“Yeah? When are they?” he questions, not letting me go but I don’t mind. In fact, I want even more of it. Of his touch. His hold.

“Yesterday, we were born on the same day—same year,” I add as his eyes widen a hint at that news. “We just turned twenty-one.”

“Babies still,” he teases, and I feel my cheeks heat more as his eyes twinkle my way. “Means I know you’ll be around for a long time though, won’t you, baby? Sweet, young, and mine now.”

“Am I?” I ask, sinking against him entirely, looking up into his face, seeing hunger there that makes every bit of me wake.

I’ve seen other men look at the sirens that way, but only when under a spell. There’s no sky in here for me to manipulate, to put him under, and the hope that just maybe this can turn from a sexual hunger into more by the end of the week grows deep within me. Feelings that only mildly were cruising through me when I’d spy couples on the beach are now racing through my blood, erasing every hint of cold, leaving just heat in its place that feels so good, so sweet, that I can’t begin to look away from him.

“Oh, you are, baby. Going to be all mine too. I don’t like sharing, not anything, but especially not my dates,” he adds on a low growly tone that slides straight through the heart of me. There’s an unstated pain within that tone and I want to know the stupid woman that hurt him to pay her back.

“Not even your heavenly smelling coffee?” I tease in return, smiling as his eyes return to that twinkling state that I loved. “Seems a shame to keep it all to yourself and not let others enjoy it.”

“They can buy it. You I’ll give it to for free, it’ll just cost you in another way,” he suggests, a smile on his lips and my heart can’t seem to stop jumping in my chest.

“What will it cost me if not money?” I question as his face dips down towards me.

“This,” he whispers against my lips, claiming them and my heart instantly as his.

The heat from the kiss nearly engulfed me, dampening all of my other senses as I gave myself entirely over to it and him. His lips teased at mine, drawing them apart, his tongue teasing along the upper edge of my mouth, making me gasp.

The second his tongue touched mine, stars burst behind my closed eyelids, making me sink even further into him and his hold. His mouth fused to mine, his hands roaming down my waist over my hips and back onto my butt that’s covered with a pair of black shorts. I moan when his fingers slip against the edge of the shorts, teasing my skin, and I can’t begin to stop him when he lifts me up, pulling me entirely against his chest.

My legs wrap around his waist, as though they just know what they’re supposed to do, rather than me controlling them as I had to in order to walk for the first time just this morning. My tail turned to legs just after midnight when our birthday passed and Aphrodite’s gift settled onto us. It took a bit to get used to them to start, so now, for them to move like this is a bit shocking, but it feels so good being pressed tightly up against him. I don’t want to pull away.

Actually, I still want to get closer.

My arms wrap around his neck, holding the back of his head as his tongue delves even deeper into my mouth from this angle. My legs squeeze tighter and my hips rock, pressing into his hard stomach, and something indescribable flows through my body, making me want to feel it again. My hips move again, pushing upwards a bit harder, and that feeling rockets through me once more, making me gasp beneath the kiss.

The world tilts a bit, pulling my eyes open, and I moan as Dane pushes me back against the wall he came around earlier. His hands move to my hips, pulling me down just a bit, and I can’t stop the cry that falls as his lips come down on my neck, at the same time that he presses fully against me between my legs. His hips push upwards, sending a hardness straight against the newly exposed part of me the legs created, and it feels like absolute bliss. Tells me why women want men between their legs, and I want to feel him between mine without these clothes.

My hands slip down, reaching for the button of his pants, and he jerks back a bit, cursing roughly before his hand gently wraps around my wrists, pulling them back. His breathing is as hard and rough as mine is, soothing me and my worries that I did something wrong and he’s going to push me away, not want to see me again. I don’t think I could handle that. There’s no other man I’d want to make fall in love with me than him.

“I didn’t mean to get so carried away in here, baby,” he whispers to me before raising his voice adding, “Everything’s fine, Chris. I’m going to be heading out in a few. Make sure to lock up for me.”

“Sure thing, boss,” I hear another person say, my cheeks heating entirely at the closeness of it. It sounds like it’s just on the other side of the wall from us and my eyes search Dane’s curiously.

“He must have heard you crying out, thought I’d probably gotten hurt on the machines or something. It’s been known to happen when I’m working on new blends, and the beans don’t grind as they should. Sometimes, depending on what I’m combing, there’s moisture that gets trapped in the beans from the roasting process and it clogs the electric grinder,” Dane says, his voice nice and soft, gentle as his hands wrap around me once more, pulling me away from the wall.

“Is that why…”

“You didn’t hear him yelling to see if everything was okay?” Dane asks and my cheeks heat even further. “You were too eager to get into my pants to worry if there was anyone else here, hmm? That’s okay, I like that thought, just not here where others could hear you crying out while I’m taking you or walk in and see your sweet little body all laid out and bare for me. I have blends I planned to take home and test in the morning and over the next few days, see if the taste was just as good after being opened for multiple days. What would you say to coming home with me? We can have a little taste test, and then I can see if anything begins to taste as good as your body.”

My heart races even faster, the look in his eyes saying exactly what he means as they linger on my breasts. “I say take me home, Dane.”

“Thank the fuck,” he whispers before his lips cover mine again, but it’s just a quick kiss before he’s sliding me back onto my feet. His hand wrapped around mine and I follow him through the space, letting him grab a basket with several containers in it, before leading me out another door and towards a car.

It’s a dark blue color and I love the smoothness of the seat he puts me in. It’s warm from the sun, teasing me into a drowsy state, making me feel like I’m floating in the lagoon sleeping as the midday sun shines down over me—the closest thing I’ve ever felt to true perfection until I was in Dane’s arms.

I want to live in them from here forward and I whisper a plea to Aphrodite to help me make him love me so I can do just that.