Page 25 of Blood of the Sirens
SEVEN
Merrick
She feltlike heaven wrapped against me. Soft, warm, and like salvation. What was I doing? I had sworn to protect her from the lusting males that would soon descend upon these shores, and here I was doing the one thing I swore I’d never do!
I should build a shrine to her beauty and strength, a shrine made out of coral and stone, not brittle seashells! What would I use to capture the vivid green of her eyes? Perhaps the sea grass that grew near the shallows—
Stop it. Focus!
I had to give her a chance to back away. I had to warn her.
“If I keep kissing you like this, I won’t ever let you go. You will be mine,” I pleaded, gasping against her. My instincts roared in my blood, refusing to be quenched. My body shook with the need to take her and claim her, so no other merman would get within a mile of her.
“Will I, now?” she growled, her eyes fierce with challenge.My hormones tumbled in a mess of confusion, a groan bursting from my lips. She was a true siren-born.
I couldn’t resist the fresh bolt of need that raced through me. Surely, there was nothing wrong with just kissing, right? A kiss was not mating. A kiss wouldn’t put a child in her belly and force us apart.
So, a kiss I’d give her. Or three. Or ten.
At some point, I lost count. It didn’t seem important. The only thing that mattered was her legs wrapped around my waist, and the pressure of her core pressed against mine. The way she threw her head back against the door frame, baring her neck to my teeth. How her hands tangled in my hair, greedy and demanding.
She was mine. The others couldn’t have her. I’d kill them for trying. Hell, I’d kill them for looking. The very thought sent me toward the edge, nearly feral with need and anxiety. The member at my waist was hard and demanding, making me do things I wouldn’t normally do. It was the first time I’d experienced this particularl human body part.
It frightened me.
I took a shuddering breath in and purposefully slowed my kisses while loosening my grip. Jesse sighed against me, relaxing as we both regained our breath and composure. I had to leave, now, while I still had my mind.
I brushed my nose against hers for one last touch. “Tomorrow, then.”
Ignoring her confused, dazed expression, I forced my legs (getting stronger with each step) to move out the back door and down the stairs. Out across the long grass and straight into the inlet, I shucked off my silly human clothing and shoved it behind a rock to use the next time I came here. I dove into the water and moved my tail as fast as I could, determined to put space between us. I wouldn’t look back. I couldn’t or else I’d seethe same desire mirrored in her eyes. The way her lips plumped and swelled after the attention I gave them, or the way her grasping fingers betrayed her need, as feral as my own.
No, it was better for both of us if I left. I would see her the next evening, when both of us were calmer. Rational.
Resolved, I pushed toward home. I would stop by the sulfur pits to the east first, which would cover any of Jesse’s lingering scent on my skin.
The next morning,I didn’t waste any time. I rose from the hollowed out space in the rock in my room, taking care not to wake anyone else. Three other males shifted on the sand, moved into my room to make space for everyone, including Aris. I should have expected it with us both being the sons of clan heads, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. Their noses wrinkled in disgust even in their sleep, the sulfur still on my skin pungent.
Good.
I was careful to make sure I didn’t disturb the water around them too much as I snuck out.
Being a notoriously hard sleeper, Barrett was harder to wake alone in his room. I had to physically yank on his tail before his eyes opened, scowling and curling his body away from me. The golden specks on his scales winked at me, a match to my own.
“Barrett. I need your help.”
He growled and turned over. I grabbed his tail and dragged him across the sand and nearly out of the room.
“I’M UP! I’m up! Poseidon’s nutsack, Merrick!”
I didn’t give him any time to recover.
“I need you to come up to the surface and help me. I needmore human clothes, but better ones. The foot coverings you gave me are insufficient.”
Barrett yawned, running a hand through his hair, which was a much darker shade of blond than mine. When his brain caught up to what I’d said, he gave me a wry grin.
“Going to join the hunt later on? I could see why you’d want to get ahead of the crowd. Your father already has me taking a group up tonight, but I could fit you in before then. A private tour for my friend, eh?”
I didn’t like the sound of a group hunt.
