Page 29 of A Touch Enchanted

He must’ve picked up on the shift in me—unsurprising, since no one knew me better—because a soft light that hadn’t been there moments before touched his eyes. How had I never noticed the way he looked at me before? Like I was equal parts fragile and strong and he wanted to devour every inch of me. No one had ever looked at me like that before. It was enough to have me drunk and dizzy with need.

We gathered up the scuba gear and brought it down to the shore. I gave him a quick refresher lesson on diving, though he’d been plenty of times before and was skilled enough to know how to surface in an emergency without getting the bends. Relying on equipment still made me nervous, though, even as a certified diving instructor. I wouldn’t put it past the curse to attempt to sabotage us, so I refused to go deeper than sixty feet.

As soon as we dove under the surface, my sea vision kicked in. I kept hold of Donovan’s hand as we swam deeper, wanting as much of a charge as I could get in the event that we’d have to let go at some point. The water close to shore was murky, but it cleared the further out we swam. Schools of silver and gold fish darted between us in a playful fashion. The seafloor was made up of gently swaying grass and mossy boulders. A pale-bellied turtle swam by and I skimmed my fingers along his shell.

There was so much to take in, every time I came down here, it took me a moment to remember I was supposed to be searching for something. Not taking a day trip. It had been too long since I’d been able to dive for pleasure though, and doing so without gear never failed to awe me. Once we defeated the curse, I’d make it a point to do this at least once a week.

Donovan pointed toward the cliffs, which I’d been avoiding. I worried about an undertow sucking me into a cave and not being able to find my way out again while my magic wound down to nothing. I shook my head, but he pointed again, more insistent this time. I squinted, but didn’t see anything unusual. It wasn’t uncommon for the mind to play tricks underwater. I brushed it off and motioned for him to follow me deeper out to sea.

Once more, he tugged on my hand and pointed toward the cliffs. Maybe he just needed to get closer to see there wasn’t anything there. Willing to indulge him for a minute, I changed course and headed to the dark outcropping of rock that rose out of the water. An impenetrable wall of black, dotted with thousands of living organisms both big and small.

The moment we got close enough to see clearly, I pulled him to a stop. A thick swirl of black ash leaked from the cracks in the rocks, blocking our path to the cliff. Out of the darkness, an eel the size of a boa constrictor cut through the water. Jet blue currents of electricity flickered over its thick skin. A single snarling fang jutted out from the bottom of its mouth.

I let out a short scream that sent a flurry of air bubbles dashing to the surface. Donovan gripped my arm, dragging me behind him as he tried to communicate with the eel, but it ignored him and pushed forward. The moment it made contact with Donovan’s tank, all his gear went haywire, then quit working altogether.

Grabbing Donovan under the arms, I tried not to panic as I hovered in the water, careful to keep my ascension slow. We were forty feet down, deep enough to put him at risk of the bends if I tried to rush this. The eel continued to circle us, battering me with its tail. The electric shocks had no effect on me. My power must’ve included some kind of protection from underwater predators, but every time it zapped Donovan, his arms twitched.

With only ten feet left to go, I kicked the eel in the face and moved at a faster clip until we broke the surface. Donovan tore off his mask and regulator mouthpiece. I scanned the water for any sign of the eel as I dragged us both to shore, but it didn’t follow.

With my body half in the water and half on the beach, I lay on my back and caught my breath. Donovan stripped out of the wet suit and collapsed next to me, wearing nothing but a tight pair of diving briefs. Gentle waves lapped at our waists, sinking the lower half of our bodies further into the wet sand.

Just as I’d feared, the scuba equipment had been a bad idea. He’d been right about the cliff though. The curse wouldn’t have blocked our path if there hadn’t been something there. But what had he seen? Even up close, and with my superior underwater vision, I hadn’t discovered anything that distinguished that area from any other black rock in the sea.

I turned my head to the side. “Did you see something I didn’t down there?”

“No.” He leaned up on his elbows. Water dripped off the end of his beard, leaving droplets sprinkled over his hard chest. “The fish told me about a cave in the cliff that plays music at the same time every day, when silver turns to gold and the sun swims with the waves.”

I frowned. “Is that a metaphor?”

“I’m pretty sure fish don’t think in metaphors, Cricket.” Amusement danced in his eyes, and I shoved him back in the sand. He took me with him as he fell back, rolling me on top of him as the sea continued to wash over our tangled legs. All the humor fled his expression as I wiggled against him. “But enough about poetic fish, let’s talk about that kiss.”

“You want to talk about it?” I sat up, straddling his hardening length. “Because I had something a little more fun in mind.”

“Yeah?” He reached up and pushed my wet hair back from my face.

I cupped his jaw, letting the coarse hair from his beard scrape my palms, and kissed the guy I’d loved since kindergarten under the stars.

Burying both his hands in my wet hair, he dragged me closer and groaned into my mouth. I released a breathy sigh, like I’d been waiting my entire life for this exact moment. When I kissed him and he kissed me and there was nothing between us. No magic, no rejection, no expectations. Just the joy of giving and taking from the person you trusted most in the world.

His tongue stroked mine, building me higher as my hips began to move against him. He squeezed my ass hard enough to leave fingerprints, which only spurred me on to move harder, faster. My nipples puckered against the material of my bikini, two hard points that dragged against his chest as I continued to grind against him.

Without warning, he flipped me over and pinned my hands above my head in the sand. His eyes were darker than the midnight sky. “Tell me this isn’t your magic. Tell me it’s you who wants me, and this has nothing to do with curses and legends.”

“I want you.” I gasped as I clawed at his back, begging him to give me more friction. “It’s always been you I’ve wanted. It was never because of the magic.”

He growled in satisfaction and ripped the top of my bikini open, exposing my tight, aching nipples to the cool night air. He took one in his mouth, biting down until my back arched off the sand. “Fuck me.” He made a pained sound in the back of his throat. “I could suck on these perfect pink buds all night.”

Everywhere he touched, I burned. Yet it wasn’t enough. I was wound so tight, just the smallest flick of his fingers would send me careening over the edge. “Touch me, Donovan. Please. I need it.”

He dipped his hand into my bikini bottoms, sliding two fingers up the center of my slick folds. “Jesus Christ. You’re so fucking wet for me.”

His lips crashed over mine as he plunged two fingers deep inside me, and that was all it took. My entire body shook as the orgasm burst through me, sending a tingling glow from the center of me to the tips of my fingers and toes. Donovan swallowed my screams as my inner walls pulsed against his fingers, squeezing them deeper inside me.

He continued to plunge his fingers in and out of me, pushing me harder. My chest tightened, then my stomach, then all at once, I exploded again, my hands glowing bright as I fisted the sand and rode out my second orgasm, just as intense as the first.

“Oh, shit. Fuck.” Donovan let out a shuddering moan as his hips jerked against my thigh. “I’m coming. Fuck me. I’m coming so fucking hard.”

“Donovan.” His name came out on a breathless moan. “I’m still … I need …”

---