This was the true gift of the ocean to her.
This was a treasure meant for the lady of the water.
As she reached out for it with trembling fingers, the ocean’s song swelled all around them, the notes jubilant.
Timothy’s eyes were shining, too. He pulled her against his body, and then he kissed her, his lips hot after the coolness of the water.
Liana held the pearl tightly against her chest as she parted her lips for his.
And then, there was the sensation of a gentle current when before, the water had been calm. As they held on to each other, they were carefully carried back out into the corridor, past the sunken rooms they'd explored earlier.
Then they were sucked out of another hole in the ship’s hull. The pearl kept pulsing in Liana’s hand, the ocean’s song now like a soft caress, wrapping around them both.
Gently, the current began to carry them away from the ship. They were rising again, lifted upward towards the light by the water itself.
And when they finally broke through the surface, clutching at each other and laughing with disbelieving joy at the ocean’s gift, they found that the water had carried them back to the sandbank Timothy had shown her before.
“Look at it,” Liana said breathlessly as they collapsed together on the beach.
The sand was warm beneath her skin, the sun strong enough that she didn’t feel any cold.
She held out her hand, slowly opening her fingers. And there, in the center of her palm, the pearl was gleaming, flawless and beautiful and huge.
“I didn’t even know pearls could grow that large.”
“It must have grown down there for centuries,” Timothy murmured, awed. “A secret treasure of the ocean—hidden behind another treasure.”
“The water wanted me to have it.” Liana couldn’t stop smiling. She’d never felt happier.
For the first time in her life, she felt fully accepted. She felt at home. The ocean had accepted her as the ocean dragon’s mate—and it had given her an incredible gift to celebrate their mating.
“You deserve it.” Timothy’s eyes were the dark blue of the depths of water they’d crossed together.
T
here was a heat in his gaze Liana knew all too well. It made an answering heat rise in her own body.
All of a sudden, she became aware of the press of his naked, wet body against her own—and of the way she could feel his arousal pushing hard and heavy against her thigh.
She reached out to rest a hand against his chest. His skin was hot. Against her fingers, she could feel the rapid beating of his heart.
His eyes were still gleaming with the blue light of the ocean, but at her touch, they darkened further. She could feel his own need for her through the bond. Even though they were mated now, her desire for him hadn’t changed.
If anything, it had increased, now that she knew how overwhelming it was to be fully joined with him, their bodies entwined as their souls already were.
His hands rose to her shoulders, and then she felt his mouth on hers. At the same time as his tongue invaded her mouth, she felt herself gently pressed to the ground.
With a moan, she wrapped her arms around his neck. She didn’t want to ever let go of him again.
His hands on her skin felt unbearably good as they traced a path from her shoulder down to her wrists. She could feel herself breaking out in goosebumps, every nerve in her body suddenly so sensitive that the slightest touch sent little pinpricks of pleasure through her.
She made a sound of disappointment when Timothy broke the kiss—but it was only so that he could press kiss after kiss to her throat, along her collarbone, down into the hollow between her breasts.
Her nipples were already stiff and aching before his mouth sought them out. As soon as he swirled the tip of his tongue around a nipple, she gasped and arched against him. It felt like electricity sizzling through her, a current of heat that raced straight from where his tongue touched her to her clit.
She could feel wetness trickling from her folds. Her body was ready for him—and his was more than ready for hers, still hard as a rock against her thigh.
But instead of hurrying up to claim her, Timothy went even slower, as if he was actually intending to drive her insane this time.