Bastian hesitated only a moment before following her, and once past the reef, he shifted, diving fast and powerful through the water as the ocean floor fell away beneath them. She swam faster than a human swimmer, but not as fast as a dragon.
He was gratified by her wide-eyed surprise when he caught up with her.
She reached out as he passed, and her fingers were tantalizing brushing along his scales. He circled back to her, and she put wondering ha
nds on his scaled nose.
You are so beautiful, she said in his head suddenly.
I was just thinking that, he told her, surprised and delighted to discover this new intimacy. Dragons could speak in this fashion with each other, but he had not known that he would be able to speak with mermaids this way, too. Was it only because she was his mate?
Take me deeper! she suggested.
She swam to the back of his head and held onto his horns. Bastian gathered his dragon body and kicked off with wings and legs before folding them back against him and letting his thick tail power them forward.
She was the barest tickle of fins at his head, but she was laughter and delight in his mind as they cut through the water, going deeper and darker below.
The wordless depths had been a place of peace before, but with his mate beside him, they became a new paradise. Schools of fish scattered before them, and a startled octopus darted away in a cloud of frightened ink.
It was several minutes before Bastian realized that he had unexpectedly had no need to return to the surface to breath.
It’s my gift, Saina told him. Sirens can let anything breath underwater that they touch.
I thought your voice was your gift, Bastian said bemusedly.
A girl can have more than one gift. Saina’s mindvoice was sarcastic and dry.
Bastian’s response was wordless gratitude and all the love and adoration in his big dragon heart.
He felt her withdraw from him, silent and non-receptive. Finally, she said, Let’s go back to the resort.
There was an undercurrent of pain to her voice, and Bastian wondered if the swim had been too hard on her shoulder.
He took them back through the clear water, and rose out of the waves with her still clinging to his neck. She had shifted back to human form by the time he stepped onto the sand, and he shifted smoothly so that she was riding on his shoulders when he’d left the last lapping wave behind.
“Let me down!” she said, light laughter in her voice.
He crouched, and turned to catch her as she slipped from his shoulders.
He put her down on her feet, but no power in the world could have made him let go of her then. She was human, and dressed again in the golden sundress. Her skin was warm velvet under his fingers.
When he bent to kiss her, she froze for a moment, lips just parted under his, then gave a sigh of surrender and put her arms around his neck and kissed him back.
Chapter 13
Saina couldn’t figure out how something could be so wrong and so right at the same time.
Bastian’s arms were the most wonderful place that she’d ever been. He smelled like salt and safety, and Saina wanted to stay here, kissing him, forever.
No, she realized after only a moment, she didn’t want to stay here. She wanted to drag him somewhere private and peel him out of his wet uniform, and why shouldn’t she?
He wanted her. There was no mistaking the urgency of the erection he was trying not to obviously press against her as he claimed her mouth.
And she wanted him. She wanted him more than she’d ever wanted anyone in her life, so badly that she ached with it. The pain in her shoulder was the merest tickle compared to the fire that was smoldering in her loins.
“My cottage,” she said, between kisses.
She’d never felt someone smile while they were kissing her, but Saina immediately decided this was one of her favorite things ever.