Making Waves (Mythological Lovers) (10 page)

“Dante!” A harsh, guttural groan parted my lips, the sound unfamiliar as if it had come from anyone but me.

We stood together for what seemed like hours, the beating of my heart louder than the crashing of the ocean.

The slightest movement from him delivered a mini-orgasm. Post-climax contractions rippled throughout my core like tiny aftershocks. His cock never left the intimate embrace I offered, but we shuddered together until at last he was motionless behind me with his cheek against my shoulder.

“Lessa?”

“M’fine,” I mumbled.

He chuckled and slipped out. “Sleep, love.”

“But... I wanna...” Despite my protests, I surrendered to the exhaustion and allowed Dante to carry me. Hours later, my eyes opened to the sight of a starlit sky above us while a cool island breeze danced across my naked skin. I shivered and cuddled closer before taking in the familiar surroundings. I recognized the patio lounge chair beneath us.

“Are you okay?” His words ghosted over my ear.

“Mmm... where are we? Are we on Teo’s veranda?”

“He and Marcy went to visit their friends in California. Said we can stay overnight and have full run of the house.”

“Teo is an amazing friend,” I mumbled. “And soul bonding is exhausting.”

“It is,” he said, chuckling. “For the human at least.”

I envied him for having the energy I lacked. “You’re like... a furry incubus,” I mumbled into his neck. I twisted in his grip and slid my arm across his chest. The serene music of the outdoors coaxed me in and out of sleep, until at last I awakened to explore Teo’s bungalow.

“Are we supposed to do the Adam and Eve thing the whole time? As much as I like seeing you naked, it’s distracting.”

Thankfully, Marcy had left clothes for me and Dante had finally broken down and planted his own wardrobe in the bungalow. Once our rumbling tummies motivated us to trek inside, we showered, raided the fridge, and found a dish clearly marked with our names. I squinted at him.

“Did you plan this?”

“Down to the last detail,” Dante said, beaming with pride. “Did I do well?”

“Amazing.”

I spent the time after our bonding wondering how I’d ever lived without it. It completed me, as if I’d been given more of myself, and even more of him. Days passed of me wondering if it was all a dream or psychosis I’d invented in my head — girl meets perfect boy, boy isn’t human, boy cherishes her like a queen. I lived in a fairy tale and wondered when we’d have the first fight or grow tired of spending time together.

When it didn’t come, I grew nervous and even skeptical.

“Why should I pick fights?” Dante finally asked as we stood at the dockside with our poles one evening after work. He’d invited me to go fishing with him. “I know you’re accustomed to assholes, but I have nothing to gain from conflict with you.” He kissed my forehead and held me close with one strong arm. I breathed him in, soothed by the perpetual scent of the beach I’d come to associate with him. “Nothing.”

“Is this a you thing, or a hippocampus thing?”

“Both.” He chuckled. “Hippocampi are pretty laid back unless we’re in danger or pissed off. And I think we’ve skipped most of the common elements of relationship troubles.”

“Well yeah. You kind of just moved into my place.”

“We don’t need to fight about money. You’re welcome to what I have that Abuelo doesn’t need.”

“No thanks. I work for my own money.”

“See.”

“We’re dull.”

“We love each other,” he said, flashing his best cocksure grin. I swatted his shoulder with one hand and baited my fishing hook again.

“Then teach me your language. I want to learn to speak with your people.”

“It is a very old language. There are no computer tutorials for it.

“You can barely use a computer anyway. Come on. Teach me what you know.”

Dante eyed me as if I were crazy, wanting to learn a supposedly dead language. “You’re certain?”

“I’m serious. Maybe one day I can hold a conversation with your dad and prove I’m not an idiot human stealing you away.”

“Fine. If you want to speak it so badly, you’ll have to learn it the way I learned English and Spanish.”

I then spent the remainder of the week fussing and swearing at a man who wouldn’t speak English. He answered me in his native tongue for everything from “pass me the ketchup” at dinner to talking about his day. It was gibberish.

One day, instinct guided me to toss the remote into his lap in passing, automatic.

“How’d you know I wanted the remote?” He glanced up at me, bewildered.

“It was the only thing you could have been asking for.”

When ancient words didn’t exist for our modern conveniences, Dante created funny compounds that made me giggle. Control stick. Metal horses. Moving pictures.

Dante surprised me three weeks after our bonding by ushering four naked people into my house.

“What the hell?”

“You said you wanted them to visit us.”

“I do, but give me some warning next time!”

I laughed despite the impromptu get-together, and within a few minutes, I’d wrung out and tamed Helena’s massive amount of hair into a single plait. “She has a longer torso than me, but this sundress should fit her, I think. It’ll do until we can get her into a resort shop.”

“Good. She says she wants to wear pretty things to be beautiful like you,” Dante replied.

“She’s already gorgeous.”

Helena beamed at me, as if she could understand my words.

I glanced out of my bedroom to see Dante’s progress with the men. Hyrum, Lycus, Zeno, and Dante all wore swim trunks and reminded me of a boy band preparing to shoot a beachside music video. Next to Dante’s sun-kissed brown, their skin tones ranged from lightly tanned to fair. I planned to liberally spray sunblock on Zeno who was like a milky ghost. I hadn’t seen anyone so white since visiting an internet friend of mine in Wales.

Crap. I better spray her, too. They’re so pale,
I thought. Helena could have passed for an Irish woman.

With Helena dressed, we both stepped out from my bedroom. Zeno, despite his earlier reservations, grinned at his mate and smoothed his hands down the turquoise shirt Dante loaned him.

They looked happy enough to take a photo. So I did, ushering them outside onto my porch where the swaying palms provided the perfect backdrop. The sweltering summer sun heated my bare shoulders, exposed by the strapless maxi dress I’d chosen.

“Hey, I have a question.”

Dante looked at me. “Yeah?”

“If Hyrum and Lycus are part of the guard, how did they get permission to come up to the surface?”

“Well...” Dante rubbed the back of his neck and grinned, sheepish. “Technically they snuck away and no one knows they’re here.”

“Is that safe?”

“The guard isn’t necessary around here, despite what my father would have everyone believe. Kekoa’s presence keeps the big predators away and we recognize him on sight.”

I laughed. “I guess a tiger shark would be a good deterrent. Add in a dragon who likes to dive for fish and you have pretty safe waters.”

Dante grinned. “Exactly. It’s a perfect refuge for my kind.”

“Yeah, sounds like it.” My smile faded. I wished his people could stay forever, but the surrounding area could never sustain their large population year round.

And their herd’s alpha, Dante’s father, would never approve.

We took my new friends shopping first and gave them a mini tour of the island attractions. They pointed out things of interest and chattered excitedly about anything and everything from speeding dune buggies to the electric rail. We rode it for an hour to appease Zeno, who took a great fascination with its movement.

I had a great laugh at the silly expressions on their faces when we swung by the aquarium for the afternoon mermaid show. My friend Lana played the role of the princess in my stead, without as many underwater tricks or my breath control.

Afterward, we took them to the seaside grill and cafe, a place I loved for its sushi conveyor belt and happy hour. We introduced the guys to beer, which Helena and Hyrum loathed from the first sip. I hooked them with a taste of my margarita instead and crowed my victory over Dante when the mare declared that she loved it.

My pocketbook mourned my request for Dante to let me cover the costs of our outing, but I didn’t regret a single penny spent. We ate like pigs and stuffed ourselves on slices of sashimi, garlic shrimp, and an assortment of other items the eager hippocampi requested to try.

“What do they think about their new clothes?” I asked before plucking the last piece of roe-dusted sushi from my small plate.

“Lycus isn’t a fan, but Hyrum says he can get used to it.” Dante grinned. “I didn’t like it much at first either.”

I glanced at him in his shorts and open shirt, the usual everyday style of my surfer boyfriend. “You clearly don’t like it now either.”

“I’m a surf instructor. Would you expect me to wear jeans? Speaking of surfing, the guys wanted lessons. I’m gonna go and grab my board. Watch them?”

“Of course I will. But really? Surfing?”

“I thought we’d try skimboarding instead. If Mrs. Courtland can do it, they can.”

I grumbled.

We had plenty of beach for our fun and games. A crowd gathered to watch as we took turns running across the water covered sand and leaping on the board, skimming across like snowboarders.

Hyrum, Helena, and I took the most spills, while Zeno and Lycus appeared to be naturals on the board. After another tumble, Helena rattled off words in their native tongue. They were too quick for me to make anything out.

“What did she say to me?” I asked.

“She says she feels ridiculous,” Dante answered me.

“I feel ridiculous, too. My ass hurts.”

“You have enough of it to cushion the fall.” One of his large palms copped a feel under the guise of soothing away my ouchies and dusting the sand from my skin. I wore one of my smallest swimsuits, a green bandeau top exposing my shoulders to the warm sun. The bottoms left just enough cheek exposed for him to grab. Until recently, I’d always felt shy about revealing skin on the beach and concealed my curves when away from the show tank during performances.

Sand clung against Helena’s wet body from ankle to shoulder, fine golden grains against her itty black bikini. I helped her brush it off and sat on the sidelines with her while the guys behaved like children.

After the sun dipped below the horizon, the four hippocampi returned to the ocean under the cover of darkness. We promised to do it again soon.

“They seemed like they had fun.” I hugged my body against my mate with one arm around him. My cheek found the perfect spot against his chest, listening to the pounding bass of his powerful heart.

Dante hugged me against his side and kissed my brow. “They did.”

“So how come your dad is so against it?” The question had been bugging me ever since he told me about his father. “I mean, look at today. Nothing bad happened. They had a good time.”

“It is a long story.”

“So let’s take a walk on the beach and you can share it with me.”

Taking my hand in his, Dante led the way down the moonlit sand. For a time he was quiet and I didn’t rush him. The cool water washed over our toes, swirling sand around our feet.

“My mother was murdered by someone. A diver shot her with a harpoon.”

My heart stuttered, his words dampening my mood like a bucket of ice. “Do you remember it?”

“Vaguely... I remember... I remember it was my fault,” Dante admitted. “I remember a man beneath the water with a bright spot light, and I was curious. I wanted to play with him because I’d met humans once while on this very island with my mother. I remember...” Dante’s voice trailed and his dark brows furrowed. “Something pointing at me. My memory is foggy after that, but Dad found her with a harpoon spear in her heart.”

I blinked my burning eyes a few times. No child should ever witness his mother’s tragic death, but to make matters worse, Dante felt to blame for it. “That wasn’t your fault, baby. You were a child doing what kids do best.”

“I know. I don’t hate myself anymore for it. Dad does enough of that for me.”

“I’m sure he doesn’t hate you.”

“He won’t even look at me most days, even if I talk to him. I’ve tried, Alessa. I swear on Triton’s fin, I tried connecting with him, but if it isn’t some matter concerning the herd, he won’t hear me.”

“What about your mother? Do you remember her much?”

“My mother loved this world,” Dante admitted. “I can’t hold what happened to her against all humans. I can’t hate the world she introduced to me. Maybe I don’t recall all our times together on the sand, but I remember the warmth of her love. I remember the feeling in here.” He placed one hand over his heart.

“Is that why you came back as an adult?”

Dante nodded. “My father was against it but I swam ashore to look for Teo. He speaks our language and when I told him I wanted to meet the human who found me on the beach and took care of me, he arranged for a meeting with Abuelo. We hit it off, and the rest is as you know.”

“Well, I’m glad you decided to come to land, even if your dad doesn’t understand. Otherwise we’d never have met.” I laced our fingers together and stood on tiptoe to kiss him. “So... I have work tomorrow, but I kinda used a favor up with a friend to get into that place you always eyeball when you think I’m not paying attention.

“I do not.”

“You do, too, and I hope you’re free because I want to take you out for a date-date.”

“Is there a significant difference between a date and a date-date?” Dante asked.

“Mmhmm.” I ran my fingers down his chest and followed the chiseled line between his abs until I traced his treasure trail. His cock responded to me in an instant, hardening noticeably beneath his shorts. “A date-date means I make extra effort to make your every wish come true. Every. Wish. No limits.”

***

I
dimmed the lights on our way out for the day, darkening the extravagant lobby to the aquatics center. With all of the junior staff gone for the day and our duties completed, the rest of us in supervisory positions were free to leave.