MERMEN (The Mermen Trilogy #1) (12 page)

“I already told you. Away from them.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her along.

She tried to take her hand back, but he tightened his grip, nearly crushing her bones. “Stop! You’re hurting me.”

Roen did stop. “Sorry. I don’t know what’s happening to me. I think I’m losing my mind.”

Except for a haze of moonlight filtering through the tree canopy, there wasn’t much light. But what Liv saw of his face was absolute turmoil.

“Roen, what’s going on with you?” she whispered. Yeah, she knew everything was in a state of pandemonium, but she could see there was something else.

“I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do.”

“Why do you care, Ms. Stratton?”

She wanted to punch him. “Did you just call me ‘Ms.’? Like we’re in a business meeting? Uh-uh. I think we’re past the formal stage.” The guy had just laid his life on the line for her.

“Foke.” He gripped the sides of his head. “I need to get you off this island.”

“Correction—
we
need to get off this island.” She grabbed one of his arms and instantly noticed how hot he felt. “What did they do to you?”

“I don’t know. I think it’s that damned water.”

“How much did you drink?”

“Enough.”

Okay. That was not good. “How do you feel?” she asked, her teeth beginning to chatter. With every passing moment, the air became colder and colder. All she had on was a glorified bed sheet.

He blew out a steaming breath. “I’ve been better.”

“But you’re okay. I mean, you’re still you?”

“Who the hell else would I be?” he snapped.

Yep. Bigger and sexier—if that’s even possible—but still an ass
. It was a relief. On the other hand, she was genuinely worried about him. He’d taken not just one, but two beatings for her.

“What you did back there was—”
All right. There are no words.
“Thank you, Roen. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t pulled that stunt, but… What the hell were you
thinking
?” she yelled, the emotional safety valve blowing clean off. “I mean… Goddammit, Roen! You could’ve been killed. And for what? For me? Did you ever consider that I wouldn’t want to live if it was at your expense? Did you?”

“You’re welcome,” he retorted. “But I didn’t do it for you.”

“Then for who?”

Suddenly, Roen grabbed her upper arms and slammed her against a thick tree. His mouth was on her, his hard body pinning her every curve against him.

Liv felt too shocked to do anything but stand there stiff as a board. Roen was equally stiff, but below the waist. His lips smashed into hers, his tongue forcefully delved into her mouth, and he ground himself against her. Liv’s mind went into panic mode, wondering if this wasn’t truly Roen, but some reaction—perhaps to the fight and elevated testosterone, to the situation, to the water. Not that the “why” mattered. Because when his hands slid down the sides of her body, raking over her breasts as he went to cup her ass, Liv realized how badly she’d been wanting this. Maybe from the first moment she’d laid eyes on him. No, she didn’t want him to stop. She wanted him to touch her. She wanted to lose herself in him, to bathe her senses in every inch of his hard body.

She turned her head to free her mouth, and he turned his attention to her neck—kissing, sucking, scraping with his teeth.

“God, you feel so good,” she panted. And his smell… It was like heaven—sweet and spicy, calming yet stimulating.

“I want to fuck you, Liv,” he said, in a carnal, gravelly tone, lifting her up as if she weighed nothing.

“Roen…” Her voice trailed off into a soft moan as Roen ground his rigid shaft between her legs, igniting a sinful heat that crippled all rational thought. Suddenly there was just her and him and that erotic ache deep inside, pulsing and throbbing, begging for him to penetrate her.

She dug her nails into the hard, straining muscles of his shoulders, wincing with sinful pleasure each time he crushed his large cock against her. His hands moved beneath the fabric of her makeshift dress and began sliding it up. “You want me to fuck you. Isn’t that right, Liv?”

Roen sliding inside her, fucking her hard, and coming between her thighs was the only thing she wanted.
What’s happening to me?
It wasn’t like her to want something like that—so reckless. But she did. Perhaps the island was changing her, too.

“Yes,” she panted. And when she thought about the way he’d fearlessly stood up to those crazy men to save her, it only made her want him more. The man was a complete enigma and sexy as hell.

Kissing her neck, he reached between them and tugged at the red cloth around his waist to free his erection. “You’re mine. I fought for you. You’re mine.”

“Yes.” She turned her head into his neck, feverishly kissing and licking him back. She couldn’t get enough of his touch and skin and smell. “Yes, I’m yours.” She tightened the grip with her legs around his waist, ready for his hard thrust.

“That’s right. Mine.” Gripping himself in his hand, he positioned his shaft at her entrance and made a few teasing circles with the head before testing her readiness with a shallow thrust.

Liv gasped. Even with just the tip, Liv felt her body struggling to accept the thickness. And then she felt something else: his teeth.

Roen bit down on her shoulder, and she screamed. Roen released her and stumbled back.

“What the hell was that?” She felt like she’d been splashed with a bucket of ice-cold water. And though it was dark and she couldn’t clearly see his face, she knew his expression was the same as hers.

“Why did you bite me?” she raged.

A silent moment passed. “I don’t know,” he said with a shaken voice, “but you have to get out of here. You have to get away from me.”

Something strange was happening to him—to them both, perhaps. Yet, he was still her only lifeline, and he was too good of a person to be left to these sea-wolves. “I’m not leaving you.”

“I’m infected, Liv. Whatever they have, it’s in me now.” Roen dipped down and grabbed his…whatever the hell they called their little man-skirts.

“Then we need to get you to a hospital.” The water had to contain some sort of neurotoxin. Or maybe it was a new PCP-like narcotic that gave a person superhuman strength.

“Liv, you’ve seen the men on this island. You’ve seen what that water does. There are no drugs that heal people from broken bones in a matter of minutes. Whatever that crap is, it’s changing me. I’m getting you the hell out of here. Away from me. Away from them.”

This was all her fault. He probably could’ve left the island if it weren’t for her. But instead, Roen stepped in to help her—three times. And now the man was their damned leader. Leader!
How the hell did this happen?

She moved and stood directly in front of him, trying to see his face and hoping he could see the look on hers. “I told you; I’m not leaving you with these animals.”

“You can send help once you’re somewhere safe.”

“Roen, no—”

“I’m not asking,” he said in a cold, deep voice. “It’s a matter of time before I end up like Lyle—brainwashed and violent.”

“You mean your brother?”

“My dead brother. Somehow he ended up here. Alive, twelve inches taller, and a hundred pounds heavier.”

“He died?” she asked, hoping to hell that Roen didn’t mean he died for real. That would be a whole other kind of crazy. Seriously, seriously, bad-scary crazy.

“Apparently not.”

Oh, thank God.

“Maybe he can help us, Roen. He can tell us how to get home.”

“Are you hearing yourself? You just said our best hope is my brother—a person who has been leading these deranged thugs for God only knows how long and just tried to kill me.”

“I don’t see a better option, do you?” she said.

“No.” He shot out a frustrated sigh. “I actually don’t. But I’m going to see him alone.”

Liv gripped his arm. “Uh-uh. We stick together.”

“I can’t have you around a pack of crazy arses who think they’re part fish. I can’t risk anyone hurting you.”

“Then you and I feel the same; neither wants to see the other hurt.”

And there it was: that…
something
. That invisible force that bonded two people. It was like gravity, holding one object to another. But in the case of people, there were no mathematical formulas to explain the ties that formed between them. Parents and children. Brothers and sisters. Friends and lovers. It was real. It could make or break a person. It could bring a profound sense of joy and fulfillment or leave a person devastated when lost. Yet there was no tangible, scientific proof to support the physical existence of these connections. Yes, people understood the emotional impact when a bond with another person formed or broke. But it escaped her how something so important and central to every human being on the planet couldn’t be seen. Something connected people. Something real. And it allowed them to form these powerful attachments.
So powerful that one might give their life for the other.
And now one of those bonds had formed with Roen—a man she met less than a day ago. She felt like she might never breathe again if she lost him.

The two stared at each other for several long moments, unable to truly see one another, but Liv had the distinct impression that Roen struggled with the same inexplicable emotions.

“You have no idea what I’m feeling,” he said bitterly, responding to her last comment.

“Try explaining it, then.”

“I can’t. I simply know I can no longer be trusted around you. The things I just felt—they were not the thoughts of a sane man. They were not…me.”

“That’s ridiculous, Roen. You’re letting this place get to you.”

“No!” he burst out, reaching for her shoulders to give her a good shake. “I won’t. Go to fucking hell.”

Huh?
It took a moment to get past the shock of this incredibly strong man painfully gripping her shoulders, to realize that Roen was not talking to her.

“Roen. Stop!”

He released her and once again gripped the sides of his head, groaning. “I won’t do it!” he yelled.

Ohmygod.
She needed to get him to a doctor. Maybe that water
was
poison. But then again, she’d had the same water, and she wasn’t hearing voices.

“Roen, take a deep breath.” She reached for his shoulders to comfort him.

He ground out his words. “You have to go, Liv.”

“You’re a good man,” she said softly, “and just like I don’t deserve to be left here; you don’t deserve that either. We. Are in this. Together.”

Roen took several deep breaths and finally dropped his hands. A patch of moonlight illuminated his strikingly handsome face, his lightly stubbled jawline catching the light.

“You’re all right now. See,” she said with a calming voice. “Try to breathe.”

He nodded and then shoved his hands through his hair. “I was born in Scotland.”

“Okay.” Why had he said that?

“I lived there until I was ten when we fled from my father. He was one of them—the men from this island. He was violent and cruel—not with us, but with everyone else.”

Liv shook her head. “I-I don’t understand.”

“It’s what defines everything about me. Everything, right down to the fact I refuse to sound like him. So I’ll be damned if I end up ruining a good woman’s life.”

“You think you’re ruining my life?”
He just saved it!

“Liv,” he said quietly, his tone dead serious, “I’m getting you off this island, but I’m not going with you.”

“What?
Why
?” she snapped.

“I need to help Lyle.”

The person who’d just tried to kill him? “That’s bullshit.”

“Is it? If it was your sister—what was her name? Dana? Would you leave her here?”

“Okay. No. I wouldn’t. So we all leave together,” Liv said. “I’m not afraid.”

Roen stepped toward her. “You should be. Just like I should be claiming you.”

Suddenly, the air between them thickened again.

Oh no!
She shoved out her hands, but it did no good. He suddenly had her by the shoulders again, gripping her firmly with his shaking hands as if he wanted to maul her.

She reached out and slapped him across the cheek. “Roen!”

He let her go and drove his fist right into the tree behind her.

My God. He is losing it.
Maybe he was right; she needed to get away from this place and return with help. But leaving him behind? She just didn’t want to do that. Her other option was to wait until his ship came back for them. She’d do everything in her power to make sure Roen left, too.

“I’ll leave the island,” she said.
But you’re coming with me whether you like it or not.

“I’m glad you see things my way. My ship is probably gone, but if I can get to my phone, I can call the crew. They’ll turn around and come back. I just hope that my cell still has power. Otherwise, I’ll see what Lyle or the other men can tell me about transportation. They have to have some way of getting on and off the island.”

“Roen, the healer guy, Holden, has satellite TV.”

“He has dish TV?”

“He also has state-of-the-art medical equipment—respirators, heart monitors, CT scanner…” That other guy, Shane, had French windows. She doubted they were making glass on the island. That meant they were definitely importing stuff, which meant they had some means of contacting the outside.

“Then they have electricity and might have other electronics, too. Maybe even their own satellite cell, which they will give to me since I’m now their leader. As for you, we’re going to find a place to hide you until I’ve made contact with my ship.”

“What about food and water?” she asked.

“I’ll come back at daybreak with supplies.” Roen grabbed her hand and pulled her along, continuing toward the other side of the island without saying a word. His palm felt hot and buzzed with a weird energy. Not uncomfortable, but powerful enough for her to know it wasn’t her imagination.

Whatever was happening to the man, it was real.

“Liv, before I forget. Stay away from the water at night. There are monsters.”