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We were drawn to her. The need to save her, deep in our bones and we didn’t even know what we were trying to find.
We couldn’t have turned the ship around if we wanted to.
“We can take you to the shore,” Eric says. Always practical.
Harlow shakes her head, burrowing her face into my chest. “No. I don’t want to go back there now. I feel like I’m here for a reason.
“What reason?” West asks.
“I don’t know. I saw something and was pulled into the ocean and...,” Harlow stops, stepping away from me as if remembering herself. Remembering that we are strangers.
“So, you didn’t swim out to sea?” I run a hand through my hair. “You were forced?”
Harlow smirks. “Crazy, right?”
“This night is full of crazy things,” West says. “Maybe we are all supposed to be here, together, tonight.”
“Yeah?” She looks the men over, her eyelashes long and sweeping against her high cheekbones. “You think you were meant to catch me?”
Eric nods, tapping his hand against the boat’s railing. “We’re a sailors. Go all over the world as a team. And never have I heard something so...,”
Haunting. Beautiful. Intense.
“What brought you here?” Harlow asks.
I raise an eyebrow. “You did, Siren.”
Harlow reaches for her throat, her towel dropping as she presses her fingers to her skin, eyes widening as if just now remembering.
“You sang us a melody, surely you remember?” Crew steps toward her.
Harlow pushes her lips forward, shaking her head. “No way. I don’t sing.”
Eric looks at Crew, then West, then me.
We all nod in agreement. We tell her about the force, the way our boat was pulled closer and closer over the last few weeks, and even though it took us off course, we had no choice but to go where directed.
“It was more than a song,” Eric says solemnly. “It was a call.”
4
Harlow
They tell me it was a siren’s call that brought them to me, that forced them to fling out a net and catch me.
But it makes no sense.
And when they tell me this, I throw back my head, my drenched hair splattering water droplets against the wooden deck of the boat.
I’m not scared. They may be strangers, but it’s like they aren’t. It’s like they were brought here for me, and me for them. Whatever reality I used to know was left on the beach tonight. And now, all that is left is this boat, rocking in the middle of the ocean.
These men are here for me.
I know it in my bones, my body that has detached itself from my mind tonight is screaming this truth.
These men are mine for the taking.
That idea overwhelms me and I take a slow, shaky breath, trying to steady myself.
“Are you okay?” the gentle one asks. His eyes are blue like the sea at dawn, and his dark hair is pushed away from his eyes. And when he checks in on me, it is with so much sincerity it makes my chest ache.
“I’m okay. It’s just been a strange series of events. You probably wouldn’t believe me if I tried to explain.” I look over my shoulder, wanting to see the seal. The one who brought me here. I press a hand against my chest, hoping to see it again. Hoping it will find me. I feel like the seal is the answer to my questions.
And yes, that is the part I can’t exactly say aloud. It sounds insane to acknowledge that a sea creature forced me into the ocean.
But it did.
And still reeling from whatever happened deep in the ocean, I can’t begin to explain this to the guys.
The men look at one another, scratching their heads and their hands running along jaws and no one speaks for a moment as they let me accept whatever part of the truth I want.
But what I really want is them.
These men who were called to find me. They saved me and now I want to be with them.
But how do I get from here to there?
I’ve never done this before.
I look up at the men, in their various stages of disarray, but all of them ridiculously sexy.
In their various stages of turning me on.
Damn. I never have sexual urges like this.
Then again, I’ve also never been pulled into the sea, learned to breathe underwater, with legs that somehow glitter and glow.
“Well, thanks,” I tell them, lowering my chin, and lifting my eyes. Realizing how very naked I am in front of these men. Men I am claiming as my own, whether they are or not. “Thank you for saving me.”
The shirtless one snorts, apparently not realizing that I’m about five seconds from pulling their muscled bodies against my own. “We didn’t have a choice in coming to your rescue. We couldn’t have turned the boat if we tried.”
I frown, my defenses up. Here I was all ready for sexy times and the half-naked one is retreating. And he’s the one I would have bet was most up for taking a chance on me. When I was pressed against his chest I felt something, if you know what I mean.
