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Chapter Twenty-one
"I love you, Christine."
She must have fallen asleep, because Dylan's voice woke her. At first CC thought they were still lying on the bed of sea foam, but the sound of waves breaking against the shore around them and the velvet feel of sand under her hip made her realize that she and Dylan had drifted to shore. She was still nestled against his chest and he lay semireclining, with his back against one of the many smooth rocks that peppered the shore.
"I'm so glad," she said and stretched languidly. Then she laughed.
"What?" he asked.
"I was just thinking that I feel like a satisfied cat, which seemed kind of funny under the circumstances." She gestured at their entwined tails. Then she raised her eyebrows at him. "You do know what a cat is, don't you?"
He tugged a wet strand of her hair playfully. "It is a feline creature that is closely allied to human women." He looked introspective for a moment, like he was remembering something, then he added, "They are fond of eating fish." His face split, and he laughed, too.
"Not that we're fish," CC said between giggles.
"Certainly not. You are Goddess of the Seas," he amended good-naturedly.
"That must make you," she finished with a flourish, "God of the Seas!"
Dylan's face instantly changed. It took on a guarded expression that caused CC a pang of anxiety. He hesitated before he spoke, and when he did his words sounded heavy, as if they were weighed down by the sadness of painful memories.
"No, Christine. We are different. My mother was a simple water nymph who preferred rivers and streams to the ocean. My father was a human. When my mother became pregnant she went to Lir and asked that she be granted a human form so that she could spend her life with her human lover. Lir agreed, but when my mother left the waters my father rejected her." Dylan's jaw tightened, and he looked away from her. "He already had a wife and a family. He had no use for a sea creature and her bastard offspring. My mother returned to the waters, which is where I was born. But she never found contentment. She was forever returning to the river where she had met and mated with my father. When he failed to return she killed herself. Lir allowed me to stay in his crystal palace while I was young out of love for Undine, who was my playmate. When I grew to adulthood he granted me the responsibility of overseeing the waters where they merged, river and sea. I think the great sea god hoped that under my watchfulness no other river nymphs would be lost to the lust of humans. But I am not the son of immortals; I am not as you are. Perhaps you did not realize that. Forgive me for not explaining our differences to you earlier." He wouldn't meet her eyes.
"Dylan." She took his chin in her hand, forcing him to look at her. His face was tight and withdrawn, but she could see the pain reflected in his eyes. "I'm sorry about your mother, and it makes me sad about your father, but it could never change what I feel for you. How could you believe that could matter to me?"
"You are Goddess of the Sea. I do not have even a palace or a realm to offer you."
"Yeah, I know all about being offered a realm—Sarpe-don already did that," she said fiercely. "And I'm not interested." She nodded her head toward the monastery. "And there's a knight up there who has a castle to offer me," she scoffed. "I'd rather be trapped on land than accept their kind of love. Or, better yet, I'd rather have no lover at all than what they offer."
At the mention of the other two males Dylan's jaw clenched, and she could feel his body tense against her.
"I want what you offer me," she said.
"But I have nothing to offer you," he said miserably.
CC splayed her open hand on his chest over his heart. "You have this."
"No," Dylan's voice was thick with emotion. "I do not even have a heart. It was lost to you lifetimes ago."
"Don't ever think it's lost, Dylan. I'll keep it safe. Always." She pulled him down to her and their kiss was filled with the tenderness of true love.
"For an eternity," he said.
"Yes, for eternity," she agreed. "And I want to stay with you. Here, in the water, in this form, forever."
Dylan's look of joy was quickly shadowed by worry. When he spoke his voice was calm and filled with the hardness of purpose.
"I will protect you from Sarpedon," he said. "I will not allow him to harm you."
Remembering the raging, insane power of the gigantic merman, CC felt a stab of fear. "No! You won't have to. Gaea is going to Lir. She'll work everything out; she just asks that we be a little patient. She said Lir has some problem with another goddess who's taking his attention right now."
"I am not God of the Sea, but I do have some power of my own, Christine." Dylan's expression had darkened, and CC felt the deep, constant strength that rested beneath the merman's kind exterior.
"I know you do! But Sarpedon is crazy, and he's getting more and more bizarre. He scares me, Dylan. Please let Gaea handle it. I couldn't bear it if anything happened to you."
Dylan opened his mouth to argue, but CC silenced him by pressing a finger against his lips.
"Promise me you'll stay away from him."
When he didn't answer her, the stab of fear turned to panic. Her mind whirred while she searched for something she could say to convince him. Then she knew.
"If something happened to you I would be forced to marry the knight so that I could stay on land, away from Sarpedon's realm," she said simply. She hated that her words caused the flash of pain that crossed the merman's face, but fear for his life overrode her desire to protect his feelings.
"I promise you I will not seek out Sarpedon. But I also promise you I will not allow him to take you from me."
She smiled at him, trying to lighten his mood. "Do you really think it would be so easy to take me?"
Begrudgingly, Dylan's face relaxed, and he smiled back at her.
"No, I believe you would be very difficult to capture." He kissed her quickly. "You must have been a goddess in your old world, too."
CC's laughter sparkled.
"Well, I was a sergeant. I guess that's pretty close to a goddess, at least in some circles."
"What is this, ser-geant?" He pronounced the foreign word slowly, which made CC want to laugh again. "Where was your realm?"
"The Comm Center." She grinned. Then she sighed at his confused expression and tried to explain. "I was in the USAF, the United States Air Force. My, uh, I guess you'd call it my realm, was the United States. The air force is a branch of the armed forces that protects my realm's freedoms. I worked in the communications part of the USAF—making sure different people and countries got the information they needed to make wise decisions."
Dylan nodded his head. "A messenger goddess protecting her realm. Yes, that suites you. I would have guessed as much."
