AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I got dry-humped against a door. But next time...I think we should get rid of the underwear.”
I shook my head and let her go. “Not until you’ve finished school and I can tell Jack just how much you mean to me.”
Glancing down at my semi-hard cock and the very obvious stain, I suffered a sudden wave of shyness. “Because if he knew what I just did to his daughter, he wouldn’t just kick me out, he’d turn me into the authorities himself.”
Brushing down her uniform skirt, Neri smiled and opened the door.
I flung myself onto my bed, tossing the blanket over my lap. “Shit, Neri.”
“Don’t be late to dinner. You know how that irks Dad. Oh, and I expect you to give me a well-deserved dessert afterward.” With a sexy, evil little grin, she dashed around the pool and vanished into the house.
I collapsed onto my pillow with her scent in my nose and a stupid smile on my lips.
Chapter Thirty-five
*
Nerida
*
(Sea in Welsh: Môr)
“AND THAT WAS HOW THE SNEAKING AROUND started. For all Aslan’s rules that he wouldn’t touch me unless my parents were away; for all our promises that we wouldn’t be stupid, we were stupid.”
I smiled, my heart so full and light in my chest.
God, I’d give anything to go back to that brief moment in time when we tripped and crashed into each other. It was as if the past five years of emotionally falling meant our bodies had a lot of catching up to do.
I caught Margot’s wide-eyed stare.
I smiled with all the smug satisfaction I’d floated on back then. “We literally couldn’t keep our hands off each other. He was all I could think about, dream about. When he touched me, I knew bliss for the first time. I’d never experienced the exquisite joy of feeling another’s soul before.”
“What do you mean?” she asked softly.
“I mean...that raw spark between us. That stinging hum whenever we hovered our hands close but didn’t touch was more than just our bodies connecting, it was us. The part of us that exists within our bodies and our minds. The part that’s immortal and destined to find its missing half, no matter what shell it wears in this life.”
“Forgive me for saying this, Nerida, but you’re nothing like what I expected.” Dylan cleared his throat, looking slightly uncomfortable.
“How so?” I asked.
“Well...you come from a science background. You are trained in facts and tangible data. You created Lunamare out of sheer determination and mastered technology that exists thanks to brilliant leaps in building innovation—thanks to what you envisioned. Yet you seem...”
When he didn’t go on, I sat forward a little, interested to see where he was going with this. “I seem?”
“Well...opposite of that, if I had to choose a word. You seem...spiritual instead of scientific.”
“Aren’t all achievements in this world created by spirit? Van Gogh often said he dreamed his paintings and painted his dreams. That is what I did, Dylan. Nothing in this world has been created without first being a thought, a spark, a hope.”
“Forgive me if I overstepped.” Dylan spread his hands. “I’m merely trying to understand how you created something that no one else has, yet can speak of Aslan as if he was your—”
“Soulmate?”
“Well...yes. As a woman of science, surely you don’t believe such phenomena exist.”
I leaned back and linked my hands. “I was wondering when this question would arise. So allow me to put it frankly. I believe the world we see is not the only world that exists. To believe so is to believe in our own egoic importance. I believe there are many worlds and many paths, and we only have to listen to know that. I’m proud to sit here and tell you that yes, I do. I do believe in soulmates and intuition. I’ve always felt there was something bigger than me. I don’t believe you can free-dive under the sea with creatures that look so alien to our land-dwelling eyes and not realise there are so many different realms in one. We are merely animals, Dylan. As a race, that was where we went wrong. The day we removed ourselves from the animal kingdom was the day we believed we were better.
“And we’re not. For example, to a dolphin, I am deformed. To a crab, my pink skin is unprotected. To me, the mere concept that I could exist in this world and not find my other half is unthinkable...and because I believed that...I made it true.”
My voice softened. “The day I fished Aslan from the sea and knew he was irreversibly mine, it wasn’t childish whimsy. It was the strongest knowing I’d ever had. I used to be very intuitive as a little girl. I would follow nudges that felt so real, only for life to dull those nudges. It took effort to learn how to listen again, but I can honestly tell you, with as much scientific proof and assurances as I can, that Aslan just felt different.
