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I do not understand and peer down at her in confusion. “Yes, I do. This represents the future I want and need, but also a future for everyone out there who rises from the sea.”
She bites her lip, a worried look crossing her face. “If something goes wrong…”
“Then I have risked nothing. I would rather take this risk than slowly die alone in the seas,” I assure her.
“But I don’t want to take the risk,” she chokes, and a tear slips down her cheek. “I would rather live at the very edge of the sea and kiss you goodbye every night and have you for the rest of my life than potentially risk your life.”
She looks up with pools of tears in her eyes, and I marvel at the wonders of humanity. An Aquana cannot cry and to me it is a sacred substance, and so I bend down and gently trail the tip of my tongue over the tracks from her tears, drawing them into me.
“I love you, Ro,” she whispers.
Those four words are like a hunter’s spear in my chest, and I close my eyes as joy blooms and overwhelms me. When I open my eyes again and look down at my mate I see my future laid out for me within her eyes—and it is glorious.
“But I want the days and the nights with you,” I whisper as I lean down to press a loving kiss to her lips. “I cannot stop the moon from stealing me, but the moon, sun, and sea will only have me for one day. I am yours, and only yours, for all the others for the rest of my life. I promise you this on the River Styx that dwells deep below the seas.” I press another kiss at the corner of her mouth. “Do not cry for me. This is it—I know it is. Trust me. And if it is not perfect then we will try again, but I can’t wait any longer. Already the sea calls. But I swear to you, we will have our happy beginning.”
“Don’t you mean happy ending?” she jokes, her voice tremulous with tears.
I smile down at her and shake my head. “No. Because this is our beginning, and once I have claimed you, which I shall do once we have succeeded and I can fulfill my promise to you, we shall truly begin our long life together.”
She gives another watery laugh and pulls out of my arms. “I have so many questions about that, but okay, Ro, I trust you in this.”
I grin, and the contents of the bottle swirl in brilliant bursts of blue and green with flecks of gold as I bring it to my lips and swallow the contents just as the sun sinks below the horizon. It fills my belly with the brimming current of its wash, and suddenly I am free.
With a shout of glee, I scoop my mate into my arms and kiss her. It is our time—finally!
Keri
I’m wearingthe orange and pink sundress I wore on our first date. It seems appropriate somehow that this is what I wear, although I’ve dressed it up considerably with the flowers woven into the complicated twist of my coifed hair. At Adiele’s insistence that I come to him, and he does not see me before I arrive at the docks—and because he is willing to humor my human customs, he’s waiting there for me. My entire family, my coven, have gathered along the docks, and flowers are strewn everywhere. The temperature is cooling off and I know that water is going to be bitterly cold, but Ro assures me that I won’t feel it once his venom fills me.
How romantic.
Okay, that little detail does still creep me out just a little, but if it gives me forever with Ro then I’m all in.
The car pulls up to the docks, and my dad climbs out of the driver’s seat. He hurries back to help me out and tucks my hand into his arm as he blinks his eyes rapidly. I was surprised when my parents made an appearance during the last couple of weeks while we waited for the elixir’s coagulation. I had thought it would be an incredibly stressful experience, but I was surprised at how readily my parents took to Ro. Dad wears a proud smile on his face now as he escorts me from the parking lot to the dock, our steps echoing as the music begins. It’s not the traditional bridal march, but one that Ro and I sat down and selected ourselves as the song of our joining as is the custom in the Durmont family.
The coven lines the dock, leaving a passageway, and I can’t help the giddy smile that tugs at my lips as I make my way past cousins, aunts, uncles. Everyone is here. Although heavily pregnant, even my cousin Fran is present with her vampire husband, and she blows me a kiss as I pass. But my heart stops at the vision at the end of the dock waiting for me. Ro stands tall and proud, his pale hair and delicate scales catching the light in a rainbow of hues. His lips part when he sees me, and I see the love shining in his eyes. It’s all for me.
He wears little more than an ornate wrap around his hips. His feet are bare and planted steadily on the dock. It doesn’t take a genius to know why he’s dressed so sparsely—though no less beautifully. Once we are in the water, human clothing will be nothing but an obstacle for him as his body works to regain its true form.
Ro holds his hand out for me, and I just barely remember to pause and kiss Daddy on the cheek before I surrender myself completely to him. My mate’s smile is brilliant as he pulls me in against his side. I only half-hear Aunt Katherine’s solemn words of joining, just enough to respond appropriately and take pleasure in Ro’s confident replies. I have little room for anything else at this moment. My entire world has narrowed to Ro as the ritual joins us. Although it is more of a formality preceding the mating to come, it means everything to be standing here with him and declaring ourselves before the coven and all the gods who preside over the family. It’s the soothing rumble of Ro’s vows, however, that weigh my heart with emotion and make me blink back tears of joy.
Some slip out when the red cords—red of the joining bloodlines—are wrapped around our joined hands, and I swear I can feel it soul deep. I’m certain Ro feels it too because he sighs with wonder and his hand tightens around mine as a dazzling smile lights his face. And then it’s suddenly over and the legal paperwork is signed. Now is the moment. While everyone goes back to the booked reception room to begin celebrating our joining, Ro and I will be mating in truth. Everyone knows it too. There are a few happy and teasing smiles as I kick off my shoes. Ro’s smile only grows wider as he leads me back closer to the edge, and I realize that everyone is waiting for the moment of the plunge.
Ro doesn’t disappoint. He lifts me up high in his arms, pressing me against his chest as he seals his mouth over mine, his tongue claiming my mouth in the sweetest of kisses. The air shifts and tugs at my hair and dress as we drop, and he swallows my startled shout as we slide beneath the waters to the jubilant shouts of my family above now muffled by the sea. Ro’s fins flick and sends us out away from the docks so that we may continue our descent in what he considers to be safer waters farther from human traffic.
His tail pumps languidly. He is in no hurry, each movement brushing his various fins against my calves and thighs. His tongue slides against my own as it penetrates my mouth, making love with slow, slick glides. My body falls into a natural rhythm with his so that it almost feels like we are dancing intimately together as he swims. His palm strokes my cheek delicately, lovingly. I am cherished and one with him, and I revel in it as I slide my hands over him and return his kisses with just as much love and devotion. Drawing my legs together, I slide my inner calves along the upper length of his tail, and I feel my sweet mate shudder in response. His kisses turn bolder and more heated, drawing me into a feverish dance.
His mouth breaks away from mine to trace nibbling kisses. I’m momentarily shocked by the feeling of air pressing unnaturally in and out of my lungs but I relax into it as I recall that this is another of the gifts of his kind. Something about the magic in his saliva creating a filter barrier deep in the back of my throat that will last until I consume something solid or until it naturally dissipates. It gives me the chance to admire the beauty all around me—especially the vision of my mate sliding his tongue along my collarbone and the tops of my breasts. His teeth snip at the straps holding my dress in place and the fabric tears so easily as he tugs it away that my belly jumps in reaction.
Ro’s grip tightens on me and slides me up higher against his body so that he can peel the cups back with his teeth, exposing one breast and then the other to the questing length of his tongue. One of the arms banded around me slides down, relaxing just enough to let him explore. His claws trail a light path down before they encounter the band of material. He ignores it for the time being and slides his hand over it to descend and cup my ass cheek firmly as he plucks my nipple with his hot lips and rubs the textured surface of his tongue against it before turning his attention to the other one. All the while he continues to swim, and as we descend into the cold depths, I feel my hair spooling out around me to tease silken paths along my skin.
I’m quite certain that I’ve lost every flower and pin that held my hair in place. Sure enough, when I look up at the surface above us and the sunlight shimmering through the water, I can see the floating flowers rising to the surface. I watch them twist away on the currents and my fingers dig into Ro’s arms with excitement as I feel him slow and the whisper-soft touch of his flaring tailfins brushing the soles of my feet.
There is a sudden, sharp pressure, and then the water ripples as the fabric of my dress is parted and slides off my back. Ro pulls it free from between our bodies and releases the tattered remains of the dress so that it floats away in a slow descent. Freed of the barrier, his hand comes up between my bared legs to slice through my underwear and cup my bare pussy within his palm. He works the pads of his fingers, and the webbing between them, against my sex in a contrast of textures and sensations.
I arch into him, my pleasure rising quickly at the soft and firm touches around my clit and my labia. The fluttery touch of his pelvic fins slides into place, and I jackknife against him, earning a growl from my mate. His free arm lashes back around my waist tightly and dragging me down his body further so that now not just the tip of his fins touch me, but the length of them brush and tease my entrance from the hood of my clit down to the bottom of my slit. I quiver against him, suddenly feeling boneless as I writhe in his hold with the hope that the bulge barely brushing my center will part and give me what I need. His cock doesn’t extrude no matter how I wriggle on it. He nips my skin gently, giving me nothing more than a brief sting that makes my sex tighten with need at his silent warning.
His mouth moves over me as his fins gather lubrication from his slit’s sheath and spread it over my sex until even in the water I’m slippery with it. My hips arch, begging for more, aware of his tongue sliding up my neck and jaw to capture more of the pheromones I have no doubt that I’m pumping out of the most sensitive zones of my skin. He begins to press sweet kisses to my mouth, and he adjusts his hold on me, his pelvis canting forward with a violent flutter of his pelvic fins that makes me orgasm on the spot. My channel convulses on nothing one moment, and the next his mouth plunders mine as his cock fills and stretches me by the sheer size of him as he extrudes in one deep motion into me.
