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“Or drown him instead,” Annie murmured when nothing happened after one whole minute.
The river seemed to have swallowed him whole.
Brigid held Ben back with one hand when he moved to fish Sai out.
This had to work, she thought. This was what he needed most.
Sheknewit.
But the longer Sai stayed submerged, the more she began to doubt.
What if she was wrong? What if the human form of a sea dragon needed human care? What if they should have taken him to the hospital all along? What if by doing this she’d cost him his—
A rumbling roar preceded the sudden explosion of water as Sai broke the surface and stood.
Brigid was so relieved she rushed forth and threw herself at him, propriety bedamned.
He caught her easily as she wrapped her arms tight around his neck and hugged him with her entire body, shivering uncontrollably from cold and terror, mixed with sudden relief.
A throaty sound emanated from deep within his chest as he held her close with one unyielding arm and stroked her back with the other hand.
Like a beast gentling his mate.
Now, Brigid shivered with a different emotion entirely.
Unfortunately, good sense demanded that she extricate herself posthaste, and she reluctantly did. But mostly because she wanted to check Sai’s wounds.
“It doesn’t seem to be bleeding anymore,” she said, daringly smoothing a hand over his abdomen, the fabric of his attire sticking to his body like a second skin.
He was so hard to the touch. As if he were truly made of stone.
“No,” was the only word he uttered in a low rasp.
She could tell by the shaking in his frame that he was still very weak. Being stone didn’t render him invulnerable, after all. But at least he no longer seemed to be on the edge of death.
“The wounds closed by themselves?” she whispered, gazing into those glittering diamond eyes.
He gave a brief nod, staring back.
“But you still need the sea, don’t you?” Somehow, she simply knew this.
“Yes,” he uttered, his long lashes beaded with water.
Their faces were mere inches apart. She was already standing on tiptoe. He was so tall. But if she stretched a little more, if she craned her neck and tilted her jaw, she’d be a hair’s breadth from his lips as he leaned down toward her.
Heavens, but she wanted desperately to kiss him. To be kissed by him. It seemed she’d wanted this…wantedhimall her life.
“Let’s get back to the house before we all catch our deaths, eh?”
Annie’s voice of reason was a rude interruption to Brigid’s wanton fantasy. Like a bubble, her bravery burst, even as the desire remained.
It was the most inappropriate time to come to this self-awareness: She always knew she wanted the pale prince of her dreams. Wanted him as a playmate when she was a child. A friend and companion as she grew older.
Now, in this moment, as if the brush with death had shaken something loose inside of her, like a ripening fruit that was finally ready to be plucked—
She desperately wanted theman.
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