~Alessa~
Explosive.
No other word expressed an inkling of what I experienced as he brought me to ecstasy. I held on to the rock as if it were a life ring on the open sea while Dante slammed into my body from behind. Heat flushed over my bare shoulders and my breasts bounced to the feverish rhythm set by his thrusts. My body felt as if it should be going up in flames, cooled only by the churning water around us.
“Come for me again, baby.”
I couldn’t. I can’t. It’s too much, too much.
Talented fingers slipped between our bodies. With a single flick of his index finger against my clit, Dante brought me straight back to a quivering state. Every muscle in my body pulled tight.
“Oh God, oh God...!”
My mouth opened in a soundless cry, the wind trapped in my lungs by the intensity surging through my core. Dante was an amazing lover, intuitive to the last stroke whether it was by his fingers or his dick.
I came and he followed, joining me in orgasm. Something indescribable seared me with raw emotion, a sensation only to be felt but not named. Is this the bonding? Is this it? It was like a flash fire consuming me with pleasure, a solar flare of ecstasy scalding me soul deep. I writhed between my new mate and the rock, tears streaming down my cheeks.
“Dante!” A harsh, guttural groan parted my lips, the sound unfamiliar as if it had come from anyone but me.
We stood together for what seemed like hours, the beating of my heart louder than the crashing of the ocean.
The slightest movement from him delivered a mini-orgasm. Post-climax contractions rippled throughout my core like tiny aftershocks. His cock never left the intimate embrace I offered, but we shuddered together until at last he was motionless behind me with his cheek against my shoulder.
“Lessa?”
“M’fine,” I mumbled.
He chuckled and slipped out. “Sleep, love.”
“But... I wanna...” Despite my protests, I surrendered to the exhaustion and allowed Dante to carry me. Hours later, my eyes opened to the sight of a starlit sky above us while a cool island breeze danced across my naked skin. I shivered and cuddled closer before taking in the familiar surroundings. I recognized the patio lounge chair beneath us.
“Are you okay?” His words ghosted over my ear.
“Mmm... where are we? Are we on Teo’s veranda?”
“He and Marcy went to visit their friends in California. Said we can stay overnight and have full run of the house.”
“Teo is an amazing friend,” I mumbled. “And soul bonding is exhausting.”
“It is,” he said, chuckling. “For the human at least.”
I envied him for having the energy I lacked. “You’re like... a furry incubus,” I mumbled into his neck. I twisted in his grip and slid my arm across his chest. The serene music of the outdoors coaxed me in and out of sleep, until at last I awakened to explore Teo’s bungalow.
“Are we supposed to do the Adam and Eve thing the whole time? As much as I like seeing you naked, it’s distracting.”
Thankfully, Marcy had left clothes for me and Dante had finally broken down and planted his own wardrobe in the bungalow. Once our rumbling tummies motivated us to trek inside, we showered, raided the fridge, and found a dish clearly marked with our names. I squinted at him.
“Did you plan this?”
“Down to the last detail,” Dante said, beaming with pride. “Did I do well?”
“Amazing.”
I spent the time after our bonding wondering how I’d ever lived without it. It completed me, as if I’d been given more of myself, and even more of him. Days passed of me wondering if it was all a dream or psychosis I’d invented in my head — girl meets perfect boy, boy isn’t human, boy cherishes her like a queen. I lived in a fairy tale and wondered when we’d have the first fight or grow tired of spending time together.
When it didn’t come, I grew nervous and even skeptical.
“Why should I pick fights?” Dante finally asked as we stood at the dockside with our poles one evening after work. He’d invited me to go fishing with him. “I know you’re accustomed to assholes, but I have nothing to gain from conflict with you.” He kissed my forehead and held me close with one strong arm. I breathed him in, soothed by the perpetual scent of the beach I’d come to associate with him. “Nothing.”
“Is this a you thing, or a hippocampus thing?”
“Both.” He chuckled. “Hippocampi are pretty laid back unless we’re in danger or pissed off. And I think we’ve skipped most of the common elements of relationship troubles.”
“Well yeah. You kind of just moved into my place.”
“We don’t need to fight about money. You’re welcome to what I have that Abuelo doesn’t need.”
“No thanks. I work for my own money.”
“See.”
“We’re dull.”
“We love each other,” he said, flashing his best cocksure grin. I swatted his shoulder with one hand and baited my fishing hook again.
“Then teach me your language. I want to learn to speak with your people.”
“It is a very old language. There are no computer tutorials for it.
“You can barely use a computer anyway. Come on. Teach me what you know.”
Dante eyed me as if I were crazy, wanting to learn a supposedly dead language. “You’re certain?”
“I’m serious. Maybe one day I can hold a conversation with your dad and prove I’m not an idiot human stealing you away.”
“Fine. If you want to speak it so badly, you’ll have to learn it the way I learned English and Spanish.”
I then spent the remainder of the week fussing and swearing at a man who wouldn’t speak English. He answered me in his native tongue for everything from “pass me the ketchup” at dinner to talking about his day. It was gibberish.
One day, instinct guided me to toss the remote into his lap in passing, automatic.
“How’d you know I wanted the remote?” He glanced up at me, bewildered.
“It was the only thing you could have been asking for.”
When ancient words didn’t exist for our modern conveniences, Dante created funny compounds that made me giggle. Control stick. Metal horses. Moving pictures.
Dante surprised me three weeks after our bonding by ushering four naked people into my house.
“What the hell?”
“You said you wanted them to visit us.”
“I do, but give me some warning next time!”
I laughed despite the impromptu get-together, and within a few minutes, I’d wrung out and tamed Helena’s massive amount of hair into a single plait. “She has a longer torso than me, but this sundress should fit her, I think. It’ll do until we can get her into a resort shop.”
“Good. She says she wants to wear pretty things to be beautiful like you,” Dante replied.
“She’s already gorgeous.”
Helena beamed at me, as if she could understand my words.
I glanced out of my bedroom to see Dante’s progress with the men. Hyrum, Lycus, Zeno, and Dante all wore swim trunks and reminded me of a boy band preparing to shoot a beachside music video. Next to Dante’s sun-kissed brown, their skin tones ranged from lightly tanned to fair. I planned to liberally spray sunblock on Zeno who was like a milky ghost. I hadn’t seen anyone so white since visiting an internet friend of mine in Wales.
Crap. I better spray her, too. They’re so pale, I thought. Helena could have passed for an Irish woman.
With Helena dressed, we both stepped out from my bedroom. Zeno, despite his earlier reservations, grinned at his mate and smoothed his hands down the turquoise shirt Dante loaned him.
They looked happy enough to take a photo. So I did, ushering them outside onto my porch where the swaying palms provided the perfect backdrop. The sweltering summer sun heated my bare shoulders, exposed by the strapless maxi dress I’d chosen.
“Hey, I have a question.”
Dante looked at me. “Yeah?”
“If Hyrum and Lycus are part of the guard, how did they get permission to come up to the surface?”
“Well...” Dante rubbed the back of his neck and grinned, sheepish. “Technically they snuck away and no one knows they’re here.”
“Is that safe?”
“The guard isn’t necessary around here, despite what my father would have everyone believe. Kekoa’s presence keeps the big predators away and we recognize him on sight.”
I laughed. “I guess a tiger shark would be a good deterrent. Add in a dragon who likes to dive for fish and you have pretty safe waters.”
Dante grinned. “Exactly. It’s a perfect refuge for my kind.”
“Yeah, sounds like it.” My smile faded. I wished his people could stay forever, but the surrounding area could never sustain their large population year round.
And their herd’s alpha, Dante’s father, would never approve.
We took my new friends shopping first and gave them a mini tour of the island attractions. They pointed out things of interest and chattered excitedly about anything and everything from speeding dune buggies to the electric rail. We rode it for an hour to appease Zeno, who took a great fascination with its movement.
I had a great laugh at the silly expressions on their faces when we swung by the aquarium for the afternoon mermaid show. My friend Lana played the role of the princess in my stead, without as many underwater tricks or my breath control.
Afterward, we took them to the seaside grill and cafe, a place I loved for its sushi conveyor belt and happy hour. We introduced the guys to beer, which Helena and Hyrum loathed from the first sip. I hooked them with a taste of my margarita instead and crowed my victory over Dante when the mare declared that she loved it.
My pocketbook mourned my request for Dante to let me cover the costs of our outing, but I didn’t regret a single penny spent. We ate like pigs and stuffed ourselves on slices of sashimi, garlic shrimp, and an assortment of other items the eager hippocampi requested to try.
“What do they think about their new clothes?” I asked before plucking the last piece of roe-dusted sushi from my small plate.
“Lycus isn’t a fan, but Hyrum says he can get used to it.” Dante grinned. “I didn’t like it much at first either.”
I glanced at him in his shorts and open shirt, the usual everyday style of my surfer boyfriend. “You clearly don’t like it now either.”
“I’m a surf instructor. Would you expect me to wear jeans? Speaking of surfing, the guys wanted lessons. I’m gonna go and grab my board. Watch them?”
“Of course I will. But really? Surfing?”
“I thought we’d try skimboarding instead. If Mrs. Courtland can do it, they can.”
I grumbled.
We had plenty of beach for our fun and games. A crowd gathered to watch as we took turns running across the water covered sand and leaping on the board, skimming across like snowboarders.
Hyrum, Helena, and I took the most spills, while Zeno and Lycus appeared to be naturals on the board. After another tumble, Helena rattled off words in their native tongue. They were too quick for me to make anything out.
“What did she say to me?” I asked.
“She says she feels ridiculous,” Dante answered me.
“I feel ridiculous, too. My ass hurts.”
“You have enough of it to cushion the fall.” One of his large palms copped a feel under the guise of soothing away my ouchies and dusting the sand from my skin. I wore one of my smallest swimsuits, a green bandeau top exposing my shoulders to the warm sun. The bottoms left just enough cheek exposed for him to grab. Until recently, I’d always felt shy about revealing skin on the beach and concealed my curves when away from the show tank during performances.
Sand clung against Helena’s wet body from ankle to shoulder, fine golden grains against her itty black bikini. I helped her brush it off and sat on the sidelines with her while the guys behaved like children.
After the sun dipped below the horizon, the four hippocampi returned to the ocean under the cover of darkness. We promised to do it again soon.
“They seemed like they had fun.” I hugged my body against my mate with one arm around him. My cheek found the perfect spot against his chest, listening to the pounding bass of his powerful heart.
Dante hugged me against his side and kissed my brow. “They did.”
“So how come your dad is so against it?” The question had been bugging me ever since he told me about his father. “I mean, look at today. Nothing bad happened. They had a good time.”
“It is a long story.”
“So let’s take a walk on the beach and you can share it with me.”
Taking my hand in his, Dante led the way down the moonlit sand. For a time he was quiet and I didn’t rush him. The cool water washed over our toes, swirling sand around our feet.
“My mother was murdered by someone. A diver shot her with a harpoon.”
My heart stuttered, his words dampening my mood like a bucket of ice. “Do you remember it?”
“Vaguely... I remember... I remember it was my fault,” Dante admitted. “I remember a man beneath the water with a bright spot light, and I was curious. I wanted to play with him because I’d met humans once while on this very island with my mother. I remember...” Dante’s voice trailed and his dark brows furrowed. “Something pointing at me. My memory is foggy after that, but Dad found her with a harpoon spear in her heart.”
I blinked my burning eyes a few times. No child should ever witness his mother’s tragic death, but to make matters worse, Dante felt to blame for it. “That wasn’t your fault, baby. You were a child doing what kids do best.”
“I know. I don’t hate myself anymore for it. Dad does enough of that for me.”
“I’m sure he doesn’t hate you.”
“He won’t even look at me most days, even if I talk to him. I’ve tried, Alessa. I swear on Triton’s fin, I tried connecting with him, but if it isn’t some matter concerning the herd, he won’t hear me.”
“What about your mother? Do you remember her much?”
“My mother loved this world,” Dante admitted. “I can’t hold what happened to her against all humans. I can’t hate the world she introduced to me. Maybe I don’t recall all our times together on the sand, but I remember the warmth of her love. I remember the feeling in here.” He placed one hand over his heart.
“Is that why you came back as an adult?”
Dante nodded. “My father was against it but I swam ashore to look for Teo. He speaks our language and when I told him I wanted to meet the human who found me on the beach and took care of me, he arranged for a meeting with Abuelo. We hit it off, and the rest is as you know.”
“Well, I’m glad you decided to come to land, even if your dad doesn’t understand. Otherwise we’d never have met.” I laced our fingers together and stood on tiptoe to kiss him. “So... I have work tomorrow, but I kinda used a favor up with a friend to get into that place you always eyeball when you think I’m not paying attention.
“I do not.”
“You do, too, and I hope you’re free because I want to take you out for a date-date.”
“Is there a significant difference between a date and a date-date?” Dante asked.
“Mmhmm.” I ran my fingers down his chest and followed the chiseled line between his abs until I traced his treasure trail. His cock responded to me in an instant, hardening noticeably beneath his shorts. “A date-date means I make extra effort to make your every wish come true. Every. Wish. No limits.”
***
I dimmed the lights on our way out for the day, darkening the extravagant lobby to the aquatics center. With all of the junior staff gone for the day and our duties completed, the rest of us in supervisory positions were free to leave.
“I can’t wait to see his face when we sit down. He’s always doing things for me lately, and it’s so nice to do something for him in return for once,” I gushed as the three of us gravitated to the door.
Pam smiled at me. “You found a good one.”
“Anyway. See you tomorrow, chica. Tell Dante we said hi,” Julia said.
“Shit. I forgot my keys on my desk.”
“Should we wait for you?” Julia asked. They lingered in the open doorway.
“Nah. I’m just gonna dart home to change anyway. Bye guys.”
I sprinted back to my office and yanked the keys off the desk. On my way out, I encountered Doctor Castlebury. He held a clipboard in one hand. The other hung limply at his side, a casualty of a shark bite in his youth.
How does that man wear a turtleneck in this weather? Hasn’t anyone told him he’s on a tropical island? I wondered. Despite his ridiculous appearance, I forced a smile to my face and waved in passing. “Have a good evening, Victor.”
“And where do you think you are going?”
I paused at the exit. He gazed at me with such earnest and questioning in his face, I wondered if something remained overlooked.
“Did you unload the shipment?”
“Shipment?”
“Was I not clear?” Doctor Castlebury aimed a thin smile at me. “We’ve received over five hundred kilograms of uncured live rock requiring your attention.”
My hand dropped from the door knob. “From where?” My voice raised, cracking as I whirled to face him.
“We received a rather charitable contribution.”
Castlebury approached to offer a clipboard displaying an inventory of our recent arrivals. My eyes nearly bulged when I read the rest. An aquarium on the mainland had gone out of business, sending several hundred pounds of rock and a few dozen delicate sea creatures to us.
“Bubble anemone? Lionfish?”
“Oh, yes. They arrived as well today. It was a rather large shipment of animals. Such a shame the aquarium is no longer in business.”
“The time stamp on this list says you received it at noon, Victor. Noon!”
“It slipped my mind. Certainly you understand.” His smile made him look like a shark. “At any rate, I expect this to be done prior to your exit from the complex this evening. Good day.”
“This isn’t fair! Victor, it’s the end of the day. I can’t do this.”
“Leave it until morning then if it troubles you so deeply. The animals will simply remain in their shipment bags until your arrival.”
My eyes skimmed the list and read the names of many exotic creatures, some hardy and others too delicate to be risked overnight. I swallowed and remained quiet, shaking with rage. He’d done this on purpose. He’d risked all of these animals to teach me a lesson.
A single telephone call to Teo would have fixed Castlebury — but I didn’t want to abuse my friendship with the dragon. We typically reserved Teo for when a situation reached critical mass. Missing a date with Dante fell shy of reaching nuclear event status, but just slightly in this case. I had plans to sweep him away to a stupidly expensive reservation I’d never manage to pull off again at the most lavish seaside grill on Teo’s island.
This is going to take hours. My eyes burned as I stared down at the intimidating list.
I worked hard and fast to initiate the time-consuming acclimation process for the most fragile new specimens. I was up to my elbows in saline water when Pam phoned me.
“Girl, where are you? I’m at your house with the shoes you wanted to borrow. Dante said you never came home.”
“Shit! I forgot to...” I sighed. With less than two hours before our dinner date, my chances of completing my impossible set of tasks had vanished.
“Forgot to what?”
A minute later, I’d given Pam the rundown on everything, and broken down into tears.
“That fucker. Girl, we’ll be right there. We’ll just clock back in to help you.”
I sniveled into the line and fumbled to tear a few Kleenex from a box on my desk. “I can’t let you do that, Pammie. You guys are done for the d—”
“See you soon.” The call ended.
Twenty minutes later when the doors opened, I hadn’t stopped sobbing into my tissues. I was so pissed, so irrationally and impossibly angry that the tears wouldn’t end.
“I told you guys, I can do this on my own.”
The scent of the open sea surrounded me with a pair of strong arms. I peeked up into Dante’s blue eyes. Pam and Julia stood behind him in the doorway, smiling at me.
“What are you doing here?”
“Pam told me what happened, so I came to help, too. I don’t know anything about the scientific side of ocean life, but if you instruct me, I’ll do it.”
With direction, Dante wasn’t a bad worker. I tried to offer him gloves for handling the live rock, but he waved them off and reached in with his bare hands. I chalked it up to male bravado until he whispered the secret to me: fish toxins and aquatic animal stings didn’t pose a danger to hippocampi. It was part of their magic, in and out of human form.
I let the girls giggle over his badassery and carried on with the tedious water samples on the holding tank. All parameters appeared to be in order, saving me the time I would spend buffering with chemicals.
“Aren’t your reservations at eight?” Julia whispered to me. “You have twenty-five minutes to spare.”
“Yeah.” I wasn’t dressed for a romantic dine-in. I looked down at my damp shirt and frowned, unable to ignore the fishy scent on my clothes.
“Go. We’ll finish up. Grab Dante and get out of here.”
I shook my head. “I can’t leave you guys here to fix Castlebury’s mistake. He did this to punish me, remember?”
“Technically we’re department supervisors and you’re the assistant manager, which means we’re your flunkies to boss at will,” Pam reminded me.
“Whenever Castlebury pulls shit like this, we all have to own it. Not only you. Being his assistant doesn’t make you his bitch,” Julia said.
I snuck a glance at my man. He learned quickly, running another aeration hose into one of our barrels designated for uncured live rock.
“Why am I putting rocks into a barrel?” he asked suddenly. “I don’t mind, but I’m curious.”
“If we didn’t take these steps, sediment and dying flora will pollute our marine environments.”
We giggled at his blank stare, then Julia broke it down into something he could understand. By the time we finished, Dante and I were long overdue for our reservations, our table was gone, and I didn’t feel sexy enough to pull off a last minute appeal for a spot in the restaurant.
So we went home instead. I soaked an hour in my clawfoot tub while Dante fetched dinner from Abuelo’s. We feasted on fish and salsa verde then he painted my toenails neon green as I sprawled lifelessly on the sofa. I kept my feet on his lap when he finished.
Dante idly plucked grapes from a bowl with one hand, while the strong fingers of the other caressed my silky thigh, giving me shivers. At least my leg wax wasn’t wasted. “Why do you look so glum, Alessa?”
“I wanted to have a romantic night with you,” I admitted. “Now I’m too exhausted to even put my mouth on your cock.”
“We are having a romantic night,” Dante reminded me with an uncertain grin. “And you can always save your energy for the morning. I won’t mind.”
I leaned forward to swat him. “You’re painfully good at painting toenails, but this was supposed to be a date out as a surprise for you. Instead, you’re only doing something else nice for me.”
“Eh,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “Making you happy makes me happy. Want some more grapes?”
“All I’m missing is a naked man with a feathered fan.”
Dante chuckled and kissed my brow. “I can always ask Lycus to come up and assist. He’s quite taken with you and upset you’re without a sister.”
“Nope. I’m good, but I do have a cousin. One hottie hippocampus is all I need.”
And one hippocampus was the only one I wanted.