Chapter 21
Twenty-One
Angie
Two hours later, Angie had given him a poncho to stay warm, and a toothbrush, toothpaste, and saltwater rinses. The saltwater naturally kept the mer’s teeth clean, and she spent some time showing him how to brush and rinse his teeth.
It took much longer than she anticipated because the Mer-Prince asked questions about every last bit of her apartment, from her stove to the fridge and freezer, and the lights, but she imagined he was as in awe of land structures and life as she was about the sea.
She finished explaining to him where the water went in the tub when the plug was pulled, and then helped Kaden get in. He sighed and rested his head on the back of the tub, soaking in warm water with her bath salts. The end of his fins hung over the edge.
Lulu sat at the doorway, her fluffy tail swishing back and forth across the floor, and she hadn’t stopped staring at Kaden’s tail since he first rolled in behind Angie.
The glass of water she had offered him an hour ago still sat on the dining room table, untouched.
Kaden was turning the faucet on and off, the water running, and then stopping.
Running and stopping. “How does freshwater come out of this with the turn of a knob? It’s some strange human magic.
” He turned the faucet on again and stuck his head under it to drink from it.
“Woah, wait.” She turned the faucet off.
“It turns on from the wonders of plumbing. And that’s what this is for.
” Angie left the washroom to cross her bedroom and handed a cup of water to him.
He took it from her, a buzz of electricity shooting through her fingers when his hand grazed hers.
“Drink it and you’ll feel better. Dehydration will get you.
” She folded her arms over her chest and pulled her hair back with a clip, eyeing him as he drank the entire glass in two gulps.
“I’ll have to remember that.” He gave the glass back to her.
She placed it on the vanity. Her hands twisted around the knot of her bathrobe.
“You’ll join me, won’t you? It’s lonely here.” Kaden rested his chin in his arms, folded over the tub’s edge. His eyes were wide and bright, a seductive undercurrent lacing his words.
She gave him a coy smile as she walked to him, letting the bathrobe fall off her shoulders, and landing in a heap around her feet.
Hunger flickered in his eyes and he parted his lips when he saw her naked figure.
Angie hesitated before stepping toward him. She wanted to soak in his shark-like gaze, the way he looked at her like she was a goddess.
He watched her as she stepped in, slow and methodical, and straddled his tail. It felt warm, smooth, and slick between her thighs.
“You are perfection.” He set his hands on her waist, his breaths quickening.
He placed two fingers under her chin, lifting it so that she looked at him.
His amber irises glinted like the gems they resembled, and she let herself get lost in them, running the back of one finger over his velvety cheek.
His high cheekbones were highlighted by the sunlight filtering in through her window.
“I think the same of you.” She dipped her fingers beneath the water, flicking a stream of water onto his cheek.
“Oh, is this the game you want to play?” A mischievous smile spread across his face, and he ducked beneath the water, rising to spit a stream of water at her sternum.
With a laugh, they splashed and flicked water at each other. She didn’t care that puddles coated her washroom floor.
“I think of you every day. And I wish every day you were with me. That we could be together, and I didn’t have to worry about my uncle’s plans.” He leaned in, resting his chin on the crook between her neck and left shoulder.
She licked her lips. “Kiss me.”
“As you wish.” He slid one hand to her upper back, drawing her close, his lips capturing hers in a slow, languorous kiss. She slid her arms around his neck, running her hands through his soft, salt-touched hair.
Each time they kissed, she fell in love with him all over again. Her body warmed, at first a flicker of heat spreading through her chest and limbs, setting her aflame with yearning.
He seemed to sense her desire, and nudged her lips open, deepening their kiss, his mouth urgent and feverish on hers. She flicked his tongue with hers, eliciting a jolt from him in response.
“Angie.” He pulled back with a gasp and she took the chance to catch her breath, watching him through hooded eyes.
“Come here.” His breathing came out in short, quick bursts, and he slid one hand behind her head, tangling his fingers with her hair, and brought her lips back to his as they moved over each other in a sensual dance.
He broke their kiss and his gaze flickered to her side.
Where her scars were.
She instinctively drew her legs in, attempting to hide them.
“No, let me see.” He traced the scar on her abdomen and she flinched. “Are you okay?”
“Y-yeah,” she whispered. “Every time I see it, touch it, I think of–of back when...” She swallowed hard. “It’s ugly and I hate that it’s there. Full of horrible memories.”
“It is not ugly. It’s a testament to your strength and what you’ve survived.
” Kaden lowered his head and kissed the scarred tissue on her stomach and then her side.
A passionate swell burst from her chest up to her head.
“You are beautifully imperfect and I love you no matter how many scars, physical or emotional, you carry.”
She pushed down the emotion threatening to consume her as their mouths crashed together, tongues desperately seeking each other’s.
Her arms moved to wrap around his waist and he kissed her again and again until her head spun.
Her next breath wedged in her throat when his lips moved to her neck, gently sucking and flicking his tongue against her skin.
His hands sought her breasts, and her heartbeat moved into overdrive at his touch, while each touch of his lips sent warmth blooming over her skin.
She pulled back to give him a mischievous grin and lifted her head to kiss him again. She moved her hand down his chest and abdomen to the thickened patch of scales between his pelvic fins.
Angie brushed her lips against his ear. “Let me touch you.”
“You don’t have to ask twice.” He let himself go, and into her waiting hand. She grasped gently at him, causing him to give her the most cautious of nips at the base of her neck. He moved one hand from her hip to her inner thigh, inching upward, as she worked him.
She knew where his most sensitive spots were, and she kept her strokes and touches methodical, never stopping until he bucked his pelvis into her hand.
His tail tensed and curled in response, caudal fins sweeping over and brushing the edge of her tub.
He gripped hard at her shoulders, and his soft moan delighted her ears.
“Goddess, Angie.” His breaths were labored and hitched, and she pulled his hand from him.
He backed up, and a clanging noise startled them both. Kaden whirled around. His tail hit the faucet, and he winced in pain.
“Want to go to my room? No danger of metal things attacking your tail. Though, there is Lulu.” At the ajar door, Lulu stuck her small, black and white head through and stared.
A wicked grin appeared on Kaden’s handsome face. “I’ll take my chances as long as I can have you. The bed is right there. I can make it.”
Angie glanced out of the bathroom, where the edge of her bed sat a good twenty-some feet away.
She didn’t want to risk him missing and faceplanting on the hard floor.
“It’s farther than it looks. Don’t move.
” She scrambled out of the tub before he could reply, quickly tossed her robe around her shoulders to shield herself from the onslaught of cold air, and moved the knee scooter so it was next to the tub.
She laughed when he all but leaped onto the scooter and zoomed to her bed beating her there. He grabbed her hand and let himself fall, landing atop her on her bed.
Her shrieks of laughter turned into one of horror when they landed on her navy-blue duvet, both soaking wet, and she was freezing cold. Damn her for leaving her bedroom window cracked open for fresh air. “Wait! Wait.”
“Huh?” He let go, staring at the wet splotches on her duvet. “Oh. Things need to dry on land.”
“I’m also freezing my ass off.” Angie scrambled to her window, shutting it, and grabbed two towels and her bathrobe. She threw one towel underneath her and one over him and dressed in her bathrobe as quickly as she could.
Her body warmed under the robe’s velvety insulation, and she exhaled with relief.
“But your ass is so cute.” Kaden grinned, and she gave him a playful roll of her eyes and swatted his shoulder.
Then he pulled her down onto her bed, kissing her again. And again, and again, dragging his lips southward over her body.
Tiān, she didn’t want him to stop.
The coldness she felt earlier dissipated as her entire body flooded with desirous heat, white-hot flames licking her core.
He pressed a kiss to the inside of her thigh, followed by a warm exhale; a shot of pleasure jolted her. She shut her eyes and arched her head on her pillow, fading sunlight filtering in through her eyelids.
His tongue hit a particularly sensitive spot and she gasped, arching her back and pushing into his mouth. All non-Kaden-related thoughts fled her mind. He worked his tongue and his fingers in perfect harmony, and tiān, he’d learned her body well over the past years.
He knew which touch made her shudder and sent jolts running down her legs.
“Kaden.” The pressure built and built until she found herself begging for release, and when she could take no more, a yelp escaped her throat. She clutched at his hand as a series of peaks and valleys of pleasured spasms overtook her.
It took her a moment to reorient herself.
She felt as light as air, as if she were lying atop a delicate cloud, one she would fall through if she so much as moved in the wrong direction.
His fingers lingered in her, and when she had calmed, he pulled them out, and moved to lie beside her, wrapping one arm around her shoulders and pulling her flush to him, resting his chin on the top of her head.
“Ugh, remind me to get a bigger bathtub—wherever I live next,” Angie said once she caught her breath.
“Whether you do or not, we’ll make it work,” Kaden said, a low chuckle rumbling through his chest. “And I’m not done with you yet.”
“Then keep going.” Angie kissed his chest. She burned for him, and she needed more of him.
“In a moment though.” She caught him wrinkling his nose as he rolled over to grab the water glass at the nightstand, chugging half the glass in one gulp. “Is it normal to get this thirsty all the time?”
“When you exert yourself like that, yes.” Angie faced him, propping herself up on her elbow. “In fact, I don’t know how you all don’t get thirsty coming out of the water after swimming all day, every day. I feel like I’m parched after diving.”
He licked his lips, a seductive motion, and Angie’s heart raced again.
“I don’t know.” He shrugged one shoulder.
“But then again, most mer I know don’t typically go to the surface, or they don’t stay long enough up here to grow thirsty.
” He reached out an arm to rest on her hip.
“But I did say I wasn’t done with you yet. ”
They wound up tangled in each other with their mouths joined until their lips were raw and throbbing; he dropped a line of kisses down her body, to her thighs, tasting and touching her again and again until she could give no more of herself to him.
She would have had it no other way.