Chapter 21 Mermaid Tears
Mermaid Tears
Waking up with Daire’s arms wrapped around me marked the highpoint of my entire life and existence.
Warmth, safety, a hideaway from the rest of the world, in the cocoon of his arms I was every bit as perfect as he claimed me to be the night before.
And I never wanted to leave.
I closed my eyes and willed myself to go back to sleep.
“I know you’re awake,” he murmured, amusement lacing his words. “Not a morning person?”
“I am a morning person,” I admitted huskily. “But this,” I tapped his arm around my waist, “is the absolute best and I don’t want it to end yet.”
“You like being cuddled up?”
“I do now.”
“Go back to sleep,” he murmured. “I’ll keep you warm.”
I wiggled my butt against the bar in his groin prodding my ass. “What if I don’t want to go back to sleep?”
He rocked his hips. “You want to make use of this? You like morning sex?”
“I just like sex. Period.”
“Can you reach the condoms without moving? I don’t want to let you go.”
His hand trailed up and down my side, from my shoulder to the deep dip at my waist and over the round curve of my hip.
“So curvy,” he murmured. “So little. So fiery. You’re a study in contrasts.”
“That feels good,” I breathed as he reversed course and began again.
Stretching my fingers as far as I could, I managed to pinch a condom off the side table. I opened it and passed it back to him.
His lips hit the side of my neck, and I tilted my head to give him further access.
“How do you want it?” He brushed his lips across my naked shoulder. “Quick and dirty or soft and lazy? Lady’s choice this morning.”
“Mm,” I hummed, a shudder of pleasure elicited by his mouth waking my breasts. “Soft and lazy.”
“Don’t move,” he ordered as he worked my panties down over my ass.
Delving between my thighs, he found what he was looking for. “Already wet.”
His hips rocked harder against me.
The anticipation of what was coming kept me on the edge as his hand worked its way between us to push down his boxers and sheath his cock.
“There. Kept you perfectly in position.”
Grabbing my cheek, he opened me up to his cock.
I blinked and jerked in surprise at the sure way he handled me.
He paused. “You okay?”
“Just, um, surprised.”
“By?”
He was so patient. Any other man would have been focused on getting his dick wet, but he was completely attuned to me.
“Just the sure way you handle me.”
He squeezed my cheek and dropped a kiss onto my neck. “I told you. I intend to know you better than you know yourself. I will own your body. And you’ll own mine. I’ll be your safe place to land.”
“You don’t seem safe, Daire…” I pressed my hips back, done with talking.
He opened me up and eased himself inside me.
I closed my eyes and sighed.
His voice deepened. “Good?”
“The best,” I hummed.
I reveled in the sensation of the crisp hair of his chest against my back, the muscles in his chest flexing with his every move. I fit inside the curve of his body perfectly, every inch of my back aligned with his front.
For the first time that I could remember, I settled into a deep sense of being exactly where I was supposed to be.
Long fingers meandered over every inch of skin he could reach as his hips rocked slowly and steadily, the head of his cock dragging across my sweet spot with agonizing precision.
I began to tremble.
“So perfect for me. See how we fit together?”
I swore he could read my mind. I pressed back, tilting my hips to take him deeper.
He responded immediately, thrusting deeper and faster, his soft words in my ear driving me higher.
Tension coiled in my muscles.
“Daire,” I warned. “I’m so close.”
“I know, little one. Let go.”
“Want you to come with me,” I mewled.
“I’m there, baby,” he promised. “Let go.”
A hot ball of bliss expanded and rolled through me, squeezing my pussy around his cock.
“Fuck, yes, baby,” he praised, clamping his hand down hard on my hip as he carried me through my orgasm until his movements stuttered to a stop and he found his release.
I tilted my hips, desperate to keep him inside me.
He pressed his lips firmly against my neck and wrapped his arms around me. “I promise you, Harley. I’m the safest place you’ll ever know.”
I’m the safest place you’ll ever know.
Even after we left the bed, his words played on a loop in my brain and warmed me in places I’d forgotten had long gone cold.
I’ll keep you warm.
I realized he’d been steadily working me toward this point for weeks. The thaw happened so slowly I barely noticed the sting as circulation returned and brought my heart back to life.
“Is this what you usually do on Sunday mornings?”
With the sun warming our backs, we walked along the shore hand-in-hand, the ebb and flow of the water calming me as it always did. The hazy perfection of lacy, white bubbles racing along the sand softening the serrated edge of my thoughts.
“I walk here almost every morning.” I held up our linked fingers. “Are you okay going public so soon?”
A slow smile spread across his face, crinkling his eyes. “I would have rented a skywriter if I thought you’d let it pass.”
“Oh, yeah?” I laughed. “What would it say?”
He appeared to think about it for a minute, then framed a cloudless blue sky with his fingers. “Daire Newman won the Harley Bennett lottery.”
I snorted out a laugh.
He grinned down at me. “You like that?”
“I do. And you get bonus points for creativity.”
“You like it when I get creative?” he asked slyly.
I tipped my chin down.
That persona he spoke about, the badass Harley I showed to the world, was a defense mechanism. The real Harley was much softer.
And much more easily broken.
“I’m scared.”
He stopped walking immediately. “Of what?”
“Last night.” I struggled to find the right words to express the anxiety that plagued me.
“You didn’t like what we did?” His voice pitched higher, his hand jerked in mine and clung tighter.
“No, I did.” I scuffed my toe in the sand. “I liked it a lot. But I felt so naked.”
“You were naked.”
I heard the amusement in his voice and hazarded a look at his face. “On the inside.”
“Ah,” he nodded as understanding dawned. “Because you gave yourself over to me.”
“In a way I never have before with anybody else.”
He moved closer, his voice dropped. “Good. The caveman inside me is beating his chest.”
I shook my head but couldn’t help my laugh.
‘I love your freckles. It’s like the sun can’t help but kiss you. I understand. I feel the same way.” He ran the back of his fingers over my cheek. “As for giving yourself over to me, I don’t take the privilege lightly. I know what I’m asking, and I will treat your heart like it’s made of glass.”
“If my heart was made of glass, it was shattered long ago.”
“Like all those bits of glass you collect on the beach?”
He began walking again, my hand in his. At the mention of the sea glass, I could not help but search the ground for those tiny bits of treasure.
“They’re called mermaid tears,” I murmured.
“People think of mermaids as fearsome, cold-hearted creatures, but they’re not.
” I spotted a flash of amber and stooped to pick it up.
“They’re sad and lonely. All alone in the depths of the sea, they grieve the loss of the ones they love.
They grieve so much that their tears wash up on the shore with the tide.
” I tumbled the sea glass around in my palm.
“This is a mermaid’s tear.” I shrugged. “Some say they have magical healing properties.”
“Is that why you collect them? Do you need healing?”
I laughed weakly. “I don’t believe in mermaids. But it’s nice to think I’m not so alone in my grief.”
A tear streaked my cheek.
Completely off-schedule. Only on that day do I allow myself to indulge in my grief.
My heart pounded.
I swiped it away impatiently.
“You’re like a mermaid.” He pushed my hands away and dried my face gently with his thumb.
I closed my eyes under his gentle ministrations, my rapidly beating heart settling.
“Badass on the outside, but your heart is soft and tender. And there’s also the fact you swim like a fish,” he teased.
“Argh,” I growled as I turned away and continued walking. “I hate it that you see me.”
“Maybe so,” he murmured. “But you need it.”