Chapter Three
Eliza’s mind was one long string of fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck while she walked Tara back to the shack. What the fuck possessed her to shift in front of Tara? I wasn’t possessed. I was distracted by my mate. The thought still made her knees weak, even as she marched through Tara’s patio doors.
If she was still honest, the pineapple and coconut cream scent of Tara was still preoccupying her mind, hazing her thoughts and blurring her vision almost as bad as the cloudy water had.
Once inside, Tara spun on Eliza, yanking her arm from her grasp.
“What the hell Eliza? What is going on?”
Red and gray blobs covered Eliza’s vision and she had to lean over her knees breathing deeply to keep her inner shark in check. It wanted Tara so bad, and being in her space wasn’t helping—there was no escaping the scents and the feel of her.
“Eliza? Eliza? Are you okay?” Tara’s voice was so, so far away, but her hand on Eliza’s back was so, so close… It burned her bare skin and made her insides writhe with desire and a protective instinct Eliza had only ever heard about.
“No, I’m not okay,” she gasped.
“Let me get you some water—”
“I don’t need water,” Eliza croaked. “I need my mate to listen to me when I tell her to stay out of the water unless I’m with her!”
Silence.
Eliza looked up and met Tara’s gaze through the haze. Tara’s dark braids dripped on her shoulders, her high-rise bikini clung to her dark skin and everything about her was enchanting.
I’m such a goner.
“Okay, explain it to me like I’m five,” Tara said at last. “Maybe also include why you were a shark, too?”
Eliza pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes.
“Oh gods. I’m so fucked. Okay,” she shook herself and stood up straight, placing her hands on her hips and trying to fight through the cloudiness in her mind.
“So, here’s what’s up. I’m a shark shifter—an Ocean Kissed. I can turn into a bull shark.”
“Bull shit.”
“No, bull shark. Really. This whole area is a shifter sanctuary—which is why you are required to be accompanied by someone—namely me—at all times while you are in the water. Not just at the site, but everywhere. There are other shark shifters out here, and we are very protective of our own. That shark that checked you out earlier? Yeah, also a shifter. A young one, which is why we’re about to be in big trouble. ”
Just then a knock sounded on the door.
“Shit.” Without looking, Eliza knew it was someone from EON to interrogate Tara. She opened the door to them immediately, letting Fergus and Monty in.
In his human form, Fergus was big, but Monty was huge. More than six feet tall, she towered over everyone else in the room, her broad shoulders and toned arms a casual threat. She was the head of regional operations and Eliza’s boss.
“I had hoped there wouldn’t be any trouble with the two of you, but here we are. It hasn’t even been ten days.”
“Sorry, Monty, I was just—”
“The only thing I want to hear is an explanation of why you thought you could disobey the rules we set down in the agreement with your organization.” Monty turned her dark eyes on Tara and Eliza could feel her shrink away from the matriarch.
“She didn’t think it would do any harm,” Eliza offered, and immediately regretted it when Monty’s deep gaze found her next.
“And what makes you feel like you can speak in her defense, Boyer?”
Eliza swallowed hard and dove right into the deep end. “She’s my mate.”
Utter silence filled the room, so much so that they could hear the waves from down the beach. Such quiet that Eliza’s thick swallow sounded like the clanging of a church bell. Her mouth had never felt so dry.
“You haven’t filled out your paperwork to have a mate, Boyer.” Monty’s voice was predatorily cold.
“It’s new. I meant to do it today.” Not wholly a lie. Just now making the decision still counted.
“I expect to see you on my calendar for counseling and completion of the rites by the next full moon.” Monty turned and strode toward the front door again, pausing to lean down and whisper, “And if you’re lying, I’ll have your fins for my soup.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
Fergus made a noise of protest. “But—”
“Enough, Fergus. Come.”
Fergus showed pointy teeth to Tara but followed Monty out the door.
Another pregnant silence followed until Tara collapsed into one of the kitchenette chairs with an, “Oh my god.”
“I told you, you were risking more than you realized when you went in the water.”
“What was all that stuff about a mate? Like, Australian mate, as in friend? Why would you need paperwork for that?”
“No. I mean mate as in soulmate, lifemate, partner, lover…”
“But,” confusion scrunched Tara’s beautiful features, “we aren’t lovers.”
“You’re still my mate.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
Eliza sat in the chair across from Tara.
“It’s… complicated. No one really understands how mates work, but…
How does it feel when we touch?” She had no doubt Tara felt it too, and reached out a hand.
Tara leaned in and took what was offered without question.
Again, the powerful electrical surge spread through Eliza, but now that she was ready for it, it felt like a song in her bones instead of a driving force from Fate.
“I thought… I thought that was just attraction. Or, I don’t know, jet lag.”
“No. It is much more.” Eliza swallowed again, wishing she didn’t feel like her mouth was full of sand. This is not how I wanted this mate conversation to go. “But we don’t have to do anything about it right now. Well, aside from the paperwork.”
“Why does having a mate mean paperwork?”
“Because you’re human,” Eliza sighed, slouching down in her chair. “Partners like that are allowed, and it’s the only way for you to know the secret of the Ocean Kissed… So we have to get you in the system.”
“What would happen if I wasn’t a mate and knew about your… about shifters?” Tara asked.
“You don’t want to know.” Eliza sighed again and rubbed her face. “I shouldn’t have exposed myself to you. I’m sorry.”
“I shouldn’t have gone in the water. I’m sorry.” A beat. “So… what do mates do?”
“You don’t have to do anything. Most mates are just that—partners and lifemates.
But I don’t expect anything. I claimed you in front of Monty to protect you, but you don’t owe me anything.
We don’t have to have any kind of contact, outside of work, if you want.
” Though that might kill Eliza with loneliness, now that her shark wanted to claim Tara.
Tara leaned forward in her chair, tentatively reaching a hand across the expanse between them. “What if… I wanted more, outside of work?”
Eliza’s already dry mouth would have gotten drier if it could. She slowly raised her eyes to meet Tara’s gaze—a dark, hot look. “Do you… Do you want that?”
“You’re a beautiful woman, Eliza.” A flush darkened Tara’s cheeks. “There’s obviously chemistry here, mates and all that…”
“That doesn’t mean we have to act on it.”
“Do you want to?”
Eliza stared at the woman across from her, the entire world fading away.
Tara licked her lips and Eliza’s eyes tracked the movement, her mouth suddenly flooding with saliva as she watched that glistening pink tongue sweep across her lower lip.
She briefly wondered if Tara would taste of the coconut and pineapple she smelled so much like.
“Eliza.”
“Yes.”
Tara’s smile was the sun breaking through clouds, her blunt white teeth sparklingly bright. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
“How come?”
“Because I wanted to do this.” Before Eliza could react, Tara leaned in and kissed her.
Tara couldn’t believe she was doing this.
She didn’t have flings, kiss people she hardly knew.
She didn’t act rashly. But when her lips met Eliza’s she knew it wasn’t a fling.
That same electric zing arced through her body at the touch.
She knew she’d be addicted to those lips for the rest of her days.
Eliza tasted like sunshine and the sea. Like a hot breeze across sand and the slightly green scent of water. When her tongue slipped against Tara’s lips it felt warm and soft like seafoam and Tara didn’t even try to stop the moan that slipped from her.
Warm hands came up to wrap around her shoulders and she leaned into the embrace awkwardly around the table, only then realizing that Eliza was still naked. Her bare breasts called to be caressed and cupped. Pert nipples wanted to be sucked.
When they broke the kiss, both were breathing hard. Tara had never wanted anything so bad in her life—not even becoming a shark scientist—as badly as she wanted to rub her whole body against Eliza’s.
“That was…” Eliza let her sentence trail off.
“Yeah,” Tara agreed breathlessly.
“Do that again.”
So she did.
They tangled together with arms and tongues, leaving behind the chairs and stumbling across the room to the bed. Their voices combined in gasps and giggles, sighs and breathy moans as their fingers explored bare skin, untied bikini strings and sank into sweet, honeyed folds.
“You’re so wet,” Eliza groaned when her fingers slipped between Tara’s legs. “Is this all for me, mate?”
“All for you,” Tara agreed, swallowing the growl that Eliza released, then gasping as Eliza’s thumb circled her clit. Two fingers stroked her entrance and she spread her legs to give Eliza better access.
“Gods, this pussy smells so sweet.”
“Have a taste.” Where was this boldness coming from? But Tara already knew—that connection she had with Eliza had already altered her brain chemistry, probably her very bones.
“Oh, I will.” Eliza did just that, sliding her body down Tara’s now naked form to lick her. “Oh, baby, you taste so sweet for me. Like coconuts and pineapples.”
“I taste like a pina collada?” Tara couldn’t help but laugh, then moan again as Eliza pressed her tongue against her clit. Pleasure rose and crested like ocean waves in time with Eliza’s fingers and tongue.
“Come for me, pretty girl,” Eliza growled.