Chapter 20
At first, I simply couldn’t move.
Then, I didn’t want to.
“Knock, knock,” came Xander’s voice softly from across the hot tub.
I opened my eyes. My gaze was still a little unfocused. “Hmm?”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m wrecked,” I said. “But in the best possible way.” I grinned. “You really are quite the catch.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Is that dry humor?”
I laughed. “Water you saying?”
Xander just looked at me blankly.
“Oh,” I said. “See, water sounds a lot like what are, so, um…”
I noticed his eyes were twinkling. And the smile he was trying his best to suppress was starting to break through.
“You are so rude,” I said, splashing him.
He splashed me back, and we both laughed.
As our water fight wound down, I sank back in the spa, submerging myself to my neck. I was feeling overwhelmingly satisfied but also, well…curious.
“So,” I said, “back home… I assume there are, uh…mermaids?”
He studied me. Then he nodded. “There are.”
“But no one has, uh…snappered you up yet?” It was a terrible joke—even by my father’s standards—and for a moment, I wished I’d submerged my mouth too.
Xander repositioned himself a little. “I have a past, obviously,” he said. “And I’m sure you do too?”
I swallowed. Nodded. “But there’s no one special?” I asked.
In the silence that followed, there was just the pulsing of the hot tub jets, along with the pulsing of my heart.
“No special mermaid, no,” he said. “And…you?”
I shook my head. “No,” I said quietly. “No special dry-lander.”
As I pondered what we’d said—and what we hadn’t quite said—the hot tub seemed to get hotter. Eventually, I nudged my foot against Xander’s enormous tail. “I don’t suppose there’s a teleportation charm on that necklace of yours, is there?” I asked. “To beam us into my bedroom?”
“Is that an invitation?” he asked.
“Is that a yes on the magical transport?”
He shook his head. “Sorry, no.”
I sighed. “Okay then.”
Bracing for the worst, I stood up. Water sluiced off my body. After the steamy heat of the spa, the chilly night air felt even chillier. Dripping and shivering with goose bumps dotting my skin, I jumped out of the hot tub, grabbed my coat, and wrapped it tightly around me.
“Dry off and meet me in my bed,” I called to Xander as I scurried across the deck and back inside, leaving a trail of wet footprints for him to follow. “And that is an invitation.”
“Ten minutes,” he said, already vaulting out of the spa.
As I padded happily through the kitchen and over to the door that led to my family’s quarters, I suddenly realized something. Although Xander had just treated me to the most mind-blowing climax ever, we still hadn’t shared our first kiss.
Pausing with my hand on the doorknob, I thought about this.
Once again, it was different, but not exactly strange.
After all, I’d also seen Xander fully naked before we’d said our first words to each other.
Somehow, the unconventional order of events didn’t seem so odd for us.
Besides, I had plans to address the whole kissing thing soon enough.
Smiling to myself, I opened the door and left it open for Xander. But as I headed down the hall to my room, I heard the familiar click-click of Casey’s nails on the floor behind me.
I stopped. Turned. Looked down. The dog peered up at me with an expression that said he was ready for bedtime too.
I loved the mutt dearly, and while my parents were away, I’d been letting him sleep in my bed if he wanted to. But tonight, I was expecting other company. And three really did seem like a crowd.
“Who wants a treat?” I asked him, hoping I could buy a little privacy with some bacon-flavored doggie snacks.
Casey wagged his tail in enthusiastic agreement and followed me back into the kitchen. I found his Kong toy, stuffed it with goodies, and tossed it toward the lobby. He scrambled after it. That should keep him busy for an hour or two at least.
I peeked through the blinds, out the window. Xander was still drying off. Smiling again, I felt a little zing of anticipation ripple through me.
I headed back down the hallway and entered my bedroom, leaving that door ajar too.
After I shed my coat and tossed it onto the chair in the corner, I peeled off my damp swimsuit.
I rinsed it in the sink in the attached private bath, wrung it out, and hung it over the shower rod to dry.
Finally, I grabbed a towel and ran it quickly over my skin.
I still had gooseflesh, but now, it was from excited expectation.
Then, there was nothing left to do but slip between the sheets and wait for Xander.
* * *
Sleepily, I flung my arm across my eyes to block the sunlight that was streaming in through—
Hold on, I thought. Sunlight?
Not yet fully awake, I lowered my arm slowly, squinting. The sun was indeed up, and its rays were filtering in through the blinds, creating a striped pattern of light across my solid-blue comforter. So, it was morning.
I was tucked into my bed. Naked.
And alone.
I tried to get my head around this. The last I recalled, it had been nighttime, and I was lying here, waiting for Xander to join—
“You’re up.”
Startled, I looked in the direction of the voice. Xander’s voice.
He was sprawled in the chair in the corner. From what I could see, he was also naked but using my coat as a blanket, legs poking out from underneath. “Did I kick you out of bed?” I asked, trying to remember. “Or steal all the covers?”
He smiled and shook his head.
Then it hit me.
“Oh, no,” I said with a little grimace. “Did I—did I fall asleep while you were drying off?”
Rubbing the sleep out of his own eyes, Xander nodded.
I moaned in embarrassment, rolled over, and buried my face in my pillow.
Now, it all came back. Last night, I’d been exhausted from not sleeping at all the previous night and doubly exhausted from all the snow shoveling.
I’d also been feeling incredibly relaxed from the steamy heat of the hot tub.
And to top it all off, I’d still been reveling in the last vestiges of my post-climax lethargy.
I’d just meant to close my eyes for a minute or two…
I heard Xander chuckle.
I stopped hiding. “You should have woken me,” I told him.
“You looked too peaceful,” he told me. “And happy.”
I smiled. I was happy. “Did you sleep in that chair all night?” I asked.
He nodded again.
“Why?” I asked. “You could have gotten into bed with me. You had an invitation.”
He grinned. “Just because you live at the shore, I didn’t want to presume you were a shore thing.”
I laughed.
“Plus, there was the snoring.”
“Snoring?” I wasn’t laughing anymore. “What snoring?”
“Oh, big, loud, deafening snorts,” he teased. He was teasing me.
“I don’t snore,” I insisted with a smirk.
“I was afraid to get too close—”
“I don’t snore.”
“In case the sound blew out my eardru—”
I threw a pillow at him, and it smacked him in the head.
I laughed, and he tried not to.
“Did you really just throw a pillow at me?” he asked.
“Nope,” I said. “Must’ve been whoever was snoring.”
Grabbing the pillow, he rose from the chair, the coat slipping from his body. He looked exactly as I remembered him from the beach, with one notable exception. His foreskin had retracted, and his penis was fully erect and glossy.
My belly thrummed. I sat up, letting the comforter slide down to my waist, revealing my bare breasts.
Grinning appreciatively, Xander stalked toward the bed. But then he stopped, wincing slightly. His hand went to his neck.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Just a little stiff,” he said.
I could have ribbed him about being a lot stiff, but I didn’t want to make a joke when he was clearly in some pain.
“Come here,” I said. I patted a spot on the edge of the bed. “Sit.”
As he tossed the pillow and sat down, I flung off the covers completely. Having spent years undressing in locker rooms and showering in front of other swim team members, I wasn’t shy about my body. And with Xander, nudity felt natural.
Crawling across the mattress and kneeling behind him, I brushed his long red hair to the side and put my hands on his shoulders. His skin was warm and smooth, stretched taut over rock-hard muscle. Slowly, I slid my fingers beneath his necklace and went to work with my fingertips.
“You have a knot in your trapezius,” I told him.
“My what?”
“Your trapezius,” I repeated. “It’s a muscle that starts up here,” I said, still kneading his neck. “And goes down to here,” I added, running my hands down to the middle of his back.
He moaned. But not exactly in pain.
With a smile, I massaged my way back up to his neck.
“I think you hurt yourself sleeping in that chair,” I said.
Massaging the knot again, I leaned down and put my mouth next to his ear.
“So, for future reference,” I whispered playfully, “here in the dry world, chairs are for sitting. Beds are for sleeping.”
He turned his head toward me, and our mouths were suddenly close. So close.
“And are beds only for sleeping?” he asked.
My eyes dropped to his mouth. His lips were so full. I wondered what it would feel like to kiss him. I wondered what he would taste like.
Suddenly, I was very conscious of my nakedness. Of his.
“Not only for sleeping,” I said softly.
Just then, I felt a drop of water hit my head. I pulled back from Xander slightly and furrowed my brow. “What the—”
I felt another drop. And another.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
I looked up. A fat drop of water plopped right in my eye. “Ah!” I exclaimed, swiping at it with the back of my hand.
“Hannah?”
Eye stinging, I blinked at him. “There’s a leak in the goddamn ceiling.”