“Mam! Watch me!” Rianna cannonballed off a ledge five feet above the pool to where Cassidy stood in waist-high water, drenching her in the process.

“That was fun!” Rianna popped up, beaming at Cassidy before heading back to the wall.

Cassidy laughed and swiped the water out of her eyes. She could bear almost anything—even the torment of being near Nic without touching or being touched—if it allowed her daughter to be happy and carefree.

Her nape tingled. As if summoned by her thoughts, Nic appeared at the top of the steps, his only clothing a pair of drawstring shorts. Her gaze moved from his broad shoulders to the wiry curls on his bare chest, and down the dark trail of hair that bisected his hard-muscled abdomen.

A memory flashed: Cassidy licking her way down that sexy trail to Nic’s groin.

They’d swum up the Irish coast as their dolphins and then shifted to human after entering a sea cavern. His skin still held a hint of the Atlantic, salty and good. She pressed a lingering kiss to his navel before continuing her way to where his cock stood, iron-hard and gorgeous.

He groaned something in Portuguese and speared his fingers into her hair.

She gave a secret smile. She knew what he wanted—and she intended to give it to him. First, though, she’d tease him a bit…

But even though they’d pleasured each other, he hadn’t taken her that day, and when she’d asked why, he’d cupped her face and explained that he had to leave soon. “I’m sorry, querida. I never meant to stay this long.”

But he’d stayed another day, and then another, and she’d allowed herself to believe he would never leave…

Now, Nic’s eyes snagged hers and she had the uncomfortable feeling he knew exactly what effect he had on her. She inhaled and dragged her hands through her hair, but that raised her bare breasts.

His gaze zeroed in on her nipples, pink and wet from Rianna’s splashing, and the blasted things perked up. His green irises sparked a gold that seared her to her bones. Then he shuttered them just as quickly.

That was good, right? He was keeping things platonic like she’d asked. But she sank into the pool so the water covered her up to her neck.

“Hi, Daddy!” Rianna waved from the base of the wall.

“Hello, little one.” Nic watched as she scrambled like a crab up the wall. “Hold on.” He leapt to the ledge above her, graceful as a big cat, and lifted her the last few feet.

“Thanks, Daddy!” Rianna gave him a smacking kiss before jumping back into the water.

Nic’s expression was wry as he returned to the steps. “She didn’t need my help, did she?”

“No. She’s been up that wall ten times already this morning.”

He shook his head. “Reminds me of my sister Rosana as a pup—always moving.”

“Me, too. Mam used to threaten to tie a rope to my waist so she’d know where I was. She never did, though.”

They shared a smile before Cassidy jerked her gaze back to Rianna.

Nic expelled a breath. “I’m here to tell you what we planned.”

She nodded and left the pool to pull on her T-shirt and shorts. No way was she going to remain naked with Nic sending those hot looks at her. She could swear she felt his gaze on her ass, but when she glanced over her shoulder, he was looking at Rianna.

Cassidy zipped up the shorts and sat on the bottom step where she could keep an eye on her swimming daughter, and Nic dropped down next to her.

Above, the sun streamed through the slits in the ceiling, painting the aqua water with gold highlights. Cassidy trailed her toes in the pool at the base of the steps, her whole body throbbing with the awareness of Nic’s strong frame just six inches away, his spicy male aroma filling her head. Inside, her dolphin rubbed up against her skin, reminding Cassidy it had been a long time—almost four years, to be precise.

Her stomach did a funny little dance. Would it be as good as it had been back then?

Nic’s nostrils flared, and she knew he scented her arousal. But when she glanced at him, his gaze was on her injured calf. “It’s healing okay?”

“Yeah.” She rubbed the starburst. “It still itches some, but it’s much better.” The scab had healed and faded to a shiny pink. “You should be a healer.”

He shrugged a shoulder. “It’s a small, untrained Gift.”

“You didn’t train with anyone?” Cassidy pursed her mouth. That was almost unheard of. In the fada world, healers were highly respected and sought after. Even a healer with a small Gift could find work as an assistant to a more powerful healer.

He set his hands on his thighs. “I wouldn’t have been accepted. A healer is at the heart of the clan.”

She felt an unwilling tug of sympathy. “Because you’re a sea dragon? But I thought no one knew.”

He gave her a stark look. “Sooner or later, the dragon wants out. I can’t live like that, with no one knowing who I am at the core.”

“So that’s why you’re here on an island in the middle of nowhere? Don’t you miss your clan? Your family?” Me?

“Of course. But I visit my clan every few years, and my dragon loves the wide-open spaces here. I can swim for miles without seeing anyone except the fish and the dolphins and the seabirds.”

She nodded. Inside, her heart sank some more at the further evidence that Nic didn’t need her. His nature was to be a solitary, a fada without a clan. He’d made that clear enough four years ago. The fact that he’d apparently formed a small den with the other three men didn’t change his basic nature.

They watched Rianna move from pool to pool, exploring every nook and cranny. She dove beneath the surface of the saltwater pool to the right and came up waving a strand of gold kelp. “Mam, Daddy! Look what I found!” She hurtled around the rim of the pools to show them.

Cassidy was happy to turn her attention to Rianna. “That’s lovely,” she said a bit too enthusiastically.

“It’s a necklace.” She wrapped the strand around her neck and spun in a circle like a miniature fashion model.

“Beautiful,” Nic said.

“Stunning,” Cassidy agreed.

Rianna showed them all the ways she could wear the kelp, from a crown on her head to a bracelet wrapped around her upper arm. When she tired of the game, she set the kelp on a ledge and clapped a hand on each of their backs.

“Let’s play!” She gave them a winning smile.

“In a minute,” Cassidy replied. “First your daddy and I have to talk.”

Rianna tilted her head. “About the bad fae?”

“Yes.”

Her lower lip protruded. “I don’t like them. They’re mean.”

“I know, love. That’s why we have to make sure they won’t bother us anymore. Why don’t you go swim and we’ll join you in a minute?”

“Promise?” She waited until they both agreed before hopping back into the pool.

Nic leaned back, elbows propped on the step behind him.

“So?” Cassidy prompted. “What did you decide?”

She half-expected Nic to stonewall her—the man was alpha of this small den, his animal dominant to hers, and even in Ireland, he’d been closemouthed—but he kept his promise to share the plan.

“Joe volunteered to keep watch near the tracking device as his shark. The rest of us will stay with you and Rianna until they arrive. Joe will shoot back here and let us know, and then me, Joe, and Marlin will go to meet them. You and Rianna will stay here with Ben. His cougar is damn good protection, and besides, he wouldn’t be any good in a water fight.”

She turned sideways, her back to the stone wall so she could see his face. “But what will you do?”

“I’m a sea dragon.” A cold-eyed look from beneath hooded eyelids. “I’ll incinerate them. Or encase them in molten lava.”

She blinked. “I see.” She’d grown up with hard, ruthless men who stopped at nothing to protect their families and their clan, but she couldn’t help a shudder.

A reptilian chill infused his voice. “They’re threatening my daughter and mate. I don’t go looking for trouble, but if a man enters my territory hunting my family, then I’m not going to give him a fucking tap on the shoulder and send him on his way.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry.” She looked at the little girl splashing happily in the pools. “I just want Rianna to be safe.”

“It’s all I want, too—for both of you.” He exhaled. “They followed you this far. They’re not going to give up.”

“No.” She rubbed her upper arms. “They hunted us, Nic. Like bloody animals.”

His body went rigid. “Tell me everything. From Ireland to here—any details you remember.”

“All right.” She stared down at her hands. Part of her still couldn’t believe they’d made it to Nic. She’d been terrified for so long, sure the fae would find them first.

“That night, I packed whatever I could carry in my rucksack and left. The only people I told were Aunt Maire and Uncle Fergus. They didn’t like it, but when I told them I was going to you, they let me go.” She rubbed the scar on her calf. “They always thought I should tell you about Rianna.”

“They were right.”

She lifted her chin. “We did just fine on our own. My aunt and uncle and cousins all helped with the raising of her. And you were clear about not wanting anything permanent, weren’t you? Why was I to think you’d be overjoyed about hearing you were a father?”

His jaw tightened, and then he surprised her by apologizing. “I’m sorry. Even if you’d wanted to tell me, you would have had a hard time finding me. I rode the waves for the first year after I left Ireland.”

She acknowledged his apology with a curt nod. “I thought they’d be watching the main entrance, so I went out the back way. You recall the door that lets out on a cliff above the Shannon River?”

“Yes.”

“They were waiting for us—two of them, both fae. I don’t know if someone tipped them off or if they had people stationed at each entrance. It was like a game for them. They let me run, but stayed a hundred yards behind me.” She shuddered. “I was so sure they’d catch us. I still have nightmares.”

Nic’s hands fisted on his thighs. Then he cursed and wrapped an arm around her. “Let me hold you, Cassidy. As a friend. Por favor?”

She felt his anguish, so strong that all she could do was nod against his chest.

“Did you get a good look at them? You sure they didn’t have a fada with them?”

“I don’t know.” She pressed a fist to her mouth, stifling the sobs that wanted to tumble out behind it. She hadn’t let Rianna see her cry once the whole time they’d been on the road, and she didn’t intend to start now. “Like I told you yesterday, the bastards were using a glamour to hide their true forms.”

He rubbed her back. “Go on.”

“I did everything I could to shake them off. I wondered myself if they’d hired a fada tracker, because how else did they seem to know what I was doing almost before I did? But it must have been that fecking device in my leg.”

“This was the first night?”

She nodded. “We swam down the coast, but they found us at dawn when we left the water to find somewhere to sleep. That’s when they hit me with the fae ball. I could barely walk, but somehow I got us back into the ocean, and this time, we stayed there. We got to Dublin without seeing them again.”

“They could afford to fall back. They had the device in you by then.”

She compressed her lips. “Anyway, we caught a flight out of Dublin. I thought we’d finally lost the bastards, but when we landed in New York, they were waiting in the terminal.”

A tear squeezed out of her eye in spite of herself as she recalled the unrelenting terror of the past weeks. The frantic race to the Dublin airport, and then the relief when they’d landed safely in New York, only to find the fae still on their trail.

Nic stroked her back. “How did you get away?”

“I gave them the slip in the crowd, and caught a subway into Manhattan. I got on one of those cheap buses, and for a time, I thought we’d gotten away for good. But they found us again in Indiana. It was like that the whole way. Them breathing down our necks like bloody wolves.”

“I’m sorry.” His hand followed a soothing trail up and down her spine. “This is why I left Shannon. I’d have done anything to spare you this.”

Anger made her snarl. She got her hand up between them and thumped his chest. “It should’ve been my choice, you arse. Not yours.”

He caught her fist in his larger one. “You told me yourself you wanted to stay in Ireland.”

“Because you’re the alpha’s grandson. I thought it was what you wanted, too.”

“I wanted to be with you.” His eyes held hers. “But a dragon needs space. And even if I’d brought you with me, this is the life of a dragon’s mate—hunted, forced into hiding. Is that what you want?”

The anger drained from her. She looked at Rianna. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “If I’d known then what I know now…” She trailed off before she said something she’d regret.

Nic briefly closed his eyes, and for the first time, she saw things from his point of view. If she were him, would she have wanted someone she loved to be forced to change their entire way of life to be with her?

But then, she wasn’t sure that for Nic it had been love.

He still held her fist in his hand. He brought her knuckles to his lips. “I’m hoping you can find it in you to forgive me—and trust me again.”

“I’m not sure I can,” she whispered. But the bond between them flared, tugging on her heart.

Nic tensed, and she knew he felt it too. “Cassidy?”

She shook her head. “No. I…need time.”

Disappointment flickered across his face, but he released her and leaned back against the step again. “These four men—you said they have the scent of a fae?”

“They do.” She inched to the other side of the step. “They can’t hide that whiff of silver. And I caught a hint of decay, but not enough for all of them to be night fae, which makes me wonder if it might be different fae working together.” All the fae had a telltale silver scent, but in a night fae, the metallic odor of silver was mixed with the noxious taint of decay. “But since when do the fae work together?”

Nic’s mouth flattened. “It could be a mixed-blood.”

“What do you mean?”

He dragged a hand over his dark curls. “On my way to Ireland, I stopped in Iceland. You know my parents disappeared somewhere in the North Atlantic.”

She nodded. “Nisio and Ula, the alpha’s daughter. It was the talk of Shannon when it happened.”

“So you’ve heard the stories about how they were ensnared by the ice fae king”—Nic was careful not to say Sindre’s name so as not to draw his notice—“back in the 1850s. My brother Dion believes they’re dead, but we never found their bodies. I’ve gone to Iceland three times in the last decade, hoping I’d get some clue.” His right fist clenched on his thigh. “But nothing.”

“I didn’t know.” Cassidy frowned. “But what’s this about a mixed-blood?”

“There’s one in Iceland. The king has a cousin who is half night-fae, half ice-fae.”

She shot him a startled glance. “But the night fae and ice fae hate each other. I’ve never heard of them mating.”

“Well, apparently two of them did, and they had a daughter. The woman’s young for a fae, which is why no one’s heard much from her before. But she’s powerful, and somehow she’s worked her way up in the ice fae king’s court. She’s one of his top advisors now.”

“A woman? But I’ve been thinking it was four men.”

“Are you sure?”

“No. They’ve never let me have a proper look at them.” Cassidy’s stomach lurched. “If this mixed-blood were to get her hands on a dragon’s heart,” she said slowly, “then she might even have enough power to overthrow the king.”

Nic’s eyes met hers. “Exactly.”