Mari woke up to the most amazing sensation ever.
She couldn’t exactly place it, or even guess why she was feeling it, but she knew she never wanted it to stop. Small, heated tingles warmed her body from the inside out, making her sigh.
So lovely, so soothing.
She rolled onto her side, stretching with a smile on her face, blinking her eyes open—
Only to jerk with a soft gasp.
Sitting beside her—or more like slumping—was Ambrose. His head was on his crossed arms, which were resting on the side of the cot that she lay on. He was settled into an uncomfortable looking chair and he’d fallen asleep with lines of worry etched in his face.
“Oh, you poor thing,” she whispered, reaching out to lay a hand on his shoulder to wake him up. He looked so awkward laying there, and she could only imagine how bad his muscles would ache when he woke up.
Mari looked passed her sleeping guardian, taking in the room. It was small yet homey, completely at odds with the rest of the hotel that she’d seen. There was a small stand in the corner of the room with a weird creation of welded forks and spoons. At the opposite side of the room was a shelf with all sorts of seashells and under it, a dresser. It was see-through, but empty except an anchor in the bottom shelf.
Across the bed was an open window with stringy, pink vines that acted like a curtain—a terrible curtain. Outside of the window, she saw the evil little fish swimming around the room. They didn’t enter, which shocked her, but she wasn’t going to complain.
Instead of soggy-looking walls covered in moss, the room was built with glowing blue walls that mimicked a marble-type finish, something she had never seen before. It looked like it could have been transparent, but it was thick enough that she couldn’t see through to surrounding rooms. The floor, when she looked at it, was tiled with the same sort of material that made up the walls. It was so magical that she was overwhelmed.
The exquisite, breath-taking sensation ran through her body again, snapping her attention away from Ambrose and to her tail, where his was slowly brushing back and forth over hers. She shivered, eyes fluttering closed before she forced herself to keep them open.
She vaguely remembered his reaction the last time she’d had their tails together. “Don’t…touch me there, Mari. Bad idea, really bad idea.” She shivered, casting a glance at him. So it was the same for a male as a female to get turned on?
Mari wished she had a fan or ice cubes or something. Slowly slipping her tail out from under Ambrose’s, she shifted her weight so that she could lean on her elbows, studying him.
Ray had never been as handsome as Ambrose was now. Not even when they’d been in college. Mari, of course, had been too naïve to realize that Ray wasn’t all he was hyped up to be, but that didn’t matter now.
Mari was traveling with probably one of the hottest, nicest men she had ever met and she was now single. She had never been one to shy away from sex—even though the thought of having sex as a fish was somewhat confusing and a lot repulsing. But then, the way she’d felt when his tail had been brushing against hers…
Her eyes closed at the memory, wishing she hadn’t moved her tail away. It was pretty damn amazing. Nothing Ray had ever done to her had made her feel like that before, and Ambrose hadn’t even been meaning to do it.
Her eyes narrowed, an ache settling in her chest. Ray had never really tried to bring her pleasure, or make her feel anything other than a slight buzz. And while he had done nothing, she’d done everything to make him happy.
Or actually, nothing to make him happy. He liked it quick and short, and that was it. Out of all the years they were together, he never let her be creative in bed, never let her do anything other than the normal “hop on top and hump till you dump” routine he’d decided on using.
Her whole life, she realized, had become a routine. Because of him. Her—Them—Everything. They taught at the same school, worked the same schedule, corrected the same amount of papers, paid the same bills, and did things by the book—his book—so much that it had just become natural.
Mari had thought they were compatible. Her mother always talked about her relationship with Mari’s father as magical. There was nothing that was always the same, the passion hadn’t yet died out, and they still spent every moment together as if it were their first.
With Ray and her?
She leaned her cheek against her palm, staring at Ambrose. Ray had been so…dull. Predictable. Stable. Nothing like what she had thought she would find, like her mother and father had.
Mari had thought that that was the end, though. Graduating college, finding a steady job, and then getting together with Ray had been acceptable, because she had felt lucky enough to get even that. Her brothers had had so much going for them—brains, looks, personalities, professions. They were the prodigy children, and Mari was just the trilingual teacher with nothing else going for her.
Ray gave her no room to be excited. He gave her no room to be creative. He’d been “do this,” “do that,” and “be here” every single day of their life together. And now that he wasn’t hanging on her shoulders like some sort of “be serious” noose, she was finally able to express herself and be herself—and Ambrose didn’t mind; she wouldn’t have cared if he did.
Mari wasn’t going to let some fuck-up named Ray ruin the rest of her oceanic life. Although, she admitted, he might have helped her.
Without him, she never would have gone on the cruise. While it was by his own fault that he’d slipped up with the emails, she was almost glad it had happened. If it hadn’t, she would have been down there, staring at one of the sexiest, hottest men she had ever had the pleasure to, and the whole time she would be feeling guilty.
Mari sighed. Yeah, the way she had thought about him before passing out was enough to make a prostitute feel guilty.
Ambrose just had that “way” about him. He was silent, straight-forward, proper, hard and calculating when he needed to be, stern. Most of all…he was a man who actually cared. His worry, his concern, all of the respect he’d given her despite the situation they were in?
It was enough to make her heart pound and her stomach flutter—something that Ray had never been able to do for her.
“You’re awake.”
Mari snapped to attention at the deep, gravelly voice. Then blinked when she realized how close they were. His eyes were amazingly blue, circled with black waves and speckled with white.
“Ah, yeah. I am. And so are you.”
Her face started to heat, and she started to pull away from him, to get some distance. But as she moved, his hand came out and touched her arm, gently. As if he were almost too scared.
“I was worried about you,” he said. Then his eyes closed and he looked like he wanted to slap himself. She watched him, biting her lip. Ambrose tried again. “When you started to…you know…I didn’t know what to do, so I, ah…got us a room and—are you hungry? Akrina has a lot of fruit left over.”
She smiled. Ambrose, nervous? Mari laid her head back down on the cot, shaking her head. “No, I’m not hungry. Just tired.”
“Oh, then you should rest. I didn’t mean to fall asleep here…I was going to leave you alone but I sat down for a second and then I guess I fell asleep.” Ambrose scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “They only had one room available. I don’t trust them, either, so it’s best if we just stay together instead of give them a chance to…”
Mari touched his arm gently, silencing him. “Are you tired?” she asked, yawning.
He shook his head. “No.”
“Well, I am. And this cot is really uncomfortable—“
“I’ll go find you something—“
“Ambrose,” she said, laughing lightly. “Just lay down with me.”
“Lay down with you?” He blanched.
Mari nodded, then gave him puppy eyes. “It’s making my shoulder ache…”
“Ah, Mari, I don’t think it’s a good idea. I mean, I can be back in two seconds with sea sponge padding and it’ll be a lot nicer than me laying down with you.” He pulled himself away from her hand.
“I doubt it,” she said, laughing lightly. Mari had no clue what had come over her, but she wanted to feel him next to her. She wanted to have his arms around her. She wanted some sort of comfort. She wanted…him.
“No, really, it’s fine—“ Mari sat up languidly, covering his mouth with her hand.
“Ambrose. Just stop talking.”
He stopped.
Mari grabbed him by his hand and he reluctantly followed her, awkwardly moving his body onto the cot next to hers, while trying his hardest to get as far away as he could from her. Mari didn’t pay any attention, instead dragging him closer to her and ignoring his quick denials.
The first thing she noticed was how warm he was. He was like a living, breathing, moving furnace. His body radiated heat in such an amazing way, all she wanted to do was get closer to him.
So she did.
“Mari, I don’t know if you should do that—“
Too late. By the time Mari was finally comfortable, his arm was under her head, his other one wrapped loosely around her waist, and her body was curled against his, cocooned there. And even though he was verbalizing that he didn’t want it, his body was telling her a completely different thing.
The way his arm was slowly drawing her tighter against him, the way his heart was pounding right by her ear, the way his breath left his chest in a rush… She smiled, hiding her face against his chest.
Even as tense and edgy as he was, she could feel how strong he was, how masculine he was. What would it be like to have him? she wondered. To take him right here and now. She had no clue how fish had sex, but she remembered him saying that she would have to get incredibly hot and bothered to get her legs back.
And likewise for him…
“You don’t have anyone…special, do you?” she asked, looking up at him through her lashes. What if she made a move on a taken merman? Would Ursula come back to strike her revenge or something?
“Special as in how?” He avoided looking at her directly, choosing to looking around the room with eyes that didn’t look focused on anything.
She frowned, scooting up to make him look at her. “You know, like a wife, or girlfriend?”
“Oh.” His head shook, and he still didn’t look at her. “I don’t have one, and I never have.”
“Not ever?”
“No. Mari, I do not see why this is a topic you need to bring up right now. You should be sleeping after how much I’ve pushed you today—“
Maybe it was the stress that made her do it. Maybe it was how warm he was against her. Maybe it was the way his heart was pounding and the barely noticeable shake in his arms as he held her like he’d never touched something so precious in his life. Or maybe it was just how much she needed to feel a connection with someone after everything she’d been through.
Whatever it was that caused it, she knew she wasn’t ever going to regret it.
So with that thought in mind, Mari reached up, grabbed his face, dragged it down to hers, and pressed her lips to his.
Instantly, fire shot through her body. Like a wild, uncontrollable shot of energy to every nerve ending in her body. She knew this was what her mother felt with her father when they kissed, and knew this was something that would only happen with one person, one soul.
Ambrose didn’t react at first, but that didn’t stop her. She moved her lips over his, willing his mouth open, even as the tremors in his body became stronger. Her hands slid over his chest, to his shoulders, careful of his wounds. Even so, she couldn’t stop herself from kneading him, pushing herself on top of him.
If she had had two legs, she would have been straddling his waist. He was flat on his back, his hands now settled gently on her hips, and his mouth slowly began to follow hers.
A ragged groan left his throat, desire shooting through her body. Pinpricks shot down her spine and to her legs, like someone was poking her with a needle.
Mari barely noticed.
Ambrose tightened his hands on her hips before one of them came around the back of her neck, pressing her firmly against him, their kiss turning harder, heated. Tendrils of passion swirled their way through her body, shivers wracking her. Ambrose was slow yet forceful in the domination of her mouth, and before she knew it, her legs were wrapping around his waist…and his two separate knees were bending to cushion her bottom against the hard bulge that she could feel at the juncture of her thighs.
She moaned softly, threading her hands in his hair.
Ambrose jerked away from her, pulling back and breathing raggedly.
“No,” she whispered. “More… I need more of you.”
Her chest was pounding like a jack hammer as she stared into his eyes, begging him without any more words—she couldn’t have if she wanted to. There was no way for her to speak without crying for his touch. Her body was in overdrive, sensation after sensation shocking her nerve endings into something that felt like ravaging, desperate need.
“Mari…” She heard the reluctance in his voice, and something inside of her cried out with denial. She had to have him.
“Ambrose, please.” That was all she could manage, but apparently it was enough.
With a quick, fluid movement, Ambrose had Mari underneath him in less than a second, and only then did she realize they were completely naked, no barrier of scales or clothing between them, their legs twining together. She slid her hands down his shoulders, to his chest, just barely brushing her fingers over the tip of his arousal.
He growled, the dark sound resonating through the room. Mari watched with fascination as a dangerous cast came over his face.
Ambrose trailed his eyes over her body, taking his time as he drank up every inch of her skin. She whimpered, trying to urge his face back down to hers with her free hand.
“Just let me look at you,” he grated. “God, you’re so beautiful, so precious…”
Mari expected him to kiss her, expected him to give her what she was asking for.
Instead, he did something else.
He slid down her body, hands holding her still just at the underside of her breasts, right before he met her eyes….
And pressed his hot, wet mouth against her breast, taking her nipple and caressing it with his tongue.