Charlie
My eyes met Kai’s beautiful green gaze and the rest of the sea ceased to exist. I looked him over, drinking him in. He’d cut his red hair, and it was now short at the sides and longer on top. My fingers ached to run through it. His merman tail swished showing a myriad of iridescent scales in shades of blue and green. His pale torso was ripped and toned. Holy moly. I felt like I was going to collapse at the knees at any moment. He swam towards me.
“Charlie. Well, you were lovely before, but now I can’t sum up how beautiful you look tonight.” He tipped his head. “The crown suits you.”
My hands shot up to it. “Oh yes, my crown. I’d totally forgotten.” I giggled nervously. “Shall I take it off?”
“No, you are Queen of the sea. I will take you to my home and we shall store it safely while we eat. There would be many under the water who would like it as an ornament in their home, so always wear it. It cannot be stolen from your head. Watch.”
He leaned over to try to take it but it wouldn’t move. A beaming smile came over his face. “See. Magic.”
His hand fell down to my face and grazed my cheek. I shivered under his touch.
“Shall we go?” He said, and I nodded.
He held out his hand. I took it and then we were on our way through the water, though under the sea you could not feel its presence, you just knew it was there. His tail wiggled as we moved through the water and I made the most of our hands being entwined. We approached a small stone cottage, and he dropped down to the sand floor where his tail became legs, clad as usual in sparkly scale-patterned leggings that belonged in a 1970’s disco. We were going to have to do something about his wardrobe choices for when he came ashore. Maybe it was time Ebony expanded into a small line of menswear? I laughed to myself. I bet he was thinking the same thing about my own wardrobe choices, wondering how he could gently tell me I needed a seashell bikini.
“What’s funny?”
“I was just wondering what I should be wearing underwater, like a seashell bikini or something.”
The charge between us picked up in voltage. We were about to fry the sea if we didn’t calm things down a little. We weren’t even through his doorway yet.
“Before we go in.” Those green eyes were back on mine. “Nothing’s going to happen tonight, Charlie, other than us getting to know each other better.”
My face must have shown my disappointment.
“I’d like nothing more than to take you straight to my bed and us not surface for years.” He tipped my chin up with his fingers so I was forced to look at him. “But I will treat my Queen with respect, and I mean my Queen, as in my beautiful lady, not your role as Queen of the sea. Tonight I will show you my cooking skills; another night…” He winked. “Some other ones.”
Between my legs pulsed at the intimation of what he was going to teach me.
“Now,” he offered me a crooked elbow. “Would you like a tour of my humble abode?”
We walked through the doorway where he pointed to a small table in the hallway where I could put my crown. From there we went into an open plan living and dining room. Much of the furniture was made from driftwood, and the cottage had the whole beach theme about it, painted in blues, whites, and greys. I felt instantly at home. I loved it. Gorgeous aromas permeated the house. Tomatoes, chocolate. My mouth watered and this time it wasn’t due to Kai.
“I’m not showing you the kitchen or you’ll get a sneak peek of dinner. While I’m fixing it, why don’t you go and wander upstairs and have a look at the rest of the cottage?” He suggested.
I nodded, making my way to the staircase and wandering upstairs. Firstly, I walked into the bathroom. A massive white sunken tub was the focus in the middle of the large bathroom. The floor surrounding the bath was the most stunning cerulean blue, and the walls were a similar shade. If you were in the tub you’d feel like you were in the sea itself.
“Press the button on the wall.” Kai shouted upstairs. I found it and pressed it. The walls developed images of fish, traveling around in shoals. I watched enraptured for a few minutes and then turning it off, I walked back along the hallway into another room. This one was a study. There was a driftwood desk with a matching chair, although the chair was cushioned for comfort. Sketchbooks were scattered over the desk containing design after design. The fact I’d never asked Kai what he did made me realise just how much we had to learn about each other. He was right to suggest we waited before we became more intimate. Firstly, I needed to know him: his mind, his likes and dislikes. I’d only skimmed the surface of the man I was convinced was my true love. Had my intuition been nothing but a 15-year-old girl crush? I didn’t think so, but the evening would be a chance to learn more about Kai, the person.
I left the room, entering the last room upstairs and finding myself in Kai’s bedroom. Driftwood fronted wardrobes lined the back wall, and his headboard was a stunning piece of it. The rest of the room was in greys. It was plain, but he had a large woven throw on the bed that looked just the thing to wrap yourself in on a winter’s night.
You want to wrap yourself in Kai, not a blanket.
Smiling, I left the room and made my way downstairs. Kai was sitting on the sofa. He rose as I returned.
“Your home is beautiful, Kai.”
“Thank you.”
“Did you make all the furniture?”
“I did. That’s my job. I have a workshop out the back. I love my work, making beauty out of the sea’s natural resources.”
“Well, it looks amazing. I’m going to tell my mum and dad about it. I bet my mum would love some of those kind of pieces in the farmhouse. I'm guessing these do look the same on land?”
“They do. I considered taking on some apprentices and making more pieces to sell ashore. Something to think about in the future. For now, please take a seat at the table and I shall serve our dinner.”
I took my seat at the small circular dining table in the corner of the room. Kai brought out a fish terrine.
“Do you not feel like you’re eating your friends?” I asked.
He shook his head. “For the Queen of the Sea you have much to learn. but don't worry, I will teach you. We have our underwater species and we have fish and plants for eating, plus underwater vegetables; just as you grow plants ashore and have cows in your fields. We don’t think you make friends with the cows and don’t eat them, although I have heard of people who don’t eat meat.”
“Of course. How stupid of me to think every single thing under the sea was a species of sea-folk.” I sighed. “Why on earth have I been made Queen? The role should have gone to someone who lives under the sea and who knows all about it.”
“You can learn, Charlie. And you are impartial. The people under here either have no interest in the politics of the sea, or are too deeply entrenched in years of bitter wrangling.”
The mouthful of terrine soon distracted me from the woes and worries of being queen as I made a bunch of embarrassing noises focused around how amazing this food was and how it tantalised my taste buds.
“Oh my god, Kai. You can cook. This is phenomenal. If the rest of dinner is like this, how do you expect me to ever be satisfied by anything ashore ever again?”
“Then my mission will have been accomplished. To keep you permanently satisfied here under the sea.” He told me. I was glad I was sitting as my legs turned to jelly once more. “Also, while I am glad you’re enjoying my food, if you continue to make those noises I’m not sure I can keep to my vow of getting to know you first.”
I laughed. “Sorry, but it’s all your fault. It’s just too delicious.”
“Like the person eating it. I’ll go get the second course.” He said, then he looked down at his trousers. “Erm, in a moment.”
We both burst out laughing. Standing, I picked up the dishes. “I’ll be clearing away while we wait.”
I hovered by the table. “Hmm, I thought you might protest about me clearing up; that I might spoil seeing things in the kitchen…”
He looked at me, blowing his fringe away from his face. “Kind of might help my ‘situation’ if you’re not near me for a minute.”
That made me break out in hearty guffaws.
“Aw, it’s just a stiffy. No hard feelings.” He raised an eyebrow and guffawing I walked through to the kitchen.
Through his kitchen window I could see the back door led out to a workshop, and there were pieces of work-in-progress around including the most beautiful bench seat. The man was truly talented.
He came into the kitchen. “Okay, please take a seat again so I can bring out the main courses. I’m fine now.”
“I was just looking at your wood.” His eyes widened, and he quickly looked down.
“Outside.” I winked.
“You’re incorrigible, Miss Landry.”
The main course was pasta and some gorgeous herby kind of sauce. Kai did tell me the name, but I forgot. I was too busy staring at him to be honest.
“So, how does it feel to you, to now be in your twenties when you were just around fifteen? What’s your mind like?”
“Do you mean am I still infantile from my fast progression to adulthood? I feel like I am and have always been in my twenties. Like the previous bit didn’t happen. Earlier I could still feel remnants of being a teen, but it’s gone. It’s so very strange. I guess it’s even more unusual to you?” I bit my lip.
“No. That’s what’s so weird. It’s like you’ve always been like this to me too. Like I’ve known you for years. It's so difficult to describe. Only a few days ago you were the teenage Charlie and I felt bad for being attracted to you. Now it’s like everything is as it should be.”
“I don’t know what my future holds, Kai.” I mopped my lip with a napkin. “There's no knowing how I will age, or even if I’m supposed to survive the war. You need to be aware of this.”
Kai shrugged. “I just have a gut feeling it will all be okay. That we’re destined. It’s always seemed that way.”
“And to me.” I told him. “I guess we can only hope that’s the way it goes.”
We spent the rest of the evening eating chocolate torte and asking each other many, many questions and then Kai called for Daniel to take me back to shore.
We stood in the living room next to the door and said goodbye. Kai’s arms wrapped around me and he pulled me close. His hand went into my hair and he tilted my head up to his. His lips met mine and a thousand fireworks went off in my body. I didn’t want him to let me go. I didn’t want to go home. Our tongues tangled as our mouths moved together in sweet harmony. It was Kai who broke the kiss. I think I would have still been there hours later if he hadn’t.
“Goodnight, my beautiful Queen. He picked my crown up from the sideboard next to the doorway and fixed it back on top of my no doubt ruffled hair.
“When will I see you again?” I asked, annoyed that I sounded so needy, but wanting to know.
“Well that is down to you because I don’t know your ‘saving the world’ timetable, but for me, every single day or night that you have free, I want you to spend it with me. You can watch me work, and we can get to know each other further.”
“I’m sure you’d like some time to yourself.”
“If I have the choice of time to myself or time with you, then you win every time. Now get in that boat because in a minute I’m not letting you go.”
It was a tough choice. I was so tempted to stay. But I made my way to Daniel and before long I was back in my own bed where I had the most wonderful night’s dreams about a guy with beautiful green eyes.