On the third day of her magical vacation, Yasmin stretched out over a lounger on the beach and pulled on her sunglasses. The warm sunshine felt divine against her wet body after an afternoon of playing in the ocean with her girlfriends.

When a waiter ambled by with fruity cocktails, she claimed a tropical punch spiked with coconut rum and asked for an order of fried fish and plantains.

Gillian doubled the order and dropped down on the seat beside her. “You know there’s another social tonight. You could catch yourself another island hottie. All the guys seem to only be into you anyway.”

Yasmin flicked cold water droplets at her in response. “I’m not here to catch island hotties.”

“But you did.”

“That was different.” Besides, she may have caught him and marked him, but it wasn’t like Javier had returned the favor. Stung by the cool dismissal the morning after, Yasmin tried to change the subject, “Wanna swim again?”

Gillian ignored her clumsy attempt at a distraction. “Yeah? What was so different about it? I mean, you finally let go of your V-card.”

“Shut up,” Yasmin hissed in a whisper, mortified. “Geez, Gill, don’t announce it to the whole world.”

“What? That you aren’t a virgin anymore? Deflowered virgin over here!” Gillian called out playfully for anyone to hear. No one glanced their direction. “See? No one cares.”

At that moment, however, Javier wandered by with his hands in the pockets of his board shorts. A red-haired girl in a tiny bikini skipped along at his side, laughing at whatever he said and tossing her lustrous curls over her shoulder before bumping him with her hip.

Between the outburst he’d clearly heard and the girl nudging him, he stumbled over his feet, the very example of draconic grace, and faceplanted in the sand.

Yasmin’s heart slammed against her ribs with sledgehammer force, galloping faster than a herd of horses. There he was in all his glory, with some hot piece of ass laughing and helping him up from the sand. She wanted to simultaneously crawl into the nearest hole to hide as well as rip the redhead’s arms off for daring to touch him. At the same time, shifter pride urged her to assert her dominance by straddling Javier to renew her claim over him.

That was the right thing to do, wasn’t it?

Gillian laughed, covering her mouth with a quiet, “Whoops.” Friendship over.

Yasmin’s gaze laser focused on the interloper touching Javier and brushing the sand from his shirt. Then a strange sense of melancholy fell over her, and a pain lanced a knife into her heart. What if the girl wasn’t the intruder? What if he’d had a girlfriend all along and Yasmin had been the one in the wrong, strung along like a lovestruck idiot?

She squeezed her cup until some of the contents sloshed her fingers. That jolted her out of it, at least a little.

“Hey,” Gillian called to Javier and the mystery ginger. “We gonna see you two tonight?”

Taking that as an invitation, the girl abandoned Javier and flounced over to join them. The dragon trudged behind her and flashed a casual smile.

“Hey. Javier was rubbernecking to check you out,” the redhead said bluntly.

Javier stared at her.

Gillian’s grin widened. “Yeah, we met him the other night.”

Yasmin glowered from behind her glasses and sucked on her drink. “Yeah, he and I go way back.”

“I know,” the cheerful redhead replied without introduction.

“I’m Yasmin, and you are?”

“You don’t recognize me? I’m Phoebe.” She offered out her hand. “My mom’s the marine aquatics director, and my dad runs the beach activity center. We played as kids, too.”

The envy evaporated like a drop of water on a hot skillet. “You’re Dante’s daughter? Oh my God, I haven’t seen you in years! Last time I saw you, you were like…” Yasmin gestured with a hand, indicating a tiny person before waving to the woman’s hourglass figure. “Whoa, girl.”

Phoebe grinned and rocked from her heels to her toes. “Yeah. Growth spurt.”

Apparently, Javier wasn’t the only one to develop overnight into a breathtaking creature.

“We’ve meant to stop by and watch the mermaid show. Amaya is dying to go have a look, but we keep missing it.”

“I’m going into the tank today. You should totally come.”

Javier grunted, hands remaining in his pocket while he lurked behind Phoebe. When he did glance at them, his gaze fixated to Yasmin and practically devoured her from head to toe.

She tingled with desire and an ache for him to kiss her again, and barely picked up a word spoken between Gillian and Phoebe. The two hit it off, gushing over the possibility of attending the show, and going so far as to say Amaya could probably join in as well since the other girl was a huge fan of the mermaid style and had her own tail back home.

Meanwhile, Yasmin’s body played the part of an awful traitor, a dull throb between her thighs longing for the sensation of Javier inside her again. Her nipples tightened stiff as glass beads beneath her triangle top.

Determined to treat Javier like anyone else, Yasmin cleared her throat. “Haven’t seen you around. Been helping your dad in the office I guess, huh?”

“No, I don’t really do that stuff.”

“Oh.” She twirled a lock of her hair around one finger.

He chuckled, the sound low and sensual like a growl. Damn him for having an attractive laugh. “I guess I might this week. He’s got it in his head for me to take over part of the island operations or something.”

“We’ll see you in an hour then?” Phoebe asked, dragging Yasmin’s attention away from the bit of perfectly bronzed chest visible through Javier’s partially unbuttoned shirt.

“An hour what?”

“Huh?” Javier asked, equally bewildered.

Phoebe rolled her eyes and turned her attention to Javier, hands on her hips. “They’re coming to see the performance. I have to run right now to get ready, so why don’t you help them pack their stuff and take them to the special seats?”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” he said.

“I’ll go get us some sundresses while you two take the kickboards back to the shed,” Gillian offered, choosing the easier job.

After Gillian and Phoebe were gone, Yasmin rose from her lounger to stretch. “Looks like we’re seeing mermaids. C’mon, let’s get these put up.”

As VIP guests, Yasmin and her pals had access to a private shed so they didn’t have to wait on public gear. She led the way, exaggerating the sway of her hips with each step. Javier fell behind her, and she prayed to Hecate he was enjoying the show.

“What are you doing tonight?” he asked.

“Not too sure. The girls wanna go to the mixer, but it’s not really my scene. So, I’ll probably have a drink or two with them then head back or something. You?” Her thumbprint let them into the shed, where beach equipment was sorted away on neat shelves. She cut her gaze toward him and pushed the sunglasses up on her head.

“Mine either. After a couple years of attending these things every week, it gets boring. I used to attend them for Dad’s sake to show we’re friendly and shit, but…” He shrugged. “So, uh… the show is pretty neat. Phoebe hangs under the water most of the time since she doesn’t need an airline.”

Wait. Was he involved with Phoebe? Technically, the other girl was only six years his junior, not a criminal age difference in Mexico. Just… slightly gross. “Uh-huh. I'll bet she does. Perk of being a waterbaby, I guess.” She set her board down and turned to face him. “So, what’s with you two anyway? Seemed kind of chummy.”

Her insinuation flew over his head. Or he had a great poker face. Oblivious, Javier moved closer to her in the narrow space afforded by the shed and dared to touch her hair.

“Well yeah. I’ve known her since we were both kids.”

Everything about Javier pulled her in, the cocksure smile on his face telling her he knew exactly what he was doing. The narrow strip of muscled chest exposed by his open shirt taunted her, begging for kisses.

Yasmin grabbed the waist of his board shorts and scooted in close against him. “So, she won’t mind if I do this?” She slipped one hand down and cupped him in her palm, thrilled when she discovered he was sporting a fairly impressive semi for her. It stiffened in an instant, swelling in her hand.

“Why would she?” His brows shot up, then his dick followed their example. His hips involuntarily thrust forward, pressing against her palm. “Don’t tell me you got jealous because I was walking with a friend.”

She dragged his cock out, exposing him to the open air. Gods, he was glorious to look at, the sinewy length of him perfection in her fist. “Whoever said the word jealous?” That had been rage, not jealousy.

Yasmin slid her fingers back and forth along his length, until a clear drop beaded at the tip. Then she used her hand to pump him up and down. “So, if you don’t wanna go to the party, and I don’t wanna go to the party…”

“Wanna come to my place?” Javier groaned and tilted his head back, clumsily reaching for her bikini top until he wiggled his fingers beneath the elasticized band. He loved her tits. He wanted to squeeze them and suck her nipples, taste every inch of her body and bury his face between her thighs. Why hadn’t he done that before when he had the chance?

Shirt buttons came undone under her free hand, and she bit the others off with her teeth. She kissed her way down over his pecs, going lower and lower. It wasn’t until she had his shorts down around his ankles that he realized what she was after.

He mouthed a quiet prayer of thanks to any gods who were listening, whether it was his father’s ancestors or his mother’s pagan deities she’d begun to follow over the years. He bucked forward in her hands, arms covered in goose bumps. They hadn’t picked the best place for a sexual liaison, since any of the other VIP members could enter at any time.

Why did that make it more exciting?

While his dad would be furious with him if he was caught with his pants down in front of the guests, nothing, not even Zeus himself, could have forced Javier to pick his pants up again. “The party will just be... fuck… more of the same.”

“Exactly.”

Tender kisses traced the silken inches of throbbing flesh, and then she licked his crown like a kitten. His kitten. He groaned again before dropping a hand to her head and fisting her hair in his fingers. She took her time, taking him in only a tiny bit before coming off and starting the torturous kisses again.

A shudder ran through him, and his muscles drew tight, every cord stretched to its limit. It took all his control not to thrust impatiently within her mouth.

“You like this?”

“Love it,” he muttered, aching to sheathe every inch. Each time her hot tongue traced and teased the contours of his cock, his carefully held restraint almost unraveled.

Fuck, he imagined she was so hot and wet for him, her sweet pussy slick with need.

By the time she sucked his cock fully into her mouth, he was desperate and ready to crumble. Yasmin’s perfect lips sealed against his shaft, she hummed and slid her hands around to his bare ass.

He couldn’t take another second. As much as he wanted to savor the moment, that wasn’t happening. Yasmin jerked him forward and buried him to the hilt, filling her throat.

A shudder tore through his body, and his knees went weak. With one hand fisted in her buoyant curls and the other pressed against the wall behind him, Javier grunted in exertion and bucked—not that there was anywhere to go. She’d taken every inch, startling and pleasing him at once.

He came hard while gasping her name, reduced to writhing against the wall and wondering how the hell he’d gotten so lucky.

When she finally came off, he couldn’t do anything but exhale a breathless, “Holy shit.”

At a loss for any other words, he slumped back against the wall again.

Did he thank her? Tell her she did a great job? The silence wasn’t as awkward as it had been a couple mornings ago, so he chose to say nothing at all, instead loosening his hold on her hair in favor of touching her cheek. Her lips were fuller than usual, inspiring him to trace his thumb over her lower lip.

“Buy you a drink at the show,” he offered, mind foggy with fantasies of returning the favor. Anticipation made his voice low and husky as he considered the treat awaiting him that night.

He couldn’t wait to touch her clit with his tongue and suck it between his lips.

“Sounds good.” She turned her face into his touch and nipped his thumb. “Or we could—”

A fist banged into the door. He jerked back from her and hit the wall again, swearing.

“Ugh, stupid thing never works for me. Yaz, you in there? I have your dress,” Gillian called.

Yasmin pulled his shorts up for him and cleared her throat. “Yeah, we just finished putting everything away.”

Javier didn’t bother with fastening his shirt again since several of its buttons were strewn over the floor. He yanked the door open and played it casual. “Did Phoebe talk you to death about the marine department?”

Gillian babbled about Phoebe’s promises while Yasmin dressed behind him with what clothes her friend passed over. He didn’t hear a word. Not really. All he could do was wish he had a moment to drag Yasmin back to his place. Sitting through the show with her nearby, smelling like sin and desire, would be nothing short of torture.

Javier had a hippocampi pal on the island who probably would have enjoyed sitting with three women, but all he wanted was to have some alone time with Yasmin. And he kind of wanted to get to know her.

It occurred to him that he knew nothing more than the basic details of her age, where she came from, and the identity of her parents. Because she’d changed from the shy, slim little girl he’d known. Last time he saw her, she’d had coltish, long legs, no hips, and budding breasts. Now she’d become some kind of sexual goddess.

Throughout the show, the ladies sat beside him mystified, as if they’d never seen magic before. He expected it from Gillian and Amaya, but even Yasmin appeared transfixed.

He bought them all fruity drinks served in pineapples while they watched a combination of mortals and hippocampus shifters in human form dancing beneath the water. The acrobatic performances no longer held the same allure for him.

But he could see the appeal.

Afterward, they waited outside the dressing room for Phoebe while Amaya and Gillian gushed about the show and how much they loved it. He stole a glance at Yasmin. He couldn’t stop looking at her.

Phoebe emerged in her bikini top and swim bottoms. She’d already stripped off the silicone mermaid tail. “I’m going to shower and get into my clothes. We can totally hang out with the herd if you want to see more.”

“Yes!” Amaya cried. “Omigod, yes.”

“Girl, you don’t have to ask me twice. Come on, Yaz. You coming?”

“Um… actually, Javier is going to take me hiking on the trails.”

Hiking on the trails? He glanced at her, unable to keep the grin from his face.

Gillian cut her eyes from Yasmin to Javier with a knowing smirk. “Hiking sounds strenuous and hard. Have fun working up a sweat.”

Yasmin flipped her the bird but smiled. “Will do. Don’t wait up for me, okay?”

“You girls have fun,” Javier called out, and then he took Yasmin by the arm and steered her away toward the middle of the island in the direction of the thick trees.

“Where are we going?”

“You said a hike.”

She slapped his hand. “You know damn well I was making crap up. It sounded better than saying I wanted to ride you like a pony. I spent the entire show with a massive lady boner.”

Javier’s grin widened. Yasmin did wonders for his ego. “Are you sure? I mean, I’m cool with taking a raincheck and leading you on a tour of the trails.”

“Don’t make me hex you.”

Eager to resume where they left off, he led her down the private paths used by employees and borrowed one of the boats at the pier. Within a few minutes of reaching his home, their clothes littered the floor, and Yasmin tackled him into the bed.

Javier twisted and rolled her beneath him, trapping her wrists in his stronger hands and stretching both arms over her head. “Not so easy.”

“Hey!”

“Maybe I have something else in mind.”

He slipped the other hand between her thighs and felt the wet heat of her, flesh soft and dewy, freshly waxed with only a narrow strip of dark hair on her mound.

“Mm… that’s nice.”

“Not as nice as what I plan to do.” Javier released her wrists and slipped down between her thighs on his knees, cock aching savagely when he saw her soft folds bared to him.

Damn, she looked good laid out for him, like his own private buffet. And he intended to sample every inch.