Ocean's Surrender (24 page)

“Hey.”

“She’s gorgeous tonight,” River said, admiring the moon’s light rippling off the swells of the waves lapping the shore.

“Yes. But she’s always a looker.”

River laughed, but with a note of sadness.

“Are you leaving?”

“Aye. But just for a few days. I’ve got to take care of Rick’s father, if need be, so I won’t be far.”

“Why not just stay? Till everything is over?”

Fen turned to River, and she admired his strong, fey features, turned silver in the moonlight.

“Because you and Leo need to build up what we started tonight. And you need to do it without me. I make things too easy,” Fen teased, leaning forward to kiss River’s forehead gently.

“I guess you do,” River said, thinking about how Leo was so confident about her relationship with the selkie when Fen was there, but less confident when Fen was gone. The selkie’s empathic abilities stood in for the communicating they needed to do for themselves.

“But you’ll come back to visit?” River asked.

“Yes. I’ll be back soon, and then I’ll drop in periodically. I’ve grown quite fond of Jason.”

“Hey,” River said, swatting at Fen’s shoulder affectionately.

Fen laughed. “And I’ve grown quite fond of you, lass. And that man you’ve got wrapped around your finger.”

River blushed, looking down. “He’s not wrapped around my finger.”

Placing a finger under River’s chin, the selkie raised her eyes to his.

“Yes, he is, River. That man back there would do anything for you. And he’ll bear the burden alone, if he has to.”

“But he’s not alone, I’m here,” River protested.

“Yes, you are. But if when I leave, you get cold feet, he’ll let you walk away. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“No,” River said, her voice small.

“I’m telling you that he loves you so much he’ll let you make the biggest mistake of your life. He’ll let you pretend you don’t need him, that you don’t want him. He’ll let you wall yourself up here, in this little house, like Rapunzel in her tower.

“It will kill him, but he’ll let you do that, if he thinks it’s what you really want.”

“But I don’t want that,” River said, her voice firm.

“Good. I know you don’t. But I know that’s how you lived for a very, very long time. Probably longer than you know. Then everything with Trevor only exacerbated all those tendencies. Those fears.

“When we’ve done something for a very long time, especially when we do them for good reasons, even if they’re damaging ones, it’s easy to go back to our old habits.”

Finally River realized what Fen was worried about. And it was legitimate. After all she’d just been commenting to herself about how much Leo changed the moment Fen left the room. Fen had the same fears about her changing with his leaving.

But what if…

“Is that the only reason you’re sticking around?” she asked. For while she hated the idea of never seeing the selkie again, she also hated the idea of him sacrificing his own life just to babysit her and make sure she didn’t indulge in her own weaknesses.

“Lord and Lady, no,” Fen said. Then his arms were around her and he was drawing her close.

“I’m sticking around because I don’t want to leave yet. I love you, I love your family. I love being with you. I can’t be here always, but I can be here sometimes. When I need to see you. If you’ll have me.”

“Of course,” River said, turning her face up to his. “You saved me, Fen.”

It was the only way she could think of to thank him; to tell him how much his intervention in her life meant to her.

“Pish posh,” Fen replied, dipping his face down for a gentle kiss—just a brush of his lips against hers. “You saved yourself, lass. You were ready. You called for help. You called for me. I couldn’t have done anything to change you, if you weren’t ready to change.”

“But you still fixed everything.”

“I think you would have fixed everything, eventually, without me. And I know you’ll be more than okay when I leave.”

“Then why the warnings?” River teased, stroking a hand down the soft fur of the sealskin, draped in its familiar place over his shoulder.

Fen laughed. “I should have put my emphasis on ‘eventually’. I know you’d have figured things out, and I know even if you backed away now you’d figure out that was a mistake too, eventually. But I don’t want you to lose one more second of your life to that fear. Not one.”

When he spoke those last words his black eyes glowed with the wisdom of his immortal life. River suddenly wondered how old he was. She wondered just what he had loved, and lost, in his long life. And how he kept going, despite the immensity of agelessness.

She voiced none of this, however. Some instinct told her that to do so would be to point out the obvious, the painful and raise issues that neither she nor Fen could address. So instead she said what she should have, all along.

“Thank you.” Then she stood up on her tiptoes, to kiss him.

Fen kissed her back, letting his own love for her drape over them both like a warm, heavy cloak.

“One more swim?” he asked when they ended their kiss, waggling his eyebrows at the sea.

River shook her head. “No, that’s your world. Despite how much I enjoyed our first swim. Besides, I should get back to Leo.”

Fen’s smile was bright in the breaking dawn, and if there was any sadness or loneliness there, River couldn’t see it.

“Yes. Return to Leo. Hold him as you’ve wanted to do for so long, and don’t be afraid to love him as fiercely as we both know you’re capable. And when Jason comes home, tell him I’ll be by in a few days, for another visit.”

“Just a few days?” River asked, surprised.

Fen cocked an eyebrow at her. “Should I stay away longer?”

“No, not at all. I’m glad you’re coming back so soon. Leo’s got plans for Round Four.”

Upon hearing those words, the look Fen gave her was hot, predatory. “That means I’ll have to renumber my plans as Rounds Five and Six.”

River shivered, partially with lust, partially with her tired body’s trepidation. “You’re going to be the death of me.”

“Not the death, no. Many little deaths, yes,” Fen joked, referring to the French euphemism for orgasm,
le petit mort
.

“So cultured, for a merman,” River teased.

“Selkie, and don’t you forget it.”

While he probably could have stood around joking with this beloved human for hours, Fen knew it was time to take his leave. Even if it was just a short leave, it always felt like a leave.

So he took a determined step back, after placing one last, gentle kiss on River’s cheek.

Then he drew his sealskin up over his shoulders, calling on its magic as he pulled it over his head.

River watched as the skin grew to cover his whole body, then seemed to pull itself inward, taking Fen with it.

Finally there lay on the beach an enormous golden-coated seal.

River crouched, stroking her hands along those sleek flanks as she had that first time she’d seen his true form.

“See you soon, Fen,” she said, hoping that was always the way they’d take their leave, in future. For as much as she couldn’t imagine her everyday life now, without Leo, she couldn’t imagine a life entirely devoid of Fen, either.

The seal bobbed his head in a seal nod, barking too loudly in the cold morning air. As dawn’s rosy fingers touched his sea, Fen trundled, admittedly rather inelegantly, into the water. But once in his element, River watched him flash away with all the grace and power of his magical heritage.

Refusing to cry at a good-bye that was not—would never be—a real good-bye, River turned back to her house, and to the man waiting for her.

“Hey, you’re up,” she said, surprised to see Leo in her kitchen. The paramedic had his back to her, half buried as he was in her fridge.

“Yeah. I promise I wasn’t spying. But you left and I realized I was starving.”

“I can’t imagine why,” she said with a giggle as she crept up behind him to wrap her arms around that deliciously dark, narrow waist.

“Well,” he said, as he used one hand to run his fingers down the forearms draped around his stomach and his other hand to pull a carton of eggs out of the fridge, “someone kept me awake all night with her voracious sexual demands.”

River kissed the small of his back, just over the waistband of the boxer-briefs he’d donned for propriety’s sake.

“Did he go?” was all Leo asked, from the safety of the fridge.

“Yes,” she said. “But he’ll be back, for visits.”

“Good,” was all Leo said. But he meant it.

“And now I’m going to put you to work indulging the voracious demands of mah belleh. I’m starving too,” River admitted.

“Pancakes?” Leo asked. “Eggs?”

“Omelettes,” River said, firmly. “With cheese and bacon.”

Leo nodded, pulling out the cheese, bacon and the whole-wheat bread River kept in the fridge as she was the only one who ever ate it. He set his burdens on the counter before turning back to River. “Your wish is my command,” he told her, bowing deeply at the waist.

Leo’s joke, instead of making River laugh, made River remember what Fen had said, about the fact the paramedic loved her so much that he’d let her walk away.

To said paramedic’s horror, the woman he loved started crying.

“River, honey, it’s okay,” he told her, misinterpreting her tears. “I bet Fen’ll be back really soon. He’s not going to stay away from you, who could?”

River threw her arms around Leo, holding him so tightly it was a little uncomfortable. Her words were fierce in his ear.

“No, it’s not that. It’s just… I want you to know how much I love you. I’ve always loved you. I was just so scared.”

“River, it’s okay. I love you too…”

“No, you have to listen,” River commanded, letting Leo go just enough to peer into his eyes. “You have to hear me. I love you, Leo. But if something happens and I freak out, and I forget that, you have to remind me. Because I would regret it, every day, if my fear gets the better of me again.”

Leo couldn’t help but laugh, mostly because he was so relieved. He gathered her close, this time in a gentle embrace.

“I will, River. Believe me, I will. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

Those were the kinds of words that would have sent River running only a few weeks ago. But now they settled her, comforted her.

“Good,” she said, settling closer into their hug, enjoying this feeling of being protected, after so very long.

It was at that moment Leo knew everything was going to be all right. River might still have bad days, but she wanted this. She wanted him. And together they would make it.

Together they’d create the stable home she’d always craved, and there would always be room for the selkie who helped bring them together.

About the Author

Denise Townsend is a fantasy of salt, sea air and sun-kissed skin. She was born to tell sensual stories that explore female sexuality and strengths. To find out more about Denise, visit
www.denisetownsend.com
.

Look for these titles by Denise Townsend

Now Available:

Ocean’s Touch

A lonely widow and a handsome artist have a chance for happiness…with the help of a sexy selkie, that is.

Ocean’s Touch

© 2011 Denise Townsend

After the death of Meredith’s husband many years before, she allowed his legacy to take over her life. A shell of a woman, she finds little joy in her day-to-day tasks. Drawn to her pain, the empathic selkie Dylan knows she’s ready to live and love again, and he knows that he’s just the man for the job.

As Dylan draws Meredith out of her shell, he realizes that to truly free her, he needs to help her accept her budding love for Alexander, an artist who challenges Meredith on every level: intellectually, emotionally and sexually. To achieve a true happy ending, Dylan must help his chosen humans break down their emotional barriers in order to grab the happiness they so deserve.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Ocean’s Touch

Dylan sat in the shadows of a copse of pine trees, at the very edge of the woman’s property, watching her dark-haired figure bend itself into a series of ridiculously sexy poses.

Not that she has any idea how sexy they are, he thought sadly. Wrapping himself tighter in his sealskin and his glamoured invisibility, he stood to move closer to the pagoda.

Dylan had been watching the woman for a few weeks now. At first, he’d come for the lovely expanse of her well-maintained beach, so very similar to those of his Orkney birthplace. Soon enough, however, she had been what drew him close. He’d taken to watching her during her outdoor exercises, then at her house, and finally he’d even followed her into town. Keeping himself invisible, he’d hoped to glean some indication of what made someone so strong so miserable, and why she felt it was important never to admit her pain, even to herself.